The king of procgenning interesting worlds is NMS. Bethesda is the king of crafted worlds. Experience tells that procgenned stuff is hard to do interesting. I'd count on a couple crafted choice locations but dont hold my breath for the procgenned ones.
I can't believe Howard would re-descend to that degree of single digit IQ Lobomite stupid. Try to pull off another MVP F76 fan base gank like that again. Believing the fan base would forgive his game quality transgressions like it always has since Morrowind and FO3.
He seems a pretty intelligent guy. So I've got to assume he's now aware his career and industry credibility would be over for going down that rabbit hole again.....
Finally had the time to watch the preview. What's got me drooling is ability to design your own ships. This is a totally unexpected, and welcome, feature of this game. The rest appears to be Fallout meets a survival game... which can definitely be a good thing. The only thing missing would be some form of procedural generation.
Ships snips. What is this apocrypha?? This appears to be the common edict from 99% poster fanbois here in ED. Trust me. That's gonna get boring real fast. It's not like this is going to be compatible to the alarming number of hours life lost in designing custom things in an addictive simulator the likes of The Sims 3.
Now why am I apparently the only player here who's beating Pavlov's dogs in the drool pool over the Chef background? Didn't anybody realize the huge advantage having this background does for your PC early in game? Nobody bothered to read the fine print?
Love cooking and trying new dishes irl. So unsurprisingly have a serious food fetish for collecting recipes in Every. Single. Game I've played. i.e. NMS, all TES/Fallout/New Vegas, SE, EGS, ESO, KCD, RDR2, Ranch Simulator. Said neurosis drove me to daily rituals that made Niko eat regular hot dog, burger, Sprunk, and fried chicken meals in GTA IV.
And thanks to needs system mods like RND and IMCS, my Skyrim 335 mod deck alone consisted of nearly 50% custom food/recipe mods. That was after I'd created all the necessary compatibility mods, streamlined and debugged everything using mod tools like Wrye, MO2 and Loot. So completely arrested by this Chef/gourmet background. Sounds a lot like your PC will be able to find unique, exclusive recipes as part of their exploration travels. Which means a Skyrim hunter minigame. Where you're chasing a rogue space cow all across a micro gravity moon-like planet to catch your blasted dinner....
All that time tweaking & customizing my gourmet mods to working perfection. Only to have Bethesda break my mod deck yet AGAIN from updating SSE . Starting to feel deja vu vibe for Starfield on this. Regardless lol. Good times.
To be fair, Bethesda games were jank fests since TES: Arena, TES2: Daggerfall was a horrible bug mess, and at that time there were no mods to redeem them. Morrowind was the first to get mods, but they were still quite tame in comparison to what we got with Skyrim for instance. I suppose the fan base is appeased by this complete modding ability, without that they'd indeed burn at the stake.
He seems a pretty intelligent guy. So I've got to assume he's now aware his career and industry credibility would be over for going down that rabbit hole again.....
I dont think these people are really connected to reality, see Blizzard for instance... I'm not worried for his career as a top developer star, who sold hundreds of millions (? cant recall the ludicrous numbers) of copies of his games. Money talks.
So it seems like a leaker who's gotten things right long before any info was released (including useable ladders being in the game - and if you know Bethesda, no way anyone was gonna guess that) has said players can actually fly across the planets surface (below the cloud layer) and thus can land anywhere. If true my hype meter just jumped up a point...
So it seems like a leaker who's gotten things right long before any info was released (including useable ladders being in the game - and if you know Bethesda, no way anyone was gonna guess that) has said players can actually fly across the planets surface (below the cloud layer) and thus can land anywhere. If true my hype meter just jumped up a point...
That would be good, have to wait and see, leakers have been wrong before no matter how good their track record. The other thing is, what's out there outside the hand crafted areas? That's important as well.
Honestly I am so hype for this game. Want SPACERIM so badly. It's probably more Bethesda game than true space-trading game but this bothers me basically none.
That would be good, have to wait and see, leakers have been wrong before no matter how good their track record. The other thing is, what's out there outside the hand crafted areas? That's important as well.
