Starfield Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Child of Malkav]

I don't think they'll fuck it up like with 76. That was an exception. This is a new IP for them and a big one. And like Todd said, it's Skyrim in space. They make the same game anyway so they have experience and know their audience.

 

[Peachcurl]

I don't think they'll fuck it up like with 76. That was an exception. This is a new IP for them and a big one. And like Todd said, it's Skyrim in space. They make the same game anyway so they have experience and know their audience.

They may know their audience, but that means they also know what they can get away with in terms of producing shit content and still making a good profit with it.

 

[Zlaja]

I'm very cynical these days

 

[RNGsus]

They've always capitalized on the newfags who've never played one their games before. There's no thematic or rules consistency in their games, so fans of one game have no reason to return unless they just love openworlds.

 

[undecaf]

They make the same game anyway

Indeed.

You’ll be running around the countryside killing stuff and finding family heirlooms in caves and collecting herbs for the local apothecary.
But…
…in space.
That’s the bulk of the game.

The story will probably be about stopping a star from momentarily going supernova and killing everything (though of course the star will wait for the players convenience).

 

[Child of Malkav]

producing shit content and still making a good profit with it.

That's why I said they know their fans. They keep getting away with it. This time it has to after the whole 76 disaster.

 

[Gargaune]

They make the same game anyway so they have experience and know their audience.

Good, practice makes perfect routine. Specialisation should help control costs and provide reliability to customers, I'm more frightened of the prospect of Bethesda trying to dramatically innovate than ship out another Bethesda Game™. Usually, their MO seems to be two one and a half steps forward, one step back. Leapfrogging Skyrim, the iterative development from Fallout 3 to 4 tracks: people bitched about Fallout 3's shooting and plot, so Bethesda tried to improve both in the sequel. A definite success on the former, a swing-and-miss on the latter. The step back was crippling the RPG progression system, obviously.

My big bugbear with Starfield is whether Todd & Co. will push forward with attempting to seize the means of mod production. It's obvious Zenimax've got the golden goose in the crosshairs and I'm not just talking about the Creation Club, but the distribution of the Creation Kit itself. Every previous iteration of the toolset was freely available to download, but Fallout 4's is gated behind an online account. What's next? Promoting the Creation Club to the exclusive mod distribution platform? Integrating mod management with a Bethesda.net account? The prospect that "TES6 may feature some social elements" reeks of decline a mile off. Used to be the case I didn't think Bethesda would risk strangling their modding phenomenon, but the way companies are chasing online integration and data-mining these days, I'm not so sure anymore.

 

[Tyranicon]

They've always capitalized on the newfags who've never played one their games before. There's no thematic or rules consistency in their games, so fans of one game have no reason to return unless they just love openworlds.

I just like the modding scene. Honestly, without the massive mod community, there's very little reason for me to touch any Bethesda game.

But with mods, you get totally different gameplay experiences.

 

[ADL]

I'm pretty cynical when it comes to Bethesda games but I'm under the impression that Todd has something to prove with this game since he's always been the guy that bought Fallout and took over the Morrowind project after Battlespire flopped.

Maybe I'm greatly overestimating how much this billionaire game designer gives a fuck but I expect Starfield to be much better than Fallout 4 or 76. This is the game he's wanted to make for twenty years. I'll still probably dislike it because of half-baked features like Skyrim's civil war but I'm at least expecting a solid RPG foundation to build on and the universe to be interesting.

 

[Reinhardt]

Can't wait to pirate it ~2 years after release.

 

[Tyranicon]

Maybe I'm greatly overestimating how much this billionaire game designer gives a fuck

I'm not a huge fan of Todd or his games, but I can't really hate the guy. He just seems like an absolute nerd who wants to play around with video games. It's either excellent PR handling or it's pretty close to the truth.

 

[Child of Malkav]

can't really hate the guy.

I don't know the whole catalogue of lies but one thing I dislike about him is that he keeps saying that technology keeps him from making incredible games.
Like that to me is infuriating. Back in the days, developers manager to create what we consider today classics, without complaining about the level of technology, just being passionate about gaming and being talented on top of it and of course having a vision about what they were making. Technology is much better than it was back then, it's the only thing that improves in this industry.
And this dude comes along saying stupid stuff like this.
Like, every game you make depends on the good will of an army of modders ready to fix the backwards shit you put out. Without them, your games barely run let alone be enjoyable. He acts as if every game he made was a classic or some such. He creates frames not games, spaces in which gamers and modders make their own experience.
Not to mention how he hyped Skyrim up before launch similar to how CP2077 was hyped, creating the impression that it was going to be the best game ever.
Guy's a salesman and a very good one at that. Dangerously so

 

[Reinhardt]

Without them, your games barely run let alone be enjoyable. He acts as if every game he made was a classic or some such. He creates frames not games, spaces in which gamers and modders make their own experience.

