I appreciate what you say, but after a few debacles, I’m not buying any game on its future potential.
I’ll be buying Starfield for what it already has
Game Discussions Bethesda Softworks Starfield Space RPG
- Thread starter Lngjohnsilver1
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I’ll be buying Starfield for what it already has
What did the ai and ship mods you mentioned do?Since practically all of the mods I'm using are either just graphics/texture/UI based or mere custom.ini enabled tweaks or bends, I've had absolutely no issues whatsoever, even the latest game update had no effect on any of the mods I'm using. Once the creation kit appears and we then have to use a script extender and mod managers for the more complicated mods...that's when the fun times spent balancing and mucking about with mod loading orders will appear.
Since Starfield, like all Bethesda games before it, is purposely designed to let us as users play with via modding, it's more user friendly than 99% of other games out there when it comes to making the mods work together. The trick is to not have 2 or more incompatible mods mess with the same part of the game engine...within reason.
From experience of Fallout 4 and spending far more time trying to get all the mods I wanted working at the same time than I spent actually playing the game...I'm already dreading the plethora of script extended nightmares to come
I had my first disappointment tonight with Starfield: the randomly generated surface installations. Even though I haven't done very much surface exploration, I have seen the same two facilities pop up twice now. I forget the name, but one is an outpost of some sort that spans a narrow crevice. It always has human mercenaries patrolling it, and as far as I can tell, they always spawn in the same place. The second one is more annoying. It is a rather large magma pumping station where some sort of research is being conducted in obsidian, IIRC. This one annoys me for two reasons. First, it is a large, multi-level facility that takes some time to clear of its robot enemies. So, this means you either need to ignore it when it spawns or commit the time to clearing it out. But even more annoying than that is that this facility spawns with the same story every time you encounter it (it has to do with the facility's boss replacing his staff with bots that later go rogue). It's bad enough to encounter the same facility over and over, but the same story, too? I consider this to be a surprisingly amateurish decision on the part of Bethesda. Encountering the same facility over and over again is disappointing, but then to have the story inside that facility repeat itself again and again (complete with the corpse of the boss) is like rubbing salt in the repetitive wounds.
Yeah, I was a bit disappointed with the repetition tonight. I am hoping the randomization dice just went against me tonight because, otherwise, surface exploration is going to get boring fast. I don't mind having surface facilities repeat, but they should be generic (i.e., there shouldn't be a story hardwired into the facility), and the enemies you come across should vary in type and spawn location to keep it fresh. Having the same facilities spawn with the same enemies in the same spots is a big no-no, as far as I am concerned, because it ruins any suspension of disbelief.
Yeah, I was a bit disappointed with the repetition tonight. I am hoping the randomization dice just went against me tonight because, otherwise, surface exploration is going to get boring fast. I don't mind having surface facilities repeat, but they should be generic (i.e., there shouldn't be a story hardwired into the facility), and the enemies you come across should vary in type and spawn location to keep it fresh. Having the same facilities spawn with the same enemies in the same spots is a big no-no, as far as I am concerned, because it ruins any suspension of disbelief.
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It'll be interesting to expand the pool of assets for such surface exploration and orbital stage via mods. Even with all the existing kits, you could combine them into quite a lot of variations. I WANT TOOOOOOOLS. It was so easy to jam all manner of content into Fallout 4 other than things involving new stuff for the hard to deal with animation system, so I'm curious if the new animation system is more flexible.
I've been gathering assets and recording some bits for a set of random encounters, outposts, derelict vessels and mission logs, travelers. Now that I've experienced more of the game's content, it's easier not to duplicate stuff that already exists! Of course they thought of all the obvious things already, but there is a lot of colorful weirdness and more detailed handcrafted scenarios with moments of surprise you could bring to it to spice up later gameplay. So i've been organizing scripts for random encounters in tiers of every 5-10 levels with escalating insanity. Hopefully like mods I worked on for Fallout 4 and Skyrim, we can inject them into the pool easily and not have to overwrite anything or preclude additional encounters to be added from other modders.
I've been gathering assets and recording some bits for a set of random encounters, outposts, derelict vessels and mission logs, travelers. Now that I've experienced more of the game's content, it's easier not to duplicate stuff that already exists! Of course they thought of all the obvious things already, but there is a lot of colorful weirdness and more detailed handcrafted scenarios with moments of surprise you could bring to it to spice up later gameplay. So i've been organizing scripts for random encounters in tiers of every 5-10 levels with escalating insanity. Hopefully like mods I worked on for Fallout 4 and Skyrim, we can inject them into the pool easily and not have to overwrite anything or preclude additional encounters to be added from other modders.
