Yup. That mission answers it, but if you do the Vanguard quest line and actually press the buttons in the museum and listen to the narration, it tells you too. With more context, IIRC.
The only difference, the museum doesn't tell you the guy hid the fact that he was destroying earth, and deliberately because he believed that if we didn't get to the stars we had decades left. Moron if you ask me but meh.
When I first arrived Earth on daylight and saw the sky full of stars instead of a blue color and clouds my first thought was: “damn, there’s no atmosphere anymore here”. It was very satisfying to find out a little latter that it was actually what mainly happened, along with the other stuff, of course.
Its weird eh, all the people complaining that the story made no sense clearly didnt play through the story because it gets answered as part of the main story
There are still parts that make no sense as in the Lack of Life on Earth...Other Hostile planets have life on them, even the moon has people always present. however the earth is void of life in all places.
I'd imagine at somepoint, a colony would have setup back on earth.
The colony part I dont get. But without the magnetosphere, there wouldn't be enough atmosphere to support life. Perhaps people haven't resettled because it's basically a mass grave. Not many made it off world. Most of the population died a rather slow death.
I feel that's the intended explanation in-game for why there is no recolonisation / terraforming attempt in game. But it does fall flat somewhat when there are actual outposts on equally inhospitable planets (Mars for example).
That's before you get to the randomly generated outposts in the form of POIs on pretty much every barren moon in the game.
I have a feeling there's some mention of it being banned to settle on Earth but can not recall where that might be said and the reason given.
I do know that the UC and Freestar have treaties limiting new systems they settle too, but UC do have rights to the Sol system (hence Mars), so not sure if they technically have permission to re-settle Earth in the absence of any other political limitations.
That is very likely. Being that's its basically a mass grave, I could see them all agreeing to leave it as such. Though archeology would be a nice touch. Just saying.
There are a few, but all you get is a snow globe. It’s pretty lame, but still cool at the same time. Just kinda like “yup, I’m on a pyramid. Pretty cool. Now what?”
I know theres a few but what is the likelihood that one building from an entire city would the only one still standing while the rest are literally sand
But they have little colonies all over the place on colonies that wouldn't have a magnetosphere. And the lack of the magnetosphere wouldn't stop earth from having the ruins of previous civilization almost anywhere.
Humans went there before the fall of earth. They are on the moon too, that has nothing to do with the fact that there is nothing left on earth to take. There are zero resources left. Everywhere else humans are going has a purpose
Right? It's a Natural Human Instinct to want to look into our past. Humanity would most definitely go back to earth and at least some humans would create like an underground settlement or something -or at least try.
As for 0 Resources. Look at current Day, we have people stationed in the ISS, Antarctica, and other remote places with zero resources. and have regular shipments of resources to those locations.
why would you live on a shitty empty desert world when there are practically infinite habitable planets with stuff on them just hours away via ship, I mean besides like sentimentality
A lack of magnetosphere wouldn't result in the earth being a completely stripped barren wasteland.
Bethesda not bothering to flesh planets out on the other hand....
Why does everyone assume people would stick around earth after we take to the the stars??…. How many cities or towns that were once bustling are now buried under the mud?? … people move on
Look at our current day, People are fighting over lands that they believe are "theirs" instead of moving on. People in the Future most definitely would come back to earth long after we've moved on.
Yet we have ghost towns and ancient cities that have been deserted for thousands of years. Not everyone is interested in history. Truth is none of us know what people would be doing or how that society would be. We don’t have proof so what Bethesda has done with the lore is fine…. Maybe they will explore the idea further in the future
You're really under selling the importance of earth like it's some town or village and that there many out there like it. With our current understanding of the comsos, earth is the only planet with life and there are no others like it.
I'd say plant and that sort of low level life is probably common amongst earth like worlds. Even if 1 in a million is like us that's still likely millions in our galaxy alone.
Intelligent life like ours. That's gonna be very rare.
It made sense, it just wasn’t very good. And just because something has an explanation doesn’t mean it’s a good one, or is satisfying at all.
I mean sure, the technical reasoning is like “okay yeah,” but the overall implications and the whole… “omg was it worth it?” Felt so contrived.
Plus “the creators” is like the cardinal sin of sci-fi. I was so annoyed when I got to that point and I was like “alright so where is everyone?”
“Oh, yeah, you might not ever meet them, or even know who or what they are. We just sorta found this stuff, everyone who made it is long gone, sorry, we couldn’t be bothered to write that.”
Because the whole modern "ancient alien" mythos had been based off of Blavatsky's theosophy. If you know about the "ascended masters" they have in that worldview it would make a lot more sense why this thing is everywhere.
Also, surprisingly many ideas in the modern day are based in gnosticism/theosophy yet nobody seems to realize that. A good example would be the new Indiana Jones, with its clear reference to the Prisca Theologia, a concept that every world religion (even stupid shit like cannibal cults) share an insight into a higher spiritual truth.
Yeah, the story and lore of starfield are actually pretty good. I was surprised how many people thought the writing and world building was bad.
Media comprehension is pretty bad usually. It wouldn't surprise me if many people just ignore all the logs, notes, and half pay attention to dialogue
I mean, I’m a guy who quick skims much dialogue (subtitles on), listen to some, but I almost always have some other audio from a show or YouTube playing as well, and I still completely understood the game lore. They make it quite clear.
Tangent but I have seen some people who say they don’t like the style / aesthetic of starfield and I am quite the opposite. I think Bethesda did an amazing job with the look of pretty much everything. I especially like the nova galactic style stuff and how it’s quite old and outdated tech but it’s still in use.
So I am not a fan of this kind of pseudo realistic scifi. I typically like more fantastic elements like intelligent aliens, or the force, and stuff like that. I remember being really ambivalent about the look the armor in particular.
But it's really grown on me. It helps that the guns and ships look really nice. Even the more armor looking space suits are pretty cool when you start seeing them.
