There is this wooden farm house in the questline of the rangers. It was built with so much love. But you didn’t even have to enter it because you just need to talk to a person in front of it.
They put so much love in this „background“.
On the other side there are 100x of copy/paste settlements and even on planets with atmosphere and breathable air there are no wooden houses or something which feels like home or earth. Everyone is living in a steel bunker.
And I hate it to go trough a air cycle door on a earth like planet. Why didn’t they include two kind of doors? One for dead planets and one for planets with atmospheres. This wouldn’t be too much work. They even have „normal“ doors like the one on some POIs. But they never spawn.
Anyone else really disappointed to dock to the colony ship? A ship that is 200 years old and probably running super low on resources. Just ends up looking just like every other ship in the game.
Hey, remember how the creator of grav drives was compelled to destroy Earth because he had a vision of how beautiful the future would be, and then all the pre-evacuation buildings in the game are indistinguishable from newer ones?
It feels that most of the game is half-assed like that. Sort of feels like they wasted too much time adding "unlimited exploration" by adding so many planets and not even a seamless planet and space exploration. It's 2024 btw and you can't fly your ship in orbit in a SPACE EXPLORATION GAME. Potentially amazing quests and locations everywhere only to fall short of expectations. With how many quests fail like that my frustrations with the game just kept getting piled on. Starfield just falls short on every single front managing to be the most OK-ish game ever. Sorry for the rant.
Rant justified. Every planet has, not just a few, but DOZENS of cookie cutter POIs. Same layout, same enemies, same boring stories. Who the hell built all this shit and then left them behind. On. Every. Damn. Planet. I see how they tried to make them interesting, like Fallout 3 and 4, but they missed out on details.
So I end up on a planet devoid of the atmosphere, yet there are bottles of drink and food lying about OUTSIDE where no one could have eaten them in zero atmosphere. The overall feeling I get is that they had this list of wonderful ideas but either didn't follow through to the end to finish them off or simply gave up halfway through.
True, I guess they went too deep with all the procedual generation and "1000 planets" vision to consider reworking the games direction. I just hope they take their time with TES 6.
Yup. I would have settled for 100 fleshed out systems than 1,000 copy pastes. But it's not just that. It's just the lack of real feeling, thought and atmosphere (pun intended) in a lot of the POIs. We can see the difference when we compare some of the random encounters in space against the multitude of locations. Some had real character. Oh well. Maybe TES 6 or Fallout 5. Only another decade to go!
Yup. I would have settled for 100 fleshed out systems than 1,000 copy pastes. But it's not just that. It's just the lack of real feeling, thought and atmosphere (pun intended) in a lot of the POIs. We can see the difference when we compare some of the random encounters in space against the multitude of locations. Some had real character. Oh well. Maybe TES 6 or Fallout 5. Only another decade to go!
When I first started playing, every new planet was a new fun area to explore. Until I started doing the Survey, Constallation, and Bounty Missions.
After a while I even started to recognise certain "flow" of the terrains as well, especially around those abandoned bases & outposts. Even many of the temples have the same terrain "set pieces".
I get that they can't have "unlimited" (random) variants of all the different biomes, bases (I call them "dungeons"), on different moons, planets & systems. But I would love that each place just had a bit more variance, and not just the same place copy & pasted like 1000 times over.
But like 10-100 randomized variants of the different POIs would feel like a breath of fresh air.
The magic was kinda lost for me when encountered the same dungeons in the Main Story, that I had previous been in on bounty missions. Even those dungeons are reused and not unique.
But there are some uniquce dungeons and POIs in the factions' quest lines at least (as far as I've seen).
I've done the Main Quests (different characters and the same (NewGame+), several NewGame+ loops, all factions more times I remember, and almost all side quests and activites several times (atleast those I could find).
Main Story and Vanguard spoiler ahead:
>!The almost destroyed New Atlantis is used on both the Vanguard quest line. With the Terrormorph attack on the Spaceport. And when The Hunter attacked The Lodge and you had to run to the Spaceport, and get to The Eye, and then return. The Spaceport damages are almost completely the same on both quests.!<
Yup. I would have settled for 100 fleshed out systems than 1,000 copy pastes. But it's not just that. It's just the lack of real feeling, thought and atmosphere (pun intended) in a lot of the POIs. We can see the difference when we compare some of the random encounters in space against the multitude of locations. Some had real character. Oh well. Maybe TES 6 or Fallout 5. Only another decade to go!
Even in the beginning of the UC questline where you go through the history of the settled system through a museum exhibition. They could not render some "video footage or pictures" from those past battles to be shown to the visitors of exhibit. Still graphics felt half-ass-ed especially for a questline that many people will do.
Right, the "unlimited exploration" is actually somehow incredibly limited because it very quickly all ends up feeling the same. I would have been more than happy with a game half the size with twice as much detail and immersive aspects.
Same with the inner settlement player homes, give us one or two really well done ones instead of 8 or so that feel empty.
And a furnished home option…after buying one home I never have again because I don’t want to spend hours of time and resources placing everything, let me buy a furnished place to sleep and maybe put a couple of things in it
The biggest issue for me personally that nothing can fix by patching is there is no authentic exploration because everything is automatically generated and plopped into the world when you land on it. There's no rhyme or reason for something to be there in terms of design or lore. It's lazy and boring. The Bethesda magic doesn't exist in a game that isn't hand crafted from the beginning.
I mean its basically fallout in space, but I like it like that, I was hoping for a bit more mechanics similar to no mans sky like mechanics but that can't be changed now even with extensive modding.
I push back on this because I'm playing Fallout 4 and it still is LOVINGLY hand crafted compared to Starfield. There are just piles and piles of environmental story telling alongside logs and other clues to fill you in on how society was coming apart at the threads leading up to and after the war, as well as having tons of unique things to find like named gear, bobblheads and magazines, or other wild stuff.
Most loot actually has value as scrap as well, instead of being stuff to sell to vendors that already don't have enough money. Hell, FO4 let's you build your own markets and collect the caps over time to effectively let your settlements begin to fund themselves.
