Starfield (Bethesda Game Studios)

[Margot Robbed Me]

Some generic screenshots. Vanilla game, playing around with the bokeh/DOF sliders. I didn't see the Far Start/Plane at first because I didn't know you had to scroll the menu down. The game actually looks quite nice.

 

 

 

 

 

[Jason]

Playing this game in a second save really highlights how good this game actually can be IMO. In proper BGS fashion you can just completely ignore the main quests, even side quests, and just go out and find stuff to do that progresses your character. I'm jst doing mission board stuff atm to make some money to upgrade my ship, clearing out pirates at outposts I've never been to be, taking out ships etc. Making an effort to board the ships I'm taking out and clearing them out one by one for the extra loot, last one I boarded I must've knocked out the grav drive cause it turned into a zero G shootout inside a tight narrow ship which was fun.

[Mister Pink]

13 minutes ago, Jason said:

Playing this game in a second save really highlights how good this game actually can be IMO. In proper BGS fashion you can just completely ignore the main quests, even side quests, and just go out and find stuff to do that progresses your character. I'm jst doing mission board stuff atm to make some money to upgrade my ship, clearing out pirates at outposts I've never been to be, taking out ships etc. Making an effort to board the ships I'm taking out and clearing them out one by one for the extra loot, last one I boarded I must've knocked out the grav drive cause it turned into a zero G shootout inside a tight narrow ship which was fun.

This is basically my game so far. I've only done two main quests. I kind of disagree with people when they say Starfield doesn't do exploration well. It's not Fallout and it'a not Skyrim but it's its own thing when it comes to exploring. 

 

But yeah, I think just doing mission board stuff, accumulating wealth, upgrading, buying and selling -  it's an immersive experience. Kind of feels like you are living in the universe rather than being a protagonist in a big story.

[Jason]

The game has as much, very likely more, handcrafted exploration content than Skyrim or FO4. There's loads to find but it's spread out and requires player agency to find so you don't really just stumble onto stuff while exploring in this game, like you can in Fallout and Skyrim. That's the nature of a space game though.

 

That being said I think one area where they could really improve the exploration is introducing more randomness into the outposts, caves, etc. In Skyrim and I think even in Fallout if I remember right they reuse tiles (rooms, corridors) a lot but interchange them to make places feel different enough each time. In Starfield however the outposts are literally identical right down to the loot spawns. If a mining outpost had some variance, a research outpost some variance, it would help quite a bit in making things feel less copy and paste. Like sure I can buy the whole idea these are prefab bases so they'll be similar but each one should in it's own way feel like it's been lived in, but that's only true for the first time you visit any specific type of outpost or base in Starfield. Hell, make it so you can stumble upon bases that are still in use, so say a research outpost where you can help out the team there and in return get rewards - or, ya'know, rob/slaughter them if yer a pirate.

 

Think I've said it before but through official patches and DLC and the modding community I really do expect so, so much of this type of stuff to come into it. I'd say the game is an 8/10 or so now, a really fun 8/10 it has to be said, but give it 2-3 years and it'll be a 10/10.

 

And yea I know, "modders will fix it" sounds like a cop out but in fairness part of the reason why BGS stick with Creation Engine is because it's so easily moddable, it's designed to be modded from day 1. It's practically a marketed feature lol.

[Failed Again]

This game has Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde, syndrome.

 

Some areas are so rich in detail (inside ships, clothing and bases- labs.

yet

 

Other areas are drab and faded looking. The tram at Mast.. maybe modders will add graffiti lol.

Do you think they'd toned down areas to eliminate cost (assets).

 

 

 

[Margot Robbed Me]

You can enter set 00155F4A to 1 in the console to unlock Class M ship parts, which are gigantic, but will make it easier to make capital ships/mothership sized ships. There are no interiors for these parts, and they don't actually link to the normal sized parts (they will snap to parts, but remain unattached). So you need to run Cheat Engine to disregard unattached modules. I thought about building an actual ship using the small parts and encasing it in the Class M modules, but excessively large ships just break the game and don't fit on most landing pads. The colors cannot be changed on the M Class parts either.

