Why Starfield's Procedural Generation Won't Suck

[Music] when the first 15 minutes of Starfield gameplay premiered at the Bethesda Showcase in 2022 I was quite skeptical of it sure the gameplay was a bit rough around the edges Gunplay looked lackluster and even the planet that was showcased at the time seemed awfully Barren however I was more questioning the level of ambition but tesda was describing during its reveal one thousand planets all seemingly explorable inch by inch I constantly wondered how could this even be possible the staple Mark of Bethesda games are the level of detail their rules have not only in the environments but the interactions with those environments and the people of those environments as well the exploration nature of Bethesda games are what make them so damn memorable and products that you can practically play for hundreds of hours without them ever feeling repetitive Starfield being a game with over seemingly 1 000 planets that raised some very valid questions how can it be so deep while being so wide just two weeks ago from today we had the Starfield direct I watched it live in fact because as much as I was doubting the ambition of Bethesda Maryland I still wanted to see more about this project and I am glad I did because this is the only Showcase of an upcoming video game that has left me this impressed to this degree seriously it was very well done and I can admit now that I am indeed excited for Starfield but in my opinion the biggest piece of information we acquired from this showcase the information that suits my nerves a little was the explanation on how the procedural generation system is going to work when you hear of procedural generation you probably think of Minecraft or no man's Sky A system that randomly generates terrain and environment around you according to set parameters and while this system is acceptable it does throw away a great extent of handcrafted detail in exchange for scale for example Nomad sky does have trillions of planets but how many times do you have to visit planets before everything just starts to blend in and look the same see this is possibly the largest problem had with no man's sky is that after a few hours of Exploration everything just became the same it became boring and dull and no disrespect but no matter how much the game has improved that perception still hasn't really modified for me this is why when Starfield was announced with 1 000 planets it was a little disheartening to me but after learning more about it thanks to the recent showcase I do share a great extent more optimism on the way the system will work look Bethesda knows that you won't be able to visit all 1000 planets in your playthrough sure the very few minority who are extremely dedicated May achieve that but the vast majority of players will put in 60 to 100 hours and call it a day for their first playthrough now how many planets would you probably visit in those hours well even if you focus highly on exploration you probably won't top over 100 to 150. this is why Bethesda uses an interesting concept of procedurally generating environment with hand-crafted points of interest so basically every planet does have its own parameters for example in this screenshot we can identify the type of surface the gravity the atmosphere the fauna flora and even water and these parameters will apply to everyone's game as you land a one kilometer tile will be generated around your area set to the seed everyone will share so everyone's planets will look the same but what won't look the same are the points of interest inside of those planets this short little clip that was presented during the direct confused a vast amount of people Everyone wondered well the points of interest look different on that part of the planet every time I visit it and the answer to that is no what they were trying to portray was how everyone's game's points of interest will be different but tesda has roughly created over probably at least a few few hundred different and unique points of interest so every time you land on a new planet the game will analyze what type of Planet it is if it is Barren if it has water if it is already booming with civilization if it has alien life etc etc and then according to those set parameters the system will pull one or two points of interest out of the large library and place them randomly onto the map for you to see this is a great system because it enables Bethesda to show the player what they want you to see while also retaining that sense of scale and vastness now it was a relief to hear about the way this system would work and it definitely did get rid of a large worry of mine but there was another question that introduced itself after this and it was what if it starts to feel too artificial what if every time you land on a planet the game overwhelms you with its points of interest there's always dozens of bases around you and too much stuff enough to see wouldn't that remove the feeling of Discovery and that needed emptiness of a planet especially ones in distant solar systems it was very some to me as well that it may be too populated but during a recent interview with Todd he also clarified this question you know I think it is it is a moment when you land on some of these Barren planets and again we will generate certain things for you to find on them but if you look at a planet you see the resources it has things you want there is I love the Buzz Aldrin quote the magnificent desolation