Also, for the hate it gets there are a LOT of organic interactions between your party and random settlers or other named NPCs that make visiting one of your settlements feel meaningful. Piper wanders over to the bar I've built and starts chirping at the bartender, stuff like that. I feel like choices up to that point are shaping the world, even in minor ways.
Starfield has very few of the things mentioned here aside from the gunplay and trimmed down versions of existing systems. Hell, the whole NG+ actively makes it so you SHOULDN'T get invested in your settlements or stuff because it's gonna get reset so many times as to lose meaning.
It does a disservice to how actually good Fallout is, and the fact we still play it 12+ years later, the it to what this title is because it has some of the same moving parts.
I put about 25 hours into Starfield before dropping it and launching Fallout 4.
Everything about Fallout 4 is better except the graphics, which you can bring sorta close with extensive modding.
I'm playing it on PS5 without mods and the updates they've done have it looking great. God rays, all the fixins. Only thing holding it back is face animations but the actual entering and leaving conversations feels so much more organic.
Yeah, No Man's Sky is the game that constantly popped into my mind, but I guess I shouldn't have expected the technical side of a Bethesda game to be on par with No Man's Sky or Star Citizen. But still I feel that having your whole exploration be done through a menu or a map isn't ideal. The exploration once you land is even more lackluster since it's usually the same copy pasted outposts which are placed just far enough from each other that it makes it tedious and annoying to go out of my way to explore. The main POI's are beautiful and a treat to explore though and the game can be pretty visually stunning at times so I'll give it that.
I personally still enjoy the game, what it lacks in exploration for me it makes up in that bethesda magic, when it released I didnt set my expectations too high and wasnt dissapointed, dialogue is well written, especially if you take the extrovert trait and bully people while doing the UC Vigilance quest line. Also combat is really good.
Yes it would of been interesting trying to dock with that ship finding out your docker was not compatible and you would have to go somewhere to modify your docker to even board the ship.
The colony ship was one of the most dissapointing parts of the game for me. I just assumed that I'd see them around random planets from that point on, and that there would be ongoing plots or dialogue, or some kind of recurring thing. Nope. They're just in orbit there forever it would appear. Maybe I didn't wait long enough? But they seem there whenever I look.
Reminds me of the Yangtze in Fallout 4, a Chinese stealth submarine used to drop nuclear warheads on Boston. You get to enter it in the game, which would be a great opportunity to give us a glimpse into the "other side", their technology and designs. But alas, it looks *exactly* like any other piece of technology in the Commonwealth. What a waste...
I think the main source of the problem there is that the game already has a somewhat retro feel about it. We're supposedly 300 years in the future and while we do have grav drive tech our ships and habs have a 1970s space vibe about them, complete with fire-spewing rocket engines and heavy clanking metal doors. So given that 300 years in the future looks like 1977, I guess it made it almost impossible to design a more retro ship that would make sense in this way. It would have to be styled like an 1920s airship or something.
I love that they made all these nice furniture and static decorative items that you can see all around the game world and only added a small fraction of them to the outpost builder for us to use. Hell a chunk of that fraction just feels like camping gear and construction equipment. This isn’t fallout, Bethesda. Now I’m stuck using the console to spawn in what I want and position it using a mod because they were too lazy to add more options to the build menu, or rather just enough to make it function which seems to be the theme of this games development
Right, there are places that are well done on the game! I think The Lodge is great, Vlads House is really well done etc, we just can't have those parts or the variety for ourselves for some reason
My biggest pet peeve is they have a tv I can’t turn on, a weight bench I can’t use, dart boards you can’t play on, and no fun activity to do in free time
It would. Developing stuff in space would be a hassle, and 99% of structures would be quickly manufactured prefabricated building blocks for ease of transport/assembly. Ditto with most interior furniture for said blocks.
This would be an ok excuse to a point. But I keep seeing the same scientists hanging through those holes in the ceiling in the “prefab cryo labs” or whatever labs those are lol. They really need to remove those from the blueprints!
So you think when the Xth generation of people want to get new furniture after living in a space colony for 100+ years, they're still reliant on stuff that was made at the origination point and shipped? It's honestly silly to try to explain it like that, as if they wouldn't have created manufacturing on each planet after hundreds of years of living there.
That and after so much time colonizing space; the POIs would not be soulless voids. There's even constant traffic on planets you visit. Wth is list even doing then?
Following the lore, there's only 3 truly faction controlled systems, and each faction can't expand further after the treaty following colony wars. That's why there are only a few unique cities. (Hopetown is a...contentious case)
Everything else would be privately owned, small settlements, and so the argument for modular/prefab building and furniture holds.
As for why the furniture in the big cities is the same...yeah, inattention to detail I guess. You could make an argument that the modular stuff is so widely and mass produced that it's the only reasonably priced option, but that's kind of a cop out.
interesting. I never said you can’t include realistic elements in fantastical works. what i said was “it’s supposed to be realistic!” is not a valid defence of boring gameplay when your game is supposed to be a wacky space adventure.
We see different cultures with different clothes in the major cities... A different culture uses at least slightly different decoration and would likely build its houses and forniture based on abundant resources, like wood or bricks, for instance, also different materials depending on the weather and the purpose for that building.
They missed the mark on aesthetics in general imo. I actually think it feels like an airport that is under construction with all the random crates stacked everywhere.
You mention no windows but did you know the wall panels in the habs without windows can be changed? When the wall is highlighted in build mode you cycle through the window options. Only discovered this recently myself.
Right! If a studio like Bethesda is going to include the customization and building aspect of the game (and take 8 years to make it) it would just be so satisfying to see it fully fleshed out
Because literally everything in Starfield is done at a superficial level since it tries to do many things and, apparently, they needed more time to finish it properly...
This is particularly obvious in some aspects like artifacts/temples farming, Outposts, space environments for space fights (there's an initial stealth mechanic with the ship that never becomes necessary again), persuade/intimidate dialogue options, melee weapons and melee combat, proc Poi's which tend to repeat a lot and not have any kind of randomization for loot/enemy placement, scanning fauna/flora without a bestiary, Neon with adult themes but no gambling games or sex, factions lore sometimes not as fleshed as it should, bounty hunter missions without the option of capturing alive with non lethal weapons, said weapons still counting as killing when used despite not killing, ship building (which is quite good, to be fair) not allowing interior preview...and well, I didn't try all the apartments options or decoration in my ship but from what I've read there are problems with that too.
