OS Neutral StarField (Bethesda 2023, Spoilers)

[maflynn]

Food for thought on starship building vs. using (and modifying) existing ships

Top image is a modified Star Eagle, and the bottom is basically a built from scratch ship. The differences are minor regarding the specs, except for one thing - cost. The amount of credits to build the bottom ship numbered in the hundreds of thousands of credits. I started with a 550k balance, its now 300k. I didn't track how much it cost me to modify the star eagle, but it was definitely well under 100k.

The star eagle has the same cargo space, ever so slightly less jump distance and is a class A. The "wraith" as I dubbed it, has a huge cockpit (I do like the look of the ship), a class B reactor, but for all of the money I poured into it, I'm still limited by the distance and it also has less mobility (its in the 70s, where as the star eagle is in the 90s) and its weapons are underpowered compared to the star eagle. The only thing that the bottom ship got me was ship design level 4, as I hit that metric building the ship.

Don't get me wrong, I love the design, but on nearly every front, the Star Eagle, being a free ship is so much better.

 

[Huntn]

Food for thought on starship building vs. using (and modifying) existing ships

Top image is a modified Star Eagle, and the bottom is basically a built from scratch ship. The differences are minor regarding the specs, except for one thing - cost. The amount of credits to build the bottom ship numbered in the hundreds of thousands of credits. I started with a 550k balance, its now 300k. I didn't track how much it cost me to modify the star eagle, but it was definitely well under 100k.

The star eagle has the same cargo space, ever so slightly less jump distance and is a class A. The "wraith" as I dubbed it, has a huge cockpit (I do like the look of the ship), a class B reactor, but for all of the money I poured into it, I'm still limited by the distance and it also has less mobility (its in the 70s, where as the star eagle is in the 90s) and its weapons are underpowered compared to the star eagle. The only thing that the bottom ship got me was ship design level 4, as I hit that metric building the ship.

Don't get me wrong, I love the design, but on nearly every front, the Star Eagle, being a free ship is so much better.

View attachment 2289974

I love the bottom ship, and reported specs of the original design (Ecolog) look top notch. Just got Ship Designer 1 so ship building is on. When you remove a component, is it a one for one sell back price as compared to original equipment?

I ask because I have a hijacked ship with the perfect Halo pelican ship cockpit and a hijacked ship with the perfect cockpit for the bottom ship you built reference (Ecolog build) a variant called the Discovery So it will be interesting to see, what they cost to build.

And I’ll be honest, my understanding is when designing a ship, there is no opportunity to walk though the ship and examine it before commiting to the design. This might be a great reason for Bethesda to add a ship building simulatior module to the game that allows you, to design and actually test fly the ship in the UC Simulator, and then store the design. I consider this learning, and if needed, I will give myself funds to complete these designs.

Razorleaf- I hate the exterior appearance of the Razorleaf cockpit, it looks like some ugly retro design. And having just acquired Ship Designer R1, I’m looking at swapping it out, and I want another crew member on on board, and I’ve read some upgrade guides for it. For anyone who has not gotten there, there is no Ship Design until you get the Ship Design skill (Duh).

 

[Huntn]

Got a chuckle when I entered orbit at Lovel, moon of Olivias and was hailed by a ship, Faraday’s Budget Tours. Thinking how can I help, the encounter was so that space tourists could ask a real live space captain, me questions about my glamorous life style. I layed it on. The tour guide sent me $3000 credits unsolicited.

Companion talk- You know how I say quests wait for you? Well when you agree to help Sarah Morgan bring closure to a traumatic event in her life, if you don’t proceed immediately to the target location, she bugs you every place you stop. She has not gotten visibly mad, I’d be curious to know if agreeing to help and then delaying long enough, could illicit an angry response? I’d say this is another good example where AI built into characters might allow you to reason with them and explain why an intermediate stop to sell contraband is necessary. I can easily imagine using AI to develop indepth, branching interactions.

