Bethesda’s Game Design is Thoughtless and Insulting

[@minoxs]

I find it insane how Bethesda is afraid to put consequences in a game with a IN-WORLD BULT-IN RESET MECHANIC where there are actual characters in the story talk about doing things and fucking around in the multiverse. They literally could add consequences while not really locking the player, they had an out and still didn't take it. It's like they tried to f this up

[@ertymexx]

Problem is of course that more choices means more writing needed, and more importantly, more programming and more voice-acting. Which of course costs money. And daddy stockholder wants profits, not costs.

[@taiidaniblues7792]

I think Bethesda got way too big for its britches. I don't think Todd, and the rest of the management team, has the skillset to manage such a large team of devs. Their quality of work declines the larger they get. Also, they still seem to think "bigger=better" since that seems to have masked the shortcomings in their games before. It no longer does that at all.

[@jemandanders6160]

To provide a (admittedly reductive) management perspective: 90% of players will never even finish their first playthrough. By the time the reset does provide value, the customer is already balls deep in the sunk-cost-fallacy. Real consquences and differences means content produced that will not be seen by many players. Pruning branches costs the game less then cutting storylines but "saves" development ressources.

[@ChizuruMinamoto]

From my point of view, it isn't even that they are scared of puting consequences, but more so that their lazy writting skills refuses to cement any player choice event as real. It is especially apparant in Elder Scrolls games, but it is also present in Fallout 4 compared to Fallout 3. Their reasoning is that they want that the player's game is their canon when they play the sequel. The best examples I can give on this, are the Dark Brotherhood and the Civil War in Skyrim. The Dark Brotherhood questline has two ways to be completed. Either you join them, or you kill all of them. If you joined them, by the end, most of the members die either way. But if you decide to kill them, since Cicero wasn't there, whatever your choice may be, in the next game, they can canonise that the Falkreath sanctuary was destroyed, but the night mother was kept safe in Dawnstar. And thus, the Emperor will still get murdered in Skyrim, and Motierre will still disappear, whether or not you killed him. For the Civil War, whether or not you side with the Empire, there's a letter that is on a stormcloak corpse in a ruin near the border of the playable map that states that there's a massive army massing on the other side of the Jeral moutains. Which means that, no matter what you chose, the Empire will re-take Skyrim. But they wont cement who won between Tulius or Ulfric. They'll probably come up with some bullshit that they both disappeared due to "inset event here". It is a stupid, and lazy way to not undo events that may or may not have happened to a player. Just like every single protagonist of Bethesda games disappear to mostly never be seen again (And for the case of the Hero of Kvatch, he became Sheogorath, and took his likeness, so whether or not your player character was a man, a mer, a cat, or a lizard, etc, doesn't matter the character changed appearance.

[@hippieyoda1993]

@@ertymexx but theres like thousands of crappy items and food and stuff instead :) thats where the budget went!

[@TheDoomSlayerButPettingaCat]

"Starfield is bad" Is my favourite video genre.

[@Lisasaur]

I watch every single one and I can’t help it 😂😂😂

[@dyamimc]

​@@Lisasaur Me too. It's so addicting. I wanted so bad for this game to be good. Went in completely open minded and blind. So now I'm getting my money's worth from starfield by watching about how bad it truly is

[@VictorEscolano-o9w]

me too but I still enjoy the game and at the same time I hate it

[@rubenthekid]

"Bethesda is bad" is much better in general. Once you realize every one of their games (that are written by Emil) are just bad.

[@headshot531]

its so validating lmao

[@stevenguitink5947]

Bethesda games have always had problems with consequence implementation IMO. They claim they want to provide countless choices to the player, but the choices you ultimately get amount to yes/no answers. Bethesda see consequences not as a creative tool to open up more possible options for role-playing or new gameplay ideas, but like a child does. Consequences = bad, so no consequences because that might make the player feel bad.

[@teriyakiburrito3036]

100% agree I realized this when I played New Vegas after Fallout 4 Since NV's ending was a fairly detailed slideshow of my courier's consequences, I felt like I actually changed the world in more ways than one This is enforced by the DLC's having endings directly tied to the vanilla game Fallout 4 on the other hand is just the sole survivor's reflection on things Though alright it made me feel like all of the settlements I made and the factions I destroyed had absolutely no long-term impact on the world Like the main story can happen even if my vault dweller died in their cryogenic pod I felt empty and unfulfilled

[@RamboSnoop]

I'm going to say something everyone who discusses bethesda games is sick of hearing: morrowind was good in this regard

[@dannydogs4385]

In Morrowind at least you could piss off different groups. Sleep in a bed that isn't yours and you will piss off everyone around.

[@burnin8able]

they seem like they're almost trying to make their RPGs into a hybrid between a traditional roleplaying game and an immersive sim, but with all the actual draws for each specific genre gutted to make room for the surface level conventions of the other.

[@OsirisLord]

But why are consequences bad? I have a hypothesis and it's that Bethesda's answer to what should the player feel is powerful. Which is definetly a valid answer and plenty of games do try to evoke that feeling. But Bethesda follows it to the point of eliminating all other feelings because feeling something other than powerful means you're not feeling powerful. So making the player feel sad, conflicted, powerless, or out of control is a big no no. Having player choices lock them out of content might make the player feel left out and that's not a powerful emotion. Negative consequences don't invoke power so that's out. As a result Bethesda games are basically lobotomized and it gets worse with each game. This is why Starfield is so emotionally tepid.

[@artinotsoparty]

The introduction to the Crimson Fleet is a joke. Remember the first time you enter their station and you see 2 member arguing and then suddenly one kills the other? Because hell yeah they are pirates, criminals and rules dont matter to them. Yeah rules dont apply to any of them except you. You are seemingly the only one who isnt allowed to act that "freely". Later down the questline when you snitch on that traitor in the Crimson Fleet, he gets thrown out of the Crimson Fleet crew and you remember that the only way out is by death but SURPRISE you cant kill him and you are NOT allowed to kill him because then all Crimson Fleet member go after you. Wow, such immersion...

[@cassieudy5718]

Stealth only works if you have a super lightweight space suit on. Or better yet, remove your space suit entirely. The stealth / noise mechanism is heavily tied to equipment weight. The best part? They never explain this anywhere in game. There is no "light, medium, heavy" armor class. There is no loading screen tip. There is no crafting menu explanation. No. You are just expected to know, because this is how it worked in their previous game. Oops.

[@karpai5427]

Did it worked like that in Fallout 4? I don't remember caring about it in that game unlike Skyrim or Oblivion.

[@sirtonyedgar]

​@@karpai5427 dunno about fallout 4, but the majority of heavy armor in F:NV reduces your Sneak

[@xXDeiviDXx]

@@karpai5427 Pretty much yes, you could even use the armor workbenches to equip a stealth bonus mod under the misc. section for all of your armor pieces.

[@Bladezeromus]

Which is stupid because the places you'd have your suit on have thin atmospheres... so you'd be nearly silent regardless. And in places where your suit is hidden... it shouldn't count towards your weight.

[@spacecore6000]

@@xXDeiviDXx They've been doing it at least since Oblivion. At least they had to decency to explain it there, though i think it was on a loading screen and mentioned in one of the stealth skills.

[@ZeSgtSchultz]

It feels like they were better at hiding it in fallout 3 and Skyrim. In starfield all the issues were maxxed out and had nowhere to hide.

[@Liatin1]

its gotten worse, at least a lot of the side quests in fallout 3 had different outcomes, I think it was mainly the main quests that were linear af. Stats and skills I feel were more fun in fallout 3 and NV. Bethesda in their quest to dumb things down have actually made it less fun to level up. They went the borderlands route of perks and you get bs like "deal 20% more dmg with this type of weapon" or "here's the next set of craftable mods to level up your gear with"

[@BiggerK]

There's nothing to distract you from them in Starfield, your only other options are procedurally generated planets with radiant quests. At least in Skyrim and Fallout there was stuff to find and locations to see.

[@FullContactCoder]

Bethesda has always had problems with their games, but Starfield is objectively worse than their previous entries. The sense of exploration is lacking, and the NPC radiant AI is non-existent. In the elder scrolls games, villagers lived their own little lives with schedules. In Starfield, NPCs have all the life of your average Chuck E Cheese animatronic puppet.

