'Starfield' Director Talks Planets, Space Travel And More

Bethesda's Todd Howard sat down with YouTuber Lex Fridman to give gamers a small glimpse of what to expect from "Starfield," the company's upcoming space RPG that's on track to be one of the biggest Bethesda games to ever release in recent times.

In Fridman's podcast, Howard laid out some new tidbits of info that should excite some fans eagerly waiting for the game's release. Here's what he said.

Planet Generation

There will be over a thousand planets in "Starfield," and gamers have already been skeptical about how the developers will make each location unique or interesting. Howard said they avoided making handcrafted areas for planets in favor of procedural generation that didn't just result in barren and uninteresting worlds.

Bethesda's solution was a tile approach—the developers would craft realistic landscapes and load them into a system that would randomly blend them all into a single planet.

Howard also mentioned that not all planets will have anything exciting on them, apart from resources. They plan on communicating this to players by giving them a brief containing what's on a planet before they land on it. He added that landing on some planets would be lonely, but he reassured listeners that such an experience had a certain charm.

Players can visit any planet as long as they have the means for space travel, but star systems will have their level ratings, effectively barring low-level characters from exploring them.

Space Travel and Exploration

Howard said traveling in space would involve some effort, and balancing the dangers of interstellar travel received multiple adjustments throughout development. He mentioned that a fuel mechanic for warp jumping was initially implemented, but the team found that it broke the game's pace too much.

Additionally, he said that exploring new planets would involve conditions like harmful atmospheric toxicity and temperature levels that require certain space suits and buffs to be mitigated.

World and NPCs

"Starfield" will have dynamic and immersive NPCs that can be seen actively going about their daily lives. Much of the planets will be occupied by humans, but there will also be friendly and hostile robots.

Spaceports will be busy with incoming and outgoing ships. Freighters might contact players as they travel deep space. Howard noted that while NPC actions may not have any impact, he believed it would add a nice touch to the game's immersive experience.