A Starfield rant thread

[Mexicola88]

 

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Mexicola88 said:

 

Let it go, get back to what matters.....Starfield Rant, not a rant against the Machine.    

[Mexicola88]

I discovered something funny, a locked pile of shit. A classic BGS bug.

[GrimReaper]

On 9/19/2023 at 11:08 AM, DocClox said:

 

I'm no great fan of woke-for-woke's-sake, but I'd give this one a pass, honestly. There has been no Russia and no Africa in any meaningful sense for a couple of hundred years. What's left of humanity has been dumped into places like new Atlantis and Akila, and we can reasonably assume that a lot of cultural mixing has followed.

 

This is no worse to my mind than Larry Niven calling his hero Louis Gridley Wu to suggest a mix of Chinese, French and American heritage that absolutely no-one in the books found in any way remarkable. It's just a way of showing how cultures have mixed over time. Or that's how I look at it, anyway.

Tbh I find it highly implausible that anyone would speak with an old earth accent when the nation states of earth have been gone for... 200 or so years? That's what I don't like about these things, most diversity stuff is always a projection of our current times that gets plastered over somethin without even taking into consideration if it would make sense instead of just having a diverse cast with sci fi problems.

 

For example, the cultural conflict in The Expanse is about Belters - those being born and raised in space stations and such and most often exploited for dangerous labor in space - and the Inners, people from Earth, the moon and Mars. This is a culture that developed organically and has absolutely nothing to do with our current day one way or the other and it gets even more spicy by the fact that the Belters consider the Inners one faction while Earthers and Martians hate each other as well.

 

Meanwhile, in Starfield: In the year 2330 there are black russians in Alpha Centauri despite the fact that the concept of nation states got wiped out 200 years ago with the entirety of the earth.

Edited September 20, 2023 by GrimReaper

[Miauzi]

Vor 12 Minuten sagte GrimReaper:

Ehrlich gesagt finde ich es höchst unwahrscheinlich, dass irgendjemand mit einem alten Erden-Akzent sprechen würde, wenn die Nationalstaaten der Erde schon seit ... etwa 200 Jahren verschwunden sind? Das ist es, was mir an diesen Dingen nicht gefällt. Der meiste Diversity-Sachen ist immer eine Projektion unserer aktuellen Zeit, die über irgendetwas verteilt wird, ohne auch nur darüber nachzudenken, ob das sinnvoll wäre, anstatt einfach nur eine vielfältige Besetzung mit Science-Fiction-Problemen zu haben.

 

Der kulturelle Konflikt in „The Expanse“ dreht sich zum Beispiel um Belters – diejenigen, die in Raumstationen und dergleichen geboren und aufgewachsen sind und am häufigsten für gefährliche Arbeit im Weltraum ausgebeutet werden – und die Inners, Menschen von der Erde, dem Mond und dem Mars. Dies ist eine Kultur, die sich organisch entwickelt hat und auf die eine oder andere Weise absolut nichts mit unserer heutigen Zeit zu tun hat. Sie wird noch pikanter durch die Tatsache, dass die Belters die Inners als eine Fraktion betrachten, während Erdbewohner und Marsmenschen sich ebenfalls hassen.

 

Unterdessen in Starfield: Im Jahr 2330 gibt es schwarze Russen in Alpha Centauri, obwohl das Konzept der Nationalstaaten vor 200 Jahren mit der gesamten Erde ausgelöscht wurde.

 

In my view, this has nothing whatsoever to do with nation states - but with "we stay among ourselves" ... a typical social "construction" of immigrants or refugees.

I had already written - that I have an uncle (now unfortunately deceased) - who was born in Moscow.

He had studied in Germany at the end of the 1950s, met his wife there and moved to Berlin after their wedding in Moscow.

Over the years I got to know his other "Russian" study colleagues - his closest school friend, etc.

Among them was "Hans" - whose parents had fled Germany in the mid-1930s to escape Hitler ... was also born in Moscow as a child - and thus, as a "Soviet" citizen with German nationality, also studied with my uncle in Germany.

