Starfield |OT| Hype | Go for Launch| What We know So Far

Thread: Starfield |OT| Hype | Go for Launch| What We know So Far
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Watching the deep dive stuff now. Looks really good and I'm bummed that I wont get to play this since I have a PS5. I really like the chunky semi-realistic aesthetics of all the ships and suits, which is something that a lot of sci fi games fail at (or just go too far into the futuristic look) but I think they struck a really pleasing balance here.

However, it IS Bethesda who has a habit of over promising and under delivering; not to mention delivering buggy/borderline broken games.
 
Kadayi said:
ACG on Procedural Generation and Starfield

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Just as long as they don't cause Radiant-AI bullshit like "Another Settlement Needs Your Help...I'll Mark It On Your Map," but in planet form, then they will have shown a true iteration on Random/Procedural Generation.

The more I think about it, the more I see that what was passed off as Radiant-AI mission generation in Fallout 4 was really a beta test for what they are planning in Starfield. The one thing they did get right, or at least as big a leap in overall design, was comparing and contrasting Oblivions Dungeons to Skyrim's. Skyrim's were a much better implementation of Procedural Generated spaces, with what appeared to be a thoughtful integration of actual level design using their Procedural Generation programming. I understand it required devs to go in and polish, but from what I remember they had a better time with it vs. the Beta version we got in Oblivion.

The challenge that Bethesda is going to have to meet is making solar systems that stand out and are unique, but walks the fine line of probability within the physics of an actual Solar system. I do want to see a multiple sun system that has actual planets to support life, just as much as I want to see the remnants of a system with a dead star on its way to being a Black Hole or even Super Giants, where you have to get to a planet that is going to be consumed before it goes Super Nova.

I still believe we are going to get Hominid Aliens, so I don't expect to always be fighting Humans, and I hope they take a page out of Star Control where you have some very interesting sentient life that have a culture vastly different from our own to deal with. Perhaps DLC or the next game? I still want to interact with a Zeta Starship style Grey Alien like we have in Fallout.
 
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I haven't really been interested in this game, most because I don't want to get hyped over games that's far away from release.

I saw this event though, and think it looks great.

But I can't be the only one being annoyed over seeing the xp gained right in the middle of the screen right?
its almost a deal breaker for me because it looks so annoying.
 
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The_Mike said:
I haven't really been interested in this game, most because I don't want to get hyped over games that's far away from release.

I saw this event though, and think it looks great.

But I can't be the only one being annoyed over seeing the xp gained right in the middle of the screen right?
its almost a deal breaker for me because it looks so annoying.
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A few ppl have mentioned it tbh.
 
Phunkydiabetic said:
I do know what I'm speaking of cause I'm looking at it. I posted two side by side examples showing how the characters haven't improved in any sort of dramatic way. It's...right there. In your face. Look at them, they move in the same stilted way, the faces still lack any sort of movement beyond the mouth or eyes, they still have the same dead eyed stare etc.
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First of all we were talking about the shading and lighting. Not how the eyes stare at you or how the animation moves. You keep bringing that up and that's not what is being discussed.

Phunkydiabetic said:
Aren't you supposed to be the all knowing graphics guy? Why are you purposely overlooking the similarities and overall dated look of the characters haha
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Now you have to go there? Wow.
 
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regawdless said:
I'm actually bummed because I'd love to have a Starfield themed Dualsense for my PC.

Damn you, MS.
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if-you-only-knew-the-power-dark-side.gif
 
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VFX_Veteran said:
What I would love to have is RTGI, RTAO, RTDL and RTR all in the game for the high-end PCs.
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I agree, fundamentally. BUT it's still rather new tech that's not easy to implement well. At this stage, Bethesda wouldn't be my top pick to implement it into a game with that scale. I don't think that would turn out great at this point in time tbh.
 
