Starfield developers Emil Pagliarulo (Lead Designer) and Will Shen (Lead Quest Designer) have shared more details in a new Q&A session. The due attended an exclusive event with those who signed up for the game’s mailing list and selected 16 questions to answer for the community. The session was held just ahead of the game becoming officially available for Xbox owners to preload on August 17.
ResetEra user ‘vixolus’ took on the task of providing the breakdown for the Q&A with the Starfield developers which can be found here. The duo provide some lengthy answers but here is a summary of some of the highlights.
Q&A Highlights
- Can players purchase houses or property? – Yes. Some houses can be purchased in different cities while others can be obtained by completing specific quests.
- How will the “Kids Stuff” trait work? – As similarly done in the Fallout series, kids and parents will share similar traits using new “face tech” to match custom faces from both parents and children. Players should expect some surprises with the appearances of actors that were used for some of the face capturing technology.
- How does the cargo smuggling system work? – Contraband items will need to be smuggled using specific ship modules and while the economy prices may be fixed their prices will fluctuate according to the character’s chosen skills.
- Is there a jail system? – If characters are caught for committing crimes they can elect to pay a fine or go to jail. The system is again similar to that found in Fallout 4.
- Can players act as double agents and join multiple factions in order to provide information to opposing sides? – Players can exactly do that. One of the devs jokingly refers to Donnie Brasco who was a real-life FBI agent that infiltrated the mafia and quotes “How far will you go?!”
- Does the game support a non-lethal playthrough option? – In short no. While there be some options to support non-lethal tactics it was decided that it wouldn’t be feasible to create an environment lacking in serious danger that players could navigate situations without killing being involved. There is a speech/dialogue component to allow various strategies to avoid killing but it may not always be possible to do so.
- How many companion characters can join your crew? – Over 20 total. Once again players should expect some surprises with whom has voiced some of these characters.
- What books or movies had a major influence on the game’s quests? – While Will Shen was slightly briefer in answering this question by saying how history, specifically Roman, along with historical works that examine how humans have reacted to various situations, Emil had much more to say.
“Well, I’m a child of the late 70s-early 80s, and I have very fond memories of the sci-fi of that time. So, let me think… Star Wars, OG Battlestar Galactica, Space: 1999, Buck Rogers, Battle Beyond the Stars, Ice Pirates… and let’s not forget the classic that is Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jaryd Syn. I think I actually saw that one in 3D. But also much “headier” sci-fi stuff, like the writings of Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Heinlein, or films like Contact, Interstellar, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and even Event Horizon. In all of those examples, you realize that outer space is two things: 1.) A source of mystery and wonder, sometimes terror AND 2.) A giant blank page on which you can write any story. And we have written a lot of VERY different stories in Starfield.”
So there you have it. There is much more to be read in the Q&A from the Starfield developers but it’s evident that the team is excited and confident with the game’s content and design. Players should ensure they have plenty of storage space set aside for the installation as it will take ~125 GB on Xbox and ~140 GB on PC. Some Xbox owners were able to begin preloading last week and PC owners can start on August 30.
It has been a long road to release for Starfield after first being announced at E3 in 2018. Since then the release date has been pushed multiple times but Bethesda announced on Wednesday that the game officially went gold, meaning that the master disk has been submitted for publishing, so those who’ve pre-ordered or are simply awaiting its release can breathe a sigh of relief that another delay is not on the way and it will launch on September 6. Here are a couple of other quotes from Starfield developers Emil Pagliarulo and Will Shen in regard to being asked about their favorite details of the game.
“I think what I really love is that, although humans are living in space, and our aesthetic is very much “NASApunk,” this is a very lived-in universe. And you can see it everywhere. You know, everyone loves the sandwiches. But it’s the books that are lying around, the notes on bulletin boards, the environmental storytelling that our level designers and world artists are so good at. So all, I’m a slow typer, and somewhat typo obsessed… Totally love the work from our voice actors, too. And the music. And sound effects. And clothes. lol Buttons! We do love our buttons. Oh, I do want to mention this, if you haven’t heard about it. Adam Savage and team are building a filming model of the Frontier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuM_1xSQCFw
And that ship, man. And all the ships – the level of detail is insane.
-Emil Pagliarulo
“I look really closely at all our outfits. You can see seams, materials, especially on the spacesuits (Constellation members have patches on their spacesuits and they’re tied to what skills they have). We also love buttons. There’s a lot of buttons.”
-Will Shen