**** Starfield ****

MadYaker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121109354#Comment_121109354

I’d agree to be honest. I’m 30 hours in and still enjoying it. But it’s not the same feeling I got when playing Oblivion, Skyrim or Fallout 4 for the first time, I couldn’t get myself away from my PC for those and when I wasn’t playing them I was thinking about them.

Starfield so far just hasn’t sucked me in the same. Since I’ve gotten Starfield I’ve spent as much time playing Hell Let Loose, a game I already have 1500 hours in. I think there are some issues.

The space setting and the resulting requirement for frequent cut scenes / loading screens makes the world feel very disjointed or disconnected. It breaks the immersion. Some odd design decisions too, like why can’t I scrap weapons to get components? If I upgrade the engines (or anything else) on my ship I can’t keep or sell the old ones, they’re just gone. The crafting system imo is a step backwards from FO4. Exploring planets becomes tedious pretty quickly due to only being able to walk everywhere, usually over encumbered, and the environments are mostly featureless and barren. We need some type of lunar rover style vehicle that can be transported on your ship.

That said I’ll still give it an hour two this evening I’m definitely not bored yet. In time I think mods and dlc will flesh it out a lot. You’re spot in with that Tolkien quote that describes it perfectly. For me probably a 6.5 / 10

taxAHcruel

Was gifted a copy and dropped in for an hour here and an hour there as time permitted. Does very much feel like Skyrim in a lot of ways for sure.

The one thing bothering me that I can not figure out is that periodically I see a message saying a particular mission or other has been "Updated". But I see nothing new or changed in the missions list or descriptions.

For example I just completed some side quest which I think was called "rough landings". Just as I completed it I also got the message that the mission "A new Narrative" was updated. How? Why? What?

It makes me nervous when something like that happens in games. Like there is some kind of time limit that was not shown but because I did not do the mission quick enough something was updated or changed. Or that some choice I made in one mission is affecting another mission but I am not actually being told how?

Or is it just a glitch and means nothing?

Static M.e.

Not sure how many hours I am into the game but I'm level 20 now. I take it everyone is or was running around on the Mantis. I just added a few cargo holds to it tonight as well as some autocannons and a bigger shield. It's a little better now. What I am wondering is, what is everyone else piloting after the Mantis? I've seen some nice ships at the vendors, but they are about 400K give or take. I don't think I want to spend a lot of designing ships at the moment.

Dcully

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121110379#Comment_121110379

I have the star eagle as my main from quest reward and the razor something or other also from a quest reward.

Ill be honest im not into the space combat too much, its okay just nothing special but i find the infantry combat very good but the game as a whole is getting very repetitive now.

Not sure i can sit through much more dialogue :P

TheValeyard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121108381#Comment_121108381

This happened to me with my Razerleaf ship. Started out wanting to add another cabin.....ended up changing cockpit, engines, weapons, shields, adding two more decks, etc.

Flying to another shipyard to add more stiff, then another then another

Boom, night was gone. But I've a large ugly ass contraband hiding, fast gunboat.

EoinMcLovin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121110379#Comment_121110379

Got the Razorleaf (Mantis) ship last night and have the Kepler R which I can't use yet as its a C Class. Still using Frontier but added extra missiles and lasers to it. Spent 40 minutes trying to completely redesign Razorleaf, ending up running out of money so scrapped it. Spent another 20 trying the same with frontier and gave up. There should really be a way to share ship codes as there are some unreal designs going around

Dcully

This craftable ammo and utilities mod is a must have imho, you can craft ammo med packs and digipicks.

https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/831?tab=description

Darwin

This game reminds me mostly of the the Outer Worlds, not Skyrim or Oblivion at all. I'm level 6 and only about 7 hours in and I felt the initial tutorial left a lot to be desired. There is a lot of discovery to be made in how the different game systems work, even understanding the stats of weapons is never explained. I've spent most of my roaming on Alpha Centauri and I find it tough going finding medpacks and enough ammo to beat the levelled up Pirates.

Apart from the gameplay, the display config has my 4K G-sync capable TV listed as a 1080p generic monitor? Something strange going on!

Potential-Monke

EG review summed up my time with it too. Great that some people are able to love it, but it feels lifeless and disconnected right now.

Also, you need a mod to craft ammo? Is this the first Bethesda game to leave that out?

You couldn't craft ammo in vanilla Fallout 4. You could later in a DLC that added machines for manufacturing.

I think Fallout 3 was the same, but I didn't play that.

AlmightyCushion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121109766#Comment_121109766

I think when that happens it is because you completed a quest and your active quest gets changed to a new quest automatically

Potential-Monke

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121110949#Comment_121110949

You'd think they'd add it from the start at this stage. It's like they really don't learn anything to leave things like this and scrapping out. That GOTY edition is gonna be good I reckon, and will be the release this should have been. I don't get the leeway Bethesda get that other devs would be crucified over.

banie01

Started into this today. It's my 1st time making any serious effort to play a Bethesda game 😮 That I have made it to 43 and swerved Skyrim, Elder Scrolls, Fall out and others like is a surprise to me. TBH the only game I've played that involves crafting mechanics is probably RDR2 and resident evil. Outside of strategy games and resource management it's not a mechanic that's ever grabbed me.

