Poll: Starfield Explorers, What Do You Think Of Fast Travel So Far?

I’m not voting as I e yet to play, but I was watching my friend play this morning. And it felt like there was quite a lot of it going on.

I’m just hoping when I play it it doesn’t feel immersion breaking. I can understand why reviews picked up on this among a few little niggles in there.

But again overall it’s a very solid game.

The fast travelling doesn't bother me but I have got a couple of negatives.

It needs some sort of vehicle/mount for surface exploration. The lifeless planets are so boring to get around. I don't mind walking on the planets with life though as there's plenty to see/scan.

The space part of the game feels bolted on. You fast travel to a planet just to see a big picture of it and chance of a random encounter. The combat is fun though when it does kick in.

I'm in love with the ship building, it's awesome. I spent an hour yesterday building an incredible looking ship to only realise I can't afford it 😂 would be nice to save "blueprints"

I feel its needed ,especially in the later stages of the game ,the gamespace is massive ,believe me flying from one planet to the next in a solar system would soon get old ,its an arcade space rpg ,not a sim,if you want that play elite ,the begining of elite is so tedious ,and the learning curve is quite steep,players would soon get fed up of crashing into every planet believe me,or maybe they shouldve taken the no mans sky route with planetary take offs ,thats great in the begining ,but it wanes after a while ,and your just fast traveling to planets anyway,I think as the weeks and months move on and more of the game opens up for players ,I think they will change their minds,and realise bethesda made the right decision,if you want exploration the choice Is there, i spent 20 min walking to a cave ,there was hardly anything in there,but that's the beauty of bethesdas games ,sometimes there is.

@SacredPYRO I agree a space buggy would be cool ,couldve had a planet dedicated to races ,missed opportunity i think, but thats what mods are for

@BBB do you know if there's anyway to change traits,I tried to kill my parents but that didn't work 😂

@tallythwack would you not think it would have been better to have both fast travel and ship travel? So that sense of adventure is there too?

@PsBoxSwitchOwner well yeah choices are always better ,maybe they tried and couldn't pull it off,and to be fair it is boring ,space is the same as the planets as in its a contained area with stuff in it ,I mean it does look possible to actually fly to a planet ,I started to do it ,but the distance marker was moving that slow I just gave up and fast travelled,because I wanted to get back in the game.

They need to have it like where if you fly other ships can fast travel with you where it’s like your in a vacuum tube

Agree, i honestly don’t like that all travel is basically done by some presses in the menu instead of just exploring and getting there and the fact that there’s lots of loading screens doesn’t help.

Another complaint I have so far is the lack of a simple map at least in big cities/settlements which also basically kills exploration coupled with the lack of travel.
Funny how I thought this game would be all about exploration and so far it’s the worst aspect of it.

I feel the fast travel function should be tight to the difficulty settings. The higher the difficulty, the less fast travel options you get.

It feels almost to easy for me to het around. But maybe that’s because I have so many hours in No Man Sky. (300+)

No Man's Sky travelling was boring. Very happy with fast travel.

@IOI for me, maps discourage exploration. All I do is just spend the time looking at the map rather than the world around me. Definitely like how it is within Starfield.

Fat travel not very intuitive, good for making the big jumps, but when you do land and the screen is covered in blue destination dots it gets very confusing way too easy to end up at the wrong dot.
Also the loading screens just to go from inside a facility to outside just to speak to somebody to find out that you have to go back inside again.
I'm loving the plot and the freedom but it just doesn't seem held together very well. Maybe a better floor_arrow_system would be better, one without the scanner, and making your mission for purple specific place you need to go?

I think it impacts immersion.

The fast travel is obviously there for convenience and many players would complain if it didn’t exist but I think both the fast travel and especially the loading screens impact the feel of immersion.

Even catching the train you don’t even get inside it. And when you load in after the journey you’re far away from it. I’d prefer to select where to go and go through an animation of getting on and off the train (or manually get on and wait for the doors to close) to keep the immersion rather than loading from one location to the other almost instantly.

