Starfield

07-09-2023 10:18pm

30% of people didn't finish the intro. Wtf? 😂

wotzgoingon · 07-09-2023 10:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082562#Comment_121082562

There still is exploration. Just land on different parts of a planet you are heading to. I landed on waste ground walked a bit in one direction ended up at a space station and killed a bunch of pirates. Got lots of credits and weapons and other items. Had to pick a few things too which is what I wanted as I am trying to level up lock picking. (there was still one thing too high a level for me to pick) which annoyed me.

So yea there still is exploration. I also near the beginning landed on some place(I forget where, just for the craic) but I high tailed it out of there as there was a bunch of enemies who at the time seemed to be better equipped or a higher level than me.

07-09-2023 10:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082937#Comment_121082937

I actually agree with him, it's definitely not like their previous titles in terms of exploration. It hasn't negatively affected my experience of it, but I could see why it would bother someone who wanted that Bethesda style of game.

I knew this going into though, like how could you possibly replicate that in a game like this?

Potential-Monke · 07-09-2023 10:32pm

Can someone explain the fast travel to me before I get back into it? Can you fly from planet to planet to come across these random encounters? Feels like it would take forever... its not clear as all the game as told me so far is point at location, open map, travel... like, can I fly from Luna to Mars? Or is it only within the space of said planet? And is everything identified with a ^? Around the first planet, there were 7 of them but they were all ships just flying around.

07-09-2023 10:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082988#Comment_121082988

This is a comment I made earlier:

I've seen a couple of comments about fast travel so I'll just drop this here again. It really helped me when I shifted to this style of play.

Don't fast travel. At the start I was just teleporting everywhere and I felt the same way as you.

I play more methodically now. I get on my ship, get into the pilots chair, take off. Once in space I select my destination using the cockpit HUD (click the scanner button, LB on Xbox) and travel there by pressing X. Then once in orbit I select the destination and land. Because I'm traveling like this I am having all sorts of random encounters and it feels more immersive too.

If you use fast travel to teleport around the place you'll miss a lot of the games space encounters. Some of that content is brilliant.

To identify stuff in space like planets and moons, etc, use your scanner like when on the surface of a planet. The planets all exist on a plane, so once you see one they are all in a line, if you get me. No need to use the menu for traveling within a system.

robinph · 07-09-2023 11:16pm

In Fallout / Elderscrolls you wander around a bit, encounter some raiders/ zombies/ dragons... And then walk through a door to do the next bit of the quest. Alternatively you could hop on your horse and fast travel. Although you would have had to wander around to find each location first.

Now in Starfield the wandering around in space waiting for dragons or raiders to pop up is optional. But you do still have to wander around in the cities or planet surface to find the location before fast travelling there. It's the space travel bit which has been made optional.

There is as much free roaming about if you want it, just on planet surface rather than space.

recyclops · 07-09-2023 11:17pm

I am yet to start (damn you sea of stars for being enjoyable) but it really seems the more you put in the more you get out which is similar to elden ring, TOTK etc there can be hand holding and go from A to B to complete quest but if you let go of linearity you have a much better experience.

Am I reading it wrong or is that the gist. Seems those who get lost out of it are letting themselves get lost in the game almost on purpose. If that's it il need one or two mlre linear games to finish since TOTK took too much out of me

07-09-2023 11:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083194#Comment_121083194

Just a minor additional point, you can't fast travel to systems you haven't been to. You can't even fast travel through systems (on the way to another system) you haven't been to if they are in the travel corridor.

robinph · 07-09-2023 11:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083204#Comment_121083204

Nope, but you only need to sit in the cockpit for a moment, then as soon as you arrive just load the planet landing zone. Just an extra cutscene really and you don't have to do any space flight, just sit there and load the next screen.

07-09-2023 11:25pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083198#Comment_121083198

"but it really seems the more you put in the more you get out"

Yes. Going slowly and methodically is the best way to play, imo. Don't rush. Avoid fast travel.

"letting themselves get lost in the game almost on purpose."

Yeah you can pretty much do anything you want to. It's really about what interests you the most. There's a lot of depth to the various activities. But the game doesn't spoon feed you at all. Most of it you just discover.

07-09-2023 11:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083224#Comment_121083224

The random encounters in space happen because of these travels though. As soon as you arrive that's the trigger point for encounters, whether arriving in a system or in orbit around a planet. So unless you use fast travel to teleport around you will have plenty of non optional encounters.

EoinHef · 07-09-2023 11:30pm

Got myself 3 months of Gamepass tonight for €18, not to bad in fairness😀

Want to play Everspace 2 aswell so between that and Starfield I reckon that's pretty good value for money.

PC is a 9700K @ 4.9ghz and a 3080 FE so will have to see how it runs. Older ddr4 and on a 500Mb/s SSD so who knows really. Hoping the load times are not too awful.

Looking forward to getting stuck in, on holidays from work next week so hopefully get a decent few hours in

eggy81 · 08-09-2023 1:53am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121082931#Comment_121082931

I tried to stream it to steam deck working away from home and was checking to see would hotel WiFi do it. Was janky so quit straight away so not to ruin it. Might be a few of those type situations

Static M.e. · 08-09-2023 9:25am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081884#Comment_121081884

Thank you, these are working quite well with with the DLSS mod enabled, preset D, at the moment. I still get some stuttering but it's nowhere near as bad or as frequent. I can imagine this game looking amazing on 4K with new gaming machine.

brady12 · 08-09-2023 9:39am

I thought I would be ages in Akila city , wasn't that much to do there ? Couple quests I didn't complete cos I thought I be run out the city 😅😂. I'm being pushed towards neon now , excited see it from what I have heard but taking my time at same time .