As I say that, I realize that there could be a fine line between good NPC interaction and making this kind of a discussion, even a burden to progress the game and still enjoy it, as in having to convince a companion why you think a certain course of action is required as a matter of routine. 🤔

I do know that as compared to Fallout 4, I was expecting companion relationships to have progressed and gotten better, but in Starfield, so far they have not. They are shallow and awkward as far as opportunities to get to know one another. Sarah is not unlike Cait (F4) asking you for help with her addiction issue, but it’s basically the identical mechanism.


Contraband- Regarding intermediate stops, <cough> contraband, maybe there is an alert when you pick stuff up rapidly and some of it is contraband (and I just didn’t notice). If it’s on your person, and you enter a controlled system, you will be scanned and caught, to the tune of $800-1000 credits, and you get escorted to jail to clear your name. I usually roll the game back, and if I know I have contraband, I head to the Den (Wolf System) to sell. I don‘t like putting it in shielded cargo, because in my experience, my ship Razorleaf, I’ve only got a 58% chance it won’t be detected on the entry scan.

Ship upgrades- I played around with upgrading the Razorleaf, and while it’s easy to swap out parts, it‘s more of a challenge to swap stuff and actually improve the appearance of the ship. The default reactor is a square component that sits nicely on the top of the ship. The good reactor upgrades are large and round, and don’t look good in the same spo, so I’m experimenting with other arrangements of components. Having components for building gives flexibility, but I’d think those components realistically would be integrated better into the ship internally, not just slapped onto the outside, which can start looking messy and Rube Goldberg-like fast. 🥸

 

[maflynn]

Started a new character, for giggles. I opted for Cyber Runner for the background, traits include intovert UC, Kids stuff. I played through the first main mission, and I think I'm a level 9 or 10. I scored a near God build Beowulf sniper rifle with the first shot doing double damage and aiming through the scope 20% increased damage. The only thing missing a silencer.

My motivation is over-coming the early game mistakes I made, though I do like what the first character currently has, but I was tempted to see how this will play will play through

 

[Huntn]

Started a new character, for giggles. I opted for Cyber Runner for the background, traits include intovert UC, Kids stuff. I played through the first main mission, and I think I'm a level 9 or 10. I scored a near God build Beowulf sniper rifle with the first shot doing double damage and aiming through the scope 20% increased damage. The only thing missing a silencer.

My motivation is over-coming the early game mistakes I made, though I do like what the first character currently has, but I was tempted to see how this will play will play through

“I do like what the first character currently has”

Character skills- Do you mean what gear or what skills, your first character has? I actually don’t remember if there was a way to legitimately respec in Fallout 4 or Skyrim. Some RPGs offer this ability in the form of potions. This is a game, and you may not know in advance what skill will serve you best. but the reports are that respecing does not exist as an option in Starfield. Also, it’s reported that there is no level cap. Which brings up and interesting question, about NPC and their skills, and still skills Leveling with you or if everything is set at what it is? I’ll research that.

Respec- Anyway, there is the console. Among others, I’ve earned and placed skills into Ballistics, Pistol, Laser, Rifle, and Stealth. Ballistics is great because it buffs all ballistic weapons in addition to individual weapon skills (rifle, pistol, sniper) It is possible that certain classes of guns, ballistic vs energy are better against certain adversaries, but I’ve not nailed this down. At this point I am tempted to remove my laser skill to place it somewhere else, but I’m holding off in case there is some killer energy weapon, I have yet to see.

Starfield: How To Respec Using The Console

Spent a skill point by mistake? We have your back!

www.thegamer.com

All Skill IDs - Starfield Guide - IGN

Looking to level up skills quickly with cheat codes and commands? IGN has you covered with our complete list of all skill IDs in Starfield and how to unlock

www.ign.com

Weapons- Sniper Rifle, this is something I have not found. What I do have is a .45 cal pistol, that seems to be a killer from stealth with head shots which I love, and it seems to have an unrealistically long range. All I’m missing is a scope, but I would prefer this for a sniper rifle. I frequently get 1 or 2 shot, headshots. I have points in stealth, pistol and rifle, but my pistol is my most lethal weapon. To craft your own scope, you need 4 or 5 points in Science to get Weapon Engineering, a high price to achieve this ability.

