If you happen to enjoy some ponderous planetary exploration in Starfield, you'll be glad that the dev team made things much more friendly out there in the run up to launch. In a new discussion on the 'AIAS Game Maker's Notebook Podcast' (thanks, GamesRadar), Bethesda's Todd Howard talked about exploring the cosmos in Starfield, and how the experience was once a lot more punishing.
Basically, at one stage, the team had quite an unforgiving system in place that meant exploring planets was a much more difficult task - depending on conditions and the gear you had acquired. In the end, the team "nerfed the hell out of it" so that players could enjoy roaming around more:
"So the way the environmental damage works in the game, on planets and on your suit, you have resistances to certain types of atmosphere effects, whether that's radiation or thermal, etc. and that was a pretty complex system.
It was a complicated system for players to understand [...] we just nerfed the hell out of it."
Todd went on to say that at one stage, the game required you to switch between different spacesuits to survive on different planets; "one for high radiation planets, one for really cold planets" etc., but the team didn't want to overwhelm the player. However, the Starfield director did hint that something similar could come to the game after launch - although no promises were made.
The full interview is well worth a watch if you've got an hour or so of spare time and even a fleeting interested in Bethesda's latest RPG - Todd opens up about developing Starfield and how it was working with Microsoft towards the end of the process.
Would you like to see a system like this in Starfield? Maybe on higher difficulties? Let us know your thoughts down below.
[source youtu.be, via gamesradar.com]
Comments 16
This explains why most those environmental element resistances feel entirely meaningless. Survival mode might be interesting, when its added. Would also be nice to see a use for food. As it stands, food make for poor healing items most of the time.
Good job too. Wandering around on these soulless empty planets is not much fun imo, and would have been worse if it were punishing too.
Every minute not spent on a copy paste planet is time you can be following the missions and interacting with the characters, which is where this game shines in typical Bethesda fashion.
If this game were set on a single planet it would be just as enjoyable to me. Space Combat is OK, but it doesn't add to the games strengths, and the endless fast travel loading screens are one of the most disappointing traits of the game.
I'm glad they removed hostile environments and have no desire at all to see them introduced like Todd is suggesting.
What we need is a suit/weapon set system that maybe can be stored in your ship. Depending what you are doing you can grab the appropriate set instead of trying to do a load out that is good for anything that can happen. Exploring can have its own sets, hunting pirates another and so one. Have like a suit locker on the ship with the different loadouts that can be saved and upgraded as you find or make better gear for each set. This would make the different biomes and danger a lot more fun to mange then trying to keep it all on your personal inventory and getting encumbered after picking up 1 pistol.
Players were able to understand metroid prime back in the day, this feels similar?
I just want more traits. They feel like just an afterthought.
That sounds like a good thing. One of the things that could make exploring the dull planets even worse would be having to deal with needless stresses like additional environmental damage on top of that. It's a great game in many ways, but planetary exploration ain't one of them!
I love the status ailments system in Starfield. It’s hampering but doesn’t feel intrusive but seems to attempt at semi realism. It’s the little details like it that keep me hooked on the game. I just really wish they would fix the quest bugs sooner than later.
Thank goodness. Having to deal with that would have been absolutely awful.
@Titntin “ Wandering around on these soulless empty planets is not much fun imo, and would have been worse if it were punishing too.”
The more I hear about the game… The more is sounds like these planets wasn’t going to be as empty as they were in the final game. This game sounds like another CP2077 situation where they had to cut so much content or else the game would be in development hell.
If they been able to ship the game with everything they wanted. The environment suits would have been a pretty cool addition.,
I like it like this. I have never been a fan of making things too difficult in a game. Sure, some people seem to derive satisfaction from that, but for me it simply makes the experience frustrating and off-putting. I want to be able to enjoy my games and relax at my own pace.
@AverageGamer Well look at Star Citizen. 10+ years into development and they are barely half-finished. I am glad we got to actually experience Starfield as opposed to it being one of those ambitious games that stays in development forever.
@AverageGamer To be fair, planets which are part of quest lines tend to be more interesting and memorable. Bethusda can still craft a great story and usually craft a suitable environment to help sell it.
But Im really not enamoured of the procedurally generated worlds with the odd identicate feature. I dont feel compelled to explore them like I do with NMS. I guess mods will help in the future 😊
@JayJ Star Citizen is just a massive money scam at this point.
@Titntin Well, yeah, but I’m talking about the fact they wanted to do more actual detailed planet, and not just stuff you go to during the story. Even their original plans for Earth was more of a fallout style planet instead the barren dessert planet we got. For all we know, they was probably planning on going back over the procedurally generated worlds and making them more detailed and handcrafted.
On a UC mission fighting terrormorphs, I had pneumonia and frostbite so severe that both my oxygen and health were being drained as I moved. Proper felt the conditions on that one. Loved it though, gave an extra edge to that critical mission.
They should make a hard mode where it isn't nerfed and see what people think of it.
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