To be fair, most of the cosmos in real life is literally empty. However, realism is overrated. The whole reason we play video games is because real life sucks.
I mean, some of us play sci-fi games because we want to experience the reality that’s still out of reach to us.
Not Bethesda products, of course, but, you know. Games.
And like of we were space faring, you think that shit wouldn’t be capitalized on?? If there was a dollar to make on it someone would be there, and that alone opens so many possibilities for world building
This borders upon one of my favorite topics actually - there ARE resources up there, which WOULD be valuable, but the cost of getting machinery and equipment up there is literally astronomical. Little known in public circles is the additional (and also enormous) cost of getting shit back down safely.
In order to be cost effective, the stuff we put into space would need to stay there. Asteroid mining is only better than break-even in terms of resources if it DOESN’T come back to earth! For instance, if we had an orbital (or lunar) habitat for refining and manufacturing, where an asteroid capture and retrieval vehicle can be built, fueled, and launched, and then return to, ONLY THEN would it bring back more useful minerals, chemical compounds, and other materials than it would take to launch…
… because the simple fact is that it takes a shit ton of energy to leave Earth’s gravity well and destroys a lot of resources in terms of making (and surviving) that journey.
And then instead of building stuff on earth that consume an order of magnitude more than their construction in just transit, we can build it ALREADY UP THERE. That brings us to the last problem, though:
It’s no use to any person except someone who is already up there, too.
I’m not even talking about money cost here. Money has no point here until there are humans who want things and need a means by which to measure those wants against the context of what productive capacity is available, represent the magnitude of their want, and represent the transfer of material goods to satisfy those wants. AKA respectively a store of value, unit of account, and medium exchange–the definition of currency.
Space will only be profitable in space.
I just played two hours and called it quits as I was walking, jumping, and hovering in “mid air” on Luna. No Sun to see, but the Luna Surface was … illuminated and the features threw somehow shadows? Where is the light coming from? Why is there no conversation of moment? This is truly Skyrim in space.
I feel like Starfield should have removed the space travel mechanics. It could instead have opted for Mass Effect style travel menu…
Also, they could have gone for a handful of highly detailed planets.
I think the most fun I’ve had has been the spaceship building. I’ve only done a bit of space combat, but the spaceship builder while not perfect (like the inability to rotate parts) I quite liked.
the spaceship builder while not perfect (like the inability to rotate parts)
Please tell me you’re exaggerating for humorous effect
It’s true, some of them ARE empty by design…but the problem is, a world with life on it in Starfield is barely more interesting than the barren rock. It is still almost ALL randomly generated, there just happens to be more wildlife to scan while you run across the boring landscape, and maybe an animal will try to kill you.
Oh, and the pointless radiant quest you get will be from a solar farm on the nice planet, instead of a mining platform on the barren one. There is very little difference.
It doesn’t matter if you are on Jemison right next to New Atlantis, the capital of the universe, or on some random moon in nowhere, you’ll get the same abandoned buildings with spacers/pirates/mercenaries in them. And literally zero of them will have any sort of story or writing attached to them. Walking around on random planets is unbelievably repetitive.
Ugh, they are bringing back radiant quests? Did they learn nothing from Skyrim? Bare minimum, radiant quests have to be BETTER than Deep Rock Galactic missions. But better to just not have them at all, a la Baldur’s Gate 3.
I spent 20 hours exploring one solar system alone. Yea some planets are empty. Not many though. The complaints so far are really shallow.
The people having fun aren’t the ones writing these knee-jerk critiques. They’re the ones engrossed in the game atm and their opinions will be better reflected once they’re done.
There’s a lot of reason for the haters to hate on this one. Bethesda game, no space travel like NMS, no PS5 release. All things which were either a given or should have otherwise been obvious, but still, clicks are clicks and so any reason to hate is reason enough.
After 30 hours, I’ve honestly seen no reason to upgrade my ship. It’s just a speed bump to fast travel.
And the main critique I have is that there isn’t any real discovery. When you go to most of the new planets, you’re given one to three points of interest, you land there, and see an “abandoned [something]” overrun with enemies. You clear them out, generally get nothing of value, then move on. It’s quite repetitive gameplay.
Outside of following quest lines, there’s not much reason to explore.
I kinda feel like I’m just passing time, but not really having fun. Still, it’s one of those games that I don’t want to stop playing because I do actually want to see where the main story goes.
Insist all you want, Bethesda, it doesn’t make it true
If it was boring, nobody would want to visit the Moon or Mars IRL, and yet… People do want to do that. 🤷🏻♂️
Of course, in the game even the “empty” planets are not actually empty. There are plenty of POIs to find from wrecked spaceships to clandestine bases to naturally forming caves. You just can’t find them without landing and walking around. Sometimes for hours, because the planet is huge and you can only explore it on foot.
You understand there are scientific pursuits on mars and the moon IRL that don’t translate to Starfield in any shape or form, right?
