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Bethesda boss says he's put 150 hours into Starfield and "hasn't even come close" to seeing everything

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
Well of course, I reckon if you just mainline the central quest, it won't be more than 8~10 hours.

But who plays these BGS RPGs and only mainlines the quest.
That’s how I’ve managed to finish Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout 3/4. I just did the main quest and dabbled in side stuff. With BGS games I’ve always had the mindset of sticking to the main quest and then occasionally running off somewhere random. I get very bored with trying to find the meaning to small conversations with other NPC’s. That’s what allures me to the main quest. It’s like Halo Infinite. I didn’t do the side stuff because I felt no other purpose running off doing whatever. I’ve wasted time running off to find this glorious side stuff and got nothing. If I raid an extra couple buildings and get more items/ammo, that’s a plus. Side quests are a hit and miss if you ask me. I remember with Oblivion, getting the skeleton key or visiting the painted world were big highlights. Visiting the dark brotherhood in TES was also fun. That was it. That’s not like 20 extra hours. That was maybe a couple hours tops. I still got what I wanted from their games without having to go over the 200 hour mark.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
That’s how I’ve managed to finish Skyrim, Oblivion, and Fallout 3/4. I just did the main quest and dabbled in side stuff. With BGS games I’ve always had the mindset of sticking to the main quest and then occasionally running off somewhere random. I get very bored with trying to find the meaning to small conversations with other NPC’s. That’s what allures me to the main quest. It’s like Halo Infinite. I didn’t do the side stuff because I felt no other purpose running off doing whatever. I’ve wasted time running off to find this glorious side stuff and got nothing. If I raid an extra couple buildings and get more items/ammo, that’s a plus. Side quests are a hit and miss if you ask me. I remember with Oblivion, getting the skeleton key or visiting the painted world were big highlights. Visiting the dark brotherhood in TES was also fun. That was it. That’s not like 20 extra hours. That was maybe a couple hours tops. I still got what I wanted from their games without having to go over the 200 hour mark.

I've tried that way a few times as well honestly, especially with FO3, to get to Rivet City asap and skip a lot of side content in the middle.

But, to me, that makes the experience feel a bit hollow as I'd naturally like to explore the location(s) I'm at at the moment, talk to people there, get their local quests etc.
 

sainraja

Member
There is a difference between procedurally and randomly generated.
2+2 always equals 4, that's a procedure. If one of the numbers is randomly generated, it might equal 3 or 10 or 23.859.
What they have done is procedurally generate the planets, so the general landscape should be the same for everyone (as in No Man's Sky, for example. 18 quintillion planets, but since 2+2=4, they are the same for everyone), but then added handcrafted scenarios/locations onto these that are randomly generated for each player.
That's the way I understand the system. Please correct me if anyone knows more
Hmm, interesting. But just to be clear, I wasn't saying that players would get a random number of planets — I thought, outside of the handcrafted areas, everything else is procedurally generated (and just FYI, I didn't use the word randomly generated, not that it matters); I understand the elements that are going to be generated are likely fixed, and those elements will not look different to each player, but their placement, would be? In other words, if I see element A in position X, another player might see element A in position Z or whatever — I was also expecting the terrain elevation to be different for each player as well, so it wouldn't be 1:1 for everyone.
 
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Asked about the length of the game on today's official Xbox Gamescom stream, Hines says, "There's not an amount of time that I'm comfortable enough [to say] 'now you've played it enough Starfield to get what this game is'. I'm at 150-160 hours on my current playthrough, and I haven't even come close."

That kind of hour count isn't just a 'how long to beat' number - director Todd Howard said last year that the main quest alone would take around 30 to 40 hours - but it does indicate the sheer breadth of content in the space game.
Dude is that actually Todd's character? It looks fucking real hahaha. I hope the character creator looks this good!
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
I get it. I'm actually looking forward to playing this too but just the thought of it being so massive in scale is the draw it used to be. How about a tight 60 hours with compelling quests and missions, instead of over a 100 hours with fetch quests?

There are people that criticize just about any aspect of games, that plenty of other people love. Some of the biggest games have massive amounts of content too, so not sure why anyone would think "hey that doesn't have much appeal anymore."

Bethesda RGPs are pretty rare at this point, hasn't been one for 8 years. It's not like they are flooding the market with this type of game or anything, and they always sell incredibly well.

Also there's absolutely nothing required about most of Bethesda RPGs content. It's not like you need to finish 20 fetch quests and clear 4 towers to move on to the next section (and that kind of game can be fun too lol). They don't generally require any grinding or searching for loot either, despite leveling and loot being part of the games.

There's really nothing like these games.. they have massive appeal.. the whining or preaching about them comes across really silly to me. They are making the kinds of games they love to make, and plenty of people love playing them. That's what should matter with media products; if you want products that only target the latest and greatest trends or "what draws people" I don't know what to tell you, I think that's really what is wrong with most media, not the other way around.

I don't give 2 shits about fighting games or sports games and you know how many comments I've left in threads on those types of games?

Zero. Because I'm normal lol
 
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Hudo

Member
I mean, it's nice that the system is big but ... are the gameplay systems equally "big" (i.e. deep)? Can I blow up or glass planets? Can I cause two factions to have a massive space battle? Because Skyrim was pretty shallow in that regard. You couldn't really influence the civil war between the Empire and the retards and you couldn't even deviate from the main story quest line.
Where I refused to kill Paarthurnax, the Blades questline essentially "ended" for me. So I never finished Skyrim's main story quest. This was pretty disappointing.
 

anthraticus

Banned
It’s A Bad Thing, and a radical departure from their previous hit game Skyrim that could be completed 100% in 12 hours 🙄



Yep. So outdated.

