starfield, are you excited?

[Holmes108]

I am impressed with the polish too. The only real jank/bugginess I'm seeing is with the companions and following. I'll load into an area and they'd sprint forward into a wall, then twitch like crazy... they won't quite face the right way during a conversation, etc... it generally sorts itself out quickly, and has never broken anything for me yet. Just annoying. 

[Jorgemeister]

After 500 hours in Tears of the Kingdom, I'm ready for a new game, I think this will be it.

 

I{m watching some reviews, mixed opinions about its content but it mostly seems that expectations were too high for what the final product is?

[Middcore]

2 minutes ago, Jorgemeister said:

but it mostly seems that expectations were too high for what the final product is?

 

Some of that, but I'd say it's more that there are people who are, for a mixture of reasons, disappointed the game is actually good and have been straining very hard to find stuff to complain about.

 

I mean, even before the game came out, you had people pretending to be upset that you can't... land and walk around on gas giants. https://www.charlieintel.com/starfield/starfield-shattered-space-dlc-270635/ 

 

[ewitte]

I had hoped to try out this morning, but it said there was 13 hours left so it will be tomorrow.

[Real_PhillBert]

I have about 16h into it now, and am at level 14; I'm very satisfied with it so far. It's not perfect, and I wish they had done better with the opening sequence, but no biggy. I'm very much so enjoying the game thus far. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface at this point. 

 

I've had one crash so far, and noticed that it does not support 32:9 (an outlier, I know) aspect ratio, so I'm playing at 3440x1440 with black bars. Minor annoyance. 

[Jorgemeister]

2 hours ago, Middcore said:

 

Some of that, but I'd say it's more that there are people who are, for a mixture of reasons, disappointed the game is actually good and have been straining very hard to find stuff to complain about.

 

I mean, even before the game came out, you had people pretending to be upset that you can't... land and walk around on gas giants. https://www.charlieintel.com/starfield/starfield-shattered-space-dlc-270635/ 

 

Landing on a gas giant is probably gonna be a DLC, the Bad Physics DLC.

And apparently also complaining about the genre selection 

 

I'm pre-downloading it, I just saw a video about ship customization, it looks so good

[Jorgemeister]

21 minutes ago, Real_PhillBert said:

I've had one crash so far, and noticed that it does not support 32:9 (an outlier, I know) aspect ratio, so I'm playing at 3440x1440 with black bars. Minor annoyance. 

I am glad to hear 3440x1440 is supported, can't take it for granted anymore, Elden Ring didn't, I had to use like 4 mods to make it work, 1 for aspect ratio, one to remove the ugly vignette, another one to modify the FOV and another one so the extra screen could be animated. Shocking on a game from 2022.

[Birblover12]

2 hours ago, Holmes108 said:

In that first hour or two, it really seemed like the ship was going to be nothing but a fast travel/teleport vessel (that you could mostly do from land anyways!), but I'm glad that isn't the case (or doesn't need to be, at least).

I think it's a mixed bag, namely because it feels like running 10 minutes between objectives in the middle of nowhere over and over again would be more annoying than just piloting your darned ship and landing where you want like in NMS, though personally they could just add land vehicles instead (which probably would be better anyways).

 

I do wish they had done more with the ship upgrades, though I think that goes hand in hand with the lack of actual space flight. I think perhaps they could have done both (I.E fast travelling & manual landing) as it would have satisfied both groups. I'm sure someone will add mods for it in the future.

[Holmes108]

I'm also looking forward to a good wiki being created. I can go onto Reddit at any given time and learn like 5 things I didn't know. Some gems from today are that there are different ship parts at different locations. Or that you can transfer things remotely from your inventory to your ships inventory (if you're outside, and within a short-ish distance apparently. I haven't checked it out yet). 

 

I saw people online who thought the captains safe was your ship cargo, lol. There's "not holding your hand", and then there's "teach us the basics bethesda!". 

[Sarra]

I'm really torn. I got so burned during Skyrim and Fallout 4, for months, Bethesda would release hotfixes that literally broke mods, and did nothing else. It meant that for half of the week, I couldn't play because too many mods were broken, then would get back in for half a week, then a new hotfix, and boom, can't play for several days, again.

 

I also got burned by Fallout 76. I absolutely did not want to get into an online TPS, and that's what 76 was, so I took a hard pass on it, and I'm greatful for that.

 

The reviews and reactions have kinda got me interested in it, but I don't want to put 400+ hours into a game that, in the end, is just going to anger me to the point that I uninstall and hide it in my Steam library.

