My God, it's full of Starfield...

[Hound of Cullen]

The way the logo animates, I want to change my character name to "Arfie"

Level 7, as a sneaky pistoleer. Pickpocketed a scientist for another scientist.
When you headshot/crit an enemy, one of their voice reactions is "I'm blind!"
Critting an enemy booster/pack will sometimes make it explode.
Having fun so far. It does have that Bethesda feel.

 

[designmerc]

At 20-some-odd hours in, a couple 'news to me' QOL tips:

1) Never occurred to me that you could partially load research projects which is a nice additional out for off-loading mats

2) Make note of the mats you can craft at the industrial workbench. Lots of those items are heavy as loot so it's more efficient to just mine/carry the raw mats and craft as needed

 

[foto69man]

I have now also set-up 4 outposts. They go like this:

1. Main base has everything. Storage, landing pad, Helium3, Aluminum, Beryllium. My house and workshop with all the machines too.
2. Outpost 1 has 3 Iron extractors and it funnels to the Main Base by cargo link
3. Outpost 2 is on a different planet in system and funnels Helium3 and Silver to Outpost 3
4. Outpost 3 harvests Argon, Water and Lead and then funnels that and any overage of Helium3 that it doesn't use for the Intra Cargo Link...back to my Main Base

It's lovely, slightly dizzying and you also have to put up turrets to protect from Pirates and/or intrusive wildlife. I love it. And then figure out your optimal trade routes/selling points.

Also my ship has morphed as my playing style has. It started out as a 'borrowed' eclipse ship and is now this hauler.

Disclaimer I only did the missions to get to New Atlantis and that maybe 5 side missions. That's it. So noting is a spoiler or hidden by a skill level

 

[foto69man]

Also would anyone be willing to share their best photos taken in game? Looking for more cinematic desktop backgrounds

 

[Tijger]

according to some videos I've seen, killing ships in the simulator counts for your skill requirements on piloting and ship weapons etc.

This is correct, the simulator kills count for your tally and it adds to your tally on weapons.

 

[orionquest]

Beth really makes good doors.

Has there been any reference to Fallout in the game?

 

[foto69man]

Beth really makes good doors.

Has there been any reference to Fallout in the game?

Yes, and references and easter eggs everywhere............

Trying collecting and displaying all the coffee mugs or plushies.

 

[foto69man]

Warhammer 40k/Horus Heresy reference.

 

[Ed209]

Just finished Into the Unknown... sigh.

Spoiler: Really?

superpowers... really? Can't I just be a regular Joe Schmoe in space Bethesda? Gotta shoehorn in the dragonspaceborn??

As long as they don't bring up midi-chlorians...

 

[wireframed]

Played for an hour today.

Initial impressions after having put like 50 hours into Baldur's Gate 3 is, this is a bit disappointing in comparison.

I know I'm right at the start, but what exactly is the point of the ships? It seems like all you can do is take off, fight some ships if they are in the "level" that exists around the planet, and then fast-travel to another planet. Yeah there is some base stuff on the ship, but it's not really a ship as much as it's just a base you can use for fast-travelling.

It doesn't look like I can really fly anywhere in the ship, even within the same system? I don't get closer or further from a planet if I fly for a few minutes. "Space" feels like just a level with a skybox around it for stars and planets, but not something you actually interact with, it's just there to provide something going between planets.

Also, getting some annoying performance issues, like jumping into and out of inventory tanks framerates from 40-60 to 4-5 for a solid 5-8 seconds before climbing, and sometimes tabbing out and back will halve the framerate.

This feels like something I might let sit for a month or two and come back when the worst issues are fixed.

 

[cmannes]

Played for an hour today.

Initial impressions after having put like 50 hours into Baldur's Gate 3 is, this is a bit disappointing in comparison.

I know I'm right at the start, but what exactly is the point of the ships? It seems like all you can do is take off, fight some ships if they are in the "level" that exists around the planet, and then fast-travel to another planet. Yeah there is some base stuff on the ship, but it's not really a ship as much as it's just a base you can use for fast-travelling.

It doesn't look like I can really fly anywhere in the ship, even within the same system? I don't get closer or further from a planet if I fly for a few minutes. "Space" feels like just a level with a skybox around it for stars and planets, but not something you actually interact with, it's just there to provide something going between planets.

