Exploring is supposed to be a reward in itself.

Sure Todd, lol

Dirk Darkly
link
fedilink
191Y

This is a nice sentiment, but it falls apart when you realize that a lot of the exploration is procedurally generated POI that eventually copies not just assets, but layouts and granular details. That tends to detract from a sense of wonder and mystery.

Which is fine, if they would just embrace that instead of trying to change how people perceive their work.

It didn’t take me long to find two resesrch facilities that were identical down to enemy and loot placements less than 1km from each other.

@[email protected]
creator
link
fedilink
01Y

That’s exactly it-- The game is what it is and will be alot of fun for many people. They’ll have nailed some stuff and missed the mark elsewhere…

But all the spinning shortcomings as design decisions is off-putting. Like if a restaurant is taking a long time to make my food, just say “it’ll be a few extra minutes…” Not “Actually the anticipation of waiting a little longer will enhance your enjoyment, so you’re welcome.”

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
20
edit-2
1Y

Did this game focus on anything in particular and do that well? Exploring isn’t it.

I’m tired of being negative gamer. This game looks fun even if it isn’t mind blowing, but seeing as I’ve never played a Bethesda game I think I’m just as likely to play one of the older games because they look about as good.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
4
edit-2
1Y

It’s a pretty entertaining crafting-shooter, but it’s not an AMAZING one.

counterpoint: there’s not a single “amazing” game of this genre. Elite Dangerous does the space sim perfectly, but it’s boring apart from that. No Man’s Sky has the wonder and exploration, but every planet is functionally the same. Starfield expands on No Man’s Sky with a comprehensible story and actual gameplay. Star Citizen will never come out. Did i miss anything?

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
91Y

The game is good, I have fun with it more than Oblivion and Skyrim, as well as Fallout 3 and Fallout 4.

People are just complaining to complain.

The only Bethesda game I like more than Starfield is Morrowind.

There does seem to be some people out there who are just radiating negativity about this game even more so than most.

I played a good few hours last night and it’s Skyrim in Space which is what I wanted.

I don’t know if it’s the Xbox console exclusivity that’s bringing fanboys out the woodwork or just that people like to attack a big, hyped up release like they did with Cyberpunk, but it’s brought out the worst in people.

@[email protected]
creator
link
fedilink
31Y

Wasn’t Cyberpunk actually catastrophically bad at release, and then got fixed later?

Depends on your platform, PC and Current Gen machines were pretty good from day one, bar a few little bugs.

Only the bugs are gone. Weird design decisions and some horrendous mechanics are still here. It’s still isn’t an incredible game, but not a bad game either.

Having tried a bit of it, this game is fun. It plays a bit like outer world but bigger and with a more mature tone.

But i am really glad that after getting hyped in spring i actually forgot it was coming out. My gpu was not prepared.

Personally it feels like a lot of the promise of Mass Effect: Andromeda was channeled into Starfield and they took the launch version of the story in No Man’s Sky and ran with it. It definitely stands on the shoulders of other games but it is a reasonably solid iteration.

👁️👄👁️
link
fedilink
English
261Y

Why don’t they just have Skyrim level of detail on all 1000 planets, smh!

Most of the planets are dull on purpose because my graphics card catches fire if there’s too much excitement on screen. Thanks for looking out for me, Todd!

Didn’t know anyone was still using Fermis.

Todd forgets this is a game and not real life where you have to train and study for 30 years to go to the moon. He forgot that the main intricacy is the stories you can make for the player.

Like assassins creed has big cities. Which feel dead, not enjoyable.

In RL most of the “excitement” in space comes from not wanting to fuck up and die. Games don’t have that, Todd.

Ketram
link
fedilink
12
edit-2
1Y

Then you have games that do space travel so well that I’m beyond scared shitless in them, like Outer Wilds. So many games have already managed to convey some of these feelings.

@[email protected]
creator
link
fedilink
61Y

Perfect example. Handful of planets, each rich with hand-crafted purpose, space travel is big enough to feel epic, but small enough to not want to skip.

It nails the feeling of exploring a vast area of space, not by being realistic (it is not, by a long shot), but by just making certain experiences feel right.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
261Y

Some do, but they make it their main draw. The reason Kerbal Space Program is fun, is fun because you can fuck up and die in a million different ways, and not doing so is chalenging and succes is rewarding while failure is hilarious(ly frustrating).

