Oh yeah, you can. You can also fight other ships in space, board them, and take over them. There is also spacecraft customization.


No landing, though. I think it'll be a load screen or cut scene from space to landing position. I can't believe they managed to get flight out the Creation Engine, so landing is probably impossible.

Yeah The Todd made sure to mention that they didn’t feel it was necessary or even desired to design the game to allow direct-from-space-entry into the atmosphere of planets because they want gameplay on the ground and in space to be two very different experiences. Whatever that means. So, I agree that we will probably be dealing with load screen when we want to land on planets.

Damn!

They were probably thinking of me and the carnage I would cause while try to land the craft. Saving me a lot of pain and agrivation because I died without saving after finally achieving successful landing and then have to do hours of landing attempts again.

It will also make the world design a lot easier. If you can fly anywhere you want, they have to actually build each entire world. By instead doing a load screen from space to surface, they can restrict you to landing in only one place for each planet. Then they can build out a small world space around just that. It will basically be like how the interiors of cities in Oblivion are separate world spaces from the main world. But in this case each planet will be its own world space, and outer space will be the main world space (ala Tamriel).

Exactly.

I just wonder how the game acts when you come up to a new planet. Does it take you into an “autopilot orbit” from which you can either choose to land or go back to space or do you fly into the planet to activate a load screen? I’m curious to find out.

Thank you for providing the only thoughtful explanation I have seen for why Creation Club could be a problem. Almost every single time, it's been just capital-G gamers finding something to complain about and parroting other people's opinions (like, you know, a lot of things gaming-related). But this actually gives me real information on how it works. That's actually kind of scummy on Bethesda's part. Yes, it's their IP, and they're not going to do something like this if it doesn't make them money. But taking that large of a cut when they are not doing a majority of the work, even if they are providing guidance, and taking most of the creative control is kind of low.




As insanely cool as it would be to be able to transition directly onto a planet a la No Man's Sky, I think it's better this way. It allows for a much more curated experience (and supposedly there is at least twice as much handcrafted content than any other BGS game, from what I have heard). Plus, the tech for doing that while making a handcrafted experience like a BGS game is not at all feasible, I imagine.




Yeah, that's what it seems like it will be. More and more, it's sounding like a modern-day, outer space version of Daggerfall, which really piques my interest. While the "modern" direction of TES from TESA: Redguard on is for the better, I've wanted to see BGS take another big-time stab at a Daggerfall-esque game.


It's almost always good policy to temper hype for anything, but I'm incredibly excited for Starfield!

I’m very interested. From the everything I’ve heard about, it sounds like it will be a game that I would like (space piracy!).

New Todd Interview. I haven't watched it yet but it's supposed to go into Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI

Yeah I heard he had done a new interview. Haven’t watched it either.

The Starfield showcase just finished up a bit ago.

...

ALL ABOARD THE HYPE TRAIN! CHOO CHOO!

I still have to watch it. Probably be tomorrow though.

Wow, that was fun to watch. I definitely will keep an eye on it. hopefully the requirements to run the game will be reasonable.

It certainly looks nice. I would say an upgraded Fallout 4 visually. Some of what I saw in the gameplay also reminded me of F04. The jetpacks especially, and the gun combat. I noticed some kind of auto aim, because the bullet streaks coming out of the gun at the beginning were doing so at different angles, in order to hit the target.

I like the super jumping I saw in that segment too.

I see it has the offset third person camera, which I have never liked, but every game does. Hopefully someone will make a mod to center that.

The interface reminds me of Oblivion's, where everything is accessed through one button that takes you to an uber menu. I hope they do like they did with Fallout's Pipboy, and add shortcuts to go to specific things, like inventory, character, quests, etc...

The space travel looks to be entirely fast travel from planet to planet, with a visual that plays every time you make a hyperspace jump and land on a new world. Hmm, later on they show ship combat, so it appears you can do some free form space flight. I wonder how much? The way you can allocate energy to various ship resources reminds me of the old X-Wing and Tie Fighter games, where that was crucial. I am not a fan of that ship hud with the ring in the center of the screen. I find it distracting.

That also makes me wonder how space combat will work with a mouse and keyboard? Or can you also use a joystick for that, and go back to mouse + keyboard for regular gameplay?

The main quest appears to be you had a mysterious interaction with a strange artifact from an unknown alien race. I guess that means the Reapers are coming, and you are the only one who can stop them. Better tell Joker to prep the Normandy.