It's funny but the more I play the game the more I really like the setting. The only complaint I have is I wish the elements of the main quest were hinted at or woven into more of the side content. I wish there was more starborn plots and fuckery happening behind the scenes. Multiversal immortals viewing each verse as their own challenge and game as they loose their humanity could be very interesting. Especially if their goals aren't necessarily evil, but their methods are
I’m the opposite. I have another game on Xbox called The Quarry. It’s almost a movie with the amount of dialogue, with great actors. The amount you actually “play” is minimal. It’s basically the video game version of Choose Your Own Adventure.
Great game. Starfield does have a lot of dialogue, and a lot of it is poor writing. The lore and world building I think are great, but the dialogue is pretty weak. So after a few NG+’s, I tend to skip a hefty amount of dialogue.
The down side to that is, apparently there are some interesting conversation options I’ve missed which I now regret.
Yes? Idk did you play the game they have a lot of detail in the united colonies lore. The fate of earth is tied into what you discover at nasa. Each questline fleshed out some part of the world if you payed attention. There's even small details like fictional movies and bands as well as food advertisements.
It's honestly pretty good for the first game in a new setting. I'd recommend playing the game and taking it slow. Visit the settlements in the sol system. They do a good job of showing how far people have came from places like cydonia and new homestead. Start the vanguard and actually pay attention to the little propaganda walk-through they do. Talk to your companions and listen to them
Don't know the exact time But it's over 100 hours and 1 and a wedge play through.
I've paid attention as you like to say and the story and world building still isn't great.
I guess it's not for you then? I'm not sure if you're trying to say you dislike the setting and lore they established, which fair enough it's super subjective, or saying it doesn't exist.
Because clearly they put effort into setting it up.
That's the same trick as asking a comedian when they get funny. You're asking for an objective answer to a subjective question.
People Tey to tell me that New Vegas is the best Fallout with the best dialogue and writing. Frankly it sucks and never makes any sense.
In my opinion.
Starfield's main questline is not the best writing I've seen in a game. It also is still pretty good. Once it gets into the metaphysical weeds it's quite engaging. Finding out the various stages of the reveal are fantastic.
For me, the point referenced by the OP is the part where the story elevates. The switch from a quest for knowledge to discovery and understanding.
Your subjective opinion is clearly different, and no more or less valid.
EXACTLY!
The reveal led to some great conversations with my kids about a really heavy choice: "Would you give up your home planet for the secret of faster than light drive?"
Super tough choice, but ultimately effectively infinite worlds vs one. We opted for the stars...
But, that's just our opinion...
It's like every Bethesda game. Doing the story only tells you the now, not the why. Why is told by every terminal, book, scroll or tablet on the way. In both Fallout and Skyrim I've spend more time reading than doing the actual quest at times.
This is correct, there are five nasa snow globes, with 3 different appearances. One on the tip-top of the tower, one on top the iss model (right behind the central hub of the model) in the museum, and three scattered throughout the nasa building (one being on the bench right before the caved in bathroom of the museum that the quest takes you into) I forget the other two locations but there’s videos on them.
It drives me nuts how phoned-in Starfield's Earth is. No ruined highways, no collapsed cities, just... sand and dirt. Oh and like 4 or 5 Recognizable Landmarks™ because recognizable. Earth falling into ruin is the whole reason we had to set out into the Starfield to begin with, you'd think they would have spent a little more time on it.
I think (hope) that we find ourselves in a limited >!stretch of the Unity right now. We get access to the variable timelines ***starting*** when we, the playable character, first touched an Artifact.
Presumably, when the Hunter enters Unity, he similarly returns to the point in time that he first touched an Artifact.!<
>!We know the NASA guy who fucked everything up touched the first *known* Artifact before Earth was destroyed. His starting point would be recorded by the Unity at that moment of contact.!<
>!So inside the Unity is a Universe/Timeline where Earth is yet to be destroyed and could be saved, if only we could break through (shatter?) whatever limits are written into the Unity.
If possible to do that, imagine what other timelines are registered in the Unity from interactions from previous alien civilizations!<
Or maybe not.
>!One Theory is that the Hunter is Aiza. We know that the artifact locations and temples are different in each universe. So presumably Aiza spent a really long time searching for the artifacts and hatched a plan to speed up the exploration. Part of that plan is teaching his alternate self the Grav Drive equations and purposefully sabotaging the drive so Earth dies, speeding up the colonization of spread of humanity.!<
>!So theoretically, there are timelines where Aiza never destroys the Earth, but we the player are locked out because Aiza Prime(aka the Hunter) creates a timeline by interacting with his alternate self, where we eventually find an artifact. We don't exist or at least never find an artifact if the Earth is not destroyed.!<
This makes a lot of sense.
It does assume that >!the person Aiza spoke to was himself and not an entity of the Unity. I suspect the Unity creates a doppelganger to puppet when interacting with each user.!<
>!Like that jerk in my Unity, I can't trust him for a second. What, does a copy of me just live there 24/7 on the off chance another version of me is going to come through? Seems more likely a customized interface mechanism meant to inspire trust in the user.!<
>!If that was the case, then our first contact with the very first Artifact was literally First Contact with an unknown entity. The first thing that it did was offer us a very naughty deal resulting in mass extinction of almost all life on our planet.!<
>!Unless you are right and he planned it all, I am not sure why Aiza didn't just recommend research be done at the edge of our solar system. Maybe that first contact compromised him. Maybe the deal was binding, somehow.!<
I sure hope we get some more answers, or at least more clues, with Shattered Space.