Not fucking up and dying in Starfield means pressing the Use Healthpack frequently enough.

Imagine a realistic KSP with AAA graphics, like replicating historic missions and planned ones, etc.

KSP Atlas
link
fedilink
71Y

You just described the KSP RP-1 modpack with high graphics and volumetric clouds mod

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
41Y

for now, the gameplay-enrichment mods are well on their way

…yes, they do. Soooo many fucking games have that. There’s a whole genre of games built around it. They’re called survival games. A relevant example would be No Man’s Sky.

I am kinda certain no game has dying. I haven’t died in any yet. Although I remember a piece of The Onion of a suicide feature of a car seat. Maybe someone should build a gaming chair with this feature to improve the immersion.

…what? I can’t tell if you’re trolling. Death is basically the most common failure state of any game.

IRL the stakes are a little higher, don’t you think?

Games aren’t real life??!

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
1
edit-2
1Y

No shit? That was the point

Astronauts aren’t bored in space because they’re busy trying not to die. games don’t kill you when you fuck up or something goes wrong

Yup, classic case of realism not always making the game better.

I went to earth to check it out, I know the lore of why it is a giant sand ball but that also disappoints me. I walked around the approximate area of where I am from and found a small cave. But there was nothing in the cave except some abandoned drugs. I couldn’t interact with the glowing mushrooms, mine any minerals, etc. I was hoping for a sprawling cavern or something and just… nope. I might go back to earth to explore it some more but it’s so bland.

What do you think is behind that rock?

Another rock.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
71Y

I was hoping for at least some scattered ruins on earth. Like there are random generated gas tanks and buildings on most planets.

Just something a little unique.

Maybe I should try and learn to mod it and do that.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
31Y

Crazy amount of spin

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
171Y

I still haven’t found a completely empty planet, there is always outposts, abandoned mines or caves with space pirates or other factions. Every time I walk to a point there is like 3 more points you can just explore endlessly

Endorkend
link
fedilink
101Y

That’s false as moving away from your ship a certain distance (I think 6 or 7 km), it’ll literally tell you you’ve reached the boundary of the area and you need to land somewhere else to get a new stretch of land.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
21Y

Yeah but that’s a long walk, I usually do about three or four locations and I’m over encumbered, maybe once my ship is upgraded and can store more junk I can stay on planet longer

BigFig
link
fedilink
English
61Y

No! That’s impossible! I was told by people who played less than an hour if at all that you simply can’t walk or fly anywhere and MUST fast travel everywhere.

Ananace
link
fedilink
51Y

This particular point really annoys me, I’d love to have somewhere that actually feels remote, where I don’t have four more copies of the same mining and science outposts in visual range. No matter how large humanity has become it just doesn’t make any sense that you can’t find a single ~15km square without anything man made on it.

The best remote places I’ve found so far has been in some quest-specific areas, but even then there’s usually a facility somewhere within a kilometer of the quest location.

hypelightfly
link
fedilink
21Y

I totally agree, I wish there were actually some barren planets without POIs.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
31Y

Yeah I had the same thought, the caves and stuff are cool but finding so many abandoned outposts full of people is kind of weird

Endorkend
link
fedilink
41Y

Especially on planets supposedly never surveyed by anyone ever.

BigFig
link
fedilink
English
21Y

We came here and set up a secret medical research laboratory, and have since abandoned it, and not once did we have the area surveyed

Straight out of “30 things I hate about your pitch”, which is a great GDC talk. In that talk he has one thing that is “in the real world you can’t double jump”. Don’t make a realistic setting that is realistic just because.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
97
edit-2
1Y

Ah yes “…Bethesda’s managing director, and Todd Howard, who is Todd Howard.”

Thanks for clearing that up AI writer.

Also how is it thrilling to “blast off” and “set foot on a new planet” when the game is more clicking through menus and fast traveling.

In No man’s sky you actually land. In star field you fast travel.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
21Y

I told my buddy the other day that it was Bethesda Menu Simulator 2023, and I wasn’t wrong. I was working on my outpost, so I’d place some stuff, go to star map, select the planet with the material, pick a landing spot, land, get up, mine ore for 5 minutes, fast travel to ship, repeat 2-3 more planets, choose the outpost, land, place some more stuff. Then repeat.