The character creation looks a lot like Fallout 4's again. Which like the other stuff, works fine. I hope they build in the ability to save face files and import them, like the LooksMenu mod does in FO4.

The Backgounds sound good. Pillars of Eternity does that, it adds in a little flavor that pops up occasionally.

I did love that they worked the Adoring Fan in, even with the original voice actor. His hair looks better this time.

The Trait system is another nice thing from the old school Fallout games.

That nerve punch thing sounds perfect for January. I wonder what the melee combat is like? I hope it is better than Fallout 4s. I really hated how they nerfed blocking, so that you could not hold a block in that game. Instead it just plays an animation of you blocking for a few seconds, then drops it. So you have to time your blocks in order to meet enemy attacks, rather than just keep blocking until you want to stop. And the shield bashing was completely removed. Hopefully they bring that back.

The ship appears to be your permanent home. I like how you can buy new ones. I also see they took Fallout 4's settlement building and applied that to the ships. That is nice. So you can change its layout as well as stuff. The Optimus Prime ship was cute.

The big question of course is what about Modding?

A new hand touches the Beacon!

HYPE TRAIN LEAVING THE STATION! CHOO CHOO
And damn is that watch sexy.

Ok, Khajiit has watched and now he shall post thoughts!

Taking the Direct at face value, Starfield is looking like a must own game for me. Almost everything from the character creation, base/ship building and item modification, to the combat and exploration, looks like exactly what I want in a BGS game. I don’t buy games day one anymore, but something would have to be very wrong with Starfield to keep me from buying it. I can hardly wait for the reviews!

I’m concerned about this as well. My computer is getting pretty old, so I’m curious as to how well it will run Starfield. I’d rather not have to buy an Xbox just to be able to play this game.

I wonder if there is some kind of homing bullet thing you can get for your guns?


The gravity differences intrigues me. That should open up some new possibilities for both combat and exploration!


I’m interested in how this will work myself. I’m thinking it will be like a big area around planets (maybe as big as a whole system) that you can fly around in and do stuff and then when you are ready to explore a planet you go to your navigation and tell your ship to land. I expect “jumps” from system to system to be just cutscenes. I’d love to be able to break out my flight stick for this!


The story is looking rather derivative so far. Honestly though, I enjoy Fallout4 and have never finished the main story, so, meh, I guess.


I agree about the character creator. It looks to do a bit more than FO4’s, and I was quite pleased with FO4’s. I’m betting we’ll have to wait for mods to get preset save functions, though.

It’s a cute little callback that they spent a decent amount of effort on. I probably won’t use it, but it’s nice it’s there.


Agreed. Anything that helps make a character more distinguishable from another is great in my book.


I really did not like melee very much in FO4. I’m hoping melee is like it is in FO3, but more advanced.


I can see myself burning so many hours playing around with ship and outpost building.


I’m pretty sure “The Todd” said something like modders were probably going to have a field day with Starfield, or something like that, so I’m expecting mod support. What form that will take, remains to be seen…

Looks good. I'll try it.

Now, some random observations.

1. PC walking around the spaceship in full astronaut suit while companions lounge around in cowboy hats and leather jackets. Hopefully we won’t have to spend all our characters’ time stuck inside one of those bulky ass suits.

2. Facial animations seemed better than in the reveal trailer.

3. They really obsessed over sandwiches in this game.

4. Neon looks like it’s going to be my favorite city. Very cyberpunk.

5. Wild West themed area caught me by surprise. Really strong Firefly vibes there.

Oh it'll be moddable, it's a Bethesda game! If it's not moddable, there goes the majority of long-term sales. Question is: how accessible will it be to tear into the game? Skyrim is not as easy as earlier games, and I've heard Fallout 4 is even more difficult. I am talking about scripting and quest-making (my faves). But there are other things too, like the third-person camera being off-center.





I really want to fly a spaceship. 🚀 If so, maybe the game lets us fly a little pod at first. Or a small spacecraft, like the little ones they flew in the original Star Wars.

And Rader: What is happening with Val and Mariah and Langston and Sargent Waller??

I'd imagine you can fly around solar systems at will, especially since it seems like you can visit any of the planets or moons, possible even asteroids.

If each system is its own sandbox area… woooboy.

@macole - This game is the main reason why I got a new computer, although I needed one anyway. But Bethesda games at least don't need the absolute top-of-the-line specs to run, usually.

@SubRosa - Regarding a few of your observations that particularly jumped out at me.

