Bethesda's Starfield

[Madmarcus]

Another mod that is worth considering: Clean Reflex Sight Lenses.

Thanks for this one. I'd been slightly annoyed with the recon sights but not enough to go look up a replacement.

[Blackhawk]

Dear Bethesda,

If you're going to tie an ability behind a skill that has to be bought, do not order the player to use that skill in the course of a quest early in the main quest line, and once they spend 20 minutes figuring out why your instructions don't make sense and spend the skill point they've been spending, do not add keys to the HUD while doing that thing that don't match the actual keys, just because you already had that graphic from somewhere else and didn't feel like adjusting it.

Sincerely,

Blackhawk

P.S. And kindly don't follow up by introducing a new mechanic without ever telling the player that you're doing so, let alone how to do it.

P.P.S. You are the laziest fucking game designers.

[Blackhawk]

Also: Suit protection seems to last less than a second, regardless of how much protection the suit actually has.

[Blackhawk]

Today was not a good Starfield day.

The suit bug I mentioned above. Vasco is permanently embedded in the deck of my ship when I'm inside. Sarah is stuck in 'radio voice' mode. I have a miner on my ship that's there even after the relevant quest was completed (all of her friends left and went to their new home, but she stayed, I'm a little tired of being asked if I'm "new around here" inside my own ship.) Sarah and an Ecliptic merc today spent ten minutes emptying thousands of rounds at one another through an unbreakable window. Later on, an enemy nearly killed me by shooting me through a wall where I couldn't shoot back. I had enemies that just stood there while I walked around them in the middle of a firefight, oblivious to me. I fell through the deck of my ship. I paid the tech in New Atlantis to repair my ship. He took my cash, and did not repair said ship. NPCs embedded in the ceiling. Conversations with NPCs that stood there and vibrated the entire time.

And that was just this afternoon.

I'm thinking about putting this on hold and coming back after Bethesda has patched a few bugs, and after they've released the mod tools so that the community can fix the rest (plus the other issues.)

/edit - and yes, it's still the least buggy-at-launch Bethesda game.

[Max Peck]

I have decided that Into The Starfield is a series of young adult sci-fi adventure novels.

[Max Peck]

Today was not a good Starfield day.

...

My one big bug, which gives me early access to a super cool starship, doesn't seem so bad in comparison.

[Unagi]

I have decided that Into The Starfield is a series of young adult sci-fi adventure novels.

I'll play along

[Unagi]

BTW, the recent patch claims to have fixed weapon racks and containers on the Razorleaf, but it's not true. Thankfully, I tested it with some random trash weapons - but sure enough, they were gone about an hour later when I remembered to go check on them.

Displays: Fixed an issue that would cause items stored in Razorleaf Storage Containers and Weapon Racks to disappear after commandeering another ship.

Well, I guess I didn't do anything with commandeering another ship - but still - the items disappeared.

[Grifman]

Gameplay tip:

When you enter a system check your star map for icons in space -not on planets - that say things like “unknown contact”, “hostile activity”, “ship” etc. Those can point you to various random space derelicts with some great environmental story telling and various “hazards”. Be prepared for some real tearjerkers though.

[Blackhawk]

While I'm back-burnering this for now, I did realize that one thing that held me back was that I was having a really tough time 'getting' my character and his place in the world. That's an important thing (for me) in RPGs - I'm playing the role of this character, and I want to know how he thinks, what he likes and dislikes, what lines he won't cross, etc. You know - the 'role playing' part of the RPG. That just wasn't happening this time.

I had an idea, though.

Next time, when I come back, I may open up Mongoose Traveller and semi-generate the character there. It certainly gives one hell of a background (if you survive.)

[Kurth]

Also: Suit protection seems to last less than a second, regardless of how much protection the suit actually has.

Seriously! I feel like I'm constantly fighting through frost bite and hypothermia (I'm wearing the Mark 1 suit I pilfered from the crack in the display case in the basement of the Lodge).

[jztemple2]

While I'm back-burnering this for now, I did realize that one thing that held me back was that I was having a really tough time 'getting' my character and his place in the world. That's an important thing (for me) in RPGs - I'm playing the role of this character, and I want to know how he thinks, what he likes and dislikes, what lines he won't cross, etc. You know - the 'role playing' part of the RPG. That just wasn't happening this time.