I'm slowly getting to grips with its neccesity in Starfield and no doubt that will lead on to me giving more time to a lot of other games I've avoided until now.

I'm playing via Xbox GPU and so far have played across my Laptop, my Nvidia Shield and my phone with razr kishi and I have to say! The ability to dip in and out on multiple devices with near zero loss in performance or fidelity is brilliant!

Looking forward to getting to grips with the game and improving as I go. I think the ship control and combat dynamics are great and managing power levels and distribution adds a nice level of nuance beyond turn 'n burn.

EoinHef

Iirc ammo crafting in fallout 4 wasn't very cheap and took a decent amount of mats, I used to buy ammo later in the game as I had a ton of caps by then.

In my experience of Bethesda games inventory management and shortage of consumables initially was always part of the progression.

It does feel a bit dated in this day and age though, like artificial gating of content through slowing players down to have to accumulate items and carry weight.

Like it or hate it it's been part of Bethesda RPGs for a good while at this point though.

Potential-Monke

I get it, but there's no advancement. It's a Bethesda game, yes, and it's more stable than any other day 1 Bethesda release, but it's still just a Bethesda game. Nothing makes it shout next gen or new. No realy evolution. And the worst intro to any Bethesda game, it was missing the Oblivion/Skyrim moments of wonder and awe, replaced with brief looks and loading screens. So save for a 60fps mode being launched on SX, will wait for GOTY. And I'll bow out now because I'm sure those enjoying the game want to discuss it with others enjoying the game.

EoinHef

I agree, so far there doesn't really appear to be much in the way of advancement regarding the Bethesda formula, they certainly have not re-invented the wheel here in anyway from what I've seen so far.

I recently replayed Fallout 4 again with a bunch of mods but its still very apparent Starfield has a lot of the same DNA.

While I'm liking playing through the game so far I am glad I can access it through gamepass as I'd probably be a bit miffed if I spent €70 on it. I'm pretty sure by 3 months I'll have finished the game and tried others (Everspace 2)on gamepass for €18.

Id love the game to have been amazing and set new standards for RPGs of its type but its certainly not that, which itself is a little disappointing, but it is what it is.

Static M.e.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121110735#Comment_121110735

I definitely need this; I was running around last night my six favourite guns and only one had ammo...

Any other top mods recommended?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121111405#Comment_121111405

Really? I think Bethesda receive an absurd amount of criticism. If people don't like their design choices it's fine, but some people seem to have genuine hate for them. It's very odd.

On the scrapping point, I don't think that's always a good thing. That was in the Outer Worlds (and Cyberpunk I think?) and it made me feel like I was obliged to pick up every single gun I found. Sorry, but that is not fun gameplay in my opinion.

Do you find that fun? Picking up every gun you see?

In Fallout 4 there was at least some context for it, like it's a post nuclear apocalypse so where else do you find screws? But why would you do it otherwise? It's just boring.

I'm glad that in Starfield you don't have to collect literally every gun you find. I've been telling people not to do this in fact, much to the annoyance of Noel.

Regarding ammo. Who is running out of ammo in this game? It's lying around everywhere you go. It's actually kind of silly how much ammo there is in this game. 😄 But I agree, ammo crafting should be in the game. I didn't realise it wasn't actually... because I didn't need it.

MadYaker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121110379#Comment_121110379

I’m going to figure out whether it’s cheaper to build my own or buy them. Stealing other people’s ships is also an option but when I’m exploring a planet and another ship lands it always takes off again before I can get to it.

degrassinoel

So I restarted the entire game last night. Lasted about 3 hours before i decided to call it a night.. like i said previous, it's not bad.. but it's missing what kept me playing other BGS games. Uninstalled it just there, may pick it up again in a few months but realistically, the game has soured for me a lot quicker than i thought it would have.

Anyhoo..

Dcully

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121111922#Comment_121111922

I use the craft ammo one aswell as the burden me not one that prevents you from being able to pick up useless items like hammer etc.

Star UI also, other than that i edit my config to increase FOV.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121111924#Comment_121111924

Really? I think Bethesda receive an absurd amount of criticism. If people don't like their design choices it's fine, but some people seem to have genuine hate for them. It's very odd.

I think it comes back to the issue that in the time that their last game came out in 2011, Bethesda's roost as The preeminent Open World studio has become somewhat null and void. The louder criticism I've seen seems born from what I perceive as their failure to evolve their bread & butter against the broader industry.

Divorcing the frothing-mouth criticism that's just Angry Gamers Being Angry Gamers, since Skyrim the "Open World" has not just become something of a mainstay genre - but games like the latter-day Zeldas have kinda underlined that the genre can be robust, bug-free and bring some imaginative flourishes on the whole genre.