You could skip fast traveling to your ship, or do any of the plethera of quests instead of what you’re doing

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
2
edit-2
1Y

Or, and I know this is a crazy idea, Bethesda could have made a game that has enough content to fill the space (pun intended) they created. Yes. I can run back to my ship through the mined out area I just cleared just to prove a point that the game is as flawless as you’d like to believe. Or, I can offer one fair critique of the game.

I’m looking forward to what modders do with the canvas Bethesda has provided.

Nah I mean you can just fast travel off the planet without first having to fast travel back to your ship, a few less loading screens and menu interactions right there.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
01Y

Honestly, I didn’t even think to just go to another planet without stopping by my ship first. That’s somehow… worse? I thought it was super weird when I realized I could do it from the outpost without a ship nearby, but hadn’t thought to just fast travel everywhere all the time.

Definitely saves some time and extra loading screens/menu navigation, sorry I wasn’t clear with what I meant initially.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
21Y

i find it less headache to just sit in UC distrobution and fast forward 24 hours to keep reseting inventory to get all the mats I need to build, at least my starter shit.

In No Mans Sky, you’ve seen five planets, you’ve seen them all.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
41Y

They’re up to ten or twenty now.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
17
edit-2
1Y

Not necessarily but yea it trades the bespoke environments for generated ones that aren’t so dissimilar.

I think it makes for interesting comparison. Both space traveling games, one comprised of specially designed levels navigated by menus, the other less variety but you actually journey to them and given the sheer number you can actually discover and name a planet no one’s ever been to.

Both valid but I think starfield shouldn’t really advertise in exploration. Unlike NMS it’s far more narrative based.

Both valid but I think starfield shouldn’t advertise really advertise in exploration. Unlike NMS it’s far more narrative based.

Yep. There are three space games on the market that are not too far apart: NMS, Elite: Dangerous, and Starfield. They have similarities, they have differences, and they have different target audiences.

RockPaperShotgun’s review is out now, and I could not agree more. The game is so meaningless.

It’s crazy impressive. Especially on a technical level. But it feels like a tech demo more than a game almost. It’s still fun to idle time away in, but it’s not engaging. At all. It’s brain idle time. In a positive way, but also no more than that.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
7
edit-2
1Y

In this case I’d call that a positive statement. That’s what I was looking for when I decided to get the game… I’m not going to shell out my dimes to Bethesda hoping for disco elysium, I basically want something that makes demands of my brain just a little more than solitaire or minesweeper.

I don’t really agree with it not being ‘engaging’ though, I guess depending on what you mean. I’m not staying up at night wondering what’s gonna happen next, but I’m staying up past my bedtime designing space ships and then running out of cash and going and doing a fun loot-and-shoot mission to get more money to build more space ships. That ain’t bad.

terwn43lp
link
fedilink
81Y

coming from elite dangerous, flying in NMS feels incredibly simplified. landing is literally “push a button to land”. either way, they both beat starfield in that department

Totally it is but that’s the style. The game isn’t trying to simulate complexity, it’s more a kick back and relax game masquerading as a prog-rock album cover. Pressing X to let your ship land itself gives you just enough time to hit a joint and make a plan.

weird in starfield i also have to press x to land, so whats everybody’s big deal?

“Press X to Pay Respects”

Landing or taking off isn’t interrupted with a loading screen in either game. You also have freedom of pointing ship to a direction and go there.

Those two things combine to make you feel like you are moving around the game world as opposed to game world moving around you.

that may be true, but starfield has some fun quests and interesting characters, which makes the world feel real and not like im the last human being in the universe

It was not ai but a joke how he is famous to the wider audience.

I really don’t understand all the negative comments. It feels like a very fun game and I can’t wait to play it again.

@[email protected]
creator
link
fedilink
61Y

For me, the criticism is more directed toward the PR and hype. There’s still lots to like about the game, it’s just frustrating how they spin it.

I’m glad you’re enjoying it!

I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. Moving and still have to get through BG3. But I’m actually excited for it. Like I see posts over and over and over and over and over and over about the the fact that it’s not NMS. Sure, kind of disappointing. And I will agree that if you keep running into the same exact structures over and over, maybe they could have done something different. Have some sort of procedurally generated structures.