Hmm, isn't that something you would do yourself in an RPG? You decide how he thinks, what he likes and dislikes, etc. At least that's how I play it. I tend to be a good two shoes who would never double-cross UC Vanguard and steal all the dough for the Crimson Fleet (although I might do that next time ).

[Blackhawk]

While I'm back-burnering this for now, I did realize that one thing that held me back was that I was having a really tough time 'getting' my character and his place in the world. That's an important thing (for me) in RPGs - I'm playing the role of this character, and I want to know how he thinks, what he likes and dislikes, what lines he won't cross, etc. You know - the 'role playing' part of the RPG. That just wasn't happening this time.

Hmm, isn't that something you would do yourself in an RPG? You decide how he thinks, what he likes and dislikes, etc. At least that's how I play it. I tend to be a good two shoes who would never double-cross UC Vanguard and steal all the dough for the Crimson Fleet (although I might do that next time ).

That's exactly what I was saying. I always do. Here was one I had for Skyrim. A good character concept should resonate and inspire, like a good movie trailer - you really want to see what this character will do.

But I could never get that to click in my mind in Starfield. I knew that I was a former professor (either engineering or geology, or maybe some technobabble combination of the two) with a distrust of authority (probably related to why he ended up in a mine instead of a lecture hall), but that was all I could get. Part of the problem was that I had no idea what direction they were taking things before.

I think if I were to start again now, I'd be working off of the Constellation/Lodge them, and thinking in terms of the Victorian explorers, a little more Phileas Fogg/Alan Quartermain with a touch of Richard Francis Burton or Hemingway - at least in his dreams. Maybe he sets out to see the galaxy, thinking of writing a journal to be published someday, gets stranded, has to take work in a mine...

[Madmarcus]

I took the industrialist background and knew I was going to go heavy into the research skills. I'm spinning it as an New Atlantis born and raised engineering major turned MBA type who tried to float some sort of engineering related startup, failed badly, and didn't have the connections to fail up. So he ended up falling back on the mining gig while he figured out his next move. Initially prone to thinking that everything is happening in New Atlantis and despising the older or less civilized colonies he's come to love both the wonders of space and possibilities of gaining a fortune there. So he's off exploring looking for someplace to make a fortune; per ardua ad astra

[Hyena]

I went with the traditional Bethesda start, my character was imprisonedfor an unnamed transgression.

Kidding, kinda. Started a stealth, persuasion, and security guy, but after the opening combat sequence I decided I was a Fleet applicant that was placed to investigate a rumored "suspicious" mining operation on a backwater world. Because I was the low man on the totem, when the pirates arrived, I was considered expendable. I fought back, and knowing just how untrustworthy the pirates are, I went the opposite direction. Joined Vanguard, joined the rangers, and eventually got my revenge on the fleet.

[Kurth]

I'm at a point where I'm interested in exploring crafting and research, but I'm running into real difficulty in terms of securing the resources I need. I had been keeping anything exotic or rare that I pick up, but now I'm running out of inventory/cargo space, and I'm just keeping 1 each of those resources. But every time I go to research or craft something, I don't have the resources I need.

How do people balance having resources on hand to research/craft on the one hand, and the incredibly annoying restrictions on cargo and inventory storage on the other?

Also, it seems like the research/crafting mechanic only takes into consideration what resources you have on hand (i.e., stuff in your ship's cargo hold isn't accessible). Is that right?

I'm level 25 currently and can't figure out where I'm supposed to be storing this stuff. Any advice would be welcome.

[Smoove_B]

I'm level 25 currently and can't figure out where I'm supposed to be storing this stuff. Any advice would be welcome.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought when you craft at the Lodge (in the basement), it automatically pulls your crafting materials from your ship's cargo? Or maybe that also works for any crafting station (things stored on your ship are magically available to craft with anywhere there's a crafting station?)

