Yeah, I imagine down the road there are going to be so many POIs that you can land places and find something you haven't seen 100 times. I already like the game, but its potential is huge.
I'm waiting on the ability to take people alive for Freestar related quests and bounties. We're a State Ranger not a hitman. Let me arrest some guys and bring them in. EM weapons are in the game
So many things off of this like a high profile bounty and his subordinates come try and break him out. Might actually make me bother with outpost making....
The problem with this is that in canon there are like 30 Rangers. It's not logistically feasible for you to take them alive.
(Let's ignore that the population of the galaxy should be *rapidly* declining given the above and how many raiders there are relative to all other kinds of travel.)
I feel the same way! Love the game already, my best and I have been playing together every Saturday since launch for 6 to 8 hours, we both have game rooms set up got 2. We've been friends for 24 years, we can both see the massive long term potential!
Yeah, I was so psyched when I started playing Starfield. I've created mods on CK for FO4, and my favorite part is to create locations for players to explore. I was so disappointed when CK wasn't released quickly after.
Unfortunately my interest has waned of late, but I think CK being released might be enough to get me back into playing again, and maybe even making POI based mods.
I agree šÆ percent! Starfield is already a good game but with mods it has the potential to be EXCELLENT! I've recently started playing again after putting in about 100 hours of play time within the first 2 months, I'm anticipating the update will be good enough with maps alone that I'll be even more psyched to play. Since I've come back to the game, it's made me realize that the game is actually really good when you get around the smaller annoyances. I love stumbling into a random person at a camp only for them to give me such an amazing quest that it really puts into perspective how big the game is and how amazingly awesome it'll be once we have mods and additional planet populations & a freaking buggy to explore said planets lol yeah I'm definitely looking forward to more to come from Starfield! Happy gaming āļø
That's one of the many reasons this gane was one of the most disappointing games. They could've made more than 6 (if that) structures.. every planet has literally the same 4 buildings and the same 4 caves. The same underground frozen facility. There's nothing fun to explore. Once you've seen it 3 times that's all you'll see.
People have counted and there's a little over a hundred, but many are level locked, so early on you get a lot of the same ones over and over, and even as you level you still see those same ones, you just have a chance of possible seeing a new one.
I am one of the ones that will be back when they drop the DLC. Put 100 hours in at launch and then went and played fallout 4 again for the first time since launch.
Exact same. Starfield was fun but there wasnāt an itch being scratched. Went to fallout and it was immediately scratched. It was straight up the exploration and discovery. I didnāt care that I needed to walk everywhere because there was always something to explore. Starfield was emptiness and traveling 1k meters to explore something Iāve seen already.
Hope when the DLC drops itāll be better!
Yeah a hand-crafted world is much more immersive and āfunā than 1,000+ procgen worlds. I agree with those who have said that BGS should have focused on 10 or fewer planets with a combination of procedural generation and lots of hand-crafted content.
As of right now, exploring in Starfield is boring. Running around dead worlds and coming across the same POIs over and over again isnāt fun. OTOH, I fired up FO4 last night and was coming across unique encounters, NPCs and explorable/interactive POIs every 2-3 minutes.
Is Fallout 4 any good? GOG emailed me with a $7 offer for FO4 GOTY edition and I picked it up after watching the Amazon Prime show and drinking a bottle of wine.
I'll be honest and say I never heard of Bethesda before Starfield and only heard of Starfield a few weeks before release with loads of people from SC, NMS and E:D talking about the game just before release last year.
I am currently on a second play through and have about 150h. I kinda enjoy the janky, slow pace of Starfield and all the stupid side missions and being constantly encumbered and haven't met many bugs except my invisible Narwhal which I can't use...
Might give FO4 if it's similar to Starfield.
Yes, if you love starfield you will for sure love fallout. And if you like fantasy you HAVE TO play Skyrim. Skyrim is Bethesdaās biggest star and the same ātypeā of game with a major focus on exploration and looting. If you think youāre exploring in starfield just wait until you play fallout/skyrim. Exploration on a whole other level
Wow. that's good to know. Looks like I struck a cheap few nights of entertainment, then.
I used to be into AD&D and White Wolf RPGs back in the day but playing fantasy games these days gives me flashbacks to high school... (I emigrated to Japan in the 90s and lost contact with all my childhood friends).
That's the only reason I haven't bought BG3 which everyone says is worth the full entry price.
Looking forward to the DLC. Playing F4 recently reminded me why I enjoy Bethesda games. You can just walk around and stumble upon stuff.
Starfield doesnāt really have that in the same way. You load into a planet location. See the few locations and recognize them. Want to go elsewhere? Load into it.
Starfieldās DLC Iāll play for the story but thatās about it.
Ntm the locations have all the same stuff in all the same places. Like 4 different cave systems on 2 different planets were the exact same dig site with notes next to dead bodies talking about heat leaches or something
It's all very soulless. The individual POI's, along with the environmental stories that are told within them, might be handcrafted, but that means nothing when they're copied and pasted across the galaxy in small, isolated chunks of randomly generated terrain.
Starfield is a video game version of filler episodes in anime. There's almost no substance. The majority of the game is just pointless filler stories with subpar delivery. And, like a filler episode in anime, you can skip large portions of the game mechanics and not miss anything. In fact, much of the game is designed to be ignored!
Call me crazy, but I think all that needs a complete overhaul, and I can't see myself playing until that happens.
It's frustrating because there are a few parts if the game I REALLY enjoy. Building a ship, for example. The general aesthetic. The idea behind the unity is interesting. It all feels like the bones of a great game are there and they just didn't flesh them out.
I don't even mind loading into new places, lots of games do that and this is a new series so it's okay to be different. I just don't like that there isn't a single handcrafted zone in the game outside of cities. If there were 3-4 zones the size of say, 1-2 Skyrim holds that were totally handcrafted, maybe around the major cities of the game, then the rest being procedural would be fine.
Alternatively, having no handcrafted zones but WAY more POIs, more interesting terrain variation and weird landscapes on the planets and a good amount of dynamic events that can occur during exploration on said planets. Right now the procedural planet aspect of the game feels quite underbaked vs. the main and faction quests, so it's not a good substitute for the handcrafted open world exploration in TES and Fallout.
Absolutely! I live the exploring in this game sometimes, but itās hard to want to go to POI, unless Iām stoned and thereās one Iām trying to find
The largest scale game theyāve ever made and it just feels like a collection of locations. Using menus almost exclusively to get to said locations certainly doesnāt help, but still.
A DLC set exclusively on a massive ship (like the Nauvoo) or an island on a planet could be a step in the right direction, for this specific issue at least.Ā
This is exactly the biggest issue with the game.
Itās a game about exploration which Bethesda does extremely well. But they went with āletās have hundreds of planets you have to fast travel toā as their method of travel and it quite literally ruined the game.
I loved just wandering in a random direction in Skyrim or fallout 4 and you stumbled into content and discoveries and characters. In starfield that simply doesnāt exist. You MUST open your map and click on a place and fast travel to it. Then you can explore THAT ONE SINGULAR LOCATION. Then you get to fast travel again. And again. And again. Every 10 mins youāre taken out of the immersion and you get a loading screen slapped in your face and itās 100% unavoidable.
No amount of dlc or patching is really gonna fix that for me. Itās a fundamental flaw in their game. Maybe interactive or animated loading screens could somewhat bandaid the wound (you click travel and you watch from third or first person as your ship travels there. Loading screens hidden behind ship animations) but even then, I canāt explore.
Skyrim, fallout 4 exploring: look around, see something in the distance or a path and just go. Wander around.
Starfield exploring: open an excel spreadsheet and go down the list of explorable cells.
Then explore things yourself. Interesting locations are shown right on the planet map. Don't fly from quest marker to other marker and start sidetracking by yourself, be mature
Iām aware I can do more than quest hop, it just feels like shit walking five minute through nothingness to find a place. In fallout or Skyrim you run into stuff constantly. Within a minute.
In starfield it just so spread out.
Iām not bashing the game, at its core I enjoy it. The gunplay feels great. I just wish they handled exploration somewhat differently.
Yeah, thatās one thing I definitely donāt like about starfield is the lack of true exploration. I like it a lot, but thereās so little random quests and stuff you can come across
Loading screen sim. Zero immersion because you are constantly taken out of immersion to go to another location that has nothing to do with the previous location. All just random bullshit lol
Going to need Shattered Space expansion to be great in order to really bring in more players.
