OS Neutral StarField (Bethesda 2023, Spoilers)

[Huntn]

If I can offer a suggestion, do the Secret Outpost first. You'll need to do the first quest with Sarah to have the opportunity to do the Mantis quest line, but you get a really good ship, and a good space suit. Its also a fun quest line.

I’ve got the Secret Outpost notices (not that secret 😉) the Mantis Quest popped up with Sarah, would you say the Mantis ship is better than the Free Star line ship?

I got a distress signal from Altair II a Free Star outpost over run by spacers, fought them on the planet, traveled to 2 other plantets to destroy their ships, came back to Altair II for a final confrontation. Th Free Star commander was impressed a UC person would help them.

Not happy with my ship weapons selection. It might be operator error, but the suppressors don’t seem to be all that effective. More experience is needed. In the past I would use weapons that mostly damaged shields, then target their engines, then board them, that is if they did not blow up in the process. 😐

 

[maflynn]

he Mantis Quest popped up with Sarah, would you say the Mantis ship is better than the Free Star line ship?

No, its better then the Frontier.

 

[Huntn]

I’m running into bugs. On Altair II there was a locked door I could not get through a door to talk to a NPC, and now at a satellite to fix, and no prompts to fix it…both researched, these are known bugs. 😐

 

[maflynn]

On Altair II there was a locked door I could not get through a door to talk to a NPC

I've not gotten to that point in the freestar quest line - I'm just starting that faction quest line now.

Side note, I hate how you use up digipicks to pick a lock. I'm forced to save sum, just to make sure I'm not wasting them. I have to remember to buy them in the various vendors when I'm at a city, but I keep forgetting

 

[maflynn]

I’m running into bugs. On Altair II there was a locked door I could not get through a door to talk to a NPC, and now at a satellite to fix, and no prompts to fix it…both researched, these are known bugs. 😐

I forgot how much I dislike the Freestar quest line. Way too many load screens, way too many times I have to head back to Akila, run to the bar where the rangers, do a quick bit of dialog only to need to fly somewhere else.

 

[Huntn]

I forgot how much I dislike the Freestar quest line. Way too many load screens, way too many times I have to head back to Akila, run to the bar where the rangers, do a quick bit of dialog only to need to fly somewhere else.

That Altair II quest was just a distress signal I picked up coming into orbit, not part of a faction quest line persey, at least it does not seems to be.

 

[maflynn]

So I noticed in ship building that something changed - Bethesda added the ability to decorate the insides of your ship. In theory that sounds great, but I hadn't realized that so when I added a habitation unit to my ship, it was just an empty husk, not realizing it was up to me to furnish and decorate it. Not sure if there's any options to have it pre-furnished but what ever. I've played this long with an empty ship, I guess it doesn't matter that much

Edit: I just noticed that it requires resources to "decorate" your ship, so I cannot just build our your internior like you can the exterior (using credits). This makes that process all the more grindier and while I was thinking of making my ship look better internally I'm largely turned off from doing that. I think this only the case of building out a new ship, with modifying an existing ship, the stuff may stay there - not sure.

Edit: I'm an idiot

 

[Huntn]

So I noticed in ship building that something changed - Bethesda added the ability to decorate the insides of your ship. In theory that sounds grate, but I hadn't realized that so when I added a habitation unit to my ship, it was just an empty husk, not realizing it was up to me to furnish and decorate it. Not sure if there's any options to have it pre-furnished but what ever. I've played this long with an empty ship, I guess it doesn't matter that much

Edit: I just noticed that it requires resources to "decorate" your ship, so I cannot just build our your internior like you can the exterior (using credits). This makes that process all the more grindier and while I was thinking of making my ship look better internally I'm largely turned off from doing that. I think this only the case of building out a new ship, with modifying an existing ship, the stuff may stay there - not sure.

I just built a ship and all the habitats I saw installed, came furnished. Is this a setting? Actually in some cases I prefer them prefurnished, cause they have a lived in, but sometimes cluttered look… unless it’s not a big hassle to find and place things. There are actually some spaces I might rearrange a little. The Captain’s quarters leaves a bit to desire.

I found:

How to customize your ship interior in Starfield & what you can build

Starfield's May patch has brought a shipload of new features and improvements for players to try out, and one of the most exciting among them is the

progameguides.com

 

[maflynn]

I just built a ship and all the habitats I saw installed, came furnished.

Ooooh, you're right.

