Summary
Starfieldhas a surprisingly intricate system for simulating a planet’s biosphere and its wildlife, as one player discovered during a survey mission. Fromsurveying Krete and Jemison inStarfield, to tackling the more dangerous corners of the Settled Systems, planet exploration seems to be a huge hit with a lot of players. The gameplay loop of scanning a planet’s resources, flora, fauna, and exploring its points of interest has been lauded as one ofStarfield’s biggest strengths, though many fans would agree that land vehicles would make the experience even better.
Whilespace travel inStarfieldleaves a lot to be desired, landing on a random planet, establishing an outpost, and roaming the surrounding wilderness is where the game most closely approaches the Bethesda sandbox model. It’s suggested for players to start building outposts inStarfieldas early as possible, so that they can benefit from a passive source of income to finance their budding fleet. However, obtaining and selling survey data, as well as completing survey missions is an equally effective way of earning credits inStarfield.
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To that end, players have to interact with the game’s fauna, and ICCanada not only noticed an impressive detail aboutStarfield’s AI, but also how it can be used to obtain a complete survey on anyStarfieldplanet that has at least three lifeforms. Namely, any species inStarfieldcan be classified as either hunters, prey, or scavengers. The genius thing is that their behaviors are also programmed according to the category they belong to – meaning thatStarfieldplayers can follow their behavioral patterns to find any lifeforms they’re still missing.
In ICCanada’s case, their character struggled to find scavengers during survey missions, and sure enough – by following the hunters to the prey species, and waiting near the prey corpses, the scavenger species showed up. While other games have used AI in similar ways, this feature inStarfieldhelps make the planets feel much more alive, and it’s a natural progression of the strides Bethesda made with its Radiant AI. Although Todd Howard has revealed thatofficial mod support forStarfieldwill only arrive in 2024, the modding community will no doubt expand on the game’s flora and fauna system further.
Some players have noted thatStarfield’s background NPCs are a step-downfrom past Bethesda titles, but they have largely given praise to the game’s companions. It’s quite possible that one of the upcoming DLCs for Starfield will allow players to tame wild species, and maybe even use them as followers similarly toFallout 4’s Dogmeat. For now, at least, many fans would agree that the wildlife system was built under a good foundation.
Starfieldis available now on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
