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Todd Howard Explains How Game's 1,000 Planets Work
- Thread starter IbizaPocholo
- Start date
- Opinion Game Dev
Helghan
Member
Why wouldn't there be enough quality content? Like I said you've got a main quest of 30-40 hours, that's without the side quests that Bethesda is known for, and on top of that you've got the most work ever put in a Bethesda RPG.
And your takeaway is that there won't be enough quality content because of a couple of automatically created planets...
WitchHunter
Member
Starfield Dev Explains How Game's 1,000 Planets Work
Starfield developer Bethesda has explained how it has managed to create a game with 1,000 planets [...]comicbook.com
In an interview with IGN, Starfield director Todd Howard addressed how they created all of the planets and how they will work. As many assumed, many planets will be created using procedural generation, something Howard reaffirmed fans that Bethesda has immense experience with. The developer has used procedural generation to create quests and landscapes in games like Skyrim, so it's not a new concept to the developer. Howard also went on to explain that they have more hand-crafted content in Starfield than any of their other games. As for how it all works within the context of the game, Todd Howard noted that they made 1,000 planets so they could give players more freedom, even if that means there isn't as much to do on some planets as there is for others.
"We're also careful to let you know that's what [that procedural content] is," said Howard. "So if you look at space, you know there are a lot of ice balls in space, so that was one of our big design considerations on this game is, 'What's fun about an ice ball?' And it's OK sometimes if ice balls aren't- it is what it is. We'd rather have them and say yes to you, 'Hey, you can land on this.' Here are the resources, you can survey it, and then you can land and spend ten minutes there and be like, 'OK, now I'm going to leave and go back to the other planet that has all this other content on it, and I'm going to follow this questline.'"
procedural generation...
TO CREATE 1000 PLANETS TO HAVE FREEDOM >DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD 5 planets is not enough? you need 1000? otherwise people will riot?
TO CREATE QUESTS : DDDDDDDDD
I have to retch. So you gonna spend your precious time on bullshit quests. Thank you, fuck off, go to Mars. After what they did to Fallout I don't have any trust in this gamedev. Besides Prey all they did was bs, recently.
Will there be diamond planets that can be shot with a megalaser and it reflects light in an awesome fashion, amplifies it and nukes other planets, everything in the vincinity, whatever? No? How creative.
Just the same shit all over again. Zero creativity, buzzwords, we've spent 55 years on this game creating gizmos that nobody cares about.
Let's hope the story won't be trash.
GnomeChimpsky
Member
Do these planets have biomes? That’s one thing sci fi ignores, from Star Wars movies to games. They treat entire planets as single cities or regions, but earth is full of different cities, landscapes, environments, countries, cultures, and everything else. Planets like mars etc maybe be bland but planets can also be diverse. I’d love to see planets where they are more than just “forest planet”, “ice planet”, “desert planet” etc.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
Also, people don't understand procedural generation. Including you actually. It's NOT random. It's pseudo-random (i.e. it SEEMS random) but 100% deterministic (i.e. it produces the same output every time given the same input). Even runtime procedural generation will produce the exact same results for every player every time in a certain location, given the same seed (which is basically the "starting input" for the pseudo-random generation algorithms), and obviously every copy of the game will have the same seed. That's how it works in NMS too. People think that it's all random and an unvisited planet only becomes "locked" once it has been uploaded by someone, but that's not how it works at all. Planets aren't uploaded, only their player-given names and such are. A thousand offline players could visit the same spot on the same unvisited planet at the same time and they would all see the exact same stuff there (not counting player-made bases etc, which are of course uploaded and synced to other players), as long as they're on the same version of the game (the generation algorithms have changed a lot with game updates).
So it could very well be runtime procedural generation and it would still not be "random" but completely deterministic. Every planet would be the same for every player.
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Lokaum D+
Member
proper story ? did u played Fallout 4 or 76 ? the last thing i expect from Bethesda is a proper story, since their last good story was New Vegas and the ppl behind New Vegas is doing Outerworlds at Obsidian, so i wouldnt expect so much of Starfield story.And a proper story, great music and wonderful art direction.
about "art direction" there's only so much that procedural generation can do, so i wouldnt expect so much of this either.
i ll give u the music, the music in the trailer was good.
Kev Kev
Member
that would be cool but i dont think the technology is quite there yet.
JLB
Banned
I played both. You are correct about 76, but 4 was great.
GnomeChimpsky
Member
I really liked the story in F4, or rather I enjoyed the way factions and characters meshed together. It was really well done. Didn't bother with F76 because it was obviously a low tier effort by their b-team.