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I have to agree and disagree with you at the same time
Bethesda had been open about that placement of POIs would be randomized, but the POIs themselves would be handcrafted. I've cleared the "same" facility on multiple different planets multiple times by now. The repetition is indeed a minor disappointment, but there are still POIs I haven't investigated yet. However, coming from 7 Days 2 Die, this hasn't bothered me too much. It's always a trade-off between completely randomized areas that make no logical sense for their alleged purpose (e.g. Diablo IV) or handcrafted POIs that do make sense, but require a lot of time and effort to create (I mean, there are only so many different settlment types in Elite as well).
I hope that future DLC/updates in Starfield will add more POIs to the game, but I know that the community will add a lot of POIs once the Creation Kit is released.
Edit: as for the same enemies, I think that could just be bad luck. I believe it is randomized who you are fighting (at least im terms of human factions)
Not so sure about exploration myself, it's very busy out there with industrial complexes and ships landing and taking off. No sense of the solitude of Elite's exploration. Also lacking are the sweeping vistas of Elite. There are liquid surfaces which you can swim in provided they aren't corrosive. Animals to scan if you can avoid becoming part of the local food chain.
It's certainly not the relaxing experience of Elite's exploration.
I’ve only had one facility repeat, but it’s now shown up a third time. They were different factions each time, of varying difficulty, but the story was the same. My thought as I cleared it a third time was: “This is an underground facility. There was this concept called ‘tile generated maps’ over 30 years ago, so game masters didn’t have to manually create random encounters. Couldn’t you have done something like that?”
But then again, I had assumed that Frontier would use something similar when generating their settlements. I can only assume it’s easier to create the illusion of intelligent NPCs if you bake in pathfinding into the map itself. Not every game will have an NPC if the sophistication of Stonehearth, I suppose…
It doesn’t bother me, to be honest. I like exploration in ED well enough, but planetary exploration leaves a lot to be desired. They have two sapient alien races in the game, one of which is extinct, and zero on-foot content for both. And the most interesting worlds to explore remain locked away.
Between this setting’s backstory, and the information I use to choose landing sites, finding evidence of human occupation seems natural to me.
Already in the reasoning phase, that's quick.
All I can say is that Starfield is definitely worth it's money, if you like a good rpg in space with an incredible amount of surprises then go for it.
Given that the total number of historical parts of the Moon numbers about 5, and they're all tightly related, that's fairly spoilery.
I'm partway through my 2nd character's adventure. It's so different from the first. I'm currently infiltrating the Crimson Fleet, something that never came up as a possibility the first time through. There are so many possible permutations, it's great fun.
Some screenies, just because I have nowhere else to show them
Some screenies, just because I have nowhere else to show them
The latest ship I stole. Upgraded a bit
I met this gal and her "dog" wandering an icy planet. She was quite friendly.
Trees and grass and spaceships. I like it.
Ship interiors are good for those relaxing moments. My ship has all the workstations on it, too. I'm not sure how I managed that.
I met this gal and her "dog" wandering an icy planet. She was quite friendly.
Trees and grass and spaceships. I like it.
Ship interiors are good for those relaxing moments. My ship has all the workstations on it, too. I'm not sure how I managed that.
Yeah that's where ED and SF diverge sharply, in a galaxy where only 1,000 star systems have been explored you would expect to encounter a much denser collection of human settlement, but in a galaxy with 400b star systems you can easily have both. Factions in the bubble and Colonia asking you to explore nearby systems for resources and etc, the wild emptiness of the deep black where it's just you and the native life forms whenever you encounter them, and maybe, very occaisionally, the odd sentient alien life form that shoots back, million year old abandoned ruins or crashed human ship. this is where I think Elite has the opportunity to do it far better than they currently have.
Spoiler alert: We landed on the moon.
I think it’s fair to say that for any game that allows you to land on the moon, the question and expectation will come up that you can visit certain historical sites. Especially one site in particular.
Free PSA, seems like I encountered this fairly serious bug. I had to revert saves back in time about an hour. Seems to be caused by registering ships you boarded and took at The Den. Once this glitch happens reloads and restarts dont fix it. Definitely make sure you have some core backup saves as you progress.
Edit: For more detail if you don't want to to read reddit you will know you have the bug if the Trade Board at New Atlantis landing zone is gone and some of the panels at the ramp beyond are missing. If you get to this point the only fix is going to a save previous to registering the ship at The Den. It was a replicatable bug that can't be fixed for me.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/16d9quz/missing_na_trade_kiosk_and_other_bugs/
Edit: For more detail if you don't want to to read reddit you will know you have the bug if the Trade Board at New Atlantis landing zone is gone and some of the panels at the ramp beyond are missing. If you get to this point the only fix is going to a save previous to registering the ship at The Den. It was a replicatable bug that can't be fixed for me.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/16d9quz/missing_na_trade_kiosk_and_other_bugs/
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That's lovely, but missed my point I think.
