Todd Howard says expectations for Starfield changed because everything is an RPG now: "I can't look at a game that doesn't have XP and leveling"
Todd Howard says expectations for Starfield changed because everything is an RPG now: "I can't look at a game that doesn't have XP and leveling"
"We try to stay true to who we are in terms of what we want to see in a game," Howard says of Bethesda RPGs
Yeah Todd, that means people want a deeper RPG experience than you give with just a simple perk system that allows you to be good at everything all at once.
Heh. Playing the game now. You're gonna have to sink hundreds of hours to fill that damn tree. I got 48hrs clocked and only Level 26. Barely touched rank 3 perks and haven't maxed out one yet.
I say if you put a month game time into a single character, fuck it be good at everything. Builds be damned. You earned it.
It's a fun game, I'm loving Starfield. But it doesn't have the same RPG elements as I was hoping.
Fortunately Baldur's Gate 3 got me there.
Fortunately for them, they already got your money. That's the Bethesda MO... over-promise, under-deliver and fans will justify the rest. How many endings was FO3 suppose to have? I fully understand liking something that has flaws, but they shouldn't be excused because of it.
But it doesn’t have the same RPG elements as I was hoping
I feel like hope wasn't warranted there with the obvious streamlining trend since Skyrim*. I could maybe see being cautiously optimistic, as in waiting for reviews.
Not that it comes as a shock, I'm sure I'll hear others say the same with the next elder installment.
*=They at least made an attempt with FO3, skill checks+perks (plus the XP system is less grind-y than Oblivion even if it is simplified and less "immersive"). Also improved upon by FONV. (I didn't have a good start with Morrowind, in fairness it probably was my fault for some of it but I don't think skill grind and dice-roll misses are a good combo plus needing meta-knowledge even if that's what makes replaying fun... because slog.)
Ok so he doesn't understand what makes an rpg beyond skill points. Explains a lot in hindsight. And got so close to clarity when he said they are making a game true to who they are. Just one fast travel away.
The bastardization of rpg really sucks. What about the old-school fallout and elder scrolls games, even? Surely Todd must be familiar with those. They were a lot more rpg than 90% of rpg games today.
I want my choices to matter. The choices largely do not matter, if you're even given a real choice at all. This has been the issue with their RPGs since Oblivion, and has only gotten worse over time. I don't just mean how I move through a dungeon and take care of enemies; I mean in dialogue. When I am presented with a logical thing I could do or say, but I don't actually have the option to do it, it sucks.
It's kind of a defining feature of Bethesda IP. It's how they maintain their IP. Where were you when the dragon broke?
I was in wayrest, daggerfall and sentinel at the same time
You don't want a CRPG. You want an interactive novel.
Baldur's Gate 3 recently, and all the classic CRPGs of the 90's and early 2000's had this.
You don't want a CRPG. You want an FPS where number go up
Yes Todd, video games have changed. Some would even say grown & matured. Every game has aspects & mechanics from multiple genres. Like, one of the most played racing games is GTAV, probably.
Dudes stuck in the 90's. I'm a little surprised he even knows what other games look like. He's only worked with one game engine his entire career.
Oh wait, that's not true. He also released two mobile games... that are the same game, artwork and everything. So, two game games. He has created two different games his entire career.
I argue he's stuck in the late 2000s early 2010s.
Morrowind was significantly more indepth than any of their games released after.
He's got the "well skyrim sold well so let's just go with that"
I only said 90's because Morrowind was basically built late 90s. You're right though.
He's a game director, I can guarantee you he doesn't touch the engine anymore.
Why does everyone blame creation engine for everything they don't like? Unreal is even older and you don't see anyone bitching about it.
People love to feel smart throwing terms around, I guess
I also don’t see the exact same bugs in unreal 5 that I did in unreal 3.
Creation engine 2 has the same bugs I saw in fallout 3, and the same limitations. They’ve updated it to use 64 bit so they can cram in more shitty scripts, and they’ve updated it to use modern rendering techniques. The underlying issues with quest triggers, npc spawning, and collision are all still present.
Hey hey, that's not entirely true. Before the creation engine, they did use gamebryo as well as an in-house engine for the older titles pre-Morrowind.
Its just that the creation engine is a carbon copy rip off of gamebryo. The initial version of the creation engine even had the same bugs from gamebryo, some of which persist to this day.
he’s only worked with one game engine
Please please please STOP saying “game engine” for every little shit, it doesn’t matter at all most of the time. In this particular case, it doesn’t matter in the slightest, not even one tiny bit.
Stop. Using. Terms. You. Don’t. Understand.
I always feel like the only games Todd ever played was Pacman and Skyrim.
Man games are so good now, no need to improve or change anything, we have arrived
The problem is that Todd and the rest of the creative team decided rather than doubling down on the RPG elements in a meaningful way, they would rather strip away all the mechanics and nerf them into essential obsolescence.
Planets were originally going to be a lot less forgiving and you would need different space suits for the environments. So for example, your frost prevention suit wouldn't help you in a high radiation environment, and you would need a different set of suits for different conditions. Not anymore! Now we just get a little icon in the HUD that says "planet conditions bad" and does nothing meaningful.
Starfield just made me want to go back to Cyberpunk 2077 where all the ground-based mechanics are done better, or to No Man's Sky, where all the ground-based and space-based mechanics are better.
My expectations:
The multiple NPC's on my ship won't talk over one another while I'm hailing another ship.
There is the fan, cora, cole, myself, and another crew member I bought in a bar all sharing a class A ship with a single bed, maybe one of these Habs should have been filled with bunks to make sense?
The game shouldn't crash constantly.
More original names for things that 'the artifacts'. That's a good first draft but come on.
Fallout and Elderscrolls had a lot of fun little side stories that revealed themselves on notes and computers as you explored the world. Starfield is lucky to have one memo talking about the facility before the spacers arrived to murder everyone.
Enemies should empty clip after clip into the window I am standing behind.
I always make these fat, clunky, massive ships with enough habs to theoretically actually house my crew. They don't maneuver too well but they feel more logical than what is effectively a starfighter holding 7 people when the crew is clearly only 3 or 4.
God of war ragnarok tuned this way down. Level is tied to equipment (max 9), xp is spent as currency on skills. I really liked it. Didn't feel like the game was RPGified at all.
Similarly, Fable did that. Using specific skill types would grant experience points to spend in that category, plus a general xp currency that can go into any category.
Damn what a great game...
Loved Fable, 2 was top tier imo.
Which is exactly how the elder scrolls has been since Daggerfall at least. The only difference is you didn't have any specialization choices until Skyrim with the perks.
"Everything is an RPG, that's why we doubled down on RPGs to stand out". Mmmkay then.
“Everything is an RPG” says the guy whose company has stripped out all but the most basic of RPG elements from their games.