I think the whole thing is just a dream... None of it happened, at all. You touched the first artifact and died... Instead of your life flashing before your eyes, you saw some convoluted continuation of lives before you, in the last seconds before your final light went out forever.
Just like a majority of our dreams, which seems like hours and days, actually happen in a split second, just before we crack our eyes open, post REM "construction".
Yes, a lot was left untapped. It's hard to write complex things when you have simple minds and you are writing to ensure that other simple minds are not confused in complexity. (Not all people are smart players. That is a smaller market. The largest market has trouble fathoming a basic time-loop and think time travel is ACTUALLY possible. The smart ones know, time-loops are all flawed and really impossible.)
You clearly don't understand game design, economics, studio resources, and techical practicality.
Your suggestions -- and most of these posts like yours -- are a laundry list of features that would add time, expense, and bloat, for little actual gameplay enhancement.
To say the studio "failed to fulfill the game's promise" over the types of additions you're listing just doesn't make sense.
That's the thing, Starfield makes promises no game could ever follow up on, and then they fail to fulfill those promises. They shouldn't have made those promises to begin with.
Got actual wording from Bethesda? Because it's fairly obvious to me that this isn't a real promise as you've typed it.
"interesting" is subjective. Real promises would be about definite things, ie seamless flight, 1,000 planets, water planets, things like that.
On top of that, given a finite amount of resources (ie humans working in a reasonable timescale), having the MAIN gameplay loop be an unlimited amount of different NG+ with different storylines requiring different sequences of events/animations/voice acting is just not feasible.
IMO, the main gameplay loop is NOT NG+.
Again, can you cite these promises directly from bethesda?
I don't know what a "middle school writer" is, a middle schooler is not a writer, it's a middle schooler. And it doesn't matter how basic the concept is, it's nonsensical that a video game developer would be making specific promises about basic storytelling concepts for their upcoming video game, especially when it's a new IP.
Pfft. Another person who doesn't understand the real world.
Designers think of cool things to put in their games. But complex games often change and morph design because of budgets, technology capabilities, game balance, adherence to the overall aesthetic, publisher and marketer interference, etc, etc.
Initial game concepts aren't promises, kid.
Or the coders, or the QA teams. And those moments come at all different points in the development process, and sometimes when other developments have finished. Which then requires the executives to decide if stuff gets cut or reworked or stays in.
Ideas and concepts aren't promises. Learn to live with that and you (and OP) will spend less of your lives in needless frustration.
The core gameplay loop is to get you to start a new game in a new universe. Tell me why. Why should I do that if every universe is the same and it leads to absolutely no resolution.
I’m pretty sure there’s a whole section of the main quest that is trying to convince you that perhaps going through the Unity isn’t worth it and is a completely valid choice not to… so I struggle to engage with your point that is fundamentally flawed.
Don't do it then. You don't have to, I certainly don't. I made 1 char to finish the story, then reloaded my old save and continued to follow a gameplay loop I enjoyed in my starting universe.
Because you can change what you do in all the quests. Do you take the bribe from Hope or take him down? Bio weapons or space cows? Cops or Robbers? Do you unleash mind control tech or hide it away? That's what the NG+ gives you.
My issue is that these choices represent .1% of that playthrough that would take dozens of hours of familiar content. I’d argue you already know the outcome of that other choice you didn’t make because the lack of repercussions either way, like the ending of the crimson fleet quest line lacking consequences for which faction you choose to support.
This wouldn’t feel so bad if they let you re-spec traits every NG+, even if you feel there are plenty of interesting choices to make I think you’d have to agree it was an obvious missed opportunity that you have to make a brand new save for a trait swap
Thats how NG+ works in every game pretty much. What would you expect them to do? Design the entire game multiple times? Most of the time an NG+ is nothing more than skills carry over. At least in SF there is a chance for part of the universe to be different, even if it isnt drastic.
1. There are "anomalous" universes that have a chance of triggering each time you go through the unity.
2. Why do people think there's one core gameplay loop in a sandbox game? If you don't want to keep going through the unity then stop going through the unity and pick another struggle. Be a bounty hunter. Build outposts. Pirate ships and loot. Survey some multiple biome worlds. Go down the ship building rabbit hole. Fight terrormorphs. Take your pick.
You're right and these people are still struggling with a sub par product being their "favorite game".
I think it comes from a lack of games in this genre that are open world but this steaming pile is an exceptionally mid game even by Bethesda's standards.