Posted this earlier. The thing with this leaker is 99% aka EVERYTHING they said 2 years ago came true in Beth's reveal. The only thing is that flying around in the stratosphere? after exiting space side. If we're not able to do this then I can't see how Todd's claim "we can land anywhere on planets" is true. It's going to be kinda challenging to try landing your ship on a planet with an earthlike or Venus like atmosphere. When all you can see is cloud/gas cover
Posted this earlier. The thing with this leaker is 99% aka EVERYTHING they said 2 years ago came true in Beth's reveal. The only thing is that flying around in the stratosphere? after exiting space side. If we're not able to do this then I can't see how Todd's claim "we can land anywhere on planets" is true. It's going to be kinda challenging to try landing your ship on a planet with an earthlike or Venus like atmosphere. When all you can see is cloud/gas cover
The question is, why didn't they show any of this flying around, even a small clip? Surely that would have been a big thing, showing players flying ships over the planet, every space game shows those clips, NMS, ED, SC, so far all we have seen are scripted landings and take-offs and the claim of being able to "land anywhere", which I should point out doesn't mean flying around anywhere, we know the landing are scripted events because he has said so, there's nothing there about landing, and taking off again and flying around.
Now granted the leaker has got a lot right that has been shown, but if he was working on the game back then that may be is source and that may have been the "intention" back then, but if he is no longer working on it changes made since then may mean things have changed. Stuff that he has claimed but haven't been shown may be stuff that has been removed or wound back due to problems or difficulties in getting the game out on time.
I will certainly stil be watching trailers and development stuff about the game, but I will also be waiting to see game play footage before making any final decisions about the game.
My guess it's that you can only "technically" land anywhere. In practice it won't be the case. Like e.g. procgen allows for unlimited amount of possibilities: Eventually after enough landings you will have landed anywhere. It's just marketingspeak. Like "16 times the detail".
My guess it's that you can only "technically" land anywhere. In practice it won't be the case. Like e.g. procgen allows for unlimited amount of possibilities: Eventually after enough landings you will have landed anywhere. It's just marketingspeak. Like "16 times the detail".
One of my big concerns is this, it has been stated that space will be one reality, and ground will be another reality, completely separate and not connected except by a scripted approach to a planet and a scripted launch. Keeping that in mind, you could actually dispense with the "planet" altogether and just have a hand crafted area surrounded by an endless plane of procedural generation, it would make the entire thing so much easier, and as long as you didn't give players anything except a fairly slow and height limited flyer, no sub-orbital flight like in ED, you could have flying no problems and your average player would never be able to tell whether they were on an actual planet shaped object or not.
I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere that once you are down you are actually on a planet type object, could we do planetary circumnavigations for instance? Mind you it hasn't been denied that you are on a real planet like object either, it's another wait and see thing.
One of my big concerns is this, it has been stated that space will be one reality, and ground will be another reality, completely separate and not connected except by a scripted approach to a planet and a scripted launch. Keeping that in mind, you could actually dispense with the "planet" altogether and just have a hand crafted area surrounded by an endless plane of procedural generation, it would make the entire thing so much easier, and as long as you didn't give players anything except a fairly slow and height limited flyer, no sub-orbital flight like in ED, you could have flying no problems and your average player would never be able to tell whether they were on an actual planet shaped object or not.
I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere that once you are down you are actually on a planet type object, could we do planetary circumnavigations for instance? Mind you it hasn't been denied that you are on a real planet like object either, it's another wait and see thing.
I don't think it will have any serious space game systems. I figure there will be maps seeded or handcrafted and you "travel" between them in some other layer. Anything better would surprise me, but I'm fine with "maps" as long as they are interesting - I doubt the procgenned stuff is any comparison to historical Bethesda world-building and I just hope there is a decent amount of that hand-crafted world-building to enjoy, but when you spice it up with several worlds:How good or big can they actually make the hand-crafted part?
Making a good RPG based on procgen would be quite a feat - I don't think it's what they aim for. NMS does a good job, but mostly by giving players a lot of sandbox variety.
