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00:00 Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're looking at 10 things Starfield got scientifically right and wrong.
00:07 For this list, we'll be looking at the times Bethesda's hit RPG is painfully accurate,
00:12 and the times it takes some liberties with reality.
00:15 [music]
00:18 "Welcome to Constellation. We have a lot to talk about."
00:22 Right. The aesthetics.
00:24 "This is all we've been working towards."
00:27 "Jemisin route looks good."
00:30 "We've come to the beginning of humanity's final journey."
00:34 Space agencies are all on an endless mission to get people interested in space,
00:39 bringing more people into the field and hoping that a bigger public interest in space will get them more funding.
00:45 So, it wasn't surprising to see multiple top-level space agencies,
00:50 in this case, NASA and ESA, the European Space Agency, weighing in on Starfield.
00:56 Both agencies have praised Starfield for its realism,
01:00 as well as its ability to get millions of people interested in outer space.
01:05 ESA has also praised Starfield's art direction and NASA punk aesthetic,
01:11 which makes Starfield one of the most realistic-looking space games out there.
01:15 In space research, making something that works is far more important than something that looks futuristic,
01:21 and that's what Starfield stays true to.
01:24 "Ha! That fun, huh? Not the most gentle push into the great mysteries of space, but hey, been there."
01:32 Wrong. Black holes.
01:35 "Now that we are in orbit, it might be wise to test all controls and systems to ensure they are not on the verge of catastrophic failure."
01:44 Now, technically, this isn't something Starfield really got wrong.
01:49 The game's map stretches out about 50 light-years, which isn't all that large in the grand scheme of things.
01:56 The total diameter of the Milky Way is over 100,000 light-years, after all.
02:01 The nearest known black hole to Earth is Gaia BH1, over 1,500 light-years away.
02:08 So, it makes sense for there not to be any in the game's map.
02:12 However, black holes are notoriously hard to detect,
02:16 and many players were dreaming of encountering a black hole in Starfield from the moment the game was announced.
02:23 It's got plenty more out-there plot points,
02:26 so we really think that the idea of a black hole hiding somewhere in the game map is a missed opportunity.
02:32 Unless... of course, we just haven't found it yet.
02:35 [Music]
02:48 Right. Spacesuits in Zero Gravity.
02:51 "I have a good feeling about you."
02:53 "Grab group hug now, or at the end of the shift."
02:55 "Ugh. One of these days, Hela, I am going to leave you behind."
03:00 "Promises, promises."
03:02 Moving around in Zero Gravity is tricky.
03:05 And existing spacesuits are very bulky.
03:08 Starfield's spacesuits aren't quite as unwieldy as in real life.
03:12 But, they do have a key feature that aids mobility in microgravity.
03:17 Compressed air.
03:19 While floating around in space, you'll see little blasts of air released from your suit,
03:24 which help propel you in the desired direction.
03:27 Starfield isn't the first game to utilize this.
03:30 It was also part of the spacesuit design in Dead Space 2.
03:34 And the recent Dead Space remake.
03:36 This is something often overlooked, but crucial to Zero-G environments.
03:41 And it was great to see it incorporated into Starfield.
03:44 [Music]
03:50 Wrong. Soviet Space Program.
03:52 "We're all here because we're committed to the biggest question of all."
03:58 "What's out there?"
04:02 This is another thing that's maybe not wrong, but a clear missed opportunity.
04:07 Starfield has a huge interest in NASA history.
04:11 As you can find the remnants of NASA and its technology throughout the game.
04:16 But NASA isn't the only space agency out there.
04:19 And it would have been nice to see some other areas of space history represented.
04:24 After all, the Soviet Union made many advances in space.
04:29 The first satellite, first humans in space, first probe to land on Venus' surface,
04:34 the first lunar rover, and even the first space station.
04:38 None of that heritage really appears in Starfield, which is a shame.
04:43 As early as 1975, Russia and America were able to work together in space
04:48 with the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission.
04:51 But apparently, not in Starfield.
04:53 "I don't care what kind of lies Barrett programmed that robot to say."
04:57 "We're taking that ship!"
04:59 Right. Titan.
05:01 "Welcome to New Homestead. Please make your way to the building at the end of the path."
05:06 "Stay safe, and enjoy your visit."
05:09 While we often think of the Moon and Mars as the best places to set up permanent human settlements,
05:15 and Starfield does have a large Martian city in Cydonia,
05:19 there's another location in the solar system far better suited to human life.
05:24 Titan.
05:25 Saturn's largest moon, Titan certainly isn't perfect with its methane lakes and cold temperatures.
05:32 But it does have a thick atmosphere, giving it a lot of protection from solar radiation.
05:38 If you visit Titan and Starfield, you'll find the modest settlement of New Homestead,
05:44 one of the first human bases on another world.
