Starfield's Top 10 Innovations

[Seseron]

Tencent's Hunyuan Bot Farm is active again, creating multiple threads decrying Starfield winning Steam's 2023 Innovation Award. Here is a top 10 list of Starfield's innovations, and the reason I voted for it:

1. NASA-Punk photorealism
   
2. Proc-Gen Mechanics (worldbuilding)
   
3. Shipbuilding (Mobile player house, with workbenches, collectibles, etc.)
   
4. Outpost (cargo linking and transport system)
   
5. NG+ (restart gameplay while retaining skills/perks) integrated into the RPG
   
6. Size of the Sandbox (hundreds of things to do apart from RPG story)
   
7. Variation in Combat Styles (i.e., Boost Pack, Zero-Gravity, Stealth, Passive, Run & Gun, etc.)
   
8. Character Creation (again, photorealistic depiction)
   
9. Side quests / Radiant quests (continual/extended gameplay)
   
10. Creation Kit* (No other company provides a creation kit)

REFERENCES:
* To come in 2024.

[Edited to revise.]

[Rich]

ULTRA님이 먼저 게시:

I still can't tell if OP is kidding

If you played SF, you'd know that OP is 100% trolling.

[ULTRA]

Seseron님이 먼저 게시:

I never even heard of NG+ until Starfield. Fine, other games had the feature. I can accept the correction. But I still like the way Starfield implemented it. It's integrated into the story itself, and you tell the other NPCs you've already done the rodeo. Do the other games integrate it into the story, or do you just play the same with the extra skill points? Shoot, if they let you revise your skillsets, that would even be better.

There are literally only 2 reasons Starfield has this ending:

1. No Man's Sky had this exact story-driven ending (traveling to another dimension through space, the sequence even looks extremely similar):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-7H-Zasq9c

Note the date. (And lol at "Terrible game")

2. They needed an excuse to reset NPCs and other flags, since they couldn't find a convenient way to cull these and prevent them from corrupting old saves

If you aren't joking then this is actually hilarious anyway, because it's a perfect example of just how naive someone must have been to take Starfield's nomination seriously

[Apples]

Rich님이 먼저 게시:

ULTRA님이 먼저 게시:

I still can't tell if OP is kidding

If you played SF, you'd know that OP is 100% trolling.

Honestly i feel like that is just living in the hope that Human intelligence doesn't drop that low.. so it's better to pretend it doesn't.

[Seseron]

ULTRA님이 먼저 게시:

1. No Man's Sky had this exact story-driven ending (traveling to another dimension through space, the sequence even looks extremely similar):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-7H-Zasq9c

I don't think that qualifies as "extremely similar." NMS's sequence looked like every Star Trek episode during warp speed.

But I liked the music. Kind cool. But come on, when it comes to visuals, SF is gonna take that win.

[ULTRA]

Seseron님이 먼저 게시:

ULTRA님이 먼저 게시:

1. No Man's Sky had this exact story-driven ending (traveling to another dimension through space, the sequence even looks extremely similar):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-7H-Zasq9c

I don't think that qualifies as "extremely similar." NMS's sequence looked like every Star Trek episode during warp speed.

But I liked the music. Kind cool. But come one, when it comes to visuals, SF is gonna take that win.

It's a collection of stars zooming away from the camera. Sure, Starfield's ending has some Carl Sagan space dust, but that's the only important difference. It came out over 7 years later and had 10 times the budget so I should hope they could give us something marginally more interesting than dots on the screen to look at - a bar they just barely cleared.

Sorry buddy, #5 on your list is actually a perfect example of Bethesda aping last-gen games, not an innovation.

[E_Verdant]

I don't dislike Starfield, but BGS hasn't innovated in years.

Krash Megiddo님이 먼저 게시:

Great list, OP! Starfield's innovation is the sum of its parts as you listed. I'm still waiting for the troll army to name a game that does everything SF does. I won't hold my breath.

I can tell you one that does 3, 4 and 6-10:

Fallout 4

Would you call 1080p an innovation compared to 720p? Better graphics is not innovation and I would not call Starfield photo-realistic anyway so we can safely disregard 1.
NG+ is also not innovative outside of BGS, plenty of other studios have implemented it, From Software with Elden Ring for example. There goes 5.
Procedural Generation of empty planets was done before. Everyone sh*t on No Man's Sky for it, why is Starfield different? Oh dear, there goes the last point. Shame.

