Game Discussions Bethesda Softworks Starfield Space RPG

Darkfyre99

Darkfyre99
Mika L said:
What was that early ground exploration like? Apparently it was removed long before I got to know Elite Dangerous exists. The game was kept a secret to me until May 2020. But ground surveying and exobiology with an SRV sounds like a great idea.
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When Elite: Dangerous Horizons released, if you wanted to know the chemical composition of a world, you had to land on it, and deploy your SRV, then hunt for meteorites and geological features to take samples of. The SRV has one brilliant piece of exploration kit on board: the WAVE scanner. Once you've mastered it, you can home in on meteorites, geological formations, and artificial sources both visually and by sound.

And if you wanted to find the stuff you're looking for fast, you had to master flyving: using the SRV's maneuvering thrusters to skip along the ground on low-gravity worlds, or boost over obstructions on higher gravity worlds. While still paying attention to that scanner.

IMO, it was a lot of fun. I spent two months, mostly on the surface of planets, as part of a crowd-sourced geological survey similar to EDSM. But there was one flaw: the game didn't remember what materials you found on the surface of a planet. And of course, the rare unicorn hunters didn't want to interrupt their exploration journeys by exploring the surface of planets in search of the rare materials needed for jumponium... at least not without guaranteed results.

In the end, Frontier decided on an easy "fix" to the problem by obviating that game loop entirely, and included a planet's chemical composition in the detailed surface scan. And my brief forey as a planetary prospector came to an end. EDO, at least, lets me hunt meteorites and other functions while searching for the three samples to scan on those worlds. But I still feel that one should land on a planet to get the chemical composition, or in lieu of that, using a consumable probe. The idea that one could fully discover everything about a world without even getting close enough for it to become a disk visually doesn't sit right with me.

At least Starfield is closer to what I imagined exploring a life-bearing world in Elite would've been like. Here's hoping that Frontier continues to add paid expansions to bring it closer to what they'd originally envisioned Elite Dangerous would be like. I still haven't flown my Cobra Mark III through the skies of Emerald over the city of Fort 'OBrian. Which is something I can still do in Frontier: Elite 2, a game from 30 years ago.
 

CMDR-AD

CMDR-AD
Those were my favorite days and SRV gameplay in Horizons. The Wave Scanner sounds at first grated on my nerves, but once I learned to understand what it was saying, I quite enjoyed using it.
 

varonica

varonica
Darkfyre99 said:
IMO, it was a lot of fun. I spent two months, mostly on the surface of planets, as part of a crowd-sourced geological survey similar to EDSM. But there was one flaw: the game didn't remember what materials you found on the surface of a planet. And of course, the rare unicorn hunters didn't want to interrupt their exploration journeys by exploring the surface of planets in search of the rare materials needed for jumponium... at least not without guaranteed results.
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Yeah me and a few others spent a lot of time hunting down and recording the location of geo features and recording them in a spreadsheet so other CMDR's could take advantage of the abundance of raw materials that could be found in those locations. It was indeed a lot of fun, once surface bio was introduced on airless bodies we started adding those as well. Of course that all stopped when POI's came out, then the POI's went and we get the location maps and geo spread all over the planet. It's never been easier to find geo and bio, a lot of people still complain though, but those early days are fondly remembered. Funny how things become easier but that actually seems to increase the complaints, oh well.
 

MUTILADOR

MUTILADOR

Chevy66 said:
To be honest that happens in the first playthough never mind NG+, The trouble with levelled RPGs like this is they tend to be unbalanced. I wish they'd tone down the levelling a bit. Mods will probably do it at some point
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There are some mods that already do it, I think there is one that modifies it on a realistic level, a headshot kills and kills you.
 

Navigare Necesse Est

Navigare Necesse Est
Darkfyre99 said:
When Elite: Dangerous Horizons released, if you wanted to know the chemical composition of a world, you had to land on it, and deploy your SRV, then hunt for meteorites and geological features to take samples of. The SRV has one brilliant piece of exploration kit on board: the WAVE scanner. Once you've mastered it, you can home in on meteorites, geological formations, and artificial sources both visually and by sound.

