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Starfield in the land of Elder Ring

onesvenus

Member
Seeing how well received Elden Ring's open world, which seems like manually crafted instead of procedurally generated like Oblivion/Skyrim/etc. has been received, do you think Starfield will be up to par on this aspect?

The sense of exploration and discoverability are amazing both in Elder Ring and Zelda BOTW and I'm worried it will feel half assed on Starfield.

What do you think? Will Starfield planeta be procedurally generated worlds with some manually crafted "dungeons" placed there or will feel more like Elden Ring?
 
Sense of exploration will be just as good.

You don't get towers in Bethesda games that unlock 100s of map markers remember?

You can only find the place if you been there, same as Elden Ring.

All you get is quest markers, which would require some time/effort to completely get rid of.
 

Chukhopops

Member
Seeing how well received Elden Ring's open world, which seems like manually crafted instead of procedurally generated like Oblivion/Skyrim/etc. has been received, do you think Starfield will be up to par on this aspect?

The sense of exploration and discoverability are amazing both in Elder Ring and Zelda BOTW and I'm worried it will feel half assed on Starfield.

What do you think? Will Starfield planeta be procedurally generated worlds with some manually crafted "dungeons" placed there or will feel more like Elden Ring?
There’s nothing « procedurally generated » about Oblivion/Skyrim, what are you talking about exactly?
 
Elden Ring has some great 3D geometry in the overworld. Lots of jagged cliffs and interesting areas. Definitely looks hand-crafted. Traversal is not really that great, so very rudimentary platforming. Distant markers are handled very well artistically, with castles and giant glowing trees marking waypoints in the distance that don't look like Ubisoft towers, so that part is very well done.

I don't really expect that from Starfield. It'll be more narratively interesting though. Probably very similar to Skyrim. Fun to explore, but not some marvel of open world level design. You will probably have to follow markers and a compass to get anywhere. They have always struggled with that.
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Still have no idea what Starfield is going to be other than "Skyrim in space".

Thats a lot more then other games.

Its not hard to imagine, imagine fallout 4 with a bit better visuals the ability to fly spacecraft.

As for the style think alien franchise and event horizon (in terms of spacecraft design)
 
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Topher

Gold Member
Thats a lot more then other games.

More than other games coming out this year? Not sure about that.

Its not hard to imagine, imagine fallout 4 with a bit better visuals the ability to fly spacecraft.

The spacecraft aspect alone opens up a lot of questions. Space battles? Are we moving into Elite Dangerous territory? I haven't seen much of anything about that stuff. That isn't a complaint. I'm ready to be blown away, but I'm really hungry to know more.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
There’s nothing « procedurally generated » about Oblivion/Skyrim, what are you talking about exactly?

There were procedurally generated quests in Skyrim, just not dungeons. I think it's the Mandela effect in action because a lot of people seem to remember Skyrim having some generated dungeons, I had to actually look it up to confirm that that wasn't the case.

TES6 will have procedurally generated dungeons though so it's not a reach to imagine Starfield might, I just don't believe so.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Seeing how well received Elden Ring's open world, which seems like manually crafted instead of procedurally generated like Oblivion/Skyrim/etc. has been received, do you think Starfield will be up to par on this aspect?

The sense of exploration and discoverability are amazing both in Elder Ring and Zelda BOTW and I'm worried it will feel half assed on Starfield.

What do you think? Will Starfield planeta be procedurally generated worlds with some manually crafted "dungeons" placed there or will feel more like Elden Ring?

Soon as they’ll go for realism, it’ll probably be way more boring than Elden ring.

Yeah, the map design is insane in Elden ring, but also because it’s fantasy, it makes possible the huge sprawling underground areas or fucked up terrain littered with huge fallen structures or high rises of terrain.

I can’t imagine an open world in the next 3 years to top this.
 
Soon as they’ll go for realism, it’ll probably be way more boring than Elden ring.

Yeah, the map design is insane in Elden ring, but also because it’s fantasy, it makes possible the huge sprawling underground areas or fucked up terrain littered with huge fallen structures or high rises of terrain.