 

I'd like someone that has an eye on 'time wasting' mechanics review it, so if anyone that hates time wasting mechanics has played and reviewed this, I'd be interested in watching that review.

[atxcyclist]

I was excited, but my 3060 Ti is apparently not enough at least at current levels of optimization. Not really interested in potato quality 1080p visuals just to avoid 40fps.

[Holmes108]

10 hours ago, atxcyclist said:

I was excited, but my 3060 Ti is apparently not enough at least at current levels of optimization. Not really interested in potato quality 1080p visuals just to avoid 40fps.

 

Most people are playing at 30fps. 40 is more than worth it for this game, in my not so humble opinion. Especially if you were already excited.

[atxcyclist]

1 hour ago, Holmes108 said:

 

Most people are playing at 30fps. 40 is more than worth it for this game, in my not so humble opinion. Especially if you were already excited.

30-40fps is really low, at 1080p I’d expect better when my video card exceeds the recommended system requirements. The recommended configuration should get you 1080p@60fps with decent settings, that seems like a reasonable expectation and up until the last few years that is how it worked.
 

Developers shouldn’t ‘recommend’ a config that won’t reach at least 1080p@60fps with good settings. If the game needs a 7900xt or an RTX 4090 to be decent, they should stop BSing and just publish those as the recommended specs.

[Fr33K!e]

Well... at 3440x1440 with a RTX 3090 and Core i9 10900Kf and 32GB 3600MHz RAM I get between 65 and 110 on Ultra settings... Frame rate seems to be a little wild for me.

 

Edit: None of my PC is overclocked.

[Holmes108]

5 minutes ago, atxcyclist said:

30-40fps is really low, at 1080p I’d expect better when my video card exceeds the recommended system requirements. The recommended configuration should get you 60fps with decent settings, that seems like a reasonable expectation. Developers shouldn’t ‘recommend’ a config that won’t reach at least 1080p@60fps with good settings, if the game needs a 7900xt or a 4090 to be decent, they should stop BSing and just make those the recommended specs.

 

It's a complicated topic, like what even is "decent" to one person or another. I don't disagree with most of your points in principle though. If you're not playing more due to some sort of boycott, that's a different story, and fair enough. 

 

I just meant most people are playing at 30 because that's what it is on console, and they're having the time of their lives, so I'd hate for someone to miss out just because they've convinced themselves that anything under 60 equals a trash experience (because I don't necessarily think it does).

 

Although it's not the heaviest game out there, it does feel like they could squeeze more out of it potentially. Curious what driver and game updates may bring for people. 

 

 

[Fr33K!e]

3 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

 

 

I just meant most people are playing at 30 because that's what it is on console, and they're having the time of their lives, so I'd hate for someone to miss out just because they've convinced themselves that anything under 60 equals a trash experience (because I don't necessarily think it does).

 

 

 

I'm ok with less than 60fps but once it gets down to below 50fps then things start to become a little uncomfortable. And by that I mean it's visually uncomfortable. If said game is designed on PC to run at 30 then I have no problem with that.

[Holmes108]

14 minutes ago, Fr33K!e said:

Well... at 3440x1440 with a RTX 3090 and Core i9 10900Kf and 32GB 3600MHz RAM I get between 65 and 110 on Ultra settings... Frame rate seems to be a little wild for me.

 

Edit: None of my PC is overclocked.

 

That seems to check out with my experience. It's quite a wide range. Ryzen 5600 and a 4070, I bounce between 55-85 FPS. It does a good job staying in the low 60's for the most part though.

 

I tried reducing a bunch of the ultra settings to high, but didn't seem to make a noticeable difference to the framerate, but then neither did enabling FSR oddly (I guess meaning perhaps I'm more CPU limited?), so I keep that off as well.

 

Edit: Oh just realized that you're ultrawide, which makes a bit more sense (thought your card should be further ahead than mine). I'm just at 2560*1440

[atxcyclist]

7 minutes ago, Holmes108 said:

 

It's a complicated topic, like what even is "decent" to one person or another. I don't disagree with most of your points in principle though. If you're not playing more due to some sort of boycott, that's a different story, and fair enough. 

 

I just meant most people are playing at 30 because that's what it is on console, and they're having the time of their lives, so I'd hate for someone to miss out just because they've convinced themselves that anything under 60 equals a trash experience (because I don't necessarily think it does).

 

Although it's not the heaviest game out there, it does feel like they could squeeze more out of it potentially. Curious what driver and game updates may bring for people. 