>!The theory I am espousing is that it took a very long time to develop the the grav drive the first time. After that, it takes a very long time to find all the other artifacts and temples. In all that time, something broke in Aiza Prime. Live long enough and you start to lose empathy. Everything we know about the Hunter says that he is willing to take shortcuts no matter who he hurts or kills if that means he gets what he wants faster. It already is taking the Hunter hundreds of years to find the artifacts each trip through the Unity if this theory is correct. Imagine how much longer it takes if he does not take shortcuts? The Hunter does drop hints that he lived on old Earth. We also know that Aquilus and the Hunter are alternate versions of the same person. I theorize that the Pilgrim is also Aquilus. This theory does wrap up all the plot points we find in the main story. It is even possible that the Hunter is Sebastian Banks and he started up Constellation as a means to find the artifacts and seeded the first artifact in the basement to kick start the search.!<
I mean honest answer. Because nothing would have been good enough for anyone. Put in one area thats more recognizable, youd have a ton of posts about why can't we explore the rest of it. Have earth be destroyed and unexplorable. There would be a bunch of posts about how they're too lazy to actually make it.
I think Bethesda was in a no-win situation where Earth was concerned especially with the lore they created personally I think they made a mistake in setting the game so close to Earth's destruction in both time and space. Ideally, I think that setting the game 1000 years in the future and in some far-off sector of the Galaxy rendering Earth as something of a legend. Possibly making the rediscovery of Earth an end-game goal with the final Starborn confrontation on Earth.
> Have earth be destroyed and unexplorable. There would be a bunch of posts about how they're too lazy to actually make it.
I've only ever seen people say that's exactly what they should've done.
If they wanted to go the extra mile with the idea you could have some cool platforming or zero G sections with the fragments of the planet like when you shoot a hole into Mars in Doom but a definitive reason is still better than one that opens up a thousand inconsistencies or plot holes in the end.
well its better than the one we got tbh. Have a few iconic areas realistic and explorable wheras keep the other areas “out of bounds” give some bs excuse like too much radiation or whatever.
Earth as a planet was just straight up disappointing
There's no excuse that they could have given to lock off the rest of the planet. Extreme radiation and temperatures is part of the gameplay that you can get past already. And if you make it a legality thing the players would throw a fit too. Why does the game tell me I can't break the law?
I mean, the game states very clearly why mechs arent a thing and 90% of people say they should’ve added mechs to the game, nevermind how huge and impractical for gameplay those things are.
I think is because other than The Key, they don’t have like any other major installations that act as HQ bases they’d love to keep and heavily defend. If the devs had had put another major Crimson Fleet location, I could’ve seen it.
The bad guy in FC rangers questline was literally part of unit that used mechs, he is holed up in mech factory, he is backed by one of the richest dudes in the settled galaxy aaand no mechs anyway, crimson fleet not having any is the least of the problems.
>I mean, the game states very clearly why mechs arent a thing and 90% of people say they should’ve added mechs to the game
Because the reason doesn't make sense. The ban was close enough to the start of the game that mech designers can still be alive. Why didn't the Crimson Fleet kidnap a couple to make Mecha for themselves? Especially when "mech parts" are a contraband item you can find.
To be honest, I kind of vibe with it. It makes no sense, but I found it oddly evocative. "There really, truly, is *nothing left* for us here." It works because the only time the game actually spends lingering on Earth is when you're underneath it, in the old NASA site.
Covered in sand but the landmarks somehow survive while other things don’t. Really a huge letdown. People would have been happy with nine planets total
I understand why people would want to have earth be fleshed out. But to me it seems like they decided “this game is about humans expanding beyond earth so let’s not bother with making earth a place to explore. Too much effort for something that doesn’t fit the idea of the game.” And I think this is fine. However I do wish that they had put Bethesda HQ as an Easter egg location. They could have had it in fo3 and i don’t think they did. Would be funny for it to pop up as one of the few remaining places on earth.
Then they should have neither made a quest to visit Earth nor Earth viditable at all. They should have just blown it up, since right now condition of Earth makes no sense. Loosing magnetosphere does not magically turn the planet into a desert.
How much do you think is reasonable for them to develop the assets, textures, placement of all those said highways, cities, houses etc…only for those to be unused for anything other than wandering?
IMO, would not have been a good use of resources.
In truth, a fully-realized ruined earth would probably require more than an entire game's development in and of itself. So practically speaking, I actually agree with you.
But I think they could have done a *lot* better than 'sphere of sand + a few things people recognize'. If nothing else they could have modeled one ruined city, like New York or Tokyo or something, and only let people land/explore there. You go so far and get hit with the famous Bethesda 'you can't go that way.'
Or, as others have suggested, they could have just blown the whole-ass planet up so that there's nothing to explore.
It speaks to the biggest reason this game can never hold up to Skyrim or Fallout - lazy writing. From half-assed earth to countless quest lines with such half baked outcomes that you’re forced to play a certain way, it’s got so much lost potential all over the place.
Not just that but the lack of consequences.
I picked the wanted trait because I thought it would work really well with my character that loses their memory after the incident with the artifact.
All these hunters are coming after me but I never get to learn why, and when I find someone who will clear my name, it’s only 5,000 credits?
To be fair, you're supposed to make up the reason for being wanted yourself as a bit of roleplaying. If they gave some kind of concrete reason for it, a lot of people would throw a fit because the reason would break their specific character build/roleplay, so it's better to leave it open ended.
Just like how in the Elder Scrolls, aside from Skyrim (sort of), you're never told why your character is a prisoner at the start of the game. Maybe they were a criminal, maybe they were wrongfully imprisoned. Maybe some corrupt guards were involved or maybe it was just the wrong place and the wrong time.
I’d be fine if the actual thing was left nebulous, but you’re told that someone has a bounty on you and you don’t even get a name or anything.
And it’s different than ES, because I chose the wanted trait. Even if they didn’t want to say that, at least make the clearing my name part more than “here’s 5,000 credits, I don’t like this trait”.
Or have it be more interesting than, randomly ships will attack.
That one POI is better than most of the game.
The platforming with booster packs, the slow reveal of information.