[@JasonSchwartz51580]

Because those games have redeeming qualities. Sure they were full of certain aspects of "Bethesda Mediocrity" but they had enough good merits to overlook the mediocre bits.

[@wolas321]

@@Liatin1 NV isn't bethesda

[@ironnordegraf]

Bethesda went from allowing you to be a stealth god in Skyrim capable of stealing the clothes off of people's backs without them noticing and slaying an entire fortress of enemies as "nothing but the wind" to now your best stealth build has all the hiding ability of Chopper from One Piece in Starfield.

[@_Just_John]

I noticed in Fallout 4 it is practically impossible to refuse a quest. I answered "I am not interested." and the guy replied "In case you change your mind in the future..." and I got the quest anyway. There is so little content Bethesda needs to make sure you see all of it in its shallow glory.

[@RegalRoyalWasTaken]

Part of what makes Elden Ring a good open world game IMO is that the devs are completely okay with players missing content. You don't have to see everything to get a full experience. Bethesda should learn from that.

[@nothobbesmufc949]

@@RegalRoyalWasTaken similarly BG3 expects you to miss content bc they expect you to play again so there's lots of side stuff you can go back to and discover in subsequent playthroughs. I had just started bg3 as a half-elf and my brother who was playing as a half-orc was watching me recruit lae'zel at the very beginning. he saw Shadowheart & Lae'zel have extra dialogue he'd never seen prior and was like "oh that's cool i didn't see that!" Bethesda just can't be bothered to do things like that. i always hated in skyrim that i could be the archmage of the college, the leader of the thieves guild, the leader of the nightingales, the leader of the dark brotherhood, and the companions too. i refused to play that way in skyrim. i just made new characters.

[@BalancedtheScales]

Starfield is a game that tries so hard to gaslight you that you’re not being railroaded on a singular track

[@jekkareznikov9769]

The worst part about all of this is the fact that the game ends and introduces NG+ in the form of a different universe.... Which is identical to the one you just finished playing at! Why not let you experience the different choices and their ramifications in NG+?!?!

[@sebastianbronowicki7073]

But you can't change your traits. So, do you want to try alternate universes in hopes of seeing new things? Or do you want to create a new character with different traits in hopes of seeing new things? Which is it?

[@appelofdoom8211]

And there are apparently unique things you can see when you get new game+ like a timeline where you met several versions of yourself or one where Andreja killed constellatiom but as far as I know it's all rrandom to get these

[@ShaimingLong]

I was surprised they didn't even just randomly change the trait tags to offer up some differences each cycle. It would have been pretty funny starting as a loner soldier, then replacing the alternate you that was tech criminal still living with their parents. A couple of minor dialog choices to occasionally comment on how different "you" are now wouldn't be amiss either.

[@ZaCloud-Animations___she-her]

​@@sebastianbronowicki7073 So they could've made it so you COULD change your traits. Maybe reassign your upgrade points too. 🤷‍♀️ If Bethesda's excuse would've been that argument, then they created their own impediment. They didn't have to.

[@sebastianbronowicki7073]

@@ZaCloud-Animations___she-her I'm mostly pointing out how bethesda lacks a clear idea of what the player should be doing. As I said, are you supposed to start a brand new character to see the content from other traits? Or are you supposed to go into new game + to look for new content in the form of seeing what changed in the next universe? You can't do both. Consequences of a lack of a design document, two different mechanics that work against one another.

[@HSG4meR]

I hate the notion of creating accessibility by depriving the game of its natural challenges. Starfield is one that makes it TOO accessible, to a point it feels a game made for kids.

[@RobotWithHumanHair.]

The game is meant to be replayed considering it’s NG+ yet because of the design where you’re allowed to play all of the content of the game no matter if it makes no sense, gives me very little reason to replay.

[@HSG4meR]

@@RobotWithHumanHair. exactly, I played and replayed, it only needs a second time for you to notice how bland it is.

[@Yackass]

because it kind of is... Bethesda knows that their audience are just manchild dad-gamers.

[@Romanticoutlaw]

imo as someone who has a brain that is just incompatible with certain mechanics in games, for me, the best accessibility is often a variety of _options,_ not a guarantee that I will succeed at any method I choose because they're all impossible to fail. Being given the win no matter what just makes me feel condescended to

[@HSG4meR]

@@Romanticoutlaw and to give some perspective, in the same year, we had two extremes, Starfield being the extremely limited, no space for actual role-playing, and Baldur's Gate 3 being extremely flexible on role-playing. Starfield in comparison was a joke, a complete failure on giving us an experience.

[@mckorr2116]

For the Crimson Fleet, you can join without being an informant. You refuse the blackmail, they throw you out on the street, and eventually an NPC in Cydonia recruits you into the fleet. That way you don't have to report back to Sysdef all the time. However, at the end of the quest line Akande will still talk to you like you were his informant, because Bethesda didn't include alternate dialog.

[@Romanticoutlaw]

oh my god....... all they had to do was make matthieu revealed to be the mole if the player wasn't and add like five lines of dialog. But apparently that was too much to ask

[@chilbiyito]

Looks like Bethesda has lost all passion or they don't pay the programmers enough to do all that

[@mattymerr701]

​​@@chilbiyito programmers don't design quests and dialogue, quest designers and writers do. Guess how many of those Bethesda hired

[@Johnathanbyers]

So its garbage

[@texasfuneral4787]

"Keep it simple, stupid" -Emil Parfeit (or what his last name is)

[@nono4273]

They don't sell silencers because when you ask for one all they say is that they have a suppressor

[@Graal888]

Hardly anyone will get this. Lol

[@karpai5427]

@@Graal888 what is that supposed to mean? What the fuck is the difference? I probably hate this more than I should but it does not make it less stupid. I want to know why smartasses say that silencers don't exist. Who made these people?

[@PobortzaPl]

I was thinking they aren't selling them because Space Firearms Bureau rules are unclear..

[@Shadethewolfy]

Except they were originally marketed as SILENCERS, and it's a perfectly normal term to use in common discourse! *pulls her Glock while yelling!* (please tell me you saw the Door Monster video I'm referencing uwu)

[@vee1766]

My whole issue with the Bethesda design is how anti roleplaying it is. Those games constantly treats your character as YOU, the player, instead of as a character, it's the complete opposite of roleplaying. Everything is designed around that. The whole quest system is basically NPCs coming to you and saying "hey you, the player, i have a quest for you, do you want to play that quest ?", it doesn't care who or what your character is and what his/her motivations are, it's always directly talking to YOU, it's all about giving you more "content" to "explore". Those games are SANDBOX, not RPGs.

[@OokileyGMR]

The fact that it used to be less like this, like in Morrowind for example, where they give you quests according to your level and skills, as well as enforce faction affiliation whenever a questline crosses another.

[@Superdosis]

Bethesda makes looter shooters and in true Bethesda fashion dishonestly markets them as "RPGs" even though the games have zero player choice.

[@vee1766]

@@Superdosis Bethesda make sandbox games. It's largely because of them that so many people have a completely wrong idea of what an RPG is. RPG isn't about "freedom to explore and do what you want", it's about ROLEPLAYING, impersonating someone during a story and staying in character.

[@Superdosis]

@@vee1766 lmfao what are you talking about? There is no roleplaying element in Bethesda games as there is no player choice in any of the quests. All dialogue and quests lead to same conclusions.

[@vee1766]

@@Superdosis We are litteraly talking about the same thing lol. My whole comment is about how Bethesda games are fake RPGs.

[@alphamuplays1669]

Bethesda decided you had to play the House ending, but also wanted you to play both the NCR and legion questlines with all the energy of a kid showing you they drew a picture with crayons and want you to put it up on the fridge, even though your not entirely sure if its supposed to be a 3 legged dog or a tree, but hes very proud of it.

[@TJackson736]

I wonder if this was due to lacking funds to actually give you those other endings. Usually, you write the beginnings and ends first so this doesn't happen.

[@CaptainZlex]

Bethesda should just make linear shooters since they're clearly so afraid of the reality of RPGs.

[@sabbagels]

Ryujin is "we have Arasaka at home"

[@danielmarin6127]

The reason why Bethesda games are popular/good is because of the modding community. Without them, their games wouldn't be as popular.