 

 

I’m probably just going to wait a while and see if optimization gets better, if it does then I may still purchase the game. But personally, I don’t think the barrier to entry on a quality 1080p 60fps experience in modern titles, should be an $1100 graphics card.

 

[atxcyclist]

1 hour ago, My poodle is not French said:

It's not the entry, you have to realize many of us are high - refresh idiots who say below x FPS is unplayable.

I’m cool with 30fps on my Switch, but it’s a glorified cellphone so it’s to be expected; I think Tears of The Kingdom at that refresh is good.

 

On my gaming machine I paid for the 240hz monitor and good hardware, I want to benefit from it. I average above 100fps playing Doom Eternal at very high settings, Starfield shouldn’t be so demanding that I should expect 30-40fps. I’m hoping the game gets better optimization, because I’m not willing to drop 4070 or 4070 Ti money just to play it acceptably.

[05032-Mendicant-Bias]

After playing a while, I think the reviews quite overstated Starfield negative points, and undersold Starfield positive points for me.

Spoiler

The image below I was in Neptune, i had to target the engines of this ship to disable it without destroying it, board it and free the hostage. It's really great gameplay!

 

Starfield is great. The start is clunky, but it keeps getting better and better. The inventory system is not as bad as fallout 4, you can sell directly from the ship's inventory, and it's really cheap to slap a few cargo modules to the starting ship.

Performance (Bad)
Performance wise with my 13700F and RTX3080 1440p no FSR and no dynamic resolution, I get 140FPS in light sections, and 45FPS with stutters in some heavy sections. It's noticable.

Bugs (Superb)
I had zero bugs in Starfield. Yup, you read that right. The worst that happened is that a Pirate was stuck behind a door and some wonky animation. It's unbelievable a Bethesda game has fewer bugs than Baldur's Gate 3. I would have never believed it, but it's true!!! So far bug free experience, outside of wonky NPC behaviour.

Exploration (Ok)
From reviews I thought exploration was non existent, but it's not true. I am enjoying walking, discovering POIs, scanning flora, fauna and minerals. E.g.

Spoiler

I was on Luna and I found a landed ship with a quirky merchant walking around a lizard pet and I could steal her ship, a keepsake from her grandmother.

It is very reliant on fast travel, but the locations are as great as your fallout or skyrim. like Skyrim there are a lot of the equivalent of the "Bear caves" "Outlaw camps" filled with loot, with really interesting "Planet Features" and more interesting POIs with environmental text that tells you what happened there.

 

Aesthetic (Superb)

I love the art direction of the game. It really captures the feeling of walking on the moon, mars, or a city. The insides of ships and buildings are lavish and incredible, down to the bolts. Closest comparisons are No man's Sy, Elite Dangerous and Star Citizens, but it's different from all of them, I love it! Docking with a station orbiting a moon with the interiors of boths sides walkable is amazing. It's like a bug free and story rich Star Citizens, with some loading screens involved.

Encumberance (bad)
It's annoying. it's graceful, because encumberance is gradual, it's making you use increasingly more stamina, but it's tiny.  One would think after twenty years Bethesda learned to give a few hours worth of capacity... I'll search and install a mod to zero the weight of resources, like I did in Fallout 4.

I upgraded the puny inventory of my ship, that is cheap, and now I have enough capacity to do a couple of explorations and sell everything without moving items. It's better than  Fallout 4, but marginally.

 

Atmospheric Flight (Ok)

The first instinct when you are in space, is accelerate toward a planet. It doesn't work this way, which is disappointing. I guess the creation engine simply cannot handle it. The game doesn't do a good job of teaching you the way the UI is supposed to work, which is very Bethesda, they never figured out UI design, did they?
Honestly, the space stuffs so far is great, even without being able to go to a planet. The way planets and the ship look and handle in space is amazing. I would like having the No man's Sky navigation of just pointing the ship toward a planetsid POI and landing where I want, but I'm okay the way it is now.

 

Scanner (ok)
I don't remember the game teaching me about scanners... Look at the button and use it. It's a juiced up version of No man's Sky scanner, that show you POI, how to get to a mission marker, and allow you to scan. it works really well.

 

Space Map (Superb)

The Space map 'M' is how you are actually supposed to move around. For once he UI works great, with incredible details of gravity wells and planets. it reminds me of mass Effect 3, but far improved. With shortcut to the mission list 'L'. There is galaxy, system, planet level with icons and quest markers. If you enable them, because they aren't on by default for all missions...  overall it works great, is a great time saver and is not clunky.

