Starfield

[WorldWatcher]

Something I just discovered that is incredibly helpful, not just for Starfield, but I suspect with my memory I will be using an absolute ton: https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-use-steam-notes/

Can make notes of locks you cannot pick yet to come back to, places you want to explore when not busy with something else, vendors who have cool items you cannot afford yet, and on and on.

OK, that could be useful. Thanks.

I've been using Sticky Notes for just this kind of function in Wasteland 3 for thinks like safes and toasters I need to go back to.

The fact you can embed screen shots will be terrific.

WW

 

[jmotivator]

Something that I have started doing that I didn't think I would like, but it scratches an old itch: Planet Surveying.

It's not for everybody, granted, it's slow, doesn't have much of a payoff, but just wandering around with my scanner open looking for new things to scan feels kind of like my old WOW mining addiction.

I'm sitting here on a Saturday morning with a hot cup of coffee, one of my favorite YouTube shows on one screen and Starfield on the other just wandering around, surveying the world. Relaxing..

 

[jmotivator]

Quick tip on Surveying...

So if you decide to take on the task of surveying planets to completion there is a rather annoying bit of game mechanic that you should be aware of so you can avoid it.

The mechanic is that at least 1 fauna entry that you will need to collect is an aquatic species, and you can only find them in coastal regions.

When you get stuck, zoom out to the planet map and click around to fast travel until you find an incomplete biome (for me it is usually "Swamp") and then click near water until to find, for example, "Swamp (coastal)" ... even if the map shows a lot of ocean around your landing spot, if it doesn't say "coastal" you won't find the coast. Land in the coastal region, make your way to the beach and start looking for a fish.

 

[jmotivator]

Also, for me, nothing in gaming is quite the same as a Bethesda Exploration RPG (ERPG?)

I just love wandering around, surveying a planet, cresting a hill and seeing sites like this:

 

[Slartibartfast]

I’ve played about an hour of it but I want to finish up bg3 first.

 

[jmotivator]

Mission Spoilers ahead!


So I completed the Straud mission where I helped him acquire a stolen piece of the artifact from a competitor at Neon.

After finishing the mission I decided to talk to him again and he gave me a new mission to help his ship design team on a new project. The mission was called "Overdesigned".

I decided, since I don't really like Straud, to try and fail the mission by taking the title quite literally and seeing if I could talk the design team into making a Starfield version of The Homer:



I succeeded, but instead of pissing off Straud he liked it so much that he gave me one. I'm now the proud owner of the biggest, ugliest Class C monstrosity in the universe.

I have to climb like 4 ladders to get to the bridge. It has everything, but in all the worst ways.

Bravo Bethesda design team, you gave me a good laugh.

I'm going to have a lot of fun reconfiguring it...

 

[Redress]

If you have not done it yet, do the Space Frog From Outer Space mission in Cydonia! Best mission in the game!

 

[Slartibartfast]

 

[Goshin]

Tuesday I started the game over frustrated with the build of my character so far. It proved a wise decision, and just now finished the Ranger questline and got the Star Eagle ship, which is incredible. Class A, so anyone can pilot it, but with like 29 power, over 4k cargo, and just huge.

Small review of the game at about 35 hours played:

There is alot good about the game. So much to do, so many places to go, such a well realized game universe. Every system does work, and generally works well. The other big games to release recently are Diablo 4 and Balder's Gate 3, and this is certainly a better game than Diablo 4 and every bit as good as BG3(and preferable to my playstyle to BG3). This makes the few major flaws really stand out.

It is simply inexcusable in this day and age to have such a crap map for cities. I can see it for planets, and maybe even POIs, but for cities, especially with how large they are, it is just not acceptable. Quests that involve following an NPC as they walk are a nightmare, as the NPC walks oh so slowly while you run circles around them trying to entertain yourself. The game needs an in game help system to teach you how to do some aspects like crafting, outpost building and ship designing.

But for those flaws, the game is still really fun, and really large, and really well put together. I give it 4.5 stars.

Personally I love the thing, probably too much. The only time I get anything done is when Son#1 is home and bogarts the Xbox.

In the past decade there's only been two console games I really loved and played the heck out of... Skyrim and Hogwarts. This one makes three... I'm going to be playing this one for a very long time I think. Just my sort of thing, being a space fanatic anyway.

 

[WorldWatcher]

Personally I love the thing, probably too much. The only time I get anything done is when Son#1 is home and bogarts the Xbox.

In the past decade there's only been two console games I really loved and played the heck out of... Skyrim and Hogwarts. This one makes three... I'm going to be playing this one for a very long time I think. Just my sort of thing, being a space fanatic anyway.