This same concept can be applied to all the fast travel and loading screens.

I feel they could have kept the system the same but hidden it better behind clever cinematic direction.

@Kienda I agree,similar to ragnarok and the bridges ,you know its a loading screen but at least the interaction is still there

Flying planet to planet manually would take way too long, I don't think that would really work in an RPG of this size.

I kinda dislike how much the game relies on fast travel but I can live with it.
But the tiles not being continuous and connected is a huge huge downside for me.
It kills any immersion for exploration.

I spend far too long being over encumbered to be able to use fast travel.

I did notice there seems to be a way to directly go from one place (like orbiting planet A) directly to another (like a settlement on another B)

It's fine. and serves a purpose in the game where you could end up just travelling for days just to keep some realism.

@Kaloudz I have a limited amount of time so “time is money” … sounds like some were disappointed that it wasn’t a walking simulator!

For me, it's whatever. I would find traveling in space planet to planet to be pretty boring most of the time. But, I do think Bethesda should've hit some middle ground with this. Right now it's more Mass Effect than NMS or SC. Perfect for me, but sucks for those who like or were expecting those elements.

I need to spend more time with the game to determine how it feels to me. I am in New Atlantis and won’t play again till tomorrow. I will say that i wish there was a bit more animation with the train like getting in and off. Just felt to abrupt.

Honestly, I'm not too bothered about it, I only wish that the loading times were a little faster. Although, loading screens just from going in and out of buildings and lifts is a bummer after playing Cyberpunk 2077.

I haven’t played it yet but watched quite a few videos now and it just doesn’t excite me at all. It looks really boring and visually bland I think although I’m sure it has its moments. I imagined the game to be like Ubisofts space game how you pretty seamlessly traveled between planets

Xepla has the right of it. I am loving the game, but I expected space travel to be meaningful and it is non existant, it"s just annoying. You just fast travel your ship right to orbit above the planet, quickly scan it and land, it feels incredibly bolted on and you might as well have saved a few load screens omitting space travel altogether. I'm hoping it gets better as I get further in the game. But so far, the way they handled things in this game, it kills the sense of exploration that you got in previous Bethesda games.

@PureXbox,

Just a heads up but that coupon code is not working anymore.

All the poll options are too positive. It's BAD! Really BAD.

the fast travel is like mass effect which is a good thing

You need fast travel in a game of this size, I don't see an issue with it.
Anyhoo, I am absolutely loving the game. I enjoyed it so much over the weekend, I'm annoyed to be at work 🤣
I love everything about it... sure I agree with some of the comments above, but they don't bother me at all. I actually like the loading screen where it shows what photos you have taken on your travels too. The game is exactly how I expected it to be, love it.

@CallMeDuraSouka seems to be working OK for us, are you still having an issue?

@Jenkinss apparently you can fly from planet to planet in the same system,its gonna take you hours upon hours though,so quite pointless.

Every open world game needs a fast travel system. Starfield is no different.

It’s lame. Very, very, VERY LAME

@EVIL-C yeah but you are missing the point a bit, no? Nms has a fast travel system but you still explore space in a natural way with your spaceship.

@ArmoredMore If Starfield can't even get a fast travel system right, as all open world games should have (preferably with a few menu clicks) perhaps it's best for some like myself to wait until a sale before trying it. Here's when game pass is perfect for this type of game and players like myself.

@EVIL-C I would at least wait for the reviewers that didn’t get hand-picked by Bethesda to publish their reviews. Will give you a much better idea of what the game is actually like.

@ArmoredMore I'm fully agnostic on Bethesda and the hype around SF. I thought the showcase had some interesting stuff, but didn't make me want to buy it day 1. Of my two friends who were very hyped for SF and like Bethesda titles, one enjoys it, the other requested a refund a few days after playing it. So, there's that.