 

Here are some of the parts unlocked. The Nova engine is about as large as my entire ship.

 

 

 

M-Class engine compared to regular C class parts

 

[Jason]

Starting to mess with the builder again, idea is a small fighter, so few habs, lotta guns. Redesigned my cheap Taiyo ship into a winged fighter, I put the big Deimos hull on it cause I wanted to see it more than anything but it's way too big for what I want and the view isn't very fighter ish, so that's getting sold, which will also make it easier to just make the design I'm building towards work as the Nova and Deimos big cockpits are kinda hard to blend in. I've also intentionally put the docking bay and landing bay sticking out on the side of the wings, using the Hopetown hab corridors to connect them to the centre of the ship. Makes it a lil awkard to design around but I wanted to avoid the whole landing bay in front, docking bay on top w/ this ship.

 

[Failed Again]

Ship Builder's, you may find something here:

 

[Jason]

Pretty happy w/ this for now for a winged compact fighter, just need to level up to be able to get better reactors, weapons and shields. Think I'll pick up another ship and turn that into a bigger non-winged fighter later down the line in this save.

 

[Margot Robbed Me]

Sent the Starfield character through AI.

 

[Mister Pink]

I'm just leaving this here. Comedian and podcaster Bobby Lee showing his brother, Steve, Starfield for the first time. Without spoiling it too much, Steve is in awe. It's his first time seeing it which makes it all the worth while.  

 

 

[Margot Robbed Me]

Replaced the excessive StroudEklund ship part decals with my own ship name in a more neutral white color.

 

[Tacymist]

I always avoid using the Stroud pieces because that damn logo clashes with my color schemes. lol

[Failed Again]

Been playing SF on Series X. and I have been getting freezes. 

Anyone one else? 

 

[Themanwiththeplan]

I have recently started to get crashes on the Series S sometimes when I try to fast travel to Akila city. Not every time but defo more than I was getting when I started playing. 

[Mister Pink]

1 hour ago, Failed Again said:

Been playing SF on Series X. and I have been getting freezes. 

Anyone one else? 

 

Happened to me twice, I believe.  Once it froze for a length of time and resumed. Once it froze and I had to reboot. 

[Jason]

Did try my hand at a Nova Galactic only fighter but I find it had to make a sorta jet like shape in this game w/ the pieces we have atm, they have a tendency to look very repetitive and it's hard to fit in habs w/ them. Best suited to small 3 man fighters I think. so I've tweaked my current ship to give me a workshop and an infirmary in the wings. Had to move the landing bay under the cockpit to make it work sadly, so no more side landing bay... but hey at least I have less distance to walk.

 

I do wanna lean off using Stroud pieces my self, not cause of the logo, but just cause they are by far away the most easy to use pieces for a lot of designs, especially for wings. I wanna see if I can figure something out that uses the Taiyo pieces for my wings.

 

[Tacymist]

4 hours ago, Failed Again said:

Been playing SF on Series X. and I have been getting freezes. 

Anyone one else? 

 

 

Yes. Freezes and even a few crashes, I get them in parts of Neon and when fast traveling too. I worry how this game will run with mods, because right now it seems about as stable as FO4 is for me, and I have FO4 loaded with mods. 

 

And this is on Series X.

[Margot Robbed Me]

58 minutes ago, Jason said:

Did try my hand at a Nova Galactic only fighter but I find it had to make a sorta jet like shape in this game w/ the pieces we have atm, they have a tendency to look very repetitive and it's hard to fit in habs w/ them. Best suited to small 3 man fighters I think. so I've tweaked my current ship to give me a workshop and an infirmary in the wings. Had to move the landing bay under the cockpit to make it work sadly, so no more side landing bay... but hey at least I have less distance to walk.