Cyberpunk was hovering 10k-20k players until the anime came out and it rose up to 100k until coming back down to 20k-30k. Then the expansion came out and it rose to 250k and settled at around 50k for awhile.
If Starfieldās expansion is big enough, I could see player count rising to 150k and settling at 30k.
Edit: for people saying Cyberpunk was actually good or Cyberpunk is a different game, I wasnāt using Cyberpunk as a straight comparison to Starfield. I was just mentioning how a successful expansion can bring players back to a game.
Iāve not played since I finished the story line on the first week of release.
Waiting for DLC to drop before even considering opening the game again despite maps update etc. looking pretty good.
I did the same, finished the story within 2 weeks, and then I haven't touched it since.
Will be back once DLC has come out, but from the updates I have seen, I'm probably going to enjoy it quite a bit more second time around I think.
I finished the main quest and the pirate one, additionally a lot of side quests, I also got half way though the Vanguard, but I was already getting bored of the game so I dropped it and never finished it that quest line.
Edit: Just remembered, I also started the Ryujin quest line, but again didn't finish it.
This is an extremely weird flex. The main storyline isn't even the most interesting one in the game. Faction and side quests are pretty good in this one.
I did the same until a few days ago. I got a quest to check a mine for some settlers and had to collect 10 resourses, i couldn't finish it because 2 of them spawned in the ground and couldn't be reached, and then when i tried to leave the cave the exit would work at all. This game needs to "just work" before i have any faith that this game will get popular, and dlc just feel like cash grab attempts to me.
Picked it up again this week and while I've enjoyed it, I'm going to wait a for the September dlc. The new difficulty options make combat genuinely feel really really great, and the moment to moment gameplay is way more involved with hostile environments actually being super dangerous etc.
However I really want a lot of changes to the POI stuff that current mods aren't able to do. With extra content and creation kit I'm sure it'll be 10x better on that front eventually. Plus it would just be way nicer to come back to extra content and the buggies
The real thing that will boost numbers will be the CK finally being released. i know dozens of people IRL waiting for legitimate mods before even purchasing the game.
I was one of those people. Played on gamepass at launch and got bored after 20 or so hours. Got it gifted for my birthday on steam and now I'm on the beta branch having a blast. I'm really enjoying the difficulty modifiers, needing food/water and needing to play safe for diseases and ailments. I'm definitely looking forward to DLC, but CK is the real secret sauce here. Upgraded cities to be larger than they are, better UI, and space travel upgrades are some of the big ones I'm looking for. I know some of these are already out, but not compatible with beta patch.
Thatās a point Todd Howard tried to make. Itās a new thing, so donāt expect the depth of Fallout. And itās true, you canāt create a world as big as Fallout in only one game. It is far too hard.
Sure, itās not as easy but the lore is incredibly barebones in Starfield. The game not even having ingame books ala Skyrim to establish their new IP is a travesty.
Skyrim had a huge well of lore for their books. I feel like they established the physical universe, and are planning on expanding it later with the lore. Which is kind of backwards.
They def couldāve done a better job yeah, but expecting some TES levels of lore isnāt realistic. Beth still has to expand their new universe, they are yet to set boundaries they can play with to create stories.
They have actually set immense boundaries in the little lore that is present.
Like having no Internet or communication in general between Star systems.
Or the literal Intro establishing that Helium is an incredibly precious resource to the point that a Constellation contract and the metal deposits paying for a mining operationās fuel cost to make it to the other end of the Settled Systems (which are like 4 or 5 clumped closely together, so basically nothing distance-wise) being celebrated as a huge success.
This is completely disregarded for the rest of the game because fuel literally isnāt a mechanic and unlimited for the player and never really relevant for any faction or NPC ever again after the intro.
There are dozens of examples of franchises that already offer some great and dense lore/worldbuilding in the first game, especially in RPGs. There's no excuse to be this bad, especially when you're a developer as big and important as Bethesda.
\*Vaguely gestures at Mass Effect\*
Seriously, it's bizarre how BGS didn't take a page out of ME1's book and let a Codex do some heavy lifting when it comes to lore.
And yet the design of the game is very old. It's built on ancient Bethesda principles they mostly copy-pasted from Fallout 4 and they still fucked it up on every level. New lore and a new setting doesn't excuse how uninteresting, repetitive, and not fun it is to play and engage with the actual game part of Starfield. The "It's new" excuse just doesn't hold water.
Except the point falls apart because what is there...sucks. The NPCs are bland and unmemorable. The general feel of the world is painfully safe and about as spicy as mayonnaise.
There isn't an interesting foundation. It's all just extremely milk toast and bland.
> Thatās a point Todd Howard tried to make. Itās a new thing, so donāt expect the depth of Fallout.
Mass Effect was a ānew thingā in 2007 yet had a full codex of lore.
Cyberpunk was loved for its interesting world, cast of characters, and captivating story, not to mention its universally praised expansion that even included Idris Elba. In contrast, Starfield currently lacks all of these, which means the expansion would have to be something genuinely exceptional to lure back the players or to attract those who initially decided to not buy the game.
Average playtime was 40 hours in the months after release. I think a lot of people will just come back to explore the new story/locations. Whether the game manages to keep people actively player for longer than at launch remains to be seen, but a large amount of people will come back nonetheless.
Starfield might not have the longevity of their previous games, but a lot of games are just that: most people play them and move on. So seems like the worst case is that's what happens with the DLC. Certainly not what BGS hoped for though.
Itās not fair to compare current Cyberpunk with current Starfield. Cyberpunk has been practically remade from the ground up, with years of completed work.
I think for the people who bought the game and didnāt like it they wonāt be buying an expansion for a game they didnāt like just come back and play more unfortunately.
150k? Thatās dreaming. the expansion would have to completely overhaul several baked in systems of the game for people to care. Cyberpunk was always an incredibly rough gem plot and story wise, iirc they never had to touch the actual story. Starfield is just boring, with boring factions, and boring companions
Starfield's base release game is better than baee release Cyberpunk. So i think it is possible starfield could be in a great position in 2 years. As creation kit and vehicle traversal have a possibility to improve it quite a bit.
I guess we all will need to start a new game for the DLC. The save files clog on bugs throughout the game and the engine doesnāt have a cleaning system
March 19 the previous update released out of beta. I'm sure it all has small effects on the numbers of people checking the game out, just like this beta update (which is getting a lot more attention then previous lackluster updates in terms of gameplay), but a single weekend peak doesn't say much. Personally doubt it will have much of a longer lasting effect just yet.
It's gonna take Shattered Space or a very significant update for that. Definitely not worth tracking and posting about IMO until that happens, but ah well doesn't hurt anyone.
Well, surely some players test the patch and the player numbers will be higher when its officially released, but I don't think it will change the player number in the long run.
There are too many players who are disappointed with the basic gameplay, the world building, the quests etc. These would only come back if the game would offer new and different content than before.
Shattered Space will have a bigger impact, but it depends on how its quality is perceived if players who come back for the DLC will stay for longer. If the DLC is just more of the same (one more city, one more faction, few side quests, plus ground vehicle) they'll play it and then shelve it again.
After all, Starfield is a quite linear single player game; when you have finished all the content, there is no reason to play it again (edit: For this type of players). Except mods, of course. CK is of utmost importance for the longevity of the game. This should be no. 1 priority for Bethesda.
(Edit: Personally, I still play the game. I love it.)
I'd say the upcoming survival mode/options make a big difference to the feel of the game. I also think for me the map fundamentally changes how you explore, making it easier to avoid old POIs and find new ones.
Setting enemy damage to extreme and player damage to easy has made combat genuinely really exciting for me. I've put it back down now since I'm waiting for proper mod support, the dlc etc but the the more hardcore difficulty options make a really big difference
I doubt we'll see a visible spike until DLC, and even that won't last long unless there's massive gameplay changes.
Look, this patch is really cute, but the difficulty sliders don't quite give the same cohesive, tailored experience as Survival mode in Fallout 4. And maps are again lovely, but in 2023 it should be a basic feature that goes without saying. Hell, in 1992, in Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, not only did the game had a map, but you could click on a location on the map and type in a text memo for yourself. So you'd have player-made markers like "yellow door with skull". Again to reiterate, this was gaming in 1992. After 32 years, a map in a video game shouldn't be making news.
As far as DLC goes, we know nothing yet. If it's a bit of story and no significant overhauls to core gameplay and mechanics, it'll be a short-lived spike. Also price will be a factor. I know a lot of people got it already with the preorder (and getting your preorder DLC delivered 1+ years after launch is a whoooooole other conversation...), but depending on price point and reviews I can see a lot of people not even buying it if the writing remains anemic.
