Starfield devs want NPCs and companions to feel like real people

Date:
Wed, 16 Mar 2022 18:02:14 +0000

Description:
In a new Starfield developer video, the team discusses their ambitions for
the game, its characters, and its world.

FULL STORY ======================================================================

A new Starfield developer video has been released and it touches on the development team's ambitions for several elements of the game, including its factions, its companions and its NPCs.

Titled Made For Wanderers, the five-minute behind-the-scenes video features a discussion between Game Director Todd Howard, Design Director Emil
Pagliarulo, Lead Quest Designer Will Shen and Lead Artist Istvan Pely, interspersing their discussion with new concept art for the game and even a very brief, actually moving clip .

Throughout the video, the team touches on ideas of player immersion and freedom, with Emil Pagliarulo describing Starfield as a giant open world for the player to do whatever they want and Istvan Pely citing a need to embrace the chaos.

This starts from the higher level of the games overall RPG mechanics, with Todd Howard saying that "it's nice with Starfield to go back to do some
things we didn't do. The backgrounds, the traits, defining your character,
all those stats." Howard says he believes that people are ready for something that does a lot of the things that older hardcore RPGs, something we used to do, doing those again in a new way."

It also extends to the NPCs and companions with whom the player will interact throughout the game. Istvan Pely touches on the teams aim of realism, saying that while Bethesda have always allowed the player to create really interesting, unique characters, this time theyve definitely, severely leveled up. The tech is based on scanning of real world models, similar to the photogrammetry we do in our landscapes. Were kind of applying the same thing to our people as well.

This realism is part of the immersion, with Pely adding, its not just the appearance of your player and all that, but we want the personal interactions with all NPCs, other characters in the game, to be as impactful as possible. And for that you have to believe these are real people, youre a real person, and youre interacting with real people. The best Xbox Series X games
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Aside from how players feel about other characters, Howard says that "Something we really leaned into on this game: how those other characters
felt about you."

Pely added, "Thats probably my favourite part, like when youre exploring and then your companion makes some comment off the cuff about something that
youre checking out or something that just happened. That just feels so
perfect for immersion. Its just so believable, you think its a real person."

Its in the segment discussing companions that we get to see that aforementioned actual moving clip. It shows a robot called VASCO who greets players by saying "Hello, Captain. How may I be of assistance?" (Image
credit: Bethesda)

Interacting with characters will, however, involve more than them talking at the player; the video touches on a persuasion minigame. Taking inspiration from the old Oblivion system, this conversation system isnt one where theres definitely a right thing to say, hopefully adding to a sense of player choice and immersion.

As well as individuals, players will interact with various factions through the game and theyll have the option to join them. There are four factions mentioned in the video: the idealized space republic of the United Colonies; the space western Freestar Collective; the corporate Ryujin Industries; and the piratical Crimson Fleet. Even within these factions, the team emphasise player choice, with Pagliarulo describing an opportunity for espionage in the Crimson Fleet.

The cool thing about Crimson Fleet is what if youre a good person and you
want to be a good player? And you dont want to play as a bad guy? says Pagliarulo. You can side with pirates, or you can report back to your superiors and be this space cop type of thing. So it lets you be a good
person and still play with the bad guys.

Starfields release date is still slated for November 11 2022, which is
drawing ever closer. When Starfield does launch it'll be playable on PC and Xbox Series X , with a day one release on Xbox Game Pass . Analysis: Its a drip feed

This marks the second episode in Bethesdas 'Into the Starfield' video series and offers us further insights into what Bethesda is aiming to do with Starfield and how intends to achieve those aims.

With eight months to go until the games scheduled release date, weve seen plenty of intriguing concept art and, with the steady drip-feed of little details, were slowly beginning to put together a picture of the game.

With that small glimpse of VASCO, it feels like the next big step is going to be some more footage from the game. We expect itll be another few months before we get that, though. In an AMA on Reddit , Todd Howard has previously highlighted summer as a key time to show Starfield.

Weve recently seen reports (via VGC ) that Microsoft and Xbox could be planning to hold an E3-style showcase in June. If thats something that goes ahead, it feels possible Starfield could be one of the stars of the show. Starfields developers are aiming for a NASA-Punk aesthetic



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/starfield-devs-want-npcs-and-companions-to-feel -like-real-people/


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