Hey guys, I'm the Black Witch Hat, welcome back.
Starfield is just two months away, and if it's as good as what we've seen on Starfield, we'll be able to eat in September. There is no doubt that this will be a masterpiece, but what would you think if I told you that Starfield has become bigger again?
Luckily for you, a ton of important details and secrets have been revealed, from brand new leaked screenshots of the game to how in-game galaxy exploration and interstellar travel work. On this basis, we will explore the various puzzles surrounding Starfield. Like what happened on Earth? And whether "Starfield" will have higher intelligent life.
Review the video chapters to optimize your experience. Buckle up and let's get started.
With about two months to go before the global release of Starfield, there will be a large number of leaks, fake leaks, bizarre rumors, and so on. I don't think it's time to hide, but be prepared because spoilers will definitely come out at some point.
Recently we got the first leaked screenshot of the game, and according to other creators, it's part of a larger gameplay video. I don't own it myself, but it makes sense that this kind of thing exists, especially considering that there are tons of quality assurance testers playing around and making sure Starfield is ready for release.
If we look at the leaked screenshot, we can see some interesting details. For example, Starfield will have space AK rifles. Seeing AK rifles in official screenshots and videos is not new, but it does add to the proof of the authenticity of the screenshots.
This weapon looks like some kind of Kalashnikov series rifle, it is difficult to determine its specific type, it looks more like the AK-100, but for now we will only call it a space AK. Now in the lower right corner it is shown that the rifle has a magazine of 30 rounds and a spare ammunition of 244 rounds.
If we look at the minimap on the left, the player is on the planet Jamieson, and in the lower right corner of the minimap behind the player is the capital of New Atlantis in the Union Colony. There are also about five other icons on the minimap, which I guess are mission objectives and various landmarks and resources that the player scanned before.
If we look at the top of the screen, it says "Quick travel directly from the mission menu", you can do this by pressing the Tab key, which is a cool tip. Hopefully we can turn it on and off in the settings.
Now, if you look at the characters on the ground, it's a United Colony security guard, and if you look at what's in stock, there are 33 rounds of 7.77mm shellless ammunition, which is the same ammunition used for the Eon pistol and the Grendel PDW.
We can also point out that UC Security's armor doesn't seem to be pickable at the moment, so maybe these screenshots are from an earlier version of the game, or the pickable armor is random. There may be some talent or something that increases the odds of picking up armor, it's hard to say, but I hope not everything is random and only time will tell.
Another thing we can point out is the weapon drop in the back, and that's the Grendel PDW. You can see the weapon's attributes, which have 30 physical damage, 30 energy damage, 34 electromagnetic damage, and deal 10 thermal effect state damage and 20 radiation damage. Oxygen filters also have -25 oxygen consumption.
Now Grendel PDW is worth 935, which may seem normal at first glance, but it actually confirms something about the entire gaming economy. In previous Bethesda games, merchants could hold a smaller amount of money, but in Starfield, the economy seems to be boosted, because if you could sell a rare item for 953 credits, and a spacesuit with 20,000 credits, imagine how much money some merchants would have?
We know that the later game will require a lot of credits to build outposts and custom starships, so it seems like the days of having to travel quickly to multiple merchants to sell everything that needs to be sold are gone the days.
This brings us to the second leaked screenshot, showing a loading screen with a character named Dustin in the lower left corner along with level 2. There's a hint under the player's name that says "Aiming skills improve accuracy and range when shooting at will without aiming", so there's nothing too crazy about these two screenshots, but whoever Dustin is? Good luck with his journey.
As you know, Starfield still has a lot of questions to answer. For example, can you explore interstellar space? Will there be higher intelligent life? I'll tell you about my theory about this later. But for now, I'd like to discuss some of the new details we've learned recently, like how in-system exploration and planetary landings work.
According to recent discoveries, as you approach a planet, you can fly around the playable planet and choose your landing destination. If you look at this screenshot from Reddit user Vinkitsun, you can see that the new Atlantis is visible on the screen, but before the screenshot happened, it was invisible as the player approached the planet Jamieson. New Atlantis City appeared.
They say this tells me that we may be able to travel freely within the galaxy without having to get up from the flight controller and go to the star map to select a destination. As you explore a new or once-visited planet, it will reveal various landing sites when you get close enough.
Now I guess that we can freely explore galaxies, which is obvious, but it has implications for interstellar space travel. What I hope is that when you're flying around the planet, you can set a waypoint or mark the map where you want to land, which starts the landing sequence.
This brings us to the next discovery, which is that the planetary proportions will match the exact proportions in real life. One of the concerns of Starfield that we see is that some of the planets appear to be scaled, giving the impression that they are larger than they really are.
According to Reddit user Nimbulin, this is not the case. In the post they said: "We actually have some proof. According to NASA's handy Solar System Simulator tool, it can show exactly how big Europa's surface will look? So, compare it with a screenshot of the same scene in the Starry Sky livestream. ”
They say "My simulator image is set to a 90-degree field of view, and the game screen should be slightly lower, the exact value is currently unclear, which makes Jupiter look slightly larger in scale." "So if we compare the two images, we can see that they basically match in size." This tells us that the size of the planet will be large. It's hard to say whether we'll be completely free to explore every planet, because I'm sure there will be areas that can't be explored, such as vast oceans, deadly pits, and so on. Now I don't quite believe in the proportions of the planets, but if they do resemble reality, for me it changes everything. Starfield can really be bigger than we think, but it's best to keep expectations reasonable. I suspect not every planet will be huge.