I can’t imagine an open world in the next 3 years to top this.
There are some pretty canyons and mountains on Mars. They could pull out some impressive geometry if they wanted.
 
I’m 10000% confident starfield will have a more evolved world. They had the “see that go there” long before anyone else and they had a good balance between check list and organic exploration. I have supreme confidence the team will make a transformative open world game again.

Edit: elden ring is my favorite game ever as of this point. But I don’t want starfield to have a Botw style open world. More so elite dangerous level of involvement with typically crafted Bethesda style hub worlds on planets.
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
More than other games coming out this year? Not sure about that.



The spacecraft aspect alone opens up a lot of questions. Space battles? Are we moving into Elite Dangerous territory? I haven't seen much of anything about that stuff. That isn't a complaint. I'm ready to be blown away, but I'm really hungry to know more.

Yeah you're right.

It is new ground for Bethesda, they haven't really done much vehicle or aircrafts.

The closest thing is the power armour in f4, theres also the brotherhood of steel air ship, but you have no control over that.

I think there will be space combat, but likely slower paced then elite dangerous. Hopefully we will be able to walk around the ship when its in warp.
 
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Plantoid

Member
In elden ring lots of elevators are copy pasted too, that's not what peoceduly generated is..

But you're kinda right, after elden ring they raised the bar, any open world game that comes after will be under heavy scrutinity, just like how Forza horizon did with open world racers

But man, were talking Bethesda, the main team, guys who made fucking fallout and elder scrolls, game will be awesome in its own way
 

Chukhopops

Member
There were procedurally generated quests in Skyrim, just not dungeons. I think it's the Mandela effect in action because a lot of people seem to remember Skyrim having some generated dungeons, I had to actually look it up to confirm that that wasn't the case.

TES6 will have procedurally generated dungeons though so it's not a reach to imagine Starfield might, I just don't believe so.
Ah yes you mean the radiant quests. I wouldn’t call that procedurally generated but yeah I guess it existed. It’s a very small part of the content available, mostly made for people who did all the quests and want to max out.
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
starfield needs to be something quite different from anything Bethesda have done. there have been far too many great open world RPGs since Skyrim or even Fallout 4. I enjoyed those games but i don't think they can get away with the same old formula anymore but hey it is Bethesda so will probably get a pass.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
There are some pretty canyons and mountains on Mars. They could pull out some impressive geometry if they wanted.

Oh I don’t doubt geometry, but we kind of had a taste of planet rendering for a while now with Elite dangerous, Star Citizen, No man sky and in some ways, the mass effect series. The thing is if you make it realistic with a couple of bases and so on, it will still feel samey.

I think as soon as you start using tools that generate the terrain based on physics, like if it snows have this kind of look, have that kind of erosion, etc, a kind of « forge » like Frontier used in elite dangerous and Star citizen procedural technology, while they can look hyper realistic, it’s not exciting.

Just saying that, realism isn’t going to blow the lid off in design. It’ll look pretty though, for sure.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Can't be buggier than Elden Ring, can it?

Bethesda… (Skyrim PS3 flashbacks)

Cracking Up Lol GIF
 

Tg89

Member
Eh, Bethesda games have a much different structure than something like Elden Ring. It'll be different but could be equally impressive. I'm not holding out hope since Bethesda is a shell of its former self, but at their best they can certainly do it.

Elden Ring is the first open world game to actually take what BOTW started and run with it/evolve on it. Crazy since it's been so long, but most devs don't have the chops for that I guess.
 

Markio128

Member
What I love about Todd’s games is when you emerge from some internal area and into the open world for the first time; being hit by that overwhelming sense of freedom and adventure. I believe Starfield will have 2 of these moments, which I’m guessing will be similar to previous games, in walking out onto an initial overworld, then a second when you fly into space for the first time. Skyrim sort of spoilt this aspect for some reason, compared to Oblivion. Taking off in NMS and flying into space for the first time was also an amazing moment.
 