[@xXDeiviDXx]

Which is why I think if they ever switch to develop on Unreal Engine it will be the death of them, since modding on Unreal is locked to just model or texture swaps there won't be anyone to save them from bad game decisions or fill their game with more content.

[@Darkknight5x5]

It's the modding and the world design (maybe a bit of gameplay loop of exploring and looting) that made Bethesda Games really popular. But Bethesda has been retrograding in innovation, and Starfield itself lacks a good world design. Looting in Starfield just a drag and the world design (and lore) are just bad.

[@CErra310]

modding and the pre-established reputation of their IPs. Starfield has neither

[@SiiimpX]

This is absolutely false. Their games are popular because they are digestible, games like skyrim or fallout 4 didn't sell because of them modding community. The mods definitely keeps them alive that's undeniable but they're are not the reason they are popular to begin with.

[@MA-go7ee]

This is just reddit brain. Probably 95% of ppl who play these games have never used mods.

[@brandonhanserd7832]

My biggest complaint with the game is that I’m not able to “Be who I want to be” like Mr Howard promised. I wanted to become a true space pirate. But no, you’re literally forced into the boring goody two shoes Constellation club…

[@qhu3878]

you can be pirate but can you join them by pirating enough ships to get their attention or something similar? no, you do literally any crime in new atlantis whether it be stealing a pen or killing everyone in the government building and theyll send you in as a mole

[@JasonSchwartz51580]

They've struggled to give "Evil" characters good options since FO3. And even in FO3 most of the "Evil" options were nonsensical "Cartoon Villain" options. It's really not that hard to write Evil options in a videogame, just imagine what a completely self-interested scumbag would do in any given situation, then let the player do it.

[@qhu3878]

@@JasonSchwartz51580 most choices with evil options in games come down to do you want more money to add to your limitless treasure hordes or do you not want to kill the innocent family

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

You pick all these traits that are different each time at the beginning of the game only to play the exact same character every time, it is basically the illusion of choice.

[@Christina-g4s]

Not what I did. I made my street rat, dropped the artifact, ditched vasco, said maybe later to Sarah and joined ryujin. When I was done, I built a new character and did something else. Constellation didn't align with my build so I didn't do it. Did the same with my smuggler/pirate.

[@v_shadow_v5650]

"Starfield is bad" is one of my favorite video genres. It feels good to know that someone else feels the societal decay and complacency that has taken down the legendary companies we grew up with.

[@franklinturtleton6525]

It's kinda funny that Skyrim comes out and sneaky archer is like, the best build in the entire franchise and then starfield comes out and makes stealth archer completely unviable.

[@Zorothegallade-rpg]

The only build in Starfield is funi shooty man. Melee has no support, stealth has no support, the totally-not-space-magic is relegated to the totally-not-space-dragon-shouts...

[@AC-ut3nk]

@@Zorothegallade-rpg Melee might as well none exist with how every melee weapon are the same

[@martinjrgensen8234]

I was moderately intrigued by the Cyberpunk Ripoff company quest chain, but it was the most boring quest chain ever. A low bar in an already boring game. Starfield is a victim of the way Bethesda makes games. They made outpost building pointless, because in case a player didn’t want to build bases, they didn’t want it to matter too much. The same with space combat, the companions, main quest etc etc.

[@Justowner]

The outpost thing is a symptom of fo4. Settlements were supposed to be totally optional, but in-fact were not. So a bunch a players came to hate settlements, because the system was dogwater and was clearly just bethesda not doing their job and outsourcing the creation of content for the game to the player. I think the outpost system may make more sense in this game, but they insist on locking things stupidly behind player level, which was another piece of trash from fo4.

[@lil----lil]

Much like the old Blizzard, the old Bethesda is no more. Never cash out your reputation. It works the first time, 2nd time maybe...but after that, you're back to where you started.

[@WafflezDay]

Blizzard releasing WoW Classic for the THIRD time and fans go ape shit over it, never mind that they are one of the most despicable gaming companies to be giving money to.

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

Stealth is impossible in StarField, the NPCs don’t even have to look at you and they know your there.

[@silkdust8069]

You're

[@appelofdoom8211]

To be fair hearing is a thing but I imagine the stealth system is dumber than that. edit: oh yeah I just saw how quick the detection was it's really stupid

[@Airsickword]

@@appelofdoom8211 even skyrim and fallout 4/76 don't have sound sensitivity that high and give you skills to reduce the sound alert range (its baked into the stealth skill for 4/76)

[@Daynger_Fox]

​@appelofdoom8211 hearing IS a thing. If you remove your spacesuit you will make less noise while sneaking.

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

@@Daynger_Fox Yeah but if I remove the spacesuit I forget to put it back on and my character starts dying as soon as I leave a place. Wish they had a workable steal suit.

[@-drey]

smallest correction, Mantis suit is randomised. You can quicksave before picking it up and reroll legendary effects

[@CaptainMack]

Wow I didn't know that, but I find myself so disappointed by it. It's basically no different from any other randomly generated drop then

[@seanstroodle4418]

Not only that but all the space suits on mannequins have randomized suits, not actually the ones they're displaying.​@@CaptainMack

[@-drey]

@@CaptainMack it isnt, no. Just a guaranteed legendary set that you can abuse and unique skin

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

The illusion of choice, it is like having 3 or 4 doors each with an option on it but when you enter the door you then realize it leads to the same room when you look back at the doors, that is what StarField feels like with word options.

[@vulpesinculta3238]

They actually did something very similar in the Fallout 4 DLC Nuka World. At the start of that DLC you have to run a gauntlet full of traps and enemies. At one point you reach three doors, and the announcer says there's death behind two of them. As it turns out, the left door is the way forward and the other two doors don't have anything behind them and set off really minor traps that'll barely scratch you if you're at the recommended level for the DLC.

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

There should be many ways to join the crimson fleet not just getting arrested or being a police informant .

[@martinjrgensen8234]

Its worse. After the first two tries the replies default to a group of standard phrases. The replies often makes zero sense

[@Macapta]

Illusion of choice isn’t even a bad thing as long as the illusion is entertaining.

[@gamingmoyai3950]

@@vulpesinculta3238see but that’s funny.

[@lancourt]

Seeing Starfield alongside phantom liberty is stunning how far apart they are in worldbuilding, quest design, writing, pretty much everything.

[@RektemRectums]

The best Bethesda game I've ever played - without mods - was Morrowind. Every game after Morrowind needed mods. New Vegas is great with or without mods but it's not really a Bethesda game.

[@bobmcbobbington9220]

Morrowind is a bunch of content in a big world and only a game on the most technical level. If that's the best they can do, then that explains why starfield is what it is today. People congratulated them for making a bunch of stuff, and so their audience trained them to just...make...stuff. So they do, again and again and again.

[@koolarooo]

Ehh I’ve been playing morrowind and it needs at least a few mods. Mods for the bug fixes, mods to delay the expansions because otherwise NPCs will bug you about it from the start. You may also want a mod for stamina because you run out of it super quick and it takes too long to recover. There are other goofy things you may want to change like how if you steal an item from an npc any time you try to sell the npc that type of item they will think it is their stolen one and you will be reported for a crime. Some things also feel a lot less lifelike than their other games like NPCs seem to be awake 24 hours from what I can tell which makes stealth kinda goofy because if you need an item a npc is watching it becomes a goofy game of positioning yourself so they don’t detect you or you could always taunt them 100 times until they attack you and then it doesn’t count as murder. Not saying morrowind doesn’t have its good points but it certainly isn’t the perfect RPG I feel like a lot of fans make it out to be.

[@drtaverner]

"Role-Playing" has been entirely re-defined. It is now devoid of personality and has been replaced with utility. A job is not a role.

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

If you notice the 2 deck nova galactic cockpit is in a museum on Earth attached to a model of the first grav drive ship which means the cockpit is 300 years old and no one has bothered to make any new designs over time.

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

Go to the museum on Earth in Starfield and you’ll see it.

[@RobotWithHumanHair.]

@@emperorofscelnar8443earth is destroyed what museum?

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

@@RobotWithHumanHair. It is in a ruined museum on the main mission involving the artifacts which is on a ruined Earth.