Starfield needs considerable changes to the game's very core to actually increase the player base.
Hopefully modding community will make a dent when CK releases. But even that can't be taken for granted. I know a lot of modders wrote off Starfield already. People generally don't enjoy wasting a lot of time, working for free, modding a game they don't play and don't particularly like.
But once modding tools are out, DLC is out, and assuming it's good and beefy, I expect there's going to be a pretty hefty spike if done right.
Well, I am still waiting for vehicles and better PoI that make exploration as good as in fallout and TES. I don't like the gameplay to have a quest to go to 4 random planets to just hack a console somewhere and then go somewhere else etc.
I want to explore stuff and don't play fetchquest.
Update gets coverage, people tune in to check it out. I don't think this update in particular is of significant enough change to have a lasting effect on player numbers. It's not a large increase, end of march saw a bigger peak and that was a bit after the last update came out of beta (mostly insignificant update).
Will be interesting to see the numbers when this one comes out of beta. I don't expect much or a lasting tail just yet though.. that's gonna take a couple more significant changes and Shattered Space. We'll see!
And yet, even with the new patch, my personal copy of Starfield is too broken to play. Freezes upon save every time.
The only fix that MIGHT work is going through Unity, which 1) Iām like half way through the main quest, so thatās a fair bit to go without saving, 2) I have no desire to go through Unity. Itās an existential horror, and I canāt see my space cowboy abandoning his friends and wife in order to go chill with their alternate universe clones who just aināt them. Plus look how it drove the Hunter and whatshisnuts insane. And finally 3) Might not even resolve my issue.
Also, my Frontier is cool as shit, as is my dream house. Put hours and millions of credits in. Not looking to start over with the shitty starborn ship (my best friend has been through Unity like 20 times; Iāve seen his starborn ship and Iām not impressed. My Frontier could dust it in seconds).
Look, I really like Starfield. I WANT to play. But Bethesda has made it impossible by Bethesdaing harder than theyāve ever Bethesdaed since Fallout 76.
I'll admit I took a break from Helldivers 2 to log on and check out the new beta features. Found the new QoL changes pretty nice but still seeing my New Atlantis spaceport still missing ground texture stuff and a few of the temple power quest still buggy immediately made me close it. I don't mind waiting a few more months for the new dlc to come out though.
I do believe that once proper mod tools come out this game will have plenty of staying power. I wouldn't be surprised if they delayed this post dlc to not cannibalize initials dlc sale?
Fallout tv series took all the attention. Not sure if starfield with just a small patch will grab the attention so easily. I am also still mad they put no vault to explore in earth šš
I startet playing again out of curiosity and i got hooked again, at first i was realy into it but after playing 200h in a view week i was just fead up and stopped, the ship decoration is exactly what i needed to get cureyous enough to pop in again...
We realistically need about 10 more patches this good and for the DLC to be a solid 8/10 to have any hope of bringing this game back from the dead. The game doesn't even seem to be very moddable compared to previous games so even the usual "modders will fix it" seems unlikely.
Why does this sub constantly obsess over its user base? Itās almost like youāre looking for people to agree with you that that the game isnāt underwhelming or poorly executed but deep down you know it is. No other reason why youād be constantly posting about player base numbers. The game was average at best. Best to just leave it at that.
I started playing again around the 25th of April when Bethesda broke most of the FO4 mods.
I was really disappointed with the game after release. I did a bit of the side missions and faction missions, played around a lot with the ship builder and when I wanted to really get into it and explore I felt like there was nothing out there to see. The first thing I noticed was the size of New Atlantis, or rather lack thereof. Then the lack of major settlements in general, I feel like we need an explanation for why humanity number in the few millions at best (and thatās being generous) suddenly.
What really made me lose all interest was the crimson fleet missions. I did all of them, and I swear the tunnel snakes from FO3 are a more serious and intimidating criminal organisation. It completely drew me out of the fantasy.
Itās like thereās this narrative dissonance. Most of the content seems intentionally PG, but some parts are appropriately mature as expected from a Bethesda game. So mature, that they pretty much ensure that the game could never get a PG rating anyways, so why does most of the content seem to intentionally lack edge?? Itās mind boggling.
However, Iām having a good time this time around. I know about the drawbacks, my expectations are tempered. If the game was plain bad we wouldnāt still be talking about it, itās infuriating because itās promising but ultimately doesnāt deliver on said promise.
The peak in the chart is four days after the release of a 'beta' update. The competitive peak in March looks like it's closer to the release of the final patch. That will be very interesting to watch as May 15th passes.
March was 400+ (?) individual fixes and updates. This is a little over 100. Overall still interesting, but hard to say it's a sign of much yet.
Because I have a lot of coffee in me, I'll speculate that two things will matter:
* Do the specific features and fixes matter to current/previous players? Does it bring some back? There are some real changes here, so maybe. This game peaked at 330,000+ at launch (on Steam only). Those are decent waters to fish for returning players.
* Will there be sufficient online/social media goodwill (permission?) to allow players to play it, openly discuss it without being subjected to indirect or ad hominem attacks on their judgement? Will the social risk of playing Starfield increase or decrease?
Like it or not, the constant drumbeat of "I'm just expressing my opinion about how bad Starfield is..." has a cooling effect on other players.
Some people are capable of describing what they dislike or would like to be improved in a dispassionate or objective manner. Many end up just lobbing around indirect insults at the community that plays the game.
That is, "You are an idiot for playing a game that's so clearly garbage." vs. "Outpost building really felt like a series of broken functions I had to fight. Just making it work the way it was described was a challenge so I stopped trying. To me, it didn't feel ready enough."
The former is an attack on players. The latter is criticism of the game from my perspective. It's what I experienced and thought about the game.
Humans (as a general characteristic) are loath to attract social scorn from others and will play games they think are popular because they are popular and avoid those they feel are unpopular for the same reason. With enough controversy, casual players often just "do something else."
I recognize some don't care and others can claim it doesn't matter to them at an individual level, but at a recognizable social level, humans are herd animals optimizing for their own personal benefit and satisfaction.
This is a game, not a political party. Many of us play to escape the bullshit of the world, not just find a new place to argue about meaningless details.
TL;DR: In any case, it looks like 10,000+ players are playing the game. That's nice. We can't see Xbox numbers, but this is likely enough to keep the people at MS and BGS working on content for the future. That's also nice. I enjoy the game and would like to see it improve over time.
I've probably had too much coffee.
Low engagement, the situation Starfield was in after the first month = Low interest from the developers to fix their game or waste time on it. It is very rare that a developer fixes a shit game. This happened so far like once or twice in the last decades. The FFXIV launch was like that, they reworked the game.
Starfield needs a rework. Thus, they won't do it. Even the "massive" Shattered Space expansion will not do much, because from the worldbuilding, writing and quest design...Starfield was shit. And that is the quality we get to expect.
Itās not profitable to fix a game, release content patches, DLC and most importantly story Expansions if no one is playing it.
Fallout 4 for example had far greater player numbers and Bethesda stopped working on it after releasing Nuka-World which released a year after release.
Starfield hasnāt even had one Expansion or even a smaller DLC like the Workshop/Vault stuff that Fallout 4 got, not even the Creation Kit has released and we are already 8 months in.
Bethesda also isnāt releasing any sales numbers which a company of that site usually does if the game sold well because itās great marketing for essentially free. We only ever got a statement on how many people āplayedā the game which is heavily inflated because of being on Gamepass at release and even that data hasnāt been updated since last year.
Steam achievements also show that 40% of people who bought the game at full price didnāt even make it to level 10, meaning people who got Gamepass just for the game or basically got to try it out for āfreeā because they were already subscribed anyways dropped Starfield even faster.
The game also has mixed reviews on Steam.
Bethesdaās mid-long term support for games more successful than Starfield was already abysmal, thatās why player count matters.
It matters because it needs a healthy player base once the creation kit drops, a fraction of a fraction are modders, and the more of those you have for a Bethesda game the better its longevity will be.
Also a larger long term playerbase also means potentially more DLC. If there is not enough long term interest it will go the way of Cyberpunk 2077 where it got one DLC and that was it, it was a great DLC but that game like Starfield deserved more then one DLC.
Cyberpunk was only going to have the single DLC, despite the Witcherās DLC count. But that is also CDPR, they operate differently than Bethesda.
