Starfield - Fallout fallout that isn't ES6

rhinohelix

Dental Dammer
<Gold Donor>
3,523
5,950
might and magic was the original pioneer on "open world".

Dungeon crawls. but with towns and overworlds. might look small today, but this was pretty crazy back then.

Then the ultima series.
By ultima 5,6,7 they would fit every definition of an open world.

Ultima 9. REVILED. yet... name an earlier 3d Open world game. I can't think of one.
Everyone focuses on how bad it is.. but, I really think Ultima 9 might be the first 3d open world game.
1999

Morrowind was not until 2002.



I am doubtful mods can fix Starfield. Too much of whats wrong is fundamental.
That's a great point, and I didn't consider it only because the 3D graphics but absolutely agree M&M3 and even the Ultimas, I started with Ultima 3 and then went back (or tried to) to the earlier ones on my Apple IIe.

I will need more space to full deploy my maxima mea culpa.

Daggerfall may be one of the biggest games of all time.
 
  • 3Like
Reactions: 2 users

General Antony

Ahn'Qiraj Raider
1,382
6,586
If you really don't like the base game i don't think the mod will change that much. It reskins the quests and items to fit a star wars story set in like 9 or 5 bby. It also rebalances combat to be a lot less forgiving at least at the start.

Fundamentally the gameplay is still the same though. Same POIs filled with the same number of enemies in the same spawn points. Weak reasons to go explore and no reason to engage in base building for resource extraction.
 

Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
18,503
15,052
Looks like the game isn't dead - large base patch that seems to overhaul some stuff and another story DLC (which you get automatically if you bought the premium version)

 
  • 2Like
  • 1OK, Sure
Reactions: 2 users

Wombat

Blackwing Lair Raider
2,780
1,440
So "2.0" is:

Slight updates to the super powers, which were so meaningless no one cares about them.
A free roam mode _if_ you found the base mechanics interesting enough to want to play more of (which was the whole problem).
A more elaborate version of faction ambushes.

I have a hard time believing that's going to win anyone back that was underwhelmed by "1.0".
 
  • 1Truth!
Reactions: 1 user

Valderen

Space Pirate
<Bronze Donator>
4,781
3,041
It feels to me that those that already enjoy the game are going to like it since it looks like decent stuff, but I feel it doesn't nothing to bring back those who didn't like it.
 
  • 2Like
Reactions: 1 users

Dr.Retarded

<Silver Donator>
18,871
42,200
How big of a whale is Dr.Retarded Dr.Retarded if they are still updating this shit? Did he write them a blank check?
I never got the deluxe edition, but I did pick up the dlc on sale after getting my new pc. Did a ng+ with mods earlier this year. There's a deal called Watchtower on the creations store for 10 bucks and it was basically like a whole other dlc. It actually lets you make a fleet of ships, and you getting some pretty big space battles. We're talking like 20 or 30 ships warping him to fight you. You get your butt kicked pretty quick if you're not rigging up other ships with additional crew. They all so good orbital bombardments and stuff for ground engagements because you now have to fight giant giant mechs in some POIs.

Was really well done by some modding studio, professionally voice acted, and a pretty good story with some epic battles.

I'll definitely check out the new stuff once it's all out for another playthrough. I still enjoy the game, and the new stuff looks decent enough especially with some of the mods out there.
 
  • 2Like
  • 1WTF
Reactions: 2 users

Utnayan

F16 - Having fun in Iran
<Gold Donor>
17,546
15,480
Until they fix the horrendous exploration of procedurally generated planets that all have the two same random bases with nothing to gain from them, this is a nothing burger.

The biggest mistake of Starfield (And one they should have known 20 years ago) is exploration matters when there is hand crafted content and stories/items/mysteries to uncover. When you plaster 1,000 planets with the same damn two random bases on them over and over again with nothing there except different resources for building, it's pointless.

The lack of common sense when they went this route is astounding.
 
  • 4Like
Reactions: 3 users

Vorph

Silver Baronet of the Realm
11,973
5,804
Until they fix the horrendous exploration of procedurally generated planets that all have the two same random bases with nothing to gain from them, this is a nothing burger.

The biggest mistake of Starfield (And one they should have known 20 years ago) is exploration matters when there is hand crafted content and stories/items/mysteries to uncover. When you plaster 1,000 planets with the same damn two random bases on them over and over again with nothing there except different resources for building, it's pointless.

The lack of common sense when they went this route is astounding.
I'd still put the biggest mistake as being the way they wrote the "story" to accommodate NG+. I could overlook the copy-paste/procedural generation aspects of the universe if there was at least an interesting story to experience, but the entire narrative is garbage because of it being so deeply intwined with the NG+ system. I would have just ignored the parts of the game that weren't hand-crafted as soon as they got boring, but the hand-crafted parts actually managed to be worse somehow.
 