I think there's a certain Beauty to landing on those and feeling I'm one of the only people or the only person to ever visit this planet um so I it's a difficult design thing if you add too many things if it's generating too many abandoned bases or Towers or things to find it starts feeling too gamey in some of those locations so I think we've dialed that in um pretty well so yes if you land on a Barren isolated Moon far away from civilization you probably won't see human bases in the area and the game would rather prioritize points of interest created by Nature itself however the system is also not Flawless whatsoever it has some giant limitations in fact this is the exact reason why Rovers and Atmospheric flights are not present in the game because the system cannot generate new tiles that contain such detail and handcrafted content at such high speeds especially if you're on a spaceship going hundreds of knots above the planet's surface but the system in the end allows for more detail than ever especially comparing it to other space games where exploration becomes dull only after a few hours furthermore I saw more skepticism on how the areas which you will land in work Billet only be explorable inside of that one kilometer tile the game generates although the game generates tiles as you walk now this is something that has only been vaguely clarified by Todd and that was in an interview over a year ago hear this well the first one we did it was how are we gonna render a planet like pull it off for the player like can we or do we have to sort of do it where you can't land on all of them or you're Landing in a very controlled small world space that we you know kind of craft and you would have a very limited set of those if you go back to tone like well that's probably the wrong tone and how can we say yes like I want to land on that ice ball so it started we started the game so I do believe planets will be kind of endless as you walk towards the edge of one title the game vote generates a new tile in the background which once again gives further reasoning why land vehicles and Atmospheric flights on the game are not present because it would overload the system even more evidence of this actually comes out of a Reddit post made by bet stranger as you can see in the screenshot taken from the direct the player is 1 200 meters away from the ship meaning 1.2 kilometers which is greater than the one kilometer tile Todd said so it is evident that no you will not be limited to explore around your ship this is truly all great but even after all of this very positive information I still have one small worry about the system and that involves how many handcrafted points of interest how has Bethesda really created now as I said before that the number of points of interest will range in probably at least a few hundred but that is my own speculation Bethesda has actually not said anything about the number of points of interest they have made and if this number Falls Too Short such as only in the few dozens that that is a giant problem because if the same points of interest begin to repeat only after visiting a dozen or so planets that can be quite immersion breaking for example imagine if you saw the exact same crashed capital ship that you just saw a few hours earlier but on a different planet hopefully Bethesda is smart about this and has created a number where even when some points of interest begin to repeat and show up again the player won't even notice it because it's been so long since they saw that exact same point of Interest so anything above 300 would be a good amount furthermore modders can take Advan advantage of the system and pump out their own points of interest for the player to see adding to the pool of the number other than that the information that we've gotten during the direct and after does earn the procedural generation system a sense of optimism and I genuinely do think that this procedural system will work extraordinarily well after looking at this design behind it can this video come back to haunt me of course but Starfield has genuinely reignited that spark of excitement for video games that have not felt ever since forever it's the dream game I could ask for a space title that takes itself seriously in its vastness detail and exploration but is also layered with RPG mechanics that truly allow you to be immersed in its universe but again it is 2023 and while I am excited I will not pre-order and will wait for the reviews to roll in before I press that buy button in my own review you can expect only a few days after launch if it does end up being a disaster but if it doesn't probably after a few months because to be frank it will take quite a long time to fully enjoy and taking such an experience that Starfield is being made out [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music]

Channel: TimePlayer

Views: 138,036

Keywords: starfield, starfield gameplay, starfield 2023, starfield direct, will starfield suck, is starfield going to be good, starfield review, starfield gameplay hands on, starfield impressions, starfield 2023 gameplay, starfield 2022 vs 2023, starfield No Man's Sky, Starfield vs Elite Dangerous, Starfield vs Star Citizen, Starfield is not going to be good, Will starfield flop, starfield will be amazing, starfield procedural generation, starfield 2023 review, starfield release date

Id: GM0tpk5II4s

Length: 11min 40sec (700 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 01 2023