• Super jumping: That looks immensely satisfying. Acrobatics 100.
• Backgrounds: These have been mentioned before this showcase and I'm really looking forward to them. We haven't had those in a BGS game since Daggerfall. Those and the proc gen feel like a modernized Daggerfall-esque aspects.
• Melee combat: This (and the combat in general) appears to be a major step up from Elder Scrolls and Fallout. Melee has always felt super stiff but this looks pretty fluid so far. I guess we'll see come September.
• Adoring Fan: Agreed, outstanding callback with Craig Sechler back to voice him.

@Kane - Hell yeah.

@TheCheshireKhajiit - I totally get the abstaining from day one purchases. I think that is a generally good policy to have. That said, I'm not sure if I can hold out, lol.

Regarding melee combat, like I said in response to SubRosa, Starfield feels like a major upgrade in this department. I thought Oblivion and Fallout 3 melee combat was too floaty and not punchy at all, while Skyrim and Fallout 4 melee combat was too stiff and immobile. So far, Starfield looks like it has punch AND fluidity. And the combat in general looks VASTLY improved in the Direct compared to the gameplay trailer for Starfield released last year.

@Grits - Oh, I'm definitely getting it. Hopefully everyone else here is as well and we can all share out adventures! Maybe the thread could be called something like "Starfield Sojournings."

@Renee - Haha, sorry. I know you've been waiting for more on Fallout: Florida. Life has been really busy in recent months. But rest assured, I will continue it. While I haven't been able to write anything on it since the last post, I have developed a much clearer picture of how the rest of Part 2 is going to play out.

As for spaceships, I really need to start a list of ship names for me to use when the game comes out.

Can somebody translate the Daggerfall-speek? I'm not sure what you all are talking about.

Ooo has it been said we can name our ships? I missed that little detail somehow! I’m thinking my Fallout character Désirée Devreaux will translate very well to the Starfield universe, and so is probably going to be my first character in SF. That means we already have a ship name picked out!


What in particular are you unsure about?

In Daggerfall's character creation, you can go through background questions that affect your starting character's skill, attributes, and items at the beginning of the game (including the infamous ebony dagger). You also had to take a few advantages and disadvantages as well. Starfield's backgrounds and traits are going to somewhat emulate that, though in SF you don't HAVE to take those traits and even if you do you can get rid of their negative aspects later on.

Daggerfall also featured heavy use of procedural generation. I'm not a tech aficionado by any means, but basically it's a way for generating landscapes, dungeons, etc. through computations instead of directly handcrafting stuff. (Later TES games used proc gen as well but to a much lesser extent.) SF used proc gen for a lot of the planets and some content, but then added a lot of handcrafting on top of it. Proc gen has the benefit of using up much less computer memory, extending content, and creating more content more quickly than handcrafting, though the downside is that it is less creative than handcrafting and more repetitive. But Bethesda's proc gen looks like it is very robust, so we'll how it turns out on this front.


EDIT: By the way, Renee, when I get back to Fallout: Florida, I'm going to start adding "last episode" tidbits to clarify where the story is at. I'm also going to amend some of my earliest posts in the thread to have a table of contents with links to chapter posts, a synopsis of the story thus far (with spoilers for story beats that already happened, naturally), and profiles of the characters. That way, newer readers can get more up-to-speed if they want to get to current events and current readers can refresh their memories more easily.




Remember the part where the sandwich-pilfering lady (one of the highlights of the Direct) talked about naming her ships after animals and one is called the Platypus? And whenever I check out Starfield-related news on its subreddit, the people there talk a lot about what they are going to name their ships. I don't remember if Bethesda specifically highlighted "By the way, you can name your ships," but I assume we will be able to do so.

And they said in the Direct that we can own a fleet! My preliminary list of ship names, which includes but is not limited to names I think are cool, space terms, and references to Elder Scrolls and Fallout:

• Singularity
• F*** Around and Find Out (minus the censoring)
• Event Horizon
• Piper Wright (Fallout's best girl)
• Lydia
• Rip and Tear
• Gaiden Shinji
• Freedom's Call
• Loose Cannon
• Redeemer
• Plan 9 from Outer Space
• Big Iron (cue Marty Robbins)
• Labyrinthian
• SHODAN
• Dark Before Dawn
• Grand and Intoxicating Innocence

Ohhh I get it, thanks for explaining Rader.

Arena and Morrowind also had the option of questionaire beginnings, but DF took character creation to the greatest extreme.