[Apollo]

Well, I had some good times in nearly 80 hours of play time but the bland, new-age story and the generic, uninteresting cast finally got to me. And despite a brief bit of excitement early on in the "Terrormorph" quest, the side quests were just as boring, if not more, than the main quest despite everything I read abut this game having interesting side quests. Don't get me wrong: I hate the story line in 99% of PC games, so that's nothing new, but RPG's are so tied to the story that it's hard for me to continue in any of them once exploring, finding loot and shooting people gets old.

If Starfield hadn't been an Open World game I would've burned out the first day, but being able to engage in a variety of different activities kept me going. But burnout comes suddenly for me nowadays and after starting it up the other day I found I had no urge to do anything anymore.

A very solid game overall that I would've loved 25 years ago, but I don't know that I'll ever be back to finish it.

[jztemple2]

I'm level 25 currently and can't figure out where I'm supposed to be storing this stuff. Any advice would be welcome.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought when you craft at the Lodge (in the basement), it automatically pulls your crafting materials from your ship's cargo? Or maybe that also works for any crafting station (things stored on your ship are magically available to craft with anywhere there's a crafting station?)

Yes, it pulls crafting material from your personal inventory and from the ship. That's true for any workbench. Early on I was storing a bunch of stuff at my safe in the Lodge and running back there to craft (moving stuff as needed from safe to personal inventory), but eventually I moved everything to my ship; I modded my ship to increase my hold space for this. Finally I put a bunch of storage at an outpost (discussed above) and built all the workbenches there.

[Blackhawk]

What the hell's wrong with me? I just happened on people arguing about why there are no aliens in Stafield. I responded by explaining why (I think the ballpark estimate I came up with was a 1 in 85,000 chance of intelligent life existing at the same time as us in a sampling of 1,000 planets.)

Between checking numbers, doing the math, and writing it up, I spent a flapping hour doing this. I mean, I was a little curious as to the numbers, but an hour?

What the hell is wrong with me?

[Kurth]

I'm level 25 currently and can't figure out where I'm supposed to be storing this stuff. Any advice would be welcome.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but I thought when you craft at the Lodge (in the basement), it automatically pulls your crafting materials from your ship's cargo? Or maybe that also works for any crafting station (things stored on your ship are magically available to craft with anywhere there's a crafting station?)

Yes, it pulls crafting material from your personal inventory and from the ship. That's true for any workbench. Early on I was storing a bunch of stuff at my safe in the Lodge and running back there to craft (moving stuff as needed from safe to personal inventory), but eventually I moved everything to my ship; I modded my ship to increase my hold space for this. Finally I put a bunch of storage at an outpost (discussed above) and built all the workbenches there.

So, are my options (1) Get better storage on my ship (I'm using the Razorleaf with approximately 420 pounds); or (2) build an outpost with lots of storage?

If so, any thoughts on which is the better option to invest in?

[Max Peck]

I did both. My main ship (a heavily refitted Razorleaf) has about 3000 cargo capacity, and my main outpost has effectively unlimited storage capacity because I can just expand my arrays of storage containers if they fill up.

[Madmarcus]

Mostly I dump stuff into the unlimited storage in the Lodge basement. When I want to research or craft I grab all the resources and put them back when done.

On the other hand I did recently upgrade my ship storage to 1400 so that I could carry a bunch of stuff for setting up an outpost as well as incidental resources found while exploring. Now I simply need to figure out where I want to put the outpost! Beauty versus resources versus useful flora and fauna!

[Blackhawk]

That's one thing I can't wait for when I go back, and I guarantee that some version of it will exist fairly quickly after the mod tools: Something that ties all player 'infinite' storage together (in the Lodge, in your homes, etc.) and lets you craft from it directly. Likely with a feature that lets you transfer items directly from your ship to your home.

The process for doing so already exists. All they'd have to do to combine the infinite storage containers is to change the ID on each container so that, despite being in different locations and having a different look, the game would see them as the same container. And you can already craft from ship storage, so adding that function to home storage would probably be as easy as cut-and paste. And you can transfer between inventories while standing in the ship, so likely all the mod author would have to do is either tell the ship that your home inventory is accessible when in certain locations, or even hide a copy of the infinite storage container under the landing pads near all your homes. Maybe even add a 'matter transporter' to the ship that would send anything placed inside of it to the infinite storage when in the right locations (the process for doing this also already exists - there were mods that did it clear back in Morrowind, and have been in every Bethesda game since - it's just a variation on an item sorter.)