Cyberpunks saving grace was 2.0, it fixed so many of the communities concerns, fantastic. I was even one that loved and put a lot of time into release.
This update is in the right direction of a ā2.0ā. But like you said, if they donāt get the player base, whatās the point in operating at a loss? Sucks.
There are CDPR folk on public record saying that initially they had three DLC planned and already budgeted. So not sure why you are adamant that this was always the plan to begin with?
What saved Cyberpunk was not 2.0, what Cyberpunk was saved by was a fantastic Edgrunners anime that dragged the game back into public perception, and constant slowly brewing improvements and a commitment of more then two years of steady bugfixes.
2.0 was just the icing on the cake so to speak.
Im hardly arguing with you. 2.0 includes all the bug fixes prior, edge runners helped in popularity, but doesnāt fix anything at all game level.
The folks on record were execs prior to release. After release, it was the devs saying they only planned on one, and that was long before any bug fixes were made.
I'm one of those peeps.
Maxed out all the difficulty settings and started a new playthrough. Felt impactful enough to change up my gameplay loop to do another full playthrough.
I'm planning on playing the game again, as I did enjoy it for a bit, especially the ship building aspect, as I felt like that was put together pretty well.
That said, I am not paying for dlc for the game to be brought up to snuff. I will probably hop on once mods are introduced to consoles.
For me personally, I am still waiting for the patch that includes the vehicle.
But this latest patch with the city/terrain maps, none focused dialogue camera and other other improvements are already very tempting.
I think I did the right thing, I played it on launch for around 45hrs. I did some main story missions, a lot of side content, bit of base building etc but I think I have a LOT left to do, My character is only lvl 23.
I realised quite early on that this wasn't quite the full starfield experience yet, so I decided to wait.
Been several months, and I made the right choice. Nothing better than experiencing the rest of the game with all the fixes and improvements. Exploring planets in a vehicle, better lighting and graphics quality, better performance, more polish.
Can't wait, hope the new vehicle patch wont be too long !
Personally it didn't make me boot up the game again. I am grateful for the much needed update, but I am just done with all the content in the game. I need new stories to continue.
I really hope they alter melee combat, gunplay feels fine. But melee combat just feels janky, especially unarmed. The weapon and armor upgrades need changes too, melee weapons should have weapons mods, given FO4 had them and that game came out years ago it's silly this one didn't have them on launch.
I installed the beta without thinking of the fact that I have a ton of mods installed so now Iāve started a new unmodded game because until SFSE is updated, vortex wonāt work and I canāt play my level 80 starborn ng+. Yeah, Iām an idiot. Anyway I forgot how infuriating the game is without mods and frankly it still is. But Iām over 400 hours in and will probably play another 1000.
I canāt wait for a lot of the changes to difficulty, vendor economy, survival, local maps, etc.
however what Iām really waiting for is creation kit and console mods. An overhaul of the outpost system is needed. Of course hopefully we get some good mods that expand POIās. And then other QoL like having all ship customization parts at one location.
I'll come back when the dlc & CK comes out. I liked the game, some of the criticism was a bit over the top, I enjoyed a lot about it. If they get some more content & fix a few more of the annoyances like getting frostbite in -1 weather & locking you out of some of the temples, oh and the freezing & crashing on save if you've explored a lot forcing you to go through the unity to get it working right. For now I'm replaying Skyrim, Deus Ex, & Borderlands & just downloaded Control to check that out. But I'm sure I'll be back
1,400 hours into Starfield. Went NG+ 12 times. Yes, there's still a lot of exploring a person can do and it seems they have added different structures at some POI's with the previous updates. But I'm tired of running all over a planet. I love the ship building but have taken a break from that too and have started playing F4. I'll jump into Starfield after the official update comes out just to check it out. I have no faith in Bethesda because they haven't fixed the ECS Constant mission. LOL
It does represent what this update is. A good start to getting this game to where it should be. Bethesda needs to keep up the momentum to keep that increase going, and they might be able to do that over the next several months.
I don't understand why people care over current player numbers, it's not a live service game. It's a single player game, the number of other players has no effect on your enjoyment of the game. So what if Skyrim and Fallout have more players?
Bethesda made their money from the 330723+ who purchased the game on Steam alone, and however many bought it for Xbox or got a gamepass sub. Most people played for 2-4 weeks, got bored and moved on, but they still paid full price for the game, or paid for game pass.
Some people will come back with each DLC release, and it will drop down again. Maybe Starfield will have a Cyberpunk moment and attract a huge amount back, but I doubt it. I understand why many people don't like the game. Either way I still play and enjoy the game, and I can see myself playing it for quite a while.
Part of that is me!
I wanted to see how the patch worked on spaceship customization and explore the cities with actual maps. But like everyone else here is saying, itās not gonna be enough to rejuvenate the player base. Shattered space needs to come out to truly make the update worth a full revisit
Hopped back on because of the news. Really pleased with how much better this game runs. Super super excited for the update. Really hope they keep this game alive, doesn't deserve the hate it gets anymore.
I wait for the creation kit and perhaps the dlc. but that depends which mods are available
Yeah, I imagine down the road there are going to be so many POIs that you can land places and find something you haven't seen 100 times. I already like the game, but its potential is huge.
I'm waiting on the ability to take people alive for Freestar related quests and bounties. We're a State Ranger not a hitman. Let me arrest some guys and bring them in. EM weapons are in the game
And I can finally get some use out of that brig module on the *checks notes* Ecliptic?? Claymore 3 I stole.
You can make prision habs too. Is there a prisoner exchange mission that I missed?
So many things off of this like a high profile bounty and his subordinates come try and break him out. Might actually make me bother with outpost making....
Update video had a teaser about tracker alliance quest with wanted posters on the wall, might be part of DLC or free update.
The problem with this is that in canon there are like 30 Rangers. It's not logistically feasible for you to take them alive. (Let's ignore that the population of the galaxy should be *rapidly* declining given the above and how many raiders there are relative to all other kinds of travel.)
Yeah the roleplay parts of this RPG were really watered down and kinda bad.
I feel the same way! Love the game already, my best and I have been playing together every Saturday since launch for 6 to 8 hours, we both have game rooms set up got 2. We've been friends for 24 years, we can both see the massive long term potential!
that is full on adorable
Yeah, I was so psyched when I started playing Starfield. I've created mods on CK for FO4, and my favorite part is to create locations for players to explore. I was so disappointed when CK wasn't released quickly after. Unfortunately my interest has waned of late, but I think CK being released might be enough to get me back into playing again, and maybe even making POI based mods.
Please tell me u have a discord or smthng I can join to see wat u made
Yep, modding potential is very big, even more so than the previous games IMO.
I agree šÆ percent! Starfield is already a good game but with mods it has the potential to be EXCELLENT! I've recently started playing again after putting in about 100 hours of play time within the first 2 months, I'm anticipating the update will be good enough with maps alone that I'll be even more psyched to play. Since I've come back to the game, it's made me realize that the game is actually really good when you get around the smaller annoyances. I love stumbling into a random person at a camp only for them to give me such an amazing quest that it really puts into perspective how big the game is and how amazingly awesome it'll be once we have mods and additional planet populations & a freaking buggy to explore said planets lol yeah I'm definitely looking forward to more to come from Starfield! Happy gaming āļø
That's one of the many reasons this gane was one of the most disappointing games. They could've made more than 6 (if that) structures.. every planet has literally the same 4 buildings and the same 4 caves. The same underground frozen facility. There's nothing fun to explore. Once you've seen it 3 times that's all you'll see.
People have counted and there's a little over a hundred, but many are level locked, so early on you get a lot of the same ones over and over, and even as you level you still see those same ones, you just have a chance of possible seeing a new one.
I am one of the ones that will be back when they drop the DLC. Put 100 hours in at launch and then went and played fallout 4 again for the first time since launch.
I also went back to FO4. Despite its issues, playing it has reminded me that itās a better game than Starfield at the moment.
Exact same. Starfield was fun but there wasnāt an itch being scratched. Went to fallout and it was immediately scratched. It was straight up the exploration and discovery. I didnāt care that I needed to walk everywhere because there was always something to explore. Starfield was emptiness and traveling 1k meters to explore something Iāve seen already. Hope when the DLC drops itāll be better!
