I’ve walked on almost 200 totally different planets in Starfield in environments starting from frozen tundra to baking infernos to poisonous atmospheres. And in all that point I’ve solely suffered one affliction that I felt a must rush to a physician to repair: I contracted a lung situation that finally acquired so unhealthy it made sprinting eat my oxygen provide in a matter of seconds, and I did not have the meds to remedy it myself.
Simply getting a single extreme sickness from all of these alien planets is a bit bizarre, and it is shocking how tame the environments on alien planets in Starfield actually are—particularly if you get common warnings for hazardous climate, excessive warmth and chilly, and radiation. Seems what we’re enjoying with in Starfield are the remnants of a extra complicated and difficult planetary survival system that Bethesda closely scaled again earlier than the sport launched.
“The best way the environmental injury works within the recreation on planets and in your swimsuit, you will have resistances to sure varieties of environment results, whether or not that is radiation or thermal, and many others,” Todd Howard mentioned throughout an interview on the AIAS Recreation Maker’s Pocket book Podcast. “And that was a reasonably complicated system, truly. It was very punitive, the place you get these afflictions.”
To guard gamers in opposition to these harsh environments, Howard mentioned, all these spacesuits you accumulate whereas enjoying have been initially meant to serve an even bigger position. Gamers have been supposed to swap between totally different spacesuits for top radiation planets, excessive chilly planets, and so forth.
Apparently, this planetary survival system did not go over that nicely throughout testing, and Bethesda determined to tone down the issue a lot that it is principally a system you do not even have to consider.
“We hit a degree the place we’re [fine] tuning it, and also you’re having to heal these [afflictions],” Howard mentioned. “And what we did on the finish of the day, it was an advanced system for gamers to grasp, we simply nerfed the hell out of it.”
Which is why in all my hours scurrying round on alien worlds I solely needed to rush to the physician as soon as. You do nonetheless get a variety of afflictions, together with heatstroke, lung injury, and radiation poisoning, together with bodily illnesses like sprains, contusions, and lacerations. However the results of afflictions are usually so gentle you may ignore them utterly, they usually get higher on their very own, and as a result of abundance of medical gadgets you accumulate alongside your journey they will virtually at all times be cured immediately by the participant.
In response to Howard, the affliction system is extra about “taste” now. “The affliction you get is extra annoying figuring out you will have it,” he mentioned, quite than it being an impact that makes the sport tougher to play.
I can already hear survival recreation followers frowning at this revelation—extreme and punishing afflictions are exactly the kind of issues loads of gamers would like to cope with in Starfield! There could also be some hope for that sooner or later. These methods “is likely to be one thing we tackle going ahead,” Howard mentioned, and in any case each Skyrim and Fallout 4 finally acquired official survival modes. Possibly Starfield will, too.