After reunification, "Hans" travelled a lot - visited the USA several times ... He especially liked it in "Little Odessa" in New York - he didn't have to speak English there - he got much further with Russian ... similar to an Italian in "Little Italy" with his mother tongue.

The USA in particular is often described as a melting pot of cultures ... which I cannot believe after the many reports from friends and acquaintances ... it's more like a side stream of many "currents" - all trying to preserve a part of their "identity".

 

One should not confuse "integration" with complete "assimilation".

As an example I take the history of my own hometown "Berlin" ... in the 17th century about 40,000 French Protestants ("Huguenots") immigrated to the Kingdom of "Prussia".

They settled mainly in Berlin and its immediate surroundings - and made up 1/3 of the city's population virtually "overnight".

Since French was spoken at the German courts at that time anyway - there were hardly any communication problems with the "upper classes" at first .... The situation was quite different down below.

It took almost 150 years until integration was followed by almost complete assimilation ... but this also meant that many everyday terms had their roots in the French language. (A school friend of my aunt married into the family of one - whose ancestors came from France at that time).

---

Unlike Niven's "Ringworld" universe or "The Expanse" universe, this world did not experience a prolonged settlement of the "belt" - so such a culture could not have arisen in the first place.

One had, so to speak, only the small colony on Titan ... when the catastrophe occurred on Earth and everyone "jumped into the lifeboats".

The whole thing was more like late antiquity when the migration of peoples really turned the whole Mediterranean region upside down.

[GrimReaper]

The Expanse was an example of cultural conflicts in a sci fi setting done right, you don't need a carbon copy of that in Starfield. Nation states ceased to exist some 200 years ago and to think that any old earth accent would survive is a stretch. If anything, people from the UC on planet X would have a different accent than people from the UC on planet Y, for example. And the Freestar Collective as well. People in the setting of Starfield should derive their identity, culture and speech patterns depending on which planet there are from and not from something that has been dust for 200 years.

[Bafflegab]

1 hour ago, GrimReaper said:

Tbh I find it highly implausible that anyone would speak with an old earth accent when the nation states of earth have been gone for... 200 or so years? That's what I don't like about these things, most diversity stuff is always a projection of our current times that gets plastered over somethin without even taking into consideration if it would make sense instead of just having a diverse cast with sci fi problems.

 

For example, the cultural conflict in The Expanse is about Belters - those being born and raised in space stations and such and most often exploited for dangerous labor in space - and the Inners, people from Earth, the moon and Mars. This is a culture that developed organically and has absolutely nothing to do with our current day one way or the other and it gets even more spicy by the fact that the Belters consider the Inners one faction while Earthers and Martians hate each other as well.

 

Meanwhile, in Starfield: In the year 2330 there are black russians in Alpha Centauri despite the fact that the concept of nation states got wiped out 200 years ago with the entirety of the earth.

And the OH so wonderful diplomat and the security officer interaction at the NA spaceport ... which we will see so much more of in the new GTA.

 

BGS was so busy chasing a higher ESG score than putting out a quality game. The main story and lore is a joke, that is full of massive plot holes and contradictions. You can meet the Hunter as soon as you get to NA, in the viewport bar. You probably can fight him there too, need to test that out.

 

Dragonborn/Starborn, Dawnguard/Vanguard (even your POC for the factions is almost identical), Shouts/SB Powers (forget what they were called), Dragon souls/SB souls (also forget what they were called), word walls/artifact temples, So so forth and so on. I wanted something new, not a retexture.

[GrimReaper]

The game has a bad case of corporate sanitation going on, yes. Everyone looks the same, everyone behaves the same, no one uses any slurs. Food and language is the same everywhere, there's no distinction between the different cultures except that the clothes and architecture look different. Nobody faces any discrimination whatsoever. Sure, people might want to murder you but at least they'll be polite about it. It's space California everywhere you look.