Starfield will get official mod support in 2024, Bethesda confirms | VGC

“We will do it in a big way because we love it too”…

www.videogameschronicle.com

One of the biggest, IMHO, things that Bethesda has done with Skyrim and the Fallout games has been to embrace the Mod'ing community, giving them the tools and opportunity to "tweak" gameplay and to even create their own stories.

The Mod'ing community means long term sales.

WW

 

[Lutherf]

I have had very little time to play this thing and was getting all kinds of issues with voice animations syncing with audio. Somewhere along the line I read that it needed to be installed on an SSD and that cleared everything up. I suppose I should have read instructions right off the bat but that's never been my strong suit.

Combat is pretty satisfying. Other than that I really haven't tried crafting or much else. Ran a few missions and those were fine. I've kind of figured out how to get around with a spaceship but I'm still with the first ship I was given and, near as I can tell, it doesn't have any storage though, last night, I did figure out that it has a toilet so at least I've got that going for me.

 

[Goshin]

I have had very little time to play this thing and was getting all kinds of issues with voice animations syncing with audio. Somewhere along the line I read that it needed to be installed on an SSD and that cleared everything up. I suppose I should have read instructions right off the bat but that's never been my strong suit.

Combat is pretty satisfying. Other than that I really haven't tried crafting or much else. Ran a few missions and those were fine. I've kind of figured out how to get around with a spaceship but I'm still with the first ship I was given and, near as I can tell, it doesn't have any storage though, last night, I did figure out that it has a toilet so at least I've got that going for me.

Get the long 3x1 hab under "ship builder", then stick a couple cargo modules underneath. You will have lots of cargo space. Swap the lasers for P-30 electron beams and the gun for another missile launcher. JMHO

 

[Lutherf]

Get the long 3x1 hab under "ship builder", then stick a couple cargo modules underneath. You will have lots of cargo space. Swap the lasers for P-30 electron beams and the gun for another missile launcher. JMHO

Maybe I'll have some time for all that this weekend. Right now I should be up to my eyeballs in tax stuff but I'm still waiting for my client to get me the last of his information. In the meantime I'm having a jolly good time learning new Excel functions that will either make my life a lot easier or drive me further down the crazy hole. The jury is still out on that.

 

[Redress]

I have had very little time to play this thing and was getting all kinds of issues with voice animations syncing with audio. Somewhere along the line I read that it needed to be installed on an SSD and that cleared everything up. I suppose I should have read instructions right off the bat but that's never been my strong suit.

Combat is pretty satisfying. Other than that I really haven't tried crafting or much else. Ran a few missions and those were fine. I've kind of figured out how to get around with a spaceship but I'm still with the first ship I was given and, near as I can tell, it doesn't have any storage though, last night, I did figure out that it has a toilet so at least I've got that going for me.

Yes on the SSD. I have a small 500G SSD, and I had to play hell getting it to fit(turns out having Windows, Diablo 4, Balders Gate 3 and Starfield all on 1 SSD was a nogo. There is too much loading going of too large files to have a chance without an SSD.

There are a couple place you can get new ships as quest rewards fairly early. The Mantis quest and the Ranger questline both result in nice ship rewards, with the ranger quest reward having large cargo space, and being an overpower class A ship. The starter ship and the two ships I mentioned all have beds. If you are not aware, sleeping just 1 hour in the bed(or any bed for that matter) will heal you fully and give you an EXP buff.

Supposedly, there are digipicks sometimes in toilets. I do not have the patients to check all the toilets to find out if that is true(you have to pick up some item, and use that to lift the toilet seat).

I cannot recommend enough the Star UI mod. Has no effect on gameplay, but makes the inventory much nicer. https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/773

 

[jmotivator]

I was playing through the main mission and encountered a fight that made me realize I needed to start taking a combat build more seriously.

I decided that given the experiences I have had in ground combat this far I was going to focus on short/mid-range combat since most action happens at that range anyway. That.. and also I discovered that I had stored this in my cargo hold without looking at it:




When I got it it sat in my ship's storage for a while until I realized what I had. I pulled it out of storage, spruced it up as best I could with level 3 weapon modding, and decided to max out my Shotgun and Particle beam skills (I currently only have 1 point is shotguns and 0 in Particle beams).

Basically the game seems broken now. I'm 2 shotting level 80 human enemies and 1 shotting level 95 alien wildlife. When I maximize by Shotgun and Particle Beam skills I'll be 1-shotting pretty much everything.

What makes it even more broken is it is a cone-effect weapon, so everything within the cone of attack gets hit. As far as I can tell that includes enemies behind other enemies.

Also pretty funny that in the strange economy of Starfield, this shotgun is worth more than my starting spaceship.

 

[jmotivator]

There are a couple place you can get new ships as quest rewards fairly early. The Mantis quest and the Ranger questline both result in nice ship rewards, with the ranger quest reward having large cargo space, and being an overpower class A ship. The starter ship and the two ships I mentioned all have beds. If you are not aware, sleeping just 1 hour in the bed(or any bed for that matter) will heal you fully and give you an EXP buff.

