:.:. Starfield .:.: - by Vae
Jason Moyer on 11/6/2023 at 22:49
I literally could not hate a game mechanic more than crafting.
I have no idea why I'm watching this video, tbh, because all I can think of the entire time is how much I fucking hate marketing. Thanks for getting me to watch a 45 minute commercial for your game that I was probably going to buy when it was 75% off anyway and then play and either like or not like based on my experience with it instead of some shit spewed by a dude who would be in a suit but our research shows that the target demographic doesn't respond to that as well as business casual.
Commander Shephard, another settlement needs our help.
Sulphur on 12/6/2023 at 04:16
Heh, the cynic in me applauds your post, JM.
As always with Bethsoft, I wish they could take that (honestly fantastic) art and environment design and transplant it into a game that actually could be fun and interesting - I'm thinking give Obsidian those artistic chops and budget and let 'er rip. Not gonna happen though, because there seems to be a big market for the glitzy fast-food RPG that goes down like a greased hockey puck so you don't have to spend too much time thinking too hard about the experience.
edit: gotta admire the huge cojones on whomever decided to focus on the character design, because while sure, the NPCs are probably diverse and varied in design and there's good concept art, in execution they're also probably smashed together in an algorithm, and all of them look exactly as dead-eyed and stilted as anyone in their last bunch of games. It's not Oblivion bad, but you can trace the stiff animation and weird hair back to those roots pretty easily. I'll admit that generating thousands of NPCs for games -- out of which hundreds will be speaking to you -- is a ridiculous job, but J.C. on a tricycle, the baseline quality for these needs to be better than this.
demagogue on 12/6/2023 at 05:06
Bethesda are still making their games mod friendly, aren't they?
I think that'd be a particularly good thing for a game like this.
Malf on 12/6/2023 at 10:05
Quote Posted by Sulphur
...in execution they're also probably smashed together in an algorithm.
According to (
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/starfields-character-creator-is-so-versatile-bethesda-used-it-to-create-the-games-npcs) this RPS article, apparently they "used" the character creator to create
all NPC faces.
The implication being that they're all hand-crafted using the same tool you'll use to create your character. But yeah, I'm guessing that in reality, at some point someone probably just thought "fuckit", and hit randomise a bunch of times.
As I posted in the comments section over there thought, it would be cool if someone expanded the idea into a major game feature, so you could scan someone's appearance parameters and "steal" them, over-writing your features with theirs, allowing you to infiltrate, much like Hitman's disguise system.
It's honestly quite difficult to understand why there hasn't already been a feature like this considering how many games have character creators.
Thirith on 12/6/2023 at 15:32
That sounds like there's more than just a touch of Paradroid in that Hitman idea of yours, Malf. And at that point we can perhaps give it a bit of a Cronenbergian slant, face stealing and body horror and such.
Sulphur on 13/6/2023 at 05:27
Explains why they all look like hand-me-downs from the Skyrim fanbase then, eh. The trailer did say they scanned in a bunch of people from diverse backgrounds and smooshed them in a data blender, so it's 'inclusive' in that manner that everyone's got a <face> but speaks <exact same homogenised lingo as per script>. I guess I'm being pedantic there, but anyway. The biggest bugaboo is their NPC animation tools and pipeline seem to be at least a couple of generations behind despite having 'motion capture'.
Scanning people's appearances makes sense for a game where the mechanic isn't actually fool-proof, like the glitch-out scene in Total Recall. I'd be down for that if it's part of your arsenal as a sort of intergalactic agent.
Malf on 13/6/2023 at 14:49
Of course, the real question we all have is "Do they have more than five voice actors for a cast of thousands this time?"
Sulphur on 13/6/2023 at 14:54
Good god, I hope so. Let's not spend all the VO money on Patrick Stewart or Liam Neeson this time.
Starker on 13/6/2023 at 16:28
Quote Posted by Sulphur
Good god, I hope so. Let's not spend
all the VO money on Patrick Stewart or Liam Neeson this time.
Hard disagree.
Sulphur on 13/6/2023 at 17:10
If what you're saying is that one of them should be the only voice in the game, I don't think I'll have a problem with Starfield by way of Anomalisa, no.