But that seems to mostly be it. Every review I’ve watched talks pretty positively about the other aspects. It’s got some bugs, which is to he expected, and apperantly the melee combat isn’t clunky and awkward. But those seem to be the biggest complaints outside of not being able to land.

So I’m gonna do what I’ve seen a lot of people said to do. I’m gonna go into the Bethesda game and play it largely like it’s a Bethesda game. Gonna go through the main story, the different factions, do some side quests, etc.

It’s not No Man’s Sky. Cool. Call of Duty isn’t Escape From Tarkov. I have played both of those and loved them both for completely different reasons, and I don’t expect them both to be the same. If anything I got bored of No Man’s Sky after a bit. Partially because I’m just not into the base building, and itnfelt like that was the main thing to do outside of explore. Little to no stories. Last I heard we still don’t have the faction system they talked about when the game was first launching. Starfield has things going for it over NMS.

I think people had their expectations too high. People are expecting it to be as good as skyrim was for 2011 but in 2023, but I went in expecting it to be as good as (vanilla) skyrim is now and so far that’s what I feel like I got.

Yeah, I had no expectations and I like it. I always get disappointed when I have high expectations.

Tbh I’m mainly disappointed in the graphics of the surroundings.

If your enjoying it then don’t worry about the negative comments. Unlike some other space games you dont do much travel yourself, you fast travel everywhere which means seeing the same non-skippable cutscenes again and again, i fast travel to the system, then fast travel to the planet, then fast travel to the surface; then if i want to go elsewhere on the planet i have to fast travel back to orbit then back down to the planet. Its “fast travel:the video game” Given that similar games have managed to let you fly your ship from space down and around the planet for years now I dont why you cant in this, im constantly pulled out of playing for a loading screen

Cr4yfish
link
fedilink
71Y

You can actually fast travel directly to cities, even when you’re in a different system.

hypelightfly
link
fedilink
11Y

Yes, you can. There are several levels of fast travel and you can use it how you prefer.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
9
edit-2
1Y

You can’t because the engine is bad, and they need a lot of loading screens to connect the small-sized playable areas. Other Bethesda titles pull the same trick, but you don’t realize it, because there’s no loading screen. Instead it’s doors that handle that (which is quick because rooms are small) and pre-loading of neighbouring grids when you are outdoors (which is why sometimes you’ll see creatures popping out of thin air, or walking out from behind walls/trees/rocks to hide the popping.

Bethesda always advertises their “new engine”, but really it’s exactly the same engine they’ve been using since Morrowind, with minor logic improvements and updates to the graphical assets. It’s to the point where a lot of bugs have ancestry trees.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
81Y

Bethesda always advertises their “new engine”, but really it’s exactly the same engine they’ve been using since Morrowind, with minor logic improvements and updates to the graphical assets. It’s to the point where a lot of bugs have ancestry trees.

Yep. Call it Gamebryo, Call it Creation Engine, Call it what the fuck ever.

Its still NetImmerse.

They can keep slapping fresh makeup on it, and keep wraping new ducttape around it when the old stuff wears out and fails, but it’ll always be the same engine, regardless of the name changes.

They dont want to invest in making a whole new engine (which, given Bethesda, would be just as bad or worse than what they use now), and they don’t seem to want to license anyone elses engine. Which is weird, cause subsidiary studios don’t seem to have the same issue… Like, Ghostwire Tokyo is built on Unreal Engine 4.

im sick of this excuse. since its not one. nobody is forcing them to use that engine

The will of the dev is not the will of the producer.

then change it? or just cope hearing your game is not very good

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
0
edit-2
1Y

Oh yeah things were that simple, just change it ! Man who would have thought ! Hey we need your help on other issue what can we do about the economic crisis, world hunger or civils wars ?

Not arguing with the crux of your argument here, but most fast traveling I’ve done is way more direct than that. New planet, sure there’s a few stages, but anywhere you’ve been before you can pretty much fast travel to directly from anywhere.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
1
edit-2
1Y

How often are you just hopping between places you’ve already been?

As to the people saying you can fast travel back to cities, last time (which was about 5 mins ago) i went to go back to New Atlantis i had to faat travel to the system first before i could even select the city, but other times ive been able to directly select the landing spot and fast travel there from another system so I dunno.