Terrain Map (Awful)

Functionally, there isn't one... it's inexcusable. How am I supposed to remember all New Atlantis vendors and where they are?  A severe step back from Skyrim and Fallout, which weren't great maps either.

 

Ship Customization (Peerless)

I buy pick modules, LEGO them into a ship, and WALK inside the ship. And that's the stuff I did with the credits from the tutorial mission. I can tell your starting ship is puny, and I can't tell just how big and specialized you can make your ship, and i can't wait to find out.

There is nothing like adding a habitat, adding/moving/removing weapons and seeing your ship shape change, and being able to walk around your ship, dock with other ships and station. I can only think of Space Engineers for a more flexible ship builder, and that's basically a minecraft like ship builder simulator. I want to build an hauler, a fighter, a shuttle, and so much more.

Ship handling is shallow at the beginning, but I suspect there is much more. In a later mission the game unlocks targeting of specific ship parts, that you have to mixwith dog fighting, and energy allocation. It's intense to say the least! The energy system reminds me of FTL, but I really think there should be a "Battle pause" to allow you to allocate power effectively in the heat of battle, if there is such a system I haven't found it yet.

You can hire crew, and you see the crew manning the stations! With NPC you meet having skills of their own!

I can easily say that the ship customization system alone is worth the game for me.

Companions and Quest (Great)
I just begun, i can't tell if it keeps up. So far NPC, compnions have lots of unprompted dialogue that is not just  "Welcome home, my Thane" and quests are really interesting. E.g.

Spoiler

Joining the Vanguard in New Atlantis has a museum section where you learn a lot about the lore.

So far it looks Bethesda level of quality. There is no choice involved as far as I can tell, and that's fine for me. So far the Main quest has not captured my attention, but I didn't much care for stopping Alduin in skyrim or finding my son in Fallout 4, so...

Conclusion (Superb)
Starfield doesn't excel in any of its system compared to other games other than the subjective Art Direction for me. It's the overall combination of all the many, MANY systems interacting with each other that elevates the game for me. I can think of no other game that is story rich, space based, with exploration both procedural and handcrafted, with spaceship customization, base customization and deep RPG mechanics with so much lore and dialogue.

Spoiler

In the first ten hours, I got a ship, got "vulunteered" in a exploration dark society, visited New Atlantis, mined the mines of cydonia in mars, added modules and habitats to my ship, walked on the moon and found the Apollo 11 landing module, fought space pirates ships, downed several pirate bases, helped colonists get rid of local alien fauna, scanned a planet, docked to a derelict orbital shipyard, fought a hijacked ship around neptune, docked and freed the hostage, joined the Space Rangers, put up frog posters of a child in Mars, and so much more.

It's a unique game, that achieve something no other game I played does.

[ARandomPerson]

I have an R5 7600X and a 6700XT and at Ultra except for motion blur, I am getting 60 or so fps. Granted I only just started playing

 

Edit: This is at 1080p with FSR 2 on. I'll give an update on the framerate with it off.

[NobleGamer]

I am excited for Starfield...to eventually get heavily discounted or get bundled with other games

 

In more ways than one I expected the game to be Fallout 4 in space, and reviews seem to suggest its something like that. So none of these complaints on day 1 surprise me:

• Graphical performance and/or quality in spite of moderate or even high end hardware
• Unoptimized CPU usage that prevents 100% usage even when performance is CPU bound
• Significant number of loading animations for even the smallest indoor building
• Parts of the story are a mixed bag
• Side quests and planets off the beaten path are dull or samey (remember Radient Quests?)

[Silviecat44]

2 hours ago, NobleGamer said:

I am excited for Starfield...to eventually get heavily discounted or get bundled with other games

 

In more ways than one I expected the game to be Fallout 4 in space, and reviews seem to suggest its something like that. So none of these complaints on day 1 surprise me:

• Graphical performance and/or quality in spite of moderate or even high end hardware
• Unoptimized CPU usage that prevents 100% usage even when performance is CPU bound
• Significant number of loading animations for even the smallest indoor building
• Parts of the story are a mixed bag
• Side quests and planets off the beaten path are dull or samey (remember Radient Quests?)

I am also waiting for a good sale. why waste $100 when you can wait for it to be $40 and with bugfixes?

[Mark Kaine]

No, whenever I hear about some weird, unknown to me, over hyped game from small indie company (tm) my excitement instantly drops to zero.

 

 

I'll probably buy it on steam sale in 20 years for 2 bucks (and refund it like with all bethesda games ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) 

[GamerDude]

Gonna give this game a pass, for some reasons I'd heard about.....