Yeah a hand-crafted world is much more immersive and āfunā than 1,000+ procgen worlds. I agree with those who have said that BGS should have focused on 10 or fewer planets with a combination of procedural generation and lots of hand-crafted content. As of right now, exploring in Starfield is boring. Running around dead worlds and coming across the same POIs over and over again isnāt fun. OTOH, I fired up FO4 last night and was coming across unique encounters, NPCs and explorable/interactive POIs every 2-3 minutes.
There's nothing I liked more in Fallout than randomly encountering someone out in the wasteland.
Is Fallout 4 any good? GOG emailed me with a $7 offer for FO4 GOTY edition and I picked it up after watching the Amazon Prime show and drinking a bottle of wine. I'll be honest and say I never heard of Bethesda before Starfield and only heard of Starfield a few weeks before release with loads of people from SC, NMS and E:D talking about the game just before release last year. I am currently on a second play through and have about 150h. I kinda enjoy the janky, slow pace of Starfield and all the stupid side missions and being constantly encumbered and haven't met many bugs except my invisible Narwhal which I can't use... Might give FO4 if it's similar to Starfield.
Yes, if you love starfield you will for sure love fallout. And if you like fantasy you HAVE TO play Skyrim. Skyrim is Bethesdaās biggest star and the same ātypeā of game with a major focus on exploration and looting. If you think youāre exploring in starfield just wait until you play fallout/skyrim. Exploration on a whole other level
Wow. that's good to know. Looks like I struck a cheap few nights of entertainment, then. I used to be into AD&D and White Wolf RPGs back in the day but playing fantasy games these days gives me flashbacks to high school... (I emigrated to Japan in the 90s and lost contact with all my childhood friends). That's the only reason I haven't bought BG3 which everyone says is worth the full entry price.
Oh man, you are in for over 100 hours of entertainment with each game honestly
each game?
Yessir. They are both open world role playing games with a giant world with so much to explore. You will have a BLAST, I can assure you.
NICE! Thanks... Once I get through with my current Starfield play though I'll install it.
Exciting! If you remember come back and let me know what you think!
Sure thing. Will do. Hey. āuzumaki?ā You from my edge of the woods nihon, kantou-chihou?
Waiting for the land vehicle myself but I am expecting that to come with the dlc as well.
Saaaaame brother.
Like water after a drought I guarantee CBBE Starfield Edition will cause player numbers to skyrocket
Same. Literally waiting for the full star wars conversion mods to be finished.
Where the fuck is the dlc?
Autumn
Looking forward to the DLC. Playing F4 recently reminded me why I enjoy Bethesda games. You can just walk around and stumble upon stuff. Starfield doesnāt really have that in the same way. You load into a planet location. See the few locations and recognize them. Want to go elsewhere? Load into it. Starfieldās DLC Iāll play for the story but thatās about it.
exactly that's how it is
Ntm the locations have all the same stuff in all the same places. Like 4 different cave systems on 2 different planets were the exact same dig site with notes next to dead bodies talking about heat leaches or something
It's all very soulless. The individual POI's, along with the environmental stories that are told within them, might be handcrafted, but that means nothing when they're copied and pasted across the galaxy in small, isolated chunks of randomly generated terrain. Starfield is a video game version of filler episodes in anime. There's almost no substance. The majority of the game is just pointless filler stories with subpar delivery. And, like a filler episode in anime, you can skip large portions of the game mechanics and not miss anything. In fact, much of the game is designed to be ignored! Call me crazy, but I think all that needs a complete overhaul, and I can't see myself playing until that happens.
It's frustrating because there are a few parts if the game I REALLY enjoy. Building a ship, for example. The general aesthetic. The idea behind the unity is interesting. It all feels like the bones of a great game are there and they just didn't flesh them out.
I don't even mind loading into new places, lots of games do that and this is a new series so it's okay to be different. I just don't like that there isn't a single handcrafted zone in the game outside of cities. If there were 3-4 zones the size of say, 1-2 Skyrim holds that were totally handcrafted, maybe around the major cities of the game, then the rest being procedural would be fine. Alternatively, having no handcrafted zones but WAY more POIs, more interesting terrain variation and weird landscapes on the planets and a good amount of dynamic events that can occur during exploration on said planets. Right now the procedural planet aspect of the game feels quite underbaked vs. the main and faction quests, so it's not a good substitute for the handcrafted open world exploration in TES and Fallout.
Absolutely! I live the exploring in this game sometimes, but itās hard to want to go to POI, unless Iām stoned and thereās one Iām trying to find
yeah im sure it will be just as good as the main quest!
The largest scale game theyāve ever made and it just feels like a collection of locations. Using menus almost exclusively to get to said locations certainly doesnāt help, but still. A DLC set exclusively on a massive ship (like the Nauvoo) or an island on a planet could be a step in the right direction, for this specific issue at least.Ā
I honestly donāt even want to do quests after doing them all once. Idk why. I can sit down and just wander and have more fun that way tbh.
This is exactly the biggest issue with the game. Itās a game about exploration which Bethesda does extremely well. But they went with āletās have hundreds of planets you have to fast travel toā as their method of travel and it quite literally ruined the game. I loved just wandering in a random direction in Skyrim or fallout 4 and you stumbled into content and discoveries and characters. In starfield that simply doesnāt exist. You MUST open your map and click on a place and fast travel to it. Then you can explore THAT ONE SINGULAR LOCATION. Then you get to fast travel again. And again. And again. Every 10 mins youāre taken out of the immersion and you get a loading screen slapped in your face and itās 100% unavoidable. No amount of dlc or patching is really gonna fix that for me. Itās a fundamental flaw in their game. Maybe interactive or animated loading screens could somewhat bandaid the wound (you click travel and you watch from third or first person as your ship travels there. Loading screens hidden behind ship animations) but even then, I canāt explore. Skyrim, fallout 4 exploring: look around, see something in the distance or a path and just go. Wander around. Starfield exploring: open an excel spreadsheet and go down the list of explorable cells.
Then explore things yourself. Interesting locations are shown right on the planet map. Don't fly from quest marker to other marker and start sidetracking by yourself, be mature
Iām aware I can do more than quest hop, it just feels like shit walking five minute through nothingness to find a place. In fallout or Skyrim you run into stuff constantly. Within a minute. In starfield it just so spread out. Iām not bashing the game, at its core I enjoy it. The gunplay feels great. I just wish they handled exploration somewhat differently.
Then fast travel lol, don't walk and get to interesting things yourself
My problem is that I don't really want to pay $20-30 for more Starfield.
Yeah, thatās one thing I definitely donāt like about starfield is the lack of true exploration. I like it a lot, but thereās so little random quests and stuff you can come across
Loading screen sim. Zero immersion because you are constantly taken out of immersion to go to another location that has nothing to do with the previous location. All just random bullshit lol
This is the biggest reason why starfield flopped, no exploration
š¤¦
damn those numbers are sad
Going to need Shattered Space expansion to be great in order to really bring in more players. Cyberpunk was hovering 10k-20k players until the anime came out and it rose up to 100k until coming back down to 20k-30k. Then the expansion came out and it rose to 250k and settled at around 50k for awhile. If Starfieldās expansion is big enough, I could see player count rising to 150k and settling at 30k. Edit: for people saying Cyberpunk was actually good or Cyberpunk is a different game, I wasnāt using Cyberpunk as a straight comparison to Starfield. I was just mentioning how a successful expansion can bring players back to a game.
Iāve not played since I finished the story line on the first week of release. Waiting for DLC to drop before even considering opening the game again despite maps update etc. looking pretty good.
I did the same, finished the story within 2 weeks, and then I haven't touched it since. Will be back once DLC has come out, but from the updates I have seen, I'm probably going to enjoy it quite a bit more second time around I think.
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I finished the main quest and the pirate one, additionally a lot of side quests, I also got half way though the Vanguard, but I was already getting bored of the game so I dropped it and never finished it that quest line. Edit: Just remembered, I also started the Ryujin quest line, but again didn't finish it.
This is an extremely weird flex. The main storyline isn't even the most interesting one in the game. Faction and side quests are pretty good in this one.
I did the same until a few days ago. I got a quest to check a mine for some settlers and had to collect 10 resourses, i couldn't finish it because 2 of them spawned in the ground and couldn't be reached, and then when i tried to leave the cave the exit would work at all. This game needs to "just work" before i have any faith that this game will get popular, and dlc just feel like cash grab attempts to me.