 

[maflynn]

Character skills- Do you mean what gear or what skills,

At character creation, you choose a background, which gives you 3 starting skills, for instance the cyber runner provides initials skills of stealth, stealing and lock picking. I found that I'm mostly relying on that, and as I level up, I'll add the skill points to damage perks

Respec- Anyway, there is the console.

I don't believe the game offers any respeccing. I have skill points in some slots that are useless and a waste. There may be little reason to fully max out a skill. For instance, lock picking, From what I've seen/read The harder the lock does not mean the greater the reward, unlike prior bethesda games. So having only a couple of skill points may be sufficient there.

Weapons- Sniper Rifle, this is something I have not found.

There's a number of YT that detail how to grind for a given weapon - you need to be aware of what level you're at, as many weapons are only available at certain levels. Anyways I chose to do that grinding yesterday, and its basically being on the hardest level, being a single shot away from killing a boss, i.e., enemy that started off with two health meters and then saving the game. You shoot the him, see what he dropped, and if you don't like it, hit F9 to reload the quick save game and retry. You tubers have reported you should see some good drops within 15 minutes of that grind, that's not been my experience. I was lucky to see this drop, after grinding away for a long time. The trick as I see it, is be content with good enough, because you'll keep shooting/seeing/reloading until the cows come home if you're looking for a perfect and specific build. The Beowulf rifle will suit me until I get into 20s or 30s level wise.

Weapon modding:
I'm really disappointed in how modding a weapon is locked behind level 2 of the skill tree, what I mean by that, you need to spend 4 skill points before you can even gain access to the skill and then you must use a 5th skill point. Then you have to go through some sort of research process, and then finally you can create a weapon mod. I find kill points are hard to come by and there's more need then skill points in the early game. By the time you level up fairly highly, you most likely have a fairly strong weapon and so modding that doesn't make too sense, so there's no real motivation at that point. Just my observation

 

[Huntn]

At character creation, you choose a background, which gives you 3 starting skills, for instance the cyber runner provides initials skills of stealth, stealing and lock picking. I found that I'm mostly relying on that, and as I level up, I'll add the skill points to damage perks


I don't believe the game offers any respeccing. I have skill points in some slots that are useless and a waste. There may be little reason to fully max out a skill. For instance, lock picking, From what I've seen/read The harder the lock does not mean the greater the reward, unlike prior bethesda games. So having only a couple of skill points may be sufficient there.


There's a number of YT that detail how to grind for a given weapon - you need to be aware of what level you're at, as many weapons are only available at certain levels. Anyways I chose to do that grinding yesterday, and its basically being on the hardest level, being a single shot away from killing a boss, i.e., enemy that started off with two health meters and then saving the game. You shoot the him, see what he dropped, and if you don't like it, hit F9 to reload the quick save game and retry. You tubers have reported you should see some good drops within 15 minutes of that grind, that's not been my experience. I was lucky to see this drop, after grinding away for a long time. The trick as I see it, is be content with good enough, because you'll keep shooting/seeing/reloading until the cows come home if you're looking for a perfect and specific build. The Beowulf rifle will suit me until I get into 20s or 30s level wise.

Weapon modding:
I'm really disappointed in how modding a weapon is locked behind level 2 of the skill tree, what I mean by that, you need to spend 4 skill points before you can even gain access to the skill and then you must use a 5th skill point. Then you have to go through some sort of research process, and then finally you can create a weapon mod. I find kill points are hard to come by and there's more need then skill points in the early game. By the time you level up fairly highly, you most likely have a fairly strong weapon and so modding that doesn't make too sense, so there's no real motivation at that point. Just my observation

I have skill points in some slots that are useless and a waste.

Console baby! I won’t hesitate to make skill adjustments as needed. By virtue of Fitness, I’m R2 and wondering is there any reason I need to up this more, ie run 5 miles without running out of breath. 😉 As far as I can tell, it make no difference in combat, but may raise carry weight?

 

[maflynn]

Console baby! I won’t hesitate to make skill adjustments as needed.

