The budget for Starfield was twice that of Baldur’s Gate 3. Throwing more money at it isn’t going to do a lot if they’re allocating it poorly.
Comment on Today, it has been 6 years since The Elder Scrolls 6 teaser
mox@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
I hope they’re using this time to learn lessons from their Starfield flop and gather the talent and budget needed to improve upon Skyrim. A modern engine probably wouldn’t hurt.
However, my expectations are very low at this point.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
mox@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
I’m not suggesting that a big budget alone is sufficient to make a good game.
However, appropriate budgeting (in terms of both money and time) affects things like code quality and writing talent. It’s kind of important.
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I think it’s going to require the people making the most high-level decisions to come to the realization that their old way of doing things is outdated. I don’t have faith that they’ll come to those conclusions.
mox@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
I don’t have faith that they’ll come to those conclusions.
Sadly, I don’t have much faith in them either. (Hence my low expectations.)
I can still hope, though. Elder Scrolls has enough fans and lore that there’s certainly potential for a great new game.
variants@possumpat.io 3 weeks ago
at the end of the day they are going to make the game they want, whether we like it or not, microsoft is now involved as well so who knows how that is going to affect them with their decisions
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
The real number is Morrowind had something like 10-20 writers that worked on it. Modern Bethesda games have 1.
BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 3 weeks ago
Michael Kirkbride counts as 15 writers-in-one with enough cocaine.
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
It’s a good thing that he definitely didn’t leave the company years ago then!
He released his Coda, he’s washed his hands of the setting.
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Lol he’s definitely worth it
ampersandrew@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I think I counted 6 quest designers in Starfield, which was a spot in the credits I was specifically looking for given how many quests they had and how many of them would have been better off not even existing. You can’t talk about having 1000 planets and then make quests that aren’t interesting to populate them.
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
There’s a recent video that adds all of that up. Starfield had some crazy low number of quests, I think 50ish, and Morrowind had like 300+
olafurp@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s a tricky balancing act. They need to recover the investment as early as possible to pay less in capital costs but doing that will mean that later on when the product is sub-par it will cause problems and extra work.
Since the engine, game logic, art, story, testing is so heavily coupled together changing the engine a little bit could cause a month of work down the line.
I think personally the best way is to start by making an engine or taking one off the shelf and then write a mini version of the game with shit art that has a lot of bugs.
At the same time making models with hitboxes that all have the same physical properties otherwise, dialog content and recordings and all other content that can be done separately.
Once that is fun to play then you can start working creating a slightly bigger system with a single short storyline to have a cohesive experience and will have the genaral feel of the game.
Once everything above is done setting up a closed beta is the way to go. Take some feedback, add features and redo the small story to be more fun.
Then once everything is a fun experience but people just want more you do the whole everything.
Chriszz@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
While you’ve made some valid points, keep in mind this isn’t a startup, it’s a massive studio
DarkThoughts@fedia.io 3 weeks ago
A modern engine probably wouldn't hurt.
If it does not have similar levels of moddability then it will absolutely hurt.
mox@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
I think it’s safe to assume they know that and would bear it in mind when choosing or building an engine. Their games are famous for modding, after all.
DarkThoughts@fedia.io 3 weeks ago
That's a years if not decade+ long project though, including major investments of time and money that you could pour into actual games. You can't just stomp a new game engine out of the ground, especially not with how complex video games in of itself have become, and if you want it to be as moddable as their current one.
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
They already built their engine. That’s what Starfield is using.
mox@lemmy.sdf.org 3 weeks ago
That’s a years if not decade+ long project though
Yep.
You can’t just stomp a new game engine out of the ground
I don’t know what you mean by that, but creating new game engines and migrating from one to another have both been done before.
Is either of those tasks fast or cheap? Of course not.
Are they worthwhile? Sometimes.
Are they possible? Absolutely.especially not […] if you want it to be as moddable as their current one.
