Why Starfield needs invisible walls and planet boundaries

Amasr writes: Starfield may be getting planet boundaries and invisible walls, but we think that's actually a good thing.

[shadowT]

Less promised features, good thing..

[-Foxtrot]

The funny thing is if they didn't hype this so much with their PR, did a Fallout 4 by announcing it and releasing it 4-5 months later then no one would really give a shit.

[RpgSama]

LOL, another one of those "why 30 fps is a good thing" articles.

[crazyCoconuts]

I'm guessing having a game like No Man's Sky out there is just going to make it clearer how far Starfield would have to go to give you that same Space Exploration vibe. NMS is just so good at it.
Hopefully Starfield will excel in the handcrafted story and characters so that it isn't just a mediocre jack of all trades kind of game.

[Soldierone]

People playing it are saying "It's not even great till the story is over" So I doubt it lol

[lucian229]

it's bethesda......their stories have always been mundane and bad. all it offers is amazing mods

[MeatyUrologist]

Yes NMS was really good at the exploration side of things, but most of the time I was playing it was clear it was all procedurally generated. After seeing all the planet types you knew exactly what to expect before you even landed. As much as I enjoyed NMS most of the time I was playing I was just wishing it felt a bit more handcrafted and looked and felt less like a last generation tech demo.

I still think NMS will be superior in the massive scope and seemless exploration. Where Starfield will easily surpass it is in story, combat, detail, graphics, audio, world building. Even if there are a few more seems and smaller scope that is easily a fair trade in my mind. Now I just need to find a cheap XSX to play it on!

[wiz7191]

@crazycoconuts idk if y’all slow or what lol keep bringing up NMS .. When that game literally doesn’t have shit to do but salvage resources and build bases lol A game that’s built around endless exploration with barely any story to speak of … Starfield and NMS aren’t even in the same genre just have the same space travel themes ,

[crazyCoconuts]

@wiz no need to be rude.
There can only be so many handcrafted stories in Starfield. For the 1000 planets or whatever there will be procedurally generated landscape AND generated missions, just like NMS. Fetch quests and such. Screen shots of them have leaked already.

[SyntheticForm]

What features?

I don't know about "needing bondaries" or this or that, but I *do* know that I want to play a new Bethesda RPG. I *don't* want No Man's Sky or anything like it - I want the Bethesda game world structure. This is what I'm hyped for and paying for. I couldn't give a shit about "seamless exploration." I *want* the characters, the pickpocketing, the speech challenges, the double-agentism, etc. No Man's Sky is a great game for what *it* is, but I don't want that here - not one bit. Let NMS be NMS and let Starfield be Starfield.

I'm an older gamer who loves *most* of the Bethesda RPGs and games and I'm looking more forward to Starfield than any other game.

Edit: As far as exploration goes I'm sure there will be plenty and that I will be sated.

[shinoff2183]

Same boat as you syntheticform. I'm looking forward to it cause it's an rpg, a bethesada rpg. I'm not a huge fan of elder scrolls but I have liked a ton of what they've put out. Im not saying elder scrolls is bad but i have a harder time getting into the setting(medieval) Fallout is my favorite from them. I'm a sci fi nut. If it's sci fi I'm in. Hell I'd love to see a sci fi game from from software. I think they'd kill it. Tomorrow I will be getting out of work 11pm and going to max out on starfield for 4 days. I won't be doing anything but something with the family and bathroom breaks. Can't wait

[fr0sty]

"Crap, they're on to the lie... quick! Pay off some site to spin this into a good thing!!!"

[lelo2play]

Uncharted 4 had a lot of invisible walls... and nobody made a fuss about it.

[shinoff2183]

I don't think any of this I a big deal lelo2play, but I will say uncharted wasn't advertised as a huge ass interplanetary open world game. It was linear. Cant compare

[lelo2play]

@shinoff2183
Invisible walls on linear games are even worse. There is no justification for walls on a linear game with small sections.

A big a$$ map with a invisable wall can be forgiven, but on a small map/section from a linear game... not so much.

[BrainSyphoned]

Oh hey look, a pinned article from N4G shilling away for xbox.

[VenomUK]

The article is listed twice on the N4G homepage adjacent to each other.

[Christopher]

That's what happens when a new article is pinned. Pinned doesn't move the original article, it creates a copy of it in the pinned location. When it is unpinned the copy goes away.