Yeah, I may do that with my first character. I'm funny though, I feel if I start using the console for small things, I'll do it for the larger things. I really want to beat the game in a way that excludes the console. Basically, I feel its a slippery slope for me.

I've been struggling the past two days to find a location where I can farm XP. Basically go to a given moon or planet, setup an output and extract alu & iron. It has to be both, so that you can craft adaptive frames. Crafting 99 adaptive frames can give you 200+ XP. Doing that over and over, (especially early in the game) allows you to level up rather quickly.

No matter what the YT stated on how to do it, I could not find a location that had both minerals. Near the end of my lunch hour, I finally located a spot and I'm not off like a herd of turtles.

I don't farm XP too much, just enough to have a couple of skill points waiting to be used, for those just in case moments, such as upgrading ballistics and pistols.

The game reminds me of Fallout 4, where you can get lost in the minutia, spending hours upon hours on the smallest thing, and I mean this in a good way. Its been so fun just trying to get things just so.

 

[maflynn]

By virtue of Fitness,

I thought I heard somewhere that fitness increases your health meter, i.e., increase the damage taken. I'm really unsure of that, as it stands, I see little reason to put points into that skill.

 

[maflynn]

I won’t hesitate to make skill adjustments as needed.

One of the big regrets was taking the time to max out ship building and to a lessor extent piloting. I like the space combat, don't get me wrong, but I don't see a need (yet) to pilot a class c ship that is ginormous.

 

[maflynn]

Has anyone sided with the Crimson Fleet in the UC questline? I've googled it, and in true Bethesda fashion there's really little to no consequences with siding with one or the other. The only consequence is that if you go with the UC, the pirates will be hostile to you. If you side with the crimson fleet, the UC isn't hostile, nor do you get a bounty on your head.

I normally like playing the good guy route, but something about being a pirate seems alluring, lol. With my second character I'm leaning towards doing that. From what little I know you can join the pirates w/o starting the UC faction questline, though I don't know how that lines up if you are already a pirate and then join the UC - maybe I'll find out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Huntn]

Last night I discovered you can only own 10 ships. And considering you only make about $5k per ship, the primary draw is acquiring a unique ship, or using it as a starting build point.

Has anyone sided with the Crimson Fleet in the UC questline? I've googled it, and in true Bethesda fashion there's really little to no consequences with siding with one or the other. The only consequence is that if you go with the UC, the pirates will be hostile to you. If you side with the crimson fleet, the UC isn't hostile, nor do you get a bounty on your head.

I normally like playing the good guy route, but something about being a pirate seems alluring, lol. With my second character I'm leaning towards doing that. From what little I know you can join the pirates w/o starting the UC faction questline, though I don't know how that lines up if you are already a pirate and then join the UC - maybe I'll find out ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was under the impression, you could join all factions? Now considering I’ve killed a large number of Crimson Fleet, and they are pirates, not sure I want to normally join them, but this article mentions joining them as an undercover agent, and there are ways to avoid killing innocents. The UC because of their simulator is always a must join faction Imo.

How to join the Crimson Fleet in Starfield

Become a space pirate for fun and profit.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Huntn]

Ship building
I finally got into ship building last night and it took me all night building the Halo Pelican based on the design link I posted here somewhere. I brought one of my hijacked ships starting at the Deimos Shipyard since many of the parts were from there. But I also had to go to Titan (Homestead?) and Akila City. And because I don’t yet have Ship Design 3, I had to hold off on the breaking engines, engines that slow the ship down. I’m not really sure if they actually help performance. I’ll produce a picture when it is finished.

