Videogames Latest: Starfields of Glory

[IlyaP]

I tried the original Mafia, @Werthead, and oh lord, it is so very early 2000s, down to the completely whacky hud that features a minimap made up of assorted colored dashes to indicate what's around me in the car. It's very much a game of its time. The voice acting is also pretty exceptional, if slightly flattered and a bit more restrained than what I'm seeing in the Definitive Edition, which seems a bit more animated, with more emotional range and humanity. Which makes sense, in that what can be offered to players in 2020 is vastly greater than what was available in 2002.

[Werthead]

9 hours ago, IlyaP said:

I tried the original Mafia, @Werthead, and oh lord, it is so very early 2000s, down to the completely whacky hud that features a minimap made up of assorted colored dashes to indicate what's around me in the car. It's very much a game of its time. The voice acting is also pretty exceptional, if slightly flattered and a bit more restrained than what I'm seeing in the Definitive Edition, which seems a bit more animated, with more emotional range and humanity. Which makes sense, in that what can be offered to players in 2020 is vastly greater than what was available in 2002.

As a 2002 game it was way ahead of its time in many respects, but yeah, some bits did not age well.

Although amusingly I think the race mission in the original game is better and easier. They patched the original game to make the race easier and even introduced a "cheat" section so you can basically skip half of it, but it looks like the remake team only had access to the original build, so the race mission in the remaster is still ridiculously hard.

[IlyaP]

12 hours ago, Werthead said:

As a 2002 game it was way ahead of its time in many respects, but yeah, some bits did not age well.

It's clearly got a lot of good ideas in it, ones that mirror a bit what appeared a year earlier in GTA 3, back in (woah) 2001. 

12 hours ago, Werthead said:

Although amusingly I think the race mission in the original game is better and easier. They patched the original game to make the race easier and even introduced a "cheat" section so you can basically skip half of it, but it looks like the remake team only had access to the original build, so the race mission in the remaster is still ridiculously hard.

This might be the case, I didn't last very long in the original game - it was just too damn frustrating to play, from stiff car movements, to the janky UI, to the very Texture Mapped Lego Box look of the whole thing, it just couldn't hold a candle to the much more accessible and comfortable Definitive Edition. 

The race, I found, in DE, to be quite straightforward and easy, and only took 3 attempts to complete, thank goodness. My best friend said it took him over 100 tries to get through that mission in the original version, which is terrifying to contemplate, and would have driven me mad quite quickly. 

That said, hot damn that was an impressive gaming experience, that was over and done with in 12 hours. Mafia: DE does not overstay its welcome, which makes it all the more wonderful. 20 missions with some terrific character building, cinematic videos, and excellent shooting mechanics, and stress-free stealth elements, and then it all wraps up nicely. No bugs, no crashes, no need for mods or patches, it all just worked out of the box. Mwah. 

[Werthead]

Nice. The bucket on the head trick no longer works, but fans continue to abuse Bethesda's physics systems to pull off mass robberies.

 

[IlyaP]

You didn't tell me Mafia 2 was a box moving simulator, @Werthead! (I love that the game actually lets me move boxes from a warehouse to a truck; the sense of versimilitude is excellent.)

[Werthead]

Starfield starting to pick up some weird side-quests.

Spoiler

The generation ship mission at Paradiso is very amusing, and the "dress up as a giant methane shrimp to scare the shit out of tourists on Titan" mission is both brilliant and dumb.

Trying to polish off Baldur's Gate 3 but new technical issues interfering, with the game cheerfully crashing every 15 minutes or so in the Steel Watch forge for absolutely no reason.

[Ser Not Appearing]

Spoiler

For Paradiso, I expected the mission to be a little bit bigger. I haven't finished it yet, so I don't know exactly what will happen, but I went to talk to the board and it seemed the only options they gave me were to let people settle and become slaves or to outfit their ship at my cost. I decided to outfit their ship but just haven't gone back up because I got distracted with million other things.

Is there more going on if I try to progress it?

Regarding Paradiso ^

[Ser Not Appearing]

This was in ...

Spoiler

Paradiso

:

https://reddit.com/r/Starfield/s/hoawdyLQGV

 

[Corvinus85]

I finally built my first outpost in Starfield, mainly because I desperately needed to offload some cargo. There is so much loot and resources to pickup in this game. I had enough resources to build a couple of extractors and linked them to storages, but it was disappointing to learn that a storage container has less space than your cargo hold. I did a bunch of quests in the Altair system, still not done. I pretty much ignore all the loot that killed enemies would give me apart from credits, ammo and the occasional rare/epic/legendary item.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

  Reveal hidden contents

For Paradiso, I expected the mission to be a little bit bigger. I haven't finished it yet, so I don't know exactly what will happen, but I went to talk to the board and it seemed the only options they gave me were to let people settle and become slaves or to outfit their ship at my cost. I decided to outfit their ship but just haven't gone back up because I got distracted with million other things.

Is there more going on if I try to progress it?

Regarding Paradiso ^

Spoiler

The ship sets out to explore other systems, and you can bump into it randomly and get updates, or you can follow the "location of Constant" quest marker to find where it is now and catch up on what's going on. I think there's a couple of side-quests which generate later on which involve the Constant. Nobody's reported any sequel mission yet where the Constant finally reaches a permanent home.

 

[Ser Rodrigo Belmonte II]

Been playing The Quarry, fantastic atmosphere,story and character choices but non existent gameplay. I think I prefer BioWare when it comes to balancing gameplay and story elements. 

[Maia]

On 9/9/2023 at 6:59 AM, IlyaP said:

My best friend said it took him over 100 tries to get through that mission in the original version, which is terrifying to contemplate, and would have driven me mad quite quickly.