And sandboxy gameplay - not really Bethesda feat. The crafting in Morrowind wasn't so bad though (actually spell-forging).
Some really cool. immersive (and potentially to be included?) features I missed in the Beth interviews:
I'm a (failed) gourmet wannabe chef irl. The fact the dev team dedicated real man hours to design an ENTIRE background. Which allows us realism/immersion gamers finally RP a trivial aspect like food has me excited.
Per the description of Chef trait from the reveal:
This one paragraph got me mentally doing cartwheels over Saturn to impress our Terran moon!
Based on this background, the PC will have an exceptional ability to source and learn rare recipes while foraging, exploring on planets. Which, once the recipe is researched, would unlock rare menu dish recipes that provide above average health/stamina buffs to improve PC combat readiness while on foot. For example, your PC is on a quest from Freestar Collective and/or United Colonies. PC needs to explore a new, distant planetary system and collect its planetary flora/fauna specimen samples. PC is in process of cataloguing a Goldilocks planet in this system, when they encounter several forms of fauna wildlife. Your PC's ship is also running low on nourishing food supplies. So the player adds their own sandbox side activity to the main quest. They expand original mission to include an unexpected, player driven foraging activity. So your PC ends up hunting/harvesting some of the alien vegetation and animals.
Without the Chef background, your PC would only be able to catalogue these specimens to complete the main quest. But with this background, your PC gains additional insight on ways to improve their health/medicine buffs. PC now has ability to research food to further analyze these animal/vegetation samples (which was shown in one of the reveal crafting screens). They now get ability to use the crafting station and process the animal raw meat/by products/vegetation into higher level dishes. Which in turn, provide potentially life sustaining health/nourishment bonuses for their combat readiness:
Yes. This one visual alone has likely triggered a heat wave from modders rubbing their hands in creative glee over at Nexus. Drooling over the vast 4K UHD improvements they'll be upgrading these low poly objects from day 1. This new dedication to practical food usage in base game design now has me wondering. Why Bethesda decide to devote costly dev time to implement such trivial eating-nourishment realism? Was it because of free and insanely popular mods the likes of Real Needs & Diseases in Skyrim? Next to environmental sensitive survival mods like Chesko's Frostfall/Hypothermia, RND has had over 1 Million unique downloads for original Skyrim & SSE versions to date. This had to have been a multimillion dollar revenue generating store feature that surely did not go unnoticed by Bethesda
Children and pets revisited. Family based mods like TMPhoenix that let you adopt up to 6 children, was what made Skyrim so addictively immersive to play. Didn't see this feature explicitly in the Bethesda reveal and Howard didn't mention it. But still retain high hopes both of these RPing elements will be included. Kids and pets are an integral game mechanic in Fallout & Elder Scrolls games. Pets in particular, have made a world of difference to game play (once Howard removed his head from his derrière and decided to include NPCs in F76).
Bethesda one of an increasing number of companies which have a pet friendly policy. While it's not clear if this guy is working from home or at the office, it's great that he has his pet kitty hanging out with him while he works. I'm willing to bet that if pets are included in SF, the authentic experience we'll be getting as gamers is 100% because of guys like this. Just like the authentic experience we got with Dogmeat back in Fallout 4.