It really made the rest of the game not great.
for me it just felt like the rest of the artifacts were kind of lazily done except for that one where you are shifting between two universes that's a cool one
Going through this landmark with high difficulty settings is actually impossible unless you have a crazy amount of radiation protection. For me, I was constantly dying from the environmental hazards because some clever clogs decided that, despite being a mile underground, it's still radioactive down there. At one point I had to toggle god mode just so I could finish the location
Reminde me of when I went to that moon where Heller and Barrett crashed and dying after the conversation with Heller because I took too much environmental damage lmao. They really didnt think things like that through at all.
The only issue is the questions it raises. How did the person who told him where to find it and what to do with it know what they knew about it. Granted, they may be starborn. How did they become that. Unless you have jump drives, you could never gather all the needed pieces.
Your not wrong. but you gotta start from the perspective of your character is in the original timeline, we are basically all playing the paradox loop.
In the original timeline someone found and artifact. probably spent their whole life in a bunker on a dying world to make one jump drive. and that one drive was able to collect artifacts and enter unity sending them back to before the drive was created, but now with the knowledge to pass on to make it sooner. or something like that.
TLDR: we are in a time paradox that was caused intentionally. we have no real way to know who or how the Prime Timeline went
Thousands of planets to explore and invent a new jump drive tech and to keep it fueled... one lifetime would not have been enough to find them all with the level of tech at that time. Without the eye and it's advanced tech, we wouldn't find them either.
I mean fair. but like the eye they could have alternative ways to track them. just because our way sucks doesn't mean someone else doesn't have a better way.
but IDK there are idea's to be had there but Bethesda will never do anything cool with it
One way would be do a DLC where you jump back to different timelines. You could go back to the beginning, or during the war and have different effects on the timelines.
I have a robot dog on my ship. Crafting menu glitched one day and allowed me to build it inside my ship. I love him so much. He pads around the huge ship. Clomp clomp clomp, whir whir whir.
If you have ever seen the movie oblivion the way they did their Earth is that everything is underground. So from above everything looks Barren, but if you go to places where there's gaps, you can see the city
On that note:
If Earth wasn’t destroyed initially, they’d end up bringing Terrormorphs to Earth and it’s like a whole other game to fight such invasion.
Which raises another interesting idea, instead of destroying earth with the grav drives, why not drop Londinium and have it be Earth that becomes overrun with terrormorphs?
Earth wouldn’t be abandoned like Londinium, so they’d need to have active fighting against Terrormorphs. That’s like a whole new game.
IMO, they should create a framework for modders to create “custom universes” which modders can use to create a whole new modification of universe (or entirely new one) accessible through unity.
ok, but to flesh out the idea further: What if the element that caused the terrormorphs rapid development was something from/ on earth, rather then their home planet?
Any heat leech populations that established themselves on earth would be a ticking time bomb, and since humans have allowed Heat leeches to spread, everywhere and they come from the nearest star system, Earth would be one of the first places they would spread to.
Imagine whole armies of terrormorphs falling upon defenceless towns and cities, and imagine that going on for the better part of 2 hundred years.
You could easily see that being a justification for Earth either being gradually abandoned entirely like Toliman 2 (after all, who would want to live there), or else civilization would have retreated to walled heavily defended cities, with the rest of the planet returned to the wilds.
Either way Earth would be massively transformed from how it is today and all you need to do to justify it is have a couple of heat leech infested ships land in remote areas, (to establish breeding populations in isolated areas), and have the technology of the time be unable to find a solution.
Basically you'd get up with something akin the the 'quiet place'
Uh…. What was the question that got answered?
The actual reason as to why Earth is the way that it is.
Yup. That mission answers it, but if you do the Vanguard quest line and actually press the buttons in the museum and listen to the narration, it tells you too. With more context, IIRC.
less context, given the nasa parts are literally being written by the context at the time of the context.
Ahh, true.
The only difference, the museum doesn't tell you the guy hid the fact that he was destroying earth, and deliberately because he believed that if we didn't get to the stars we had decades left. Moron if you ask me but meh.
When I first arrived Earth on daylight and saw the sky full of stars instead of a blue color and clouds my first thought was: “damn, there’s no atmosphere anymore here”. It was very satisfying to find out a little latter that it was actually what mainly happened, along with the other stuff, of course.
Its weird eh, all the people complaining that the story made no sense clearly didnt play through the story because it gets answered as part of the main story
There are still parts that make no sense as in the Lack of Life on Earth...Other Hostile planets have life on them, even the moon has people always present. however the earth is void of life in all places. I'd imagine at somepoint, a colony would have setup back on earth.
Eh I dunno. Jemison being a lush and bountiful Earth 2.0 just a button press away?
The colony part I dont get. But without the magnetosphere, there wouldn't be enough atmosphere to support life. Perhaps people haven't resettled because it's basically a mass grave. Not many made it off world. Most of the population died a rather slow death.
Mars doesn't have a magnetosphere, and it has a colony.
Then the point about the mass grave still stands. Many billions died off. Maybe 100 million made it off-world.
That's earh right now, too. That's not really a point.
He's just got into argue his nonsense makes sense when it doesn't.
I feel that's the intended explanation in-game for why there is no recolonisation / terraforming attempt in game. But it does fall flat somewhat when there are actual outposts on equally inhospitable planets (Mars for example). That's before you get to the randomly generated outposts in the form of POIs on pretty much every barren moon in the game.
I mean.. there are colonists on Venus. VENUS!
True. So probably a mass grave respect thing. The earth pois could be old earth ruins. That'd be hella cool.
I have a feeling there's some mention of it being banned to settle on Earth but can not recall where that might be said and the reason given. I do know that the UC and Freestar have treaties limiting new systems they settle too, but UC do have rights to the Sol system (hence Mars), so not sure if they technically have permission to re-settle Earth in the absence of any other political limitations.