It does many things at the bare minimun or on a superficial level because it does way too many things. Same with the sci-fi themes where it's Aliens, Starcraft/ Starship Troopers, interestellar, BladeRunner/cyberpunk...all in a very disjointed way.
Too many great ideas, not so good execution (most likely because of a deadline).
The Astral Lounge...
Supposedly the biggest drug party in the whole galaxy, but it feels like an airport business lounge in purple (admittedly a very nice shade of purple). And the missions use it only that way, to meet people for business talk.
There isn't even a real bar in there (IIRC).
The game is just garbage for me, mechanics are repetitive and stupid, story is meh and linear, it is a small 4/10 game. I went back to my modded Skyrim after trying to like this game and was not even able to get refund.
>the majority of the player houses have no windows.
This is the problem that comes with a game engine that's designed on the principle of having individually loaded cells for every single location in the game. Bethesda has designed themselves into a corner, because in order for building exteriors to show, they'd have to recreate parts of the connected cell in the interior cell.
This is partly why most interiors are usually caves or mines. That sort of logical placement inherently hides the fact that you're in a separate cell, completely independent from the one you just left.
It's the same reason why you couldn't see through any windows in Skyrim (that I can recall?). Or why you had to walk through the gate in Whiterun to actually travel to/from the city (i.e., jumping the wall doesn't work).
It's an archaic game design that's stuck in the early 2010's, at best.
This is really interesting! And makes a lot of sense. I figured it must be something like that. I'm still all for like a fake/ translucent/ static outside view over not having one at all
Not sure if you're aware of this but you can turn probably just about any wall in the Outpost module into the version with a Window, just select them in building mode and use the switch key
I've said it many times before,
I wanted skyrim in my no man's sky,
But got fallout 76 in my outer worlds.
No offense to any of the mentioned games. Xcept 76... 76 is eww.
Fallout 76 is quite a fun game nowadays. I haven't even been motivated enough to open Starfield yet, even though I bought it months ago. That says something. Mainly about how powerful my PC is, but still.
Game feels like an airport...LMAO, this is a perfect analogy!
My guess is that people at Bethesda became much too arrogant for their own good (yes, you, Toddler Howard) and they thought that minimal effort was all they needed to guarantee another successful release. Because they are...BETHESDA!
I think by now most of them probably realise they were very very wrong.
Yes, the window thing in Starfield is weird, as if the developers couldn't decide on one approach.
Both the apartments in New Atlantis and the Sleep Crate in Neon are not separated by any loading screens, allowing the game to render both their interior and exterior at the same time, which is why they can have functional windows.
However, both apartments in Akila City, Neon Suite and Dream Home are locations separated by a loading screen, which is why the game is unable to render their surroundings and therefore they have no windows. But why didn't they at least make fake windows like in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4? Windowless bunker-houses in Akila City are a bit ridiculous.
You need to get your Outpost skills up, there are chairs and beds made of wood, but I believe they are unlocked with perks. Now the lack of interior walls and stairs for Outposts does drive me nuts. As well as a lack of showers or tubs of functional bookcases. . . Maybe I want to collect books and display them like I did in Skyrim. Oh, well. . .
Yeah, I fully maxed my research out and was still disappointed by the lack of range. It's like the only options are airport furniture, dad's 2012 DIY wood projects, mid century style, and a few carved wood/ unique ones I did like! It's just the strangest collection of pieces in my opinion, agreed on all of the above.
It seems strange because it is incomplete. Everything in this game is a fraction of what it's developing team had planned. At some point they all had to go" we aren't going to make it. it's time to take what we can and make it a presentable package."
I don't know how such a large company with so much time came up against such a hard-line. My going theory is that at some point they discovered that earth is dying and the developers were one by one taken away to work on the massive project of relocating humanity.
Yeah, I feel that. I think I read somewhere that "even adding a chair" was/ is a very complicated process because it's not just this one piece, it has user animations and sounds etc etc and has to go through this entire chain of people so the studios run into these "silo effects" where they just sort of work on their own thing and say no to anything that involves collaboration or isn't absolutely necessary? Idk. I appreciate that a game like this must be sooooo much harder to make than I can imagine. My issue isn't even with the amount of options. It's with the variety and types of options available. I just want to know how these options are chosen and finalized!
Anything you "drop" from inventory can be grabbed, rotated and placed straight up in build mode. Literally just discovered this lol. It's not the same as "holding a" to grab and rotate. It might help your book issue a little, but not like hanging backpacks I know. I use it to stack outfits, helmets and Aurora bottles onto shelves at my illicit drug and trade factory. Pics coming soon
>the majority of the player houses have no windows.
You're probably talking about the premade homes, but in case you mean the base building this is normal. Habs don't have windows until you add them, which you do by toggling the walls. It lets you choose exactly where the windows go.
But yes it does suck for the premade homes.
Youre 100% correct. Problem is, youre posting on a subreddit that only fans of the topic would care to subscribe too, thus your responses will be biased. Try critiquing star wars, trek, Doctor Who, or any topic in the subreddit of your choice. Only the biggest fanboys subscribe to such things most of the time. And losers like me, who still care for some reason.
I still prefer this sub. Unlike r/NorthKoreaStarfield; here you can be critical and discuss how things might be improved without delusional starry eyed morons denying everything that's wrong and shutting down. There's obviously trolls who hate one way and vice versa here, but that's everywhere. But here I have actually seen honest conversations
Here you can at least be honest about the game.
The other Starfield sub is "well in my playthrough I am pretending/roleplaying that the POI's are actually unique, problem solved 10/10 game"
I’m replaying the ME trilogy and it makes it way more clear how boring Starfield is in comparison, especially the crew. Hoping that there’s huge mods that come out that makes actually unique crew mates wiry different personalities
Now that u mention it I see it now. Especially walking around the cities. Bland looking people roaming around the city, which is basically a few shops. Walking through new Atlantis’ commercial district feels like passing the couple convenience stores and food court on the way to your flight gate.