Whoah, I am very bad at driving in games, or any twitch aspects, really, which is why I never got into GTAs, but even I needed less than that to beat that race in the original version on PC. Even though it did make me want to chuck my computer out of the window. Repeatedly. I would have quit long before getting to 100. Though I also needed to replay most segments between save points more than once, because of how bad I always was at action games. It is a testament to how good the game actually was that I finished it back then.

Anyway, not that I currently have anything capable of running Starfield, but I have some burning questions:

What happens when you fail at pickpocketing? Do they still try to kill you like in other TES games, or is it possible to use persuasion to talk them down? This really should have always been an option, IMHO, neither safe-scumming nor the risk that they'd remain stuck in a hostile state was ever any fun.

Can you still bribe the guards/police to avoid getting stolen stuff confiscated? Are there other genuinely useful/fun applications for bribery?

Do buildings have more than one entrance? For instance, is it sometimes possible to enter through the roof/windows? Yes, I know that some buildings require a loading screen to get in, but they could easily designate a window as such an entrance too.

I have read somewhere that there is a drug that slows time? I was rather disappointed that there is no perk in combat abilities doing the same. Yes, I am aware of the jetpack one, but that probably wouldn't be enough for me.

I have also read about stealth not working - could it be due to encumbrance? I seem to remember that in Skyrim encumbrance penalised stealth long before you became overencumbered and particularly at low levels I had to run as light as possible to sneak successfully.

TIA.

[Werthead]

2 hours ago, Maia said:

What happens when you fail at pickpocketing? Do they still try to kill you like in other TES games, or is it possible to use persuasion to talk them down? This really should have always been an option, IMHO, neither safe-scumming nor the risk that they'd remain stuck in a hostile state was ever any fun.

Depends. Sometimes they're hostile immediately, sometimes you have a chance to talk them down. If you have intimidation skills, you might also be able to scare them into running off.

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Can you still bribe the guards/police to avoid getting stolen stuff confiscated? Are there other genuinely useful/fun applications for bribery?

This varies by planet. On corrupt Neon's it's easier to bribe people than on ultra-law-abiding New Atlantis. However, you really need to put points into Persuade (can't remember if there's a specific bribe skill) to talk them down or get them to accept bribes.

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Do buildings have more than one entrance? For instance, is it sometimes possible to enter through the roof/windows? Yes, I know that some buildings require a loading screen to get in, but they could easily designate a window as such an entrance too.

Yes, quite a few do.

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I have read somewhere that there is a drug that slows time? I was rather disappointed that there is no perk in combat abilities doing the same. Yes, I am aware of the jetpack one, but that probably wouldn't be enough for me.

Yes, although I never really use them.

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I have also read about stealth not working - could it be due to encumbrance? I seem to remember that in Skyrim encumbrance penalised stealth long before you became overencumbered and particularly at low levels I had to run as light as possible to sneak successfully.

You have a specific sneak skill now that you can level up to dramatically increase your chances of not being detected. I believe the armour you're wearing factors into it and if you are over-encumbered or not.

[Martell Spy]

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This varies by planet. On corrupt Neon's it's easier to bribe people than on ultra-law-abiding New Atlantis. However, you really need to put points into Persuade (can't remember if there's a specific bribe skill) to talk them down or get them to accept bribes.

Yes, there's a bribery skill, I think it's Negotiation. I can see it on the skill tree, it's a 2nd tier skill. Actually, it's the only other social skill I know of that has an effect on conversations. (Others like intimidation and diplomacy might, I just have no experience with them) At least in the skill tree a lot of the social skills seem to do stuff like make NPCs run, or fight for you, etc. (manipulation and intimidation as examples)

I still have zero social skills. Probably need to fix that. I've been able to get by with wines, drugs, and fancy suits. I was actually relieved though to run into an NPC I couldn't persuade. (And sometimes they just don't give you an option, I ran into a couple powerful NPCs like that)

 

[Corvinus85]

I stole a ship of the Ecliptic mercs, which was fun, but learned the hard way that you shouldn't kill all the mercs outside of the ship, otherwise it will immediately take off. On my penultimate try, I got into the ramp bay, but not through the airlock, and the ship took off probably because my companion killed off the las merc, and then I phased through the ship hull and fell to my death. The next try I ignored one merc completely, just ran to the ship and was able to get insode. A cool thing was that the ship still took off, I could hear the engines roaring, but now I was in, and took out the mercs onboard and got myself a 2nd ship. 

[Ser Not Appearing]

3 hours ago, Corvinus85 said:

... I got into the ramp bay, but not through the airlock, and the ship took off probably because my companion killed off the las merc, and then I phased through the ship hull and fell to my death.

Couldn't you boost pack closer to the ground to reset fall height and avoid damage?

[Ser Not Appearing]

I actually find that persuasion is almost too easy in this game, even without skill points. If you talk to NPC, you can get a feel for motivations and that usually aligns with what options to pick. I probably succeed 70% of the time.

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Ser Not Appearing said:

Couldn't you boost pack closer to the ground to reset fall height and avoid damage?

boost pack? What's that? No, I don't have that skill developed. 

[Werthead]

1 hour ago, Corvinus85 said:

boost pack? What's that? No, I don't have that skill developed. 

I strongly recommend. It makes the game so much more straightforward when you can just yeet yourself off great heights and then fire your boost pack at the last minute to avoid taking any falling damage.

[Corvinus85]

30 minutes ago, Werthead said:

I strongly recommend. It makes the game so much more straightforward when you can just yeet yourself off great heights and then fire your boost pack at the last minute to avoid taking any falling damage.

There are so many good skills to develop though.