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[havoc00]

The galaxy is a big place in Starfield, and with hundreds of planets to explore, players can tour an ambitious recreation of the cosmos. While Starfield is off to an impressive start--230,000 players on Steam alone during the early access phase--some people are discovering that not every planet is created equally in Starfield, a design choice that Bethesda Game Studios says is a reflection of reality and humanity's place in the vastness of space.

According to Bethesda's managing director Ashley Cheng, Starfield's more barren planets came about from the studio needing to walk a fine line between enjoyment and authenticity. Not every planet "is supposed to be Disney World," Cheng said to the New York Times. The other reason for some of the desolate worlds that you'll encounter is that it helps keep expectations in check, emphasizes the vastness of space, and is designed to make you feel small against this backdrop of the infinite expanse of space.

"The point of the vastness of space is you should feel small. It should feel overwhelming," Cheng said. "Everyone's concerned that empty planets are going to be boring. But when the astronauts went to the moon, there was nothing there. They certainly weren't bored."

Bethesda On Starfield's Big, Empty Planets: Not Every Location "Is Supposed To Be Disney World"

Turns out that a big, empty planet is the perfect environment in which you can contemplate your insignificance in a cold and uncaring universe.

www.gamespot.com

 

[kirby007]

did you know you can't land on gasplanets

 

[Bernoulli]

Creative choice ™ and devs Vision ™

 

[Salty Popsicle]

They have been screaming from the top of their lungs since last E3 that this was a "NASA-Punk" type game with a much more realistic interpretation of sci-fi than most other games. I feel like a good portion of people complaining; "why do most planets not have alien civilizations waiting to talk to me" are being intentionally obtuse or just plainly ignorant.

 

[pasterpl]

Some people will be disappointed that they cannot land on gas giants or starts like the sun.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Some people will be disappointed that they cannot land on gas giants or starts like the sun.

Or, you can't land on any planet, you load in.

 

[SirKicksalot]

"The point of the vastness of space is you should feel small. It should feel overwhelming," Cheng said. "

"Which is why we're overwhelming you with menus to cycle through as you move from one system to another," he added.

 

[diffusionx]

This is an entirely reasonable take, and I was disappointed when NMS came out and every planet had some weird alien creature on it.

That said they had to have known that some people are weird and would want to walk around an entire planet even if it took hours, and would want a vehicle to drive around, but, you know, gamebryo...

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Some people will be disappointed that they cannot land on gas giants or starts like the sun.

I for sure wanted to fly into the sun for science

 

[havoc00]

I for sure wanted to fly into the sun for science

 

[DeepEnigma]

I for sure wanted to fly into the sun for science

 

[Interfectum]

I see no issue with what she said.

*starts frantically mashing the menu button*

 

[Draugoth]

Being barren isn't the problem, it's how they done it.

There are invisible barrier limits to where you can explore when you land and by the time you have 20 hours you will have seen copy and pasted activities multiple times, that gets boring very fast. Feels like Skyrim infiinite quest quimick.

Handcrafted quests are always much fun to do, specially on re-runs.

 

[Maxwell Jacob Friedman]

Does that explain why the game has significant reused assets?

Also you cant even move properly in space

 

[Lokaum D+]

"we made a space game with no exploration and most of the planets has nothing to do. Have fun"

 

[FunkMiller]

Latest images from the James Webb telescope tell us 85% of the universe is just copy paste.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Or, you can't land on any planet, you load in.

Good thing this isn't some late breaking news and has been discussed ad-nauseum since E3. People making noise about it at this point have an agenda or went into this game forgetting it's a Bethesda RPG first and foremost.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Good thing this isn't some late breaking news and has been discussed ad-nauseum since E3. People making noise about it at this point have an agenda or went into this game forgetting it's a Bethesda RPG first and foremost.

