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Starfield in the polish/optimization stage of development

anthraticus

Banned
I can't wait to see posters' optimism dashed on the rocks when at the end of the day you know its going to be...fighting bandits in desolate space outpost planet, fighting bandits in space junkyard planet, fighting bandits in mass effect citadel council planet and fighting bandits in cyber punk neon lights planet...
 
Will this be the first Bethesda game without bugs?
Or will they leave everything up to the community again while Todd counts the money?
 

kuncol02

Banned
I can't wait to see posters' optimism dashed on the rocks when at the end of the day you know its going to be...fighting bandits in desolate space outpost planet, fighting bandits in space junkyard planet, fighting bandits in mass effect citadel council planet and fighting bandits in cyber punk neon lights planet...
You wrote that like it's a bad thing.
 

anthraticus

Banned
I'm sensing standards for the Beth community isn't getting any higher here through the years.
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Yeah but the thing is with a space based games, you can generally get away with making larger emptier zones .. cause you know .. space ..

like how Mass Effect 1 technically is the biggest game in the franchise, cause it has so many planets you can land on .. but none of those planets are anywhere as busy with content as the 3 main ones are.

Ahh, but that's not the case in Bethesda Game Studios titles. They won't make it so that outer space itself is the only reason they say it's larger than Fallout 76. They will more or less ensure that the fully playable and on foot map is larger than 76's also. That said, considering the style of game Starfield could be, I acknowledge the real possibility of there technically being more planets that are empty and devoid of life.
 

The teaser trailer teased that thing in the center as being pretty important. Likely some teleportation or mass relay type device, kinda like in Mass Effect, to travel much further distances through space. Eager to see what kinds of things Vasco is able to do for us. That's the robot companion there.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Why wouldn't it be as involved as Skyrim? Sounds like it could be more hardcore than Skyrim in a number of ways based on what Bethesda are saying. Just to be clear, I never view streamlining, improving or cleaning up as a sign that something is less hardcore. Lots of people say Fallout 4's character progression was less hardcore than New Vegas and Fallout 3, but I disagree based on what I know now. Fallout 4's character progression system felt much better, especially the way perks were handled. I thought it was more flexible, led to a more specialized character that couldn't as easily just get everything regardless of what path you chose at the start. There's also the factor played by various gear and weapon addons that further boosted character attributes; you could actually go beyond the previous special limits of the older games, building more unique characters.
I just think with them building or upgrading their engine and that that it'll be a true next gen game may mean it won't be as free and open as Skyrim was. I think they'll make it more concise and directed. In Skyrim you could do so many things without doing the main quest. I'd argue the main questline was a distraction from what the real meat and potatoes of Skyrim was, namely, the sheer scope of exploration, side stories and unlockable weapons, gear, trinkets, crafting, dragon song hunting, etc.

This is not to say Starfield won't be great. I think it will be...but I'm not putting my expectations as high as I have for Skyrim. If they pull it off, I mean....hat's off to them, but I don't think it'll approach that kind of depth at least at launch.

With Fallout, I've never fully played through the game. I would do the story mainly and get side tracked with other stuff. I didn't like the base building aspect of Fallout 4 (though, I was a fan of it in 76, go figure) and I just didn't feel a reason to go get everything in Fallout. I can see the line you're trying to draw between Starfield and Fallout, however there is one thing about space exploration that is limiting. You cannot have a continuous open world, if your game spans different planets or maybe even star systems. That may be a small point to make when you're talking about the expanse of space, but the feel of exploration will be different and, I'd argue, will FEEL smaller unless you have multiple planets approaching the size of a Skyrim map filled with things to do like SKyrim has. The Outer Worlds attempted this and was ok...but it was definitely a smaller game
 
Yes sure. Jumpin to conclusions pretty fast huh. I got a very good PC that runs pretty much everything. Unless you don't manually limit the framerate the game is gonna stutter, specially in cutscenes. There are a lot of discussions about the topic.
Its good according to you, but trust it aint good.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
It’s a new IP and universe, they’ve been working on it far longer than that. Todd said they had worked a few years on it once they trademarked the name Starfield in 2013, prototyping and paper work I would guess, small core team. It’s a big studio, people has moved in and out and later the team grew as people has been freed up from other projects. Starfield has been in active development at Maryland since after Fallout 4 in 2015 which is when I assume they had a clear vision of what they should do so a bigger part of the studio jumps in on it. FO76 was there too as a collaboration project with former Battlecry and people has also been working on The Elder Scrolls VI as well in Maryland, possibly the bigger part of the studio right now if Starfield is in the polishing state.

