A Chimera's Hoard

Thank you! :DDDD!!!! I'm rather fond of writing scallywags with a conscience, lol, I'm happy you could see him so clearly in your mind when you were reading! :D What a compliment!

Pretty much took the words right out of my mouth.

The difficulty in academia or a career after spending years thinking you wouldn’t be alive long enough for any of it to matter.

The exhaustion that comes from self awareness and self soothing, with the constant voice in your head saying “don’t go backwards.”

How lonely it is to watch the people your age starting families when you’re just barely learning what stable relationships are, and the sudden societal pressure of being “up against a clock” for these kinds of things.

The judgement from others if you change your image or interests this late in the game just because you finally figured out who you really are under the demons.

Be kind to those who are developing and blooming after years of not planning on being here long. We are living a life we absolutely didn’t think we’d have, and it’s hard enough without society reminding us there’s expectations of our age.

We didn’t get to be young; we were too busy fighting battles few know.

You give me a lovable ensemble cast I will draw you a line up, done it with dragon age twice, Star Trek the original series, and now Starfield. I do not enjoy the four main companion’s default outfits, so here they are, plus my two spacefarers and Hadrian and Cora, in the alt outfits I keep them in. I used a mod to access npc civilian clothing and some general outfits found in vanilla. This sandbox game has captivated me, I feel at home on my two ships, on my outposts and in their cities and having them all following me around. Oh to be a spacefarer with a found family of science nerds and weirdos….

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Thank you!

Ive spent hundreds of hours researching and reading on Bethesda devs and artists and their thoughts and opinions on game design. Ive also spent hundreds of hours digging thru examples of their work and have developed a pretty good idea of how they make games and the unbelievable effort they put into them.

One thing that is abundantly clear is they all LOVE what they do and they are 120% aware that despite trying their best, sometimes their ideas just fall flat and fail.

Those failures sting, often very badly, but multiple devs have said Todd loves to let people experiment. Do they have a cool idea, and a way to make it work? Then Todd is all for trying to implement it.

Sometimes these attempts fail too! But its all about passion and professionalism. Eg. Skyrim werewolves almost didnt make it into the game if it weren't for a single devs passion for making that gameplay system work and convincing Todd it was worth keeping for the final gam.

Trial and error, trial and error, and more trial and error. It takes time and a massive team effort to make these games we love (or hate). Bethesda devs are literally spending years of their lives making these games. If you consider yourself a fan (or an informed critic) please *do* give criticism as long as its constructive and fair, but dont forget to compliment and praise as well when it's clearly deserved.

Fair criticism and genuine appreciation are some of the most invaluable things fans can give back to game devs.

Folks tend to jump on the "blind hatred" or "blind praise" bandwagons, and neither could be *less* useful to game devs.

Can we normalize this?

Spacefarers🚀

Tohka, Frederick, and Sausage (my OCs)

it IS a mature story, but not in the typical sex/gore/violence way. it's a story that deals with grief, mental health, corruption, power imbalance, clinging onto your humanity, facing an unsavoury past! sure it's a bit clumsy at times, and the topics aren't blatantly in your face.

the well right under new atlantis?? the imbalance between the two is a delightful topic to think about. or barrett being too happy to throw himself into danger could be implied that he doesn't really care if he dies or not, in a borderline suicidal way. sam and lilian? if a player grew up with bethesda games from the start, there's bound to be at least one who struggles with co-parenting and resonates with sam's story.

Like what happens if you let billionaires make decisions for us all? Sure, let’s ignore the problems on Planet Earth and head to the stars instead - even if the cost is billions of lives, the most diverse ecosystem known thus far, oh, and only the privileged few got to escape and survive. *shudders*

Here’s a nightmarish monster that can seemingly spring out of nowhere, control people’s minds, and slaughter thousands.

Here’s another leader controlling an entire planet, keeping his people alive by selling magic beans to farmers and then strip-mining their properties when their crops fail. Framed as a likeable good guy.

Here’s a bunch of veterans who can’t accept the war is over.

Here’s a science experiment that split time and space, you can either save the bunch of people living a good life, or the one person who is trapped in the nightmare (or a secret third option).

Here’s a band of pirates and you’re going undercover, you’re going to build relationships with these people - then turn on them for the greater good? Or side with them for great personal gain?

Here’s a shady corporation that develops tech that can control people’s reactions. And they want to put this highly experimental tech in your brain, then control the market so no one else has this dangerous advantage.

Here’s a group of zealots that want to force their way of life on the rest of the settled systems through fear and religion.

Here’s yet another experiment on aliens that went horribly wrong and killed everyone (rinse and repeat).

Oh no, we drilled too deep out of greed and let loose even more monsters.

Sentient AI is so feared it’s considered contraband.

Sorry, we cloned the worst people in human history, just to see if we could. Oh no, they escaped, my bad!

Oh, and now you have to make the decision on whether you abandon everyone you know and love for a do-over and a chance of learning the meaning of life, be warned - do it enough times and you’ll eventually turn into the bad guy.

Okay, okay, I’ll stop but consider this. All of Bethesda’s games before Starfield you are thrown into a world hundreds or thousands of years into a fantasy story. You start in the middle.