Starfield

[Dweller_Benthos]

It's essentially Fallout 4 with some multiplayer elements tossed in. You can pretty much ignore everyone else playing and just do your thing as you want. Some quests and especially boss fights are easier or only possible with other players though. A single player usually can't do enough damage to the bosses to finish the fight in time, at least not without a super optimized character build. Server events also are open to everyone to join and usually entail fighting off a lot of enemies that would also be tricky for a single player to do. But the main quest lines are possible by a single player as long as you have a semi-decent build and weapons. That's one thing that tripped me up early on, I thought I got lucky and found a nice 50 cal sniper rifle only to find it hardly does damage unless you have the sniper and rifleman perks maxed out which I didn't. Right now I'm running a shotgun build which is unusual for me as I don't usually like shotguns but this a special one released for one of the scoreboard seasons a while back, does a good amount of damage, has crippling and freezing chance and with all the shotgun perks is quite formidable against most of the lower level enemies. Then I've also added a new flame thrower type weapon released with the last scoreboard that is very effective against most enemies, usually only taking one shot to kill them. Any that are resistant to flame damage usually get taken down easily with the shotgun. I also carry a couple other "fun" weapons like a multi-mirv nuke launcher that combined with the explosive perk is a good way to clear out a lot of enemies at once, but the ammo is super heavy so I don't use it much. I also have a machine gun that has the vampire legendary attribute that gives you health as you do damage to an enemy, so during a boss fight I can just stand there shooting and any damage I take is healed by the vampire effect making me essentially unkillable, at least until ammo runs out lol.

So it's a fun game like Fallout 3 or 4 but with a different take on the way it handles things. Just be sure to turn on pacifist mode so there's little chance of anyone attacking you, which does happen, but very very rarely, at least that I've seen. There are a few specific instances where PvP is enabled, like when claiming a workshop, but those aren't absolutely necessary for playing the game.

[PZ]

Dang, sounds like an online only thing I might check it out one of these days, but will definitely watch gameplay to see if it is my kind of thing. I'm happy with Fallout 4 and have not even begin to tap into all I can do in that dystopian world.

Thanks for the explanation. I've occasionally wondered about the game and now it makes sense. 

[Dweller_Benthos]

I live streamed the new quest line this weekend, here's the VODs

<videos expired>

You can skip around them to see what it's like if you want. They'll be live for a week.

[PZ]

Interesting videos 

I definitely like the look of the map, and the pip-boy. The graphics seem to be quite a bit better than FO4.

In the scene where you helped kill the three storm goliaths, I assume the numbered names are other gamers. Do you need to be careful not to inadvertently shoot them?  When it is over and you are collecting loot from dead bodies, etc., is it a race among gamers to get to the items or do you each get to loot the  same things and each get what you wanted?

Is West Virginia the only map or are there are other places as well?  I think I'll put the game on my wish list and wait for a good sale. In the meantime, it does not look like anyone bothered you and everyone seemed to be doing what they should be - kinda cool.

[Dweller_Benthos]

The Pip-Boy is a skin from an event a couple months ago, I just haven't changed it. The event was for the Abraxo cleaner and you got various awards for doing various tasks while having the Abraxo skin on your Pip-boy. So that's why it looks like that. I have several skins for it that I change when the mood strikes.

Yeah everyone else in the Storm Goliath fight were other players, the numbers being their current level. In those events there is no PvP and you don't take or give damage to other players so it's a free for all pretty much. With pacifist mode on, there are only a few rare occasions you can engage in PvP and pretty much no one does. I think the entire time I've played the game I was killed by another player once, and that was just after taking a workshop, which is one of the only PvP zones and only while it's being taken. If he'd waited 10 seconds, I would have already left as I was just taking it to complete a daily task. But it is trivial if you die, the only thing you drop are the junk items you have on you and I rarely carry much of that as I have a lot already and don't want to use up the space in my stash as it is limited by weight. When you loot bodies after an event like that, all the loot is specific to you, other players don't see your loot and you don't see theirs. So there's no race to get the best loot, and with area wide looting, you can grab stuff from several bodies at once. You get awards for completing the event as well which I think are the same for everyone or at least similar. Probably depends on your level, as getting a low level legendary weapon isn't much use to a high level player. Also, enemies are matched to your level, so as a beginner, you'll see enemies that you can deal with for the most part, bosses of course are different. But a low level player and a high level player could both look at the same enemy and though it would be the same, say a ghoul, the high level player would be up against a level 50 or 100 where the low level player would probably only have a level 10 even though it's the same enemy. The low level player could easily kill it with a pipe pistol where the high level player would need a much stronger weapon.

The West Virginia map is the main one, there are two other smaller ones, The Pitt (Pittsburgh) and Atlantic City. There are quests for each and repeatable missions in each or you can just go there and wander around. Both are for higher level players and enemies are tougher.

It is kind of neat to have other players around and for a few missions and quests having others with you makes it much easier, and for some like boss fights, the only possible way to even complete it. I usually join a casual team which lives up to it's name, it's casual, and the players rarely interact with each other, the reason is there's a bonus in damage resistance and other things you can get with the right perk cards activated, so I always try to join a team for that. The other team options are for running expeditions or daily ops, things like that, which I rarely do anymore.

[PZ]

Thanks for the detailed explanation, D_B 

It sounds more like the kind of game I'd like to try. It's now on my Steam wish list for a price reduction. might see you there one of these days 

[Dweller_Benthos]

That would be cool, I can show you around lol. And maybe once you get going on one of the main quests I can tag along and get the achievement for running it. If you're on a team that the leader is doing a quest you get credit for completing that quest as well. Unless they patched that, but I don't think so. Anyway, one quest has two options to complete it, and there's an achievement for each option so to get both you have to either do it twice (using another player character and essentially starting over to do the second one) or joining a team to do it the second time. For example, I have the achievement for completing the main story line which involves launching a nuke but have never done so myself (it's a convoluted process, I may do it eventually) and I got it by being on a team with someone who did it. So getting that achievement would knock another one off as I only have three more to get, the other two are a bit tedious requiring killing 100 of a certain enemy with a certain weapon and that gets old after a while so I chip away at it now and then when I'm bored.

[PZ]

Sounds like a plan. I hope it comes on sale soon so we can travel the Fallout world at the same time - would be loads of fun 

I'll be sure to let you know when I have it so you can start me off in the correct direction. I'll follow your lead on what to do. As you probably already know, I'm kind of a casual gamer, thus am not aware of the fine details of many games.  

[Dweller_Benthos]

Sure, sounds like fun!