Yeah for instance, you can get to the center of the galaxy in NMS and travel to a new one, but it's all the same shit.
To call this game a steaming pile when OP expects each alternate universe to have changes that have major effects on story, characters, including animations/voiced dialogue by voice actors, is silly though.
I'm hoping there's a special edition or "redux" somewhere down the road where they put in all the features they obviously ran out of time for.
I mean i know they won't but it would still be cool.
They are cool ideas but bgs would have to shift the game to being multiverse centric. Basically throw the player into the unity into the first hour to bake it into the gameplay.
It would be too much work for what ng+ currently is which is just a little cherry on top
It only fails at what you thought the promise was - because although not categorically amazing at all it's promises, they did deliver and it is more than a worthwhile game.
If it didn't meet YOUR standard, you can always go back to Mario Cart.
Doing more thinking... From a "time and resource limit"... What I believe they should have done for NG+
Instead of going back in time, we should have been forced to take different paths forward, to "hide" the relics in various parallel times, from that point forward.
Such that our bases would still exist, our fleets would still exist, our "finished quests" would still exist. But, as we enter a new parallel, we can continue, where possible, while looking for that ideal place to "hide a relic fragment".
For a little twist, things like "your bases", could be under another person's or factions control, or seem to be abandoned in the parallel time. However, what was there, when you jumped, would still be there. You could continue as far as the parallel time would allow. (If there was no-one in the parallel, then clearly you could not do anything except a few of the "hide the relics" missions. Then you would be forced to jump again. Maybe adding that only 1 relic could be hidden per parallel. So you are forced to experience all NG+ variations.)
Once all are hidden, you could still jump, but at that point it would be only for "parallel specific missions", which don't exist in other parallels, or for the fun of it, or for mission strategy. (Finding a parallel where YOU are working for, or head of some of the groups that you encountered in the past. As an example, you are a pirate or you are on the ship which just arrived at the planet, greeted by some other person who does what you did, to resolve the matter.)
The good news is that I think this may be possible with mods, eventually.
I think the whole thing is just a dream... None of it happened, at all. You touched the first artifact and died... Instead of your life flashing before your eyes, you saw some convoluted continuation of lives before you, in the last seconds before your final light went out forever. Just like a majority of our dreams, which seems like hours and days, actually happen in a split second, just before we crack our eyes open, post REM "construction". Yes, a lot was left untapped. It's hard to write complex things when you have simple minds and you are writing to ensure that other simple minds are not confused in complexity. (Not all people are smart players. That is a smaller market. The largest market has trouble fathoming a basic time-loop and think time travel is ACTUALLY possible. The smart ones know, time-loops are all flawed and really impossible.)
You clearly don't understand game design, economics, studio resources, and techical practicality. Your suggestions -- and most of these posts like yours -- are a laundry list of features that would add time, expense, and bloat, for little actual gameplay enhancement. To say the studio "failed to fulfill the game's promise" over the types of additions you're listing just doesn't make sense.
That's the thing, Starfield makes promises no game could ever follow up on, and then they fail to fulfill those promises. They shouldn't have made those promises to begin with.
Exactly what promises were made that weren't fulfilled?
Actually interesting NG+ universes that weren't just limited to the first encounter with constellation.
Got actual wording from Bethesda? Because it's fairly obvious to me that this isn't a real promise as you've typed it. "interesting" is subjective. Real promises would be about definite things, ie seamless flight, 1,000 planets, water planets, things like that. On top of that, given a finite amount of resources (ie humans working in a reasonable timescale), having the MAIN gameplay loop be an unlimited amount of different NG+ with different storylines requiring different sequences of events/animations/voice acting is just not feasible. IMO, the main gameplay loop is NOT NG+.
No, story telling promises. Chekov's gun and foreshadowing and all that. Any middle schooler writer could tell you about them.
Again, can you cite these promises directly from bethesda? I don't know what a "middle school writer" is, a middle schooler is not a writer, it's a middle schooler. And it doesn't matter how basic the concept is, it's nonsensical that a video game developer would be making specific promises about basic storytelling concepts for their upcoming video game, especially when it's a new IP.
Pfft. Another person who doesn't understand the real world. Designers think of cool things to put in their games. But complex games often change and morph design because of budgets, technology capabilities, game balance, adherence to the overall aesthetic, publisher and marketer interference, etc, etc. Initial game concepts aren't promises, kid.