Problem is even then there iz zero competition in that niche. Everyone else is not even on Todd level.

 

[jackofshadows]

he keeps saying that technology keeps him from making incredible games.

To me it's just another part of his salesman side: I cannot interpret it any other way than to a) explain to average Joe why they make so few games b) imply that their next game will be something else technologically speaking and therefore a must buy since you don't want not to check it out and lag behind the other average Joes.

 

[Gargaune]

I don't know the whole catalogue of lies but one thing I dislike about him is that he keeps saying that technology keeps him from making incredible games.

But it's true, it's impossible to climb ladders in a videogame - Einstein tells us that as the PC approaches the top of the ladder, the CPU load becomes infinite!

 

[Tihskael]

Starfield sneak peek:

 

[Reinhardt]

I don't know the whole catalogue of lies but one thing I dislike about him is that he keeps saying that technology keeps him from making incredible games.

But it's true, it's impossible to climb ladders in a videogame - Einstein tells us that as the PC approaches the top of the ladder, the CPU load becomes infinite!

Well, have you tried DDO? It's 15 years old mmo and you still have 50/50 chance to climb ladders.

 

[Peachcurl]

But it's true, it's impossible to climb ladders in a videogame - Einstein tells us that as the PC approaches the top of the ladder, the CPU load becomes infinite!

Pretty much. A ladder is essentially a multitude of double slit quantum experiments. This is fine as long as you do not observe the outcome (i.e., climb the ladder). But once you try to climb it, your computer would have to simulate the outcome of each individual double slit, which is infeasible with current technology.

As a matter of fact, this is also why Elevator Tech is such an important aspect of Star Citizen's development.

 

[Zibniyat]

Todd is a piece of shit and his games reflect that accurately. "I can't hate the guy" sounds weak. Well I don't hate him either, nobody's forcing me to buy his products, but I still hold him in contempt and frankly I wouldn't mind a truck hitting him. Preferably caught on camera for us to see perfect ragdoll physics in action...

 

[Gargaune]

As a matter of fact, this is also why Elevator Tech is such an important aspect of Star Citizen's development.

Yes, elevators are the natural enemy of ladders. On top of that, the recurring pattern of ladder steps is poisonous to .JPG compression.

 

[Stokowski]

he keeps saying that technology keeps him from making incredible games.

To me it's just another part of his salesman side: I cannot interpret it any other way than to a) explain to average Joe why they make so few games b) imply that their next game will be something else technologically speaking and therefore a must buy since you don't want not to check it out and lag behind the other average Joes.

I think Todd's notion of "technology" is not that of a toolset for enabling a wider range of possibilities, but of mechanisms for streamlining production so more stuff gets done. His notion of "incredible" lies in the vastness of quantity, not quality (hence the wide-but-shallow nature of the titles he's been in charge of). This outlook is like the car manufacturer that spends their Research & Development budget to invent better car-making robots, rather than developing a better car.

It's why he was so enamoured with the blockhead that came up with Fallout 4's "always four" (even when there were fewer) dialogue options process. Building flexible (ie, realistic) conversation trees, tracking responses, working through sets of conditionals ... all that shit is slow, hard work and paying for it eats into the voice acting budget. But a system that always resolves to four responses!? That makes everything so much easier; never mind that the result is so artificial as to render interaction via conversation a pointless exercise.

The entire culture at Bethesda is so resistant to bespoke engine-building - and has been for so long - they have little knowledge (and even less appreciation) of what even current "tech" can actually achieve. And the weird thing is, they're probably one of the few companies with the raw resources to tackle proper engine-building, when so many others are left scrabbling around trying to get results out of Unreal or Unity or whatever.

 

[CrunchyHemorrhoids]

[...] the blockhead that came up with Fallout 4's "always four" (even when there were fewer) dialogue options process.

Spoiler

 

[Norfleet]

going supernova and killing everything

Wasn't this the plot of a Star Trek movie? It made about as much sense there as it does now...

 

[Tyranicon]

can't really hate the guy.

I don't know the whole catalogue of lies but one thing I dislike about him is that he keeps saying that technology keeps him from making incredible games.

Of course, he keeps using the same old, bloated engine. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I've spent enough time making (not exactly profitable) games to say that that restrictions and limitations lead to creativity. These days, everybody just imports a bunch of assets into Unity and call it a day. But when you're working with shit technology, you have to find ways around that.

You would think that less time working on the software means more time for creating better gameplay systems and narrative. But lol, no.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I don't think they'll fuck it up like with 76. That was an exception. This is a new IP for them and a big one. And like Todd said, it's Skyrim in space. They make the same game anyway so they have experience and know their audience.

They may know their audience, but that means they also know what they can get away with in terms of producing shit content and still making a good profit with it.

I think Fallout 4, 76, and Elder Scrolls Blades are indications they don't actually know their audience. Skyrim too, even if it is their biggest game.