 

There's zero gore or dismemberment. The most you might see are some desiccated corpses here and there in some dungeons but not much else. Everything that could be deemed offensive has been removed and as such, the world feels very artificial, bland and sterile. It's basically the game version of the "corporate art style" you see everywhere nowadays. And the writing, well, it's the worst I've seen so far, especially the snarky and sarcastic options for the player are horrendous. Millenial writing at its best.

[DocClox]

4 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

Tbh I find it highly implausible that anyone would speak with an old earth accent when the nation states of earth have been gone for... 200 or so years? That's what I don't like about these things, most diversity stuff is always a projection of our current times that gets plastered over somethin without even taking into consideration if it would make sense instead of just having a diverse cast with sci fi problems.

 

Ehh... yes and no. There are cultural enclaves on Earth that have kept their cultural identity despite being away from their nominal homeland for longer than that. It's not implausible that there might be a Little England in New Atlantis that could produce a Sarah Morgan, or a Russiantown in Akila whence Vlad might have hailed.

 

On the other hand, you're quite right: there would be new accents and slang developing on different planets. On the other hand, that's a hard thing to do right, and it's much easier to explain something like Belter Creole in a book than it is in a game. So I don't entirely blame them on that front. You're not wrong, but I can see why they might have thought this approach was better.

[DocClox]

Now, for something I can really rant about: here.'s my new ship!

 

 

Actually, it's pretty much the same as my old one, just missing come cowling.

 

 

In fact anything that resembles an exterior mesh

 

 

It all started with New Atlantis spaceport suddenly having now ground meshes. Now half my ship has gone. Classic Bethesda. I'd thought the game was more stable than this.

[GrimReaper]

15 minutes ago, DocClox said:

 

Ehh... yes and no. There are cultural enclaves on Earth that have kept their cultural identity despite being away from their nominal homeland for longer than that. It's not implausible that there might be a Little England in New Atlantis that could produce a Sarah Morgan, or a Russiantown in Akila whence Vlad might have hailed.

 

On the other hand, you're quite right: there would be new accents and slang developing on different planets. On the other hand, that's a hard thing to do right, and it's much easier to explain something like Belter Creole in a book than it is in a game. So I don't entirely blame them on that front. You're not wrong, but I can see why they might have thought this approach was better.

Maybe, but the game never tells or shows anything about any sort of cultural enclave. If there were a XYZ-Town anywhere in the game, nestled into a bigger city you might have a point. But as far as I can tell, there's nothing there. Starfield is instead a game where everyone looks the same, talks the same and behaves the same. It's a big melting pot with no distinctive quality other than faction affiliation.

[Guest]

Where in blazes is all the Sushi coming from?? Smoked Salmon?? Only one world with water I have found so far that's Neon.

Watermelons, lemons, Celery, Grapes etc. are synthetic but I haven't found the source there either.

 

 

I am starting to like the complexity of the gameplay mechanics though it's taking a bit to figure out and get proficient at.

[Demonwise]

9 minutes ago, DocClox said:

Now, for something I can really rant about: here.'s my new ship!

 

*picture snip*

 

Actually, it's pretty much the same as my old one, just missing come cowling.

 

*picture snip*

 

In fact anything that resembles an exterior mesh

 

*picture snip*

 

It all started with New Atlantis spaceport suddenly having now ground meshes. Now half my ship has gone. Classic Bethesda. I'd thought the game was more stable than this.

 

Ok, now that is genuinely hilarious. Hilarious for exactly one minute or the time it takes to realize how much of a pain in the ass it will be to rebuild all of that, whichever comes first.

 

 

[FauxFurry]

4 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

Tbh I find it highly implausible that anyone would speak with an old earth accent when the nation states of earth have been gone for... 200 or so years? That's what I don't like about these things, most diversity stuff is always a projection of our current times that gets plastered over somethin without even taking into consideration if it would make sense instead of just having a diverse cast with sci fi problems.