I just went and did stuff in Sol, i fast travelled to the system, fast travelled to the city, ran to the bar close to the landing pad, ran back to the ship, fast travelled to orbit, fast travelled to Venus, killed 3 ships, interacted with satellite, fast travelled to staryard, fought a decent amount of people which was good, fast travelled to Neptune, short fight, board, kill 3 or 4 peeps, fast travel to lodge. Then fast travel to mining planet system, fast travel to planet, talk, fast travel to different system, fast travel to planet run to ship, no bad guys just a quick convo, then fast travel back to ship, fast travel to orbit, and now fast travel to different planet.

Also fuel auto refills after every jump just seems to mean more fast travelling if you need to go further

If your enjoying it then im happy for you not trying to detract, just sharing my experience, i just wish they pushed what could be done more

I think if there’s a patrol scanning your cargo you have to hit the system before landing, otherwise you’d fast travel your way past contraband scans. I’m having a lot of fun in the game, I agree there’s too much fast traveling though.

taking the other side of the argument, planetary landings in E:D are just loading screens at 10x the length. Travelling to a planet at .3 C is neat the first time but then you look at trade routes as “how long do I sit paying attention in case of an interdiction?” StarCitizen falls into the same trap. QD is neat but then it takes you 5 minutes and a fuel stop to go from one side of a system to another. Its mundane trudging for reality rather than getting the boring monotony out of the way of the player.

Just because the tech exists doesn’t mean it makes for compelling gameplay.

I can agree with this but I do wish it involved fewer loading screens and clicking through each time. If you’re gonna skip the “realism” to make it more convenient then make it actually convenient.

With that said despite that and the fact I’d love to fly the ship over the planets manually, I’m really liking it so far (2h in).

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
31Y

Yeah I can’t really disagree with people’s assessment of how much travel-by-loading-screen there can be, but like… while it’s there, I just mostly haven’t noticed it. Thirty hours in now and I find I’m mixing up fast travelling wide distances with “manually” travelling by launching into orbit and jumping place to place fairly regularly, I don’t think I’d even have thought to criticize it without coming here.

I like how immersive travel can be in a game like NMS, but it’s not like it’s all that exciting or fun to pull into the atmosphere for the 500th time and maneuver to your landing pad, or spend longer than a loading screen amount of time to boost out of atmosphere to hit the jump button. We’re exchanging one form of slightly tedious load for a different one.

The best answer I have to minimizing the interaction is setting routes from your mission list. On PC this cuts down to L > click mission > R > hold X.

It is still 4 discrete inputs, which sucks, but it is substantially better than navigating by the star map which is how my brain defaulted to fast travel for most of my first play through.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
4
edit-2
1Y

There are all kinds of possibilities, and for one example of a video game system for travelling among the stars that gives you a sense of actually going somewhere without getting too dull I’d point to EVE. You can go anywhere, but there are distant and dangerous places that take actual effort to get to. It lets you get some kind of sense of the distances involved. Having made that comparison it’s hard to avoid noticing that the space combat (even against NPCs) and ship outfitting are quite good too compared to how it looks in Starfield. Planetary interaction was pretty tedious when I played it, but EVE is mostly really good at the space stuff.

Another example would be good old Star Control II, another of my favourite space games. Another one that managed to make space feel big. You had to carefully manage fuel and resources, and if you wanted to go all the way across the map you’d have a long and interesting journey during which many things would happen. Combat and navigation were primitive compared to what people expect today, but still it made it feel like you were exploring a vast space, not just a big catalogue of planets.

As for Starfield, I don’t know whether it does that or not since I haven’t played it yet; I’d sort of like to find out before I spend $ on it.

you cant really compare gate-to-gate traversal to the other primary space games though. unless you are in a capital ship, generally you have a warp around 3-5 so even Niarja (minus dock workers) only takes a few seconds to cross. If we just focus on hub routes, I don’t recall the exact number, but Amarr to Jita/Dodi is between 25-60 jumps depending on your risk tolerance. That is 25 discrete load screens, with a Leopard and no 0 tick gate camps thats still around 10-20 minutes of just loading. EVE is an exceptionally bad example to pull and why I excluded it.

If you want something like Star Control then running the bubble in E:D is your best option, just never install a fuel scoop.