[@RobotWithHumanHair.]

@@emperorofscelnar8443 museum on earth? You mean the NASA site? I guess there was an area where you go through a museum like area

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

@@RobotWithHumanHair. If you go to the NASA site museum on Earth go to one of the models that is one of the first grav drive ships if you look closely at the front of the model you’ll see the Nova Galactic cockpit which means it is 300 years old design.

[@Alhummerr]

Fun fact: you can bypass locks on glass cases because the panels don't even close correctly. By angling your camera the right way you can just loot whatever is inside the glass case completely bypassing the lock. And yes, this is not a bug, it's a *feature*.

[@Farimere]

In my recent playthrough I was not able to do it. The might have patched that out recently. Didn't fix performance issues but that suit in the basement of constellation is now fixed.

[@Spectre-907]

Not only that, but long guns mounted sideways on certain racks so you could just walk up and take it via the parts that poked out without ever even putting your crosshairs on the case itself

[@ShaimingLong]

@@Farimere Yeah they fixed that quite early on when they were prioritizing removing exploits and ignoring quest breaking and even game breaking bugs.

[@MjollTheLioness-o4y]

The game just felt so soulless, safe and bland. When I went to the Neon club it felt so childish IMO. I play SWTOR and there are more adult themes and looking dancers in that game than SF and SW is a family friendly IP. The game constantly reminded me that I was playing a video game with it's ability to break my immersion. I finally had enough when I got to the quest where you are forced to rob the guy of one of the artifacts. There should've been an option to stealthily steal it, buy it or convince him to hand it over. Instead, I had to force the guy, who seemed like a pretty chill dude, to give me an artifact and I got a bounty for it which broke my immersion because I had just joined the United Colonies force. It also perturbed me that my companions were constantly disagreeing with me on morality but had no problem with me robbing the guy just because he had something they wanted. It felt like they had split personalities at times. I played 50 hours and I was done. I may revisit it in a few years if there are some massive mods to overhaul the game.

[@enescustovic1883]

upvote for using the word perturbed.

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

Why is food and medicine under the same category, food isn’t an aid it is a consumable.

[@Russian_engineer_bmstu]

It is a Bethesda game, you eat 7 wheels of cheese to heal

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

Well some medicine must be consumed but food and medicine are not the same thing.

[@ettaetta439]

​@@emperorofscelnar8443They were making a joke lol

[@Zorothegallade-rpg]

Food cures my depression so it is definitely an aid.

[@cozz124]

minecraft food healing mechanic type shit

[@JMACCSArmiesOfMiddleEarth]

Strength to stand on tipy toes long Paint tolerance for the same Nutrition to not release deadly farts that give away ur position Check mate

[@extremelyboredtatsumaki.495]

When I tried to solve the quest involving the settlers stuck in space getting blocked from landing on the planet by the rich snobs by shooting the rich snobs who deserved it, and finding out they were ALL IMMORTAL, I knew this was definitely a Bethesda game.

[@mattymerr701]

That immediately pissed me off. And then I started noticing it everywhere. Almost every NPC who could piss you off in interactions is unkillable. The only people you can kill are grunts and crowd actors who don't exist if you turn down the setting

[@SloMoMonday]

The big red flag pre release was the lack of vertical slice showcase. A complete gameplay loop near the start of the game that shows off as many systems as possible for press and then new players. The best modern example is the meat plant from CP2077. It changed a lot since first shown, but even at the disastrous 1.0 release it showed a single objective achievable through every possible plagstyle, each with its own pros and cons. I look for previews to say they've seen the level from the trailer but done completely differently there's a reason this was trailer mission. As far as I remembe, Starfield trailers were just - "you can do this" - cut to completely different scene - "and you can do this" - repeat Turns out the vertical slice was a crepe.

[@Rolatii]

What's so infuriating about how mediocre the faction storylines and gameplay is that there are two ways to instantly make them better that would improve what I'm pretty sure Bethesda was intending with its main quest. 1: Let players fail quests in interesting ways. If you can't do X or Y because you already killed Z, just inform the player that they messed up or that it's not possible. Then on the next run, the player could either leverage their skills or foreknowledge to complete the quest, or just kill Z again because it's funny. 2: Make each faction storyline mutually exclusive, then tie them into the main storyline. This gives players the chance to tell Sara and Constellation to go screw themselves, and as a bonus it would let you engage with what the game wants you to believe makes you super special. If you get to the end of each run as someone different - a pirate, an explorer, a space cowboy etc. - and all the consequences that came from that, it would hit a lot harder than just doing whatever you can be bothered to achieve before deciding you were tired of that run.

[@sebastianbronowicki7073]

So, basically Fallout New Vegas?

[@addictedandnothavingfun]

A multiverse is just begging for the "because it's funny" ending because that's the only ending it can have. When you're God, who exactly is going to stop you? Could've leaned into the meta thing, maybe tried to do something interesting, but no. Bethesda built a sandbox without the sand.

[@JamBagels]

I started the Ryujin questline before I had the stealth perks. I realized I was terrible at stealth so I leveled those skills while I did other stuff. Came back and realized that all the quests were some version of crouch-sneak into an office, do 1 thing, then walk out. It was probably the most disappointing thing for me in the game. I was really looking forward to something like the thieves guild quests.

[@Daiqatana]

My favorite theory about this game is that it was a scheme by leadership at Bethesda to trick investors. Microsoft ended up buying Bethesda, and paying off their substantial debts.

[@Izithel]

That's my theory for why Redfall was made, nobody at Arkane studio wanted to make it, anybody who new Arkane would know that it's not the kind of game they'd make, but a "Live-Service looter shooter Game" would be just the thing to make potential buyers who only look at trends would love to buy.

[@jsmith434w]

i think they used AI to experiment on us to gather data. their next release will use more sophisticated AI that can generate fun planets, named NPCs, proper lockpick reward tables and more cohesive skill trees.

[@chilbiyito]

​@@jsmith434wsomeone who knows how to code and works on the creation engine can probably do all that under an hour

[@jsmith434w]

@@chilbiyito but if a human did that, it wouldnt be so thoughtless, right? like putting valuable loot behind harder locks. isnt that a given to any human?

[@mattymerr701]

​@@jsmith434w no, bad loot tables are not terrible uncommon in games. Definitely not an indicator of AI. It can be adequately explained by incompetence

[@KP_Uravity]

0:25 it is a Bethesda game, yes

[@bernardobastos5996]

The reason all those skills are split between skill trees so nonsensically is because Bethesda has no idea how to balance their games. If you could just grab all the skills you want and that synergize well together you would be too powerful, too early. But of course, all of this does not matter because the game is completely broken.

[@HippeusOmega]

Sarah got so annoying during the Crimson fleet arc i wish i would've had a option to push her out the airlock from a high altitude before going into orbit

[@Zorothegallade-rpg]

Space Delphine! You don't like her? Too bad, we practically piss out Essential flag on everyone with a name!

[@Romanticoutlaw]

@Zorothegallade-gg7zg including random civilians who, at most, are attached to a fetch quest! I tried to voluntarily fail a fetch quest once to get it off my quest list by killing the quest giver. Essential. Fair, I guess, but in that case let me tell them I don't wanna do it anymore! I don't wanna do a quest that could be solved by a cellphone!

[@ertymexx]

@@Romanticoutlaw my problem is the opposite - I cannot remove quests that are bugged or unfinishable. Like a quest for that latino-sounding guy in Cydonia, a repeatble quest (funny by the way how all the morally questionable guys sound latino...) where I had to pick up five helmets. Only it didn't give, and finding five of the same is basically impossible. So the quest just lies there. Annoying as heck. Not the worst bugged quest, but still annoying.

[@luclin92]

This is why I made a prison colony so she could live there

[@peachy_lili]

I'm a goody-goody to the core with these games, and if *I* want to push a person like Sarah out of an airlock... you f*cked up. And I did want to.

[@Bladerunner-sn7tv]

Idk how this game even got nominated for goty awards, when games like remnant 2, armored core 6, and bladurs gate came out the same year.