I've had issues with xcloud on steam deck not performing well even on some indies I was never sure what to blame my wi fi ( unlikely ) , round about xcloud app on steam deck ( maybe ) or it was probably just xcloud . Indies like planet of lana & pentiment gave me issues . I played starfield last night on deck on xcloud and I was shocked at how well it ran !? fps was fine , no graphical glitches . They must have improved xcloud performance ?

titan18 · 08-09-2023 9:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083194#Comment_121083194

A lot of the planets i've been to are barren though. It's you go to the location that's marked on the planet and the general area about it and that's it.

Like in Skyrim you come out of the tutorial and see the big open world ahead of you and then you do the climb up to High Hrothgar, or you can just pick any random direction and go somewhere and you'll find something. I think Starfield is a lot more linear, it's travel to system/planet orbit, then travel to planet location and back. Your ship/map is basically just a level menu selection.

Jordan 199 · 08-09-2023 10:17am

https://twitter.com/StarfieldGame/status/1699905388542398474?t=yCXJXvP3lHch0Q5Rs7neIA&s=19

Congratulations Bethesda.

08-09-2023 10:24am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084054#Comment_121084054

Wow, I didn't expect that due to not launching on PlayStation.

08-09-2023 10:25am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083923#Comment_121083923

Yeah, it's not like Skyrim or Fallout.

robinph · 08-09-2023 10:30am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083923#Comment_121083923

Yep, but is the random wandering around in Skyrim doing anything other than just getting you to the next dungeon? In Starfield you can select a random planet to travel to through a menu, in Skyrim you have to walk there.

I don't think it's massively different, just in Skyrim you looked at some scenery of mountains as you go, whilst in space there isn't a lot to look at on the way so it's selected via a menu instead.

titan18 · 08-09-2023 10:38am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084131#Comment_121084131

I dunno. Like in Skyrim, you can happen upon random things like dragon attacks, same in other open world games like GTA, RDR etc.

I'd consider Starfieldin between those sort of games and Mass Effect, Star Wars Jedi in that it's a semi open world hidden behind a level select menu but it allows the player to tackle things in an order they want. It doesn't have the same exploration opportunities or abilities as a true open world game imo.

It's still early but wonder would they have been better off having only one galaxy system and actually allow for open world space exploration with maybe 6/7 distinct explorable planets rather than what they've gone for.

EoinMcLovin · 08-09-2023 10:41am

Man the map is so bad. Was doing a mission in Mars where I had to go to a cave. Marker was showing where to go in the surface map but since there is no mini map or compass, took me 5 minutes walking in different directions to try and find out which direction to walk. Even tried putting custom marker on map, made no difference. The missions page should at least have way to filter missions by areas at least. Activities don't give any detail on where to actually go.

I'm liking the game so far but navigation isn't great

08-09-2023 10:47am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084168#Comment_121084168

"It's still early but wonder would they have been better off having only one galaxy system and actually allow for open world space exploration with maybe 6/7 distinct explorable planets rather than what they've gone for."

This is the approach The Outer Worlds went for. I dunno, that game made me wish I could explore more of the galaxy. Like you were trapped in one system for no reason really. You had a ship, but you could only planet hop.

You're not wrong though, limiting it to a handful of planets would have allowed for more handcrafted landscapes. But I have enjoyed the exploration of the worlds so far, including the barren planets. The area you get to explore is pretty big, like I estimated it at around 75 sq km.

But I can definitely see why it wouldn't be for everyone. Some people would prefer a more curated experience. I'm just obsessed with anything space in general, so I'm getting what I want out of it.

_CreeD_ · 08-09-2023 11:07am

I think the biggest difference between this and the 'classic' experience is not so much the amount of random encounters but the sense of wonder that can lead you on into them. For example in Skyrim when you get to the first village and do your basic tutorial tasks, look up and there's a huge gothic tomb on the hill that doesn't fit at all with the surroundings, or coming across the Ghost Fence in Morrowind. The landscape draws you in and constantly has you thinking 'what's over there / what the hell is that' . I've done some random exploring in Starfield and initially I thought it was cool when I'd come across a pirate den, then it became just repetitive. Reminds me more of Oblivion where there were some cool dungeon like encounters to be had but mostly they were caves or underground and there was little of that 'wtf is that on the horizon' moving me along. This was actually something one of the main Bethesda designers talked about when Skyrim was launching - they realised they had dropped that in Oblivion and worked hard to put it back in. Still it is what it is and a good game regardless.

awec · 08-09-2023 11:19am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084092#Comment_121084092

This is GamePass at work really.

Anyone with a GamePass sub can play this game, even if they turn it on, play for 5 minutes and then decide it isn't for them. No need to pay the 70 quid up front to try a game any more.

08-09-2023 11:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084393#Comment_121084393

Yeah, good point.

Dcully · 08-09-2023 11:50am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121083845#Comment_121083845

What GPU you running?

DarkJager21 · 08-09-2023 11:57am

Just in case anyone feels like making a few free quid in Red Mile 😂

https://reddit.com/r/Starfield/s/fdHKx8Rlap

08-09-2023 12:03pm

I am very impressed with the quality of the procedural environments. I've landed on a few planets that have forests or whatever and they look very natural and authentic.

Like in No Man's Sky it was very obvious that it was proc gen, just plants and rocks randomly strewn about. That game was capable of producing beautiful scenery, but it seldom looked natural. But in Starfield the environments feel like a real place.

I'm wandering around Copernicus III right now in a zone described as "Amphibious Thicket" and it's just gorgeous.

pixelburp · 08-09-2023 12:05pm

Looks like the insanity has already started

https://www.eurogamer.net/this-starfield-player-made-an-unbeatable-ship-thats-all-corners

**** Starfield ****

Comments

Starfield