And if you wanted to find the stuff you're looking for fast, you had to master flyving: using the SRV's maneuvering thrusters to skip along the ground on low-gravity worlds, or boost over obstructions on higher gravity worlds. While still paying attention to that scanner.

IMO, it was a lot of fun. I spent two months, mostly on the surface of planets, as part of a crowd-sourced geological survey similar to EDSM. But there was one flaw: the game didn't remember what materials you found on the surface of a planet. And of course, the rare unicorn hunters didn't want to interrupt their exploration journeys by exploring the surface of planets in search of the rare materials needed for jumponium... at least not without guaranteed results.

In the end, Frontier decided on an easy "fix" to the problem by obviating that game loop entirely, and included a planet's chemical composition in the detailed surface scan. And my brief forey as a planetary prospector came to an end. EDO, at least, lets me hunt meteorites and other functions while searching for the three samples to scan on those worlds. But I still feel that one should land on a planet to get the chemical composition, or in lieu of that, using a consumable probe. The idea that one could fully discover everything about a world without even getting close enough for it to become a disk visually doesn't sit right with me.

At least Starfield is closer to what I imagined exploring a life-bearing world in Elite would've been like. Here's hoping that Frontier continues to add paid expansions to bring it closer to what they'd originally envisioned Elite Dangerous would be like. I still haven't flown my Cobra Mark III through the skies of Emerald over the city of Fort 'OBrian. Which is something I can still do in Frontier: Elite 2, a game from 30 years ago.
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The problem is the boatload of different materials to farm. All that stuff you need effectively turns it into a random dice roll. A much more focussed list of ingredients on the material side at least and you could have taken that sublime wave scanner and added different curves and tones and signals to look for. I did basically the same until engineers released and all the stuff I had collected was basically useless because the pool was so diluted I never had the the required number.
Surface scanner was a cosmetic fix to the bloated ingredient list and maybe it made the buggy scanner redundant. I can't be bothered to try again. A shame - it was a perfect gameplay mechanic.
 

HRDiagram

HRDiagram
Rat Catcher said:
I know it is unkind, but...

...reading a comment on the reviews page on steam sounded awfully familiar:

Bethesda... As someone who has 100% the game... The game is a mile wide but an inch deep

Wonder if this is a disgruntled ED player?
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To be honest, the mile wide... yawn... sorry can't even finish the sentence without getting bored, is the most trite and lazy trope you can find in any gaming commentary/reviews.
I've seen it used for any game whose scope is wider than Pong, and it's generally followed by an extensive and detailed lack of arguments.
 

PiLhEaD

PiLhEaD
MUTILADOR said:
There are some mods that already do it, I think there is one that modifies it on a realistic level, a headshot kills and kills you.
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This was always one of my preferred mods to add to STALKER. Making the weapons a lot more lethal really made the game feel more real, with no more bullet sponges. It also stopped me strolling around like Rambo.
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
PiLhEaD said:
Agreed. It's more like 1.6Km.
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oof-meme.gif
 

rootsrat

Volunteer Moderator
rootsrat
Meanwhile me just just simply enjoying both Elite Dangerous and Starfield for what they are while everyone else just wastes time argueing if they are good games or bad games, how deep and wide they are and which one is a better game...

video-games-tom-ellis.gif


Having time of my life in both!
 

Navigare Necesse Est

Navigare Necesse Est
Looking back to my playthroughs of Starfield I'd say I enjoyed running the stories and quests most. I think the background traits should be giving more spice, like the "Wanted" trait. Skyrim allowed for more roleplay and I have tried pretending being a rancher, chef, farmer, drug runner in SF, but these attempts were undercut by mechanics like limited cash inventories for traders (fixable by mods) or non farmable (growable) ingredients. The career I felt most believable was the technocratic tinkerer and big game hunter. Maybe "spelunker" but they weren't that impactful on my RP perception. Especially the side story bits were good.
Starfield is like a big canvas and there is quite a lot on it. Enjoyable stuff, but it's not the evergame - it can be improved quite a lot and I am gonna revisit like I did with other big open world RPGs.
Except TW3. I tried replaying it but I think the first playthrough just was THE playthrough and every other would pale (it also took so long I wouldn't want to invest that time into an experience that is better had in a continuous playthrough - meaning taking breaks isn't so hot in story-rich games).
 
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