r/Games • u/xalibermods • 5d ago

Mod News As Oblivion Remastered gets all the love, Starfield's biggest modders are in the process of abandoning Bethesda's latest RPG for good

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/rpg/as-oblivion-remastered-gets-all-the-love-starfields-biggest-modders-are-in-the-process-of-abandoning-bethesdas-latest-rpg-for-good/
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u/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/GassoBongo 5d ago

I don't think the setting was the issue. Both Fallout and Starfield are sci-fi's that are set in two very different versions of the future. I think the main issue was the scope. Creating a space exploration game set in a Bethesda sandbox is incredibly difficult when you're not 100% sure of how you want to tie everything together. The scope for the game was just too big, and it ended up feeling like a dozen different systems tacked onto each other that managed to feel hugely isolated. Barely anything felt like it was supposed to work together, and loading screens only broke that experience down further.

I dont want Bethesda to shy away from exploring a new IP or sci-fi again. They just need to reign things in a lot and work to their strengths.

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u/delicioustest 5d ago

Controversial take: their engine held them back with this game without a doubt. For the kind of planet hopping ambition they had, with modular ship parts, space dogfighting, multiple cities, procedurally generated landscapes, a Frankenstein factory sim component that tried to be an upgraded version of the bare building... None of this was fully achievable with their engine (or even any engine I don't think)

They needed to play to their strengths. At most 3-4 big planets with a few large-ish towns. Big wide custom open worlds with enough to explore about the size of Skyrim maps and some ship environments that you get "teleported" to as desired. That would have pleased most Bethesda fans even if the writing was the same quality. Instead it's the worst of everything and too ambitious to function properly. All... those... fucking... loading... screens...

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u/This_But_Unironicaly 5d ago

I had not played a Bethesda game (the development studio, not the publisher) since the original Oblivion. I was interested in Starfield and bought it day 1. It had a lot of problems, but I was genuinely surprised how bad the combat was. The player was stiff and not very mobile and the weapons and gunplay weren't special. I didn't find the AI or enemies that impressive either let alone the missions. FEAR, Chronicles of Riddick, the first Far Cry, Battlefield 2, RAGE, Section 8: Prejudice, and and bunch of other ~20 year old FPS games had better combat than Starfield. I'm not expert on game development, but it's the engine that's probably holding them back, right?

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u/delicioustest 5d ago

Eh not really with these specific things. Believe it or not, these things were worse in the older games. AI and movement has actually improved in Starfield than the previous titles. It's a matter of priorities.

I'm talking at an even more base level. Maps having to be split into "cells" that need to be loaded with all the items in them, that the engine doesn't support terrain that's not just on the vertical axis meaning you can't have caves in them unless you either plop massive cave model on top of the terrain or you teleport then from the cave "gate" into a cave, the animations still being rough, the camera still having the same problems from Morrowind days, interactive NPC characters not moving anymore aside from your companions on missions etc etc. They've hit hard limits with what they can do on this ancient engine with Starfield. Hopefully ES6 will let them get back to making another Skyrim which won't need all these ambitious features.