I wonder what the hardware target for the game has been, from the trailer, higher geometric detail and improved lighting seem to be on the cards.
 

Fredrik

Member
I wonder what the hardware target for the game has been, from the trailer, higher geometric detail and improved lighting seem to be on the cards.
Hmm yeah it’s hard to say. Personally I doubt they started out aiming at Xbox Series X and PS5 (wasn’t Xbox exclusive until quite recently), they started so long ago, so I think last gen consoles plus PC was the original target.
But afaik it’s not coming to Xbox One now (correct me if I’m wrong here) so I’m guessing we’ll either see 1) a nice geometry, effects, lighting and particles boost compared to their previous games or 2) higher framerates. Todd said in en interview that he thought 30fps was okay for their RPGs, so I take that as a hint that it’s 1), higher end 30fps, that is the target for consoles.
 

reksveks

Member

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Hmm yeah it’s hard to say. Personally I doubt they started out aiming at Xbox Series X and PS5 (wasn’t Xbox exclusive until quite recently), they started so long ago, so I think last gen consoles plus PC was the original target.
But afaik it’s not coming to Xbox One now (correct me if I’m wrong here) so I’m guessing we’ll either see 1) a nice geometry, effects, lighting and particles boost compared to their previous games or 2) higher framerates. Todd said in en interview that he thought 30fps was okay for their RPGs, so I take that as a hint that it’s 1), higher end 30fps, that is the target for consoles.
Maybe they aimed for a PC with a GPU the same performance as an 1X and a CPU about 2x 1X's jaguar along with a sata SSD. Just as a euducated guess where next gen would be going.

30fps would certainly make it easier to have a nice jump in visuals and game complexity.
 

Starfield

Member
Hmm yeah it’s hard to say. Personally I doubt they started out aiming at Xbox Series X and PS5 (wasn’t Xbox exclusive until quite recently), they started so long ago, so I think last gen consoles plus PC was the original target.
But afaik it’s not coming to Xbox One now (correct me if I’m wrong here) so I’m guessing we’ll either see 1) a nice geometry, effects, lighting and particles boost compared to their previous games or 2) higher framerates. Todd said in en interview that he thought 30fps was okay for their RPGs, so I take that as a hint that it’s 1), higher end 30fps, that is the target for consoles.
Target specs were always next-gen consoles hardware. It was never meant to come out on last gen. You could say that was another "lie" made by Todd. They knew Starfield was long times off when they revealed it in 2018 and that it wouldn't run on last-gen consoles due to limiting hardware.

This game will need a beefy PC and people should prepare for that.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
My prediction is that this is going to be Cyberpunk 2.0 in that they are going to find the market far less forgiving of shortcomings in a futuristic setting than one in a more high-fantasy one. And yes I'm aware that Fallout is technically SF, but that sort of post-apocalyptic dystopia is grounded in a low-tech approach more akin to traditional westerns and the like. Its very different to the Space Opera vibe of say Mass Effect where the point is largely the uplift of technology than the difficulties and limitations imposed by its absence.
 

Starfield

Member
My prediction is that this is going to be Cyberpunk 2.0 in that they are going to find the market far less forgiving of shortcomings in a futuristic setting than one in a more high-fantasy one. And yes I'm aware that Fallout is technically SF, but that sort of post-apocalyptic dystopia is grounded in a low-tech approach more akin to traditional westerns and the like. Its very different to the Space Opera vibe of say Mass Effect where the point is largely the uplift of technology than the difficulties and limitations imposed by its absence.
what is this even..
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
what is this even..

What are you even ?

You think there's any sort of surprise element whatsoever when a poster who names themself after a product, takes affront at any sort of criticism of that product, however mild or speculative that criticism is ? Your bias is explicit, please desist.

To reiterate my point: Theme implies expectation, and expectation dictates reception. That's it.
 
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Starfield

Member
What are you even ?

You think there's any sort of surprise element whatsoever when a poster who names themself after a product, takes affront at any sort of criticism of that product, however mild or speculative that criticism is ? Your bias is explicit, please desist.

To reiterate my point: Theme implies expectation, and expectation dictates reception. That's it.
I was just baffled with your "yes Fallout technically is Starfield" comment
 

Fredrik

Member
Maybe they aimed for a PC with a GPU the same performance as an 1X and a CPU about 2x 1X's jaguar along with a sata SSD. Just as a euducated guess where next gen would be going.

30fps would certainly make it easier to have a nice jump in visuals and game complexity.