• You only increase ship building skills by building a ship, placing new parts on a ship. You are forced to start with a ship you own, so hijacked ships in you inventory are good to have. Conceivably to build skills quickly, you could continually swap out different landing gear or parts but I’m not sure if the game would or would not remember a piece was attached previously? 🤔
• The ship editor is wonky. The controls to raise and lower parts is not intuitive. Moving pieces is horizontal, unless you select a piece and use the R,F keys for vertical movement. Press repeatedly.
• It’s really bothersome that you can’t save a design in progress.
• The easiest way to attach a piece to a connection point is to put your cursor on the point, hit G to add, and make a selection from the list. Not to add a piece into the editor and then move it to a connection point.
• I’ve decided not to build a network of outposts, cause of stuff I read online, but my understanding is that a landing pad, gives you the ability to alter/ build ship with a greater selection of parts, than if you go to a ship technician. I will buuild an outpost by my dream house to check this out.
• Sometimes the ship builder camera insists on zooming in on a piece, which is a real pain.
• Some pieces will be listed, like “cowling forward bottom” and you won’t immediately know that hitting the left and right arrows will reveal variations of the piece, like “top”. And for Habs, if you are looking for a 2x1 workshop, realize with the 2x1 piece selected, that all the variations of 2x1 pieces wiil be revealed using left and right arrows.
• The editor will warm you if any loose pieces are floating around. They must be attached or deleted.
• To easily locate disconnected modules in the ship builder, double click your ship which selects all of it, turning it red. Unconnected pieces will not turn red. I had 2 pieces seem to snap in place and connect, but for some reason, dissimilar adjoining shapes(?), they were not regarded as connected. I had to make some adjustments.
• If you remove a piece of the ship and drag it away, but leavie it in the editor, it could produce a warning that your ship exceeds the maximum size for a ship, because it thinks the piece you dragged away is still part of the ship.

Happy building! ☺️

 

[Huntn]

From the previous post ediTed this:

• You only increase ship building skills by building a ship, placing new parts on a ship. You are forced to start with a ship you own, so hijacked ships in you inventory are good to have. Conceivably to build skills quickly, you could continually swap out different landing gear or parts but I’m not sure if the game would or would not remember a piece was attached previously? 🤔
• To easily locate disconnected modules in the ship builder, double click your ship which selects all of it, turning it red. Unconnected pieces will not turn red. I had 2 pieces seem to snap in place and connect, but for some reason, dissimilar adjoining shapes(?), they were not regarded as connected. I had to make some adjustments.

 

[Huntn]

One of the big regrets was taking the time to max out ship building and to a lessor extent piloting. I like the space combat, don't get me wrong, but I don't see a need (yet) to pilot a class c ship that is ginormous.

My position is that I needed to see for myself, and although the stimulator is a repeat scenario, I really enjoyed the time I spent acclimating to this environment. It allowed me to experiment in the 1v many scenario how best to prevail. As far as the big ships, I just have to see it I’ll enjoy the relatively luxurious accommodations by virtue of more space. And I need Ship Design 4 to get the engines, that the Ecolog ship requires.

What I really hope is that the simulator can be expanded (by the devs) , to use ships that you own, and expand fight scenarios.

For ship building, I want to be able to go into design mode, build a ship, walk though it, then save it as a design. And save it as a design before it is finished.

 

[Huntn]

What is with these Starfield companions? Where is my Cate? 😉 I’ve picked up Andreja as a companion, she is supposed to be less, goody two shoes than Sarah. Last night I walked onto a pretty sweet large ship that had landed nearby with Free or Freestar in the name. It had that big wide flattened looking cockpit. So I assumed theses were good guys, but quickly discovered they were smugglers, with another package for me to deliver (ran into this before) so I told the Captain he was mistaken regarding me being the courier, he told me to get off his ship, I pulled out my fletchet gun, and shot the Captain. Andreja flees yelling something negative. I finish off the crew, and to save time use the consol to fetch her and her angry face and I had to talk her down. These were smugglars, come on! ☺️.

Ok so plan B, roll back, tell the smuggler Captain i’m not the currier and he tells me to get off, I reengage him, bug him, and finally he turns hostile, pulls out his gun, sayin” you know to much!” I yell “yes let the shooting begin, and Andreja has no issue with this.

Now this is what sucks. This ship looks like it is labeled L60, I’m L25. The pilot seat won't let me take it. I’m Pilot 4 damn it. There is a Nav table though that lets me pick a destination, my hopes up, I fast travel and am in my ship, not this new ship!

