Games that use procedural terrain generation like Elite: Dangerous or No Man’s Sky usually feature worlds consisting of a single biome, and if we have seen even a slice of a given planet, we’ve seen practically everything it has to offer.
Fans anticipating Starfield, however, received a hint that in Bethesda’s upcoming game the alien landscapes would be more complex and offer more variety.
“In Starfield, each planet will have unique biomes. The flora and fauna you will find will reflect their characteristics,” – reads the Twtter of Bethesda’s Italian branch.
🪐 In #Starfield, ogni pianeta avrà biomi unici.
La flora e la fauna che troverai saranno un riflesso delle sue caratteristiche. pic.twitter.com/vX6JCPFt48
— Bethesda Italia (@bethesda_it) December 9, 2022
Players saw a clue in the above-quoted post by Bethesda’s Italian branch. A reason for the discussion on online forums is the use of the word “each” and the use of the plural in the word “biomes” in the description.
Although Italian fans have clarified that in this case the word “biomes” would always appear in the plural, but internet users still do not believe that each of the 1000 planets would have a unique environment.
Forum members on Reddit were quick to conclude that they most likely meant “unique mixtures of environments on each planet,” because it would be too time-consuming for the developers to create 1,000 different biomes.
It’s another thing to prepare a few or a dozen types of environments, which can later be combined and mixed in any way for unique effects.
The usual approach is that a desert planet is entirely covered with sand and an ice planet with permafrost, and there’s not much variety.
Reality is much more complex, and you only have to look at our native Earth to see that even in an area as small as the Polish territory, you can end up with a wide variety of environments – from snow-capped mountains to misty forests to wetlands and urban agglomerations.
If the fans are right, then landing on a single planet in Starfield we could hit deserts as well as cosmic forests or frozen highlands.
Examples of different biomes can be seen in the first gameplay footage released in June. Also, in the last video of the Q&A series, a planet can be seen that seems to contain diverse environments.