Aww, snookums. Now imagine if the game was like last-gen games on this last-last-gen engine, and you could actually explore space in a space exploration RPG they hyped it up to be, where fanatics said it would blow away last-gen games space exploration like NMS, Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, even the kiddie Starlink game. Now imagine if it had that actual NASA wonders of space like those games with no invisible walls, seamless taking advantage of tech last-gen games done so well at, with the Bethesda RPG elements added to it. Would that not be a generation defining game then?

 

[feynoob]

Flash news, space is big and empty.
It would have been good, if this games takes place around 3500+. That would give us good location and planets that have meaningful experience.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Bethesda:

 

[TheInfamousKira]

So like....as someone who is too lazy to research and has just been on the Starfield periphery...

Is the hype massive and growing, or does everyone think it's a big, empty, boring shit hole?

 

[Heisenberg007]

Good thing this isn't some late breaking news and has been discussed ad-nauseum since E3. People making noise about it at this point have an agenda or went into this game forgetting it's a Bethesda RPG first and foremost.

Yes, everything is an agenda. There are 0 issues with empty planets or limited space exploration in a ... role-playing game about space exploration.

 

[havoc00]

Bethesda:

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Aww, snookums. Now imagine if the game was like last-gen games on this last-last-gen engine, and you could actually explore space in a space exploration RPG they hyped it up to be, where fanatics said it would blow away last-gen games space exploration like NMS, Star Citizen, Elite Dangerous, even the kiddie Starlink game. Now imagine if it had that actual NASA wonders of space like those games, with the Bethesda RPG elements added to it. Would that not be a generation defining game then?

Good thing Todd Howard nor anyone at Bethesda ever said Starfield was going to be any of those things. I always expected a Bethesda-style RPG set in the distant future toned with a slightly more realistic approach and so far, that's exactly what I'm getting.

 

[SF Kosmo]

It's just not that game. It's the opposite approach of No Man's Sky. It's much more focused on bespoke content and missions, with some procedural set dressing, where NMS is space Minecraft with some mission stuff as set dressing.

Both are a compromise. If you try to do it all you end up with Star Citizen, it's just impossible.

 

[Heisenberg007]

Good thing Todd Howard nor anyone at Bethesda ever said Starfield was going to be any of those things. I always expected a Bethesda-style RPG set in the distant future toned with a slightly more realistic approach and so far, that's exactly what I'm getting.

It was marketed as primarily a space exploration game.

Edit: Also this:

 

[DeepEnigma]

Good thing Todd Howard nor anyone at Bethesda ever said Starfield was going to be any of those things. I always expected a Bethesda-style RPG set in the distant future toned with a slightly more realistic approach and so far, that's exactly what I'm getting.

It was marketed as primarily a space exploration game.

 

[Romulus]

Being barren isn't the problem, it's how they done it.

There are invisible barrier limits to where you can explore when you land and by the time you have 20 hours you will have seen copy and pasted activities multiple times, that gets boring very fast. Fels like Skyrim infiinite quest quimick.

Handcrafted quests are always much fun to do, specially on re-runs.

This. They can fuck off with their deflection by trying to make us out like we have some attention disorder too like every planet "needs" to be Disneyland. GTFO, Mostly barren worlds was expected, it's how they handled it.

 

[feynoob]

Starfield is a game that you will have to experience yourself.
Its a polarizing game, since not everyone agreeing on the issues.
Some like it, some dont.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Yes, everything is an agenda. There are 0 issues with empty planets or limited space exploration in a ... role-playing game about space exploration.

Good thing they told us months ago that this was a much more realistic approach to Sci-Fi that they were attempting to create and that only ~10% of the 1000+ planets would have some form of life. I'm sorry you were expecting Mass Effect.

 

[Sleepwalker]

I for sure wanted to fly into the sun for science

I think they could've made a cutscene where your ship disintegrates or gets destroyed when trying to land into these type of stars or planets.

They could've also made a generic transition cutscene for landing onto planets and ascending from them, sure it wouldn't have been actual gameplay but it would've helped a little with inmersion. And it could've been skippable for those that don't care.