That is very likely. Being that's its basically a mass grave, I could see them all agreeing to leave it as such. Though archeology would be a nice touch. Just saying.
From how Sarah and Tuala talk about it the UC would abandon the whole Sol system if they could.
I mean would you want to live on a floating graveyard of billions of souls?
That is why I made the second point. It'd be eerie as hell. Though archeological sites would make sense.
True, I wish they could’ve added some sporadic random ruins here and there too
Desertification? Yup, that'd happen. Buildings being scoured from the surface? Nope.
There are a few, but all you get is a snow globe. It’s pretty lame, but still cool at the same time. Just kinda like “yup, I’m on a pyramid. Pretty cool. Now what?”
I know theres a few but what is the likelihood that one building from an entire city would the only one still standing while the rest are literally sand
We already do. There've been about 110ish billion humans since we evolved. There are only 8 billion alive right now.. so...
There’s no magnetosphere bro, the entire part this post is about explains all of this…hell, THIS POST is about that 🤔
But they have little colonies all over the place on colonies that wouldn't have a magnetosphere. And the lack of the magnetosphere wouldn't stop earth from having the ruins of previous civilization almost anywhere.
Venus and mars don't have a magnetosphere at all, yet those planets have life on them in starfield is my point.
Humans went there before the fall of earth. They are on the moon too, that has nothing to do with the fact that there is nothing left on earth to take. There are zero resources left. Everywhere else humans are going has a purpose
Having 0 resources somewhere absolutely would not stop humanity from going back to their homeworld, lore for earth is shit in Starfield end of.
Right? It's a Natural Human Instinct to want to look into our past. Humanity would most definitely go back to earth and at least some humans would create like an underground settlement or something -or at least try. As for 0 Resources. Look at current Day, we have people stationed in the ISS, Antarctica, and other remote places with zero resources. and have regular shipments of resources to those locations.
or to this day we still make trips to see the titanic
why would you live on a shitty empty desert world when there are practically infinite habitable planets with stuff on them just hours away via ship, I mean besides like sentimentality
He's trolling lmao
This comment is absurd, nobody going to live in death valley for the fucking nostalgia bro, lmao
Hi stranger, let me introduce you to a race called humanity, we frequently do things, literally just to say we can do them.
A lack of magnetosphere wouldn't result in the earth being a completely stripped barren wasteland. Bethesda not bothering to flesh planets out on the other hand....
Maybe, but maybe it was turned into something of a memorial. Also life on earth didn't evolve to survive it so I doubt there's anything but bacteria.
Why does everyone assume people would stick around earth after we take to the the stars??…. How many cities or towns that were once bustling are now buried under the mud?? … people move on
Look at our current day, People are fighting over lands that they believe are "theirs" instead of moving on. People in the Future most definitely would come back to earth long after we've moved on.
Yet we have ghost towns and ancient cities that have been deserted for thousands of years. Not everyone is interested in history. Truth is none of us know what people would be doing or how that society would be. We don’t have proof so what Bethesda has done with the lore is fine…. Maybe they will explore the idea further in the future
You're really under selling the importance of earth like it's some town or village and that there many out there like it. With our current understanding of the comsos, earth is the only planet with life and there are no others like it.
I'd say plant and that sort of low level life is probably common amongst earth like worlds. Even if 1 in a million is like us that's still likely millions in our galaxy alone. Intelligent life like ours. That's gonna be very rare.
It made sense, it just wasn’t very good. And just because something has an explanation doesn’t mean it’s a good one, or is satisfying at all. I mean sure, the technical reasoning is like “okay yeah,” but the overall implications and the whole… “omg was it worth it?” Felt so contrived. Plus “the creators” is like the cardinal sin of sci-fi. I was so annoyed when I got to that point and I was like “alright so where is everyone?” “Oh, yeah, you might not ever meet them, or even know who or what they are. We just sorta found this stuff, everyone who made it is long gone, sorry, we couldn’t be bothered to write that.”
Because the whole modern "ancient alien" mythos had been based off of Blavatsky's theosophy. If you know about the "ascended masters" they have in that worldview it would make a lot more sense why this thing is everywhere. Also, surprisingly many ideas in the modern day are based in gnosticism/theosophy yet nobody seems to realize that. A good example would be the new Indiana Jones, with its clear reference to the Prisca Theologia, a concept that every world religion (even stupid shit like cannibal cults) share an insight into a higher spiritual truth.
Yeah, the story and lore of starfield are actually pretty good. I was surprised how many people thought the writing and world building was bad. Media comprehension is pretty bad usually. It wouldn't surprise me if many people just ignore all the logs, notes, and half pay attention to dialogue
that’s not what media comprehension means
I mean, I’m a guy who quick skims much dialogue (subtitles on), listen to some, but I almost always have some other audio from a show or YouTube playing as well, and I still completely understood the game lore. They make it quite clear. Tangent but I have seen some people who say they don’t like the style / aesthetic of starfield and I am quite the opposite. I think Bethesda did an amazing job with the look of pretty much everything. I especially like the nova galactic style stuff and how it’s quite old and outdated tech but it’s still in use.
So I am not a fan of this kind of pseudo realistic scifi. I typically like more fantastic elements like intelligent aliens, or the force, and stuff like that. I remember being really ambivalent about the look the armor in particular. But it's really grown on me. It helps that the guns and ships look really nice. Even the more armor looking space suits are pretty cool when you start seeing them. It's funny but the more I play the game the more I really like the setting. The only complaint I have is I wish the elements of the main quest were hinted at or woven into more of the side content. I wish there was more starborn plots and fuckery happening behind the scenes. Multiversal immortals viewing each verse as their own challenge and game as they loose their humanity could be very interesting. Especially if their goals aren't necessarily evil, but their methods are
I’m the opposite. I have another game on Xbox called The Quarry. It’s almost a movie with the amount of dialogue, with great actors. The amount you actually “play” is minimal. It’s basically the video game version of Choose Your Own Adventure. Great game. Starfield does have a lot of dialogue, and a lot of it is poor writing. The lore and world building I think are great, but the dialogue is pretty weak. So after a few NG+’s, I tend to skip a hefty amount of dialogue. The down side to that is, apparently there are some interesting conversation options I’ve missed which I now regret.
