Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios Upcoming Title Options

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

The Starfield showcase just finished up a bit ago.

...

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN! CHOO CHOO!

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

The Starfield showcase just finished up a bit ago.

...

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN! CHOO CHOO!

I still have to watch it. Probably be tomorrow though.

[macole]

Wow, that was fun to watch. I definitely will keep an eye on it. hopefully the requirements to run the game will be reasonable.

[SubRosa]

It certainly looks nice. I would say an upgraded Fallout 4 visually. Some of what I saw in the gameplay also reminded me of F04. The jetpacks especially, and the gun combat. I noticed some kind of auto aim, because the bullet streaks coming out of the gun at the beginning were doing so at different angles, in order to hit the target.

I like the super jumping I saw in that segment too.

I see it has the offset third person camera, which I have never liked, but every game does. Hopefully someone will make a mod to center that.

The interface reminds me of Oblivion's, where everything is accessed through one button that takes you to an uber menu. I hope they do like they did with Fallout's Pipboy, and add shortcuts to go to specific things, like inventory, character, quests, etc...

The space travel looks to be entirely fast travel from planet to planet, with a visual that plays every time you make a hyperspace jump and land on a new world. Hmm, later on they show ship combat, so it appears you can do some free form space flight. I wonder how much? The way you can allocate energy to various ship resources reminds me of the old X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, where that was crucial. I am not a fan of that ship hud with the ring in the center of the screen. I find it distracting.

That also makes me wonder how space combat will work with a mouse and keyboard? Or can you also use a joystick for that, and go back to mouse + keyboard for regular gameplay?

The main quest appears to be you had a mysterious interaction with a strange artifact from an unknown alien race. I guess that means the Reapers are coming, and you are the only one who can stop them. Better tell Joker to prep the Normandy.

The character creation looks a lot like Fallout 4's again. Which like the other stuff, works fine. I hope they build in the ability to save face files and import them, like the LooksMenu mod does in FO4.

The Backgounds sound good. Pillars of Eternity does that, it adds in a little flavor that pops up occasionally.

I did love that they worked the Adoring Fan in, even with the original voice actor. His hair looks better this time.

The Trait system is another nice thing from the old school Fallout games.

That nerve punch thing sounds perfect for January. I wonder what the melee combat is like? I hope it is better than Fallout 4s. I really hated how they nerfed blocking, so that you could not hold a block in that game. Instead it just plays an animation of you blocking for a few seconds, then drops it. So you have to time your blocks in order to meet enemy attacks, rather than just keep blocking until you want to stop. And the shield bashing was completely removed. Hopefully they bring that back.

The ship appears to be your permanent home. I like how you can buy new ones. I also see they took Fallout 4's settlement building and applied that to the ships. That is nice. So you can change its layout as well as stuff. The Optimus Prime ship was cute.

The big question of course is what about Modding?

A new hand touches the Beacon!

[Kane]

The Starfield showcase just finished up a bit ago.

...

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN! CHOO CHOO!

HYPE TRAIN LEAVING THE STATION! CHOO CHOO
And damn is that watch sexy.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Ok, Khajiit has watched and now he shall post thoughts!

Taking the Direct at face value, Starfield is looking like a must own game for me. Almost everything from the character creation, base/ship building and item modification, to the combat and exploration, looks like exactly what I want in a BGS game. I don’t buy games day one anymore, but something would have to be very wrong with Starfield to keep me from buying it. I can hardly wait for the reviews!

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Wow, that was fun to watch. I definitely will keep an eye on it. hopefully the requirements to run the game will be reasonable.

I’m concerned about this as well. My computer is getting pretty old, so I’m curious as to how well it will run Starfield. I’d rather not have to buy an Xbox just to be able to play this game.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

It certainly looks nice. I would say an upgraded Fallout 4 visually. Some of what I saw in the gameplay also reminded me of F04. The jetpacks especially, and the gun combat. I noticed some kind of auto aim, because the bullet streaks coming out of the gun at the beginning were doing so at different angles, in order to hit the target.