regawdless said:
I agree, fundamentally. BUT it's still rather new tech that's not easy to implement well. At this stage, Bethesda wouldn't be my top pick to implement it into a game with that scale. I don't think that would turn out great at this point in time tbh.
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Might be correct but we'll see. Bethesda is typically behind on tech - that's true. I don't think there will be anymore games implementing path-tracing this generation in their engines except lucky ass CDPR. But one can only hope. :)
 
VFX_Veteran said:
Might be correct but we'll see. Bethesda is typically behind on tech - that's true. I don't think there will be anymore games implementing path-tracing this generation in their engines except lucky ass CDPR. But one can only hope. :)
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Seeing how well Metro Exodus implemented RT and how well it ran, 4A games might do it. They said their engine will be RT lighting only going forward, there's a chance they'll do path tracing for PC. But yeah, so far I don't see anyone other than CDPR.
 
regawdless said:
Seeing how well Metro Exodus implemented RT and how well it ran, 4A games might do it. They said their engine will be RT lighting only going forward, there's a chance they'll do path tracing for PC. But yeah, so far I don't see anyone other than CDPR.
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4A Games just don't have a good art team imo. Their games do have the tech advances but their art direction needs completely different designs. CP2077/W3 has a really talented art team and so their tech sticks out like a sore thumb.
 
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I just thought of something that really want but they probably won't give us.

Mothership with parasites.

I want my home base to be a massive space ship with an engine bay of various craft that I can use to launch my missions. Or at least a mobile shipyard to outfit a craft for a designated mission. At the very least give me the ability to shuttle from the planet to my Mothership like an Away Team. Or a fighter to jump in when ambushed in space.
 
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regawdless said:
Of course there are games that do animations better. Cyberpunk for example might have some issues when NPCs are running around with sudden directional changes, but the NPCs standing around and occupying various spaces are animated way more naturally.

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Sorry but I call BS on that, some animations are decent in and off themselves...stiff but decent, but they almost always seem completely divorced from the environment and the player and are anything but reactive. Not saying Bethesda games are better in that regard but still. Even in the video you showed you can see people just standing around not doing or saying anything, just playing an idle animation on loop...hardly lifelike.

The issue with animating that many game actors in a huge open world game is that there is simply too much content you'd have to do, so you end up with a lot of procedural animations where the same animation cycle has been fit to several different skeletons/rigs that have different dimensions, this results in animations that can't be too "wild" in movements otherwise you'd have too much clipping and human animators don't have the time to go in and do keyframe adjustments or IK retargeting for everything. OR you end up with really good animations but painfully few of them so characters can't have as much visual variety (because different sized humans have different sized skeletons) and/or each character "base" only has like 6-7 possible animation states.

I launched CP2077 just to check it out and sure enough found some good examples right away, excuse the horrible frame rate, the game ran fine but apparently the recording didn't which I only discovered after.


The additional difficulty Bethesda has (not to be a Bethesda apologist) is that their NPCs typically have more "life-simulation" features where they'll walk around and do chores, talk to other NPC's dynamically, go to work, and sleep, eat, and so forth. This is different from CP2077 and other open world RPG's where characters just sort of pop into existence when you turn a corner and out of existence when you leave, they have no permanence, and often don't need a bunch of animations because they'll only ever stand in idle, walk, run, perhaps gesticulate while talking, and perhaps switch into a combat anim-tree if enabled.
 
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Wow, the salt is real online!

If you get on YouTube, it's especially prevalent with predominantly Sony YouTubers [big surprise] - for example, "the *amazing* Lucas", who is an absolute asshat - he stated that STARFIELD is his "Game Of The Year" [*wink wink] and then proceeds to trash it; saying - among other inane things - that he hopes that XBOX eventually has 'some' exclusives that will make him turn on his dusty XBOX [an XBOX that he only owns due to a lost bet🤦🏻‍♂️].

Why can't Science Fiction lovers come together on this one and say that Bethesda Games Studios has absolutely nailed every single thing that a fan of the genre would want to have in an RPG dealing with the subject?!?

It's staggeringly appalling to me that anyone that watched the 45 minute STARFIELD Direct could have anything negative to say about it - like, what else could you want that isn't being delivered here?!?
 
