this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023

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Dev behind massive Skyrim multiplayer mod turns their hands to Starfield, gives up because "this game is f***ing trash," uploads everything for someone else to finish (www.gamesradar.com)

submitted 11 months ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works

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[–] Alivrah@lemmy.world 236 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It wasn’t until they ported about 70% of Skyrim Together’s revered code to the Starfield project, though, that they bumped into a problem: “This game is fucking trash.”

“I didn't realize this until after I actually started playing the damn game a week after launch,” they say. “The game is boring, bland, and the main draw of Bethesda games, exploration in a lively and handcrafted world, was completely gone.

The modder started working on it before playing the game. It's kind of funny in a way, but also cool that they wanted to give people multiplayer ASAP.

[–] Bimbleby@lemmy.world 42 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Thing is Skyrim wasn't particularly handcrafted or lively either, the models for things like dungeons were repeated all the time and the NPC liveliness was lacklustre compared to eurojank games like Gothic.

[–] Poem_for_your_sprog@lemmy.world 22 points 11 months ago (1 children)

After playing elden ring I'm done with Bethesda. Haven't even tried starfeelz

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[–] aSingularFemboyHooter@sh.itjust.works 18 points 11 months ago

Not sure why this is downvoted, radiant quests were a big feature in Skyrim, and were technically kinda impressive, but still repetitive. Likewise, quests for the College of Bards were mostly just a dungeon fetch quests and things.

It's still a great game, but it was great for the bits that were handcrafted.

But give it 5-10 years and I'd be very interested to see another pass at procedural generation using machine learning, especially dialogue, could open the doors to more creativity than would be possible when doing it all by hand!

[–] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Nothing in any of these games has been particularly hand crafted. They were a big early user of procedural generation.

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[–] CodexArcanum@lemmy.world 203 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Just recently, Xbox boss Phil Spencer said he hopes Starfield will be a 12-year hit, just like Skyrim.

Yeah no fucking shit Phil, the fans would have loved a generation-defining megahit as well! Maybe you should have told Todd to try making the game good as well as marketable?

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 93 points 11 months ago (5 children)

The tech debt is just glaring at this point. They need an actual new engine instead of yet another gamebryo rework.

[–] BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca 105 points 11 months ago (8 children)

No, they need a competent dev team. To this day, Valve is using a game engine that is, at its core, the Quake engine from 1996. Goldsrc? Source? Source 2? All increasingly heavily reworked versions of the Quake engine. And they can use it for everything from Alyx to Dota 2! If Valve can do it, why can't Bethesda?

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 37 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

Except that Quake is a good engine.

GameBryo is and has always been shit. There are other games from competent devs on that engine, and they also are full of problems.

Building a house with a solid foundation is still important. Quake is bedrock. GameBryo is sand.

[–] Pseudonaut@lemmy.today 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Why is everyone always saying GamBryo is shit? I hear this over and over again, but I never hear why.

[–] Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 15 points 11 months ago

I think it's because it was designed to be able to handle hundreds of persistent objects in a scene as a priority over graphical performance. That's why Bethesda games have so much collectable junk - because they can.

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[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 26 points 11 months ago (2 children)

To this day, Valve is using a game engine that is, at its core, the Quake engine from 1996. Goldsrc? Source? Source 2? All increasingly heavily reworked versions of the Quake engine.

All Valve statements about the Source2 port of Counter-Strike say Source2 is a completely new engine.

[–] BlemboTheThird@lemmy.ca 57 points 11 months ago (17 children)

It's new in the sense they have rebuilt large enough parts of it to fully justify giving it a new name. Certainly it's very far removed from Quake. It's not like they've been sitting on their hands for almost 30 years. But it's not like they rebuilt it all from scratch, either; just the parts they needed to. Old code is still being used, and even new code still sometimes uses the old as a base. The most obvious visual example that comes to mind is the pattern they still use for flickering lights which has been around since the Quake days.

It's a bit of a Ship of Theseus situation, but I think my point still stands: Bethesda doesn't need an entirely new engine, they need devs who can (or more likely, need to give their devs time to) properly rebuild the parts that need it.

[–] winterayars@sh.itjust.works 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I mean a huge (really huge) number of game engines ultimately draw lineage from Quake. It's either Quake or Unreal.

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[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

All statements Bethesda has made about Creation say the same thing. Doesn't mean it's true.

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[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 32 points 11 months ago

Maybe you should have told Todd to try making the game good as well as marketable?

But he "Plans to Release a 1st-Party Blockbuster or Highly Anticipated Title Every 3 Months"

There is no place for "when it's done" with this attitude.