I wonder if there is some kind of homing bullet thing you can get for your guns?

I like the super jumping I saw in that segment too.

The gravity differences intrigues me. That should open up some new possibilities for both combat and exploration!

The space travel looks to be entirely fast travel from planet to planet, with a visual that plays every time you make a hyperspace jump and land on a new world. Hmm, later on they show ship combat, so it appears you can do some free form space flight. I wonder how much? The way you can allocate energy to various ship resources reminds me of the old X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, where that was crucial. I am not a fan of that ship hud with the ring in the center of the screen. I find it distracting.

That also makes me wonder how space combat will work with a mouse and keyboard? Or can you also use a joystick for that, and go back to mouse + keyboard for regular gameplay?

I’m interested in how this will work myself. I’m thinking it will be like a big area around planets (maybe as big as a whole system) that you can fly around in and do stuff and then when you are ready to explore a planet you go to your navigation and tell your ship to land. I expect “jumps” from system to system to be just cutscenes. I’d love to be able to break out my flight stick for this!

The main quest appears to be you had a mysterious interaction with a strange artifact from an unknown alien race. I guess that means the Reapers are coming, and you are the only one who can stop them. Better tell Joker to prep the Normandy.

The story is looking rather derivative so far. Honestly though, I enjoy Fallout4 and have never finished the main story, so, meh, I guess.

The character creation looks a lot like Fallout 4's again. Which like the other stuff, works fine. I hope they build in the ability to save face files and import them, like the LooksMenu mod does in FO4.

I agree about the character creator. It looks to do a bit more than FO4’s, and I was quite pleased with FO4’s. I’m betting we’ll have to wait for mods to get preset save functions, though.

I did love that they worked the Adoring Fan in, even with the original voice actor. His hair looks better this time.

It’s a cute little callback that they spent a decent amount of effort on. I probably won’t use it, but it’s nice it’s there.

The Trait system is another nice thing from the old school Fallout games.

Agreed. Anything that helps make a character more distinguishable from another is great in my book.

That nerve punch thing sounds perfect for January. I wonder what the melee combat is like? I hope it is better than Fallout 4s. I really hated how they nerfed blocking, so that you could not hold a block in that game. Instead it just plays an animation of you blocking for a few seconds, then drops it. So you have to time your blocks in order to meet enemy attacks, rather than just keep blocking until you want to stop. And the shield bashing was completely removed. Hopefully they bring that back.

I really did not like melee very much in FO4. I’m hoping melee is like it is in FO3, but more advanced.

The ship appears to be your permanent home. I like how you can buy new ones. I also see they took Fallout 4's settlement building and applied to the ships. That is nice. So you can change its layout as well as stuff. The Optimus Prime ship was cute.

I can see myself burning so many hours playing around with ship and outpost building.

The big question of course is what about Modding?

I’m pretty sure “The Todd” said something like modders were probably going to have a field day with Starfield, or something like that, so I’m expecting mod support. What form that will take, remains to be seen…

[Grits]

Looks good. I'll try it.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Now, some random observations.

1. PC walking around the spaceship in full astronaut suit while companions lounge around in cowboy hats and leather jackets. Hopefully we won’t have to spend all our characters’ time stuck inside one of those bulky ass suits.

2. Facial animations seemed better than in the reveal trailer.

3. They really obsessed over sandwiches in this game.

4. Neon looks like it’s going to be my favorite city. Very cyberpunk.

5. Wild West themed area caught me by surprise. Really strong Firefly vibes there.

[Renee]

Oh it'll be moddable, it's a Bethesda game! If it's not moddable, there goes the majority of long-term sales. Question is: how accessible will it be to tear into the game? Skyrim is not as easy as earlier games, and I've heard Fallout 4 is even more difficult. I am talking about scripting and quest-making (my faves). But there are other things too, like the third-person camera being off-center.