 

For example, the cultural conflict in The Expanse is about Belters - those being born and raised in space stations and such and most often exploited for dangerous labor in space - and the Inners, people from Earth, the moon and Mars. This is a culture that developed organically and has absolutely nothing to do with our current day one way or the other and it gets even more spicy by the fact that the Belters consider the Inners one faction while Earthers and Martians hate each other as well.

 

Meanwhile, in Starfield: In the year 2330 there are black russians in Alpha Centauri despite the fact that the concept of nation states got wiped out 200 years ago with the entirety of the earth.

The Mobile Suit Gundam series handled this better, with all of the main space colonist protagonists being so thoroughly mixed both genetically and culturally that the only significant divide was between that of those born on Earth and the 'Spacenoids' or the Zeon Republic(well that and Newtypes, a type of psychic who develop among the space faring population). For goodness sake, one of the major crew members in the first series was named Ryu Jose (who is said to be of Black Hispanic-Japanese-Hawaiian lineage in the supplemental materials), a heritage which his character design reflects.

The main character of the original series was also selected to sound ethnicity non-specific though it does sound vaguely Asian (Amuro Ray) but it is spoken out in a distinctly non-Asian name order (his personal name is Amuro while his surname is Ray).

The last 'ethnicity' might very well be a small desert nation isolated from much of the rest of the world which does not engage in space travel.

 

Why did a show from 1978 which was never meant to be seen by anyone outside of Japan handle 'diversity' better than a modern mass market American AAA video game?

[Demonwise]

I saw this come across my newsfeed on my phone and thought it was hilarious.

 

"I spawned hundreds of Starfield NPCs and made them fight each other, and the winner was a guy named Bill"

"This is how you're supposed to play Starfield, right?"

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/i-spawned-hundreds-of-starfield-npcs-and-made-them-fight-each-other-and-the-winner-was-a-guy-named-bill/

 

[DocClox]

34 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

Maybe, but the game never tells or shows anything about any sort of cultural enclave. If there were a XYZ-Town anywhere in the game, nestled into a bigger city you might have a point

 

Eh, a lot of SF worldbuilding is done by implication. It'd take too much time and exposition to explain and include every supporting detail, especially when they're not directly relevant to the story. So you sketch in a few hints and let the imaginations of the audience do the rest, It's good narrative technique generally..

 

33 minutes ago, Demonwise said:

Ok, now that is genuinely hilarious. Hilarious for exactly one minute or the time it takes to realize how much of a pain in the ass it will be to rebuild all of that, whichever comes first.

 

Yeah. The ground at the spaceport is still missing as well. This is ceasing to be funny.

 

 

 

[Miauzi]

Vor einer Stunde sagte Sir Bron:

Wo zum Teufel kommt das ganze Sushi her? Räucherlachs?? Bisher habe ich nur eine Welt mit Wasser gefunden, nämlich Neon.

Wassermelonen, Zitronen, Sellerie, Weintrauben usw. sind synthetisch, aber ich habe auch dort keine Quelle gefunden.

 

 

Ich fange an, die Komplexität der Spielmechanik zu mögen, obwohl es ein wenig dauert, sie herauszufinden und zu beherrschen.

 

There are many worlds with oceans - there is also plenty of life in them.

If you want to scan the fauna of such planets completely - you have to look for a click point (biome area) with coastal strips ... and go to the shore.

You can NOT "swim" in all seas/oceans ... in some there is instant death by FREEZING (at +10°C).

so that means observation from shore aka scanning.

Just did this on the planet of the "Black Russian" (Vladimir) - a ray species lives in the swamp/ocean.

Only in the swamp the water areas are too small - there you "look for a wolf".

[GrimReaper]

1 hour ago, FauxFurry said:

Why did a show from 1978 which was never meant to be seen by anyone outside of Japan handle 'diversity' better than a modern mass market American AAA video game?

Putting actual thought into the world building vs. ticking boxes to please investors.

[travelmedic]

1 hour ago, Sir Bron said:

I am starting to like the complexity of the gameplay mechanics though it's taking a bit to figure out and get proficient at.