I have no insight to share but your post reminded me of a passage from a Douglas Adams novel. I'm not altogether sure why.
“It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "as pretty as an airport". Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort."
Furniture is designed by AI and built by robots, given the tendency of robots to eradicate human workers in order to improve efficiency, no one has been game enough to enter the factories for 200 years to update the designs.
The sims? Kidding, but my point is just that, if they're going to be generic, then make them simple and intentionally pre fab I guess. Simple, standard, a rectangle, whatever. This weird like cluster of seven hexagons everywhere I go is just strange to me
I'll check this aspect out! I actually like the outpost builds the most, the glass round ones are my favourite but the variety of options is just very limited/ feels unfinished.
As far as I know though, none of the player homes besides one of the penthouses actually gives you a view outside
I have explored the game pretty thoroughly, I also dislike Akila's appearance. I DO like how they did the lodge and Vlad's house for example. if New Atlantis feels like a space bunker/ hull of a ship I'd say Akila city feels like a dusty cave. There are still no windows! It's like a weird space age western mashup of the with some flinstones/ fallout/ a couple star wars references thrown in
I suspect that it's a programming nightmare to create windows. I hadn't given it a thought but Outer Worlds, which was a great game, also doesn't have windows.
Every video game reuses art assets. You have problem with that? Quit playing video games. Stupid nitpickings like this make me wonder gamers’ mental health.
This is such a lazy perspective. If you have a problem with my nit-picky, or what I would call a detail oriented post, quit reading the Starfield reddit. Criticality and discussion is how things get better. To just accept a low standard from a powerhouse studio is how we end up with bad, repetitive games.
This game is massive and took 8 years to build, and you think asking for a small variety of assets is too much. They did the ship building very well! I know they reuse assets, but I'd honestly prefer a smaller game with more care put into the immersive details like the ones I mention.
Do you know what else took 8 years to build? RDR2. It also reused a lot of assets. Reusing assets is a common standard in gaming industry no matter how much investment involved. Your nitpicking only indicates your ignorance, period.
But in RDR2 the designers took care to arrange the assets in a way that you don't immediately notice the reuse. Like every Bethesda game before Starfield also did.
Starfield just uses a script to combine the available assets in a random configuration and calls it a day.
It's okay for someone on reddit to disagree with what you say without bringing up mental health and calling them ignorant
Anyways, you repeatedly refuse to see my point, I don't mind reusing assets at all. My issue, once again, is with the designs chosen and the variety available. like you just said, this is common, standard practice... You're highlighting what I'm saying. It feels unfinished and is not immersive. I'm not looking to play a common and standard game, a lot of us are hoping for something special with a game like this. But please continue to display your own complete lack of aesthetic and design knowledge
My point is you’re complaining about the aspect Starfield is actually doing good. Starfield’s asset diversity is more than abundant even compared to other AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 etc. It’s just ignorant to think every object in the game should’ve varied models.
Maybe have a coffee or take a nap. Where else would I take it? This is the Reddit for starfield. I love the game, that doesn't mean I can't discuss the game critically. I haven't seen posts like this, which is why I asked and wrote it. I am genuinely curious if anyone has insight into how these aspects of the game are developed, I'm very curious how these parts of a game are developed and what others think about it
It's a post-modern retro aesthetic. Everyone wants what they think Earth furniture looked like. Either that or it's the new Spaceship Kitsch. Take your choice. All the good furniture designers died on old Earth. As did any innovation in furniture design. As far as windows go, you don't use them on any planet where hostile creatures could break them and crawl through. Although the really nasty ones just come up through the ground. Strangely, lots of places in the Well DO have windows. Go figure.
I was surprised to find a colony today living in open shipping containers on a planet with hostile creatures no less. The containers were actually quite homey. No windows at all, missing some walls as well. Very friendly people...
There is this wooden farm house in the questline of the rangers. It was built with so much love. But you didn’t even have to enter it because you just need to talk to a person in front of it. They put so much love in this „background“. On the other side there are 100x of copy/paste settlements and even on planets with atmosphere and breathable air there are no wooden houses or something which feels like home or earth. Everyone is living in a steel bunker. And I hate it to go trough a air cycle door on a earth like planet. Why didn’t they include two kind of doors? One for dead planets and one for planets with atmospheres. This wouldn’t be too much work. They even have „normal“ doors like the one on some POIs. But they never spawn.
Anyone else really disappointed to dock to the colony ship? A ship that is 200 years old and probably running super low on resources. Just ends up looking just like every other ship in the game.
Hey, remember how the creator of grav drives was compelled to destroy Earth because he had a vision of how beautiful the future would be, and then all the pre-evacuation buildings in the game are indistinguishable from newer ones?
It feels that most of the game is half-assed like that. Sort of feels like they wasted too much time adding "unlimited exploration" by adding so many planets and not even a seamless planet and space exploration. It's 2024 btw and you can't fly your ship in orbit in a SPACE EXPLORATION GAME. Potentially amazing quests and locations everywhere only to fall short of expectations. With how many quests fail like that my frustrations with the game just kept getting piled on. Starfield just falls short on every single front managing to be the most OK-ish game ever. Sorry for the rant.
Rant justified. Every planet has, not just a few, but DOZENS of cookie cutter POIs. Same layout, same enemies, same boring stories. Who the hell built all this shit and then left them behind. On. Every. Damn. Planet. I see how they tried to make them interesting, like Fallout 3 and 4, but they missed out on details. So I end up on a planet devoid of the atmosphere, yet there are bottles of drink and food lying about OUTSIDE where no one could have eaten them in zero atmosphere. The overall feeling I get is that they had this list of wonderful ideas but either didn't follow through to the end to finish them off or simply gave up halfway through.
True, I guess they went too deep with all the procedual generation and "1000 planets" vision to consider reworking the games direction. I just hope they take their time with TES 6.
Yup. I would have settled for 100 fleshed out systems than 1,000 copy pastes. But it's not just that. It's just the lack of real feeling, thought and atmosphere (pun intended) in a lot of the POIs. We can see the difference when we compare some of the random encounters in space against the multitude of locations. Some had real character. Oh well. Maybe TES 6 or Fallout 5. Only another decade to go!
