David on 13/9/2023 at 08:38

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They hired someone specifically for clutter - (https://www.pcgamer.com/bethesda-hired-a-noted-modder-to-help-with-starfields-clutter-and-lighting/)

EvaUnit02 on 14/9/2023 at 03:36

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(https://web.archive.org/web/20230913153429/https://steamcommunity.com/games/1716740/announcements/detail/3687940304703443231)
It's crazy that we still have AAA games launching without basic shit like FOV sliders and ultrawide support. Ditto for native HDR support (Win11 AutoHDR works with the game for the time being).

Happy that we're getting native DLSS support, but what I really want is that FSR 3 support for the frame generation on my 3080.

EvaUnit02 on 17/9/2023 at 20:31

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I took the (https://web.archive.org/web/20230917203633/https://www.gamerevolution.com/guides/944710-starfield-empath-trait-explained-self-esteem-buff-self-doubt-debuff-how-to-remove) Empath trait. Due to the main questline I was stuck with Sarah as a companion. Every time I did a morally dubious action she would whine and my PC would get a debuff for 2 IRL hours. She's a short haired, blonde white woman, likely in her late 30s, so I started calling her Space Karen.


As soon as I could I ditched her for my robo bro Vasco. He doesn't care if I minecraft rando NPCs.

Jason Moyer on 18/9/2023 at 05:05

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It's Fallout 4, but bigger and better. And it's not a Fallout-themed amusement park, which is nice. It's genuinely impressive how they've scaled everything in the game though; there are times on planets where you're literally trundling along for 1km to get to the next waypoint, and tbh I'm usually stopping to snag minerals or scan animals and plants along the way so it's not that bad. There's a mission that involved climbing an old NASA rocket gentry on Mars and, no exaggeration, it's the first time a videogame has triggered the dizziness/queasiness I associate with my fear of heights. The cities are generally enormous, and absolutely stuffed full of non-important NPC's wandering around which adds so much atmosphere to it.

There are a ton of things the game doesn't explain that I wish I had known going into it, but I'm also pretty happy that they had enough trust to let you figure shit out. Off the top of my head, things I wish I had known going in were a.) the "intro/turorial" ends when you deliver the thing you get at the beginning of the game b.) if you don't accept the next main quest right away, you can do sidequests without a forced companion; I kinda knew this because I explored the first city by myself, but then when I decided to go off to the next main quest bit I got distracted and stuck with Sarah for like 10 hours because the "I have stuff to do" dialog didn't do anything anymore - so don't take a new main quest until you're ready to do it, then immediately go and complete it would be my preferred way of doing things c.) the mission board quests are skyrim style radiant quests that send you off to do random things and not actual hand-crafted sidequest content - I probably did almost 10 of them before realizing you could cancel them in your journal d.) if you land anywhere on a planet that isn't a POI, all of the content in that (enormous) map is procgen e.) if you're surveying a planet, using the randomly generated areas in different biomes is the fastest way to get all the data you need; the scanner will actually tell you when you've found everything in the biome you're in, but also some things that are in rare in that biome may be easier to find in another one so if you're bored it's worth landing somewhere else and poking around

My only real complaint is that it doesn't have the usual Bethesda-style local maps when you're exploring, so the big cities are a massive pain in the ass now. I was in the wild-west themed city for hours and still discovering new things because there's not a way to pull up a map and see all of the cells you haven't visited like Oblivion or Skyrim or whatever. I think they're supposed to be adding that in patch from what I've read, and once that drops I'll enjoy things even more. Also, it's annoying having to walk around with the scanner on half the time to determine which NPC's have names and which objects can be interacted with, especially since it doesn't allow you to interact with things like lockers or doors or even show that they're something you can futz with while the scanner is open. I would probably just turn on an "accessibility" option to give things a slight outline if they can be interacted with, or even to unique NPC's.