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Black Chamber said:
Wow, the salt is real online!
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💯

Black Chamber said:
If you get on YouTube, it's especially prevalent with predominantly Sony YouTubers [big surprise] - for example, "the *amazing* Lucas", who is an absolute asshat - he stated that STARFIELD is his "Game Of The Year" [*wink wink] and then proceeds to trash it; saying - among other inane things - that he hopes that XBOX eventually has 'some' exclusives that will make him turn on his dusty XBOX [an XBOX that he only owns due to a lost bet🤦🏻‍♂️].

Why can't Science Fiction lovers come together on this one and say that Bethesda Games Studios has absolutely nailed every single thing that a fan of the genre would want to have in an RPG dealing with the subject?!?

It's staggeringly appalling to me that anyone that watched the 45 minute STARFIELD Direct could have anything negative to say about it - like, what else could you want that isn't being delivered here?!?
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Honestly, it's just amusing at this juncture. It was a pretty solid showcase, and the game looks improved from its previous outing. Many people have been comparing the original gameplay reveal with the latest one and have picked up on many differentials. For instance with character creation originally there were only 20 character archetypes to build off of, however, this time they've increased the amount to 40. They've also done a fair bit with reordering the skill trees and starting skills for the different professions. Lots of playtesting and balancing clearly.
 
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www.ign.com

Starfield Interview: Todd Howard Answers All of Our Questions After the Xbox Games Showcase - IGN

Bethesda's Todd Howard sits down with IGN to discuss all things Starfield, from its high-profile delay to its performance on Xbox.
www.ign.com www.ign.com

Some things of note, Todd sidestepping the comparisons to Mass Effect and No Man's Sky, instead citing Red Dead Redemption 2 immersive world as a big influence. TOTK also supposedly was influenced by Red Dead Redemption 2.
Todd did not plan for Starfield to take 8 years to release, development just happened at that pace.
Paraphrasing, realized midway through development there are reasons vast majority of even major studios never attempt something of Starfields scale and complexity.
Delay has been spent fine tuning the game, like Nintendo did with TotK and Square-Enix is doing with FFXVI.
Starfield has more dialog then Fallout 4 and Skyrim combined.
Can go off and do main story, or go off exploring elsewhere. Enormous amount of content and stuff you can stumble across ala finding a unicorn in Oblivion.
Starfield will be getting expansions and the like.
Elder Scrolls VI is next major project though always subject to change if studio really wants a Starfield 2, then Fallout 5.
Unlike long held conception of sequels, Starfield is being designed to be played for years by gamers instead of going right for a sequel, as Skyrim is still being played by many people today. Lot of implications here.
 
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You know something I haven't seen in all the never-ending praise for Starfield is how much the third person view is improved. Bethesda switched me to a preference for FPS over TPS back in the Oblivion days. I tried TPS again with FO3 but it was SO bad in Bethesda games I eventually came to greatly prefer an FPS view.

Third person looks great in Starfield.
 
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Zeta Dragoon said:
Yeah.

Yeah after the Deep Dive and the interviews I can see Starfield taking on TotK for GOTY and actually winning.
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Yep me too. I've been playing TotK exclusively for the last month and quite liking it. After the Xbox showcase and especially the Starfield Direct I'm having a hard time getting myself back into playing it. I can't believe I'm saying this but it feels insignificant compared to Starfield. If Starfield delivers everything it's shown us it should be a lock for GotY.

It's going to be hell waiting until Sept. 6th because it TotK feels insignificant everything else will be worse.
 
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Zeta Dragoon said:
Yeah.

Yeah after the Deep Dive and the interviews I can see Starfield taking on TotK for GOTY and actually winning.
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I think the deep dive is one for the ages, but when it comes down to GoTY, a lot will depend on how the game handles at launch. If performance is iffy that could go against it, however assuming it's not and that the game wows the gaming press, then it has a chance, though Nintendo almost certainly is the front-runner. Before launch, I thought Jedi Survivor might have been in with a shout, but the performance issues kind of fucked it over, and Starfield has definitely usurped it as far as people's attention goes.
 