 

I suspect that's a main reason why some people criticize the game.  They were expecting everything to work exactly the same as Skyrim/FO4, and some of the mechanics are just a lot different and take some getting used to.  Some people are quick to criticize "oh, it's just another BGS game" and then at the same time criticize that they can't do this or that the same way they've done it in other titles.

 

It's a good game if people give it a fair chance.  Probably not Game of the Year, but it's not so bad like the BGS haters say.

[Miauzi]

Vor 10 Minuten sagte Travelmedic:

 

Ich vermute, dass dies einer der Hauptgründe ist, warum manche Leute das Spiel kritisieren. Sie hatten erwartet, dass alles genauso funktionieren würde wie bei Skyrim/FO4, und einige der Mechaniken sind einfach ganz anders und gewöhnungsbedürftig. Manche Leute kritisieren schnell: „Oh, es ist nur ein weiteres BGS-Spiel“ und kritisieren dann gleichzeitig, dass sie dies oder das nicht auf die gleiche Weise tun können, wie sie es in anderen Titeln getan haben.

 

Es ist ein gutes Spiel, wenn die Leute ihm eine faire Chance geben. Wahrscheinlich nicht das Spiel des Jahres, aber es ist nicht so schlecht, wie die BGS-Hasser sagen.

 

The problem is that central mechanics like the spacesuits do NOT work!

You can't get poison gas damage from a "smoker" (smoking little hill) in a vacuum on a moon at -230°C!

Without a spacesuit you are frozen to death in 5 seconds and after 45 seconds you are suffocated anyway because of the vacuum.

So why do you get a lie damage from -> POISON GAS?

Especially ... if they are sources of noble gases like argon or neon ... Argon is used in diving (deep diving) as a cheap substitute for helium!

But of course you can ignore all that ... it's just a game ... hahaha

[travelmedic]

1 hour ago, Miauzi said:

 

But of course you can ignore all that ... it's just a game ... hahaha

 

Well that's the point - it IS a game.

 

After all, my uncle's girlfriend's sister's hairdresser cuts hair in the same salon where a renowned Dragon Zoologist (published on Wikipedia) gets his legs waxed, and he says The Elder Scrolls can't possibly be real because dragons don't breathe fire, they shoot lightning bolts out of their asses instead.  Does that mean we need to throw away 10 years of people enjoying Skyrim?

[cosmicanomaly]

My rant is how disappointed I was with the animation, bland exploration, and gameplay. Geez Bethesda. It's been nearly two decades since Oblivion and you still have janky animations in your 2023 game? Why are NPCs still staring at my character the same way they did in Oblivion? It's just strange and unnatural to have every NPC stare at my character like he's  either got a booger sticking out of his nose or he's their dream lover as he passes by. 

 

The gameplay sucks compared to other similar games released within the last few years. Melee combat is boring because you're locked to 3 hit combos and slow weapon swings no matter what melee weapon you're using. Why are there no 2handed weapons? There's also no perks to add new weapon skills, attacks, etc. So basically, I can't learn stuff like kicking, jump kicks, uppercut, and take downs. Good luck with melee stealth. Enemies have the super human ability to detect stealth even if my character is maxed out on this perk. Sure stealth was OP in Skyrim and Fallout. It needed improving, but giving the enemies the ability to detect stealth even when I'm in another room is dumb.

 

Ballistic weapons are far better than lasers and particle beam weapons. I've only come across 3 different laser weapons. I have a vast array of different ballistic weapons. 

 

Exploration was good for the first few hours until I realized I'm running into similar or even identical procedurally generated layouts. It got repetitive and boring quickly because there's nothing really worth finding other than gear if enemy NPCs were there. There's no real reward either to encourage exploring. For example, no encounters with humanoid beings still stuck in their version of medieval times. Anomaly geographic discovers don't offer anything worthwhile. Why not include rare ingredients used to craft unique and powerful gear in these anomalies? Throw in a tough random encounter with mini-boss to make players earn the ingredients/treasure. Stuff like this makes exploring more exciting and rewarding. 