 

[DeepEnigma]

Being barren isn't the problem, it's how they done it.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Starfield is a game that you will have to experience yourself.
Its a polarizing game, since not everyone agreeing on the issues.
Some like it, some dont.

Seems to be the verdict in this thread, at least, hahaha

 

[Pop]

Maybe Bethesda should have just stuck with one planet and made a handcrafted experience much like their older games. This game truly feels half baked

 

[sinnergy]

He is right I think, lots of planets won’t have life in galaxies .

 

[Fbh]

I don't really know what people expected though.
Either Bethesda had a major breakthrough in procedural generation tech (which they would have talked about by now) or it was always obvious that the hundreds of planets were going to be mostly empty and boring.
Most devs struggle to make more than like 30 hours of good content and the expectation was that Bethesda was going to fill hundreds of planets with interesting quests, locations, characters, creatures and secrets?

 

[Setsuna Mudou]

So like....as someone who is too lazy to research and has just been on the Starfield periphery...

Is the hype massive and growing, or does everyone think it's a big, empty, boring shit hole?

Second option at least for me, tempted to uninstall it already. And I wasn't hyped in any way coming in.

Hopefully it's just not for me and others have more fun

 

[Saber]

I do agree in parts about not everything being about civilizations and aliens, but thinking everyone was expecting a "Disney world" is remarkable stupid. Double that stupidness comparing the real world with space sci-fi(did anyone expected that from Star Trek/Star Wars for instance?)
Its an exploration game. If you don't give a reason to explore then exploring is meanless.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

Incredible film, fantastic soundtrack as well.

 

[Salty Popsicle]

Are you telling me that because I am unable to spend dozens of hours attempting to fly from one planet to another in a dark void, they cannot call it a space exploration game? Grasping at straws aren't you LMAO.

 

[Gudji]

It's load world instead.

 

[gothmog]

The gaslighting about the disappointing aspects of the game is top notch. Totally worth it.

I'm enjoying the game but I think the most astounding thing about it is how in your face most of the poor design choices are. They could have hid most of this stuff.

 

[Lokaum D+]

imagine making a space game where you can use ur imagination to develope fun planets to explore, create new races, have fun with gravity, have fun with weapons and alien tech and of all this flavours you choose the vanilla one and create the most generic space game to date.

i miss Mass Effect

 

[DeepEnigma]

Are you telling me that because I am unable to spend dozens of hours attempting to fly from one planet to another in a dark void, they cannot call it a space exploration game? Grasping at straws aren't you LMAO.

 

[Bogroll]

Yes, everything is an agenda. There are 0 issues with empty planets or limited space exploration in a ... role-playing game about space exploration.

Watching ACG. Karak seem to enjoy the procedurally generated planets, unless I heard him wrong.

 

[RoboFu]

Kind of a dumb thing to harp on. But if the mods allow it then....

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Maybe Bethesda should have just stuck with one planet and made a handcrafted experience much like their older games. This game truly feels half baked

I feel like that's the biggest risk these lofty, ambitious space themed games run into. Scaling. Of course not every planet will be an alien Palace world of wonder, but like...

I know it's not a perfect example, because these two games are completely different, but bare with me: Metroid Prime 3 had you go to several different planets, but each "planet," was scaled just like a different "area," in previous Metroid/Prime games. This meant that Retro was telling us to suspend our disbelief when the entirety of the explorable portion of Bryyo is the same size as the Chozo Ruins, a region of Tallon IV.

In the end, this optical illusion doesn't work, and it feels like a stage select at worst, and a game following the Assassin's Creed model of "25 hours of fantastic content spaced horribly apart in a 120 hour game," at best.

 

[Venom Snake]

 

[Stare-Bear]

Played it for a couple of hours, they could take out the spaceship mechanic and it wouldn't make a difference.

 

[havoc00]

Kind of a dumb thing to harp on. But if the mods allow it than....

why would the mods have any beef with a quote direct from bethesda?