Oh I will definitely be getting it, and likely I'll pay full price for it (ouch), but I do think I'll wait another month or so to let Bethesda release the bug fixes and other QoL updates they recently announced. Thankfully I've got another game or two to distract me in the meantime (but not so much as to interfere with IRL, mostly...)
Finally started exploring the world I'd chosen for its copper deposits. After choosing a landing zone that would likely maximize the variety of resources a single outpost could extract, I set down the Frontier.
The first thing I did was erect the disassembled scanning array I'd brought, along with the solar panels I'd need to power it. This should effectively triple the range my hand scanner detects things, making it easier to find the interesting stuff.
I need to assess the geology of this world, as well as the ecology, so I started with what I consider the standard starting sensor sweep. Nearby were two artifical structures, and two natural ones… probably caves. After locking in their location, I started to explore those natural POIs, scanning scarce flora and fauna along the way, and taking mineralogical samples, including the badly needed copper.
The planet’s gravity was too high do the old jetpack bunny sprint, so I ended up taking samples, and mining copper, as I caught my breath. The “southern” cave led to another cave, but the scanner didn’t pick up anything after that one. I returned to my ship, and started exploring “north.” First stop in that direction was one of the two structures.
As I made way towards it, I contemplated my proverbial life choices. I had originally intended to be an peaceful independent trader, if at all possible in this game. Sadly, this has a Bethesda Game economy, but I could’ve turned to peaceful exploring instead. How many skill points had I spent just to improve my odds in combat? How many pirates, cultists, and other ne’er do wells had I killed so far? Couldn’t I have earned just as much XP, or even more, by working my way down my quest list? What was the point of all this violence???
Then the blaggards who were occupying what turned out to a now familiar underground facility starting shooting at me, and I turned my attention to the time honored tradition of killing bandits and taking the stuff they’d stolen from others.
The first thing I did was erect the disassembled scanning array I'd brought, along with the solar panels I'd need to power it. This should effectively triple the range my hand scanner detects things, making it easier to find the interesting stuff.
I need to assess the geology of this world, as well as the ecology, so I started with what I consider the standard starting sensor sweep. Nearby were two artifical structures, and two natural ones… probably caves. After locking in their location, I started to explore those natural POIs, scanning scarce flora and fauna along the way, and taking mineralogical samples, including the badly needed copper.
The planet’s gravity was too high do the old jetpack bunny sprint, so I ended up taking samples, and mining copper, as I caught my breath. The “southern” cave led to another cave, but the scanner didn’t pick up anything after that one. I returned to my ship, and started exploring “north.” First stop in that direction was one of the two structures.
As I made way towards it, I contemplated my proverbial life choices. I had originally intended to be an peaceful independent trader, if at all possible in this game. Sadly, this has a Bethesda Game economy, but I could’ve turned to peaceful exploring instead. How many skill points had I spent just to improve my odds in combat? How many pirates, cultists, and other ne’er do wells had I killed so far? Couldn’t I have earned just as much XP, or even more, by working my way down my quest list? What was the point of all this violence???
Then the blaggards who were occupying what turned out to a now familiar underground facility starting shooting at me, and I turned my attention to the time honored tradition of killing bandits and taking the stuff they’d stolen from others.
Exploration is indeed a different experience. My opinion, Elite is ahead in giving a sense of vast empty terrain of nothingness and solitude. Something contemplative, relaxing. There is really nothing to think about or worry about, just enjoying the landscapes. For me, the SRV is the pinnacle of this relaxed enjoyment, since my space suit always has batteries running down.
SF feels ahead in providing a dense, engaging exploration experience. I feel like I am actively exploring the terrain, looking and thinking about where I might find things, and how I'll need to go about securing a scan.
Uncommon and rare materials in geological outcrops or caves (that might not be empty). Wildlife that is either hunting, or being hunted. Me camping out hidden near a fallen carcass, waiting for predators or scavengers to gather. All of this happening across different biomes per planet.
I spent nearly 5 hours (multiple play sessions) on a planet getting all the scans done. The challenge of getting in close enough to some of the predators is fun, and for me, pretty engaging stuff so far.
I spent nearly 5 hours (multiple play sessions) on a planet getting all the scans done. The challenge of getting in close enough to some of the predators is fun, and for me, pretty engaging stuff so far.
I took to using the top of my ship as a platform from which I can attract predators, scan them and dispose of them in relative safety.
Shiny things, almost as if they were brand new.Perhaps my favourite UI mod so far
