Highlights
One Starfield player's attempt at rescuing an NPC had a hilariously tragic ending when the NPC walked into their crosshairs and died to friendly fire.
Fans are pointing to this incident as proof of Starfield's NPC AI problem, calling attention to similar issues in Fallout 4 and urging Bethesda to address this deficiency.
Although Bethesda may not make official adjustments to the character AI, modders might step in to rectify the reckless behavior of the NPCs in Starfield.
A recent attempt by a player in Starfield to rescue an NPC ended in a hilariously disastrous outcome. The video of their tragicomic venture quickly went viral on social media shortly after Starfield was released for early access on September 1.
Although much has been said about Starfield's use of procedural generation to populate its numerous planets, it is important to emphasize that the game does not rely solely on this method. While each planet shares the same topography for all players, they also offer a range of handcrafted locations. The dynamic procedural generation only comes into play in areas of the game that have less pre-made content. In such instances, the game automatically generates points of interest (POIs) to reward exploration if there are none nearby the player.
While investigating a point of interest (POI) on the Procyon 3 planet within the Procyon A star system, Reddit user sprinklep0p encountered a survivor of a radio tower attack. The survivor sought assistance in reaching their spacecraft for an escape. The NPC mentioned that the ship was nearby, but the escort mission took longer than expected. After a 10-minute walk, the duo eventually arrived at the spacecraft. However, their conversation was abruptly interrupted by a hostile enemy called the Hunting Shieldshell. The Starfield player swiftly reacted to the attack, but unfortunately, their attempt to defeat the giant crab-like creature ended in a tragically comical manner. The NPC mistakenly walked into the player's line of fire, resulting in friendly fire and their subsequent death.
Fans who watched the shared clip expressed both amusement at the failed rescue attempt and concerns regarding the behavior of Starfield's NPCs. Some critics argued that the NPCs' lack of awareness and self-preservation mirrored issues seen in Bethesda's previous single-player RPG, Fallout 4. These fans believe that it is crucial for the studio to address this glaring shortcoming in the game's artificial intelligence.
Previously, the developer primarily focused on releasing patches for its AAA titles to fix major bugs and crashes, rather than addressing systemic issues related to the implementation of features like NPC AI. While it is unlikely that official adjustments will be made to the character AI in Bethesda's space-faring RPG, modders working on Starfield may take it upon themselves to address the reckless behavior of the NPCs. Starfield is set to be released on September 6 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
