Starfield Shattered Space Coming September 30th, Rev-8 Update Out Now | MMORPG.com

harken33

Sovrath said:

I just hope this procedural generation isn’t a view to the future for Elder Scrolls 6 2029 maybe? and Fallout 5 2034 maybe?

 

I don’t think it would be an issue. While there are many hand crafted caves and dungeons in previous elder scrolls games, there are also many hand crafted caves and dungeons that are very generic. Procedurally generated dungeons won’t be much different for those.

I think the issue here is exploring planets and making it so not every planet yields something interesting. That might be realistic but it’s not fun.

Procedural generation in and of itself is not the issue for me at least. I can recall procedural generation being used in an Everquest expansion 20 years ago, Lost dungeons of Norrath. Both Anarchy Online, which was a great game with a very buggy launch and City of Heroes used these types of dungeons. I am sure there can be some kind of polished blend of hand crafted and procedurally generated dungeons.

However, my issue with Bethesda’s use of procedural generation for Starfield has to do with the maps, mainly as it relates to exploration, as the *dungeons* are handcrafted and have not varied procedurally from one run of that POI to the next for me at all (the very basic caves may be an exception, they are so small they could have handcrafted 10 of them or maybe they change). I have done some of the POI’s 6 or 10 or 12 times and the victims’ bodies don’t change location, the safe’s / storage boxes / ammo cases / enemies are the same AND in the same locations, the loot itself is variable.

We know this year the Bethesda A-team has started fully transitioning into Elder Scrolls 6 production from Starfield. According to Phil Spencer last summer the game is 5.5 years out which would put it in 2029 for a release, so they have time to refine this.

Assuming Elder Scrolls 6 is in say Hammerfell, as per the rumors I want to be able to walk and explore / uncover the map so if I walk out of Gilane and head northeast a bandit dungeon is there (just an example). Now they can vary the dungeon, have the bandits wiped out and a new enemy appears etc but I want a reason to explore, i don’t want to do my MAP exploring from the UI, or from multiple loading screens.

I want to pick a direction and explore, uncover dungeons, vendors, world mobs, whatever and open the UI / map to see where I ended up later. I don’t want to walk out of Gilane to an ever-changing location of dungeons etc, I am hoping this is something they did just for Starfield trying to create the vastness of space.

Sovrath

harken33 said:

Sovrath said:

I just hope this procedural generation isn’t a view to the future for Elder Scrolls 6 2029 maybe? and Fallout 5 2034 maybe?

 

I don’t think it would be an issue. While there are many hand crafted caves and dungeons in previous elder scrolls games, there are also many hand crafted caves and dungeons that are very generic. Procedurally generated dungeons won’t be much different for those.

I think the issue here is exploring planets and making it so not every planet yields something interesting. That might be realistic but it’s not fun.

Procedural generation in and of itself is not the issue for me at least. I can recall procedural generation being used in an Everquest expansion 20 years ago, Lost dungeons of Norrath. Both Anarchy Online, which was a great game with a very buggy launch and City of Heroes used these types of dungeons. I am sure there can be some kind of polished blend of hand crafted and procedurally generated dungeons.

However, my issue with Bethesda’s use of procedural generation for Starfield has to do with the maps, mainly as it relates to exploration, as the *dungeons* are handcrafted and have not varied procedurally from one run of that POI to the next for me at all (the very basic caves may be an exception, they are so small they could have handcrafted 10 of them or maybe they change). I have done some of the POI’s 6 or 10 or 12 times and the victims’ bodies don’t change location, the safe’s / storage boxes / ammo cases / enemies are the same AND in the same locations, the loot itself is variable.

We know this year the Bethesda A-team has started fully transitioning into Elder Scrolls 6 production from Starfield. According to Phil Spencer last summer the game is 5.5 years out which would put it in 2029 for a release, so they have time to refine this.

Assuming Elder Scrolls 6 is in say Hammerfell, as per the rumors I want to be able to walk and explore / uncover the map so if I walk out of Gilane and head northeast a bandit dungeon is there (just an example). Now they can vary the dungeon, have the bandits wiped out and a new enemy appears etc but I want a reason to explore, i don’t want to do my MAP exploring from the UI, or from multiple loading screens.

I want to pick a direction and explore, uncover dungeons, vendors, world mobs, whatever and open the UI / map to see where I ended up later. I don’t want to walk out of Gilane to an ever-changing location of dungeons etc, I am hoping this is something they did just for Starfield trying to create the vastness of space.

I agree but I don’t think they are going to randomize the world every time one goes out. I do think they might randomize what goes on in each dungeon as well as what goes on over time. We’ll see.