What I want is just something where travel takes enough time and effort that interesting problems can arise during the course of it that aren’t just generic random encounters. Something where different parts of space have local character, something like geography rather than a flat isotropic void where distance is meaningless. In each case the technology used for moving about is entirely fictional, so I don’t see a reason not to make it interesting. I was just pointing out examples of that being done, not advocating for either of them being the one true way to do it.

transit in EVE isn’t really anything to write home about though. Target, align, warp, jump, target, align, warp, jump.

Gate camps are player based RNG with a difficulty slider. Do you take the shorter run thru Niarja or do you add an extra 30 jumps for relative safety barring CODE affiliates.

if what you want is a completely bespoke experience where a system has only explicit experiences then you immediately lose out on the design intent behind Starfield and the storyline within is immediately hollowed out and meaningless.

besides, its a video game. everything is a generic random encounter rolled on a table hidden from the player. if you want a better experience, Starfinder is there.

I used to make a living hauling valuable stuff from the outer edge of low-sec in to Jita and such places. Sure it got to be pretty much routine after a while. Well, most of the time. But then it’s always possible in that game to go off and do something else instead. The experience of exploring it all for the first time though, having not yet gathered the knowledge and resources to do it in anything like safety or comfort, was fantastic. If you could just teleport instantly from one place to anywhere without significant cost it wouldn’t even be a game. I’m not saying that the mechanics of transportation should dominate every game like they do EVE, but having at least some of that sort of thing seems like a good idea in a game that’s supposed to be about exploring a space of any kind. I disable fast travel in Skyrim too. It makes things too quick and convenient.

Can they let gamers or modders fill those? I’m sure many would love to claim a planet and get creative in it.

As per bethesda modding standards, the community has to go through 10 years of genitalia before any mods worth checking out start to pop up

BruceTwarzen
link
fedilink
31Y

Looking at a boring planet on a screen and slgetting into a rocket and blast to a boring planet is obviously the same.

Roundcat
link
fedilink
01Y

Glad I went with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk over this.

Otome-chan
link
fedilink
1551Y

“1000+ planets are dull on purpose”

No, they’re dull because no human team could make 1000 planets worth of interesting content in a single game development cycle.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
371Y

They could at least make the random PoI’s interesting if there was some…randomness to them.

Like, I walk into a PoI, I already know where the chests are, the locked doors, are, where the stupid fucking corpse in the shower is, etc etc. cause I’ve ran through this PoI 20 times.

I dont know why at least the locations of chests and locked doors cant be randomized. Make things at least marginally interesting, instead of cookie cuttered to extreme.

Otome-chan
link
fedilink
-91Y

You can, but randomizing chests+locked doors is kinda complicated, and the more “interesting” your generations the harder it is to code and the more dev time it takes. And for a AAA game release you can’t really do that.

Key+Lock randomization is something that has been solved, and has been used most notably in procedurally generated zeldalikes. But that’s still niche indie territory, and not used for major game releases.

Hasn’t this game been in development for like 5 years? And they built it on an existing engine that they have tons of experience with. You could have said “they were limited on how much they could randomize POIs because of the old engine” and I would have believed you because that sounds way more plausible than “it’s hard to code, so AAA games can’t do it”. Like what?

Otome-chan
link
fedilink
-21Y

The issue with procedural generation is the game has to be built for it from the ground up and in a modular way. AAAs try to make themselves appealing by using novel new high quality assets that aren’t modular.

I haven’t played starfield so idk what they ended up doing, but from the sound of it they have pre-made assets/areas that they then place onto pre-generated worlds in a randomized way.

To make one of these “areas” procedural in itself, they’d then have to code a whole system for that. With AAA/3D the hard part is making modular environments without it looking repetitive or ugly.

My point isn’t so much that it can’t be done in a AAA game. But rather that it’s risky to do (not all players like it), and you have to structure your development around it. Lots can go wrong, there’s stuff you gotta sacrifice to make it work, etc.

If starfield is on the old bethesda engine then that’s even more of a reason. You can’t just plug and play an entire procedural generation thing in there without some fairly large overhauls or just gluing on an unrelated system.

In practice, bethesda probably took the lazy route: using their existing engine without major changes, then just making new assets for it, throwing stuff about a bit randomly, and calling it a day.

That’s the thing about procedural generation is: it’s a lot of effort and sucks up a huge part of the game’s development and comes at some pretty strict costs (repetitive looking environments/gameplay, reduced novelty, larger programming dev time to make it work). It can be done, but for a cost-cutting AAA studio they’re not gonna bother.

