Pre-Release Starfield articles and discussion

[mainer]

I plan to make two threads relating to Starfield. This one, about any pre-release articles and/or discussions, and another one down the road about our gameplay experiences once it's actually released months from now. Hopefully it will be a way to consolidate pre-release information/discussion, from actual gameplay. There will undoubtedly be many pre-release articles, opinions, and speculations in the months to come, especially after the Starfield Showcase on 06/11/2023.

9 overly specific details we found in Starfield's release date trailer | PC Gamer

We're really hungry and/or hurting for actual information right now as far as actual gameplay goes, but one part gleaned from this article is a bit of a concern for me:

Everyone is using an X-Box Controler

Huh! No one at Bethesda is using the mouse and keyboard to play Starfield? How curious. It's almost as if Bethesda received a directive from its new Microsoft overlords that everyone appearing in public footage playing Starfield must use an Xbox controller.

I'm a dedicated KB & M gamer, so I prefer a game that is designed around that, and not any type of controller. I know a lot of you use some type of controller, at least at times, but I'm still hoping that Starfield will be designed around the KB & M with controller support and not the other way around.

 

[ZedClampet]

I plan to make two threads relating to Starfield. This one, about any pre-release articles and/or discussions, and another one down the road about our gameplay experiences once it's actually released months from now. Hopefully it will be a way to consolidate pre-release information/discussion, from actual gameplay. There will undoubtedly be many pre-release articles, opinions, and speculations in the months to come, especially after the Starfield Showcase on 06/11/2023.

9 overly specific details we found in Starfield's release date trailer | PC Gamer

We're really hungry and/or hurting for actual information right now as far as actual gameplay goes, but one part gleaned from this article is a bit of a concern for me:

Everyone is using an X-Box Controler

Huh! No one at Bethesda is using the mouse and keyboard to play Starfield? How curious. It's almost as if Bethesda received a directive from its new Microsoft overlords that everyone appearing in public footage playing Starfield must use an Xbox controller.

I'm a dedicated KB & M gamer, so I prefer a game that is designed around that, and not any type of controller. I know a lot of you use some type of controller, at least at times, but I'm still hoping that Starfield will be designed around the KB & M with controller support and not the other way around.

I'm sure mouse and keyboard will be fine. They know that PC sales will far exceed Xbox sales, so they need to get it right.

 

[Zloth]

I know a lot of you use some type of controller, at least at times, but I'm still hoping that Starfield will be designed around the KB & M with controller support and not the other way around.

It will bow to the limits of both of them, otherwise Bethesda will catch hell from whichever side isn't properly supported.

For the K+M, that means no more than about 8-10 "quick access" buttons, not counting WASD for movement. By that I mean timing-critical commands, like shooting off specific powers, dodging, and so-on. If K+M users need to map 1 through 0 for their powers, the higher number keys (and 0) will be too hard for players to find fast. Basically, almost the entire right side of the keyboard needs to be commands that can take a second or two to find with no bad consequences.

For the controller folks, there's a limit of commands in total. The shape makes access to all the buttons (and even many combos) very fast, there's only so many, and they don't lend themselves to mnemonics like "M" for map. They'll need to use menus to get to the complex stuff. K+M users can get shortcuts into those menus, but the game needs to be designed so that those shortcuts are just "nice to have," not critical.

 

[Pifanjr]

I doubt it will be worse than Skyrim, which had a pretty bad UI but was fine to play with K+M.

 

[mainer]

New Starfield article from yesterday:
So Starfield's still going to be really buggy, right? | PC Gamer

The article mainly details previously released Bethesda RPGs, and the bugs and/or technical issues that plagued them. It's a decent comparison considering Bethesda's reputation for buggy releases, and I've played all of them, with the exception of Fallout 76 which I consider to be a multiplayer game as opposed to single player, and thus had no interest.

The difference this time, with Starfield, could be because Microsoft is now the "over-seer" on the quality of game releases. Maybe. Everything about Starfield is really just speculation at this point. There will no doubt be quest bugs & graphical glitches, as there is no way to adequately play test a game with this many variables. And I expect those things. But my hope is that Starfield will be technically stable, without CTDs, massive FPS drops, and saved game bloat and/or corruption. Hopefully the delay is a good sign, at least in terms of stability.

 

[Zloth]

The difference this time, with Starfield, could be because Microsoft is now the "over-seer" on the quality of game releases.

A new version of Office 365 loaded on my work PC today. I opened Outlook, scrolled down through my inbox using the mouse wheel, and the focus kept jumping back up to the start again! It fixed when I selected Inbox on the left then put focus back on the list of emails on the right. It broke again when I closed Outlook and opened it up again.

Microsoft being in charge of QA does not instill any confidence in me. I suggest waiting for Starfield Service Pack 1 or 2. 🙃

 

[Zloth]

I just took a peek at the Star Citizen road map. Seems like all their planned projects finish before the end of (wait for it) September! I expect it's just that they aren't showing what's planned beyond 3rd quarter but what if....

 

[Pifanjr]

Considering that Starfield is Bethesda's biggest project by far, I expect there will be numerous bugs of all kinds. The official release will probably be more like a beta test for the first few months.

 

[Frindis]

@Zloth I see all the backer's money went into making that pretty awesome-looking roadmap

 

[Montana Roy]

Can't wait to see what Bethesda has in store for us with this highly anticipated release.

 

[ZedClampet]

How much sex will you have in Starfield? 'None,' says the Australian government

Apparently, per the hypervigilant Australian review board, there's no sexy times in the game. This couldn't possibly bother me less, but some folks will be disappointed. Or they'll just wait for the first "boob physics and bondage" mod to come out,.