And I don't think you know how procedural generation works. It doesnt mean every single game asset is created on the fly by a computer. Skyrim had procedural generation but it was utilizing developer created assets and the same thing will be done in Starfield, albeit on a much larger scale.
Kev Kev
Member
as far as fallout 4 goes, the only thing i can think of is it was really buggy on launch week and everyone shit slammed it, and thats why everyone thinks it was garbage.
i didnt play it till a couple years after release, and by then it was running fine on my xbox one. so
i dunno i guess i was just lucky. its one of my favorite game ever.fallout 76 however i tried week one and it was so buggy i never went back. and now i hear people say its amazing. so it sounds like a similar situation but the roles are reversed. maybe i need to go back to 76 and give it another go.
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Majima Everywhere System
Member
There's only two planets of Todd's that I really want to hear about.
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
There is no discovered planet outside of Earth that has biomes so this makes sense.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
There are no discovered planets with ANYTHING on them, really. Biomes require life. This game will have several planets with life on it, we know that much. So it would make sense if those planets have multiple biomes each. But they won't.
Either way, your argument makes no sense.
DaGwaphics
Member
Most of space is filled with rocks, I like the idea of making the lived on worlds feel more rare. More interesting than having one solar system with every planet inhabited, IMO.
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
You agreed with my statement and then said it didn't make sense.
Sorcerer
Member
Todd pretty much said truthfully that all Planet's won't be that engaging, example the ice ball. No way 1000 planet's can contain something exciting. 4 out of 1000 will be interesting as pertaining to the story, the rest are for resource gathering basically.
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Craig of War
Banned
People need to watch this vid before they start talking about things they have no clue about
The More You Know
The More You Know
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They really don't. That isn't an authority on anything.
Or you mean that video is 100% factual or can't be argued with, in which case. Ha.
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Craig of War
Banned
Way better and useful info then dumb fanboys bitching with the same boring ass talking points over and over again but hey what do i know lol
mansoor1980
Gold Member
Nickolaidas
Member
I'm starting to also think this will be a boon to the modding community. The game will definitely have the option for a modder to create their own planet. Basically a campaign within a campaign.
Definitely a game I won't touch until five to ten years have passed after its release.
Definitely a game I won't touch until five to ten years have passed after its release.
RoadHazard
Gold Member
No. You're saying we don't know of any other real life planets with biomes and therefore it makes sense if Starfield's planets are also single biome. But all real life planets we know of except for Earth are dead rocks/ice balls/gas giants. The one real planet with life we know of does have multiple biomes, and we know Starfield will have many planets with life (probably one or two per solar system, so that's a few hundred). So to "make sense" those should also have multiple biomes, instead of one just being "the forest planet", another being "the jungle planet", a third being "the swamp planet", etc. But that's probably what it will be, like in NMS.
AutumnLeaves
Member
SoloKingRobert
Banned
Hendrick's
If only my penis was as big as my GamerScore!
It's like these clowns don't realize that every open world game has procedurally generated content.
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Fredrik
Member
Hello Games stated the planets in NMS had one biome to encourage space exploration. If a planet had all biomes and cultures you wouldn’t have to search for a specific planet type to get specific resources and meet specific alien races etc.
But I agree. And going by the trailer Starfield is unfortunately doing the same thing.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
Call me crazy but I’d rather have a small solar system of well designed planets over No Man’s Sky style of generated ones.
I’m going to predict this is going to be the next big drama game. People are hyping themselves up for a “Bethesda RPG” in space, and I’m starting to think it’s going to fall way short of that.
I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve learned it’s best to have no expectations.
I’m going to predict this is going to be the next big drama game. People are hyping themselves up for a “Bethesda RPG” in space, and I’m starting to think it’s going to fall way short of that.
I hope I’m wrong, but I’ve learned it’s best to have no expectations.
Krappadizzle
Member
I for one looking forward to the the proc. generated planets for one very simple reason. Because everyone will have the same planets, modder will simply have a huge empty blank canvas with which they can build on.
A modder(s) will take some of these empty and boring planets and be able to make cool or interesting content. Bethesda's offerings on all their games at a base level are pretty much just competent ways and examples of how the space can be used, modders have given those places meaning.
If you don't have access or the ability to mod, I'd understand the reservation, but if you do....It's limitless possibilities.
A modder(s) will take some of these empty and boring planets and be able to make cool or interesting content. Bethesda's offerings on all their games at a base level are pretty much just competent ways and examples of how the space can be used, modders have given those places meaning.
If you don't have access or the ability to mod, I'd understand the reservation, but if you do....It's limitless possibilities.
Good thing is you get the choice to restrict YOUR play to the handcrafted worlds and probably a handful of procedurally generated worlds. You can play the game and restrict yourself to 50 planets, for example.
