Are you buying Starfield?

[Doublezero]

This is starting to look like a disaster for Bethesda. Steam player count is consistently below Fallout 4 and still dropping. I'm sure Bethesda made their money after launch, but I can't imagine they expected the game to fall off this quickly.

[ritualclarity]

Hey even if the game play sucked. Which in recent years all of the games (gamebro) that they released has sucked story wise.  All they needed to do is create a functional game and really strong modding tools.  Fuck, they even have a fuckign store to sell mods. you would think that they would at least get that shit right.  I know that they have heard that the mod authors not only create new content but fix shit.  They can't even get that right.

with mod tools and empty planets they (mod authors) could have added interersting landing zones and other stuff.  In time, even entire quest liines (looking at alternate start) and other stuff.

They aren't even sticking with the core thing that is working for them.  How stupid can a company be?

[ritualclarity]

4 hours ago, Doublezero said:

This is starting to look like a disaster for Bethesda. Steam player count is consistently below Fallout 4 and still dropping. I'm sure Bethesda made their money after launch, but I can't imagine they expected the game to fall off this quickly.

Maybe broke even? perhaps but not the money that they expected and projected I am sure. They were still selling Skyrim for almost full price 3 to 5 years after it was released.  AND selling it.

Microsoft needs to fire all those people that is in charge namely Todd Howard. Has one or two games left in him... NO. he doesn't. Proof in the recent decline from Fallout 4 to now that he doesn't.  Fire them to prevent further damage. BUT, cooporations don't do that. They fire the employees and blame the customers because they can't admit that they fucked up and allowed senior managers to continue to work without being responsible for the results.

[Kendo 2]

What the literal fuck was going on with Starfield yesterday?  JEE-zus.

[Doublezero]

1 hour ago, Kendo 2 said:

What the literal fuck was going on with Starfield yesterday?

[endgameaddiction]

It's like they're trying to 1up FO76 with this next level of stupidity. Just wait when TES6 flops. lol It's going to be entertaining to see all the damage control.

[vancleef]

I predict ES 6 won't flop. But I'm an opitimist.

[Kendo 2]

2 hours ago, vancleef said:

I predict ES 6 won't flop. But I'm an opitimist.

Gotta wonder what you're basing this on...or if you're mixing chewing tobacco and paint products again.  

[endgameaddiction]

I'll take what ever he's smoking for $200, Alex. 

[vancleef]

18 hours ago, Kendo 2 said:

Gotta wonder what you're basing this on...or if you're mixing chewing tobacco and paint products again.  

Psychic powers.

[endgameaddiction]

 

I knew I was playing Fallout and Skyrim wrong. What the hell was I thinking installing mods. I should've played these games until I got CTD and freezes over and over and then a corrupt save only to start over.

Edited December 17, 2023 by endgameaddiction

[Kendo 2]

11 hours ago, vancleef said:

Psychic powers.

So, licking South American dart frogs.  Go it. 

3 hours ago, endgameaddiction said:

I knew I was playing Fallout and Skyrim wrong.

We all have.  Something I've discovered about Skyrim recently is there actually is a 'right way' to play the game.  There's a reason most characters become stealth archers or battlemages; it the way the devs played and how the game is geared to work.  Do ANYTHING outside of that and you can break the game mechanics.

Spoiler

Right now I'm playing a non-magical male Nord; dual wield, light armor, combat archer.  No sneaking, no spells.  I'm 18th level and at this point I can walk into any dungeon with a lit torch and decimate anything that dares approach me.  No skulking about, spamming destruction spells, etc. and I've broken the game.  Pop a vegetable soup, chop everything to pieces without stopping to loot or lockpick.  Once that cell is clear I casually go back and pick up whatever I want.  I'm unstoppable even on Expert difficulty.  As for the big lizards, I somehow roached up an Orcish Bow of Thunderbolts that does 20 points of shock damage.  Two shots from that and they're on the ground, then they're mine unless they pull something slick like landing on the other side of a mountain or something.  I have effectively broken the game without grinding, cheesing or otherwise circumventing anything....because I'm playing the game wrong.

 

[ritualclarity]

On 12/15/2023 at 9:10 PM, vancleef said:

I predict ES 6 won't flop. But I'm an opitimist.

I am an optimist as well but th evidence shows that the individuals that were behind the Fallout 3 and even to a degree Skyrim no longer works for them. The story, the characters etc. As bad as they were (looking to the main quest for Fallout 3) they still had very interesting encounters. I found events years later that I missed the first time I played through.  I mention as bad as they were as there was little concenquence to your action. Not as much as other games during the time the game(s) were released. they had a reasonable framework and Bethesda had tools and opened the game in a way that few other producers did. Now with the last release of Starfail they don't even have the tools and framework that mod authors can start to work on. They don't even have the willingness to work with mod authors to help shore up the modding options. They are releasing mostly bullshit leveling crap and not working on the core so that others can start working on making the game interesting. Help fix the bugs etc. They should be working hand in hand with the modding community. Fuck, they even want to create a modding store. How can you do this and not have a great relationship with the community. I'm not talking about them giving away the game and unlimited changes to accomidate them, but not having the basic tools and structure for mod authors to do their thing and/or dialogue with them to help them understand the changes so that they can do their work.

This is all pointing to ever increasing failures from them going forward until they fire those responsible and get proper responsible indivduals hired to do the basic job. I mean FUCK, their fans are willing to eat shit to get a game from them but there is only so much that even they will accept and more and more people will leave.

