Hostile ships are intentionally dumb according to Todd Howard in Starfield so that you do not end up in an infinite battle.
Who is it about?
- Todd Howard is Game Director and Executive Producer for Bethesda Game Studios.
- Howard is responsible for the development of Starfield as well as the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series and leads Bethesda together with Studio Director Ashley Cheng.
- As Starfield’s “Lead Designer” Emil Pagliarulo announced on Twitter in July, Howard was the only person at Bethesda who was allowed to speak about new information regarding Starfield before its release .
On September 25, 2023, Todd Howard was a guest on the “AIAS Game Makers Notebook Podcast” and was asked what challenges the developers faced when designing space combat and the freedoms in space.
In his response, Howard talked among other things about how smart Bethesda made the AI of hostile ships (via YouTube).
“Hey, player, why don’t you just shoot at me?”
What does Howard say about hostile ships in Starfield? Howard says in the podcast that he liked the old “Mech Warrior” games, where the pace of combat is a bit slower and you deal with systems and energy allocations. It was important to them to find a way for the player to understand, and for the game not to pause.
While that part worked quite well, the AI then became a hurdle. Howard explains that it is very easy to make hostile ships in space “really, really smart” – especially in certain physical conditions.
Then he adds that the developers had to make the AI “really dumb” to avoid a kind of endless “jousting”. Space battles should not play out like a medieval tournament where two knights ride towards each other and try to injure their opponent with an attack (a lance).
Howard then explained that the hostile ships must fly, turn around, and then basically say: “Hey player, why don’t you just shoot at me for a while?”
How important is space combat in Starfield? Fighting with spacecraft is an essential part of Starfield’s gameplay. You not only have to engage in space fights against hostile ships throughout the main and side quests but will also be attacked by pirates and mercenaries in random events.
Therefore, it is important that the battles in space feel good and are not too frustrating for the players.
In addition to a dumb AI, your space battles can also become significantly easier with a good ship. On MeinMMO you can see 5 of the best ships that you can buy or receive as a reward for a quest:
The 5 best ships in Starfield – What they can do and how you can get them