Also, getting some annoying performance issues, like jumping into and out of inventory tanks framerates from 40-60 to 4-5 for a solid 5-8 seconds before climbing, and sometimes tabbing out and back will halve the framerate.

This feels like something I might let sit for a month or two and come back when the worst issues are fixed.

It's very "old school" RPG. Space is the 'overworld map' and landing sites & ships/stations you dock with are the points of interest you can enter from the overworld.

At first, it felt a little disappointing, but as I get into the questlines & stories, it's become fairly moot, and I'm really enjoying the game.

 

[krimhorn]

It doesn't look like I can really fly anywhere in the ship, even within the same system? I don't get closer or further from a planet if I fly for a few minutes. "Space" feels like just a level with a skybox around it for stars and planets, but not something you actually interact with, it's just there to provide something going between planets.

You can but you're moving at about 5km/s in the base ship. It takes about 7-10 hours to fly from the jump-in point to the planet you jumped in to. You can hear Alanah Pierce's thoughts after having flown in to Pluto. The TL;DW is: this isn't NMS, Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen. The ships aren't the point of the game they're a part of the worldbuilding structure of their new universe.

 

[nquinnell]

I know what tonight's goal is!

I sort of forgot to do this last night.

Accidentally joined the pirate guild, after paying off my HUGE BOUNTY because I've been headshotting pirates on missions. Then I had a cool prison adventure.

Maybe tonight

 

[MichaelC]

Starfield is not NMS. It's more akin to Mass Effect. It's an RPG in which you talk to people as opposed to space exploration.

 

[Tijger]

Starfield is not NMS. It's more akin to Mass Effect. It's an RPG in which you talk to people as opposed to space exploration.

Talk? Hmpf, kill, you mean!

 

[MichaelC]

that too!

 

[wireframed]

Starfield is not NMS. It's more akin to Mass Effect. It's an RPG in which you talk to people as opposed to space exploration.

Yeah I understand that I’m just wondering at some of the design choices. Why have a 1000 planets when they’re mostly empty and the excuse is “well, do you know how long it takes to flesh out that many planets?” Yeah, but you’re the ones who decided to add a 1000 planets. Since we’re just fast-traveling everywhere, why not 100 planets with more locations.

And then adding ships that don’t do much and the excuse is “well the engine can’t technically handle making planets and space one (mostly) contiguous world”. Right, but then the engine isn’t that well suited for a sci-if game in space, perhaps? If ships are just to let players build something, why not just a base instead of teasing a vehicle that isn’t really a vehicle but a fast-travel gadget.

I’m going to play some more, maybe I’ll change my opinion, right now it just feels a bit like a skinned version of Fallout 76 and it’s a bit disappointing. Exploration feels a bit empty because it REALLY feels like a game. Like, I don’t feel sucked into the universe, eager to explore. It feels a bit like Mass Effect. The first one.

 

[Yagisama]

As long as they don't bring up midi-chlorians...

Played for an hour today.

Initial impressions after having put like 50 hours into Baldur's Gate 3 is, this is a bit disappointing in comparison.

I know I'm right at the start, but what exactly is the point of the ships? It seems like all you can do is take off, fight some ships if they are in the "level" that exists around the planet, and then fast-travel to another planet. Yeah there is some base stuff on the ship, but it's not really a ship as much as it's just a base you can use for fast-travelling.

It doesn't look like I can really fly anywhere in the ship, even within the same system? I don't get closer or further from a planet if I fly for a few minutes. "Space" feels like just a level with a skybox around it for stars and planets, but not something you actually interact with, it's just there to provide something going between planets.

Also, getting some annoying performance issues, like jumping into and out of inventory tanks framerates from 40-60 to 4-5 for a solid 5-8 seconds before climbing, and sometimes tabbing out and back will halve the framerate.

This feels like something I might let sit for a month or two and come back when the worst issues are fixed.

I wouldn't compare Starfield to Baldur's Gate 3. Baldur's Gate 3 is of course much smaller in scale, but it's also sheer perfection. Everything from the characters to the writing to the music. My biggest disappointment with Starfield is the companions. Not only are they not all that interesting, they end up nagging and complaining and generally getting in the way most of the time. They don't hold a candle compared to Astarion or Karlach. Or Parvati or Vicar Max in The Outer Worlds.