I went back into the game, and instead of stopping at the Captain's quarters, I kept cycling through. So there's a set of empty habitats, and a set of furnished. I hadn't noticed that there's empty vs. furnished. Thanks you made my day 🙂

 

[Huntn]

Ooooh, you're right.

I went back into the game, and instead of stopping at the Captain's quarters, I kept cycling through. So there's a set of empty habitats, and a set of furnished. I hadn't noticed that there's empty vs. furnished. Thanks you made my day 🙂

So it’s all or nothing? In other words, you can’t go into a pre-furnished habitat and tidy up or move things around? Will check this out next time in game. The captain’s quarters would be a prime target. The sad thing is there is nothing to do in your ship for leisure or even mission related, just like there is nothing you can really do in any home you own. 🤔

 

[maflynn]

So it’s all or nothing?

Oh I no clue, I have zero interest in making changes, so the default furnishing of the hab unit is fine by me

 

[maflynn]

I just started the Terran Armada, so far its pretty good, but I ran into one "bug" I don't know if its an actual bug or just my bad luck. Without giving too much away, I entered an area in the ship where the door locks behind me. After listening to the recording, I'm locked in. I need to then talk with my companion (in my case Andreja) but she's outside of the locked door. I'm inside.

I need to go back to prior save and redo a fair amount of what I just accomplished - kind of annoyed

 

[Huntn]

I just started the Terran Armada, so far its pretty good, but I ran into one "bug" I don't know if its an actual bug or just my bad luck. Without giving too much away, I entered an area in the ship where the door locks behind me. After listening to the recording, I'm locked in. I need to then talk with my companion (in my case Andreja) but she's outside of the locked door. I'm inside.

I need to go back to prior save and redo a fair amount of what I just accomplished - kind of annoyed

If worse comes to worse, if it happens again, there is a consol code to move through obstacles “no clip” (~tcl), it’s a toggle on, off.

Starfield Console Commands and Cheats List - Starfield Guide - IGN

In Starfield, cheat codes are enabled via Console Commands. These cheat codes currently only work on PC versions of Starfield. This Console Commands and Cheats

www.ign.com

Just make a save before you do this, and be judicial with your movements.

I’m curious, (if) this is a plus play through? How did you find Andreja? I remember her being off in some remote site.

 

[maflynn]

I’m curious, (if) this is a plus play through?

yes, I think I'm on Plus 5 or 6

How did you find Andreja?

She's part of Constellation, so she shows up very quickly in the main quest line

 

[maflynn]

So I've been doing the Terrain Armada and overall its a good story line, but one thing that's annoying is that the DLC is leaning heavily into the "Cruise Mode" for space travel. This is the new mode to use for interstellar travel. Want to get to a location in a solar system you have to use cruise mode, not fast travel - at least for the quest markers for this quest. Its annoying because you sit there waiting to get to your location. Its boring.

 

[maflynn]

I'm in the last quest, and I seem to have hit a quest breaking bug, where I cannot complete finding the 3rd black box.

My overall opinion of this DLC, is a missed opportunity, unless Bethesda will lean into this new group in future DLCs.

This new enemy isn't a faction, and that's where the ball was dropped, there could have been so much more lore, and world building with them, but all we've gotten is ship clearing quests one after the other. After the first couple, its all copypasta, the ships, and quests are all the same.

 

[maflynn]

I used a console command to add the black box, and move the final quest forward.

Overall, it wasn't a bad DLC, but I'm having issues with the fact that we waited a year and a half between Shattered space and Terrain Armada. Its largely an under-cooked story line with a largely repetitive quest line. Dialog and interactions were not really engaging.

 

[maflynn]

So I backed into some starfield news and the moves the new xbox head means for Bethesda.

Matty is a big Bethesda fanboy, so if he's delivering bad news, you know its not good. Long story short (for starfield), is that the PS5 sales have disappointed Microsoft. The release of the game to the PS5 did not really move the needle in a materiel way. He posts that layoffs in Betheda all revolve around non- elder scroll, and fallout content. If you're not working on those two IPs, then you're out.

Seems like this last update/dlc we saw may be the last for starfield.

 

[maflynn]

I finished up a quick play through of starfield, this go around, I selected to play as starborn, instead of selecting the main storyline.

In a weird way this was rather satisfrying, I didn't have to have companions, or do the story, all I had to do was collect the artifacts. I was still able to do the radiant quests, which I didn't opt for. I think I may opt for another play through doing the same thing but this time some of the faction quests that I've largely ignored in prior play throughs.

 

[Huntn]

I finished up a quick play through of starfield, this go around, I selected to play as starborn, instead of selecting the main storyline.