[DocClox]

I did a bit of research on the missing ground issue. Apparently it can happen if you sell a ship or change your ship on a space station. You sell the ship, get in your new home ship, undock, and the next thing you know you're on the ground at New Atlantis Spaceport. Take off from there, and half the ground meshes lift off with you.

 

It's not a fix, but if you ever find yourself unexpected in in New Atlantis under such circumstances - reload promptly!

 

Now I have to decide if I want to re-do the last two FC missions and the CF Breaking The Bank mission into the bargain, or just put up with it and hope it sorts itself out...

 

[edit]

 

... and a possible workaround

Edited September 21, 2023 by DocClox

[GrimReaper]

On to the gameplay itself, in no particular order:

 

1.: There are many essential NPCs that you can't kill despite the game having an option in NG+ to do the main story without any help or quests from NPCs. It would be the best setup in any Bethesda game ever to simply allow you to murderhobo your way through the game - simply default to that state if you kill an important NPC.

 

2.: It seems Bethesda has a fetish that one character should be all you need. You can level until you unlock everything. I don't care about that, I want different characters with different themes. Plus they seem to be afraid you might miss some CONTENT which is why the game more or less railroads you. Started with Skyrim when the Main Quest forced you to interact with the Thieves and Mages Guild. How powerful optional content can be is shown with the Dark Brotherhood which you can destroy if you want because they aren't tied to the Main Quest in any way.

 

3.: Loading screens everywhere. There's on particular mission with the UC Vanguard on the Mars settlement - if you want to enter, you have to sit through a 5 second airlock animation that is actually a loading screen door, there's no reason it should take that long. Then you speak to NPC A who directs you to NPC B who resides in a different section of the settlement which you can only reach through an elevator which is also a loading screen. You make the trip into the settlement and between NPC A and NPC B multiple times. Normally I'm pretty resilient to this stuff but this actually pissed me off.

 

4.: Bad AI, especially for alien creatures. The terrormorphs are the most egregious. They're Starfield's new apex predator akin to the Deathclaws in Fallout. Despite the missions that involve them having a very cool setup and atmosphere, the terrormorphs often get stuck and can't do anything, they pose no real danger except to your ammo count because they're tanky as hell. Deathclaws in Fallout 4 were way, way more dangerous.

 

5.: Nagging, dumb and nitpicky companions. During one mission, you need to decide whether to resurrect a natural enemy or engineer a pathogen to deal with terrormorphs, Sarah will berate you for "not trusting science" if you choose the natural enemy over the pathogen DESPITE the involved scientists saying that while the pathogen should be safe, you can never rule out every mutation that might make it dangerous for other life forms such as, you know, humans. Spreading a pathogen through the entire galaxy and having it on every ship and every planet is a recipe for disaster in my opinion. Of course she dislikes it when you stay on your path because Sarah's understanding of science is a cargo cult version of what science actually is. Especially dumb because previously she also berates you for accessing the archives of banned knowledge (which is the only way to continue this quest afaik) to learn more about the terrormorphs because it has been locked away for "a reason".

 

6. The snarky and sarcastic dialogue choices for the player are the worst I have ever seen. They're totally lol randumb out of place social media speak. You can "groan" on behalf of "all scientists ever" because some random guy didn't know what the artifact in his posession was, for example. Or you can say That you're "an elevator person now" and that this elevator is now your home.

 

7.: Mostly empty planets with random POIs that take ages to get to because you're walking everywhere. Worst case I've seen so far is the temples you can visit - you land a few hundred metres away from it and simply walk there without anything happening in the meantime.

 

That are some random thoughts. I still have fun with the game but after 45 or so hours the motivation to play it is getting lower and lower. And while this is highly subjective, I often can forgive a game's faults when I do get the feeling of what the devs were going for and how amazing it would be if they could've actually fully realized their vision. This has been the case in every Bethesda I've played so far but it's entirely absent in Starfield. Even if you fix a lot of the gameplay issues, even if they would allow for seamless travel between space and planets like No Man's Sky, even if they got rid of most loading screen et cetera I simply don't think it would matter in the grand scheme of things.