  • 1Truth!
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 users

rhinohelix

Dental Dammer
<Gold Donor>
3,523
5,950
I'd still put the biggest mistake as being the way they wrote the "story" to accommodate NG+. I could overlook the copy-paste/procedural generation aspects of the universe if there was at least an interesting story to experience, but the entire narrative is garbage because of it being so deeply intwined with the NG+ system. I would have just ignored the parts of the game that weren't hand-crafted as soon as they got boring, but the hand-crafted parts actually managed to be worse somehow.
+++THIS. The whole world is broken and garbage based upon the narrative choices they made leading up to NG+. The Starfield world doesn't advance past that point in history. Way to go, Todd. You spent 10 years and sold your company only to end up with a stupid game full of gay and woke BS. ES 6 is never coming out.
 

DickTrickle

Definitely NOT Furor Planedefiler
13,972
16,479
It feels to me that those that already enjoy the game are going to like it since it looks like decent stuff, but I feel it doesn't nothing to bring back those who didn't like it.
Which is exactly what Howard said. It's not meant to be a 2.0 reboot.

They did say they were going to add more POIs and rebalance them so you get less repeats, which is one of the things I hated most, but I can't really see myself going back to play unless I go mod heavy. The quest and stories in this game were, to me, by far the worst out of any of Bethesda's stuff.
 

Tuco

I got Tuco'd!
<Gold Donor>
50,957
93,451
I could only play Starfield if they basically redid everything and with a different team. The game design at a high level, sci-fi adventure + exploration + procedural + space combat is extremely appealing to me, but the team missed nearly every mark starting with the setting.

My ideal game I posted after I finished playing it still holds true.

So much about the Starfield setting doesn't make much sense.

Starfield's setting is like, "Yeah a huge exodus happened, then a couple of wars, but it's pretty quiet now and nothing is really going on I guess??? Anyway, every planet has a bunch of human ruins or whatever.

I'd have rather had a setting where:

* Grav drive research progresses, and when it's commercially feasible a massive increase of sloppy ass Grav Drives create some massive event similar to the Black Mesa Incident Black Mesa Incident occurs which effectively spawns an infinite number of universes all connected to that event. It also kills Earth. This is now the only entry point to the Starborn. This event also does *something* to unlock Grav Drive's full potential, taking it from a research project requiring a super computer on the moon to something you can put on a space ship.
* A massive Earth exodus happens along with a land rush where billions of people are basically fleeing earth and going to other stars for literally the first time, finding out that many inhabitable planets exist.
* The player is "the chosen one" and is the only person who can travel at FTL speed to unexplored areas. Or something. The player can choose to assist a handful of different, competing factions in their land rush goals. Each of these large quests cause some randomly generated outposts to appear in areas aligned to the quest. These faction quest lines are the primary driver of exploration and expansion of the nearby stars, and effectively progress the timeline.
* Instead of there being a bunch of unrealistic human ruins scattered across the star systems, there are instead ruins of intelligent species of different types and semi-intelligent lifeforms that form colonies you explore. A whole new technology erupts that deals with xeno biology and xenotech integration into space ships, arms, suits, buildings etc. The buildings / equipment on Mars become dusty old looking buildings where as the buildings in the final time skip are a fusion of xenotech and human engineering
* The main quest is still basically the same, you find and explore specific alien ruins and find the same magic artifacts that give you super powers. Collect all the artifacts in this timeline either by exploring these ruins or killing Starborn for them and you can portal back to a new universe at the time of the originating event.

Only thing it misses that I only inferred is the game should take place over ~40-300 years of rapid stellar expansion (Depending on if xenotech prolongs life or the player goes into stasis between missions, or light speed travel, who cares) with each chapter separated by some ~5-10 years where content is procedurally generated and effectively unique. The team that built Starfield is not capable of doing this well.
 
Last edited:
  • 1Like
Reactions: 1 user

Cybsled

Naxxramas 1.0 Raider
18,503
15,052
Doesn't need to be Dune lol

All they needed to do was lean into the multiverse shit early, shrink the scope of the game in terms of systems, and have the player jump to different realities that have meaningful changes beyond the "everything is the same except your intro to Constellation"
 

Vorph

Silver Baronet of the Realm
11,973
5,804
All they needed to do was lean into completely axe the multiverse shit and write a story that wasn't utter garbage
FTFY

If people want to play NG+, let them. They didn't need to explain its existence and there was certainly no need to write the whole narrative around it. It's even more retarded when you remember that the large majority of people who buy games never finish them once, let alone give a single fuck about NG+. Not to mention that the NG+ version of the main story is better the second time so the actual "correct" way to play the game is to rush through NG as fast as possible without doing a single extra thing other than making sure to find the small handful of S-tier starborn powers. Any time spent on side quests, companion stuff, base building, etc. is completely wasted.

At least with Free Lanes I wouldn't also feel compelled to just use a console script to advance straight to NG+10. They're fixing the tedious shit with upgrading powers to rank 10, and all you miss out on by being in NG+1 instead of +10 is the starborn ship/armor (meh).
 
Last edited: