Todd Howard justifies Starfield’s “ridiculous” lack of land-based vehicles
BethesdaStarfield lets you craft and pilot a staggering amount of space-faring starships. Unfortunately, once you land its traversal options are somewhat limited. Todd Howard explains why.
Starfield is an absolutely massive game both within its contained galaxy and out here in the real world. Xbox has already said it’s their most-played next-gen exclusive and now it’s Bethesda’s most successful launch of all time.
Players are having a ball with Starfield’s ship-building and crafting things like Planet Express delivery ships and X-Wings. Despite the boundary limits of the game’s tile structure causing controversy before launch, many are now finding the massive areas on the game’s 1,000+ planets a little painful to explore.
Starfield’s community of players has even gone as far as to cry out for some land-based vehicles. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Game Director Todd Howard explained why his team decided against them.
Starfield players have touched down on planets and are hoping for something to aid them in traversing the game’s open spaces. They feel the standard methods of running and boost packs aren’t cutting it.
“It does feel like it’s pretty necessary, even with the map boundaries. There is too much walking/jumping right now,” one Reddit user put forward. “Agreed, I would love a simple speeder bike or something to get a bit faster to unknown locations,” another concurred.
Todd Howard spoke to Bloomberg recently and explained Bethesda’s decision to keep land-based vehicles out of Starfield and have players travel on foot. “It lets us really, for the players, make it an experience where we know how fast they’re seeing things,” Howard explained.
“In one sense, you do have a vehicle, you obviously have your spaceship so you can go around space, but then on the surface, you do have a jetpack which you can upgrade,” Howard continued. “Obviously, planets have different levels of gravity, which makes that (travel) unique for many planets.”
BethesdaDespite Howard’s insistence on jetpack travel, many players aren’t happy with their performance. “Either improve the jetpacks so we can fly, or we need ground vehicles! It’s ridiculous landing on Mars and there not being rovers everywhere,” one user expressed.
In light of Howard’s comments, players are now turning to the modding community for help. Many are confident that modders will solve the issue “pretty soon”.