[@CaptainMack]

Let's just thank whatever deities we believe in that it didn't win any of them

[@CErra310]

Because it's "big" and the Game Awards don't give a fuck about videogames other than marketing the idea that they're "big" as well. That's the only reason why Baldur's Gate 3 won GotY. Not for any of its actual merits. Yahtzee made a good video about it a while ago. "How to Predict The Game Awards"

[@librorum4]

@@CErra310 tbh balders gate did deserve goty

[@CErra310]

@@librorum4 but it wouldn't have won if there had been another game they could have given it to

[@_holy__ghost]

​@CErra310 this is such a weird take. 'if a better game came out that year, that game wouldve won'. like, yeah, thats how competitions work. im not saying the awards arent asinine but im genuinely having a hard time picturing a year in which bg3 *doesnt* win

[@Homiloko2]

Players: "Oh golly gee everyone likes to be a stealthy archer in Skyrim, let's make a bunch of memes about it" Bethesda: "They're memeing us? How dare they, let's just make stealth impossible"

[@jerriecan]

Wow, Bethesda really hasn't made any advances over the years - not just the same creaky game engine, but the same story structure and beats. Starfield seems like nothing but a reskin of Fallout 4.

[@FullContactCoder]

I would argue they have actually regresses. I'm not sure if the studio has had significant brain drain over the last 10 years, or if the old heads or just phoning it in, but Starfield development was LAZY and embarrassing.

[@Skillfullfilms89]

they literally rehashed the 'dragonborn' idea- 'starborn', or whatever it was. that's the MOST on-the-nose plot point ripoff i've EVER seen in a game. they were so freaking lazy they couldnt even come up with a new word for it.

[@AC-ut3nk]

Fallout 4 is at least trying to be RPG in fallout world while Starfield trying so hard to remove the fun in the game by making the planet realistic.

[@EcardEcardian]

Not only that, they had the same bugs and glitches in their games sense Morrowind, that game came out in 2002. Bethesda peaked in 2002, after that everyone else moved on, they didn't and they expect people to buy and like their stagnated slop.

[@dickybird6916]

Hard for them to do anything tech wise when they licence an engine (gamebrayo) that's not been updated by its developer since 2012. Its legitimatly dead tech with a new renderer Bethesda threw on top. They've been using the exact same gameplay codebase since oblivion /fallout 3. nothing but Lazy devs. And at least one person at the studio needs to read creating emotion in games by David Freeman.

[@awesomepork101]

One of my pet peeves with the Ryujin industries quest line is there was no way to use your mind control powers to make YOU the ceo. I know it’s a running joke with Bethesda, but this is one of the only ways you can reasonably take over a company; and that’s a far better reward than the idiotic mission board you can only access through 3 loading screens.

[@MatsuhiroGennai]

Hey Mack, long time stalker, first time viewer, im really disappointed you didnt include facts about dates or any other fruits. I hope you can continue to grow your skills in content creation and produce riveting content around dates.

[@ramunerd]

I've been trying to convince him to go on a date with me 😭 that's the only date content I'm interested in

[@CalciumEnjoyer]

@@ramunerdback off I got dibs

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

There should be many ways to steal a trophy from a cruise ship in space but I am forced to take the same path every time, the same can be said about the artifacts.

[@BlueBD]

Being tied to Constallation was one of the worse narrative choices for this game. Realistically you should be completely free unless you choose a specific start aswell as each major faction having a role in the Unity quest. So you can choose who to continue the main questline with. That way if you do side with the pirates you are no longer allowed in UC space wothout an immediately being hunted. You literally yave NG+ built in. You should be able to be locked out of factions or fail some quests. You can retry again later.

[@dunno.__.]

Idk if it's funny or sad that I came up with more intriguing stories while playing Lego friends at a ripe age of 7 then a bunch of professional story writers at a famous game studio

[@diestormlie]

Yeah, but you're not as cowardly as the BGS Team. Seriously- they're so pathologically averse to telling the player 'No' narratively they squeeze all the weight out of their narrative. And then, mechanically, *gestures at video*

[@dunno.__.]

​@@diestormlie IKR??? It's INSANE that u can basically commit war crimes on multiple soldiers and u don't even get a bounty lmao

[@Lampoluke]

Same, 11 yo me with legos had better world building

[@diestormlie]

@@dunno.__. They've somehow managed to combine two of the worst DM archetypes: The one who'll 'Yeah, sure' to everything and anything to the extent that it becomes incoherent, *and* the one that thinks their crappy stuff is *so* good that the party absolutely *has* to be railroaded through it to experience it 'properly'. And those two are normally mutually exclusive!

[@spliffingrat5469]

emil "keep it simple, stupid" pagliarulo has his thumb on it. so yeah, it aint gonna be a complex story. cuz according to him "players dont like it". he also thinks "write what you know". so ofc we get almost the same scene that we got in fallout 4 when we entered goodneighbor ,when entering the key the first time.

[@Nolzei]

The NG+ is a perfect example of lack of thought as to how you can not lock players out of content for their descisions. You literally go to a new Universe and start over. You are perfectly free to make a different choice, they could have actually had consequences for destroying Sysdef if they actually made the consequences matter.

[@oliverherman2447]

33:06 MILK MATH MILK MATH MILK MATH MILK MATH MILK MATH

[@erinh440]

They helped popularize sandbox rpgs but struggle to allow for the rpg part. You hit the nail on the head and I'd even go so far as to say that the best mods that come out regarding their games are re-introducing, flushing out, and/or introducing role-play elements to their writing for faction, main questlines, and even just general interaction mechanics. I think back to mods like The Choice is Yours, Alternate Start: LAL, At Your Own Pace. All of which allow for the player to choose if you want to do something or not, when you want to do something, and even how you can go about doing things so that role play in Skyrim is actual role play. The saddest part of Starfield for me was when I pulled back and thought, "this will be really good when the modding community starts up." A year later and it feels like the modding community can't get off the ground (at least for console, which is how I play). It's a pity because the SkyrimXboxMods community is so big that the subreddit for it is always active. Part of it is to do with the modding drama bethesda kicked up when Starfield released (they had been messing with console modding to the point where it wildly upset the console modding community). Love your videos as always, Mack!

[@Romanticoutlaw]

from a pc player, the modding scene was dead two months in, because people didn't _want_ to make mods for it after they played it enough to see how empty it was. There was a general sentiment that starfield was just built as a skeleton with the expectation that modders would fill it out, and let's just say [Everyone disliked that.]. Not dissimilar to fo76's lack of npcs because they expected players to fill that role with roleplaying. People want a complete game they can add to, not a shell to give unpaid labor to

[@addictedandnothavingfun]

​@@Romanticoutlaw It's one thing to inherit a rundown house. It's another to inherit a bare frame with the expectation that you'd finish it alone.

[@Brandelwyn]

​@@addictedandnothavingfun *buy at full price

[@Valkod23]

So here's why you keep getting spotted to quickly while stealthing: You are wearing a space suit, which is categorized as heavy armor so the enemies are detecting you based on the sound you are technically making and the penalties to your stealth rating as a result of wearing heavy boots. So to be really effective at stealth, you need to take off the space suit and put on some normal clothes and boots... in a game where you have to be wearing a space suit most of the time. See, Bethesda never really updated their stealth system's core mechanic of how detection works all that much since Morrowind, way back in 2002, where the weight of your footwear was one big contributing factor to being detected, I think. I'd been using MCP a lot these days and they allow some tweaks to stealth in that game. Even so, footwear/boot weight affecting stealth has been a thing since at least Oblivion if it didn't start in Morrowind.

[@thatoneguy2816]

🤓☝️

[@-tera-3345]

Even then, though, weight should only really affect your stealth when moving. It's always been described as being the noise you make while moving, which is also affected by how fast you move. He seemed to kept getting detected even when standing still.

[@notwhatitwasbefore]

Morrowind - Hard RPG systems and unique fantasy world Oblivion - Watered down RPG (a lot easier) in a generic fantasy world Skyrim - Hand holdy action/rpg in a generic fantsy world Fallout 4 (WTF its just an action game with zero rpg elements or challenge) Starfailed - you cannot fail its just click button for more moving lights. I used to love Bethesda games but they have been devolving for 20+ years now and everyone in the games industry has at least moved past the systems they were using in the 90's instead of dumb them down

[@billjacobs521]

I actually wouldn't mind if Bethesda stayed in the past, but they keep getting worse. The only improvement over time is graphics and, although this will upset purists, getting rid of the leveling system in older TES games--that was such a pain.