They already have once though. Many of Morrowind’s dungeons were procedurally generated in development then edited a bit after, that was the same engine. Same with Daggerfall altho that was a diff engine.

Very different game but Amnesia: the Bunker has plenty of procedural generation as well.

It’s not at all impossible for one of the largest game development studios to have some procedurally generated, essentially dungeon content. Doing a bit more than the exact same place copied and pasted would be a huge undertaking yes, but if they wanted to they could have. There are plenty of 3D rogue-likes out now as well. Returnal is AAA and haa procedurally generated levels, far more complicated than neccesary for Bethesda to do in order to populate planets in their game about planet exploration.

Otome-chan
link
fedilink
-31Y

I didn’t say it’s impossible. Just that it’s harder, takes deliberate effort, etc. For AAA games they don’t bother with that kind of thing because it’s larger expense and larger risk.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
81Y

Just to wheel things back onto the road.

I was never asking for fully procedurally generated dungeons.

I just said randomize chest locations and door locks. It cant be that hard for a company that has been using the same game engine for almost 22 years to implement a node system to roll a spawn chance for a chest, or a door to be locked or not (with a higher chance of node spawns behind locked doors).

Hell, they could have even gone the lazy way and just copy and pasted the PoI a few times and manually changed the cosmetics/appearances.

With space and prefab buildings, they have the ultimate excuse for why every dungeon is identical (at least until you get into the underground caves…), but not every one of them should have the same dead body inthe same location in the same shower, the same succulent on the same shelf. move the body to a different location! Have a chance for a cluster of books to spawn instead of the succulent! Its a prefabricated hab structure, but that doesnt mean they come with such strict instructions as “Only succulent A on this shelf”

Malta Soron
link
fedilink
71Y

Couldn’t they just have copied the locations a few times and changed up the doors and chests by hand? Seems like an easy fix.

Otome-chan
link
fedilink
11Y

yes. I haven’t played the game so idk the details of what’s up. but at 1k+ planet-sized spaces it’s hard to have a team go over that by hand. Planets are large. But I have no doubt that bethesda team was probably super lazy as well.

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
41Y

While I agree, I’ve been saying that about NMS for years. Not that we want to be comparing Starfield to NMS, of course.

Chris Roberts : Hold my beer, for another 50 years.

Yeah, it’s already stale and expired by now

@[email protected]
link
fedilink
English
7
edit-2
1Y

You know someone is gonna make a mod that generates random and unique bases from hab complex assets.

And thats exactly why Bethesda doesnt put the effort in. cause they make the game, then the modders make it good for free… Or it used to be that, now they want to charge for mods and take a cut of the profits for shit they didnt make.

Otome-chan
link
fedilink
41Y

At a scale of 1k planets you’re going to have to rely on reused assets and procedural generation. At which point people not into procedural generation say that it’s “repetitive”. Especially if you only gen once for everyone and not each run lol.

AI generation of assets and code will theoretically eventually resolve this, but that’s quite a ways off. They’re not even usable for such with human assistance yet. And if you have ai generating the content, it’s not really a human team making that stuff lol.

I knew one of the planet designers. His favourite part was coastlines.

He was particularly fond of some fjords he made on the coast of Norway, I think he won an award for them.

Slartibartfast?

Gesundheit.

Treczoks
link
fedilink
171Y

Just wait then DLCs start to populate the void…

Apart from that, what I’ve seen on some YT videos is impressive - When they populate a planet, they really mean it.

Create a post

Sub for any gaming related content!

Rules:

  • 1: No spam or advertising. This basically means no linking to your own content on blogs, YouTube, Twitch, etc.
  • 2: No bigotry or gatekeeping. This should be obvious, but neither of those things will be tolerated. This goes for linked content too; if the site has some heavy “anti-woke” energy, you probably shouldn’t be posting it here.
  • 3: No untagged game spoilers. If the game was recently released or not released at all yet, use the Spoiler tag (the little ⚠️ button) in the body text, and avoid typing spoilers in the title. It should also be avoided to openly talk about major story spoilers, even in old games.
  • 1 user online
  • 2 users / day
  • 14 users / week
  • 189 users / month
  • 1.38K users / 6 months
  • 1 subscriber
  • 1.34K Posts
  • 14.4K Comments
  • Modlog