"Dull on Purpose" is a hell of a box quote. Do you think that will be on the Game of the Year edition?
this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2023
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I hope it becomes the game's unofficial slogan.
Absolutely makes sense for most planets to be rather barren. What I found a bit disappointing so far - keeping in mind I started yesterday and I'm only a few hours in - is how mostly when you land on a planet there is a key point of interest (an outpost, a mining facility, a city etc) at a landing site and then immediately a whole lot of randomly generated nothing around it. No roads or paths, NPCs, houses etc. I haven't really been to a place where I got that Skyrim feeling of going out into the wilderness and finding interesting things. I hope that later on there are at least a few areas with more substantial exploration. Still enjoying the game though.
Absolutely makes sense for most planets to be rather barren.
This idea is something I've heard a lot about Starfield and is why I don't think I'll pick it up, at least until a big sale. To me, it seems like they made a fair number of design decisions around what "makes sense" rather than what's fun.
When it comes to the barren planets, it just adds a bit of immersion IMO. Nobody is forcing you to visit those rocks, and you probably won't ever land on most of them, but it's cool that you can. So to me, it's not something that has a negative effect on my enjoyment of the game.
Makes sense to wait for a sale though. Mods and updates will no doubt vastly improve the game. Personally, I just play it on gamepass.
I'm the same way. Even just going from the "lore" most planets aren't going to have colorful interesting cities in it with unique locations and things to do. A lot of the rocks are going to be desolate with nothing on it, because they should be. When you find something of interest in the desolate void of space, it's gonna be interesting. Every planet having the same formulaic procedurally shaped bar, merchant, and a fetch quest would have people foaming at the mouth about how Bethesda replaced their specific crafted environments with shitty generated ones with no soul.
Ah, I see you’ve played No Man’s Sky, too!
I actually have never even downloaded it! Heard good things post-release, but it never really drew me in.
I haven't played it yet (A second play through of BG3 sounds more appealing right now), but in general for an singleplayer RPG I would prefer a small full setting to an empty large one. If the environment has almost nothing of interest in it, then I'm going to just be glued to the objective marker, which while not a deal breaker, definitely hurts the experience. In a more curated environment I would ignore the objective marker and go off in a random direction. This means my experience is more unique and gives a proper sense of exploration which can make the game feel bigger even though it is technically smaller.
I wouldn't shape any of your decision to playor not play on this particular detail. It really has little to no impact on the game whatsoever. There are a lot of really interesting worlds to explore, it's really not worth the amount of discussion lately.
Not saying this means "this is the game for you". Just that this one facet shouldn't enter into your assessment at all, in my opinion.
It could really benefit from some sort of vehicle as well.
I land on a planet, sprint 300m to the first point of interest, 900m to the next, 700m to the next etc. and most of it is just sprinting through nothing…
Feels like it’s just wasting my time, as there is literally nothing in between. I think a little hover bike would be a great addition to the game.
that would be perfect, maybe a vehicle with scanner and some mining tool so you could analyse and collect few minerals along the way. would be great QOL improvement.
imo the entire game needs a once over to add in a ton of QOL improvements.
I will say, finding a vehicle and not being able to drive it was a bit disappointing. But otherwise, I just wish there were more resources on the barren worlds.
I haven't played Starfield yet. That being said, I think I will enjoy most planets being rather dull (as long as you still occasionally have reason to go there). I very much love the stance of "When everything/everyone is remarkable, nothing/noone is." One of the bigger reasons (aside the gameplay usually not being quite to my liking) why I don't play MMOs anymore is, because about every MMO culminates in 80% of the people wearing "the armor of fabled legends" and being "Slayer of Demonlord and Demigod Sckholzhlak".
there are definitely dull planets, but there are also planets i have explored just for the hell of it and found a lot of cool stuff, like a facility run entirely by robots and the robots tell me not to interfere with their work or i will die
Mhmm, I played a couple dozen hours now and I like the game a lot!
When the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren't bored.
Because it wasn't just a rock, but the first time entering another natural body of mass in the universe, apart from our earth. Something that never happened before. In contrast, over a million players have discovered planets in Starfield by now, including all customly made content by Bethesda for the planets.
The astronauts where excited and happy as they achieved a huge step for humanity - somewhere I heard that before - while one could literally only achieve one small step for a human in Starfield.
Yeah, and it's not like the astronauts just put up a flag and left. They took soil samples, set up sensors to measure tectonic activity, etc. Rocks are interesting when you can interact with them.
You mean pointing a laser at a rock for a few seconds until it pops isn't interesting? /s
So just wait for mods, then. Got it.
(I really do want to play this game, I like Bethesda games. But there are always inevitable shortcomings, which modders will fix.) Also by then perhaps it will be cheaper.
At least if a modder picks a random spot for their content it's unlikely to conflict with any other mods.
I want to like Bethesda games. I liked fallout 3 a lot and their doom games, which is different i guess. But man, i'm not a trash collector that collects trinkets. It's not enjoyable to me. It doesn't matter where the setting is. And the fact that the characters still look like the game is made in 2010, with the same shitty zoomed in dialogue and awkward ass eye contact is just driving me away. This isn't some indie company that want to make thir dream game, this is Bethesda that wants to make a 80 dollar game with as little effort as humanly possible.
Bethesda was only the publisher for Doom, Id software were the developers.
It really just feels like Bethesda needs to just build world so we can populate them however we choose. They know the public and modders like their framework so they create settings. Fantasy, Nuclear Wasteland, Space. They know modders keep games alive.
I'm getting no mans sky release flashbacks. Hopefully they keep working on it like the no mans sky team did
I guess that depends on the amount of copies sold and the 'refund ratio'.
If both are within acceptable parameters, they won't do anything. Just leave it to the modding community to fix whatever needs fixing. They already have your money, don't they...
It's the Bethesda way.
I really don't think it's anything like that.
It's a design decision, in the sense a bit like elite dangerous where the planet generation is realistic, as far as we know, even at the expense of being boring.
It's not a bug. It's a feature.
What's that quote from originally? I've always assumed it was Todd but now that I think about it I've never seen anything that would prove it, I supposed I've always just associated it with bethesda games lol.
It's just a general software development joke. Eventually your customers will rely on that bug, because thats how it works right? So you can´t fix it later as it would break workflows thus that bug becomes a feature.
It's probably from the 60's or 70's
Remember when Sean Murray said prior to NMS launch that it was part of their vision for you to be alone in a vast uncharted universe with nowhere to call a home? That was code for, "we don't have multiplayer or basebuilding, and there's not really anything interesting enough for you to stay there long term".
Give Starfield a few years, they'll figure out what to do with those planets.
The modders will, if nothing else
If it's "dull on purpose, " Modders are the only way anything is gonna happen.
Good to know. I'm hoping to hear more about the game from players before deciding to dive into this.
That's mean the entire game is also dull and boring combined with Beth's mediocre story writing it's should not cost more than a sack of potatoes
It's very strand-like in that sense.
This is getting a lot of flak, but I mostly agree. I have enjoyed the exploration of random planets as a pleasant aside to quests. Yes, they're dull. It's a lot of scanning flora and fauna, if they exist. Wandering slowly around.
But in that sense, it's actually one of the most immersive activities in the whole damn game. If Starfield has an issue with anything, it's immersion.
One thing I didn't like about NMS, frankly, is that every planet seems to be teeming with life. It makes that life feel uninteresting when you find it, because there is no yin to the yang.