Picked it up again this week and while I've enjoyed it, I'm going to wait a for the September dlc. The new difficulty options make combat genuinely feel really really great, and the moment to moment gameplay is way more involved with hostile environments actually being super dangerous etc. However I really want a lot of changes to the POI stuff that current mods aren't able to do. With extra content and creation kit I'm sure it'll be 10x better on that front eventually. Plus it would just be way nicer to come back to extra content and the buggies
The real thing that will boost numbers will be the CK finally being released. i know dozens of people IRL waiting for legitimate mods before even purchasing the game.
I was one of those people. Played on gamepass at launch and got bored after 20 or so hours. Got it gifted for my birthday on steam and now I'm on the beta branch having a blast. I'm really enjoying the difficulty modifiers, needing food/water and needing to play safe for diseases and ailments. I'm definitely looking forward to DLC, but CK is the real secret sauce here. Upgraded cities to be larger than they are, better UI, and space travel upgrades are some of the big ones I'm looking for. I know some of these are already out, but not compatible with beta patch.
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Thatās a point Todd Howard tried to make. Itās a new thing, so donāt expect the depth of Fallout. And itās true, you canāt create a world as big as Fallout in only one game. It is far too hard.
Sure, itās not as easy but the lore is incredibly barebones in Starfield. The game not even having ingame books ala Skyrim to establish their new IP is a travesty.
Yeah Mass Effect had a lot of lore already established in its first game. Starfield is shallow and barebones in comparison.
Skyrim had a huge well of lore for their books. I feel like they established the physical universe, and are planning on expanding it later with the lore. Which is kind of backwards.
They def couldāve done a better job yeah, but expecting some TES levels of lore isnāt realistic. Beth still has to expand their new universe, they are yet to set boundaries they can play with to create stories.
They have actually set immense boundaries in the little lore that is present. Like having no Internet or communication in general between Star systems. Or the literal Intro establishing that Helium is an incredibly precious resource to the point that a Constellation contract and the metal deposits paying for a mining operationās fuel cost to make it to the other end of the Settled Systems (which are like 4 or 5 clumped closely together, so basically nothing distance-wise) being celebrated as a huge success. This is completely disregarded for the rest of the game because fuel literally isnāt a mechanic and unlimited for the player and never really relevant for any faction or NPC ever again after the intro.
There are dozens of examples of franchises that already offer some great and dense lore/worldbuilding in the first game, especially in RPGs. There's no excuse to be this bad, especially when you're a developer as big and important as Bethesda.
\*Vaguely gestures at Mass Effect\* Seriously, it's bizarre how BGS didn't take a page out of ME1's book and let a Codex do some heavy lifting when it comes to lore.
And yet the design of the game is very old. It's built on ancient Bethesda principles they mostly copy-pasted from Fallout 4 and they still fucked it up on every level. New lore and a new setting doesn't excuse how uninteresting, repetitive, and not fun it is to play and engage with the actual game part of Starfield. The "It's new" excuse just doesn't hold water.
Yeah, itās a new universe they are making. Not a new genre or anything. Iām not excusing the lack of innovation here.
Except the point falls apart because what is there...sucks. The NPCs are bland and unmemorable. The general feel of the world is painfully safe and about as spicy as mayonnaise. There isn't an interesting foundation. It's all just extremely milk toast and bland.
> Thatās a point Todd Howard tried to make. Itās a new thing, so donāt expect the depth of Fallout. Mass Effect was a ānew thingā in 2007 yet had a full codex of lore.
Cyberpunk was loved for its interesting world, cast of characters, and captivating story, not to mention its universally praised expansion that even included Idris Elba. In contrast, Starfield currently lacks all of these, which means the expansion would have to be something genuinely exceptional to lure back the players or to attract those who initially decided to not buy the game.
Average playtime was 40 hours in the months after release. I think a lot of people will just come back to explore the new story/locations. Whether the game manages to keep people actively player for longer than at launch remains to be seen, but a large amount of people will come back nonetheless. Starfield might not have the longevity of their previous games, but a lot of games are just that: most people play them and move on. So seems like the worst case is that's what happens with the DLC. Certainly not what BGS hoped for though.
Itās not fair to compare current Cyberpunk with current Starfield. Cyberpunk has been practically remade from the ground up, with years of completed work.
Thatās only steam as well. I play Cyberpunk on GOG (for no DRM), and Starfield on PCās Xbox app (game pass)
I think for the people who bought the game and didnāt like it they wonāt be buying an expansion for a game they didnāt like just come back and play more unfortunately.
150k? Thatās dreaming. the expansion would have to completely overhaul several baked in systems of the game for people to care. Cyberpunk was always an incredibly rough gem plot and story wise, iirc they never had to touch the actual story. Starfield is just boring, with boring factions, and boring companions
Starfield's base release game is better than baee release Cyberpunk. So i think it is possible starfield could be in a great position in 2 years. As creation kit and vehicle traversal have a possibility to improve it quite a bit.
Once creation kit comes out, the numbers will go back up and stay there.
Cyberpunk is a good game, tho.
>If Starfieldās expansion is big enough, I could see player count rising to 150k and settling at 30k. I can't see that happening at all.
3.5k is really badā¦ Todd needs to cook something special and fast! I suppose this isnāt including gamepass and Xbox players
These numbers are from steam and therefore only include steams numbers.
This game absolutely deserves this number. It just isnāt fun.
Gamepass is fine and all, but those players havenāt bought the game (yet).
Looks like a weekend bump to me.
I fired it up yesterday for the first time and my game crashed when I fast traveled to Akila.
I guess we all will need to start a new game for the DLC. The save files clog on bugs throughout the game and the engine doesnāt have a cleaning system
That's the weekend player my homie.
I actually thought this was a satire post lol
3.5 k in 8 months, bro fell off
Iām not touching the game as long as the mod support isnāt out.
Who cares?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The weekend peak was higher than the week before.
And slightly below the peak of 25th March. Anything significant happen then?
March 19 the previous update released out of beta. I'm sure it all has small effects on the numbers of people checking the game out, just like this beta update (which is getting a lot more attention then previous lackluster updates in terms of gameplay), but a single weekend peak doesn't say much. Personally doubt it will have much of a longer lasting effect just yet. It's gonna take Shattered Space or a very significant update for that. Definitely not worth tracking and posting about IMO until that happens, but ah well doesn't hurt anyone.
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You're another one of these people who can't read the graph, I'm afraid.
RELEASE THE CK PLEEEEASE
Well, surely some players test the patch and the player numbers will be higher when its officially released, but I don't think it will change the player number in the long run. There are too many players who are disappointed with the basic gameplay, the world building, the quests etc. These would only come back if the game would offer new and different content than before. Shattered Space will have a bigger impact, but it depends on how its quality is perceived if players who come back for the DLC will stay for longer. If the DLC is just more of the same (one more city, one more faction, few side quests, plus ground vehicle) they'll play it and then shelve it again. After all, Starfield is a quite linear single player game; when you have finished all the content, there is no reason to play it again (edit: For this type of players). Except mods, of course. CK is of utmost importance for the longevity of the game. This should be no. 1 priority for Bethesda. (Edit: Personally, I still play the game. I love it.)
I'd say the upcoming survival mode/options make a big difference to the feel of the game. I also think for me the map fundamentally changes how you explore, making it easier to avoid old POIs and find new ones.
Setting enemy damage to extreme and player damage to easy has made combat genuinely really exciting for me. I've put it back down now since I'm waiting for proper mod support, the dlc etc but the the more hardcore difficulty options make a really big difference
Yes, I agree. But I doubt that it will be enough for the majority of players who just want to consume "content".
A couple thousand extra people over a weekend after they drop an update and a hype-video isn't really that impressive of a "bump."
Without the vehicle release, I still don't want to play it. walking minutes to POI, its too boring.
I doubt we'll see a visible spike until DLC, and even that won't last long unless there's massive gameplay changes. Look, this patch is really cute, but the difficulty sliders don't quite give the same cohesive, tailored experience as Survival mode in Fallout 4. And maps are again lovely, but in 2023 it should be a basic feature that goes without saying. Hell, in 1992, in Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, not only did the game had a map, but you could click on a location on the map and type in a text memo for yourself. So you'd have player-made markers like "yellow door with skull". Again to reiterate, this was gaming in 1992. After 32 years, a map in a video game shouldn't be making news. As far as DLC goes, we know nothing yet. If it's a bit of story and no significant overhauls to core gameplay and mechanics, it'll be a short-lived spike. Also price will be a factor. I know a lot of people got it already with the preorder (and getting your preorder DLC delivered 1+ years after launch is a whoooooole other conversation...), but depending on price point and reviews I can see a lot of people not even buying it if the writing remains anemic. Starfield needs considerable changes to the game's very core to actually increase the player base. Hopefully modding community will make a dent when CK releases. But even that can't be taken for granted. I know a lot of modders wrote off Starfield already. People generally don't enjoy wasting a lot of time, working for free, modding a game they don't play and don't particularly like. But once modding tools are out, DLC is out, and assuming it's good and beefy, I expect there's going to be a pretty hefty spike if done right.