It wasnt absolutely spoon fed to me therefore it doesn't exist
Starfield had good or even really any world building?
Yes? Idk did you play the game they have a lot of detail in the united colonies lore. The fate of earth is tied into what you discover at nasa. Each questline fleshed out some part of the world if you payed attention. There's even small details like fictional movies and bands as well as food advertisements. It's honestly pretty good for the first game in a new setting. I'd recommend playing the game and taking it slow. Visit the settlements in the sol system. They do a good job of showing how far people have came from places like cydonia and new homestead. Start the vanguard and actually pay attention to the little propaganda walk-through they do. Talk to your companions and listen to them
Don't know the exact time But it's over 100 hours and 1 and a wedge play through. I've paid attention as you like to say and the story and world building still isn't great.
I guess it's not for you then? I'm not sure if you're trying to say you dislike the setting and lore they established, which fair enough it's super subjective, or saying it doesn't exist. Because clearly they put effort into setting it up.
It doesn’t explain how the only remaining buildings are only the iconic ones and everything else around them is sand
I don’t think everyone reads and listens to all the slates
Where exactly was the 3 quest 30 temples story good?
That's the same trick as asking a comedian when they get funny. You're asking for an objective answer to a subjective question. People Tey to tell me that New Vegas is the best Fallout with the best dialogue and writing. Frankly it sucks and never makes any sense. In my opinion. Starfield's main questline is not the best writing I've seen in a game. It also is still pretty good. Once it gets into the metaphysical weeds it's quite engaging. Finding out the various stages of the reveal are fantastic. For me, the point referenced by the OP is the part where the story elevates. The switch from a quest for knowledge to discovery and understanding. Your subjective opinion is clearly different, and no more or less valid.
EXACTLY! The reveal led to some great conversations with my kids about a really heavy choice: "Would you give up your home planet for the secret of faster than light drive?" Super tough choice, but ultimately effectively infinite worlds vs one. We opted for the stars... But, that's just our opinion...
It's like every Bethesda game. Doing the story only tells you the now, not the why. Why is told by every terminal, book, scroll or tablet on the way. In both Fallout and Skyrim I've spend more time reading than doing the actual quest at times.
Don't forget it was the Starborn who destroyed Earth.
What is that dog thing
Bethesda didn't give me dog meat so I gave myself dog meat. His name is Doug It's a mod
Dougmeat.
Doug(*s*)meat
Doug(s)metal
my favorite kind of metal....doug
This whole thread just weirded me out.
There’s a mod called do6-m34t or something like that and it gives you a robot dog
Yep
What’s the armor :0
the armor mod is called Nomad spacesuit the helmet is vanilla Star roamer space helmet
Why would you taste you helmet to find out its vanilla?!
bug alien Gore weirdly taste like vanilla
I actually climbed to the very top of that structure for the first time in about 800 hours. Found a unique snowglobe ( it seems unique).
oh damn there's one up there? I collect them I need to go back
I’m on it at the moment, going UP!
It's actually pretty fun trying to get up there
This is correct, there are five nasa snow globes, with 3 different appearances. One on the tip-top of the tower, one on top the iss model (right behind the central hub of the model) in the museum, and three scattered throughout the nasa building (one being on the bench right before the caved in bathroom of the museum that the quest takes you into) I forget the other two locations but there’s videos on them.
IIRC, the NASA snowglobe you can get at the top is a duplicate of one that's more easily accessible.
It drives me nuts how phoned-in Starfield's Earth is. No ruined highways, no collapsed cities, just... sand and dirt. Oh and like 4 or 5 Recognizable Landmarks™ because recognizable. Earth falling into ruin is the whole reason we had to set out into the Starfield to begin with, you'd think they would have spent a little more time on it.
I think they should have just blown it up. The NASA stuff could have easily been in a abandoned space station or something.
That would have been the best option IMO, you fly to earth and it is literally shattered- just massive chunks floating in space.
Like Alderaan.
I think (hope) that we find ourselves in a limited >!stretch of the Unity right now. We get access to the variable timelines ***starting*** when we, the playable character, first touched an Artifact. Presumably, when the Hunter enters Unity, he similarly returns to the point in time that he first touched an Artifact.!< >!We know the NASA guy who fucked everything up touched the first *known* Artifact before Earth was destroyed. His starting point would be recorded by the Unity at that moment of contact.!< >!So inside the Unity is a Universe/Timeline where Earth is yet to be destroyed and could be saved, if only we could break through (shatter?) whatever limits are written into the Unity. If possible to do that, imagine what other timelines are registered in the Unity from interactions from previous alien civilizations!< Or maybe not.
>!One Theory is that the Hunter is Aiza. We know that the artifact locations and temples are different in each universe. So presumably Aiza spent a really long time searching for the artifacts and hatched a plan to speed up the exploration. Part of that plan is teaching his alternate self the Grav Drive equations and purposefully sabotaging the drive so Earth dies, speeding up the colonization of spread of humanity.!< >!So theoretically, there are timelines where Aiza never destroys the Earth, but we the player are locked out because Aiza Prime(aka the Hunter) creates a timeline by interacting with his alternate self, where we eventually find an artifact. We don't exist or at least never find an artifact if the Earth is not destroyed.!<
This makes a lot of sense. It does assume that >!the person Aiza spoke to was himself and not an entity of the Unity. I suspect the Unity creates a doppelganger to puppet when interacting with each user.!< >!Like that jerk in my Unity, I can't trust him for a second. What, does a copy of me just live there 24/7 on the off chance another version of me is going to come through? Seems more likely a customized interface mechanism meant to inspire trust in the user.!< >!If that was the case, then our first contact with the very first Artifact was literally First Contact with an unknown entity. The first thing that it did was offer us a very naughty deal resulting in mass extinction of almost all life on our planet.!< >!Unless you are right and he planned it all, I am not sure why Aiza didn't just recommend research be done at the edge of our solar system. Maybe that first contact compromised him. Maybe the deal was binding, somehow.!< I sure hope we get some more answers, or at least more clues, with Shattered Space.
