PAST Comes Back To Life
So recently I've been feeling the masochistic pull to reinstall Starfield, to poke at it tentatively with a sharp stick to see if there was any life left in it. I had walked away from this in late 2024, in exhaustion and disgust, swearing never to touch it again; I actually deleted my whole Starfield dev setup and said good riddance to the whole thing. I was happy and relieved to be done with it.
My reasons were many and varied and well founded. But two years on, both Starfield and I are in different places, and I kinda wanted to see if there was anything that my fatigued and frustrated brain missed back then. So I cobbled together whatever dev fragments I still had and started messing with my PAST (Pack Attack Starfield Troopers) prototype again.
And was very surprised to discover that there were still things I could do with it.
Please don't get me wrong here: Starfield is still a deeply flawed game, and if you're looking for me to go Starfield-fan here, boy you have the wrong guy. I reserve my right to point out the mistakes made and the reasons why they were made.
However.
There is work that can be done here, and the PAST prototype core AI is now already at about 85% of what PANPC is in Fallout 4. Bethesda is no longer undermining us, and the army of hype-driven fans who wanted it to be Star Citizen have mostly moved on.
Is anyone still interested? I have no idea, but I'm still interested to see what can be accomplished in this gameplay system, and my observation right now is: quite a lot.
I recorded this video yesterday of a test run through an Ecliptic industrial facility, using the latest PACE iteration. Again, I know, not perfect; not claiming to be. But progress. And progress is good enough for me.
G.