[LG_Fox_Brazil]

Have a talk to your webdesigner and ask it to have this adjusted asap. I work at a news website and that takes only a minute to get resolved, duplicated articles/photos make a site look amateur

[Tacoboto]

It's so you can click more to videogamer.com.

N4G double shilling for its owner.

[Christopher]

Just need to pin a Switch article and I will have collected all the Shilling Gems. Then I'll snap my fingers and get myself a good Reuben sandwich.

[LG_Fox_Brazil]

Have a talk to your webdesigner and ask it to have this adjusted asap. I work at a news website and that takes only a minute to get resolved, duplicated articles/photos make any site look amateur

[Mr_cheese]

Would be nice to actually hear the stance of N4G on ramming Videogamer down the readers throats.

It's taking the biscuit and you seem to ignore every mention of it with no official comment.

[Christopher]

@Mr_cheese: N4G and Video Gamer are owned by the same company now. I am not the 'stance of N4G' but do my best to keep the site running as it has, as do all moderators, and support it to ensure it does what it was designed to do while also supporting the needs of those who own it.

[Mr_cheese]

And do those who own it acknowledge that the readers don't like their tactics or click back when it comes to their own website because its something that should be aired by them rather than them pinning their own trash articles for clicks.

[shinoff2183]

Appreciate it Christopher. I'm also happy no audio kills my music anymore. Thumbs up from me

[Pyrofire95]

You know when the tiniest news about PS comes out it's always the top story here by far, if not with dulacates flooding the top as well. This is the first time in a while Xbox had anything worth talking about that wasn't how badly they're doing.
Planet scaled worlds is basically pointless. Anyone who REALLY truely wants otherwise is kidding themselves.
And for the record I've never like a Bethesda Studio game and haven't had an Xbox since 2011 when I replaced it for a PS3, so you don't assume I'm an Xbox shill.

[Terry_B]

Game of the Decade..as it was named here already ..months ago lol.

[Brazz]

Wait! So i can't explore the entire planet!? WTF! What's is the point? This article feels like a gigantic damage control.

[Christopher]

It's actually not exploring the planet TBH. It looks like when you create a landing zone, it creates its own area to explore. If you create another landing zone, it creates a new area to explore. It's creating hub areas where you decide to land that are their own thing and not really "that spot on the planet". If you land near a city, for example, you don't see the city or anything of it. You just see what pre-generated area that was created when you create the landing zone.

[crazyCoconuts]

A bit tongue in cheek, but it sounds like a Proof of Concept for No Mans Sky

[Brazz]

First, thank you for your time and patience in explaining everything to me.

Second, so the game isn't open world with free exploration? It is a set of several maps generated when landing with the ship and with pre-established limits!? correct?

[Christopher]

@Brazz: I'm not sure if this is a constant thing, but this is how the gameplay I've seen has worked for landing zones on what planets I've seen. I do not think that any planet is fully capable of being explored, but they at the least have a large area for story purposes on some planets and others generate some quasi-procedural areas to explore when you land on them.

This is kind of a pro and con thing. Pro, you land and know the area you have to explore without having to worry if you missed something on the other side of the planet or the like. Con, it's not really a world so much as regions created dynamically when you create a landing zone and creating a new one changes it (removes any element that this is a persistent world in that respect).

Again, this is just based on what I've seen.

[ChasterMies]

Comparing Starfield’s procedural generation to No Man’s Sky is like comparing the 255x255 block Minecraft Pocket Edition to Minecraft for PC. It’s like baby’s first procedurally generated planet.

[Lightning77]

According to Pete Hines you can. He confirmed this a week ago.

There's no way he slip up and mislead or not know this close to launch, nobody can be that misinformed or even lie that hard a few weeks out.

I don't think there's nothing to worry about at all. A possible nit pick in the grand scheme. Thursday after noon the truth will be out.

[Rocketisleague]

Sarc/?

Thus is confirmed now

[ChasterMies]

“This article feels like a gigantic damage control.”

This article was most likely written by Microsoft’s PR team. The problem with this kind of bullshit is that it puts a stink on everything.

[fr0sty]

They hyped this up to be NMS scale exporation with Skyrim quality story/gameplay, and now that has been exposed to be one big lie. So far it's neither.