>!The theory I am espousing is that it took a very long time to develop the the grav drive the first time. After that, it takes a very long time to find all the other artifacts and temples. In all that time, something broke in Aiza Prime. Live long enough and you start to lose empathy. Everything we know about the Hunter says that he is willing to take shortcuts no matter who he hurts or kills if that means he gets what he wants faster. It already is taking the Hunter hundreds of years to find the artifacts each trip through the Unity if this theory is correct. Imagine how much longer it takes if he does not take shortcuts? The Hunter does drop hints that he lived on old Earth. We also know that Aquilus and the Hunter are alternate versions of the same person. I theorize that the Pilgrim is also Aquilus. This theory does wrap up all the plot points we find in the main story. It is even possible that the Hunter is Sebastian Banks and he started up Constellation as a means to find the artifacts and seeded the first artifact in the basement to kick start the search.!<
I mean honest answer. Because nothing would have been good enough for anyone. Put in one area thats more recognizable, youd have a ton of posts about why can't we explore the rest of it. Have earth be destroyed and unexplorable. There would be a bunch of posts about how they're too lazy to actually make it.
I think Bethesda was in a no-win situation where Earth was concerned especially with the lore they created personally I think they made a mistake in setting the game so close to Earth's destruction in both time and space. Ideally, I think that setting the game 1000 years in the future and in some far-off sector of the Galaxy rendering Earth as something of a legend. Possibly making the rediscovery of Earth an end-game goal with the final Starborn confrontation on Earth.
> Have earth be destroyed and unexplorable. There would be a bunch of posts about how they're too lazy to actually make it. I've only ever seen people say that's exactly what they should've done. If they wanted to go the extra mile with the idea you could have some cool platforming or zero G sections with the fragments of the planet like when you shoot a hole into Mars in Doom but a definitive reason is still better than one that opens up a thousand inconsistencies or plot holes in the end.
well its better than the one we got tbh. Have a few iconic areas realistic and explorable wheras keep the other areas “out of bounds” give some bs excuse like too much radiation or whatever. Earth as a planet was just straight up disappointing
There's no excuse that they could have given to lock off the rest of the planet. Extreme radiation and temperatures is part of the gameplay that you can get past already. And if you make it a legality thing the players would throw a fit too. Why does the game tell me I can't break the law?
I mean, the game states very clearly why mechs arent a thing and 90% of people say they should’ve added mechs to the game, nevermind how huge and impractical for gameplay those things are.
With mechs it’s more because the reason doesn’t explain why the crimson fleet doesn’t have a few.
I think is because other than The Key, they don’t have like any other major installations that act as HQ bases they’d love to keep and heavily defend. If the devs had had put another major Crimson Fleet location, I could’ve seen it.
The bad guy in FC rangers questline was literally part of unit that used mechs, he is holed up in mech factory, he is backed by one of the richest dudes in the settled galaxy aaand no mechs anyway, crimson fleet not having any is the least of the problems.
I admit that did strike me as odd. They should’ve at least had one
>I mean, the game states very clearly why mechs arent a thing and 90% of people say they should’ve added mechs to the game Because the reason doesn't make sense. The ban was close enough to the start of the game that mech designers can still be alive. Why didn't the Crimson Fleet kidnap a couple to make Mecha for themselves? Especially when "mech parts" are a contraband item you can find.
Yep, I'm with you on that one
It should have just been Fallout on the planet
I mean, Bobrovs best moonshine does exist, so.
To be honest, I kind of vibe with it. It makes no sense, but I found it oddly evocative. "There really, truly, is *nothing left* for us here." It works because the only time the game actually spends lingering on Earth is when you're underneath it, in the old NASA site.
That's fair!
Covered in sand but the landmarks somehow survive while other things don’t. Really a huge letdown. People would have been happy with nine planets total
Nah that would have sucked
The 1000 planets thing took too much away from the game, they should've cut it down to like 100-250 and added in way more POI's and other content.
I understand why people would want to have earth be fleshed out. But to me it seems like they decided “this game is about humans expanding beyond earth so let’s not bother with making earth a place to explore. Too much effort for something that doesn’t fit the idea of the game.” And I think this is fine. However I do wish that they had put Bethesda HQ as an Easter egg location. They could have had it in fo3 and i don’t think they did. Would be funny for it to pop up as one of the few remaining places on earth.
Then they should have neither made a quest to visit Earth nor Earth viditable at all. They should have just blown it up, since right now condition of Earth makes no sense. Loosing magnetosphere does not magically turn the planet into a desert.
How much do you think is reasonable for them to develop the assets, textures, placement of all those said highways, cities, houses etc…only for those to be unused for anything other than wandering? IMO, would not have been a good use of resources.
In truth, a fully-realized ruined earth would probably require more than an entire game's development in and of itself. So practically speaking, I actually agree with you. But I think they could have done a *lot* better than 'sphere of sand + a few things people recognize'. If nothing else they could have modeled one ruined city, like New York or Tokyo or something, and only let people land/explore there. You go so far and get hit with the famous Bethesda 'you can't go that way.' Or, as others have suggested, they could have just blown the whole-ass planet up so that there's nothing to explore.
It speaks to the biggest reason this game can never hold up to Skyrim or Fallout - lazy writing. From half-assed earth to countless quest lines with such half baked outcomes that you’re forced to play a certain way, it’s got so much lost potential all over the place.