Rollback 2, I loot the ship and read online, that if you fast travel away and come back you can pilot the ship. Wrong! I came back and the ship was now labeled as inaccessible. One of those not-immersive situations.

Supposedly there is a console command to unlock doors, but that does not work on an overhead hatch that jumps to a new area, the interior of the ship. At this point I decided to honor Blizzard’s locks, but it felt artificial to be unable to take this ship. 🤨

 

[Huntn]

Started a new character, for giggles. I opted for Cyber Runner for the background, traits include intovert UC, Kids stuff. I played through the first main mission, and I think I'm a level 9 or 10. I scored a near God build Beowulf sniper rifle with the first shot doing double damage and aiming through the scope 20% increased damage. The only thing missing a silencer.

My motivation is over-coming the early game mistakes I made, though I do like what the first character currently has, but I was tempted to see how this will play will play through

How’s the new character coming?

 

[Huntn]

Starfield Ship Designer Skill- Imo leaning how to do this is an expensive, undue grind. It is a learning process to get familiar with how things work, and because you are dealing with multiple ship tech locations with unique parts, parts that only appear as you level your skills, and you only increase these skills by buying and placing parts on a ship you are designing, it can get real expensive real fast.

Call it rationalizing, but because of this expense, I am inclined to call it a learning exercise and fund myself via the Console, to up my skills.

Imo, Bethesda would have been smarter to put the realm of Ship Design in a CAD program, and allow the player to level their skills in the same manner as using the United Colonies Simulator, without jeopardy and expense. And even though yesterday, I had to grind, killing 30 ships in Targeting Mode, to increase my Targeting Skill, I have no issue with this, because space combat, especially without monetary jeopardy is fun.

On the other hand when picking up $3k per mission, I’m not so happy to be pissing away my hard earned credits away on a ship I’m learning how to build, and even not sure, not knowing what works best and where I want to go.

For that reason I do recommend, finding a ship design online, you like for 2 reasons, it gives you a specific goal to work towards, and it opens your eyes to see what is possible, and watch a couple of the multitude of ship design tutorials available on YouTube, like:

 

[Huntn]

Starfield Ship Designer Skill- Imo leaning how to do this is an expensive, undue grind. It is a learning process to get familiar with how things work, and because you are dealing with multiple ship tech locations with unique parts, parts that only appear as you level your skills, and you only increase these skills by buying and placing parts on a ship you are designing, it can get real expensive real fast.

Call it rationalizing, but because of this expense, I am inclined to call it a learning exercise and fund myself via the Console, to up my skills.

Imo, Bethesda would have been smarter to put the realm of Ship Design in a CAD program, and allow the player to level their skills in the same manner as using the United Colonies Simulator, without jeopardy and expense. And even though yesterday, I had to grind, killing 30 ships in Targeting Mode, to increase my Targeting Skill, I have no issue with this, because space combat, especially without monetary jeopardy is fun.

On the other hand when picking up $3k per mission, I’m not so happy to be pissing away my hard earned credits away on a ship I’m learning how to build, and even not sure, not knowing what works best and where I want to go.

For that reason I do recommend, finding a ship design online, you like for 2 reasons, it gives you a specific goal to work towards, and it opens your eyes to see what is possible, and watch a couple of the multitude of ship design tutorials available on YouTube, like:

The above video is an excellent guide, especially the mention of the Mod that unlocks shipyards, so you don’t have to run all over the Galaxy to find parts. It got me through ship designer R3 and also excellent tips about how to approach a build. The best advice was the simplist, start with the cockpit and configure habs. That should be obvious shouldn’t it? 😐

 

[spiderman0616]

I came back in here specifically to find this thread. I have about 45 hours in on my Starfield save now and continue to be blown away by the game as well as utterly shocked by how flawless performance has been streaming it on GamePass. Microsoft is on to something here both with this new IP and with allowing access to AAA first party titles via a browser with virtually zero hardware requirement. This is the way of the future. But I digress......