And yes, Arena had a lot of procedural generation landscapes as well, moreso than Daggerfall. Basically the entire world outside of any town would be generated, but unlike later games you could keep on walking and walking. Unlike the newer games you'd never arrive anywhere except random little villages and dungeons and chapels, etc.

Anyway that's a great idea for planets to be generated, wow. Yeah, because you can't hand-build multiple worlds & planets. That right there is a great reason for me to get Starfield eventually.

I do remember that. I just wasn’t sure if that was confirmation that we could type in our own name for ships or if it was just what they called the ships in their headcanon. I don’t recall if they displayed the names they mentioned in game.

True. I'm trying to look at pictures of the ships and I can't see names on them, but I can't get a good look for certain. And I listened back to what Jamie Mallory/sandwich lady said about her ship and it's a bit ambiguous as to whether the game gives us the actual function to name them. I don't remember who else talked about naming their ship, though I believe at least one other BGS employee did.

I mean, they have to know everyone will want to name them in-game. I find it hard to imagine that they won't have that function because that would be a glaring oversight . . . which, granted, is far from unprecedented for Bethesda, but this seems like a no-brainer to me. And it is confirmed we can have a fleet of ships, so we need to differentiate them. I guess if worst comes to worst, modders will make it happen, though we really shouldn't have to rely on them for this simple thing. I hope Todd or someone else at BGS clarifies if naming ships is an actual function.

I’m hoping that we can name ships, but they could just have a base name for each model of ship and just maintain that name after modification. Hopefully not, but without confirmation we’re just left guessing.

In other news, apparently an SSD is required for PC. My c: drive is an SSD but I’m not sure it will have the room to install the game. Do you all think we could use a USB SSD to play the game?

Also, thought I’d post the system requirements. This came from the game’s page on Steam.

MINIMUM:
OS: Windows 10 version 22H2 (10.0.19045)
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700, NVIDIA GeForce 1070 Ti
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 125 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD Required
RECOMMENDED:
OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080
DirectX: Version 12
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Storage: 125 GB available space
Additional Notes: SSD Required

My PC does not currently meet the *minimum* requirements for CPU or GPU.
I guess we’ll see how it goes in September, if all goes well with the reviews and what not.

Wow, 16 GB of RAM is minimum requirements??? But then 16 is also recommended? That's odd.



My gaming computer is Windows 8.1. My graphics card is also below standard at GTX760. But that's okay. I actually wanted to get an Xbox first. I won't get another gaming computer probably until ES VI is getting released.

Yeah, I just watched a vid in which the guy said the list might be nonsense. He also pointed out some oddities between the different GPUs and CPUs. Worth a watch I think.

Thanks, Khajiit.

Lol, happy to help

And the reviews are coming up now following the embargo. And generally seem to be very, very positive! I think the one that's piqued my interest is one that says "It's the game I wanted Mass Effect to be". That was one thing I always wondered whilst playing the Mass Effect games - I wonder what Bethesda could have done with this. Maybe would have lost some of the (amazing) characters, and the plot probably wouldn't have been as concise and driven, but opened the galaxy up a little bit more so you felt like you were truly exploring.

Right. I finally began playing Mass Effect in March, and continue with MyShep as we speak. Still doing side quests in the Citadel, instead of going off to explore the universe, which says something. Not that I play ME every day (or even every week) but this shows how much content & dialog there is to keep track of.

Bioware and Beth do it way different, that's for sure. Although I prefer Bethesda's open-ended freedom, it would be interesting if some Bioware's more rigid storytelling could seep in there.

Can you post a link to one of these reviews?

Sure:

https://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-series.../critic-reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/starfield/critic-reviews

Metacritic (for all its faults), is a great place to see all of them

I haven’t had a chance to really look at any reviews yet. Planning on getting comfy after work and checking them out.

Is Starfield going to be releasing soon then? I have not been keeping up on it.

September 6th. Preorders get access tonight

Well, a few hours in now, and it's a lot of fun. However, on PC, it runs HOT! Fans sound like an aircraft trying to take off and GPU temp is the highest I've ever seen it on a 3090, running even hotter than Cyberpunk on ultra. And this is NOT on ultra lol.

Cool! I am still hip deep in Baldur's Gate, so I probably won't be trying it any time soon. But I'd love to hear more about it.

Why is it so demanding? Does it really look that good, or does it seem like it’s not really optimized that well for pc?

Bit of both. It looks really, really good, and I suspect a patch will improve things further (and possibly an update from Nvidea will help further still.) The official (not early access) release date isn't until the 6th, so I wouldn't be surprised by that happening by then. In the meantime, I'm going to fiddle with settings and put away my open-back headphones, and dig out some closed-back noise-cancelling ones!