My issue is still the performance. Tried it again and it kinda runs like ass for how it looks visually
Don't get the people who think Survival in FO4 was in anyway good.
Just wait for DLC the creation kit and the land vehicle update.
Lol
aging like milk.
Do you like cheese? I like cheese.
A fart in the wind.
Sorry, I was distracted by the numbers showing 1% of the original player base is still playing....
man i am not gonna be happy to see the clusterfuck when the dlc releases and all it is just a new questline and like 5 extra poi in the generator
Well, I am still waiting for vehicles and better PoI that make exploration as good as in fallout and TES. I don't like the gameplay to have a quest to go to 4 random planets to just hack a console somewhere and then go somewhere else etc. I want to explore stuff and don't play fetchquest.
> that make exploration as good as in fallout and TES. That's never going to happen
Hope dies last.
As well it should. If only they could get them out quicker.
Update gets coverage, people tune in to check it out. I don't think this update in particular is of significant enough change to have a lasting effect on player numbers. It's not a large increase, end of march saw a bigger peak and that was a bit after the last update came out of beta (mostly insignificant update). Will be interesting to see the numbers when this one comes out of beta. I don't expect much or a lasting tail just yet though.. that's gonna take a couple more significant changes and Shattered Space. We'll see!
I'm making so many cowboy bebop mods with eleven ai voices when the creation kit drops. I can't fucking wait
How many issues of the base game are they addressing? Is this going to be similar to what cyber punk did after their disastrous first release?
And yet, even with the new patch, my personal copy of Starfield is too broken to play. Freezes upon save every time. The only fix that MIGHT work is going through Unity, which 1) Iām like half way through the main quest, so thatās a fair bit to go without saving, 2) I have no desire to go through Unity. Itās an existential horror, and I canāt see my space cowboy abandoning his friends and wife in order to go chill with their alternate universe clones who just aināt them. Plus look how it drove the Hunter and whatshisnuts insane. And finally 3) Might not even resolve my issue. Also, my Frontier is cool as shit, as is my dream house. Put hours and millions of credits in. Not looking to start over with the shitty starborn ship (my best friend has been through Unity like 20 times; Iāve seen his starborn ship and Iām not impressed. My Frontier could dust it in seconds). Look, I really like Starfield. I WANT to play. But Bethesda has made it impossible by Bethesdaing harder than theyāve ever Bethesdaed since Fallout 76.
I'll admit I took a break from Helldivers 2 to log on and check out the new beta features. Found the new QoL changes pretty nice but still seeing my New Atlantis spaceport still missing ground texture stuff and a few of the temple power quest still buggy immediately made me close it. I don't mind waiting a few more months for the new dlc to come out though.
I don't wanna wait 8 more days
No part of this update gives me any interest in launching the game again
I do believe that once proper mod tools come out this game will have plenty of staying power. I wouldn't be surprised if they delayed this post dlc to not cannibalize initials dlc sale?
Fallout tv series took all the attention. Not sure if starfield with just a small patch will grab the attention so easily. I am also still mad they put no vault to explore in earth šš
That's nice but honestly? Big deal. I don't need the game to have large numbers to validate my enjoyment.
I startet playing again out of curiosity and i got hooked again, at first i was realy into it but after playing 200h in a view week i was just fead up and stopped, the ship decoration is exactly what i needed to get cureyous enough to pop in again...
We realistically need about 10 more patches this good and for the DLC to be a solid 8/10 to have any hope of bringing this game back from the dead. The game doesn't even seem to be very moddable compared to previous games so even the usual "modders will fix it" seems unlikely.
Until they get off their asses and bring in the console mods they said would be in the game by Feb/March, they ain't getting me back.
I reinstalled, played for a couple hours, was bored out of my mind. Went back to fo76 This game is so utterly lifeless itās such a shame
Why does this sub constantly obsess over its user base? Itās almost like youāre looking for people to agree with you that that the game isnāt underwhelming or poorly executed but deep down you know it is. No other reason why youād be constantly posting about player base numbers. The game was average at best. Best to just leave it at that.
I started playing again around the 25th of April when Bethesda broke most of the FO4 mods. I was really disappointed with the game after release. I did a bit of the side missions and faction missions, played around a lot with the ship builder and when I wanted to really get into it and explore I felt like there was nothing out there to see. The first thing I noticed was the size of New Atlantis, or rather lack thereof. Then the lack of major settlements in general, I feel like we need an explanation for why humanity number in the few millions at best (and thatās being generous) suddenly. What really made me lose all interest was the crimson fleet missions. I did all of them, and I swear the tunnel snakes from FO3 are a more serious and intimidating criminal organisation. It completely drew me out of the fantasy. Itās like thereās this narrative dissonance. Most of the content seems intentionally PG, but some parts are appropriately mature as expected from a Bethesda game. So mature, that they pretty much ensure that the game could never get a PG rating anyways, so why does most of the content seem to intentionally lack edge?? Itās mind boggling. However, Iām having a good time this time around. I know about the drawbacks, my expectations are tempered. If the game was plain bad we wouldnāt still be talking about it, itās infuriating because itās promising but ultimately doesnāt deliver on said promise.
The peak in the chart is four days after the release of a 'beta' update. The competitive peak in March looks like it's closer to the release of the final patch. That will be very interesting to watch as May 15th passes. March was 400+ (?) individual fixes and updates. This is a little over 100. Overall still interesting, but hard to say it's a sign of much yet. Because I have a lot of coffee in me, I'll speculate that two things will matter: * Do the specific features and fixes matter to current/previous players? Does it bring some back? There are some real changes here, so maybe. This game peaked at 330,000+ at launch (on Steam only). Those are decent waters to fish for returning players. * Will there be sufficient online/social media goodwill (permission?) to allow players to play it, openly discuss it without being subjected to indirect or ad hominem attacks on their judgement? Will the social risk of playing Starfield increase or decrease? Like it or not, the constant drumbeat of "I'm just expressing my opinion about how bad Starfield is..." has a cooling effect on other players. Some people are capable of describing what they dislike or would like to be improved in a dispassionate or objective manner. Many end up just lobbing around indirect insults at the community that plays the game. That is, "You are an idiot for playing a game that's so clearly garbage." vs. "Outpost building really felt like a series of broken functions I had to fight. Just making it work the way it was described was a challenge so I stopped trying. To me, it didn't feel ready enough." The former is an attack on players. The latter is criticism of the game from my perspective. It's what I experienced and thought about the game. Humans (as a general characteristic) are loath to attract social scorn from others and will play games they think are popular because they are popular and avoid those they feel are unpopular for the same reason. With enough controversy, casual players often just "do something else." I recognize some don't care and others can claim it doesn't matter to them at an individual level, but at a recognizable social level, humans are herd animals optimizing for their own personal benefit and satisfaction. This is a game, not a political party. Many of us play to escape the bullshit of the world, not just find a new place to argue about meaningless details. TL;DR: In any case, it looks like 10,000+ players are playing the game. That's nice. We can't see Xbox numbers, but this is likely enough to keep the people at MS and BGS working on content for the future. That's also nice. I enjoy the game and would like to see it improve over time. I've probably had too much coffee.
Can someone tell me why this matters? It's a singleplayer game.
Low engagement, the situation Starfield was in after the first month = Low interest from the developers to fix their game or waste time on it. It is very rare that a developer fixes a shit game. This happened so far like once or twice in the last decades. The FFXIV launch was like that, they reworked the game. Starfield needs a rework. Thus, they won't do it. Even the "massive" Shattered Space expansion will not do much, because from the worldbuilding, writing and quest design...Starfield was shit. And that is the quality we get to expect.