The space travel looks to be entirely fast travel from planet to planet, with a visual that plays every time you make a hyperspace jump and land on a new world. Hmm, later on they show ship combat, so it appears you can do some free form space flight. I wonder how much?

I really want to fly a spaceship. 🚀 If so, maybe the game lets us fly a little pod at first. Or a small spacecraft, like the little ones they flew in the original Star Wars.

And Rader: What is happening with Val and Mariah and Langston and Sargent Waller??


This post has been edited by Renee: Jun 13 2023, 03:55 AM

[Kane]

I'd imagine you can fly around solar systems at will, especially since it seems like you can visit any of the planets or moons, possible even asteroids.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I'd imagine you can fly around solar systems at will, especially since it seems like you can visit any of the planets or moons, possible even asteroids.

If each system is its own sandbox area… woooboy.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

@macole - This game is the main reason why I got a new computer, although I needed one anyway. But Bethesda games at least don't need the absolute top-of-the-line specs to run, usually.

@SubRosa - Regarding a few of your observations that particularly jumped out at me.

• Super jumping: That looks immensely satisfying. Acrobatics 100.
• Backgrounds: These have been mentioned before this showcase and I'm really looking forward to them. We haven't had those in a BGS game since Daggerfall. Those and the proc gen feel like a modernized Daggerfall-esque aspects.
• Melee combat: This (and the combat in general) appears to be a major step up from Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Melee has always felt super stiff but this looks pretty fluid so far. I guess we'll see come September.
• Adoring Fan: Agreed, outstanding callback with Craig Sechler back to voice him.

@Kane - Hell yeah.

@TheCheshireKhajiit - I totally get the abstaining from day one purchases. I think that is a generally good policy to have. That said, I'm not sure if I can hold out, lol.

Regarding melee combat, like I said in response to SubRosa, Starfield feels like a major upgrade in this department. I thought Oblivion and Fallout 3 melee combat was too floaty and not punchy at all, while Skyrim and Fallout 4 melee combat was too stiff and immobile. So far, Starfield looks like it has punch AND fluidity. And the combat in general looks VASTLY improved in the Direct compared to the gameplay trailer for Starfield released last year.

@Grits - Oh, I'm definitely getting it. Hopefully everyone else here is as well and we can all share out adventures! Maybe the thread could be called something like "Starfield Sojournings."

@Renee - Haha, sorry. I know you've been waiting for more on Fallout: Florida. Life has been really busy in recent months. But rest assured, I will continue it. While I haven't been able to write anything on it since the last post, I have developed a much clearer picture of how the rest of Part 2 is going to play out.

As for spaceships, I really need to start a list of ship names for me to use when the game comes out.

[Renee]

Can somebody translate the Daggerfall-speek? I'm not sure what you all are talking about.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

As for spaceships, I really need to start a list of ship names for me to use when the game comes out.

Ooo has it been said we can name our ships? I missed that little detail somehow! I’m thinking my Fallout character Désirée Devreaux will translate very well to the Starfield universe, and so is probably going to be my first character in SF. That means we already have a ship name picked out!

Can somebody translate the Daggerfall-speek? I'm not sure what you all are talking about.

What in particular are you unsure about?

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Can somebody translate the Daggerfall-speek? I'm not sure what you all are talking about.

In Daggerfall's character creation, you can go through background questions that affect your starting character's skill, attributes, and items at the beginning of the game (including the infamous ebony dagger). You also had to take a few advantages and disadvantages as well. Starfield's backgrounds and traits are going to somewhat emulate that, though in SF you don't HAVE to take those traits and even if you do you can get rid of their negative aspects later on.

Daggerfall also featured heavy use of procedural generation. I'm not a tech aficionado by any means, but basically it's a way for generating landscapes, dungeons, etc. through computations instead of directly handcrafting stuff. (Later TES games used proc gen as well but to a much lesser extent.) SF used proc gen for a lot of the planets and some content, but then added a lot of handcrafting on top of it. Proc gen has the benefit of using up much less computer memory, extending content, and creating more content more quickly than handcrafting, though the downside is that it is less creative than handcrafting and more repetitive. But Bethesda's proc gen looks like it is very robust, so we'll how it turns out on this front.