[@SissypheanCatboy]

This is just a factually incorrect post lol. You can have your own opinions about the quality of the games, but Fallout 4 objectively contains "RPG elements" by virtue of including levels and a skill system, as well as multiple routes you can choose (even if they do pale in comparison to previous games). Also calling Skyrim and Oblivion "generic fantasy worlds" is just complete nonsense, the entire Elder Scrolls series is HEAVILY inspired by fantasy novels of the 80s and 90s as well as Dungeons and Dragons. This is agonizing nostalgia bias.

[@NerevarOfficialReal]

@@SissypheanCatboy Wow, it has perks. Must mean it's an RPG, right? I mean, there's not a single shred of actual roleplaying in Fallout 4, nor any opportunity to roleplay, but hey, it has perks, so it's an RPG. It doesn't even have skills, that's the big thing they removed for seemingly no reason. And the ''routes'' you can take matter as much as Skyrim's Civil War questline, AKA, some flags and guards change... and that's it. No, Fallout 4 is a bland, mediocre action shooter game.

[@Cyb3rFck]

Fallout 4 is horrendous

[@HiddenStr3ngth]

The skills are designed like that because they want you to grind for hundreds of hours before you have the ability to do anything. You can't engage with most systems and gameplay elements until you do that. (and once you do, you find out those systems are trash and useless anyway, e.g. boarding and stealing ships, base building) You are constantly blocked off from natural gameplay by lacking skills, which feels horrible. You board a ship and try to steal it? Sry you can't pilot it(your companion that is high level pilot can't either, and even if you do, you can only sell for peanuts, making it completely pointless waste of time, you will make as much by looting 1 gun). You want to upgrade your ship while you have 10 times the money and resources necessary? Sry you can't do that. Wanna use this ship building system to make a cool custom ship? Sry you can't do that. Come back after you grind for 100 more hours and unlock all the skill if you want to properly interact with the system. Which keeps happening all the time, completely and suddenly destroying a gameplay experience you are actively having. You feel like you did something cool by taking on a strong ship and boarding it to take it, or sneaking when 1 lands to steal it? Suddenly you realize you can't do anything about anything and just... leave, flaccidly. (which can be some of the most memorable things in a game, still remember in Fallout 2 when right at the start of the game, I ran into random direction on the world map, ran into an Enclave base. Snuck inside in a very weird way, found my way to the barracks underground, stole a power armor from a locker. Went out to try and leave, sergeant saw me, took me for a guard, sent me back to my post. I had to stand there, waited for a chance to escape and eventually did it. Ended up with a super high level piece of gear, power armor, right at the start of the game. It was epic. In shartfield, I managed to take over a ship that was way better than mine, but you can't pilot it or do anything with it, so you just leave.) There are many other core design issues with it that are made to force you to grind, like how you level the tiers. Which should at least be tracked before you unlock the skill(Ideally redesigned completely). But anyway, there are so many massive design(and writing) issues you are not even covering or are skipping over in the 2 videos, you could make 20 hours of talking about it and it still probably won't cover everything. (ofc. the borderline non existent and horrible world building, piss poor writing, and technical quality that is surpassed by games from 15-20 years ago makes it not worth playing either way, even IF the gameplay itself was good, or if the skill progression and char development was good) (Lmao 1$ bounty, what e menace to the galaxy)

[@drtaverner]

I hate all of the companions. If I could space them, I would have.

[@AC-ut3nk]

Bethesda trying so hard to remove RP in the RPG. Soon maybe we will get a hack and slash game instead, Oh wait nvm their melee combat system suck in everygame. The best thing in Fallout game was how i try to kill everyone by hit them with melee in stealth infront of them without getting reputation damage. Fallout 3 show how bad the game lack of detail (No farm, No food but people somehow survived and got ton food to sell, Main quest is about purified the water for the people but they are doing just fine without the water problem) and now here we are again in Starfield

[@nonymouswisp8176]

I agree with you poinst but, geez grammar dude.

[@ImFotsi]

It's facinating how much ego bethesda has, but how little confidence they have in the games they make

[@touko7447]

the lead writer is quoted to say that he doesnt listen to criticism so it isnt really a surprise

[@shrap_assassin7625]

@@touko7447don’t forget he was also quoted to say that nate was the soldier in canada (and is a war criminal) because he felt particularly quirky that day. All the backlash he got made him tweet something along the lines of “twitter is bad but at least i can talk to likeminded individuals” (not 100% sure)

[@ertymexx]

@@shrap_assassin7625 oh... he got a bit of the Musks? Didn't know that infection could spread... 😛

[@peachy_lili]

@@shrap_assassin7625 it's always such a red flag when anyone insinuates the entire site is "bad" because they get pushback on things they say. it's almost like it's a huge social media site with millions of different, strong opinions. it's one argument to say Twitter users are too online, but that's never what people like Starfield's lead writer actually believe -- because THEY'RE on Twitter yappin just as much!

[@tomjones8859]

59:18 My main issue with this is why are they called Terromorphs if they didn't know they morph from something else? And as PatricianTV pointed out, was no one checking what Heatleechs were doing with all that heat they were leeching? Did no one do research on Heatleechs to find out what they are in the who knows how long they've been a pest? Never played the game so maybe there's something somewhere explaining this. Like how in Cyberpunk 2077 you can hear on the news or offhandedly in a main quest conversation that most pets are banned in Night City after several viral outbreaks spread by dogs, cats and birds lead to an act being created. People still own them, they are just are taxed heavily for doing so only the rich can afford them.

[@WilliamPertzer]

My biggest complaint about the skill system is the amount of basic game mechanics that are locked behind it. Want to use a jetpack (which was HEAVILY advertised for the game)? Put skill points into it. Want to even attempt stealth? Skill points into it. On top of that the game assumes you have certain skills sometimes. In one of the first missions, when you get attacked in space with Sarah, Sarah specifically says to target certain parts of the enemy ships to immobilize and disarm them. Unless you put one of your first 3-4 levels in systems targeting, you LITERALLY CANNOT DO THIS. Why even include the voice line if 99% of players can't even do what she's suggesting at this point in the game? The game also assumes you have multiple points in persuasion since there's so many speech checks.

[@FhtagnCthulhu]

My guess is that skills worked differently when the tutorial was written. But yeah, I hate this in both Starfield and FO4.

[@FhtagnCthulhu]

@lif6737 I agree, a balance is in order. Like you say, jetpacks are probably a bad choice for the game, but I like not being able to see the stealth meter without investment. I found basebuilding to be an irritating aspect, as the system is not very enjoyable without substantial investment. Getting into the basics of something should be enough to clear the major logistical hurdles. Starfield is just all over the place with these features.

[@midorinchan]

41:44 I love the idea of, because it's an audio log, guards nearby hearing someone's entire escape plan and just doing nothing to intervene

[@Romanticoutlaw]

my theory for why the stealth skills (and other such synergizing things) are distributed across a bunch of different skill trees is literally just to waste your levelups, so that it takes you more levels to create the actual build you want. It's just to bloat playtime/to make the game more artificially difficult than it otherwise would be. But maybe I'm just attributing malice to what can be explained by incompetence

[@gluehfunke1547]

I remember being annoyed that Skyrim locked some perks behind other perks that I didn’t need. It was actually relatively fair because they were trying to encourage people to commit to a few main skills instead of thinking they can just have every desirable ability in every playthrough. However, certain things such as making paralysis an alteration spell or wards being restoration were still totally frustrating. It’s like Bethesda purposefully took certain abilities away from the perk trees that they naturally belong in, and instead put them in another tree as a sort of random freebie to make that tree look more appealing.

[@VoltieBird]

In my playthrough I sided against the Crimson Fleet and my god does the game try to guilt you over choosing to betray the Fleet. They force you to gun down every named NPC you meet during your time with the Fleet and have all of them call you a backstabber. Like, every one of them is either a murderer or worse, and the one guy that didn't choose to be there you can spare. You expect me to feel bad about this?