That's it though. I think it's generally been a well-received game, although there seems to be a loud group who are upset that it's not No Man's Sky the RPG. The best way I could think of to explain what it is to a coworker who asked me how it was is: it's a Bethesda space exploration game in the same way Mass Effect was a very Bioware space exploration game and Outer Worlds was a very Black Isle/Troika/Obsidian space exploration game. It does what you expect a Bethesda game to do without a ton of surprises. The space combat is fairly simple but also feels a bit like House Of The Dying sun minus the strategic element (which I honestly never engaged with when I beat that game anyway). Disabling the final ship in any battle instead of destroying it and then boarding it and killing everyone onboard and looting it never gets old, and it's a serious technical marvel IMO that every ship is an actualy thing in the world that you can go into and walk around like a building in any other Bethesda game. It has things that will make you roll your eyes. While it feels more polished than their previous 20 years of launches, it still has the Bethesda physics-jank where someone will be standing in the floor or a bunch of physics objects will explode off of a table while you're walking by or an enemy gets yeeted into space when they die or a dialog cutscene starts and objects/actors are blocking the camera or an NPC is facing the wrong way or whatever. So it's probably what you think it is.

Oh yeah, one of the best things that improved from Fallout 4 is the gun variety. For some reason in FO4 it felt like there were 3 guns, then you modded them a certain way, and that was it, you basically didn't have to interact with that system for the rest of the game. In Starfield, even if you just carry one gun for each ammo type, you'd have to have like 30 guns in your inventory. There are so many different kinds of guns and melee weapons it's nuts. And there are rare/epic/legendary versions of them with pre-installed mods and various perks tied to them. It's kind of nuts to be honest.

Finally, per the usual for me, I haven't engaged in the crafting system because crafting in videogames is stupid busywork. I also haven't messed with shipbuilding other than updating components to the starting ship, just because it looks like a massive time sink. Looks insanely flexible for what it is though, I'd imagine you can make almost any kind of flyable ship you'd want out of it and it will do a sanity check to make sure everything works (it's flyable, it has the right number of weapons systems, etc).

Jason Moyer on 18/9/2023 at 06:44

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Yeah, I'd recommend it if you like Bethesda-y games but if you didn't like them before, I doubt you'd be into this. It it is nice that they improved the roleplaying some, I've actually had dialog options related to traits and skills. I was able to resolve a dialog situation using the security skill. It hasn't happened much, and randomized speech checks are still the main way to resolve things, but at least someone on the writing staff seems to have acknowledged that using regular skills in dialog is a good thing. Oh yeah, I missed it from the "parts I like" but it's great that the player isn't voiced. It means you occasionally get some real dialog options, although I feel like it still boils down to nice/snarky/funny and then a bunch of questions most of the time.

I dunno why I like Oblivion/Skyrim/Starfield so much, because I hate open world games and I hate games that waste your time with faffing around. I can remember when Morrowind came out, I enjoyed it, but I didn't think it held a candle to the other FPS/RPG of that year, Arx Fatalis (actually, I still feel that way), and I've tried to replay it multiple times more recently and just don't like how meh the game mechanics are. I don't like that Oblivion onwards have streamlined the RPG aspect, but I'll take the more emergent and physics-based gameplay if I can only choose one or the other. I think it's because the worlds don't feel as sterile and uninteractive as, say, an Ubisoft game. You can be bored for a bit, but there's usually something entertaining over the next hill. I'm sure if you explore a lot of progen'd POIs they'll get repetitive, but the first time you go to them is interesting and the random encounters have been plentiful and interesting so far too. And the combat is slightly better than FO4, if not a massive leap. It took me awhile to get used to the Bethesbryo game feel after plowing through Borderlands 3, because the movement/combat in that is *chef's kiss*.

So...Skyrim in space with a more relaxed pace to it. Less weirdness so far too, although there is a fair bit more of an Alien vibe to a lot of it than I expected. Some pretty creepy sidequests and other than the non-slum areas of New Atlantis and a few settlements things aren't as sparkly and tranquil as I expected.