 

I do wanna lean off using Stroud pieces my self, not cause of the logo, but just cause they are by far away the most easy to use pieces for a lot of designs, especially for wings. I wanna see if I can figure something out that uses the Taiyo pieces for my wings.

 

I used the Nova Galactic parts for my wings and I prefer them to Strouds aesthetically and functionally. They're a bit less chunky, and with this setup, I get six weapon hardpoints under each wing. This lets me avoid having to put weapons on the side or on top.

 

 

 

Something I rarely see used are these HopeTech fore-aft hallways that look Space Shuttle-ish. I'm trying to figure out a way to use them elegantly. I don't even know what they look like inside, but probably just like the starboard-port hallways.

 

[Jason]

Yea the non-Stroud pieces all suit lighter wing designs like that, but if you want to put habs in the wings like I have then Stroud has the only really viable pieces to cap the wings I find.

 

To go that route I'd have to make my ship really long, and I'm not massive on the really far forward cockpit look, or have multiple levels, and I hate ladders lol. Some staircase habs would be amazing man.

 

I do have an idea in my head for a ship though, it'd have ladders, but I'm wondering if I could make it work well. Main issue right now for me in this save is not having the engines/reactors unlocked yet to hit that 100 mobility.

[Margot Robbed Me]

I'm still using those A Class 3015 engines for that 180 top speed lol. They don't look too pretty, but it's hard to give them up.

[Jason]

There are those C (I think?) class engines which give a lot of power and mobility for 2 pips each which basically make all weight issues go away, unless you go extreme with 10k+ cargo anywho. Be a while until I unlock those though lol. I'm playing with more skill points per level and it's clear that stuff like ship building wasn't meant to really open up until level 20+ or w/e at the earliest, I have 1 class C reactor available to me at level 17 and it's garbage compared to the best class A reactor I can use.

[sivispacem]

The best engine in the game is the SA-4330, IMO. You can run 6 of them, they net you a 150 top speed and even with a ~2000 tonne ship you'll have between 95-100 mobility.

Honestly, I feel no need to upgrade to Class C components right now. I'm 100% prioritising other things above upgrading my piloting to 4...other than getting the Gucci turrets and the 40 power reactors Class C is totally pointless.

 

The best weapon in the game is Class A Vanguard

The best shield in the game is Class B Experimental

The best engines in the game are Class A Experimental

You don't need a jump drive above 30LY which you can get with B easily

 

You can still get a 37 (I think?) power reactor in Class B, the only benefits the bigger C's bring is the hull points...which you don't need as many of anyway with a more sensibly sized ship.

[Failed Again]

Just wanted to add a thanks for the feedback on freezes/crashes..

Edited October 12, 2023 by Failed Again

[Tacymist]

 

Does anyone know where the key card to get in this control tower is? It's in Hopetown. I did some googling and all I found was a vague reddit post saying it's in the hangar next to the ship being built. There's like 4 ships in the hangar! Which one? And after scouring the hangar next to the tower and the one inside the main building, I didn't find it anywhere.

 

I only want to get inside because it's a locked door I can't get through. lol

[Margot Robbed Me]

2 hours ago, sivispacem said:

The best engine in the game is the SA-4330, IMO. You can run 6 of them, they net you a 150 top speed and even with a ~2000 tonne ship you'll have between 95-100 mobility.

Honestly, I feel no need to upgrade to Class C components right now. I'm 100% prioritising other things above upgrading my piloting to 4...other than getting the Gucci turrets and the 40 power reactors Class C is totally pointless.

 

The best weapon in the game is Class A Vanguard

The best shield in the game is Class B Experimental

The best engines in the game are Class A Experimental

You don't need a jump drive above 30LY which you can get with B easily

 

You can still get a 37 (I think?) power reactor in Class B, the only benefits the bigger C's bring is the hull points...which you don't need as many of anyway with a more sensibly sized ship.