[@ramunerd]

OMG! He's been doing squats?! We're going to have a very happy thanksgiving again! 😏 More cake!

[@cyrosphere0154]

You have cake on Thanksgiving?

[@ramunerd]

Not really, but the captain gave us cake for thanksgiving last year and it was glorious

[@cyrosphere0154]

@@ramunerd fair lol

[@empdisaster10]

The "Starfield is Fallout" Idea is also funny because that ship thats been floating through space is 200 years old and thats actually roughly the time between when the bombs dropped and when most of the fallout games take place (Outside of 76)

[@_holy__ghost]

i find it absolutely diabolical that this cool and creative piece of starfield 'lore' was 'written' by accident. emil is the definition of a hack

[@BunkerFox]

The first Fallout game is about 80 years after the bombs drop

[@Brandelwyn]

Fallout has aliens

[@brodieorr5393]

The worst part about all of this is that they've been doing this for like 20 years.. and skyrim came out of it and printed money for them. How skyrim reached the level of praise and popularity it did, i will never understand. Other than the fact that it was in the right place at the right time, the game really has nothing going for it.

[@shyntrax]

No competition: in the land of the blind, the one-eyed are kings.

[@QuaversYT]

Skyrim got popular because we as consumers we’re still null to Bethesda’s way of doing things. We saw it’s massiveness as it’s greatest strength and neglect looking at it’s actual choices and RPG elements. But other than that Skyrim and Fallout 4 in return are popular because of their massive modding scene. Mods are what people use now because the modders actually change stuff, they make stuff… they develop. Bethesda doesn’t do that. So much so that Modders don’t even want to touch Starfield because of how badly it was designed.

[@peachy_lili]

I don't know how to explain my hundreds of hours of pre-modded gameplay, but it's there. The game wasn't great in a lot of ways but it had a secret sauce they haven't been able to replicate since.

[@Kaeloz93]

The four factions of starfiel: Cops, HighSchool Rebels, Larpy Cowboys, and Microsoft.

[@claudijatzandrapova3347]

my Khajiiti Rogue, Agnetha: has her Sneak at Legendary and capped so she can sit, naked, in a bandit camp and nobody even notices. Your Starborn showed one toe and the planet saw you... Got to wonder just how the hell Bethesda screwed this up when literally they just had to grab their own Perk code section from Fallout 4 or Skyrim and then focus on the "NASA Punk" around them but at least the skills would have worked.

[@magnetronmaaltijden]

IRL locks dont even take that long to pick LMAO

[@Bob-Jenkins]

IRL a spaceship in space doesn't slow down when you get off the throttle. Some times when launching your ship there is a dude walking past - he'd be turned into powdered toast, then there's how they can fly when in atmo. Then there's the fact that when on a planet in your hermetically sealed spacesuit you are affected by poisonous gasses. LASER rifles give kickback like a shotgun when in zero G. I can't believe Toddles doesn't know, or didn't consult a high school student on the absolute basics, like Newton's 1st Law of Motion. For the love of Dog, even Homer bloody Simpson knows that. I'm so sorry for that unhinged rant, it's been bothering me for ages. My GF is at the point of relentless mockery, which is hilarious and well deserved.

[@magnetronmaaltijden]

@@Bob-Jenkins Hahahaha i get you! I remember an interview or something when they were asked about the setting and they were talking about having it more grounded and calling it nasapunk or whatever. It's amazingly stupid gamedesign 😂

[@NostraSamus]

Thank you. Their games are soulless as hell.

[@Shadethewolfy]

Speaking of factions locking you out of others Remember how in Morrowind, the geopolitics of the world actually mattered to the point where rivalries between certain factions were played out in such a way that if two factions HATED each other, joining one would completely lock you out of the other? Notable examples: In the Fighter's Guild quest line, if you progress along Eydris Fire-Eye's quests enough, your actions actually end up causing a bitter feud between the local Thieves' Guild and the local Fighter's Guild, and you end up UNABLE to join the Thieves' Guild because of it. Better example: The Great Houses are mutually exclusive because they each have their own interests which run counter to those of the others.

[@LordEvilreaver]

how do the giant giraffe things hunt and eat terrormorphs, which are much faster and more dangerous? how would they go after heat leeches, which are small critters on heaps of spacefaring ships

[@sabrinarosario6499]

The ports kill the leeches on the ships (people would be more willing to NOT have leeches on their ships since they know what leeches are). The ones out and about can be killed by the Aceles, like they did before. Aceles have done all of that before and they did it well.

[@InconsequentialGaming]

49:06 ...you're not locked out of "running" or grav-jumping during combat. There's actually a skill that makes you immune to damage while in "burst mode (thrusters)", also, you need to have energy dumped into your grav-drive, it needs to be 'somewhat' undamaged, and you need to use the navigations map, unless you can actually target a POI in another star/ solar system in real time. It's tricky if you take too much damage, but it is still possible.

[@Christina-g4s]

The easier way to avoid space combat altogether is keep all ship systems at 0 power. You remain undetected.

[@CErra310]

Listening to the rant about stealth builds being impossible to get going because they were implemented without any thought or care is amusing because this entire diatribe could be applied 1:1 to magic in skyrim, which is allegedly the best rpg ever made

[@Christina-g4s]

Join the college fix one of the anomalies with the gloves, you now have basically infinite magic for two hours. When it runs out, fix the 2nd. 2hrs later fix the third. Mage build is now easy to get going

[@CErra310]

@@Christina-g4s infinite magic and zero point to having it because the "build" consists of picking impact and dual-casting fireball to stunlock everything to death

[@FhtagnCthulhu]

Man, when skyrim came out I wrote a three page diatribe about how bad the magic system is, it is still a pet peeve of mine

[@-tera-3345]

@@CErra310 Yeah I remember everyone kept talking about how much magic sucked in Skyrim because no damage scaling, but like when I actually tried it, it was probably my easiest playthrough ever. A bit tedious because of the low damage, but never did I feel in any kind of danger. Even when a dragon came to attack, I could just endlessly stunlock it to death.

[@ObIitus]

Void form is cancelled when interacting with doors is because it is how invisibility works in TES, and it is just a reuse of code.

[@bchin4005]

I wonder if guns still shoot very fast spells...

[@Siliziumwesen]

I lifted up an apple once, got a bounty (i think it was 4 or 6 creds, sth in that range) after I canceled out of the dialog They tried to kill me. I loaded a save and did it again and went to the same guy for a 6creds bounty and he told me to infiltrate those bad meany bois and I basicly told him to fuck off. Just said no to everything he offered lol. 6 cred bounty guys he is our man for this work, there is nobody who can top this

[@drtaverner]

Milk does not require cows. Camels, horses, and many other mammals have been used. Who knows where "milk" comes from.

[@Vaguer_Weevil]

Humans also produce milk, milks is milk my friends. Nobody questions where their eggs come from, so why start now?

[@sirjmo]

@@Vaguer_Weevil Well we mostly use cows as they're very easy to handle, produce quite a lot for very little labor with very little downsides. (the tons of methane they produce has become quite the issue for the climate) But very good point, milk can have many sources. Ask me not questions and I’ll tell you no lies. One doesn't know, one can't answer.

[@iridescentsea3730]

@@sirjmo i can't believe there are still people (using that word loosely here) who cry about farting cows

[@emperorofscelnar8443]

Stealth was way easier in Skyrim but in StarField it is way harder.

[@panzer00]

This is funny because I modded Skyrim to have more realistic stealth detection and it makes it harder but interactive because lighting and noise is more important than arbitrary sneak perk values. In Starfield, the AI just knows you're there.

[@panzer00]

@lif6737 you actually had to think about your encounters. Bethesda doesnt want it's players to have to think while playing. Most game are made so that people can just turn off their brains and win because fun? I guess.

[@platonicdescartes]

I enjoyed Skyrim at the time, but had some issues with the design. Then The Witcher 2 came out and solved many of the issues I had. But then The Witcher 3 came out and I never wanted to go back to a Bethesda game. So I just played Cyberpunk 2077 instead of Starfield, never regretted it. Even with the launch issues, I still loved what CP2077 was doing, and now it's simply an amazing game that I just play as comfort food just to live in the world of Night City. I wish Starfield was like that, but it just isn't.

