“I love the list of traits, it’s great, but each one also has its negative part, although in the game there is a way, like an activity or mission, with which to eliminate that trait, so you don’t have to start over if you don’t you like your character,” Howard explains of Starfield’s trait system. “Each of them can be completed to remove the entire trait for the rest of the game.” Several of the available features can be seen in the video. The system lets you choose three and some are incompatible.
Regarding the dialogue system, Howard explains that they have worked on many options, but that finally “we have returned to what I would say is a classic Bethesda dialogue system in which you see the character, their gestures, and you have a series of of options to choose from. Starfield is a game with more content than previous Bethesda Game Studios titles, so the number of quests and dialogue has increased. Starfield has over 250,000 lines of dialogue compared to 111,000 in Fallout 4 and 60,000 in Skyrim.
Regarding the persuasion system, Howard explains that “it seems to be part of the dialogue”, but points are spent to convince the interlocutor. “It seems like a natural thing to do,” says the developer. “Not like we go into another mode where it doesn’t… That doesn’t seem like normal dialogue. But what he intends is to persuade you to get what I want. What is not yet clear is where the points to spend on the persuasion system will come from.
On what kind of sci-fi Starfield fits into, Todd Howard goes for hard sci-fi. The title is based on scientific accuracy and logic, but the studio has made some concessions. “We were very interested in fuel and gravitational engines,” explains Howard. “And when we tested that, we realized that it would be very strict with the player. The ship would run out of fuel and the game would stop. So we’ve changed it and now the jump fuel and engine set where it can go at once, but the fuel won’t run out.”
Lastly, for Starfield the development team has drawn inspiration from titles like SunDog: Frozen Legacy and the paper-and-pencil RPG Traveler.