[–] Tischkante@discuss.tchncs.de 48 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Back in 2012 I couldn't put Skyrim down for 2 or 3 playthroughs, even without mods. Of course I'm older now and got less spare time… but I didn't even get past the first few quests in Starfield. I don't know why it doesn't grab me the same way.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 48 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Like the other comment says, it's empty, but I mean it in a different way. It has no soul. Skyrim you can feel the passion in the quests, the characters, and the world. Starfield is super bland, despite being a new IP they could have done anything with, and being sci-fi, which the purpose of sci-fi is to critique our current world. It's the most milque toast sci-fi I've seen. It doesn't question the current status-quo, despite corporations literally destroying Earth. You can rarely question authority. The characters all have identical views on everything, and that's the "good" view that doesn't really try to change anything for the better.

Also, the connecting fibers of the game just don't exist. No system really ties into another, besides making money but money is nearly worthless. Nothing seems to have been considered on how to make it function as a cohesive product.

Basically it fails emotionally and technically.

[–] Graphine@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is probably my favorite explanation for it.

It tries to be emotional, at least the main story. But it fucking fails miserably. I think the only part that actually got me feeling dread or interest was going to visit NASA on Earth. That shit was amazing it pisses me off we only spend ONE FUCKING MISSION on that planet and never go back for anything else.

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

Yeah, the NASA mission was by far the best part of the game for me.

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[–] Draedron@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 11 months ago

Because its empty. In skyrim you see NPCs having interesting interaction with each other and the PC. In starfield you just quick travel from empty city to empty planet

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[–] DoctorButts@kbin.melroy.org 32 points 11 months ago

this game is fucking trash

Sounds about right

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 11 months ago (5 children)

lmao

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Does Todd Howard know how reviled he is?

[–] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 29 points 11 months ago

That part where he talks about being made fun of for being in chess club...

...it's like no... that's not why people made fun of you, Todd. They made fun of you because you were the twerp claiming your uncle at NASA could get you on a spaceflight and then kept making excuses as to why the final story was your uncle taking you on a regular ass flight. People don't like people who lie painfully obviously for attention and interest.

[–] Dindonmasker@sh.itjust.works 12 points 11 months ago

🎶 Tell me lies. Tell me sweet little lies. 🎶

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[–] LordCirais@pawb.social 28 points 11 months ago (5 children)

Just wanted to chime in that I absolutely love Starfield. I didn't watch any trailers, didn't read any of the hype. It's exactly what I assumed it would be.

[–] PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee 48 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I didn't watch any trailers, didn't read any of the hype, had low expectations, and didn't have to buy it...and Starfield still managed to disappoint me.

[–] MrGooglyPants@lemm.ee 9 points 11 months ago

Same I got it for free when I built my wife's computer. 😂 I would have refunded it. But it was free with her CPU (7800X3D)

[–] chitak166@lemmy.world 13 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I've only seen people stream it and it looks... like a Bethesda game. Like, to a fault.

I'm reading that's what a lot of people expected, and I'm honestly surprised.

I thought Bethesda would put their jankiness aside and give us something that's wide, deep, and polished. But it really feels like Bethesda has been releasing the same game ever since Daggerfall, just with different skins.

I guess better the devil you know? I'll probably play it at some point when it's finished.

[–] Syndic@feddit.de 14 points 11 months ago

I’ve only seen people stream it and it looks… like a Bethesda game. Like, to a fault.

I’m reading that’s what a lot of people expected, and I’m honestly surprised.

With one massive, at least for me, flaw. Previous Bethesda games had handcrafted maps which invited you to explore every region. There was so much to find in the most unexpected places. Starfield doesn't have that. I mean sure, even on remote desolate planets you can find objects of interest, but in the end they do repeat very quickly. In Starfield the world is much bigger but ultimately less diverse and well built. And to me that's a less appealing game.

And another smaller problem is that they no longer seem to want to go into the darker stories. The game does have quite some potential of exploring darker themes like the despotic parts of the UC organisation for example. But it never does dive deeper but sticks to the surface. You can imagine that there's much more going on but you don't get to experience this.

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[–] fjordbasa@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (6 children)

I did the same and enjoy it. I think it’s embarrassing that a AAA can spend so long on a game and have it basically be fallout in space with very little in the way of innovation. But I also didn’t expect anything more, and it scratches the itch I was wanting it to scratch

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 10 points 11 months ago

I'd be happy if it was fallout in space, fallout had places to go, little things to stumble upon.

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[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hard agree. This game is ridiculously mediocre for a production of this caliber

[–] quatschkopf34@feddit.de 6 points 11 months ago

The gameplay and fights are pretty fun. But the story is boring and the loading screens suck.

[–] mriormro@lemmy.world 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I played a bit of this game because of game pass. The intro was so jarringly stupid I couldn't be compelled to continue playing.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 12 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It doesn’t get better either. The entire main story is just so contrived and boring.

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[–] kbal@fedia.io 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Personally I think the moment when Bethesda lost their way was somewhere between Skyrim and the DLC for Skyrim. Maybe its unprecedented commercial success went to their corporate heads.

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