{"id":168414,"date":"2023-09-09T07:53:04","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T06:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techweekmag.com\/?p=168414"},"modified":"2023-10-18T05:56:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T04:56:11","slug":"how-teleporting-kills-the-essence-of-starfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/gaming\/how-teleporting-kills-the-essence-of-starfield\/","title":{"rendered":"How teleporting kill the essence of Starfield"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">Fast travel systems have been around in games for a very long time, and for large open worlds it is practically necessary.\u00a0There are few places where you feel like running around the same locations back and forth to complete some quest or visit a merchant.\u00a0So\u00a0Starfield\u00a0does not force the user to suffer &#8211; the game is already gigantic, so it allows you to quickly move between planets at almost any time.\u00a0However, there is a feeling that\u00a0<b>Bethesda<\/b>\u00a0has placed too much emphasis on this mechanic, and this is no longer an option &#8211; \u201cfast travel\u201d is mandatory here.<b><\/b><\/p>\n<div id=\"g1-fluid-wrapper-counter-1\" class=\"g1-fluid-wrapper \" style=\"width:662px;\" data-g1-fluid-width=\"662\" data-g1-fluid-height=\"372\">\n<div class=\"g1-fluid-wrapper-inner\" style=\"padding-bottom:56.19335347432%;\">\n\t       <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Starfield \u2013 Official Live Action Trailer\" width=\"662\" height=\"372\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ek3I6_9c58E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\t       <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h2 id=\"bystree_sveta\" class=\"_h2_a3368_678 _text-width_a3368_93\">Faster than light<\/h2>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\"><b>Starfield<\/b>\u00a0, being a game about limitless space, is not too willing to allow this very space to be explored.\u00a0Now you have been given another quest in which you are asked to go to one or another system.\u00a0You open the scanner, point it at the marker pointing to the ship, and with the press of one button you are transported to it.\u00a0Also, with one button, you take off and end up in space.\u00a0Just open the scanner and again aim at the marker, look at the loading screen &#8211; and now you are there.\u00a0All you need to do is call up a map of the planet, select one of the available points on it and click \u201cLand\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">That is, the entire journey from point A to point B is using the same two buttons while viewing loading screens.\u00a0Docking with ships and stations happens in much the same way: you fly up, scan, select \u201cDock\u201d, and instead of a full-fledged animation, you are shown a pre-recorded video.\u00a0After its completion, you can freely walk around the station or ship.\u00a0It\u2019s as if it wasn\u2019t a connection, but you got into the teleport and ended up in another location.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">Here we cannot help but recall\u00a0No Man&#8217;s Sky\u00a0, where the Universe is truly endless and while flying through outer space you can turn towards your favorite planet at any time.\u00a0Look at the distance and approximate time until landing, jump through the exosphere, mesosphere and other spheres, see the surface of the planet, fly over it in search of the ideal landing spot.\u00a0And then step on the ground and begin collecting resources and scanning living creatures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">Starlink: Battle for Atlas\u00a0offered the same thing\u00a0: you fly among asteroids, receive a quest, follow the marker to any planet and land a few minutes later.\u00a0In both games there were no visible loading screens &#8211; they were skillfully disguised so as not to ruin the feeling that space is open for exploration and you are actually landing on a planet that a couple of minutes ago seemed out of reach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\"><b>Starfield<\/b>\u00a0is devoid of all this romance.\u00a0What is much more important here is what happens on the planets, and not between them.\u00a0Obviously, in reality, everything is not as simple as shown in\u00a0<b>No Man&#8217;s Sky<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0<b>Starlink<\/b>\u00a0, but that&#8217;s why these are games, they don&#8217;t have to be realistic.\u00a0And the action\u00a0<b>of Starfield<\/b>\u00a0takes place in 2330 &#8211; invent what you want and distort reality as you please.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"ne_takoy_uzh_otkrytyy_mir\" class=\"_h2_a3368_678 _text-width_a3368_93\">Not so open world<\/h2>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">Because of how tightly everything is tied to fast travel, the game doesn&#8217;t feel as big as it actually is.\u00a0And can it even be called an open world game if it is not seamless?\u00a0<b>Starfield<\/b>\u00a0is rather divided into many large locations with the ability to move between them at any time, but this is not an open world in the spirit of past\u00a0<b>Bethesda<\/b>\u00a0games &#8211; it is simply impossible to start on one planet and fly to another without passing the loading screen.\u00a0One streamer has already\u00a0tried\u00a0, but he spent several hours on it and was faced with the fact that the game did not allow interaction with the new planet.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_168418\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-168418\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-168418\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/32_techweek.jpg\" alt=\"You can move to the desired point directly from the quest menu.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/32_techweek.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/32_techweek-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/32_techweek-770x433.jpg 770w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/32_techweek-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/32_techweek-1000x563.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/32_techweek-560x315.