 

I think I completely missed out on the Vanguard weapons since I didn't do the Vanguard questline in my first playthrough. But I've been using the PBO-300 and PBO-100 turrets and quite satisfied with them. I test my ships in the Kryx system (before contacting the Crimson Fleet) and so every ship and station turret are immediately hostile as soon as you warp in. The turrets demolish the entire fleet with ease and all I have to do is fly circles around them.

 

I use the 180 top speed engines simply because it's satisfying to be able to break past 1000km/h, and also because I built a joke ship that was essentially a cockpit with turrets and tested it at the same Kryx system. It still demolished the entire fleet with ease, and so at that point I was convinced that all I needed to trivialize ship combat is have high mobility and speed, and use turrets. So because of that, I became addicted to keeping my 180 top speed number. In reality, the 150 engines are still more than enough to make a joke out of every combat encounter, but I'm min-maxing at this point.

[Jason]

2 hours ago, Tacymist said:

 

Does anyone know where the key card to get in this control tower is? It's in Hopetown. I did some googling and all I found was a vague reddit post saying it's in the hangar next to the ship being built. There's like 4 ships in the hangar! Which one? And after scouring the hangar next to the tower and the one inside the main building, I didn't find it anywhere.

 

I only want to get inside because it's a locked door I can't get through. lol

 

I found that door last night, I pickpocketed a guard thinking they may have a key but nope. It's possible you could manipulate a guard into opening it, but the actual key I dunno. I never looked hard in the hanger though, maybe I'll have another look later.

 

Edit: found it:

 

 

Go into the big hanger right next to it, little office to the left.

[sivispacem]

On 10/12/2023 at 7:33 PM, Misumi said:

I use the 180 top speed engines simply because it's satisfying to be able to break past 1000km/h

I've tested throwing three of the 3015s on my B class , 820 tonne jack-of-all-trades and it's really decent. 80 mobility and a 130-ish top speed even at 6 bars.

 

Stroud Eklund cockpit, basically one of each Deimos 2x1 habs and the 3x1. Slim Docker, three 3015s, 6x Vanguard Autoprojectors and 4x PBO-100 Auto Neutron Beams. Plus three disruptors for a bit of piracy. 27LY jump range, 1200 cargo, 80 mobility and a 180 top speed at full allocation.

 

The Vanguards are laughably OP. Second highest burst DPS in the game for a cheap A class weapon that you can get without starship design at about level 10. 

 

I've been playing with layouts. I've found I particularly like having the armoury hung straight off the loading bay, but haven't quite got the hab and workshop layout how I want it yet. Everything but my computer core is on a single floor which is nice. 

 

I can't decide is the Nova wing pieces are stupid or stupidly OP. They weigh about double any of the other wings in the game but...6 weapon mounts per side is bonkers.

[Margot Robbed Me]

Are you using Sam Coe or Amelia (side quest NPC) on your ship for the extra speed as well? The difference between having neither of them as crew versus one of them is a normal speed of 215kph > 280kph and a boost speed of 862kph > 1119kph (using the 3015 engines). Which is around a 25% increase in normal/boost speed.

 

I like to use a mix of Deimos and Taiyo habs because they're the best lit I think (Nova ones have good lighting too), and Deimos habs usually have less clutter, making the interior a bit neater and easier to get around with a large crew. I always put the control room behind my Stroud cockpit, it just makes more sense from a practical point of view to have the crew/controls all near the cockpit area, but I'm pulling a lot of inspiration from the Mass Effect Normandy at this point which from what I remember, has a lot of the crew there, so that definitely influences my ship. The infirmary is where it is because of the Normandy as well (at least I think Chakwas medbay was on the portside), with the EDI/computer room connected to it.

[JOSEPH X]

It might be just the algorithm putting negative videos on my youtube channel, but the game is getting panned by a lot of youtubers. I found this one funny - it's an AI generated Todd Howard and Jeff Keeley in an honest conference