[badz149]

First and foremost, there is no land vehicle you can use or drive on any planet at launch, how do you expect to traverse a whole planet just by walking and limited jetpacking? Wen they said that there will be no land vehicle, I already suspected that exploration will be limited. Plus, there is no seemless travel between planets and space like NMS, this alone already signaled that planets are just one big hubs like a level.

[anast]

They had to do it to get it to run on the S and it's Bethesda.

[Pyrofire95]

What do you mean what's the point? Who's exploring multiple full sized planets? Be realistic.

[jznrpg]

Many people would if they could but they can’t so they won’t. These aren’t even planets they are just instanced zones.

[shinoff2183]

It is kinda disappointing if that's how it is. Many people would have explored whole planets. To downplay is clearly white knighting

[isarai]

The copium shipment has arrived early 😆

[anast]

Nice xD

[Redgrave]

Why does every Starfield article from videogamer sound like a bad thing being pitched as a good, favorable thing?

Why would invisible walls and barriers be good in a SPACE based OPEN WORLD RPG.

[Tacoboto]

Because the shared owners of Videogamer.com and N4G have data to know that people crave drama and FUD.

They don't care about games or positive discourse, they care about clicks and ads, and nothing is better for that than fanboy drama. It's no coincidence that there were all the Starfield 30fps articles, all the articles about repeated FFXVI FUD, and not one was marked as the duplicates they were because they got (1) clicks, and (2) ads. Look who shared this article.

When Starfield comes out, this won't be a major issue (just like FFXVI's Performance mode proved not to be), but I guarantee you this will be the biggest article today to complain about. There will likely be another Starfield article with a negative slant tomorrow before the reviews hit. It is, sadly, the agenda that N4G is pushing.

[Hofstaderman]

*facepalm*

[Aloymetal]

Lol, 16 Times the invisible walls...

[anast]

Ha! xD

[Hofstaderman]

16 times invisible rays on the invisible walls

[Soulsborne]

Thank god for BG3.

[anast]

This is what I was thinking.

[CantThinkOfAUsername]

Another game that's also divided in regions?

[jznrpg]

Did they ever say you could explore entire planets but turn out just to be random zones and no planet at all

[Markusb33]

let the spin and excuses begin, Live on stage Todd howard said you can land anywhere on any planet, now its 2 or 3 locations per planet? Is it ok to just ask for what was promised? or at least call it out

[Christopher]

You can land anywhere on the planet other than cities. It's just that it creates its own procedural hub of sorts. You designate a landing zone, land, and then you have an area that is generated based on the planet specifications to explore. There aren't 'fully designed and fleshed out' planets, though. And the hubs don't take into account specific landmarks, such as nearby cities or the like.

[jznrpg]

There is no planet. It’s just a zone you are loading in

[anast]

Chris is correct. The generated tiles are not connected. There will be no loading screens in between tiles. There aren't any actual planets. The good news is those areas are supposed to be the size of Fallout 4 map. So, if you are not into heavy exploration, it might not matter to most Bethesda fans.

[Agedgamer]

I own a ps5 and play it as often as I can, my son has the series s (gimped I know) told him he'd get the seriesx if he proved to me he can look after it, I'm not an x box hater (my son uses my old account) I just hope this smashes it out the park ,looks good thus far, if it does I'm getting a series s, (his).

[mastershredder]

We don't know why, but we're just gonna side with that's a good thing....You guys are walked over more than a footbridge. Pathetic.

[Father__Merrin]

This exactly like No man's Land but with a linier campaign if you want to follow it

[UltimateOwnage]

As a space exploration experience, it’s like No Mans Sky Jr. As a linear campaign experience, it’s Bethesda+, or, slightly better than No Man’s Sky.

[anast]

It's not like No Man's Sky. In No Man's sky you can walk around the entire planet if you wanted to. Starfield is disconnected generated tiles. The exploration aspect is completely different.

[anast]

These are all good things: invisible walls, driving will be DLC, microtransactions, loading screens for everything, no seamless space exploration, no actually flying your ship, you can join every faction with no consequences because the world won't recognize you, janky combat, and empty planets...This has auto 10s and GOTY programed into the game.

[Aussiesummer]

Mediocre at best comes to mind.

[anast]

Exactly, I predicted a mediocre game awhile back before we even had all of this information and it looks to be the case.