There are so many reasons I shouldn't like Starfield. In general I have a good time with Bethesda games, but I found Skyrim to be utterly boring and depressing, and I have really gotten sick of the Bethesda formula over the years. Starfield very much sticks with that formula, yet I can't get enough of it somehow. Maybe it's just been too long since I've played a good open world RPG like this.

 

[Huntn]

I came back in here specifically to find this thread. I have about 45 hours in on my Starfield save now and continue to be blown away by the game as well as utterly shocked by how flawless performance has been streaming it on GamePass. Microsoft is on to something here both with this new IP and with allowing access to AAA first party titles via a browser with virtually zero hardware requirement. This is the way of the future. But I digress......

There are so many reasons I shouldn't like Starfield. In general I have a good time with Bethesda games, but I found Skyrim to be utterly boring and depressing, and I have really gotten sick of the Bethesda formula over the years. Starfield very much sticks with that formula, yet I can't get enough of it somehow. Maybe it's just been too long since I've played a good open world RPG like this.

• Starfield is compelling visually and environmentally. The procedurally generated planets are top notch. The space facilities are great.
• Starfield is definietly Bethesda’s dated formula.
• Starfield‘s quests have potential and could be much better. Some of these quests story lines are shockers, and after what feels like a huge buildup, some leave you with a, “is this all there is” feeling? And some feel generally shallow as to how they are resolved.
• Companions, romance companions are an embarrassment. AI, we desperately need you! So romance sprouts in Starfield.You’ve got zero meaningful personal, interaction with them, sure some canned framework questions and canned answers, next thing you know though osmosis and exposure to your stunning personality. they are feeling like they can confide in you, if you don’t shut them down. You can easily navigate the options to be supportive or even flirt, get married, blah, I don’t think so…
• Crew members- How’s it going? (Ever time you walk by) I’m ready to talk… (don’t bother). It makes me feel bad just how embarrasingly shallow these characters are. They are virtual placeholders walking, barely talking, cardboard figures.
• Not to pick on Bethesda in particular, but there are tons of repetitive, sweep facilities and clean out the vermin quests.
• Most of the ships are ugly, with a few Exceptions
• The shipbuilder is good but could be much better, it’s is a grind, you can spend a lot of time working it. You may enjoy it.
• Too many restrictions to make a great ship. A better way would be to have a ship designer software. Design a ship, save it as a design, instead of having to manipulate a real ship physically. As is, there is no way I’m going to spend $200k+ of my hard ground credits learning how to use it. Instead I cheat using borrowed money.
• The UC Simulator is an amazing idea, learn to fly, advance your pilots/ship skills with zero jeopardy. How to make it better? More battle scenarios. Be able to load in a ship you own or designed in the ship designer, so you can walk around in it.
• What Else?

 

[spiderman0616]

• Starfield is compelling visually and environmentally. The procedurally generated planets are top notch. The space facilities are great.
• Starfield is definietly Bethesda’s dated formula.
• Starfield‘s quests have potential and could be much better. Some of these quests story lines are shockers, and after what feels like a huge buildup, some leave you with a, “is this all there is” feeling? And some feel generally shallow as to how they are resolved.
• Companions, romance companions are an embarrassment. AI, we desperately need you! So romance sprouts in Starfield.You’ve got zero meaningful personal, interaction with them, sure some canned framework questions and canned answers, next thing you know though osmosis and exposure to your stunning personality. they are feeling like they can confide in you, if you don’t shut them down. You can easily navigate the options to be supportive or even flirt, get married, blah, I don’t think so…
• Crew members- How’s it going? (Ever time you walk by) I’m ready to talk… (don’t bother). It makes me feel bad just how embarrasingly shallow these characters are. They are virtual placeholders walking, barely talking, cardboard figures.
• Not to pick on Bethesda in particular, but there are tons of repetitive, sweep facilities and clean out the vermin quests.
• Most of the ships are ugly, with a few Exceptions
• The shipbuilder is good but could be much better, it’s is a grind, you can spend a lot of time working it. You may enjoy it.
• Too many restrictions to make a great ship. A better way would be to have a ship designer software. Design a ship, save it as a design, instead of having to manipulate a real ship physically. As is, there is no way I’m going to spend $200k+ of my hard ground credits learning how to use it. Instead I cheat using borrowed money.
• The UC Simulator is an amazing idea, learn to fly, advance your pilots/ship skills with zero jeopardy. How to make it better? More battle scenarios. Be able to load in a ship you own or designed in the ship designer, so you can walk around in it.
• What Else?