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-168418\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can move to the desired point directly from the quest menu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">Perhaps, if everything worked the way I want, traveling through space would be very boring and at some point I would start using fast travel more and more actively.\u00a0But\u00a0<b>Starfield<\/b>\u00a0doesn\u2019t give you a choice\u2014it offers to play exclusively by its rules.\u00a0It is possible that there would really be nothing to do outside the planets &#8211; in the same\u00a0<b>No Man&#8217;s Sky<\/b>\u00a0, until you reach the desired point, you only engage in shooting asteroids, which after tens of hours is no longer enjoyable.\u00a0But you can make such moments interesting if you want!\u00a0The developers didn&#8217;t want to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">Or they tried, but it didn&#8217;t work.\u00a0Or the engine does not allow you to make the world seamless.\u00a0Or that&#8217;s just not what the game is about.\u00a0But it\u2019s still about the exploration of planets, of which there are thousands, but the arrival on a new celestial body does not become an event &#8211; you just \u201cteleport\u201d somewhere and go.\u00a0Here you cannot fly around the planet from all sides, see what is on its surface, what bodies of water are there, what kind of vegetation, whether there are acid clouds or anything else.\u00a0In\u00a0<b>Starfield,<\/b>\u00a0even the NPCs seem to understand what game they are in, sending you on quests to who knows where &#8211; you will still get there in less than a minute by pressing a couple of buttons.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_168419\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-168419\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-168419 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/33_techweek.jpg\" alt=\"If there is only one landing point on the planet, then you can only choose it.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/33_techweek.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/33_techweek-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/33_techweek-770x433.jpg 770w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/33_techweek-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/33_techweek-1000x563.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/33_techweek-560x315.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-168419\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">If there is only one landing point on the planet, then you can only choose it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">I have a similar complaint outside the ship, when someone gives you a task and the game allows you to instantly be transported to the ship, or even skip this part altogether and immediately fly to the point.\u00a0On the one hand, this is very convenient &#8211; you don\u2019t have to run back, controlling your oxygen supply while accelerating and looking for a shortcut.\u00a0On the other hand, the temptation to immediately jump into the ship is very great, which is why exploring locations seems like a waste of time.\u00a0Since there is such an option, I want to use it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">Other games solve this problem in different ways.\u00a0Somewhere you can teleport only when interacting with certain objects &#8211; so that you can run around the location at least a little and find something interesting along the way.\u00a0In\u00a0Horizon Zero Dawn\u00a0and its sequel, not only this \u201ctrick\u201d was introduced, but also consumables, without which you cannot jump from one point to another &#8211; sometimes you save them and prefer to travel.\u00a0In some games you can only ride a taxi or train.\u00a0There is nothing like that in\u00a0<b>Starfield<\/b>\u00a0&#8211; you can\u2019t \u201cteleport\u201d only if there are enemies nearby.\u00a0This can be called nitpicking &#8211; here I still walk the streets and collect side quests, and at the same time pick locks in search of currency and cool guns.\u00a0But it\u2019s not just that there are modifications for\u00a0Skyrim\u00a0<b><\/b>\u00a0, disabling fast travel, and\u00a0there will probably be something similar for\u00a0<b>Starfield .<\/b><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-168420\" src=\"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/34_techweek.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/34_techweek.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/34_techweek-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/34_techweek-770x433.jpg 770w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/34_techweek-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/34_techweek-1000x563.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/34_techweek-560x315.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"_text_a3368_93 _text-width_a3368_93\">&#8216;In general , I like Starfield &#8211; this game, like any creation of\u00a0Todd\u00a0Howard, pulls you into its net and forces you to sit late into the night, sorting out your inventory and deciding what you will do in the next hour.\u00a0But the number of situations in which the game forces you to use fast movement seemed too large to me, whether at the fifth hour or at the twentieth.\u00a0From a modern game about space, where the main character almost immediately gets his own ship, I wanted an adventure in which you spend a lot of time in space itself, and not on the surface of planets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fast travel systems have been around in games for a very long time, and for large open worlds it is practically necessary.\u00a0There are few places where you feel like running around the same locations back and forth to complete some quest or visit a merchant.\u00a0So\u00a0Starfield\u00a0does not force the user to suffer &#8211; the game is [&hellip;] <a class=\"g1-link g1-link-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/gaming\/how-teleporting-kills-the-essence-of-starfield\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10404,"featured_media":168423,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[777],"tags":[779],"class_list":{"0":"post-168414","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-gaming","8":"tag-news"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stereoindex.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}