Edited September 21, 2023 by GrimReaper

[DocClox]

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

1.: There are many essential NPCs that you can't kill despite the game having an option in NG+ to do the main story without any help or quests from NPCs. It would be the best setup in any Bethesda game ever to simply allow you to murderhobo your way through the game - simply default to that state if you kill an important NPC.

 

So no change there then

 

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

2.: It seems Bethesda has a fetish that one character should be all you need. You can level until you unlock everything. I don't care about that, I want different characters with different themes. Plus they seem to be afraid you might miss some CONTENT which is why the game more or less railroads you. Started with Skyrim when the Main Quest forced you to interact with the Thieves and Mages Guild. How powerful optional content can be is shown with the Dark Brotherhood which you can destroy if you want because they aren't tied to the Main Quest in any way.

 

Well, one the one hand, I did a full run where I finished the FC questline and didn't even start UC, CF or Ryujin. So I didn't feel especially railroaded.

 

That said, I agree the NG+ thing is a bit weird.I have a lot of ideas for different characters, and I kind of feel like I've not finished the game till I get to NG+10. That's a lot of reruns with the same character. It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure it's going to work as well as they'd hoped.

 

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

3.: Loading screens everywhere. There's on particular mission with the UC Vanguard on the Mars settlement - if you want to enter, you have to sit through a 5 second airlock animation that is actually a loading screen door, there's no reason it should take that long. Then you speak to NPC A who directs you to NPC B who resides in a different section of the settlement which you can only reach through an elevator which is also a loading screen. You make the trip into the settlement and between NPC A and NPC B multiple times. Normally I'm pretty resilient to this stuff but this actually pissed me off.

 

Honestly, they have to load the assets somehow. Unless you want to see stuff popping into existence as you watch, it needs some sort of screen. Whether elevators and airlocks and take-off cut-scenes are an improvement over the Oblivion approach of giving you a picture and a game hint or lore snipped - that's an open question, I suppose.

 

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

4.: Bad AI, especially for alien creatures. The terrormorphs are the most egregious. They're Starfield's new apex predator akin to the Deathclaws in Fallout. Despite the missions that involve them having a very cool setup and atmosphere, the terrormorphs often get stuck and can't do anything, they pose no real danger except to your ammo count because they're tanky as hell. Deathclaws in Fallout 4 were way, way more dangerous.

 

Yeah, some of the Terrormorphs are pretty broken.

 

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

5.: Nagging, dumb and nitpicky companions.

 

Next time I'm doing a solo act, I tell you!

 

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

6. The snarky and sarcastic dialogue choices for the player are the worst I have ever seen. They're totally lol randumb out of place social media speak. You can "groan" on behalf of "all scientists ever" because some random guy didn't know what the artifact in his posession was, for example. Or you can say That you're "an elevator person now" and that this elevator is now your home.

 

On the bright side, at least we can see them coming, unlike Fallout 4. Hell I even used the "all scientists ever" one. Mainly because my character was a scientist and a bit of a jerk, admittedly.

 

2 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

7.: Mostly empty planets with random POIs that take ages to get to because you're walking everywhere. Worst case I've seen so far is the temples you can visit - you land a few hundred metres away from it and simply walk there without anything happening in the meantime.

 

I think the didn't quite stick the landing with planets. From the sound of it, Todd wanted Buzz Aldrin's "magnificent desolation" with all those frozen, empty planets. And it should have worked save for the fact that we're always in a hurry. I mean, we're gamers! We want to get the power from the temple so we have an advantage in the fight against X, which will give us a benefit regarding Y ... What we should be doing, arguably, is taking in the landscape, soaking Inon Zur's soundtrack, and letting a little of the emptiness seep into our souls. But practically, that's never going to happen.

 

Doesn't help of course that if we stand still too long, we'll end up with frostbite, radiation damage and who knows what else as well. We don't want to be out there for any longer than we have to, and with good reason.

 

 

Edited September 21, 2023 by DocClox