All Things Starfield

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Given the history of Bethesda Game Studios bringing us a catalogue of some of the best video games ever, the vision, talent and size of the studio, and the length of development time, we can rightly expect Starfield to be one of the greatest video games of all time. As a result, Starfield deserves a thread of its own.

Many of us know that we are going to spend hundreds of hours tweaking our characters, following quests, and exploring the vast and rich star systems they will have created for us. And that’s before the modding even begins! Of course, with such an ambitious project we can expect to laugh (and cry) at some of the bugs and glitches we’re going to experience.

So let us use this thread to share news, discoveries, and insights into this upcoming epic game. But please note, many of us are genuinely excited about Starfield, so I’d respectfully ask that anyone posting here generally tries to keep the tone positive.

It would make sense to start with the official gameplay reveal from Bethesda Softworks, the publishing wing of BGS (the developers). Although I’d be surprised if this hasn’t already been watched. Many times.

Starfield: Official Gameplay Reveal

However, it’s possible you’ve not seen this video, which does a brief in-depth analysis in less than 12 minutes. It highlights how much thought must have gone into producing the reveal video.

Starfield: Everything We Know So Far

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Slightly old news now, but I forgot to report it here when I first heard it.

It’s quite a stretch, but we all know that Bethesda like to drop Easter eggs and mysterious clues in all of their games. It seems that some keen-eyed fans spotted in the official gameplay trailer that the number on the side of the player’s own craft is SV 821 393.

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It turns out that the Wright brothers’ patent number for their flying machine was the same. The link with the Wright brothers may just be the extent of it, but what’s interesting is that patent was filed on 23 March 1903.

No. 821,393 PATENTED MAY 22, 1906
O. & W. WRIGHT.
FLYING MACHINE.
APPLICATION FILED MAR. 23, 1903
Source

Additional Document

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Source

We all know how much Todd Howard likes his double dates. Skyrim released on 11 Nov 2011 (11/11/11). He’s mentioned in interviews that he likes them because it avoids the ambiguity of different parts of the world using different orders: date/month versus month/date. That is why Starfield was originally planned to release on 11/11/22. Extrapolating this idea with the numbers involved in that Wright brothers’ date, we have 23, 03, and 03. Does this mean that the release date could be as soon as 3 March 2023 (03/03/23)? :thinking:

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A new short video has just dropped where Todd Howard answers some questions from fans. Among other things, he talks a little about the trait system, a design decision they made about the fuel limiting factors of spaceship travel, and the dialogue/persuasion system. Also, hearing that this game was influenced by the original Traveller role playing game has not only awoken great memories from my younger years, but has increased my anticipation for this game even more. I really hope that this video is the first of many videos over the coming months.

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The next “Talking Starfield” (Constellation Questions) video has dropped. In it the lead quest designer, Will Shen, talks about the games faction system and what we can expect. Unlike Fallout 4 you won’t be locked out of factions, but equally, unlike Skyrim, you won’t be able to become the leader of every faction. However, your actions and choices will “far-reaching consequences.”

Apparently, you’ll be able to utilise your companions to handle factions, depending on their status, skills, and connections. For example, you might have the option of turning to one of them and saying, “Hey actually, could you handle this?” and they’ll speak on your behalf.

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With the game still firmly set for a September 6 release and early reviews coming August 31st, I think it’s a fair enough time to bump the thread back to life again. So we’ve all been here before - nearing the edge of a new big time IP, but we’ve also been let down before too. Games like Cyperpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky for example, and even though they had to patch the living hell out of these games, you only get one shot to make a good first impression.

However, I gotta say Starfield is looking pretty good, and while full reviews won’t be out until the 31st, the feedback is on the positive side. I’m actually a bit excited but I still don’t do pre-orders anymore no matter the game. Usually I wait at least a week after release before I decide to buy it. But what about you?

  • Already pre-ordered it
  • Gonna wait a bit and see first
  • No plans on getting it
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I am a bit skeptical, so I will probably try it first on gamepass.

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Gamepass, baby. This is not the type of game to pay for blindly. I’m also basically a Bethesda newbie so I’m not susceptible to brand loyalty excitement. (I might preorder that new Bond game though, whenever that happens…)

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As other have said : gamepass, maybe.
As far as I know it’s an Xbox Serie X game, so at best playable for me via Cloud. And Cloud is not good enough at the moment.

I still only have an (old) Xbox One, bought in 2019. I will certainly buy a Serie X one day, but not this year, I think. There are a few games that interest me on it when I do, but none that makes me think “well now, I have to upgrade for it”.

As for Starfield : I will be honest, for what was showed the narrative will be bad.

For what I understand the narrative will be : you find an artifact, it reacts to you, potentially gives you special power ala dragon shout, you go to Constellation, you find more with them. Maybe have to tango with the factions to gather access/informations.
And I will guess that the end is : you end up finding aliens (there are no sentient alien in the settings).

In on itself no issue, it’s basically Mass Effect 1. I would have preferred a non “Epic Quest, you are the One” story, but I understand why it would be the way chosen. I can work with it.

But the Xbox Showcase showed Constellation, and the characters. And they have no seemingly substance, and have one of my pet peeve : announced as having competency and respectable influence in the world, and then are the opposite in the writing. And not on purpose.
I mean that they look like Fallout 4 characters, the Railroad (my beloved).

