Bethesda may not have been ready to discuss
Starfield in-depth at their own E3 conference, but during one of the E3 Coliseum panels featuring game designer Tood Howard, the upcoming sci-fi space game inevitably came up. And who better to discuss it with than prominant engineer Elon Musk (Tesla SpaceX)?
The duo took the stage together for a lengthy conversation about "video games, cars, space and everything in between." Among the topics discussed was space travel and technology. In discussing the topic, Howard briefly talked about
Starfield, describing space travel in the game.
Howard revealed that he actually traveled to SpaceX to get a better idea of the sort of technology that currently exists and how it might improve in the coming years.
"The space stuff as we look at Starfield, that's where we kind of look and go, 'How are these things actually going to work in the future," Howard explained.
Additional dialogue between the two revealed that Starfield, while a sci-fi game, will be somewhat grounded in reality. More than anything, Bethesda wants it to feel authentic.
"How we approach it so it feels - it's a game, but it still has an authenticity, like, okay, this could happen. We talked about what kind of fuel do the ships use. Helium-3 which we can debate whether that's a good power source for space ships. Or how does physics work in space and gravity and those kind of things," Howard continued. Some of the things Howard the the developers discussed while on their visit to SpaceX was the limits of the physics of the new engines and
"how far could this go in current reality and how do we move beyond that in a fictional way?"
But while the technology behind the space travel in
Starfield will be somewhat based on realistic technology, Howard explained that they still had to
"gamify it some so that it's not as punishing as actual space travel."
Still, for a sci-fi game, it sounds like there will be some risks associated with space travel in
Starfield. Howard compared it to
"flight in the '40s."
"It's dangerous," he warned.
"It's still dangerous to go and explore, even though lots of people do it."
Does this mean you can expect random malfunctions on your ship that need fixing? Will something break that forces you to make an emergency landing on a nearby planet? It's certainly intriguing, but with
Starfield so far out, it's unclear when we'll learn more.
Despite being teased at E3 2018,
Starfield was absent this year. It's almost certainly a next-gen title, so we'll have to wait at least a while longer before we see it.