Potential-Monke

It's great to have people who are better with words then I am to get what I'm trying to say across! :)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121114316#Comment_121114316

I don't want to get into a debate on games other than Starfield in this thread. But I was unimpressed by the Z named title you allude to. Just because a game is "universally praised" doesn't mean praise is universal.

But if Starfield isn't your thing, I have just the solution for anyone who feels that way, because I did it with the Z game. I stopped playing it and I stopped talking about it. There are better uses of my energy than on games I don't like. 🙂

Back on topic, I'm getting deep into the main story/quest now. I want to finish the game so I can start my second play through where I just do whatever.

I'm really impressed by the main story and the choices along the way. It's very interesting and well directed. The writing is certainly miles better than Fallout 4 although that is a pretty low bar to clear.

Dave_The_Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121114022#Comment_121114022

I just uninstalled it too, after maybe 20 hours. It's just not very good. Everything is just ... average. Aggressively average.

The characters are dull, particularly the companions, the quests - for the most part - are boring go here and click/kill/collect something quests that I'm struggling to care about, the travel is never ending and just as series of slightly fancy loading screens, the space combat is almost as bad as NMS, the enemies on ground are uninspired. Building outposts isn't worth it, nor is surveying - it's far too time consuming and with lots of aforementioned loading screens, inventory management is a pain. I don't have a reason to go places, even if something looks nice, what's the point of it? Speaking of looking nice the graphics are ... not what I'd expect in a 2023 AAA game of this supposed calibre. I realise they're being held back by their engine, but that's their decision and problem, not mine. I also did not enjoy the perk system where you have to earn putting points into some early skill point choices. Locking weapon modification behing level 2 is not something I think is a good choice for example.

I'm also a bit miffed by the amount of features (qol and otherwise) they left out that were in previous games. Like reading something without collecting it, or scrapping of weapons / items for materials. It smacks of laziness.

There's parts of the game I enjoyed, the atmosphere and design of some of the hubs was good and in general the vibe/atmosphere I get I enjoyed and it worked some ways to getting me immersed (sadly most of everything else dragged me the opposite way). Some of the weaponry, particularly stealth, was satisfying to use. The ship designing and such is a nice touch, even if the doors are bleugh - I feel this should be expanded on a lot if they intend adding to this game and not just through paid DLC packs.

But most of it is just ... meh. It's there. We've seen it all before and the universe isn't intersting enough to get us invested in caring. Things have moved on in the last 11 or so years since Skyrim, but it doesn't look like Bethesda has.

(And if someone asks me "What did I expect, it's BGS", the answer - along with rolling my eyes so far back in my head I can see behind me - is: After eleven years - I expected something better than this thoroughly average mess.)

Dcully

Ok im 45 hours in and i think im done, i just dont have the will to boot it up and sit through a wall of dialogue.

Someone linked this review on steam to me on discord and for someone who actually enjoyed the game to a point i have to agree in part.

Heres a quote of it 😂

Enter ship *cutscene*, sit down *cutscene*, launch *cutscene*, jump to next area in space *cutscene*, dock at space station *cutscene* , exit space station *cutscene*, jump to next planet *cutscene*, land on planet *cutscene*, get out of chair *cutscene*, exit ship *cutscene*,

you may now proceed to walk around the planet. No there are no ground vehicles so you have to walk, have fun.

Game is a glorified loading screen, you can't fly to locations in space, this is on top of the combat still being the same left click spam for melee, and the exact same shooting as fallout4, fallout3, NV etc.

Imagine spending 10 years making this game and calling it your biggest game ever. Good job Todd.Just let modders fix your game. Again. Oh yeah the performance is horrible, the textures are trash and there isn't even an FOV slider. Like I said, good job Todd.

degrassinoel

Enter ship *cutscene*, sit down *cutscene*, launch *cutscene*, jump to next area in space *cutscene*, dock at space station *cutscene* , exit space station *cutscene*, jump to next planet *cutscene*, land on planet *cutscene*, get out of chair *cutscene*, exit ship *cutscene*,

you may now proceed to walk around the planet.

All those things are awesome the first time you see them, but after the 4th or 5th planet i visited, it was feeling like completely needless fluff, by the 8th, it was teethgrindingly tedious. A generic docking/launch/gravjump etc.. picture in picture of that would have been less intrusive and less immersion-breaking.

Just finished the game. I thoroughly enjoyed that experience. I'll be starting another play through soon.

I see that this thread has turned into a Todd Bad circle jerk so I think I'll just leave ye at it. I'll check in after a few weeks and see how things are.

👋

taxAHcruel

I avoid most of those cut scenes. When I am on a planet anywhere I just choose my next mission and click the "Plot course" button from the mission itself. This skips:

1) The travel all the way back to your ship

2) Boarding the ship and getting to the cock pit

3) Take off

4) Travel to the next system and then travel to the planet.

5) Sometimes (not sure why sometimes and not all the time, probably something to do with the contraband scan some planets do) also skips the landing and disembarking the ship.