Target specs were always next-gen consoles hardware. It was never meant to come out on last gen. You could say that was another "lie" made by Todd. They knew Starfield was long times off when they revealed it in 2018 and that it wouldn't run on last-gen consoles due to limiting hardware.

This game will need a beefy PC and people should prepare for that.
Yup I have nothing to add there really, just a slight worry that my PC might not be up for the task 😳
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Target specs were always next-gen consoles hardware. It was never meant to come out on last gen. You could say that was another "lie" made by Todd. They knew Starfield was long times off when they revealed it in 2018 and that it wouldn't run on last-gen consoles due to limiting hardware.

This game will need a beefy PC and people should prepare for that.

Even before selling to MS, Bethesda was heavily invested in game streaming tech, it's possible that was what he was hinting at in the article. They might have been thinking of a last-gen release like Hitman or Control on the switch.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
I was just baffled with your "yes Fallout technically is Starfield" comment

I'm making no comment on the quality of the work (obviously, noone's seen it yet) but I think the parallels with CDPR and Cyberpunk are pretty obvious.
TES, and especially Skyrim being analogous to The Witcher in the sense that they are both beloved, massive selling WRPG franchises in a high fantasy setting.

The assumption with Cyberpunk and CDPR was that the demonstrable quality and popularity of previous entries + technological improvements/long dev-time would allow a smooth transition to the SF genre. But as we know, that's not what happened and even completely disregarding the controversies over the quality of the console ports, the reception was not as good as was hoped. Even people with high-end PC's who could enjoy the game in all its glory were a lot more critical of its perceived failings and the "glow" around it as a game faded quite quickly. A hugely different outcome to Witcher 3 -which lets not forget had its launch issues too- that built and built in the months and years following release.

My opinion, which may or may not be correct, is that part of the issue is that hype (a studio renown for making big games, presents their biggest game yet) combined with the baggage of the SF genre (which carries a certain assumed "wow" factor) kinda combined to stand against it. People kind of build this combination up in their minds to such an extent that they are seemingly always disappointed.

I'm not even saying that I think this is fair necessarily. It just seems to me that the bar for success with this combo ends up so high, that its pretty much untouchable in practice. I find it doubtful in this specific instance that the many worlds of Starfield are going to be as expansive and dense as TES or Fallouts singular open worlds. Some folks however will expect this -even though no doubt they will always complain about open-world "bloat" anyway!- And will react badly to not getting it...
 

Utherellus

Member
Did you miss their last 2 releases or did someone hit you on the head?
The fact that you even bringing F76 to the table speaks for you a lot.

It tells us that:
A. You don't realize that F76 has nothing to do with Bethesda's main, Rockville Studio's pedigree. It was mainly done by Austin.
B. You judge MMO made by single player rpg studio, non-mainline project which is hardly relevant when talking about Starfield's fate.

And which second game are you talking about? Please don't tell me Blades, I will burst laughing.
 

isoRhythm

Banned
The fact that you even bringing F76 to the table speaks for you a lot.

It tells us that:
A. You don't realize that F76 has nothing to do with Bethesda's main, Rockville Studio's pedigree. It was mainly done by Austin.
B. You judge MMO made by single player rpg studio, non-mainline project which is hardly relevant when talking about Starfield's fate.

And which second game are you talking about? Please don't tell me Blades, I will burst laughing.
Are you daft? it's not the fact that they created something horrendous, it's the fact that they created something horrendous and deemed it as a worthy product of releasing. Rockstar made RDR2 (arguably the most advanced game ever created), doesn't change the fact that they still released GTA trilogy remaster in such a poor state that people started questioning Rockstar/T2 itself.

If BGS management can give FO76 a QA "pass", that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.
 
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Utherellus

Member
Are you daft? it's not the fact that they created something horrendous, it's the fact that they created something horrendous and deemed it as a worthy product of releasing. Rockstar made RDR2 (arguably the most advanced game ever created), doesn't change the fact that they still released GTA trilogy remaster in such a poor state that people started questioning Rockstar/T2 itself.

If BGS management can give FO76 a QA "pass", that doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

You are bending the actual situation and connecting dots wrongest way possible.

RDR2 is phenomenal game. GTA Trilogy has nothing to do with Rockstar's future quality.
Skyrim is phenomenal game. Fallout 76 has nothing to do with Starfield's quality.

Neither of F76 and GTA Trilogy were developed by main studios and neither of them were priority for companies' strategy.


This convo is actually useless. Waste of everybody's time.

We will return to this topic when Starfield scores 85+ on meta, placing itself among one of the most influential game of current generation, like Bethesda's other IPs.
 
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