Todd Howard says Starfield’s 1000+ planets will not be all boring procgen globes and comprise extra handcrafted work ‘than Skyrim and Fallout 4 mixed’
On: June 16, 2023
Todd Howard, inventive overlord of upcoming space-based sandwich-theft sim Starfield, sat down with IGN within the aftermath of final Sunday’s Starfield Direct to talk in regards to the game forward of its September 6 launch date. The important thing takeaway? House remains to be large in Starfield, nevertheless it’s not totally right down to procedural technology.
Requested in regards to the ratio of handcrafted to procgen content material within the game, Howard mentioned that, of Starfield’s 1000 planets, “The panorama’s just about all procedural. We sort of make these giant … kilometre-sized tiles we have generated” which then get “wrapped across the planet” to create the game’s 1000+ procgen wonderlands.
However fret not, as a result of Howard was fast so as to add that Starfield nonetheless has extra “handcrafted content material … than any game we have performed”. He did not give out onerous numbers, however Starfield apparently has extra handcrafted content material “than Skyrim and Fallout 4 mixed simply in dialogue”.
“As we get into the areas and artwork and every part,” continued Howard, “we have performed extra of it than we have ever performed”. Properly, that is encouraging. Sure members of the PCG employees—myself included—are greater than somewhat nervous that Starfield’s lengthy, vast roster of planets may be, uh, a bit boring. Procgen is an effective way to realize width, however not depth, and I am unable to say the considered a thousand planets actually appeals if there’s nothing fascinating on their floor. That is what I feel, anyway. Some sickos disagree.
So whereas it isn’t stunning to listen to that Bethesda is tough at work making handcrafted content material—it’s fairly a well-resourced studio, in spite of everything—it is nonetheless good to listen to Howard emphasise that there will be quite a lot of artifical stuff (like sandwiches) to sink our enamel into when the game hits.
Oh, and if that dialogue comparability sounds acquainted, it is as a result of Howard loves making it. Again earlier than Fallout 4 launched, Howard was on the market speaking about how that game had extra dialogue than Fallout 3 and Skyrim mixed. Skyrim, if you happen to’ve one way or the other forgotten, had round 60,000 strains of dialogue in its base model, whereas Fallout 4 had 111,000.
Again in 2021 Howard talked about Starfield having over 150,000 strains of dialogue, slightly than the 171K+ it will must beat each video games mixed. I suppose Bethesda’s writers have been doing a little scribbling within the final couple of years.