I wouldn't want them to add the infinite storage to the ship, though. That would be a little too easy, and would completely remove the point in upgrading your storage. I'm sure someone will, but hopefully it's a standalone mod.

[Isgrimnur]

What the hell's wrong with me? I just happened on people arguing about why there are no aliens in Stafield. I responded by explaining why (I think the ballpark estimate I came up with was a 1 in 85,000 chance of intelligent life existing at the same time as us in a sampling of 1,000 planets.)

Between checking numbers, doing the math, and writing it up, I spent a flapping hour doing this. I mean, I was a little curious as to the numbers, but an hour?

What the hell is wrong with me?

Drake would be proud.

[Grifman]

I'm at a point where I'm interested in exploring crafting and research, but I'm running into real difficulty in terms of securing the resources I need. I had been keeping anything exotic or rare that I pick up, but now I'm running out of inventory/cargo space, and I'm just keeping 1 each of those resources. But every time I go to research or craft something, I don't have the resources I need.

How do people balance having resources on hand to research/craft on the one hand, and the incredibly annoying restrictions on cargo and inventory storage on the other?

Also, it seems like the research/crafting mechanic only takes into consideration what resources you have on hand (i.e., stuff in your ship's cargo hold isn't accessible). Is that right?

I'm level 25 currently and can't figure out where I'm supposed to be storing this stuff. Any advice would be welcome.

There is unlimited storage in the lodge in the crafting and in your room there.

[Grifman]

That's one thing I can't wait for when I go back, and I guarantee that some version of it will exist fairly quickly after the mod tools: Something that ties all player 'infinite' storage together (in the Lodge, in your homes, etc.) and lets you craft from it directly. Likely with a feature that lets you transfer items directly from your ship to your home.

There is a mod already that links the crafting benches with the storage in the lodge basement and/or your room.

[Kurth]

I'm at a point where I'm interested in exploring crafting and research, but I'm running into real difficulty in terms of securing the resources I need. I had been keeping anything exotic or rare that I pick up, but now I'm running out of inventory/cargo space, and I'm just keeping 1 each of those resources. But every time I go to research or craft something, I don't have the resources I need.

How do people balance having resources on hand to research/craft on the one hand, and the incredibly annoying restrictions on cargo and inventory storage on the other?

Also, it seems like the research/crafting mechanic only takes into consideration what resources you have on hand (i.e., stuff in your ship's cargo hold isn't accessible). Is that right?

I'm level 25 currently and can't figure out where I'm supposed to be storing this stuff. Any advice would be welcome.

There is unlimited storage in the lodge in the crafting and in your room there.

That's helpful. Next question: Any easy way to transfer stuff from my ship to that storage, or do I have to schlep it all there myself?

[jztemple2]

That's helpful. Next question: Any easy way to transfer stuff from my ship to that storage, or do I have to schlep it all there myself?

Schlepping has already been addressed

Question about that big storage farm... I can land my ship at the landing pad that is part of the outpost. Is there some way to transfer stuff I have stored to the cargo hold of my ship, other than putting it into my own inventory and schlepping it up the stairs to my ship, running out of O2 all the time? I do have ways to offset that use of O2 but I was looking for some systematic way to transfer from storage to the ship without using me as a pack mule.

IIRC, everywhere in the outpost should be within range to magically tranfer stuff from your inventory directly to the ship without actually carrying it there. Once you've loaded up yourself with the stuff you want to put on the ship, you just need to open the ship UI (H), bring up the cargo UI (F), switch to your personal inventory (Q) then store items on the ship. I don't think there's a way to directly transfer items from a storage container to the ship, but I'm not 100% certain that there isn't a way to do it either (that's pretty much my standard Starfield disclaimer -- I haven't spent any time reading guides, so there is a tonne of stuff that can be done that I just don't know about until someone tells me).

[Blackhawk]

That's one thing I can't wait for when I go back, and I guarantee that some version of it will exist fairly quickly after the mod tools: Something that ties all player 'infinite' storage together (in the Lodge, in your homes, etc.) and lets you craft from it directly. Likely with a feature that lets you transfer items directly from your ship to your home.