Your post is essentially complaining about options. Which is kinda weird.
You’re still getting the well designed, handcrafted planets in the game. You can play the game without paying any heed to most of the procedurally generated planets.
How does that choice of planet count affect whether or not it’s a ‘Bethesda RPG’? They’re handcrafting bigger worlds and much more lines of dialogue than they’ve ever made in decades of making RPGs…why would you expect the game not to be an RPG?
mortal
Gold Member
No, I'm arguing about the game design choices and how it would impact the overall quality of the game.
Why would I be complaining about the game giving players options when I've already praised the RPG elements and the variety in customization?
The notion that 'bigger is always better' is not one that I subscribe to. Balance stills needs to be taken into account, even when designing larger-scaled game worlds.
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jonnyp
Member
Hope you heal up quickly!
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
I’ve seen enough to know I don’t expect anything anymore. If it winds up being amazing then that’s great - I’ll be buying it. If it winds up being underwhelming and has a roadmap of promises I won’t be surprised.
Jemm
Member
If there were only a handful of planets (10?), it would have been said to be like Outer Worlds - with too few locations etc.
Anyway, I think the amount of planets add replay value. In the first game you land on a fraction of planets. In the next game another set of planets and so on. Or just ignore them and focus on the story.
Anyway, I think the amount of planets add replay value. In the first game you land on a fraction of planets. In the next game another set of planets and so on. Or just ignore them and focus on the story.
It does not affect the game any bit. Going procedural for the bulk of the planets ensures they’re created with relatively minimal dev time (aside from time to QC the procedural results).
The quest, story etc are tied to the handcrafted world. So again, you’re essentially complaining about options.
True, Bigger isn’t always better. But since you can experience the same game while sticking to fewer planets, why is this an issue for you?
AMSCD
Member
Dude Bethesda owes you nothing. It's not their responsibility to make a game to your specifications. Why you so offended?
OceanGaming
Member
Daggerfall bros , are we hyped for the Daggerfall in Space game? :3
Also; i really really need a deep dive into ce2 behind-the-scenes stuff, see how i can alter this game to my own - whether it would be other peoples mods or my own.
Also; i really really need a deep dive into ce2 behind-the-scenes stuff, see how i can alter this game to my own - whether it would be other peoples mods or my own.
mortal
Gold Member
How can game design not affect the game? The question is whether or not those design decisions will prove to be beneficial or detrimental, and to what degree.
Since we won't know for certain until the game is released and available to experience, is why I remain skeptical.
That's obvious enough, I doubt anyone is actually expecting them to handcraft 1,000 individual planets to the same level of polish.
There are limits to resource and time, as with any production.
As I said to the previous poster, those are the parts that sound compelling to me atm.
Again, I'm not complaining about there being options. If that were the case, then I would be asking for the game to be linear in its design.
I'm just simply expressing skepticism because I'm keeping in Bethesda's past games and how broken they often are in the retail versions relative to how they've showcased in the marketing leading up to launch.
I think procedural generation at that scale comes with an increased probability of repetition and derivative, boring design.
Which would make the exploration seemingly less enticing over a period of time.
Most of what comes to mind upon hearing 1,0000 (mostly procedurally generated) planets are mostly barren planets that would serve primarily as spots for resource gathering and mining, and the occasional skirmish with creatures and humanoids.
I hope they manage to strike a balance with the procedural generation elements so as to not diminish the feeling of discovery, but until then I remain skeptical.
That's my honest opinion, I don't know what you want from me lol
Guilty_AI
Member
i don't think this'll be like daggerfall though, i think it'll be more like a NMS with a Fallout on top.
I'll never understand all the bitching going around. It's easy, just don't buy the game, there all of the problems for the people hating on this. That's what i do with cinematic games, i just don't buy it and move on.
TikiLagoonSam
Member
My favorite games are usually 10-20 hours. And they BECAME 100 hour games. Because I replay them CONSTANTLY. The Uncharted series. The Legend of Zelda series. Mario. God of War. Final Fantasy. Metroid.
Make a fun, focused, 10 planets, briming with life and dripping with atmosphere that’s unique to each planet, amazing shooting mechanics, etc and I would be extremely excited.
Make a fun, focused, 10 planets, briming with life and dripping with atmosphere that’s unique to each planet, amazing shooting mechanics, etc and I would be extremely excited.
TheGodfather07
Member
Imagine a Bethesda game with no loading. You can go wherever you want seamlessly. That would be amazing but I guess its not possible yet. For now, just cutting any loading down to just a few seconds is nice. Makes a big difference to the experience.
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