Since we're talking about Jupiter, this raises an important question I have about exploring gas giants. For a planet like Jupiter, which is full of hydrogen and helium, the core is still unknown. NASA doesn't yet know if Jupiter has a solid core, or just a very dense soup of material with temperatures as high as 90,000 degrees Fahrenheit. So the idea of exploring such a planet seems crazy.
Maybe we could put an instrument or a drone, possibly Vasco, down and explore these planets, but it's hard to say. Maybe our spacesuits can withstand pressure and heat, but I doubt it very much. There may be some gas giants that can be explored and others that cannot, which would reduce the total number of discoverable planets, but only time will tell.
Starfield has plenty of mysteries, especially around how space exploration works. We can be sure, as discussed earlier, that intra-system exploration is possible, but what about interstellar exploration? Can we explore interstellar space and have autonomous driving capabilities to explore interstellar space freely, or can we only jump between galaxies?
The answer seems obvious, but it's hard to say until there's an official clarification. So I'd love to be able to use my starship's gravity drive, stop whenever I want, and have my starship traverse the vastness of space, walk inside the ship, talk to the crew, organize my inventory, and plan my next voyage.
This brings us to the next message, which is that Starfield will have autopilot features, and you can even designate crew members to fly your starship. If you look at this part of the Starry Sky promo, it looks like each crew member will have a skill called driving, which directly confirms the autopilot function.
As far as we know now, Sam Coe (human name) will be able to fly your starship, and I'm sure Vasca can too, so we may need to reach a point in the story to use the autopilot feature. This is an aspect that I am very much looking forward to in the game. Not only do we have to customize our starships and outposts, but we also have to establish contact and assign crew members to maintain and complete missions. It's all very exciting and I can't wait.
Next, I want to discuss the background of the story of "Starfield", what really happened on Earth? How do the various factions affect the story, and will we find higher intelligent life in the game? As we heard some of Todd Howard's comments, this led me to believe that theories about aliens might be correct.
If you look at this screenshot of our solar system, you can see a barren planet, and that's Earth. Now, if you remember the Starry Sky trailer and some other trailers, we know what the Earth scene and atmosphere look like. We have footage of St. Louis Arch, the NASA launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. But what happened to Earth? What exactly happened?
Is it like the planet destroyed by some kind of plague in the movie Interstellar, or is it just a global agricultural disease? Or is it more like the consequences of a nuclear war, or maybe an asteroid hitting Earth?
We know that the game starts in the Solo system of Mars, a large mine in the city of Sedonia, so I guess we'll soon find out what happened to our home planet?
Come to one of the core elements of every great game in Bethesda, the various factions. I often see the question of whether we will be locked into only one faction, or if we can join multiple factions. According to lead mission designer Will Shen, Starfield's early goal was for them to want each faction's questline to be independent, and players would experience each faction through the main quest.
The main quest will give us an overview of each faction and main character, but their goal in making this game is to make the story more personal and influence the direction of each faction, rather than forcing you to choose who you owe allegiance to. However, your choices can have a profound impact on the nature of that faction and the things it focuses on, so be sure to keep that in mind during your gameplay.
When I think about where the Starry Sky story will lead us, it's one of my favorite things. There are plenty of hints and clues that the story will involve aliens, or at least some sort of higher intelligent life. I mean, look at this screenshot at the end of the Starfield trailer, it looks like an alien, probably a higher intelligence alien.
Of course, it could also be a domesticated creature on a character backpack or something similar, or even Dr. Octopus's robotic arm, but I'm more inclined to be an intelligent alien. In a podcast with Lex Friedman, Todd Howard was asked about life on other planets. "It's almost my dream, like in our lifetimes we find life on another planet," he said. Lex chimed in: "Especially if it is intelligent life, I expect life everywhere." In response, Todd said: "From the scientific evidence, it is. If humans discover intelligent life on another planet, that's Todd Howard's dream. ”
He has the perfect chance to make that dream come true, at least in part, through the story of Starfield. While I was very excited about Starfield, there were some concerns about the game. There is no doubt that Starfield will have all kinds of bugs and glitches, and honestly, it would not be a Bethesda game without these.
According to Todd Howard, Starfield's gameplay testing is going well, and it will have fewer bugs than previous games, which sounds great, but once millions of players get their hands on it, something is bound to go wrong. As long as there are no serious bugs that break the immersion of the game and cause constant flashbacks, it should be fine.
I'll personally install unofficial Starfield patches when it's released, which usually fixes most of Bethesda's problems, but caution is best. Another concern I have is Starfield's overall gameplay loop. To what extent will the game rely on exploration and resource gathering rather than story and faction quests?
I hope the two work well, but Starfield is said to be only 30 to 40 hours of main quests, which means that if you're spending hundreds of hours on Bethesda games like I did, most of our time in the game will be spent exploring the galaxy, surveying planets, setting up outposts for automatic resource mining, with the ultimate goal of customizing dream starships and raising our game characters to the highest level.
Let's hope the main quest is informative and flesh, as the later game seems to move from a sci-fi epic to something like Minecraft or No Man's Space, and don't get me wrong, I do like that way. I just hope that these systems are addictive enough to bring the desire to play again as much as opening up new worlds and building yourself in Minecraft. One reason this works well in Minecraft and Uninhabited Deep Space is that they have multiplayer modes, which Starfield certainly doesn't.
That's all for this video. Please let me know what you think in the comments. If you like my coverage of Starfield, please give it a thumbs up and follow.