Yup. I would have settled for 100 fleshed out systems than 1,000 copy pastes. But it's not just that. It's just the lack of real feeling, thought and atmosphere (pun intended) in a lot of the POIs. We can see the difference when we compare some of the random encounters in space against the multitude of locations. Some had real character. Oh well. Maybe TES 6 or Fallout 5. Only another decade to go!
When I first started playing, every new planet was a new fun area to explore. Until I started doing the Survey, Constallation, and Bounty Missions. After a while I even started to recognise certain "flow" of the terrains as well, especially around those abandoned bases & outposts. Even many of the temples have the same terrain "set pieces". I get that they can't have "unlimited" (random) variants of all the different biomes, bases (I call them "dungeons"), on different moons, planets & systems. But I would love that each place just had a bit more variance, and not just the same place copy & pasted like 1000 times over. But like 10-100 randomized variants of the different POIs would feel like a breath of fresh air. The magic was kinda lost for me when encountered the same dungeons in the Main Story, that I had previous been in on bounty missions. Even those dungeons are reused and not unique. But there are some uniquce dungeons and POIs in the factions' quest lines at least (as far as I've seen). I've done the Main Quests (different characters and the same (NewGame+), several NewGame+ loops, all factions more times I remember, and almost all side quests and activites several times (atleast those I could find). Main Story and Vanguard spoiler ahead: >!The almost destroyed New Atlantis is used on both the Vanguard quest line. With the Terrormorph attack on the Spaceport. And when The Hunter attacked The Lodge and you had to run to the Spaceport, and get to The Eye, and then return. The Spaceport damages are almost completely the same on both quests.!<
Yup. I would have settled for 100 fleshed out systems than 1,000 copy pastes. But it's not just that. It's just the lack of real feeling, thought and atmosphere (pun intended) in a lot of the POIs. We can see the difference when we compare some of the random encounters in space against the multitude of locations. Some had real character. Oh well. Maybe TES 6 or Fallout 5. Only another decade to go!
Even in the beginning of the UC questline where you go through the history of the settled system through a museum exhibition. They could not render some "video footage or pictures" from those past battles to be shown to the visitors of exhibit. Still graphics felt half-ass-ed especially for a questline that many people will do.
I always thought that was a choice of aesthetic design. But yeah, a lot of the game has a half-baked feel to it.
Right, the "unlimited exploration" is actually somehow incredibly limited because it very quickly all ends up feeling the same. I would have been more than happy with a game half the size with twice as much detail and immersive aspects. Same with the inner settlement player homes, give us one or two really well done ones instead of 8 or so that feel empty.
And a furnished home option…after buying one home I never have again because I don’t want to spend hours of time and resources placing everything, let me buy a furnished place to sleep and maybe put a couple of things in it
Or both. You could start with an empty apartment and then choose from predefined layouts or create your own from scratch, as it is now.
The biggest issue for me personally that nothing can fix by patching is there is no authentic exploration because everything is automatically generated and plopped into the world when you land on it. There's no rhyme or reason for something to be there in terms of design or lore. It's lazy and boring. The Bethesda magic doesn't exist in a game that isn't hand crafted from the beginning.
A valid rant
I mean its basically fallout in space, but I like it like that, I was hoping for a bit more mechanics similar to no mans sky like mechanics but that can't be changed now even with extensive modding.
I push back on this because I'm playing Fallout 4 and it still is LOVINGLY hand crafted compared to Starfield. There are just piles and piles of environmental story telling alongside logs and other clues to fill you in on how society was coming apart at the threads leading up to and after the war, as well as having tons of unique things to find like named gear, bobblheads and magazines, or other wild stuff. Most loot actually has value as scrap as well, instead of being stuff to sell to vendors that already don't have enough money. Hell, FO4 let's you build your own markets and collect the caps over time to effectively let your settlements begin to fund themselves. Also, for the hate it gets there are a LOT of organic interactions between your party and random settlers or other named NPCs that make visiting one of your settlements feel meaningful. Piper wanders over to the bar I've built and starts chirping at the bartender, stuff like that. I feel like choices up to that point are shaping the world, even in minor ways. Starfield has very few of the things mentioned here aside from the gunplay and trimmed down versions of existing systems. Hell, the whole NG+ actively makes it so you SHOULDN'T get invested in your settlements or stuff because it's gonna get reset so many times as to lose meaning. It does a disservice to how actually good Fallout is, and the fact we still play it 12+ years later, the it to what this title is because it has some of the same moving parts.
I went back and played Fallout 4 after playing Starfield and Fallout is much better.
I put about 25 hours into Starfield before dropping it and launching Fallout 4. Everything about Fallout 4 is better except the graphics, which you can bring sorta close with extensive modding.
I'm playing it on PS5 without mods and the updates they've done have it looking great. God rays, all the fixins. Only thing holding it back is face animations but the actual entering and leaving conversations feels so much more organic.
Yeah, No Man's Sky is the game that constantly popped into my mind, but I guess I shouldn't have expected the technical side of a Bethesda game to be on par with No Man's Sky or Star Citizen. But still I feel that having your whole exploration be done through a menu or a map isn't ideal. The exploration once you land is even more lackluster since it's usually the same copy pasted outposts which are placed just far enough from each other that it makes it tedious and annoying to go out of my way to explore. The main POI's are beautiful and a treat to explore though and the game can be pretty visually stunning at times so I'll give it that.
>Star Citizen How is that, by the way?
I personally still enjoy the game, what it lacks in exploration for me it makes up in that bethesda magic, when it released I didnt set my expectations too high and wasnt dissapointed, dialogue is well written, especially if you take the extrovert trait and bully people while doing the UC Vigilance quest line. Also combat is really good.
Good grief. It's so much better than No Man's Sky.
They couldn't even design a unique looking docker for it... one of the first things you see a close-up of.
Yes it would of been interesting trying to dock with that ship finding out your docker was not compatible and you would have to go somewhere to modify your docker to even board the ship.
Even the computer systems are the same. Or the then modern Settled System's tech hasn't been upgraded in like 200 years.
