Dr.Retarded
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I don't remember who posted it originally, maybe Tuco but there was an article that talked about during the initial development planetary environments were much harsher, and if you didn't have the right suit for the job, you couldn't explore. Also the whole fuel consumption was a big deal and it would have promoted Outpost building to harvest the necessary resources to keep exploring further out, much more of a survival type game.I would argue thats the problem. they didn't. They removed the open world simulation. Skyrim is often called out for being dumbed down rpg/factions, etc from each previous incarnation. but its the most flushed out open world simulation. you feel like you could LIVE in skyrim more then any other. FO4 same thing. meh story, etc, but greatly flushed out world, and survival/settlement building.
they cut out the open world sim here, and replaced it with fast travel. the core appeal of Bethesda games, that open world sim, is missing. A campaign map would solve that problem. Starsector handles the "space is big and empty", with proc gen, colonies, exploration, and combat, etc perfectly. "scan and explore ruins" in starsector, could directly tie into how landing and exploring is done here on planets. its really sad to see a game with a system that could be directly cut/paste into this to solve its missing core gameplay. while this thing just fails miserably.
hell just saw a reddit post about powering down engines to go dark, and fuel use. Its almost like at some point, this really did have a starsector mode, and it was scrapped, with all of the star travel removed. leaving half a game.
That would have been awesome, but somewhere along the way the devs said dumb it down, and whether that came from the team itself, or from the execs, who knows. I'm in full agreement that there's definitely a lot of lost potential with the IP. Had some of those different systems been in place, really would have added to the challenge and fun. Would have given a reason to having different suits and building your little Outpost on different planets, especially if story related content was gated behind your ability to travel to and survive those harsh environments.
Is there a chance with the expansion that they can turn everything around with the addition of the modding community, maybe. Is it still a fun game to some absolutely, but I can definitely see why it's not everybody's cup of tea. Me personally I'm so slowly working through my second playthrough and it's still fun despite its flaws. Would have been more amazing indeed, but I've definitely gotten my money's worth. It's definitely a game I'll come back and revisit in the future if things start really shaping up, and I can't say that for a lot of their other stuff. I don't know it's just a fun game to me.
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