Have you done the mission that Stroud gives you after you go with him to steal the artifact from his competitor? It's a pretty funny mission and I'd like to see if other people got different outcomes...

 

[Redress]

Have you done the mission that Stroud gives you after you go with him to steal the artifact from his competitor? It's a pretty funny mission and I'd like to see if other people got different outcomes...

I do not think I have yeet. I keep making new characters and changing up the early game, so not as far along as I should be.

Note: skipping the early side quests is kinda a mistake I discovered since a 75 exp reward means alot more when it takes less exp to level kinda thing.

 

[Lutherf]

Guns are good!

I picked up a nice rifle on one of the earliest quests and a pistol that's over 100 damage shortly thereafter. I'm quickly becoming a fan of hunting down Spacers.

I did manage to get a few hours of play in over the weekend and finally have a grip on getting from place to place in a ship and docking. I just totally missed the whole thing about "hailing" a space station so I bumped into stuff for quite a while. I also figured out that scanning plants and animals requires multiple scans. Spent a little while frustrated that nothing was showing up as "scanned" after I got it in my center ring.

Oh yeah! I just got a new ship and some nifty Mantis spacesuit stuff. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how that works out after I get home tonight.

 

[jmotivator]

I do not think I have yeet. I keep making new characters and changing up the early game, so not as far along as I should be.

Note: skipping the early side quests is kinda a mistake I discovered since a 75 exp reward means alot more when it takes less exp to level kinda thing.

OK, well when you finish the Stroud artifact quest speak to him again and he'll give you a new quest. It's fairly short, mostly conversation based and rather funny with a potentially huge pay off.

 

[jmotivator]

Guns are good!

I picked up a nice rifle on one of the earliest quests and a pistol that's over 100 damage shortly thereafter. I'm quickly becoming a fan of hunting down Spacers.

I did manage to get a few hours of play in over the weekend and finally have a grip on getting from place to place in a ship and docking. I just totally missed the whole thing about "hailing" a space station so I bumped into stuff for quite a while. I also figured out that scanning plants and animals requires multiple scans. Spent a little while frustrated that nothing was showing up as "scanned" after I got it in my center ring.

Oh yeah! I just got a new ship and some nifty Mantis spacesuit stuff. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how that works out after I get home tonight.

That Mantis armor lasted me until level 40. It's rather good!

The Mantis ship is also really good as an early ship. It's definitely an upgrade.

 

[Redress]

That Mantis armor lasted me until level 40. It's rather good!

The Mantis ship is also really good as an early ship. It's definitely an upgrade.

I found the Mantis armor lasted until I could pick the lock in the basement of the Lodge. Then the DR on that armor was just too good to resist.

 

[Goshin]

I was playing through the main mission and encountered a fight that made me realize I needed to start taking a combat build more seriously.

I decided that given the experiences I have had in ground combat this far I was going to focus on short/mid-range combat since most action happens at that range anyway. That.. and also I discovered that I had stored this in my cargo hold without looking at it:


View attachment 67468491

When I got it it sat in my ship's storage for a while until I realized what I had. I pulled it out of storage, spruced it up as best I could with level 3 weapon modding, and decided to max out my Shotgun and Particle beam skills (I currently only have 1 point is shotguns and 0 in Particle beams).

Basically the game seems broken now. I'm 2 shotting level 80 human enemies and 1 shotting level 95 alien wildlife. When I maximize by Shotgun and Particle Beam skills I'll be 1-shotting pretty much everything.

What makes it even more broken is it is a cone-effect weapon, so everything within the cone of attack gets hit. As far as I can tell that includes enemies behind other enemies.

Also pretty funny that in the strange economy of Starfield, this shotgun is worth more than my starting spaceship.

Holey Hannah on a pogo stick.

 

[jmotivator]

I kind of dug myself a bit of a hole on my first UC mission. I was asked to infiltrate the Crimson Fleet, which I did, but I ended up getting sidetracked when I was at the stage where I needed to talk to the CF leader.

I had gone to another planet to do another mission and came across an abandoned science base by chance that was full of CF soldiers. I had planned to wander around the base and gather what I could and leave since the CF soldiers were peaceful until I found a stack of scientist bodies that the Crimson Fleet made of the previous innocent occupants and it got by blood up.

I killed every CF soldier in the base and moved on...

On my walk on the planet I came across an abandoned mining base that I went in to reconnoiter... more CF soldiers, more innocent corpses... more shooting, more dead CF soldiers...

The THIRD base with CF soldiers opened fire on me immediately. I guess word got out...