Dogmeat was based on one of the dev's pet German Shepherd. And since I have a GSD, I'm 100% prejudicially sold on having pets in SF. But I'd probably need to consider the Homeowner or Kid's Stuff with parents traits. So I can ensure my pup has a safe place at all times. Keeping a pet on your ship isn't a good idea if you're the average freelancer on the run. Especially if you finally lucked out from dabbling in that last bout of smuggling. And so have come under fire from law enforcement and/or other wanted criminals alike. Or if your'e a hardened Crimson Fleet pirate who's always getting into epic scrapes with everyone in the universe. Or if you're an archetypical Old Testament judgement Arthur Maxim type of bounty hunter. Last thing I'd want is having to abandon ship and/or getting blown up with my poor pooch onboard
Capes. Yes it's a completely superficial, least to consider cosmetic feature. But it DOES make a world of visual difference for identity purposes as shown by the Crimson Fleet branding on this pirate NPC below:
Just like in Skyrim (Cloaks of Skyrim mod) where it played an RP cosmetic AND functional roles. This mod added customized cloaks to guards of the holds (as well as for player to choose from). This gave the player an immediate visual cue as to which holds they were in. Which became very important if the PC was an ambitious Thieves Guild or Dark Brotherhood assassin type who typically had a bounty on their head. Or from base game factions, was either a Stormcloak/Imperial. Hold guards could and would become hostile, depending on your faction alignment and/or criminal bounty status. This became even more fun and challenging if a mod like Civil War Overhaul was installed. Which dynamically shifted the control and ownership of each hold by factions which were continuously fighting in it as the civil war progressed.
Hopefully this dynamic faction based control feature will be extended to the base game conflict between the Crimson Fleet v. the other factions. Will the conflict and open hostilities between SF factions is as dynamic as in the Skyrim Civil War Overhaul mod? If so, this would make for infinitely engaging gameplay given the 1000+ planet scope. Especially since it's very likely some 90%+ of these planets have yet to be explored and/or claimed by the likes of the UC faction.
Imagine being a law abiding Free Collective or United Colonies trader. Who is transporting rare, game changing weaponry acquired from a remote/newly discovered settlement somewhere. Suddenly finding your very underpowered trading ship having to run a gauntlet of several star systems that now belongs to the Crimson Fleet. But which were originally unclaimed, neutral, or belonged to your faction on your departure leg. So now you need to plot an alt route and face the risk of running out of fuel on this new, unchartered flight plan.
Or you're an enterprising privateer carrying top secret intel about a Crimson Fleet installation you'd infiltrated. Or a neutral Constellation explorer who discovered on an unexplored star system full of high value Goldilocks planets the United Constellation can terraform, or rare artifacts Constellation will drool over, or filled with rocky planets with rare high value minerals that would give the Freestar Collective an advantage in crafting superior weapons and armor. You're faced with a similar fight or flight scenario on your return leg. Because of how well you upgraded your ship's combat readiness, which ranges in how you designed its modded weaponry/armor capacity for conflict. Imagine being armed to the teeth and opting to fight your way through waves of Crimson fleet pirates. All the way back to your UC/Freestar Collective/Constellation faction home base that's several star systems away. And actually surviving to tell about it! Scenarios like this would make for a long shelf life for SF. Just like it did for Skyrim.
It's amazing how many teaser Bethesda put into their original trailer couple years ago.
@18:59 in JuiceHead's video, you can clearly see the wording on the side of this facility which says "Cydonia". Cydonia is actually real area that exists on Mars in the Martian Arabia Terra region. So this Starfield facility seems to be a base/settlement located on Mars and was included as a POI in this region. Or Mars seems to be the appropriate planet. Its arid, dusty and rocky looking environment matches the one in the recent reveal video. It's in the scene where the PC is walking by what appears to be a Mars Rover buried in sand
Time warp back to Starfield's first official trailer release last year. Where you get the first glimpse of the PC walking through what looks like the inside of their ship. @1:03 in the official trailer, there is a locker with quite a bit of writing. Looked like notes the PC had made to themselves and in hindsight, Bethesda dedicated a significant amount of screen time pausing on this one frame:
This visual was easily dismissed as cosmetic i.e. it illustrated the degree of insane level of detail Bethesda was putting into the game world design, and so very easily overlooked. But the more eagle eyed fan bois like JuiceHead immediately downloaded these images to their mental desktops. Waited a year for the right moment to connect the obvious dots for those of us more obtuse fan bois...
Could this be a not so coincidental hint from the devs as to what type of game play level of difficulty the PC might face when landing at this base? Regardless, this hint went completely over the heads of the more obtuse Bethesda fan bois until now. Personally, I didn't pay much attention to this hint. I'd been too easily distracted by this content
Narrator: "They say, the wonder is not that the field of stars is so vast, but that we have measured it..."