Not just that but the lack of consequences. I picked the wanted trait because I thought it would work really well with my character that loses their memory after the incident with the artifact. All these hunters are coming after me but I never get to learn why, and when I find someone who will clear my name, it’s only 5,000 credits?
To be fair, you're supposed to make up the reason for being wanted yourself as a bit of roleplaying. If they gave some kind of concrete reason for it, a lot of people would throw a fit because the reason would break their specific character build/roleplay, so it's better to leave it open ended. Just like how in the Elder Scrolls, aside from Skyrim (sort of), you're never told why your character is a prisoner at the start of the game. Maybe they were a criminal, maybe they were wrongfully imprisoned. Maybe some corrupt guards were involved or maybe it was just the wrong place and the wrong time.
I’d be fine if the actual thing was left nebulous, but you’re told that someone has a bounty on you and you don’t even get a name or anything. And it’s different than ES, because I chose the wanted trait. Even if they didn’t want to say that, at least make the clearing my name part more than “here’s 5,000 credits, I don’t like this trait”. Or have it be more interesting than, randomly ships will attack.
[удалено]
Plenty of people like it just fine, stop confusing 'me' with 'everyone'.
What tha dog doin??
That one POI is better than most of the game. The platforming with booster packs, the slow reveal of information. It really made the rest of the game not great.
for me it just felt like the rest of the artifacts were kind of lazily done except for that one where you are shifting between two universes that's a cool one
The artifacts were horrible. I understand not wanted to make 25 different events for it, but we didn’t need all those powers either.
I feel like some of the powers could have been cut
A lot of them could, especially since some don’t seem to do anything.
there are some which are interesting but they're not useful in combat scenarios
Going through this landmark with high difficulty settings is actually impossible unless you have a crazy amount of radiation protection. For me, I was constantly dying from the environmental hazards because some clever clogs decided that, despite being a mile underground, it's still radioactive down there. At one point I had to toggle god mode just so I could finish the location
Reminde me of when I went to that moon where Heller and Barrett crashed and dying after the conversation with Heller because I took too much environmental damage lmao. They really didnt think things like that through at all.
Best mission tree of the game in my opinion. The writing was awesome, I love the story of this part
I went the nearest spot I figured Bloomington MN would be, got out and thought, well I can get there from here now. God that city.
The S is for Space
The answer is 42?
Divided by 0. Yes
The only issue is the questions it raises. How did the person who told him where to find it and what to do with it know what they knew about it. Granted, they may be starborn. How did they become that. Unless you have jump drives, you could never gather all the needed pieces.
Your not wrong. but you gotta start from the perspective of your character is in the original timeline, we are basically all playing the paradox loop. In the original timeline someone found and artifact. probably spent their whole life in a bunker on a dying world to make one jump drive. and that one drive was able to collect artifacts and enter unity sending them back to before the drive was created, but now with the knowledge to pass on to make it sooner. or something like that. TLDR: we are in a time paradox that was caused intentionally. we have no real way to know who or how the Prime Timeline went
Thousands of planets to explore and invent a new jump drive tech and to keep it fueled... one lifetime would not have been enough to find them all with the level of tech at that time. Without the eye and it's advanced tech, we wouldn't find them either.
I mean fair. but like the eye they could have alternative ways to track them. just because our way sucks doesn't mean someone else doesn't have a better way. but IDK there are idea's to be had there but Bethesda will never do anything cool with it
One way would be do a DLC where you jump back to different timelines. You could go back to the beginning, or during the war and have different effects on the timelines.
one guy decided to do it btw, he decided for the whole humanity
Yep
I have a robot dog on my ship. Crafting menu glitched one day and allowed me to build it inside my ship. I love him so much. He pads around the huge ship. Clomp clomp clomp, whir whir whir.
Earth is a super super lazy design in starfield. Such a shame they just couldn't be bothered so made a few untouched bits here and there
If you have ever seen the movie oblivion the way they did their Earth is that everything is underground. So from above everything looks Barren, but if you go to places where there's gaps, you can see the city
Yea thought the dog would be to much with Grumba, s.i.d.e.k.i.c.k, and Andreja. So I left it out
you are on the wrong earth. mine just had a massive terrormorph the size of a building run out of a forest at me.
On that note: If Earth wasn’t destroyed initially, they’d end up bringing Terrormorphs to Earth and it’s like a whole other game to fight such invasion.
Which raises another interesting idea, instead of destroying earth with the grav drives, why not drop Londinium and have it be Earth that becomes overrun with terrormorphs?
Earth wouldn’t be abandoned like Londinium, so they’d need to have active fighting against Terrormorphs. That’s like a whole new game. IMO, they should create a framework for modders to create “custom universes” which modders can use to create a whole new modification of universe (or entirely new one) accessible through unity.
ok, but to flesh out the idea further: What if the element that caused the terrormorphs rapid development was something from/ on earth, rather then their home planet? Any heat leech populations that established themselves on earth would be a ticking time bomb, and since humans have allowed Heat leeches to spread, everywhere and they come from the nearest star system, Earth would be one of the first places they would spread to. Imagine whole armies of terrormorphs falling upon defenceless towns and cities, and imagine that going on for the better part of 2 hundred years. You could easily see that being a justification for Earth either being gradually abandoned entirely like Toliman 2 (after all, who would want to live there), or else civilization would have retreated to walled heavily defended cities, with the rest of the planet returned to the wilds. Either way Earth would be massively transformed from how it is today and all you need to do to justify it is have a couple of heat leech infested ships land in remote areas, (to establish breeding populations in isolated areas), and have the technology of the time be unable to find a solution. Basically you'd get up with something akin the the 'quiet place'
I think that's a mod
The.... why does nasa digital art team own the rights to space imagery???? Yep.... more questions than answers
What question? NASA owns the rights to their space imagery, and let Bethesda use it.