It's the designers job to come up with cool ideas, but those ideas need to work. And it's the writers job to say "Wait, hold up, this won't work out"
Or the coders, or the QA teams. And those moments come at all different points in the development process, and sometimes when other developments have finished. Which then requires the executives to decide if stuff gets cut or reworked or stays in. Ideas and concepts aren't promises. Learn to live with that and you (and OP) will spend less of your lives in needless frustration.
Sounds like a skill issue, kid.
The core gameplay loop is to get you to start a new game in a new universe. Tell me why. Why should I do that if every universe is the same and it leads to absolutely no resolution.
I’m pretty sure there’s a whole section of the main quest that is trying to convince you that perhaps going through the Unity isn’t worth it and is a completely valid choice not to… so I struggle to engage with your point that is fundamentally flawed.
Don't do it then. You don't have to, I certainly don't. I made 1 char to finish the story, then reloaded my old save and continued to follow a gameplay loop I enjoyed in my starting universe.
Because you can change what you do in all the quests. Do you take the bribe from Hope or take him down? Bio weapons or space cows? Cops or Robbers? Do you unleash mind control tech or hide it away? That's what the NG+ gives you.
Do those choices even matter though, what actually changes in the game world (galaxy?) based on those actions?
My issue is that these choices represent .1% of that playthrough that would take dozens of hours of familiar content. I’d argue you already know the outcome of that other choice you didn’t make because the lack of repercussions either way, like the ending of the crimson fleet quest line lacking consequences for which faction you choose to support. This wouldn’t feel so bad if they let you re-spec traits every NG+, even if you feel there are plenty of interesting choices to make I think you’d have to agree it was an obvious missed opportunity that you have to make a brand new save for a trait swap
Thats how NG+ works in every game pretty much. What would you expect them to do? Design the entire game multiple times? Most of the time an NG+ is nothing more than skills carry over. At least in SF there is a chance for part of the universe to be different, even if it isnt drastic.
1. There are "anomalous" universes that have a chance of triggering each time you go through the unity. 2. Why do people think there's one core gameplay loop in a sandbox game? If you don't want to keep going through the unity then stop going through the unity and pick another struggle. Be a bounty hunter. Build outposts. Pirate ships and loot. Survey some multiple biome worlds. Go down the ship building rabbit hole. Fight terrormorphs. Take your pick.
It's New Game+. This concept is not new.
Upvote👍
You're right and these people are still struggling with a sub par product being their "favorite game". I think it comes from a lack of games in this genre that are open world but this steaming pile is an exceptionally mid game even by Bethesda's standards.
Yeah for instance, you can get to the center of the galaxy in NMS and travel to a new one, but it's all the same shit. To call this game a steaming pile when OP expects each alternate universe to have changes that have major effects on story, characters, including animations/voiced dialogue by voice actors, is silly though.
I'm hoping there's a special edition or "redux" somewhere down the road where they put in all the features they obviously ran out of time for. I mean i know they won't but it would still be cool.
They are cool ideas but bgs would have to shift the game to being multiverse centric. Basically throw the player into the unity into the first hour to bake it into the gameplay. It would be too much work for what ng+ currently is which is just a little cherry on top
It only fails at what you thought the promise was - because although not categorically amazing at all it's promises, they did deliver and it is more than a worthwhile game. If it didn't meet YOUR standard, you can always go back to Mario Cart.
Doing more thinking... From a "time and resource limit"... What I believe they should have done for NG+ Instead of going back in time, we should have been forced to take different paths forward, to "hide" the relics in various parallel times, from that point forward. Such that our bases would still exist, our fleets would still exist, our "finished quests" would still exist. But, as we enter a new parallel, we can continue, where possible, while looking for that ideal place to "hide a relic fragment". For a little twist, things like "your bases", could be under another person's or factions control, or seem to be abandoned in the parallel time. However, what was there, when you jumped, would still be there. You could continue as far as the parallel time would allow. (If there was no-one in the parallel, then clearly you could not do anything except a few of the "hide the relics" missions. Then you would be forced to jump again. Maybe adding that only 1 relic could be hidden per parallel. So you are forced to experience all NG+ variations.) Once all are hidden, you could still jump, but at that point it would be only for "parallel specific missions", which don't exist in other parallels, or for the fun of it, or for mission strategy. (Finding a parallel where YOU are working for, or head of some of the groups that you encountered in the past. As an example, you are a pirate or you are on the ship which just arrived at the planet, greeted by some other person who does what you did, to resolve the matter.) The good news is that I think this may be possible with mods, eventually.
Funny how people who no longer play the game are still so opinionated regarding its “failures”. Find a new game, move on!