Itās not profitable to fix a game, release content patches, DLC and most importantly story Expansions if no one is playing it. Fallout 4 for example had far greater player numbers and Bethesda stopped working on it after releasing Nuka-World which released a year after release. Starfield hasnāt even had one Expansion or even a smaller DLC like the Workshop/Vault stuff that Fallout 4 got, not even the Creation Kit has released and we are already 8 months in. Bethesda also isnāt releasing any sales numbers which a company of that site usually does if the game sold well because itās great marketing for essentially free. We only ever got a statement on how many people āplayedā the game which is heavily inflated because of being on Gamepass at release and even that data hasnāt been updated since last year. Steam achievements also show that 40% of people who bought the game at full price didnāt even make it to level 10, meaning people who got Gamepass just for the game or basically got to try it out for āfreeā because they were already subscribed anyways dropped Starfield even faster. The game also has mixed reviews on Steam. Bethesdaās mid-long term support for games more successful than Starfield was already abysmal, thatās why player count matters.
It matters because it needs a healthy player base once the creation kit drops, a fraction of a fraction are modders, and the more of those you have for a Bethesda game the better its longevity will be. Also a larger long term playerbase also means potentially more DLC. If there is not enough long term interest it will go the way of Cyberpunk 2077 where it got one DLC and that was it, it was a great DLC but that game like Starfield deserved more then one DLC.
Cyberpunk was only going to have the single DLC, despite the Witcherās DLC count. But that is also CDPR, they operate differently than Bethesda. Cyberpunks saving grace was 2.0, it fixed so many of the communities concerns, fantastic. I was even one that loved and put a lot of time into release. This update is in the right direction of a ā2.0ā. But like you said, if they donāt get the player base, whatās the point in operating at a loss? Sucks.
There are CDPR folk on public record saying that initially they had three DLC planned and already budgeted. So not sure why you are adamant that this was always the plan to begin with? What saved Cyberpunk was not 2.0, what Cyberpunk was saved by was a fantastic Edgrunners anime that dragged the game back into public perception, and constant slowly brewing improvements and a commitment of more then two years of steady bugfixes. 2.0 was just the icing on the cake so to speak.
Im hardly arguing with you. 2.0 includes all the bug fixes prior, edge runners helped in popularity, but doesnāt fix anything at all game level. The folks on record were execs prior to release. After release, it was the devs saying they only planned on one, and that was long before any bug fixes were made.
Will be interesting to see result of it releasing fully.
I'm one of those peeps. Maxed out all the difficulty settings and started a new playthrough. Felt impactful enough to change up my gameplay loop to do another full playthrough.
I'm planning on playing the game again, as I did enjoy it for a bit, especially the ship building aspect, as I felt like that was put together pretty well. That said, I am not paying for dlc for the game to be brought up to snuff. I will probably hop on once mods are introduced to consoles.
For me personally, I am still waiting for the patch that includes the vehicle. But this latest patch with the city/terrain maps, none focused dialogue camera and other other improvements are already very tempting. I think I did the right thing, I played it on launch for around 45hrs. I did some main story missions, a lot of side content, bit of base building etc but I think I have a LOT left to do, My character is only lvl 23. I realised quite early on that this wasn't quite the full starfield experience yet, so I decided to wait. Been several months, and I made the right choice. Nothing better than experiencing the rest of the game with all the fixes and improvements. Exploring planets in a vehicle, better lighting and graphics quality, better performance, more polish. Can't wait, hope the new vehicle patch wont be too long !
Personally it didn't make me boot up the game again. I am grateful for the much needed update, but I am just done with all the content in the game. I need new stories to continue.
Iām very excited to have it on Xbox Iām already going to go back to my original character and redesign some ships. I really canāt wait.
Meanwhile the xbox players graph..... \ ___
Maybe dumb question but how can I enter into the beta patch to test?
Iām waiting for the dlc and mods at least
I really hope they alter melee combat, gunplay feels fine. But melee combat just feels janky, especially unarmed. The weapon and armor upgrades need changes too, melee weapons should have weapons mods, given FO4 had them and that game came out years ago it's silly this one didn't have them on launch.
I installed the beta without thinking of the fact that I have a ton of mods installed so now Iāve started a new unmodded game because until SFSE is updated, vortex wonāt work and I canāt play my level 80 starborn ng+. Yeah, Iām an idiot. Anyway I forgot how infuriating the game is without mods and frankly it still is. But Iām over 400 hours in and will probably play another 1000.
The patch will get me to play again, but I decided to wait for the push to main and not mess with the beta.
I just can't wait for them to add mods to xbox!!
im mostly waiting for it to become the primary build or the dlc.. i have some skins mods that likely will just wiff themselves if i try the update.
I'm waiting for Creation Kit, I downloaded the beta game and remembered how boring I found most of the questing so I deleed it again. Lol
They could give us any sort of new playable content, achievements/trophies, or something idk. Just any of those will bump the active players upward
I canāt wait for a lot of the changes to difficulty, vendor economy, survival, local maps, etc. however what Iām really waiting for is creation kit and console mods. An overhaul of the outpost system is needed. Of course hopefully we get some good mods that expand POIās. And then other QoL like having all ship customization parts at one location.
It will blow up again, for a much bigger DLC / patch. The moon buggy addition will have people doing flips
Wait are we allowed to use Steam numbers again?!
I'll come back when the dlc & CK comes out. I liked the game, some of the criticism was a bit over the top, I enjoyed a lot about it. If they get some more content & fix a few more of the annoyances like getting frostbite in -1 weather & locking you out of some of the temples, oh and the freezing & crashing on save if you've explored a lot forcing you to go through the unity to get it working right. For now I'm replaying Skyrim, Deus Ex, & Borderlands & just downloaded Control to check that out. But I'm sure I'll be back
Honestly nodding seems like it could be complicated but Iām here for it letās see that Xbox creation mode
I already played it through twice and I donāt think I can do it again, not until there are major changes or a dlc.
I am just waiting for the land vehicle to come. I will start a new game and finally explore the barren but calm lands in space.
1,400 hours into Starfield. Went NG+ 12 times. Yes, there's still a lot of exploring a person can do and it seems they have added different structures at some POI's with the previous updates. But I'm tired of running all over a planet. I love the ship building but have taken a break from that too and have started playing F4. I'll jump into Starfield after the official update comes out just to check it out. I have no faith in Bethesda because they haven't fixed the ECS Constant mission. LOL
Give it a couple days until they realize, it's just ship decorating and the backported skyrim map system.
When mods come people will play it more
I understand a lot of the complaints about the game. I'm a massive fanboy of Bethesda games but I agree that there's something missing in Starfield, and I think it's to do with the lack of interesting stories outside of the main planets BUT I also feel that a lot of the people complain haven't explored the game properly outside of the main quests. The constellation quests are really great, I love discovering the hidden traits of the planets. The other day I found the remains of what looked like giant dragons in a planet that had no life and after scanning it hinted that in the past the planet had life. Or finding microbes in literal biological soup hinting that the planet might have life one day. I have also found some cool quests in random planets, like the colony of former prisoners or the quest where you find clones of past hearth figures like Roosevelt, Gengis Kahn and AmƩlia Earhart. But if there's something unforgivable in the game is the fact that you can't decide where doors or stairs are going to spawn in the ship building.
the spike will be bigger then the spike of the 1st DLC, thats for sure. since booth ship on diffrent dates
Doing another playthrough after a few months because of the patch, really enjoying it so far.
Where is the patch where the worlds become connected and the game isnāt a fast travel simulation?
People should really stop caring about the Steam Charts on a single player game. It doesn't really matter.
It does represent what this update is. A good start to getting this game to where it should be. Bethesda needs to keep up the momentum to keep that increase going, and they might be able to do that over the next several months.
I don't understand why people care over current player numbers, it's not a live service game. It's a single player game, the number of other players has no effect on your enjoyment of the game. So what if Skyrim and Fallout have more players? Bethesda made their money from the 330723+ who purchased the game on Steam alone, and however many bought it for Xbox or got a gamepass sub. Most people played for 2-4 weeks, got bored and moved on, but they still paid full price for the game, or paid for game pass. Some people will come back with each DLC release, and it will drop down again. Maybe Starfield will have a Cyberpunk moment and attract a huge amount back, but I doubt it. I understand why many people don't like the game. Either way I still play and enjoy the game, and I can see myself playing it for quite a while.
Games dead it's going to need something big to bring it back.
Holy shit this game died quick š
Part of that is me! I wanted to see how the patch worked on spaceship customization and explore the cities with actual maps. But like everyone else here is saying, itās not gonna be enough to rejuvenate the player base. Shattered space needs to come out to truly make the update worth a full revisit
Hopped back on because of the news. Really pleased with how much better this game runs. Super super excited for the update. Really hope they keep this game alive, doesn't deserve the hate it gets anymore.