In a weird way this was rather satisfrying, I didn't have to have companions, or do the story, all I had to do was collect the artifacts. I was still able to do the radiant quests, which I didn't opt for. I think I may opt for another play through doing the same thing but this time some of the faction quests that I've largely ignored in prior play throughs.

After getting over the original “wow” visuals of artifact snagging and they become repetitive, this became more of a routine boring aspect of the game for me, especially in the big picture they really don’t mean anything to you other than more personal power, to go collect… more artifacts. There’s got to be more to life than this, as in what’s the point? And the multiverse thing, I’ve been down on that since Marvel went down that road… 🤔

 

[maflynn]

this became more of a routine boring aspect of the game for me,

So the main story is all about discovering what those artifacts are and how to collect them, at various parts of the game, a non-dismiss-able companion is assigned to you as you go through the story - I kind of hate that in a couple of instances they get in the way and negatively impact how I'm trying to get through the quest. For instance as you progressed through most of the main quest you will then need to work Walter Stroud and stealthily go through a building, but he stops following you and just walks in the main hallway. Everyone is alerted and keys off on you. As a stealth player that annoys me to no end.

The option to skip the story line basically means you get a list of planets where all of the artifacts are. I'm doing another playthrough that way, but I'm now doing the various radiant quests. These are the highlight of the game and so I'll be spending my time doing that. I just completed the Mantas quest, now onto the vanguard and crimson fleet

 

[maflynn]

One (of many) pet peeves with the game is the powers (the shouts in skyrim).

1. You largely need to visit the eye for each and every location of the temples. That gets old very quickly.
2. When you land on the planet with the "anomaly" you're so far away that its a grind to run there. Why didn't Bethesda dial this in, its the same thing over and over, running long distances on a barren planet is monotonous at best. Lore wise, if the "eye" space station can find these distance anomalies across the galaxy, surely we can land within walking distance.
3. Its the same thing over and over, fly through 5 clusters of stars, the 4th and 5th will disappear quickly, making the action a bit tedious and grindy.
4. Most of the actual powers are kind useless. I use the personal atmosphere so I can keep running without slowing down - only needed because of issue #1, if that wasn't there, I'd have no need for this power. The one that makes you invisible, is pretty cool, the sensing life forms is good for a stealth character and there's a personal shield for ballistic damage - I'm just playing with that now. So that's 3 powers out of 24. I'm sure other players may have a different list but I think overall my complaint about the lackluster nature of these is the general consensus

 

[dmr727]

Yeah, going to the Temples to get the Powers is my least favorite part of the game. It's boring and repetitive - almost to the point that it feels like they ran out of time and put it in as an afterthought, but it's part of the main quest! 🤷‍♂️

 

[Huntn]

To me, it’s preposterous to basically promise the “secret of your existence” and learn the secret is spending eternity chasing down artifacts with very shallow story elements, jumping around alternate realities, leaving behind those you might have special relationships with. The first time, companions were “you should go”. I only went because I needed to know. 🙂 Ok, yes, it’s a game, but as I said there has to be more, where this game puts you is in an endless loop till you croak collecting artifacts so you can better flex your muscles? This is your higher purpose?
That’s the main quest. I agree with @maflynn that the faction quests are the best elements of the game, but there’s lots of shortfalls and squandered potential. 🙃

 

[Huntn]

One (of many) pet peeves with the game is the powers (the shouts in skyrim).

1. You largely need to visit the eye for each and every location of the temples. That gets old very quickly.
2. When you land on the planet with the "anomaly" you're so far away that its a grind to run there. Why didn't Bethesda dial this in, its the same thing over and over, running long distances on a barren planet is monotonous at best. Lore wise, if the "eye" space station can find these distance anomalies across the galaxy, surely we can land within walking distance.
3. Its the same thing over and over, fly through 5 clusters of stars, the 4th and 5th will disappear quickly, making the action a bit tedious and grindy.
4. Most of the actual powers are kind useless. I use the personal atmosphere so I can keep running without slowing down - only needed because of issue #1, if that wasn't there, I'd have no need for this power. The one that makes you invisible, is pretty cool, the sensing life forms is good for a stealth character and there's a personal shield for ballistic damage - I'm just playing with that now. So that's 3 powers out of 24. I'm sure other players may have a different list but I think overall my complaint about the lackluster nature of these is the general consensus

I used a rover. The map was a mystery, so I’d scan for a large mountain or facility and head that way, but even the rover is kind of a pain when jumping over boulders in rough terrain.