05:47 New Homestead is also home to a museum about humanity's first forays into space travel,
05:53 and is more in touch with its Earth history than any other place in the settled systems.
05:59 "Well, what did we think of the tour?"
06:01 "Very informative. I didn't know about the methane harvesters before coming here."
06:05 Wrong. Atmospheric pressure.
06:08 If a planet or moon is terrestrial, you can land on it in Starfield.
06:19 Sure, you might get a few status ailments if it's particularly hostile,
06:23 but exploring planets is never that dangerous.
06:27 There's one big thing missing from the game's physics, however. Pressure.
06:32 Yes, there is no real system to stimulate higher atmospheric pressures in Starfield,
06:37 which is how you're able to go and walk around very easily on the surface of Venus.
06:42 In reality, the pressure on Venus's surface is over a thousand times greater than on Earth's.
06:49 So you would struggle to walk and jump at all.
06:52 This could be because such a system was too difficult to implement,
06:56 or because Starfield's lack of vehicles would make planet traversal extremely boring if it was incorporated.
07:02 Right. Food.
07:11 "I steal all the sandwiches and put them, you know, in my cargo hold that I have specifically for sandwiches."
07:17 "I don't want to play the hero."
07:19 You'll see all kinds of food products throughout Starfield,
07:22 many of them in vacuum-sealed aluminum packages,
07:26 as well as water stored in bags and hard liquor in lightweight juice boxes.
07:31 This is all pretty accurate to the way food is stored for astronauts in space,
07:35 with lots of canned and vacuum-sealed products.
07:39 Astronaut food is notoriously bad,
07:42 though a lot of research has been done into improving it over the years.
07:46 And yes, lots of early astronaut food in real life came in bite-sized cube-form factor,
07:52 just like the stuff the Chunks restaurants sell throughout the settled systems.
07:56 The popular sandwiches are accurate, too.
07:59 Astronaut John Young notoriously smuggled a corned beef sandwich into Gemini 3 in 1965.
08:07 "Hello, stranger. I just finished cooking up some food."
08:10 "If you want to come on over, just pop on by."
08:13 Wrong. Dogfights.
08:15 "You've proven an adequate pilot."
08:18 "Are you familiar with ship combat tactics?"
08:21 "Because that's a Crimson Fleet ship bringing its weapons to bear."
08:25 While Starfield goes for hard science fiction in some areas,
08:29 in others, it lets the expectations of the genre rule it.
08:33 That's very clear in the case of outer space dogfights.
08:37 Dogfights are a staple in classic sci-fi movies like Star Wars and many other space games.
08:44 But, unfortunately, they're not realistic.
08:48 You'll just never have that kind of mobility in a spaceship.
08:52 If you were going to have a space battle, it would be more accurate to be modeled after naval combat,
08:58 with large, slow ships rolling up alongside each other and firing laser cannons until one of them explodes.
09:05 Flying into a Starcraft debris field would also annihilate your ship in real life.
09:10 But, again, it's not just Starfield that gets this wrong.
09:14 And the fights are fun.
09:16 "Be advised, this ship is armed. You have been warned. Now what is it?"
09:21 Right. Grav drives.
09:23 The name "gravity drive" doesn't necessarily make sense.
09:33 But the drives in Starfield are the very same warp drives we've been seeing in science fiction and theoretical physics for decades.
09:40 There is a warp drive model, called an "Alcubierre drive" after its designer,
09:46 that can exist without violating the laws of physics.
09:49 It works by bending space-time around a craft, the craft itself contained in a bubble.
09:56 This means a craft can arrive at a destination faster than it would have if it were traveling at the speed of light.
10:02 But without actually breaking the speed of light locally because of the way space is bending.
10:08 That's precisely how the grav drives in Starfield work.
10:12 Though you've still got the problem of meeting the extraordinary energy requirements.
10:17 "Starship Frontier, this is United Colony Security. Maintain course and prepare to be scanned."
10:24 Right. Helium-3.
10:28 "Calvert! No! Ah, no, no, no! It's a laser, not a fledgehammer! Ease up!"
10:35 Finally, and still related to the grav drives, we have the most valuable resource in the galaxy. Helium-3.
10:43 Helium-3 is a stable isotope that is a key candidate for a nuclear fusion reactor's fuel source in real life.
10:50 And how do they power those grav drives in Starfield? With Helium-3-fueled nuclear reactors, of course.
10:57 And if you get into the outpost building mechanic, creating an outpost to mine Helium-3 will be hugely beneficial since everybody wants it.
11:06 We have to credit Bethesda with going for a real fuel source instead of relying on exotic matter to power its spaceships
11:13 like the antimatter in No Man's Sky or dark matter in Futurama.
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11:34 [music]