[@chengong388]

Witcher 3 does not at all have the Skyrim kind of freedom, at the starting tutorial area if you try to attack the soldiers in training, they kill you in like 2 hits, all because the game doesn't want you to fight friendly NPCs. CB2077 is a lot better in this regard but Witcher 3 was not it, it's not really a "Bathesda-like" if you can't kill random NPCs, and yes obviously Starfield also has this exact problem.

[@dannydogs4385]

If you are great at parrying, you can kill a lot of friendly soldiers at the beginning of the game. I did it out of curiosity near the captain that tells you to kill the griffin.

[@Zorothegallade-rpg]

For me the "Bethesda Killer" were the Shadow of Mordor games. Seeing enemies who strategize, diversify, and react in many different ways to your actions including retreating when it's clear you have the upper hand is night and day compared to Bethesda's cookie cutter "Rawr imma hit you till one of us dies" enemies.

[@chengong388]

@@dannydogs4385 except in one of the early missions you can easily kill some normal soldiers not new recruits, so why are the recruits much much stronger?

[@chengong388]

@@Zorothegallade-rpg enemies in Bethesda games never strategized, being silly has always been one of the charms of Bethesda games. Clearly you wanted more serious games not Bethesda games.

[@MJGianesello]

Starfield tried(key word here) to be an open world adventure in the same year of Tears of the Kingdom, it tried to be a sci fi shooter action game in the same year of Armored Core 6, and it tried to be a dynamic rpg in the same year of Baldur's gate 3. There was no way for it to stand out, even if it wasn't as sad a display as it ended up being

[@johngleeman8347]

Why would you ask the guy with less seniority and accomplishments what they think of their marginally more seasoned superior? What kind of sense does that make? It's such bad storytelling.

[@johankarlsson1776]

I'm sure the modders will now make a mod to explain where the milk comes from... unfortunately it'll probably be on lovers lab 😂

[@haserrea]

1:05:56 i hate to be pedantic and this video is AMAZING but calling starfield fallout is WAAAAAAAYYY too charitable. fallout 1, 2 and new vegas are still, to this day, the peak of role playing in videogames. It'd be more accurate to say is basically fallout 4 SPECIFICALLY... annnnnddd thats probably what you meant, isn't it.

[@CaptainMack]

Yes, you're right, I just didn't want to bog down the script with more detail than I felt was necessary

[@haserrea]

@@CaptainMack OH! that makes sense! thank you for clearing it up! Again, fantastic video, can't wait for the next part ^^

[@sirjmo]

@@haserrea Starfield is (Bethesda's) Fallout. Fallout 1, 2 and NV are not Bethesda titles, one keyword can make a world of difference but I just assumed it was implied by Captain. Is specifically Fallout 4 really that much different from 3 and 76?

[@haserrea]

@@sirjmo no, yeah you're absolutely right. is just with the discourse surrounding fallout sometimes im not sure which of the games they are referring to. but it was pretty obvious in hindsight.

[@Laxhoop]

The game was made to be accessible to everyone, and so it appeals to no one.

[@ShadowProject01]

There’s a simple reason why Bethesda is so bad at this: Money. They are only interested in doing the bare minimum and every decision they make for the game from narrative to mechanics comes down to how little can we do for the least amount of cost possible? Giving players agency and having consequences and branching paths of tackling a situation would mean more lines for voice actors, more resources to create more content…and more money spent. That’s a no no

[@garrettcreede1674]

choosing a microbe over a invasive animal is like giving rats cholera instead of getting a cat to deal with the rats. Great at first but then everybody gets cholera.

[@icetide9411]

Fun thing about the Neurolink: it does do things outside of the quest... Except IT doesnt do anything, the Manipulation skill does things. It literally just gives you the first perk tier of Manipulation, except you'll still need to spend a perk point on tier 1 if you want to further upgrade it. The Neurolink isn't even a unique mechanic, it's just a perk disguised as a unique reward.

[@freddywright4239]

I think one of the things that Bethesda hasn’t done in a while is actually making the side quests tie back in to the main plot in some way, like all side quests (unless directly given by people from the main quests faction) are so utterly disjointed from the main plot. Like the silver shroud quest in FO4 should not really exist in a game where you’re character would be hyper focused on finding their son, so when you dick around as comic book hero it really just takes away from the whole if you think about it beyond “heehoo funny quest” Likewise next to none of the side quests in star field actually acknowledge that the multiverse theory is true, non of the factions care about the main plot until the main plot lets them, it really just feels like a bunch of disjointed mini quests that were tossed into the star field soup when really the game should be built around the multiverse Shtick and have the ‘good’ endings be locked behind having precognition of having done the quest previously. This would reinforce the theme of “Do you abandon this universe that you’ve spent time in for the trade off of being better in the next?” Cause as it stands it seems a lot of people get their best endings in the side quests and refuse to leave their loot behind, thus playing forever characters in the original universe which… it’s kinda like how people never allow dragons to span in Skyrim cause they’re annoying and don’t really tie into any side quests anyways so you’re not missing anything if you don’t.

[@thedeed8740]

Being locked out of certain content due to a decision is literally why I replay games. I’m still playing bg3 and when mod support comes to console I’ll be playing it again even more 💀

[@skyrimisforthenords8312]

Ive been waiting for someone to bring up that 'stealing the trophy' quest. Cant kill, pickpocket or lockpick. And the woman that you have to convince doesnt even SPAWN unless you let sailor ulfric stormcloak in for a cut. Which i didnt want to do, yet the pirate quest giver still belittles you for letting him in on it, despite the game needlessly making it a requirement. The game is an onion of layers of bad

[@cyan_2877]

1:00:53 a microbe is a species. it could also mutate to kill, yknow local flora and fauna.

[@IkeyDkey]

The second part does tend to be the best one in the trilogy. This game reminds me of the 2 guard problem so I'll paint a picture. There are two guards blocking separate paths of pristine brick, each guard will give a statement and while one will lie the other will tell the truth, it is said that going down the wrong path will lead to dire consequences. Luckily you knew about this beforehand and bought an expensive crystal that allows you to read minds, this will ensure you know who is lying. You go up to the two guards, one says "the path behind me is made of brick" while the other says "the path behind is is made of gold", you can immediately tell who is lying without even needing the expensive crystal. You realise that this puzzle was a complete waste of time and you wated all your money. you walk down the truthful path and make to your destination where you see the second path that the lying guard was blocking also reach the destination, the only difference is that the lying path had a pebble in the road. This is the 2 guard problem written by the genius Todd Howard.

[@ramunerd]

@@IkeyDkey I agree, part 2 is also my favorite.

[@Nodiee1]

I dunno, I feel like risking the player getting a pebble in their shoe would be too much friction for Bethesda.

[@Mousetrap1740]

I really like the part about the stealth bar. You can see it isn't even accurate. Like it MUST play its little animation. You were still in the detected phase when the enemies started shooting at you because it had to go through its flashing and filling animations first.

[@thientuongnguyen2564]

It's easier to not have it, then again, that Gamebryo engine is so shoddy nothing ever works right. Like McDonald's ice cream machine.

[@DoomOfConviction]

Skyrim never had good melee, and I assume that not even half of the original cast that made Skyrim is left, so they ruined melee completely this time. I have zero hopes for Bethesda and will never replay Starfield the way I replayed Skyrim or Oblivion several times.

[@onlyicedgarrett7791]

My only problem with the UC Vanguard quest is... it's not really about the Vanguard. When I join the space navy, I wanna fly my ship, do space battles, be part of a fleet. Instead, I got Alien except i can shoot the Alien.

[@PROdotes]

I feel there's some kind of "armor" bug with the stealth... when I take my space suit off, the difference is huge in being detected... but... can't really stealth around with no space suit in a vacoom...

[@Texelion]

Holy shit I'm glad I gave up on this game after a few hours. I went for a stealth build, I would have been PISSED to realize how bad character building and leveling is. Makes me wonder if Morrowind and Skyrim weren't good by accident... and by good I mean the good parts outwheigh the broken bullshit.

[@Danie_pixie]

Wow.... I'm just speechless...I love being stealthy in games. Was even thinking of giving starfield a chance and was planning a stealth play through. You saved me of wasting 30 hours building this character.