Finally, I always try to do two things in RPGs :

  • complete the game without harming/killing sentients
  • complete the game without looting, just the economy

The first one is almost always impossible in Bethesda games. (fun fact : Cyberpunk 2077 is surprisingly possible this way, excellent level design for stealth if you know where to look, even the side gig)
The second might be possible, but if they double with what they did in Fallout 4 and the resource system, I doubt it. And when it is possible, it is by sending into dungeons for radiant quests, which then goes back to the first one.

But I’m ready to be surprised here.

So, meh. If I play it I will play with an audiobook, and a simple rifle/pistol build, just for the systems, and the base building system in particular.
Which in all fairness looks promising, especially if I find a planet with interesting aesthetic (red Martian desert, my unironic beloved)

Even then, it would come with two caveats.
One I will wait for the DLCs (and patches), so that everything is in the game, since I expect the systems to be expanded on.
Two, and this one is really subjective/personnal, I will look into good pistol/rifle mods. Because I run pistols and semi-automatic rifle, and almost always with two rapid pull (especially the pistols). And somehow every game company in the world have decided that game balance demands an obligatory, small but perceivable gap between shots. Which is not how firearms work, let me operate my systems with proper drill Bethesda! (sorry for the rant, but it’s legitimately distracting/frustrating)

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Browsing gaming sites today at work and saw this. Quite odd if you ask me. Reeks of Bethesda shenanigans! Or maybe it’s beyond my ability to understand.

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The game got decent reviews from professional reviewers and YouTube reviewers. All in all, a decent first start for a new IP.

Like they say

It just works.

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I just woke up but I just need to know is this real and can it be done.

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Yesterday I looked back at my xbox settings, I discovered that the reason Cloud didn’t worked well for me was because my settings still had the UK as my server location.
Changed them back to France, and only 20-50ms latency average, about a frame in 30fps. Tested it quickly on Deathloop, was fine and smooth.

Next week will certainly have too many people in the queue, but I think I will end up playing Starfield later on.
(to be honest : I will definitively still try to queue in the 6th)

I looked at a few review, looked at a few spoilers for what I wanted to know, even looked at some guides to know the can and can’t.
And yeah. It looks better than expected. Even the way exploration is limited is actually simplified in a direction preferable for me. Even the menu and “you actually just fly above the planets and not into space-space”.
Bethesda streamlining going good for me, for once :slight_smile:
And apparently it’s more “hard” science fiction than most, goes more into cities. The usual space sim genre is boringly large to me, and this might actually be it, for me.

I’m also a sucker for flat desert environment, so the emptiness of the random generation might also go to my liking.
I will definitively be on Mars. And moons. (and the Earth from the spoilers)

The new game + mechanic seems interesting, especially if what was told in a few place about changes in dialogue and missions is true. (the story reason is also interesting)
I think I will do one 30h play of the story, minimum side, ng+, and then go into the side missions, the exploration and the late game outpost building. Which both seems chill.
It will allow both to avoid progressing to have them, before having to reset, and also because I expect then to have some guides for the best looking planets, and best side quests to see,
I’m intrigued.

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I want this to be good, but there’s so much “space marine bro” in the trailer that it kind of gives me a headache at a distance. I just want a new Fallout, which won’t happen before I’m 45 :frowning: or dead :grimacing: :ghost:

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It’s just John Starfield doing John Starfield things.

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Nah, possibly photoshopped. Even Todd said it’s fake :grin:

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Well, I’ve been playing this for about 10 hours now, and I still don’t know what to think. Great music, nice facial animations and pretty good character interactions. Nice visual design. Story seems interesting. But so much of the mechanics are just sort of dumped in your lap.

Here’s an early game experience I had:

Early on in the game you get a sort of “space battle tutorial” which basically just tells you what button to push to shoot.

Later on I got into a space battle with three ships at the same time, and it confused the hell out of me.
I’d get messages like “The Enemy Have you Missile Locked” and I literally didn’t know any strategy to do anything about it (there might be evasion maneuvers down some skill tree, but I don’t know that there are any without it), so I just had to eat the missiles.

Same battle I got a red sign going “Shields at 0” and a prompt to “Press 0 to repair shields”. When I pressed 0 I got literally no in game feedback to tell me it had any effect (and shields stayed at 0, probably because I was being bombarded by three ships).

Either way, my ship exploded in the same battle around ten times before I managed to get through it. And I’m far from convinced that I learned anything. :confused:

I also searched desperately for a trunk or storage box onboard my ship for a long time before finding out you go into your “starship” option in your menu to store stuff on the ship. :confused:

I’ve also repeatedly landed in the wrong spot because they decided to place landing spots right next to key ones, so close that it looks like you’re clicking one, but you get the other one.

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That’s an impressive amount of detail.

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I’m enjoying this game, but I’m overwhelmed with a lot of the features. Even the Character Customization confuses me. But I managed to make a space girl with a space poncho.

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I’ve now logged 24 hours in the game and I can conclude a few things:

  1. I love the game.
  2. The different factions seem to have huge quest lines related to them. I’m currently doing Freestar Rangers and UC Vanguard, and they’re really engrossing.
  3. The score is fantastic, but at times might sound a bit too much like Fallout 4. Not surprising since Inon Zur wrote both, but still.
  4. There are so many different mechanics that are more or less unexplained, and I’ve had trouble with some of them because they need to be learned in a high stress situation (ship battles being a prime example).
  5. There’s an annoying bug where every time I’ve been in a menu or loading screen my dude refuses to move forward until I take a step backward. When in battle this can be enfuriating.
  6. There are some really great side quests.

The game isn’t exactly what I’d hoped for, but the more I play the more captivated I’ve become by the lore/world, and all the different quests.

I’m also not a massive Imagine Dragons fan, but this song is fire:

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