- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
He was working on the game for years, I think choosing to leave now that it has been finally released makes perfect sense.
Daggerfall in SPAAACE - Starfield
- Thread starter Hykal94
- Start date
-
- Tags
- space ships
slybrarian
Creature of Fable
- Location
- A Far and Sunless Land
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Personally, the bigger question is "why did no one build shelters there in the first place." If they can create a city on Mars, it should be much easier to do on Earth and be a viable supplement to full evacuation. But that goes into the discussion above about the contradictory information about how successful the exodus was as well as things like "magnetospheres do not work like that and neither do atmospheres" and "so where did the oceans and mountains go".
- Location
- Luton Airport
The UC took the oceans to New Atlantis, Solomon Coe ran off with the Mountains to Akila.
I am something like ten hours in and this game is so aggressively Bethesda it probably should get Maryland honourary citizenship.
Playing on Xbox, there are so many little bullshit design decisions that are toxic background radiation slowly poisoning the game experience. Why are so many basic skills like boosting and lockpicking and stealth gated behind skill points? Why are city maps topographical when I am trying to sell things? Why are the NPCs still dead-eyed fish? Why is crafting such a mess? What the fuck is wrong with that UI?
But I have to say that the vibe is immaculate, the lore is interesting, and the game works. I am currently running though the Luna Staryards on a main quest and the exploration has a retro horror feel that I really appreciate. The characters are compelling, bar their limited dialogue options. The lore of all the factions is interesting. The city designs are cool. The combat is clunky, but the guns feel familiar and punchy and I am making little micro-decisions on the fly to get the upper hand in a scrap, because I have to -- even on normal difficulty, an enemy catching me unawares can kill me.
This is so far the best Cowboy Bebop simulator I've played ever, and I have to say that I think I'm gonna keep playing it on that basis alone.
Playing on Xbox, there are so many little bullshit design decisions that are toxic background radiation slowly poisoning the game experience. Why are so many basic skills like boosting and lockpicking and stealth gated behind skill points? Why are city maps topographical when I am trying to sell things? Why are the NPCs still dead-eyed fish? Why is crafting such a mess? What the fuck is wrong with that UI?
But I have to say that the vibe is immaculate, the lore is interesting, and the game works. I am currently running though the Luna Staryards on a main quest and the exploration has a retro horror feel that I really appreciate. The characters are compelling, bar their limited dialogue options. The lore of all the factions is interesting. The city designs are cool. The combat is clunky, but the guns feel familiar and punchy and I am making little micro-decisions on the fly to get the upper hand in a scrap, because I have to -- even on normal difficulty, an enemy catching me unawares can kill me.
This is so far the best Cowboy Bebop simulator I've played ever, and I have to say that I think I'm gonna keep playing it on that basis alone.
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean, this isn't really new or unique to Bethesda? Tying gameplay mechanics to skill investment goes all the way back to VTM Bloodlines (if not older). Maybe they could've done it better but it seems odd to treat a fairly bog-standard RPG tradition as something inexplicable and strange.
For good or ill tying everything to RPG progression is a well established trait of Western RPGs.
Mandemon
Gentlemen, I love brawl.
- Location
- Cookie Jar
Honestly I don't see issue with putting basic stuff behind skill points. Either you invest skill points, or find alternative methods. I am yet to find actual quest objective that can only be solved with specific skillset. Generally alternative is a lot of murder, but... well, most seem to actually offer alternative method.
Plus, it serves as character defining. Is my character someone who knows how to lockpick? By locking it behind skill tree, you can ensure you don't "accidentally" end up doing the lockpicking route.
Plus, it serves as character defining. Is my character someone who knows how to lockpick? By locking it behind skill tree, you can ensure you don't "accidentally" end up doing the lockpicking route.
Kadmus
Dragon's teeth are surprisingly hard to sow
- Location
- Devon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The issue is that in most Bethgames you just... have access to all the basic gameplay elements, regardless of point investment; you don't need to spend a level on Lockpicking or Stealth or Using A Jetpack, you just can.
You probably won't be good at it, to be fair, but you have the ability to try.
You probably won't be good at it, to be fair, but you have the ability to try.
Hykal94
Orange Estus Kitteh
- Location
- Firelink Shrine
Jetpacks, the single most important traversal skill on foot, is locked behind a skill - but piloting a ship isn't. Nor is scanning, mining, using a gun, or hitting people with an axe.
A good chunk of the skills could easily be replaced with just buying better equipment. I would rather pay for a better cutter, a better scanner, and so on. Scanning or mining is busywork gameplay, whereas shooting or stabbing is something that requires actual player skill.