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Kadayi said:
I think the deep dive is one for the ages, but when it comes down to GoTY, a lot will depend on how the game handles at launch. If performance is iffy that could go against it, however assuming it's not and that the game wows the gaming press, then it has a chance, though Nintendo almost certainly is the front-runner. Before launch, I thought Jedi Survivor might have been in with a shout, but the performance issues kind of fucked it over, and Starfield has definitely usurped it as far as people's attention goes.
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It's a guarantee there will be performance issues. I don't see TotK or Starfield touching GotY this year as there's too many other choices that far more unique and also super successful.

I'll buy that Starfield controller before I buy the game, I have absolutely zero faith in anything other than mediocrity with what I see from Starfield, visually it'll win no medal, gameplay-wise it'll be meh combat.

No other game in 2023 strikes me as overrated more so than Starfield, I hope I eat crow!
 
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Kadayi said:
I think the deep dive is one for the ages, but when it comes down to GoTY, a lot will depend on how the game handles at launch. If performance is iffy that could go against it, however assuming it's not and that the game wows the gaming press, then it has a chance, though Nintendo almost certainly is the front-runner. Before launch, I thought Jedi Survivor might have been in with a shout, but the performance issues kind of fucked it over, and Starfield has definitely usurped it as far as people's attention goes.
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I don't think it will. PlayStation is the console that seems to have the biggest problems with BGS games. Xbox and PC seem to do a lot better. Hopefully that's the case with Starfield.

On the other hand who in a million years could have predicted a Naughty Dog game would be a 57 Meta disaster PC port. I may not like their games but I certainly can't deny they are always extremely polished and bug free so you never know what might happen. I'm keeping positive thoughts that Starfield doesn't suffer the same fate.
 
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I am excited and fully expecting bugs, glitches and broke aspects of Starfield on release. That is just how it goes with their games using their modified Gamebryo engine. It makes for some fantastic memes that we will all look back on and laugh, so if we don't get that, then a big part of what makes Bethesda games releasing fun will be missing.

Knowing the above, we all know this game will be fun, especially as the first year goes by and particularly with mods by the userbase.

I am not deterred and I am anticipating what is coming, warts and all.
 
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WesternBlood said:
I am excited and fully expecting bugs, glitches and broke aspects of Starfield on release. That is just how it goes with their games using their modified Gamebryo engine. It makes for some fantastic memes that we will all look back on and laugh, so if we don't get that, then a big part of what makes Bethesda games releasing fun will be missing.

Knowing the above, we all know this game will be fun, especially as the first year goes by and particularly with mods by the userbase.

I am not deterred and I am anticipating what is coming, warts and all.
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The great and grounded presentation will make the bananas bugs so much more hilarious. Can't wait.
 
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Going to start properly on the OT for it after the weekend (with @Black Chamber assisting on the Gif side of things) been watching a lot of breakdown videos and making copious notes. I'll likely output something similar to the Jedi Survivor OT, so a lot of content, but compacted to sliders & Tabs so easily digestible with a bullet point format versus paragraphs of text.

Things I'm looking to cover (in no particular order)

1) Setting
2)Character creation, backgrounds, traits & skills & progression
3) UI elements & Planets
4) Equipment, crafting & upgrades
5) Space ships, space flight, galactic navigation & system navigation
6) Known Factions, backgrounds & key locations
7) Companions
8) Base Building
9) Trailers, interviews &etc (some of it repurposed from this thread)
10) Concept Art
11) Screenshots
12) Editions (though I believe they may have already sold out of the CE)

I think that list should cover most things, but if there is anything you think is missing or would like to see let me know.
 
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Graphical bugs and glitches; that's part of the Bethesda experience. I'm hoping we get some really good ones. FO4 was disappointing for me with NO good bugs and glitches other than a couple fps slowdowns.

Game-breaking bugs are not something I want to see as part of the BGS experience.
 
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