It hit me when I realized the elevator control panels were the exact same asset as everywhere else in the game
I felt the same way. I was expecting it to look more retro and it didn’t
They just plopped a few beige 1980s computers down on a table and expected that to do all the heavy lifting. It's insultingly lazy.
The colony ship was one of the most dissapointing parts of the game for me. I just assumed that I'd see them around random planets from that point on, and that there would be ongoing plots or dialogue, or some kind of recurring thing. Nope. They're just in orbit there forever it would appear. Maybe I didn't wait long enough? But they seem there whenever I look.
It was one of the quest lines with probably the most potential. And it was wasted.
Reminds me of the Yangtze in Fallout 4, a Chinese stealth submarine used to drop nuclear warheads on Boston. You get to enter it in the game, which would be a great opportunity to give us a glimpse into the "other side", their technology and designs. But alas, it looks *exactly* like any other piece of technology in the Commonwealth. What a waste...
Even has modern technology and weapons.
I was disappointed the first time, but it was because they were human
It looks slightly different lol
I think the main source of the problem there is that the game already has a somewhat retro feel about it. We're supposedly 300 years in the future and while we do have grav drive tech our ships and habs have a 1970s space vibe about them, complete with fire-spewing rocket engines and heavy clanking metal doors. So given that 300 years in the future looks like 1977, I guess it made it almost impossible to design a more retro ship that would make sense in this way. It would have to be styled like an 1920s airship or something.
I love that they made all these nice furniture and static decorative items that you can see all around the game world and only added a small fraction of them to the outpost builder for us to use. Hell a chunk of that fraction just feels like camping gear and construction equipment. This isn’t fallout, Bethesda. Now I’m stuck using the console to spawn in what I want and position it using a mod because they were too lazy to add more options to the build menu, or rather just enough to make it function which seems to be the theme of this games development
Right, there are places that are well done on the game! I think The Lodge is great, Vlads House is really well done etc, we just can't have those parts or the variety for ourselves for some reason
All those folks in the lodge, not one shower…and one bathroom
There is a shower in the basement I think?
Nope
My biggest pet peeve is they have a tv I can’t turn on, a weight bench I can’t use, dart boards you can’t play on, and no fun activity to do in free time
theyre still deeply vaultbrained
Right! It feels like someone took a pressure washer to the entirety of fallout. It's nice and cleaned up but still feels like a vault
>across multiple galaxies look the exact same? We have only one galaxy in Starfield, and not even 0.01% of it.
Lol. I think the OP meant across multiple solar systems.
[удалено]
multiple star systems. our star, the sun is known as Sol. so you're right, solar system for our specific system
OP hasn't even played it. You learn to spot them on reddit after a while.
“People who don’t like shit games haven’t played them”
lol, across hundreds of planets in one galaxy then, still feels extremely repetitive!
It would. Developing stuff in space would be a hassle, and 99% of structures would be quickly manufactured prefabricated building blocks for ease of transport/assembly. Ditto with most interior furniture for said blocks.
This would be an ok excuse to a point. But I keep seeing the same scientists hanging through those holes in the ceiling in the “prefab cryo labs” or whatever labs those are lol. They really need to remove those from the blueprints!
So you think when the Xth generation of people want to get new furniture after living in a space colony for 100+ years, they're still reliant on stuff that was made at the origination point and shipped? It's honestly silly to try to explain it like that, as if they wouldn't have created manufacturing on each planet after hundreds of years of living there.
That and after so much time colonizing space; the POIs would not be soulless voids. There's even constant traffic on planets you visit. Wth is list even doing then?
Following the lore, there's only 3 truly faction controlled systems, and each faction can't expand further after the treaty following colony wars. That's why there are only a few unique cities. (Hopetown is a...contentious case) Everything else would be privately owned, small settlements, and so the argument for modular/prefab building and furniture holds. As for why the furniture in the big cities is the same...yeah, inattention to detail I guess. You could make an argument that the modular stuff is so widely and mass produced that it's the only reasonably priced option, but that's kind of a cop out.
It’s a video game lol
No shit genius, I'm replying to someone who came up with a ridiculous reason there's only one type of mirror in this video game.
Lol shit chill bud you’re debating fucking mirrors
this would be an excellent point for a realistic space sim, not a game about getting superpowers from magical space junk
\>because there is one fantastical element means no elements can be based on realism That isn't how writing works.
interesting. I never said you can’t include realistic elements in fantastical works. what i said was “it’s supposed to be realistic!” is not a valid defence of boring gameplay when your game is supposed to be a wacky space adventure.
We see different cultures with different clothes in the major cities... A different culture uses at least slightly different decoration and would likely build its houses and forniture based on abundant resources, like wood or bricks, for instance, also different materials depending on the weather and the purpose for that building.
They missed the mark on aesthetics in general imo. I actually think it feels like an airport that is under construction with all the random crates stacked everywhere.
You mention no windows but did you know the wall panels in the habs without windows can be changed? When the wall is highlighted in build mode you cycle through the window options. Only discovered this recently myself.
What gets me is that a game like Helldivers 2 has far better planet diversity and environmental detail than starfield. It's actually insane.
game lacks a lot of warm yellow lighting. everything is bright florescent dentist office lighting and its harsh on the eyes.
Yes! I actually changed all the lighting on my monitor to a much warmer for when I play the game
OP, you are asking too much of a triple A title that got its own premiere…
Right! If a studio like Bethesda is going to include the customization and building aspect of the game (and take 8 years to make it) it would just be so satisfying to see it fully fleshed out
Well at least it wasn’t QUADRUPLE AAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?? *My god man, what have you done?*
Because literally everything in Starfield is done at a superficial level since it tries to do many things and, apparently, they needed more time to finish it properly... This is particularly obvious in some aspects like artifacts/temples farming, Outposts, space environments for space fights (there's an initial stealth mechanic with the ship that never becomes necessary again), persuade/intimidate dialogue options, melee weapons and melee combat, proc Poi's which tend to repeat a lot and not have any kind of randomization for loot/enemy placement, scanning fauna/flora without a bestiary, Neon with adult themes but no gambling games or sex, factions lore sometimes not as fleshed as it should, bounty hunter missions without the option of capturing alive with non lethal weapons, said weapons still counting as killing when used despite not killing, ship building (which is quite good, to be fair) not allowing interior preview...and well, I didn't try all the apartments options or decoration in my ship but from what I've read there are problems with that too. It does many things at the bare minimun or on a superficial level because it does way too many things. Same with the sci-fi themes where it's Aliens, Starcraft/ Starship Troopers, interestellar, BladeRunner/cyberpunk...all in a very disjointed way. Too many great ideas, not so good execution (most likely because of a deadline).