@EVIL-C I was super hyped after the direct showcase. As soon as I heard what they were doing with review copies I knew it was gonna be a bad game. You can look on Reddit for more honest opinions about the game (purexbox isn’t the most impartial place 😅)

@PsBoxSwitchOwner no it doesn't break immersion at all . It's not so much 'fast travel' , rather it's akin to a hyperdrive.
You don't have to use it and can fly manually if you wish. I did for a fair few hrs just to see - and was still about 12ly from my destination . Its a big game.

Non-spoiler. Answers to some questions and obvious misinformation re Starfield.
1. Not a fan boy. Own and run many platforms.
2. Not arguing for or against early access. Do what you like.
3. PureXbox and guys and gals. Please screenshot and document some of the quite obvious misinformation articles by other publishers. Having played since the 1st here in the UK I can address some of the more obvious untruths.

Ok here goes ill keep this as non specific and spoiler free as possible.
Q: Is it true there's fast travel?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you have to use fast travel?
A: No.
Q: So I can fly to a planet if I like?
A: Yes.
Q: Wait, so there's more than preset land sites?
A: Yes.
Q: Can I actually choose my own land site?
A: Yes.
Q: I can choose anypoint?
A: Yes.
Q: On any planet?
A: Yes.
Q: And land on it?
A: Yes.*
Q: So it IS technically true that you can choose any of the 1000 planets and land anywhere on them?
A: Yes.
Q: About landing. Does the shape of your ship affect its movement and aerodynamics?
A: Yes.
Q: Just landing?
A: No.
Q: Can you fly your ship?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you fly through asteroid fields for example?
A: Yes.
Q: Around planets, through gas giants, stellar gases etc?
A: Yes.
Q: Ard there space dogfights?
A: Yes.
Q: Again I'm guessing ship design plays a part?
A: Yes.
Q: Can't I just jump in and use some sort of basic free ship?
A: Yes.

Cont: in next post.

Cont:

Q: OK enough about the ship. What about bases. Can you build on any planet you like?
A: Yes. **
Q: We've heard a lot about this so called 'invisible barrier'.. Is there a limit and boundary to where you can / can't travel?
A: No.
Q: So you can just walk the entire planet if you like?
A: Yes. *
Q: There's reports of the same old jankiness from BGS. Is this true?
A: No.
Q: So it's stable?
A: Yes.
Q: But using the same Engine must give it that janky BGS look?
A: No.
Q: So it's polished?
A: Yes.
Q: Ate the spaces immersive? Detailed and well created?
A: Yes.
Q: I'm guessing you're wanting to jump back in?
A: Yes.
: Thank-you..
Final thought. You want to fly about ala Elite Dangerous stylie and hunt pirates / other ships, etc. Ok here you go.
Want to fly off to a random world and explore? Ok here you go.
Want to spend hundreds of hours perfecting your ships or bases? Ok here you go.
Its a fantastic achievement for BGS and XboX game studios. Anyone who has played this and has been fortunate enough to see game development evolve to this point will be truly amazed.
Some are so privileged in todays age, to complain about the possibility of a frame judder or how there's a slight delay between you leaving one floor in a lift and arriving at the next. It really is very sad and those whom know you are purposefully trolling should be ashamed. Journos especially.
For context. Pressing a lift button ingame quite obviously takes you to that floor. It takes about 5-6 secs for the doors to open on the new floor. I live in the UK. On average it takes about 3-4 mins at least before our lifts creakilly arrive.
Also regarding the new Creation Engine. You can really tell the effort put into overhauling it. Works and looks great.
For long term Skyrim or Fallout fans who may be worried about the infamous BTS (Bethesda Traversal Syndrome). Fear not.
It really does feel like a new engine. None of those odd 'patchy' queasy inducing polygons in sight. Even the so called uninhabited planets have multiple points of crafted interests.
And really finally. I would advise simply to play and judge for yourself.
For me, and IMO, it's easily a GOAT.
I hear the universe calling ...
See you in the stars ..

PS: re the * ** . Simply as I haven't explored everywhere yet.