Okay, yeh, Metacritic can be pretty brutal. I've seen them trash some games in the past. What I just read seems almost surreal with the praises, right? All those high scores. Granted those are all actual reviewers, not the gamers themselves. It's the gamers who mostly do the bashing & trashing!




I seem to remember the requirements were way through the roof for Starfield, right? My GTX760, once hailed as top-of-the-line for running games like Skyrim, now looks like the equivalent of Play-Doh in a scientist's lab...

I feel like I'm going to be getting this game eventually, for Xbox though. Probably won't get another gaming computer until ES6 is nearing completion (which will be 2025? 2028? ... bleah. )

Oh yeah, the recommended specs were high. I was just curious if the game actually looked good enough to justify the cost of such a setup. After the videos I’ve watched, I’m starting to question if I want to spend the $700+ to upgrade my PC, just to play the game, or just spend whatever the cost of an Xbox Series X is. If I upgrade my pc, it’s still not going to be powerful enough to run the game as it was meant to be ran, but it would be nice to have a more modern build. On the other hand, an Xbox SX is over $200 less.

At long last, we get to play Starfield! Well, if you have early access, at least. I have one of the editions with early access (though that wasn't the reason I bought that one) and played a couple hours very late last night. Here are some of my first impressions with the game.

• Even at the beginning, it just feels like a Bethesda game. It's hard to explain, but I'm sure you all know the kind of feeling I'm talking about.
• There's been a lot of talk about Starfield being BGS' most polished release yet, and I sure hope it would be considering the delays. But it really does feel very polished. Again, though, I'm only a couple hours in. Previous Bethesda games' jank mostly didn't really start appearing until you're some time into the game.
• The combat and movement is VASTLY improved. The latest previews of the game showed that, but to actually feel it for myself was cool.
• The ship-fighting is going to take more time to get used to, but I think it will be fun.
• One of the things I was looking for was how fluid the conversations between NPCs were. We all know how janky that could be prior to Fallout 4 with those awkward pauses as the next line of dialogue would be loaded (Fallout 76 really took a step back in this regard after Fallout 4 hugely improved on the issue, which I assume is because of the online component of 76). I'm happy to report that the conversations between NPCs indeed feel fluid, even when they include your character's responses.
• While I'm fine with the UI being more minimalistic aesthetically, it initially feels kind of clunky to navigate. But that could very well change as I get used to it, though UIs have never been a Bethesda strong suit. One neat improvement, though, is when you open the main part of the pause menu (similar to Skyrim's 4 arrows to inventory, map, etc.), which has several "dots" along a circle indicating a submenu. There are pictures near each submenu "dot" that indicate the kind of stuff you'll find there. (The dots don't say what submenu it is until you hover over it.) For example, next to the inventory submenu "dot" may be a picture of your current weapon; the starmap submenu has a picture of the planet you are on. That's if I remember correctly. When I play later tonight, I will confirm.
• I was surprised at the lockpicking minigame (lockpicks are called "digipicks" in Starfield) and how it actually requires some measure of skill. I imagine the character's skill in it will be much more at play with harder locks, but it isn't pathetically simple for the player like in Fallout 3/4/76 or Skyrim. It's sort of hard for me to explain how it works in Starfield, but I'll try.
  [**] There are multiple, for lack of a better term, "checkpoints" you have to clear to open a lock by rotating dashes to align with open points in a circle. You have several of these layouts of dashes where you have to find the correct order to put them in, but you may find one set of dashes works at one point when it should've been used later on. If you find this to be the case, you can undo actions...at the cost of 1 digipick with each undo. The availability of digipicks remains to be seen, but the game has not thrown them at me yet like in previous Bethesda games.
• Voice acting is much better across the board.

Thanks for this. It’s good to have first hand impressions from someone we “know”, you know?

What are you playing it on, if you don’t mind me asking.

I guess it is time to update my PC. I built it back in 2011 with 16gb of RAM, as that was plenty to play Skyrim, the most demanding game I had. My motherboard has room for another 16gb. So I just went to NewEgg and bought it. It will be a few weeks before it shows up though.

What a difference in price though. I think I spent like $200 for that 16gb of Ram a decade ago. Now it cost me $30.

Granted, it is DDR3, so it is old now. Far from the fastest or furiousest.

Maybe now Fallout 4 and BG3 will load a little too, I hope.