Well, I can understand why you might assume that if you don’t have a lot of experience in software development, but it’s just not true. Making an engine moddable is mainly about planning for it during the design, and either building good tools for it or publishing the specs so other people can. (And for what it’s worth, while Creation Engine is moddable, it has enormous room for improvement in that area. Actually working with it can be a very frustrating experience.)
BaroqueInMind@lemmy.one 3 weeks ago
Not if they simply use the latest Unreal Engine.
CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I think we’re only ever see a new engine once Todd is no longer part of the company. Because the quote him out of context ‘it just works’
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
Thanks, I needed that laugh.
b000rg@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
I’m replaying Starfield, and on my second playthrough, I’m noticing the depth they put into this game. Sometimes a single dialogue line you said days ago will have an effect on NPC attitudes through an entire side story. I’m not going to argue that it’s not a regurgitation of their lame formula they’ve milked for the past 15+ years, but they do need to reevaluate where their money/dev time goes to.
Jessvj93@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Replaying as well, doing side quests I put off and surprised they actually go interesting places. Just did the one where zero G kept turning off and on at the space station that got taken over.
b000rg@midwest.social 3 weeks ago
Damn, TIL you can come across these locations on accident just exploring. I thought that place was weird to be randomly floating out there with no real good loot. 😂
Jessvj93@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I misread your comment and now seem foolish lol but that is hilarious, I think Bethesda needs some work on their world engine and random events. Saw a mod where people are making custom towns now and man would random encounters within that environment…would take it to the next level.
boaratio@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I like Starfield.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sshhh that isn’t an approved opinion for Internet use
no_comment@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Carmakazi@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The only thing Bethesda is motivated to do, frothing, absolutely chomping at the bit, is figure out a way to successfully monetize modded content.
FilthyHookerSpit@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Yes, will probably make a monthly subscription that walls off ability to download mods.
(Also, it’s “champing” at the bit. Sorry for the correction but it’s a small pet peeve seeing chomping so much now)
Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
We all know that all they are going to do is re-release new versions of their old games on devices we largely don’t care about.
acosmichippo@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
as long as they don’t have space travel between every objective and hundreds of barren procedurally generated planets it will be fine.
catloaf@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
They haven’t learned from Oblivion, Skyrim, or Fallout 4. Probably others.
Or really, they learned they can just keep releasing games on a hacked-up Morrowind engine, and make huge piles of money. So that’s what they’ll keep doing.
neidu2@feddit.nl 3 weeks ago
Yup. ES6 is going to sell like condoms on an STD themed swinger convension no matter how many bugs are going around.
And the saddest part is that too many have learned nothing about AAA titles, and will preorder the game, making the game a massive financial success even before releasing anything of quality.
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
Don’t forget they learned they can charge for mods, too!
BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
They haven’t learned from 3 of their best and most popular games?
NewNewAccount@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
People have such nostalgia boners for Morrowind. Warranted or not, it’s still annoying.
ripcord@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What does that have to do with the comment you replied to?
Also why would it be annoying if people say a good game is a good game and it is warranted?
It’s like people on this thread have some pathological need to complain about SOMETHING.
andros_rex@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The nostalgia boner is that it was a very unique game, and nothing has come out quite like it since. It’s not even like Daggerfall or Arena. For someone looking for that experience, Oblivion and Skyrim were massive disappointments.
Going from a volcano that is spewing flesh mutating disease while riding giant bugs around to Tolkienesque Medieval Fantasy Landscape #3045 gave me whiplash. (The Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine save the package though.) And losing the ability to kill whoever I want? Spears???
Skyrim is better. It mangles what could have been a good story by retconning lore and making Alduin into big evil bad, just as Oblivion was about basically Satan invading the world. Morrowind’s villain may not be right, but his motives are 100% understandable and he has a good point. (In Oblivion: why would you join a cult dedicated to killing everyone for no reason?)
As a Morrowboomer, I’m willing to accept the series changed, but there just hasn’t been something to replace what I hoped for ES4. They don’t make games with that vibe anymore. The closest thing I’ve had to scratching that itch would be Planescape Torment, Pathologic, or Zeno Clash.
no_comment@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
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