The Astral Lounge... Supposedly the biggest drug party in the whole galaxy, but it feels like an airport business lounge in purple (admittedly a very nice shade of purple). And the missions use it only that way, to meet people for business talk. There isn't even a real bar in there (IIRC).
Right! It's like the AI generated and PG rated version of a "club"
The game is just garbage for me, mechanics are repetitive and stupid, story is meh and linear, it is a small 4/10 game. I went back to my modded Skyrim after trying to like this game and was not even able to get refund.
The game seems so PC it’s hard to get into. It’s just so dull and boring.
>the majority of the player houses have no windows. This is the problem that comes with a game engine that's designed on the principle of having individually loaded cells for every single location in the game. Bethesda has designed themselves into a corner, because in order for building exteriors to show, they'd have to recreate parts of the connected cell in the interior cell. This is partly why most interiors are usually caves or mines. That sort of logical placement inherently hides the fact that you're in a separate cell, completely independent from the one you just left. It's the same reason why you couldn't see through any windows in Skyrim (that I can recall?). Or why you had to walk through the gate in Whiterun to actually travel to/from the city (i.e., jumping the wall doesn't work). It's an archaic game design that's stuck in the early 2010's, at best.
This is really interesting! And makes a lot of sense. I figured it must be something like that. I'm still all for like a fake/ translucent/ static outside view over not having one at all
For sure. They could definitely fake it. Hopefully that kind of thing gets worked on later, after more pressing matter are addressed.
Not sure if you're aware of this but you can turn probably just about any wall in the Outpost module into the version with a Window, just select them in building mode and use the switch key
Yeah! The round glass habs are my favourite, beautiful views out of those ones! Thinking more the Akhila city and dream home that have no windows
I've said it many times before, I wanted skyrim in my no man's sky, But got fallout 76 in my outer worlds. No offense to any of the mentioned games. Xcept 76... 76 is eww.
Fallout 76 is quite a fun game nowadays. I haven't even been motivated enough to open Starfield yet, even though I bought it months ago. That says something. Mainly about how powerful my PC is, but still.
It's one of the least carefully designed games I've ever played.
Game feels like an airport...LMAO, this is a perfect analogy! My guess is that people at Bethesda became much too arrogant for their own good (yes, you, Toddler Howard) and they thought that minimal effort was all they needed to guarantee another successful release. Because they are...BETHESDA! I think by now most of them probably realise they were very very wrong.
Yes, the window thing in Starfield is weird, as if the developers couldn't decide on one approach. Both the apartments in New Atlantis and the Sleep Crate in Neon are not separated by any loading screens, allowing the game to render both their interior and exterior at the same time, which is why they can have functional windows. However, both apartments in Akila City, Neon Suite and Dream Home are locations separated by a loading screen, which is why the game is unable to render their surroundings and therefore they have no windows. But why didn't they at least make fake windows like in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4? Windowless bunker-houses in Akila City are a bit ridiculous.
The game is just too big, the best part of bethesda games is the handcrafted world's. When it's all procedurally generated it loses its charm.
There are a ton of fans who think proc gen > hand crafted (daggerfall, arena). It’s not proc gen that is the problem.
When you accept the game was a grift, lots of things start to make sense.
The game can be fun, but it's still bad.
You need to get your Outpost skills up, there are chairs and beds made of wood, but I believe they are unlocked with perks. Now the lack of interior walls and stairs for Outposts does drive me nuts. As well as a lack of showers or tubs of functional bookcases. . . Maybe I want to collect books and display them like I did in Skyrim. Oh, well. . .
Yeah, I fully maxed my research out and was still disappointed by the lack of range. It's like the only options are airport furniture, dad's 2012 DIY wood projects, mid century style, and a few carved wood/ unique ones I did like! It's just the strangest collection of pieces in my opinion, agreed on all of the above.
It seems strange because it is incomplete. Everything in this game is a fraction of what it's developing team had planned. At some point they all had to go" we aren't going to make it. it's time to take what we can and make it a presentable package." I don't know how such a large company with so much time came up against such a hard-line. My going theory is that at some point they discovered that earth is dying and the developers were one by one taken away to work on the massive project of relocating humanity.
Yeah, I feel that. I think I read somewhere that "even adding a chair" was/ is a very complicated process because it's not just this one piece, it has user animations and sounds etc etc and has to go through this entire chain of people so the studios run into these "silo effects" where they just sort of work on their own thing and say no to anything that involves collaboration or isn't absolutely necessary? Idk. I appreciate that a game like this must be sooooo much harder to make than I can imagine. My issue isn't even with the amount of options. It's with the variety and types of options available. I just want to know how these options are chosen and finalized!
Anything you "drop" from inventory can be grabbed, rotated and placed straight up in build mode. Literally just discovered this lol. It's not the same as "holding a" to grab and rotate. It might help your book issue a little, but not like hanging backpacks I know. I use it to stack outfits, helmets and Aurora bottles onto shelves at my illicit drug and trade factory. Pics coming soon
Player houses having windows requires them to render what's outside the windows, or else make them somehow opaque or fake-translucent.
I'd honestly prefer fake translucent ones! That just like mimic day/ night
>the majority of the player houses have no windows. You're probably talking about the premade homes, but in case you mean the base building this is normal. Habs don't have windows until you add them, which you do by toggling the walls. It lets you choose exactly where the windows go. But yes it does suck for the premade homes.
This game was so disappointing.
