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Starfield news just keeps rolling in and today it has been confirmed by Todd Howard, that 90% of the 1000+ Starfield planets won’t have any life on them. Alongside this, Howard also noted that for some planets he wants players to feel like they’re “one of the only people – or the only person – to ever visit this planet.”
Speaking on the Kinda Funny Xcast, Todd Howard said that when creating around 1,000 planets for Starfield “there’s no way we’re going to go and handcraft an entire planet.” Instead, planets will have handcrafted “individual locations” including “the main cities and other quest locations.” Alongside this, Howard noted that Bethesda “have a suite of them that are generated or placed when you land, depending on that planet.”
Howard outlined that when exploring planets from orbit players would be presented with a “menu of things you could do.” He then confirmed that Bethesda is, “pushing it, about 10% of those planets, have life on them, we’re pushing it to the edge of what do people think, what planets are in that goldilocks zone, versus planets that have resources.”
Quoting Buzz Aldrin, Howard said he thinks there’s a certain beauty to “magnificent desolation.” He wants players to feel like they’re “one of the only people – or the only person – to ever visit this planet.” Howard continued, “It’s a difficult design thing, if you add too many things, if it’s generating too many abandoned bases or towers or things to find, it starts feeling too gamey in some of those locations.”
Howard is confident that Bethesda has done a good job of dialling “that in pretty well” saying, “It is exploration different from what we’ve had, where you’re landing, you’re exploring around that landing spot, then you’re probably going somewhere else.”
While only 10% of planets will have life in Starfield that’s still around 100 planets you’ll be able to explore. Alongside that, it could be argued that there’s a certain level of realism that comes from the inclusion of this many barren planets. While you wait for the Starfield release date, check out all the plants we know so far check out our Starfield planets guide. Starfield fans have also been praising Bethesda for a lack of celebrity characters in a subtle jab at influencer-heavy games.
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