I'd suggest that they hire those mod authors with the deep undestanding of the engine and modding and work with them to properly shore up at least the mod tools and documentation so that at a minimum mods can be made for the game. The community can take the game in a direction that they want. Am I lying to say that a boring game for 50~60 dollars with excellent moding tools and a vibrant community would be bought without much of a complaint? Add a few proper character and some basic BS framework and done. Jesus Christ, they don't have to write much of a story or shit. Look at 76. All they did there when it was released with console notes and stuff. NO intereaction with any NPC. People are liking that game and playing it still unlike starfail which is rapidly falling off the charts.

1. Better engine. Excellent documentation of commands and as easy as possible scriptiong etc. Increase limitations on scripts etc as much as feasible.

2. Excellent mod tools. Close to what the devs would use. Released AT THE TIME OF THE GAME RELEASE.

3. Large area, with intereresting quest, NPC. Goal here is to help create a vision of a game world that is being released. Not pin you to some major quest for example find your father.  Major and minor quest should be able to be started at the customers decided time and choice.

4. Stable, Stable, Stable. when game released.  Perhaps chosen individuals in the community given the option to play test it and give feed back. Fuck at this point I don't even care if they use Nexis simps.  With a good engine and tools this should only be needed to make sure the colision map and memory leaks are addressed. Floating gun, chest not refreshing , NPC time and schedule wrong etc. Also good to test different hardware.

5. PROFIT. Release the game. First 6 months work on bugs FIRST. then worry about exploits etc. Most games released are SINGLE PLAYER. Who GIVES A FUCK IF THERE IS AN EXPLOIT IN A SINGLE PLAYER GAME! They release the game with console option and commands that can givd FUCKING GOD MODE, ACCESS DEVELOPER'S AREA ETC. Let the customers have some fun. If a complaint occurs, first you are working on bugs let them know that. Then you will fix the exploits. Only time Bethesda should address exploits is when it is a mutiplayer.

The really fucking stupid thing is they can release games (gamebro) quickly without all this delay. Focus on a strong game engine with modding tools that can be relased. Perhap even the ones that the dev are using (approprate modifications of course but keep it as little as possible) .  Hire some writers that can create some interesting quest that the customer can enjoy. Hell the main quest could be as simple as escaping the vault. For TES. escaping a dungon. Leave the tutorial area, get the prompt to edit your character. (where most save so they don't have to go through the tutorial again. Add option to join a faction etc. (like alternate start) and then leave.  You can start the random quest etc when you leave.  Their updates can be simple additional quest, equiptment etc. DLC is nice new large areas that quesst can be tied into. Not as hard as they say. A person created a major DLC (actually larger one) for Skyrim that exceeded the quality of the actual game. A FUCKING SINGLE PERSON AND HE ONLY TOOK A YEAR!!!!!!

[ritualclarity]

Sorry for the above wall of text and any spelling errors etc. 

[Kendo 2]

This guy.  

[Doublezero]

LOL, I will never buy Starfield. 

[Kendo 2]

5 hours ago, Doublezero said:

LOL, I will never buy Starfield. 

FO4, FO76 and now Starfield.  Can't control my enthusiasm to see how they royally fuck up ES6.

[ritualclarity]

2 hours ago, Kendo 2 said:

FO4, FO76 and now Starfield.  Can't control my enthusiasm to see how they royally fuck up ES6.

Now it is getting to a point where I can't imagine what they can screw up going foward.

Honestly, they would do better to licence the IP to some other company that will do it justice. I mean they can still make good $$ doing so with minimum effort.

Now it isn't something that is funny, that they just screwed up and people make fun of the results. It is getting extremely sad.  Everybody is just so deluded about reality of the situation they just won't be able to move forward. They just can't even do something that is basic. They can't even provide the basic modding tools so that someone else can come along and make it great (or at least fix the shit)  Just fucking sad.

[endgameaddiction]

8 hours ago, ritualclarity said:

Honestly, they would do better to licence the IP to some other company that will do it justice. I mean they can still make good $$ doing so with minimum effort.

Toddler's pride is at stake here. He needs to win over his chess club buddies again.

[ritualclarity]

10 hours ago, endgameaddiction said:

Toddler's pride is at stake here. He needs to win over his chess club buddies again.

Todd is too out of it to even know how far off the planet he is. As far as his fucked up brain is telling him, he is a hero of his Chess Club Buddies. (which I doubt he has han any contact with since he graduated.)

The alternitive is he is out of his element when he got promoted and doesn't know fuck all on how to managed those below him and is just ridding along roughly at least since Fallout 4, perhaps before. Just riding along on his previous work which BTW was done with many other excellent individuals with extreme tallent which no longer work there. Just how much of the previous games success could be contributed to him? It might have been that he had limited tallent and skilil and just stuck around and since he was part of the "successful" releases they kept on promoting him because they hoped that he would bring that back.

Evidence: not even being about to properly explain what is going to be released. 1000 times, bullshit etc.  You heard of where there is smoke there is fire? Well the same goes for games. Where there is random hype, there is a shitty game.  Take Baldur's gate 3. There was hype but there were actual game play being shown, clear directions being taken etc. Skyrim promo vs, Fallout 4 promo then, Vault 76 and now Starfail promo. Watch as they progressively get worse and worse and you will start to learn how to spot shitty games being relased by shitty game producers.

Both options suck for the I.P. and by extention the fans of that I.P.

[Kendo 2]

Evidently it's OUR FAULT that Starfield sucks green rhino.

[ritualclarity]

Hogwarts was a very polished game.  Same with Baulder's gate 3. Both are excellent games.

[Doublezero]

 

[ritualclarity]

I was less excited for Elder Scrolls way back with Fallout 4 and got even less excited with Fallout 76 etc. etc.

[Kendo 2]