At this point I killed them all and moved on. I decided I should probably complete that UC quest since my undercover mission was about to be blown. I flew to the planet where I was supposed to meet the CF leader and was greeted by a swarm of CF fights... in the neighborhood of 8 ships? I quickly fired up the grav drive and Noped my way out of the system.

But it didn't sit right with me, I figured if I could break the blockade I could still make the meeting, pay the fine and get back in the good graces.

I learned today you can't land on a planet while in combat. Huh....

So I fired up the weapons, went to battle stations and started dogfighting 8 CF ships.

Luckily the CF captains weren't all the bravest of people and 3 of them Noped out of system themselves when I took out their shields. The other five put up a great fight and I was teetering on destruction quite a few times, but eventually I destroyed them and put my crew to repairing my ship.

I landed on the plant to be met by the CF leader and his entourage who didn't ask me to pay my bounty tab, they just attacked. I killed them all, sort of. The CF leader and his entourage can't be killed, I just knocked them down. I couldn't talk to them while they were down either.

Well, this is awkward...

I decided that I would fly to the CF Starbase. At least there the guard would give me the option of paying the bill before he started shooting.

I boarded and made my way into the base. I wasn't met immediately with security, just some low level pilots looking to kill me. I dispatched them all fairly quickly and made my way into the base proper where finally a Security guard approached, told me to halt and demanded I pay my bounty.

My bounty: 295,000 credits....

....

After a good deal of blasting I decided to retreat and zone out of the main station hub back to the docking area.

It was then that I learned that the enemy can follow you to new zones.

Suddenly the hall was filled with 20+ CF soldiers and merchants who all wanted a piece of me.

I left a pile of bodies.

I don't think I can afford the bounty anymore....

 

[WorldWatcher]

I kind of dug myself a bit of a hole on my first UC mission. I was asked to infiltrate the Crimson Fleet, which I did, but I ended up getting sidetracked when I was at the stage where I needed to talk to the CF leader.

I had gone to another planet to do another mission and came across an abandoned science base by chance that was full of CF soldiers. I had planned to wander around the base and gather what I could and leave since the CF soldiers were peaceful until I found a stack of scientist bodies that the Crimson Fleet made of the previous innocent occupants and it got by blood up.

I killed every CF soldier in the base and moved on...

On my walk on the planet I came across an abandoned mining base that I went in to reconnoiter... more CF soldiers, more innocent corpses... more shooting, more dead CF soldiers...

The THIRD base with CF soldiers opened fire on me immediately. I guess word got out...

At this point I killed them all and moved on. I decided I should probably complete that UC quest since my undercover mission was about to be blown. I flew to the planet where I was supposed to meet the CF leader and was greeted by a swarm of CF fights... in the neighborhood of 8 ships? I quickly fired up the grav drive and Noped my way out of the system.

But it didn't sit right with me, I figured if I could break the blockade I could still make the meeting, pay the fine and get back in the good graces.

I learned today you can't land on a planet while in combat. Huh....

So I fired up the weapons, went to battle stations and started dogfighting 8 CF ships.

Luckily the CF captains weren't all the bravest of people and 3 of them Noped out of system themselves when I took out their shields. The other five put up a great fight and I was teetering on destruction quite a few times, but eventually I destroyed them and put my crew to repairing my ship.

I landed on the plant to be met by the CF leader and his entourage who didn't ask me to pay my bounty tab, they just attacked. I killed them all, sort of. The CF leader and his entourage can't be killed, I just knocked them down. I couldn't talk to them while they were down either.

Well, this is awkward...

I decided that I would fly to the CF Starbase. At least there the guard would give me the option of paying the bill before he started shooting.

I boarded and made my way into the base. I wasn't met immediately with security, just some low level pilots looking to kill me. I dispatched them all fairly quickly and made my way into the base proper where finally a Security guard approached, told me to halt and demanded I pay my bounty.

My bounty: 295,000 credits....

....

After a good deal of blasting I decided to retreat and zone out of the main station hub back to the docking area.

It was then that I learned that the enemy can follow you to new zones.

Suddenly the hall was filled with 20+ CF soldiers and merchants who all wanted a piece of me.

I left a pile of bodies.

I don't think I can afford the bounty anymore....

I'm taking notes here. So this is what I got:

"When asked to infiltrate an enemy as an undercover operative, its probably not a wise choice if you kill vast quantities of their soldiers and destroy their ships."

Is that about right?

WW

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.
.
.
.


[Good story BTW - please keep sharing.]

 

[jmotivator]

I'm taking notes here. So this is what I got:

"When asked to infiltrate an enemy as an undercover operative, its probably not a wise choice if you kill vast quantities of their soldiers and destroy their ships."

Is that about right?

WW

.
.
.
.
.


[Good story BTW - please keep sharing.]

Initial testing is indicating that that is the most likely scenario, yes.

On the bright side, that surprise murder spree was a great honeymoon for me and my new bride!