It's also very silly you can be the best gunsmith or chemist in the game, but can't make ammo, guns or medpacks. Oh I can make every single drug in the game, including illegal ones, but for some reason I can't make something that heals me.
A good chunk of the skills could easily be replaced with just buying better equipment. I would rather pay for a better cutter, a better scanner, and so on. Scanning or mining is busywork gameplay, whereas shooting or stabbing is something that requires actual player skill.
It's also very silly you can be the best gunsmith or chemist in the game, but can't make ammo, guns or medpacks. Oh I can make every single drug in the game, including illegal ones, but for some reason I can't make something that heals me.
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
To be pedantic, in Fallout 4 you did have to spend points on the relevant perks to attempt higher levels of Lockpicking and Hacking. It was Skyrim where you could attempt Master locks with no points.
It's more noticeable in Starfield because Skyrim allowed you to try higher-level locks in order to level up the skill in the first place, but Starfield does not despite requiring certain numbers of lockpicking successes to access the next rank.
One of the first missions on Cydonia is one where you're supposed to put a tracker beacon on a tower that is apparently only reachable by jetpack.
I assumed that boosting was a basic skill and hiked my dumb ass all the way out there and tried to get up there for a good fifteen minutes until I realised that boosting was a skill that I needed to invest a skill point in. And I had no skill points left because I had used them for other basic things like lockpicking and some basic damage upgrades.
It's pretty obvious to me that the devs designed the environment around boosting and the skill balancing team decided to put the basic skill behind a gate for balancing reasons, and because all the Devs had boosting as a skill, no one considered what the end result for a new player like me might be.
Which is like top-grade Bethesda tbh so I guess I'm the dumbass for expecting different
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Mandemon
Gentlemen, I love brawl.
- Location
- Cookie Jar
Wait, what mission this is? Because I have never been asked to put a tracker beacon on in Cydonia.
This is something I have to give credit for Bethesda, once you unlock boost pack there is so much verticality you can take advantage, and enemies take advantage of it too. You can never be quite sure if that ledge over there is safe, or if someone will boost up there. At the same time, it means you can't restricted in your approach to various POIs, you are free to approach them from any angle. You aren't limited to designed entry routes.
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LordInsane
Loyalist to the Alvarian Merchant's Guild
- Location
- Bohuslän, Occupied Norway
The Tracker's Alliance gal at Cydonia has a non-generic mission to put a tracker beacon on the old launchsite. Simple, one-off, but as mentioned requires boosting to complete.
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
TBH I don't think there's anything wrong with having missions that require specific perks or skills to accomplish. Maybe it should be sign-posted better but this is no different from having a level minimum or some other hard block to completing a quest.
This is especially true when we're talking about something like movement upgrades where letting a mission be available to everyone just drastically limits mission design.
This is especially true when we're talking about something like movement upgrades where letting a mission be available to everyone just drastically limits mission design.
Mandemon
Gentlemen, I love brawl.
- Location
- Cookie Jar
Hmm, need to test this out myself. Haven't really talked to Tracker Alliance agents, thought they were just information kiosk with nothing else.
- Location
- The Hague
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Just spend the points lol
Mandemon
Gentlemen, I love brawl.
- Location
- Cookie Jar
Okay, so I just did this, and few things.
1) You can complete it without boostpack. You just kinda need to take a long route and take advantage of Mars lower gravity to make certain jumps.
2) Tracker warns you that if you aren't ready for a climb, you need a boostpack
So yeah, I don't there is an issue here. You are given a clear warning, and you can complete it without boostpack.
Incidentally, this was quite fun little platforming challenge.
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I want to! But I already spent them on other basic skills!
Again, there is zero signposting except tiny small font writing in the skill tree that boosting requires a skill. So sure, she mentioned that I needed a boost pack. I had a boost pack and thought this would be fine.
I'm not necessarily griping about the griping of the skills system in general, mind. It's more of a gripe about signposting skills and the frankly awful UI.
It's not a big deal, but it's little bullshit things that annoy me about the game. Again, Bethesda, I am booboo the fool for playing the game.
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- Singular They
I did. I mostly just browsed through the ship builder menus and figured it out.
- Location
- Luton Airport
It makes sense to be able to do fundamental stuff in the game without having spent skill points (just you'll be shit at the activity in question), then you know where you want to spend your points to improve, rather than the stumbling in the dark until you use a third party resource to work out what to go for.
- Location
- Georgia, US
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think if you don't invest in a jump pack you probably shouldn't be surprised if you can't reach certain areas.
- Location
- Luton Airport
I think if you can fly a spaceship sans skill points, a jetpack should be doable...