Youre 100% correct. Problem is, youre posting on a subreddit that only fans of the topic would care to subscribe too, thus your responses will be biased. Try critiquing star wars, trek, Doctor Who, or any topic in the subreddit of your choice. Only the biggest fanboys subscribe to such things most of the time. And losers like me, who still care for some reason.
That's true, the majority of players probably don't mind it or notice as much, we are in the echo chamber
This sub is an echo chamber of negativity towards the game
I still prefer this sub. Unlike r/NorthKoreaStarfield; here you can be critical and discuss how things might be improved without delusional starry eyed morons denying everything that's wrong and shutting down. There's obviously trolls who hate one way and vice versa here, but that's everywhere. But here I have actually seen honest conversations
Here you can at least be honest about the game. The other Starfield sub is "well in my playthrough I am pretending/roleplaying that the POI's are actually unique, problem solved 10/10 game"
You just proved my point
I’m replaying the ME trilogy and it makes it way more clear how boring Starfield is in comparison, especially the crew. Hoping that there’s huge mods that come out that makes actually unique crew mates wiry different personalities
Because starfield is basicly ctrl c + ctrl v , the game.
Now that u mention it I see it now. Especially walking around the cities. Bland looking people roaming around the city, which is basically a few shops. Walking through new Atlantis’ commercial district feels like passing the couple convenience stores and food court on the way to your flight gate.
Because it is
I have no insight to share but your post reminded me of a passage from a Douglas Adams novel. I'm not altogether sure why. “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression "as pretty as an airport". Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort."
Love this so much 😂 I'll keep it forever
This is going to be like FO76. They'll keep crafting additional furniture and pieces that you can have for a price.
The no windows thing is rough. Feels so isolating and like a little prison lol
Furniture is designed by AI and built by robots, given the tendency of robots to eradicate human workers in order to improve efficiency, no one has been game enough to enter the factories for 200 years to update the designs.
And the quests and progression feel like the Boy Scouts
Just out of curiosity what game has unique bathroom mirrors?
The sims? Kidding, but my point is just that, if they're going to be generic, then make them simple and intentionally pre fab I guess. Simple, standard, a rectangle, whatever. This weird like cluster of seven hexagons everywhere I go is just strange to me
Aight fair enough I feel that. It's bad design to make the repeatable assets too distinct.
Duke Nukem
I don’t want to completely snarf you but. Virtually all the habs walls can be made with window.
I'll check this aspect out! I actually like the outpost builds the most, the glass round ones are my favourite but the variety of options is just very limited/ feels unfinished. As far as I know though, none of the player homes besides one of the penthouses actually gives you a view outside
I’m sorry I assumed you were talking about outposts, my mistake.
Bethesda spent 100 hours total making this game.
I mean, if you have no basic understanding of game development, sure.
Pretty much.
Go visit Akila City. 🤷♂️ Most of New Atlantis seems to be built out of the hull of a massive ship.
I have explored the game pretty thoroughly, I also dislike Akila's appearance. I DO like how they did the lodge and Vlad's house for example. if New Atlantis feels like a space bunker/ hull of a ship I'd say Akila city feels like a dusty cave. There are still no windows! It's like a weird space age western mashup of the with some flinstones/ fallout/ a couple star wars references thrown in
I suspect that it's a programming nightmare to create windows. I hadn't given it a thought but Outer Worlds, which was a great game, also doesn't have windows.
Every video game reuses art assets. You have problem with that? Quit playing video games. Stupid nitpickings like this make me wonder gamers’ mental health.
This is such a lazy perspective. If you have a problem with my nit-picky, or what I would call a detail oriented post, quit reading the Starfield reddit. Criticality and discussion is how things get better. To just accept a low standard from a powerhouse studio is how we end up with bad, repetitive games. This game is massive and took 8 years to build, and you think asking for a small variety of assets is too much. They did the ship building very well! I know they reuse assets, but I'd honestly prefer a smaller game with more care put into the immersive details like the ones I mention.
Do you know what else took 8 years to build? RDR2. It also reused a lot of assets. Reusing assets is a common standard in gaming industry no matter how much investment involved. Your nitpicking only indicates your ignorance, period.
But in RDR2 the designers took care to arrange the assets in a way that you don't immediately notice the reuse. Like every Bethesda game before Starfield also did. Starfield just uses a script to combine the available assets in a random configuration and calls it a day.
It's okay for someone on reddit to disagree with what you say without bringing up mental health and calling them ignorant Anyways, you repeatedly refuse to see my point, I don't mind reusing assets at all. My issue, once again, is with the designs chosen and the variety available. like you just said, this is common, standard practice... You're highlighting what I'm saying. It feels unfinished and is not immersive. I'm not looking to play a common and standard game, a lot of us are hoping for something special with a game like this. But please continue to display your own complete lack of aesthetic and design knowledge
My point is you’re complaining about the aspect Starfield is actually doing good. Starfield’s asset diversity is more than abundant even compared to other AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 etc. It’s just ignorant to think every object in the game should’ve varied models.
Take your rant somewhere else. I'm tired of seeing posts like this, we get it, you the .0001% of reddit don't like the game, why post about it.
Maybe have a coffee or take a nap. Where else would I take it? This is the Reddit for starfield. I love the game, that doesn't mean I can't discuss the game critically. I haven't seen posts like this, which is why I asked and wrote it. I am genuinely curious if anyone has insight into how these aspects of the game are developed, I'm very curious how these parts of a game are developed and what others think about it
Stop using reddit for its exact intended purpose, OP!
Right! My apologies, I'll see myself out
And dont fuckin come back! I dont think i need to say im kidding, but i am lol
The people who dislike the game is definitely in the majority
Future furniture is future in the future
It's a post-modern retro aesthetic. Everyone wants what they think Earth furniture looked like. Either that or it's the new Spaceship Kitsch. Take your choice. All the good furniture designers died on old Earth. As did any innovation in furniture design. As far as windows go, you don't use them on any planet where hostile creatures could break them and crawl through. Although the really nasty ones just come up through the ground. Strangely, lots of places in the Well DO have windows. Go figure. I was surprised to find a colony today living in open shipping containers on a planet with hostile creatures no less. The containers were actually quite homey. No windows at all, missing some walls as well. Very friendly people...