deep dish peat moss posted:

This is kind-of-but-not-really true. Technically, each planetary orbit is a different "cell" but it's large enough to, technically, contain the entire star system (possibly beyond that but it would take unimaginably long for anyone to test it). So while you can, technically, fly from Earth to Pluto as one contiguous slow-boat flight, you're not actually flying to the game's instance of Pluto, you're just flying to where the Pluto model is in the game's instance of Earth.

It has a NMS-like system where when you arrive at a planet's orbit by fast-traveling there, that planet's orbit populates with NPC ships. If you slowboat from one planet to another, the entirety of space outside of the planet you launched from is empty - there are no NPC or enemy ships, no activity anywhere, etc.

So once you fly from Earth to Pluto, you can indeed click a button to fast-travel to Pluto's surface (the same way you could have just fast-traveled from Earth to Pluto's surface), but you won't e.g. find any stellar activity in Pluto's orbit the way you might if you actually fast-traveled to the "pluto's orbit" cell.

This is the kind of thing I meant when I compared the game to one of those Wild West tourist towns where storefronts are painted on big wooden cutouts. You get the illusion that all of this stuff exists, but it doesn't - it's just a facade painted on a cutout. It's immersive while you're traveling through it, but once you look outside the box or try to do anything except walk straight down the street you realize it's not an actual wild west town, just a very linear and directed experience that gives the illusion of a town. And that's cool, that can be a fun experience. But it's not the experience I wanted out of Starfield and I wasn't enjoying Starfield's version of it myself.

e: I'm not sure if they are actually considered Cells or not as far as the engine is concerned but that's the only way I can imagine it working as it does where activity is strictly limited to the planet you fast-traveled to, if they're not actual separate Creation Engine cells then it's just flat-out intentional bad design. (edit: the video below confirms that they are indeed separate cells)

e2: Also it's worth noting in the above case that if you do this Earth-to-Pluto flight you'll find that there's no collision on the Pluto model, it's not an actual game object that exists in the map, it's just an aesthetic skybox model that the game uses to measure your distance from Pluto at any given time.

Velocity Raptor posted:

Detective No. 27 posted:

There’s a preset that looks very similar to John Cleese. I used the same one and altered it a bit. I like making old guy characters in character creators. Back when Dragon Age Origins came out, I made an old man and the character was supposed to be a young prince. He looked way older than the king.

Cliff Racer is such a hilariously good Bethesda character name.

Antigravitas posted:

That looks less detailed and alive than Elex.

Tiny Timbs posted:

Bethesda put in some work to improve the population density of their cities with random NPCs walking around so they don't feel quite as empty as they did in previous games but they're still nowhere near as lively and lived-in as in a game like Witcher 3.

Velocity Raptor posted:

I've only got 90 mins in Starfield so far, and have only gotten to the point where I deliver the artifact (very light spoilers, the instigating event for the game)

And it's seemed to run fine for me so far, with it on an SSD and with a 4070.

I haven't really seen any of the complaints others have been taking about, but overall the game seems... fine.

I'm still real really in the game, but I don't really feel attached to anything. Not really meant as panning the game since I just started, but was definitely my first impression of the game.

The space flight seems awkward, and sluggish, though I'm used to playing Elite Dangerous, so make of that what you will.

My biggest complaint seems to be there are way too many clicks to do anything. To go to another star, hit Tab to open the menu, go to starmap, hit escape to go from planet view to system view, then escape again to go to Galaxy view, click your star, then hold X to set the course, then hold X one more time to confirm.

I totally see the skeleton of the fallout games here, though. I even picked up a magazine poster that gave me a permanent 5% fall damage reduction. I like the revamped lock picking some it's finally something different from what we've seen in Skyrim and fallout.

I like how the perks are handled in that before you can level one to the next tier, you need to finish a challenge related to the perk, such as 5 sneak attacks before you can level the stealth perk from 1 to 2.

I am looking forward to continuing tonight, though, with probably one of the first characters I am excited to play as in a Bethsoft game.

Hwurmp posted:

it's short for frozen yogun

K8.0 posted:

That's the absolute worst implementation of the terrible COD up and down recoil judder I've ever seen. The first two seconds of a weapon firing convinced me to never, ever play that game.

K8.0 posted:

That's the absolute worst implementation of the terrible COD up and down recoil judder I've ever seen. The first two seconds of a weapon firing convinced me to never, ever play that game.

Artelier posted:

Do we have a Void Stranger thread do we have a Void Stranger thread I need help B129 is kicking my rear end

Artelier posted:

Do we have a Void Stranger thread do we have a Void Stranger thread I need help B129 is kicking my rear end

For those unaware, it's the latest game by System Erasure, the developers behind the beloved ZeroRanger. With Void Stranger, they've once again gone for a monochrome + single colour look, and once again, they've devised a story that is inherently unique to the medium of video games. But this time, instead of doing a trippy SHMUP, they've gone for a trippy sokoban puzzle game with bite sized levels. And it's even less straightforward than ZeroRanger.

It's very good. But also. I am not the best. At. Sokoban. And I would like help for B129 if anyone's past that.

Spoiler of course, but this is level B129 for anyone who might already be past it but forgot which level was it exactly.



My first order of business is to kill the hand and the snake towards the bottom with the thingy, but not sure what to do next. I can push the thingy to kill the other snake or the worm on the left, but that's not enough to break open the tiles around the stairs. I can make my way to the left, but if I bring the thingy to kill the worm, I don't see any way to bring the thingy back to the right side to kill the second snake. But if I push the thingy to the top to kill the second snake, I don't see any way to bring the thingy down to get to the corridor that goes left.

Artelier posted:

Spoiler of course, but this is level B129 for anyone who might already be past it but forgot which level was it exactly.



My first order of business is to kill the hand and the snake towards the bottom with the thingy, but not sure what to do next. I can push the thingy to kill the other snake or the worm on the left, but that's not enough to break open the tiles around the stairs. I can make my way to the left, but if I bring the thingy to kill the worm, I don't see any way to bring the thingy back to the right side to kill the second snake. But if I push the thingy to the top to kill the second snake, I don't see any way to bring the thingy down to get to the corridor that goes left.

Mordja posted:

I just realized that Half Life's 25th anniversary is coming up in a couple months. Seems like a good time to announce HL3.

Jack Trades posted:

You mean Half-Life Alyx 2?

Mordja posted:

I just realized that Half Life's 25th anniversary is coming up in a couple months. Seems like a good time to announce HL3.

Sab669 posted:

But by then Zoomers will be 40 and not even know wtf Half Life is.

Sab669 posted:

But by then Zoomers will be 40 and not even know wtf Half Life is.

exquisite tea posted:

It's actually a marketing stunt where everyone will have to wait until the literal half-life of Uranium-238 for HL3 to come out.