[SimpleSlave]

Did I not say this was going to be a collaborative effort with the Modding community? It's always like this with Bethesda no matter what. Not even with Microsoft bottomless wallet. Bethesda knows the true worth of letting the modding community finish their games.

These are not bugs but features...literally in this case.

No Man Sky? Pffft! More like too much Sky! Am I right or what? You've been but on notice bay bay!

[VariantAEC]

I'd love to see modders turn this into something as good as NMS with complete planets to explore... doubt that will come in a mod.

[SimpleSlave]

Don't be surprise when they do. This will be the Modding Community's Magnum Opus. Bethesda is so kind to have allowed this...So kind indeed.

Listen. The reality is that Bethesda is a very limited studio with a winning formula. They know this, their rabid fans won't admit it but love it and the modding community relish in it. They release a half-assed and half baked game but make it open to the public. They have been doing this since forever.

Starfield will be no exception. It'll get bloated reviews as most AAA titles do and as time goes on people will come to the realization that this is just a Bethesda game. For whatever that's worth. And after a few years it'll sell like hotcake in Steam as the crazy mods starts pouring in.

More Mods = $$$

Who knows? Some crazy person/team might indeed gun straight for all the stuff No Man's Sky have implemented over the years and bring them over to the Bethesda's Empty Planets© Tech...

You know how the saying goes: The Sky's the Limit but only in the Vanilla Game...😂

[gold_drake]

"the bad thing is ACTUALLY a good thing"

is it just me or are most of these Starfield articles the same?

[Rikimaru-00]

more, more and more excuses. this game seems to be a try hard.

[andydalum]

People using NMS to compare have either 1. Never played NMS
2. Haven't payed attention to Starfield info
3. Want to hate on starfield no matter what

Starfield yes so much more going on than NMS. Short list off the top of my head

[porkChop]

The NMS comparisons are a bit misguided. NMS has massive planets which is cool, but if you try exploring the whole thing you're going to notice the procedural generation very quickly. The same structures, the same mountains, etc. NMS is still a good game that's come a long way, but it's procedural generation is far from perfect.

I'll have to see how it all works when I play Starfield but I can understand why they took this approach. Traditionally procedural generation works better in smaller maps.

Bethesda should have been upfront about this though, I can understand why someone would be upset. I don't think people would have had as much issue with it if they'd explained from the beginning that this was the case, and gave an explanation of why it (presumably) works better for what they're doing. Transparent communication is always the better option.

[andydalum]

I have played a fair amount of NMS myself and I'm not saying it's a bad game just that is a lot of differences that make the games not comparable.

Cities, actual quest lines, better graphics, more strategic ship to ship combat, docking enemy ships, mod support (another reason zones might be a benefit down the road), new game plus, base building (NMS has it but is not super well done imo), ship customization. Would no barriers be cool of course but I'll take all the added stuff starfield gives me vs a NMS clone.

[raWfodog]

Yeah I never understood the comparison between the two myself.

NMS is a massive, space exploration sim where you can freely fly anywhere in an optional multiplayer galaxy. The only thing I compare it with is Elite Dangerous for the sheer scope of galactic freedom you are given.

Starfield is an RPG set in space. I think it’ll be a good game but it would never satisfy my space and free-flight exploration needs.

[andydalum]

This is a good way to look at it. I myself enjoy RPG games more so NMS most of the time I find myself playing for a week or two then get to a point where I'm like what's the point of anything I'm doing. It's a great game that has improved so much over the years but it's not comparable to starfirld. Nice to see some people can separate them.

[Christopher]

***Cities, actual quest lines,***

This tells me people haven't played NMS since the first two years of it and don't understand how much they are hating on the plethora of updates to NMS over the years.

[andydalum]

I literally played in this week. NMS has nothing city wise that will compare with something like New Atlantis or other cities in starfield. NMS has a questline but they aren't compelling or on par with a RPG. I love all the updates (My favorite has been being able to customize the inside of my giant ship. Not saying NMS is had but it's not a RPG it's a exploration game.

[jwillj2k4]

Who gives a fuck about the boundaries wait till the game comes out and if really obstructing gameplay then make an article about it.

[Christopher]

Just FYI, this info is based on people playing the game. Why would people playing the game after release change this criticism?