Bumblebeetuna

Gold Member
They don’t have to be comparable, they will likely be very different games. It’s also subjective. I’ve read a lot of people complain that the ER open world is not that great and not rewarding. Meanwhile give me a game like Fallout 4, where you literally have to explore to open up the map, it’s great.

Some of the “filler” content you see in Fallout 4 while exploring the world is better than the narrative in a lot of full games.
 
More than other games coming out this year? Not sure about that.



The spacecraft aspect alone opens up a lot of questions. Space battles? Are we moving into Elite Dangerous territory? I haven't seen much of anything about that stuff. That isn't a complaint. I'm ready to be blown away, but I'm really hungry to know more.
I think there's zero chance of space battles. I doubt we have like shields and things. The sparks were flying off the rocket when it was starting up in the teaser trailer, making it look almost similar to conventional present-day propulsion rockets. Anything like that wouldn't be able to take weapon fire.

I think it's more like astronauts exploring.
 

yurinka

Member
Seeing how well received Elden Ring's open world, which seems like manually crafted instead of procedurally generated like Oblivion/Skyrim/etc. has been received, do you think Starfield will be up to par on this aspect?
No Man's Sky is procedurally generated. Oblivion/Skyrim isn't

What do you think? Will Starfield planeta be procedurally generated worlds with some manually crafted "dungeons" placed there or will feel more like Elden Ring?
I think it won't be like Elder Ring, which is an open world Souls game. I think Starfield will be more like a Skyrim/ESO or a Fallout 4/Fallout 76 in space.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Totally different sorts of games. I also think you might be misunderstanding the extent to which games like Bethesda's are "procedurally generated." They aren't procedural in the sense of something like No Man's Sky, it's just that the process of detailing the map is streamlined because their tools can figure out where individual trees go and how rivers flow and that sort of thing. It doesn't mean that artists aren't still crafting the world.
 
Are the cities in Eldon ring that good? Lots of NPC going about their business?
I thought it was kind of cute that Horizon forbidden west had NPC walking in threes when I got near bridges. They tried to make it look like Skyrim with NPC waking the roads.
 
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Fredrik

Member
If Elden Ring is a 10/10 then I think Starfield will be a 9.5/10. I can’t see a scenario where the combat is more than servicable going by past Bethesda games but I think the story, lore, characters, exploration, quests will be awesome. The areas where Bethesda’s previous RPGs shine is where Starfield will shine as well.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
No Man's Sky is procedurally generated. Oblivion/Skyrim isn't
They use procedural tools in building the open world. Which is probably also true of Elden Ring and literally any open world with natural terrain at this point. It just means that artists aren't individually placing trees and rocks and that sort of thing, not that they aren't crafting the landscape. It just means things are done on a higher level. Which is really the only way to effeciently make an open world. I don't think OP really knows what he is talking about, I think he is just getting hung up on the fact that Elden Ring has more of these larger hand-crafted "levels" than Skyrim, which has nothing to do with procedural generation and is strictly a design choice.
 
I thought this thread was gonna be about how rough every game has been coming out since covid started and how Starfield would set a new standard for broken games on release.

I cannot wait to see how a ‘Big ol’ Space’ Bethesda game launches in 2022
 

Topher

Gold Member
I think there's zero chance of space battles. I doubt we have like shields and things. The sparks were flying off the rocket when it was starting up in the teaser trailer, making it look almost similar to conventional present-day propulsion rockets. Anything like that wouldn't be able to take weapon fire.

I think it's more like astronauts exploring.

I'm cool with that too. I'm a sucker for space games especially upgrading/buying/selling ships for exploring, resource gathering, etc.
 
Strong disagree on that from me.

You can't disagree with a fact, that's why it's a fact. They make sure to hand craft very specific locations to meet their desired art and story purposes, but make use of procedural generation where it best suits their needs. They're using much more procedural generation this time than ever before, but still going in and hand crafting the important parts.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Who knows

If the planets are massive then I expect a lot of copy paste content and procedural generation to fill them with content.

I'm hoping for big planets.

I want hundreds of planets, each with a map that is tens of millions of square miles large.

This is supposed to be set in space, so it needs to be massive and reflect that.
 
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