Over the weekend, Bethesda finally showed off some Starfield gameplay. Todd Howard sought to sell the game’s emphasis on planet exploration as a gameplay component. There are more than 1,000 completely explorable worlds, which is great, but there is one catch.
In order to provide an authentic experience, players cannot simply travel from space to their landing site. You choose a landing spot from orbit, and the game then changes to that destination without actually flying there.
As a result, planetary navigation resembles rapid travel. The cosmos of Starfield is not a smooth one. Space and the surface of a planet, according to Howard, are two distinct “realities.”
“‘Can you fly the ship straight down to the planet?’ some have questioned. No, not at all “In an interview with IGN, Bethesda’s CEO said (below).”We determined early on in the project that reality on the ground is one thing, while the reality in space is another.”
As a result, what you see when you gaze up at the sky from a planet does not exist in your present reality. Similarly, viewing a planet from orbit (if orbital travel is conceivable) is an illusion – a visual depiction of that planet that does not exist until you warp down to this alternate reality.
Transitioning from space to planetside in a realistic manner, according to Howard, is “simply not that vital to the gamer” to justify the additional engineering work.
What did the developers inquire about? Internal testers? What are focus groups? Is it just a pretext to avoid including it in the game?
This element of dual-reality also implies that there is no atmospheric flying. Your ship is worthless on the surface of a planet until you desire to return to space – it’s simply set decoration. This is only a logical inference based on Howard’s explanation; he didn’t state it clearly.
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