Meanwhile:
Lance gazing in fixated awe upon provided visual. Pondering quantity of said starfield accolades his PC will be galactically famous as the first space gourmet Chef Ramsay
This has now seriously inspired me to have my PC start his own Space Kitchen Nightmares series! While having all his exploration expenses paid for by Constellation, he'll roam the galaxy. Looking for cities and remote settlements. So he can virtue signal and lecture the culinary staff on self improvement. Explore solar systems for exotic flora and fauna ingredients for his next gourmet dish. Perhaps write his own cookbook the way his great great great Grandfather did in Fallout 4 Commonwealth. Then make $$$$ selling gourmet cuisine recipes to eating establishments in settlements and cities everywhere
Cydonia is how far I got in Zack Mc Kracken. Got lost in the labyrinth. Cydonia is city on Crete so a labyrinth was to be expected. But given the red tint of the screenshot I's say Mars is a likely location.
Another obvious feature I completely missed. I've been wondering if the Earth was habitable after we learned it was surrounded by a debris field (suggestively trash from poor environmental policy). Turns out Beth literally gave us that answer. It most definitely is! PC is currently located at the blue marker in A Centuri at the Constellation city HQ. This faction HQ settlement/city appears to be designated by the little facility looking icon above the planet from Galaxy view below. And if you look at our Sol home system, it also has the same facility icon above it!
So similar to ED, this icon system could be a great visual indicator when you jump into an unexplored or unclaimed star system. Because it would immediately tell you if the planet is already settled/terraformed/inhabited by humans.
What's not clear is which specific faction these human settlements/cities/towns/outposts are owned or operated by? Is this facility icon only limited to the 4 major faction city settlements (of which Beth has provided us with information on only 3 to date)? Or does it apply to all human based facilities in the galaxy? Or does it also include alien settlements/civilizations which Beth has been so tight lipped about (but teased in game concept art?).
Another thing is that SF doesn't appear to have the dynamically complex BGS ED excels at. So we don't know if it's even possible for factions/star systems to shift allegiances based on the shaky peace treaty between the UC & Free Colonist factions. But I'm hoping there is some weak form of dynamic game mechanic like this though. The galaxy map indicates A Centuri star system is owned by the UC where Constellation's HQ is based. So it seems the UC is on far better terms with Constellation than it is with Freestar.
If I end up RPing as Crimson Fleet merc, it would literally kick a donkey's rear end if your PC could exploit this shaky UC/Freestar Colonist relationship. Masquerade as a triple agent working as a Crimson Fleet spy (PC's real faction) working under guise of a legit Constellation explorer. Then go primal double agent against these two factions and undermine their strategic positions in star system sectors the Fleet needs to control. Find ways to sabotage and turn the UC and Freestar on each other at the more remote outposts as part of supporting RP sandbox game play.....
Another thing is that SF doesn't appear to have the dynamically complex BGS ED excels at. So we don't know if it's even possible for factions/star systems to shift allegiances based on the shaky peace treaty between the UC & Free Colonist factions. But I'm hoping there is some weak form of dynamic game mechanic like this though.
It's a Bethesda Role Playing Game so I'd imagine any shifting alliances are going to be thru story updates via player involvement (single player) rather than any dynamic background simulator. I doubt even modders could pull a BGS off, tho' they can (and will) create stand alone stories that could change system alliances and even create new factions.
Trust me. That's gonna get boring real fast. It's not like this is going to be compatible to the alarming number of hours life lost in designing custom things in an addictive simulator the likes of The Sims 3. 
While having all his exploration expenses paid for by Constellation, he'll roam the galaxy. Looking for cities and remote settlements. So he can virtue signal and lecture the culinary staff on self improvement. Explore solar systems for exotic flora and fauna ingredients for his next gourmet dish. Perhaps write his own cookbook the way his great great great Grandfather did in Fallout 4 Commonwealth. Then make $$$$ selling gourmet cuisine recipes to eating establishments in settlements and cities everywhere 