There is a mod already that links the crafting benches with the storage in the lodge basement and/or your room.

So there is. I took a look, and if I were playing, I'd probably avoid it. He's using a new scripting system that hasn't been tested yet to bypass the need for the mod tools. Also, the author is an enormous asshole.

[Unagi]

My character taking a selfie on Akila:

Spoiler:

Me on Neon

Spoiler:

Me on Paradiso

Spoiler:

On Gagarin (The landing at Gagarin's Landing, to be specific)

Spoiler:

[Max Peck]

[Madmarcus]

I might be done for now. Level 38 after 75 hours. I'd like to keep looking for a great outpost location but every time I start one I crash hard against the fact that building is better in both FO4 and NMS. I want walls or fences, walkways, and foundations that can handle rough terrain. I'm sure I'll keep going slowly as I have much of the main quest line still left but Cyberpunk 2.0 is calling.

[Grifman]

Pro tips:

If you set up an alt key for your boost pack and use that instead of space bar, you will boost much further. Not sure why but it works.

Rather than registering a recently “acquired” ship at a landing zone with a ship tech, you can do this from the ship section of your character screen, and save about 30%. Guess you are eliminating his fee?

As in Fallout 4, picking up weapons unloads that weapon and adds that ammo to your total, so pick up every weapon that you find. You can make a ton of money selling ammo for weapons that you don’t use. Ammo is weightless so carrying a ton of it to sell later isn’t a problem.

Companions don’t use ammo (they only need one round) so give them the most powerful rapid fire weapon you have.

[jztemple2]

Some good tips there, thanks!

[Grifman]

Deleted

[Blackhawk]

Pro tips:

If you set up an alt key for your boost pack and use that instead of space bar, you will boost much further. Not sure why but it works.

If you're using a skip pack, this also activates the forward thrust.

[Daehawk]

Some of the mods in this new mxr viedeo look pretty nice. Liek the StarUI mod or the Burden Me Not..a declutter mod.

Im spoilering it due to his typical scanty clad thumbnail.

Spoiler:

[Blackhawk]

Some of the mods in this new mxr viedeo look pretty nice. Liek the StarUI mod or the Burden Me Not..a declutter mod.

I will agree with StarUI (both his HUD and his inventory.) It's fantastic, and the author is well established (he made FallUI for Fallout 4.)

Burden Me Not - Clutter Begone

This looks interesting. But he's adding items to the workshop. That seems like a stretch with what's available now.

From the install instructions:

Then goto: \Documents\My Games\Starfield\

Open or create: StarfieldCustom.ini

And add the following lines:

[General]
sTestFile1=xatmosNoClutter.esp

[Archive]
bInvalidateOlderFiles=1
sResourceDataDirsFinal=

Do you see it? Here, let me get rid of some clutter:

And add the following lines:

[General]
sTestFile1=xatmosNoClutter.esp

No. No, no, no, and also fuck no. Do not install this mod, or any other mod that uses an .esp file (or an .esm), until after either the official mod tools or a stable version of xEdit has been released. And if there is a YouTuber suggesting these mods, I'd stay just as far away from his videos - he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Go watch Gopher instead.

If you installed it, I'd recommend switching to a save from before you did so. As of right now, modders cannot correctly set the headers in .esp/.esm files, as there is no way to do so, and no information on how to figure out how to do so. That means that the headers are almost certainly wrong, and that, in turn, means that that there is now bad data in your save. In the past games, the has - almost always - resulted in corrupted saves. In fact, since the tools aren't released, it means that other modders can't even look at the file to see if it's what's causing problems. The more reliable mod recommendation channels do exactly that - they examine the mod to make it safe before they recommend it.

And yes, corrupted saves will usually load and play normally.

For a while. Maybe.

Then, in 10 hours, or 30 hours, you'll be crashing, or things will start to go wrong, and you'll have no idea why. Or you may just suddenly find out you can't load your saves anymore.

Modding in Starfield is extremely limited right now, and will continue to be so until sometime next year. Don't try to bypass that with mods that take shortcuts, or you're taking a huge chance.

[Punisher]

Isn't this the same engine as tje last game?
If so couldn't they just use the same tools for basic editing?