EDIT: By the way, Renee, when I get back to Fallout: Florida, I'm going to start adding "last episode" tidbits to clarify where the story is at. I'm also going to amend some of my earliest posts in the thread to have a table of contents with links to chapter posts, a synopsis of the story thus far (with spoilers for story beats that already happened, naturally), and profiles of the characters. That way, newer readers can get more up-to-speed if they want to get to current events and current readers can refresh their memories more easily.

Ooo has it been said we can name our ships? I missed that little detail somehow! I’m thinking my Fallout character Désirée Devreaux will translate very well to the Starfield universe, and so is probably going to be my first character in SF. That means we already have a ship name picked out!

Remember the part where the sandwich-pilfering lady (one of the highlights of the Direct) talked about naming her ships after animals and one is called the Platypus? And whenever I check out Starfield-related news on its subreddit, the people there talk a lot about what they are going to name their ships. I don't remember if Bethesda specifically highlighted "By the way, you can name your ships," but I assume we will be able to do so.

And they said in the Direct that we can own a fleet! My preliminary list of ship names, which includes but is not limited to names I think are cool, space terms, and references to Elder Scrolls and Fallout:

• Singularity
• F*** Around and Find Out (minus the censoring)
• Event Horizon
• Piper Wright (Fallout's best girl)
• Lydia
• Rip and Tear
• Gaiden Shinji
• Freedom's Call
• Loose Cannon
• Redeemer
• Plan 9 from Outer Space
• Big Iron (cue Marty Robbins)
• Labyrinthian
• SHODAN
• Dark Before Dawn
• Grand and Intoxicating Innocence

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Jun 18 2023, 11:17 PM

[Renee]

Ohhh I get it, thanks for explaining Rader.

Arena and Morrowind also had the option of questionaire beginnings, but DF took character creation to the greatest extreme.

And yes, Arena had a lot of procedural generation landscapes as well, moreso than Daggerfall. Basically the entire world outside of any town would be generated, but unlike later games you could keep on walking and walking. Unlike the newer games you'd never arrive anywhere except random little villages and dungeons and chapels, etc.

Anyway that's a great idea for planets to be generated, wow. Yeah, because you can't hand-build multiple worlds & planets. That right there is a great reason for me to get Starfield eventually.



This post has been edited by Renee: Jun 19 2023, 01:19 AM

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Remember the part where the sandwich-pilfering lady (one of the highlights of the Direct) talked about naming her ships after animals and one is called the Platypus? And whenever I check out Starfield-related news on its subreddit, the people there talk a lot about what they are going to name their ships. I don't remember if Bethesda specifically highlighted "By the way, you can name your ships," but I assume we will be able to do so.

I do remember that. I just wasn’t sure if that was confirmation that we could type in our own name for ships or if it was just what they called the ships in their headcanon. I don’t recall if they displayed the names they mentioned in game.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

I do remember that. I just wasn’t sure if that was confirmation that we could type in our own name for ships or if it was just what they called the ships in their headcanon. I don’t recall if they displayed the names they mentioned in game.

True. I'm trying to look at pictures of the ships and I can't see names on them, but I can't get a good look for certain. And I listened back to what Jamie Mallory/sandwich lady said about her ship and it's a bit ambiguous as to whether the game gives us the actual function to name them. I don't remember who else talked about naming their ship, though I believe at least one other BGS employee did.

I mean, they have to know everyone will want to name them in-game. I find it hard to imagine that they won't have that function because that would be a glaring oversight . . . which, granted, is far from unprecedented for Bethesda, but this seems like a no-brainer to me. And it is confirmed we can have a fleet of ships, so we need to differentiate them. I guess if worst comes to worst, modders will make it happen, though we really shouldn't have to rely on them for this simple thing. I hope Todd or someone else at BGS clarifies if naming ships is an actual function.