Everyone knows the market has moved on from expansive games like Elden Ring and BG3.
I'm talking about trying to sell it on size alone doofus
 

naguanatak

Member
Hmm, interesting. But just to be clear, I wasn't saying that players would get a random number of planets — I thought, outside of the handcrafted areas, everything else is procedurally generated (and just FYI, I didn't use the word randomly generated, not that it matters); I understand the elements that are going to be generated are likely fixed, and those elements will not look different to each player, but their placement, would be? In other words, if I see element A in position X, another player might see element A in position Z or whatever — I was also expecting the terrain elevation to be different for each player as well, so it wouldn't be 1:1 for everyone.
You're correct on the placement part.
I just wanted to clarify how I understand the systems (only using the information provided in trailers/deep dive and coming from countless hours of No Man's Sky, which uses very similar elements/techniques).
That's why I used 'randomly' in my explanation. If the terrain on planets would be different for every player, it would be randomly generated. But since its procedurally generated, it will be the same.
Then again, you can use procedural generation and apply it dynamically as in games like Diablo 2 or other arpg's where every run could potentially be a different layout of the same map assets, but for Starfield that would be counter productive because when you land on planet A and explore, leave and do some quests on other planets for 20 hours, then come back to the same spot on planet A, it should still be the same terrain. I hope they somehow save the generated locations/set pieces so that it doesn't seem weird that outpost F is now a cave and the same outpost is a couple kilometers away.
But the details of all of these systems will only get clearer by playing and testing the limits of it. Which is a big part of the fun and anticipation I have for this game. People can bitch and moan about procedural generation, but no game comes close to the joys No Man's Sky gave me by just exploring and finding weird/cool stuff...
 

Ozriel

M$FT
yeah two recent games renowned for their procedurally generated filler. lol

Lmao. ‘Concern’ ALWAYS pivots to moving goalposts. From talking about the size and scope of the game to wailing about procedural generation.

Quests are handcrafted. But you already knew that 😂
 

Ozriel

M$FT
I'm talking about trying to sell it on size alone doofus

I’m sure it’s news to everyone at Bethesda that they’ve been trying to sell Starfield on size alone. They’ve talked about RPG elements, Space exploration, diverse biomes, largest amount of handcrafted content in a BGS game, most dialog lines, customization and many many other systems.

Wailing about size being a prominent feature in discussions about a game with intergalactic travel across multiple star systems…is everything OK?
 

Virex

Banned
I already put 600 hours in Elder Scroll 6 within 2 days. Just like Phil Spencer played 200 hours of Vampire Survivors in a week
 

anthraticus

Banned
I’m sure it’s news to everyone at Bethesda that they’ve been trying to sell Starfield on size alone. They’ve talked about RPG elements, Space exploration, diverse biomes, largest amount of handcrafted content in a BGS game, most dialog lines, customization and many many other systems.

Wailing about size being a prominent feature in discussions about a game with intergalactic travel across multiple star systems…is everything OK?
Keep suckin down that Toddler & Hines kool aid.. lol

People are gonna come crashing down to earth HARD when this shit comes out.




 
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I still find new stuff in older Bethesda game and I must have played 1000s of hours across them all. Say what you want about the jank but they absolutely pack their games full of stuff to find.

People are still making lore and iceberg videos about stuff like Oblivion and Skyrim while most games are as deep as a puddle.
 

Ozriel

M$FT
Keep suckin down that Toddler & Hines kool aid.. lol

People are gonna come crashing down to earth HARD when this shit comes out.






Well, you’ve certainly been on a hate boner for everything Bethesda and Todd Howard for ages now. Someday you’ll share your hater origin story. Did they run over your cat?

People didn’t come crashing down to earth HARD when Skyrim or Oblivion came out, so it’s looking more likely you’re the one heading for a disappointment.
 

anthraticus

Banned
Well, you’ve certainly been on a hate boner for everything Bethesda and Todd Howard for ages now. Someday you’ll share your hater origin story. Did they run over your cat?

People didn’t come crashing down to earth HARD when Skyrim or Oblivion came out, so it’s looking more likely you’re the one heading for a disappointment.
Told you it would suck nuts. Learn your history about these dumbfucks and don't be another typical..

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Ozriel

M$FT
Told you it would suck nuts. Learn your history about these dumbfucks and don't be another typical..

pbI2B0m.png



You came back to show you were wrong?


Because the review consensus is that it definitively doesn’t ‘suck nuts’

I’m happy to play this game when it unlocks on GP while you focus on scrounging up memes 😂
 

anthraticus

Banned
You came back to show you were wrong?


Because the review consensus is that it definitively doesn’t ‘suck nuts’

I’m happy to play this game when it unlocks on GP while you focus on scrounging up memes 😂
Reviews from popamolers don't mean jack shit. That piece of shit Oblivious got in the freakin 90s back then !
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Means nada
 

Ribi

Member
Well, you’ve certainly been on a hate boner for everything Bethesda and Todd Howard for ages now. Someday you’ll share your hater origin story. Did they run over your cat?

People didn’t come crashing down to earth HARD when Skyrim or Oblivion came out, so it’s looking more likely you’re the one heading for a disappointment.
How'd that work out for you. Even the SF reddit is hating lmao
 

Ozriel

M$FT
How'd that work out for you. Even the SF reddit is hating lmao

Reviews landed lower than I expected, ngl, but they’re still great overall. I’m most probably going to enjoy playing it when it unlocks for me on GP.

how’s it working out for you? 😂
 
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