I agree with all of the above. I often felt VERY immersed in the game, but the thing that took me out of that immersion the quickest was always the needy/stupid AI. It was very.......Bethesda. But an improvement in some ways from Fallout and Elder Scrolls games of the past. Just needs a lot more work.

 

[Huntn]

Starfield Ship Designer Skill- Imo leaning how to do this is an expensive, undue grind. It is a learning process to get familiar with how things work, and because you are dealing with multiple ship tech locations with unique parts, parts that only appear as you level your skills, and you only increase these skills by buying and placing parts on a ship you are designing, it can get real expensive real fast.

Call it rationalizing, but because of this expense, I am inclined to call it a learning exercise and fund myself via the Console, to up my skills.

Imo, Bethesda would have been smarter to put the realm of Ship Design in a CAD program, and allow the player to level their skills in the same manner as using the United Colonies Simulator, without jeopardy and expense. And even though yesterday, I had to grind, killing 30 ships in Targeting Mode, to increase my Targeting Skill, I have no issue with this, because space combat, especially without monetary jeopardy is fun.

On the other hand when picking up $3k per mission, I’m not so happy to be pissing away my hard earned credits away on a ship I’m learning how to build, and even not sure, not knowing what works best and where I want to go.

For that reason I do recommend, finding a ship design online, you like for 2 reasons, it gives you a specific goal to work towards, and it opens your eyes to see what is possible, and watch a couple of the multitude of ship design tutorials available on YouTube, like:

I spent 6 hours last night building this ship to the tune of $450k.* Not only is it kick ass on multiple levels, the author is a wealth of knowledge, apparantly a Starfield addict. He’s got so much good info on just about everything. Freaking amazing. I’ll see if I can get some pictures up. The ship is 80M long. There are a couple of items I don’t have yet, because to unlock the top tier equipment you have to be L36 and maybe L56. But this can be easily worked with, just use the next equipment down the list. Aming the many things I learned, the Ship Builder has a limit of 80M long and wide and 130 parts total (I think).

* Because of the BS Starfield Ship builder, NOT CONVENIENT to save, I was praying I did not suddenly lose electrical power After 5 hours of toiling.

And be sure to install the mod, which is just a simple script which unlocks all the ship yard parts at an individual ship tech location, unless you like running aground the Galaxy looking for the right parts.

 

[Huntn]

Food for thought on starship building vs. using (and modifying) existing ships

Top image is a modified Star Eagle, and the bottom is basically a built from scratch ship. The differences are minor regarding the specs, except for one thing - cost. The amount of credits to build the bottom ship numbered in the hundreds of thousands of credits. I started with a 550k balance, its now 300k. I didn't track how much it cost me to modify the star eagle, but it was definitely well under 100k.

The star eagle has the same cargo space, ever so slightly less jump distance and is a class A. The "wraith" as I dubbed it, has a huge cockpit (I do like the look of the ship), a class B reactor, but for all of the money I poured into it, I'm still limited by the distance and it also has less mobility (its in the 70s, where as the star eagle is in the 90s) and its weapons are underpowered compared to the star eagle. The only thing that the bottom ship got me was ship design level 4, as I hit that metric building the ship.

Don't get me wrong, I love the design, but on nearly every front, the Star Eagle, being a free ship is so much better.

View attachment 2289974

I’m doing something like on the bottom and have learned there is quite a performance penalty for storage capacity. I might have to buy a dedicated hauler, that is if I decide that cargo hauling is a worthwhile activity.

 

[Mackilroy]

The recent beta update adding DLSS3.5 boosted my framerates in New Atlantis from 50-75 to 110-135. FSR3 is coming at some undetermined point in the future.