Starfield’s procedurally generated planets will likely be one of the more interesting features to be found within the game. They represent a new way of implementing features into single-player games outside of handcrafted content. However, it also represents potential problems for the future of the game’s map.
When it comes to huge open-world games, navigation is a key part of the experience. Knowing where a player is going and where they have been helps both with a feeling of immersion and to keep track of one’s progress.Starfield’spromise of including over 1000 procedurally generated planets could make this difficult.
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Starfield’s Map Might Become Unwieldy
Exploring the entirety of Bethesda game’s maps has always been part of what makes its games so memorable.The Elder ScrollsandFalloutgames have a ton of interesting locations that inspire a sense of awe and wonder at the game’s world and history. For that reason, it becomes all the more important to keep track of where exactly the player has been to avoid exploring the same location twice. However, an issue that has occurred in the past is that it can sometimes be difficult to find a specific location without the help of online research, which can break up the immersive experience.Starfield’s procedurally generated planetshave the potential to do this more than any other game.
Part of the issue is Bethesda’s focus on quantity over quality. The inclusion of over 1000 planets may seem enticing at first, but it could easily cause issues. For one, due to the use of procedural generation, many of these planets' maps may be a little too similar for players' liking. It could become easy to mix up what planets the player has been to, and what ones they haven’t. Even if there is a system players can use to mark the planets they’ve been to, its likely they won’t remember everything they’ve done on the planet considering the sheer amount of them that it is possible to visit. This would become an increasingly bigger issue during at the end of the path forStarfield’s endgame.
Exploration itself should be a more natural experience, rather than one that consists of looking at out-of-game wikis. Findingplanets inStarfieldwould become difficult without looking them up online. If a player is looking for a specific faction or resource, they may find themselves having trouble finding the right place to look and be forced to use external sources. This is ultimately a flaw because it takes the player away from the game and onto a website and degrades the experience into one that is the repetitive, monotonous task of looking up where exactly to find something because the game might just be too vast for its own good.
Despite these issues, there are solutions to this potential problem. Simply allowing the player to take notes of their own and attaching them to planets on some type of navigation system would allow the player to keep track of everything about a planet. This would allow the player to avoid visiting planets that don’t have what they require, while also knowing where to go if they need more of a specific resource. Another solution is to have short descriptions of some planets visible to the player before they land. Implementing these smallfeatures forStarfield’s navigational systems would allow for a smoother experience, one where the player has a great degree of control over their adventures.
While little is known of whatStarfield’s procedurally generated planets will look like, hopefully, the vast number of them do not end up drowning the exploration experience.Starfieldmay be shooting for the moon, but there is a risk of overshooting it if Bethesda isn’t careful.
Starfieldlaunches September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