[Seseron]

Look, aside from the pissing contest that we all seem to be engaged in, comparing this to that and who does it better, at the very least, we all seem to be wanting the same thing. Let's be real, though. NASA folks, EUSP and IRSO, and other countries are making it happen, while the rest of us sit behind computer screens (after a 10-hr work day in the rat race), and admire the pretty colors.

[E_Verdant]

Seseron님이 먼저 게시:

I never even heard of NG+ until Starfield. Fine, other games had the feature. I can accept the correction. But I still like the way Starfield implemented it. It's integrated into the story itself, and you tell the other NPCs you've already done the rodeo. Do the other games integrate it into the story, or do you just play the same with the extra skill points? Shoot, if they let you revise your skillsets, that would even be better.

You should try Undertale! :D

[ULTRA]

Seseron님이 먼저 게시:

Look, aside from the pissing contest that we all seem to be engaged in, comparing this to that and who does it better, at the very least, we all seem to be wanting the same thing. Let's be real, though. NASA folks, EUSP and IRSO, and other countries are making it happen, while the rest of us sit behind computer screens (after a 10-hr work day in the rat race), and admire the pretty colors.

Sorry, does this have something to do with Starfield being innovative?

[melonLord]

E_Verdant님이 먼저 게시:

Seseron님이 먼저 게시:

I never even heard of NG+ until Starfield. Fine, other games had the feature. I can accept the correction. But I still like the way Starfield implemented it. It's integrated into the story itself, and you tell the other NPCs you've already done the rodeo. Do the other games integrate it into the story, or do you just play the same with the extra skill points? Shoot, if they let you revise your skillsets, that would even be better.

You should try Undertale! :D

I'm gonna be that guy and say that actually everyone should if they havent. Even if you come away hating it, its a really unique and charming game that I think every gamer should experience once.

[Arcvox]

Procgen and radiant quests are not innovative, they are dull and uninspired

[Zectifin]

innovations by taking features in thousands of other games and putting it on skyrim.

[ULTRA]

Zectifin님이 먼저 게시:

innovations by taking features in thousands of other games and putting it on skyrim.

It's not even thousands. It's basically just Fallout 4 + No Man's Sky or Space Engineers, two games that came out contemporaneously with Fallout 4.

[missbe]

people just voted on this game in the innovative nominee ironically... because this game has no innovation. That's just for fun, not for serious...

[fauxpas]

1. NASA-Punk photorealism
   
   This is a fair point, the backdrop visuals are pretty good, not as stunning as CP77, but good all the same.
   
   
2. Proc-Gen Mechanicss (worldbuilding)
   
   Nah, proc-gen is nothing new and Minecradt is still the king of true world generation.
   
   
3. Shipbuilding (Mobile player house, with workbenches, collectibles, etc.)
   
   Ship building is iffy, but I can see giving it a half-point.
   
   
4. Outpost (cargo linking and transport system)
   
   Play Fallout(4) and you'd be disappointed in what Starfield offers ... so it losses to an older Beth game even.
   
   
5. NG+ (restart gameplay while retaining skills/perks)
   
   Since when is NG+ an innovation? The concept has been around for a very long time.
   
   
6. Size of the Sandbox (hundreds of things to do apart from RPG story)
   
   Rockstar is still king of the sandbox in this regard.
   
   
7. Variation in Combat Styles (i.e., Boost Pack, Zero-Gravity, Stealth, Passive, Run & Gun, etc.)
   
   None of which are innovative when they've all been done elsewhere, usually better.
   
   
8. Character Creation (again, photorealistic depiction)
   
   Doesn't even hold a candle to CP77.
   
   
9. Side quests / Radiant quests (continual/extended gameplay)
   
   Play older Beth games, the radiant quests aren't innovations even compared to games Beth has already published.
   
   
10. Creation Kit* (No other company provides a creation kit)
    
    That is simply a lie, Beth's engine is known for easy modding but they aren't the only dev to provide offical modding tools.
    
    Besides, even if it was true, how is it innovative to continue doing something you always have?