[jwillj2k4]

Because the game isn’t out yet for the average person to form an objective opinion. Articles like this sway people’s perception whether pro or con. There’s a great possibility boundaries would not be an issue if this game were cross console. It would be noted as a con and people would move on. Its because it’s on one platform that it was made a big deal out of. This goes both ways not choosing sides. So many articles about something so edge case (40 minutes of walking in a straight line) is stupid. Let the people decide for themselves.

[ManMarmalade]

Why starfield needs more excuses only to lead up to disappointing excecution and empty promises*
Fixed it for you

[Knightofelemia]

Why then you lose that sense of open world and urge to explore.

[Valkyrye]

Videogamer.com is the undisputed king of clickbait garbage

[Nacho_Z]

Clearly making excuses. Boundaries and invisible walls in a space exploration game are a good thing. Hmm.

I can understand the necessity for it but let's not try to pretend it's something positive.

[gigoran8]

This information was out there a long time ago. The first sign was no land vehicles. Then there was no atmospheric flight. They then came out and said you enter a sector when you land. Not sure why it took a leaked video for people to catch on. It's a wonder how after so many years of development that they couldn't reproduce the same features that other similar games are capable of. This disappointment doesn't come from me being a fanboy of Sony. I will be playing this game on PC. I think the disappointment comes from that they held onto these restrictions and missing features until it was preparing for release.

[jznrpg]

But they also said you could explore the entire planet not just random zones

[HyperMoused]

Pretty simple to see, go into the bush and walk for 6 days until you hit a town, now do you really need that six days in between...no

[neomahi]

Whoa, wait! Are justifying something that has a problem? Hm..... I think the hype has gotten to everyone. Initial reviews are going to be good, but enough time down the road, people are going to become honest about the game and be like: Yeah, I was deceived, it's really not as good as we all thought.

[hard joe]

how a game journalist make money 101:
kissing lazy incompetent dev ass

[InUrFoxHole]

Ahhh Day 1 gents! Let's go! The hype is real

[InUrFoxHole]

https://youtube.com/watch?v...

[Angyobangyo]

It's like we can see the goalposts moving in real time.

[Pyrofire95]

People getting upset about this is what happens when you believe what vague lies Todd Howard promises while doing his press.
I can't find it but there's an interview with him and another Starfield dev. The dev would explain in a very normal way with specific enough examples that you'd expect from a pre-launch interview then every time Todd would follow up by refrasing what the other guy said but with a way bigger but vaguer scale. The guy is a used car salesman that sells you your own imagination and delivers a normal game.

[Pyrofire95]

I'm losing my mind reading these comments. Nobody was going to explore multiple full scale planets. You are all lying to yourselves. Completely dillusioned. These are the same people who comlpain about fruit physics.

[antikbaka]

where is an article "not buying bethesda games is actually a good thing"?

[DynDasE]

I'll just play No Man's Sky.

[Flakegriffin]

Might as well put: “Why it’s okay to be lied to by Pete Hines & Todd Howard.”

[Einhander1971]

Invisible walls, boundaries!! Oh my god that's LINEARITY!!! a dirty word in this crap modern gaming industry.

[Neonridr]

I've never seen a game go through so much criticism over such random things before launch. People were attacking the loading screen, then the planets only being 40 mins or so before hitting a boundary, then review codes not getting out to every publisher out there..

Seems like people really want this game to fail for some reason.

[Battlestar23]

'Seems like people really want this game to fail for some reason. ' Same can be said for every exclusive PS too.' The amount of ridicules attacks that games like Ratchet and Clank, Horizon Forbidden West, Spider-Man, God of War etc... got was insane.
Both PS and Xbox have fanboys that want games owned by the other to fail it's not exclusive to one side.

[purple101]

anyone remember 'puddle-gate' from first Spiderman, because one puddle of water didn't look good it was "ohh massive visual downgrade" on every post. from 1 puddle!!!

[jznrpg]

People call out BS and they BS’d about how you could explore 1000 planets when it’s just zones and no planets at all.

[Neonridr]

apparently every landing zone is like the size of Skyrim's entire map. I understand maybe they worded that poorly, but even in games like NMS, you land, you harvest your resources, you leave. You don't walk for 30 mins in one direction.

[purple101]

https://twitter.com/ParvumP...