As for traversing space, the truth is that if they had some elaborate way of traveling from surface to space and nearby moon, I'd probably do so once or twice and rely on fast travel going forward. So honestly, I'm glad that's streamlined.

I just wish surface travel was a lot faster and easier. Not the current game of running and then waiting for the O2/CO2 gauges to reset. I'd take much better jetpacks to zip around or even some sort of vehicles.

 

[zakael19]

Yeah I understand that I’m just wondering at some of the design choices. Why have a 1000 planets when they’re mostly empty and the excuse is “well, do you know how long it takes to flesh out that many planets?” Yeah, but you’re the ones who decided to add a 1000 planets. Since we’re just fast-traveling everywhere, why not 100 planets with more locations.

And then adding ships that don’t do much and the excuse is “well the engine can’t technically handle making planets and space one (mostly) contiguous world”. Right, but then the engine isn’t that well suited for a sci-if game in space, perhaps? If ships are just to let players build something, why not just a base instead of teasing a vehicle that isn’t really a vehicle but a fast-travel gadget.

I’m going to play some more, maybe I’ll change my opinion, right now it just feels a bit like a skinned version of Fallout 76 and it’s a bit disappointing. Exploration feels a bit empty because it REALLY feels like a game. Like, I don’t feel sucked into the universe, eager to explore. It feels a bit like Mass Effect. The first one.

Most of the systems seem to have a handful of crafted locations and then some degree of random encounters/resourcing for you to play with. Ships let you have space stations, the entire piracy mini-game, boarding actions, etc. I flew to a “enemy action” blip in a system, engaged a set of merc ships in combat, disabled them & boarded for some cool zero-g combat (I’m guessing lasers don’t give you momentum and are better there, my aim was all over the place with ballistics), seized a ship and took it home.

I’m sorry, that’s pretty fucking fun.

I’m also having a great time randomly exploring, although I wish you could move a little faster/didn’t have that o2 gauge.

 

[Yagisama]

Starfield is not NMS. It's more akin to Mass Effect. It's an RPG in which you talk to people as opposed to space exploration.

Which is why the number one skill I took was persuasion. Followed by pickpocket! I'm very people centric.

 

[krimhorn]

Which is why the number one skill I took was persuasion. Followed by pickpocket! I'm very people centric.

Do you leave them gifts too? Little oblong explosive ones perhaps?

 

[Ardax]

"Space" feels like just a level with a skybox around it for stars and planets, but not something you actually interact with, it's just there to provide something going between planets.

To a certain degree yes. Stuff happens around planets. Blow up some asteroids to mine their sweet materials. Meet Grandma. Get asked to deliver shit from Star Parcel. Fight some Spacers. Party in Zero G.

Space is big. Waiting to fly from planet to moons, or other planets, or other star systems? It'd be booooring.

I'm kind of curious what you'd expect instead.

 

[krimhorn]

To a certain degree yes. Stuff happens around planets. Blow up some asteroids to mine their sweet materials. Meet Grandma. Get asked to deliver shit from Star Parcel. Fight some Spacers. Party in Zero G.

Or land on a gas giant's moon and watch its planet rise and set (or even just rotate) during the course of a day. There are a lot of little things that are a consequence of their decision to build out a complex space area even if you're not doing much but sightseeing in it. Like, if you wanted to fly from Earth to Mars, and take the months it would require to do so, you'd find that Mars is moving along its orbit that whole time. That's a detail that would never have happened if they were just building skyboxes. Mundus and Secundus simply tracking along the Tamriel skybox, in the same path day in and day out, will feel quaint after knowing that BGS has already built a game with the potential for seasonal variations that are based on actual planetary movements.

 

[Yagisama]

Do you leave them gifts too? Little oblong explosive ones perhaps?

All the seasons "hottest" gifts, left as nice little surprises.

 

[hestermofet]

Haven't read the thread yet.

I just got to New Atlantis for the first time, barely into the story I guess, but this is so far my favourite Bethesda RPG. I started with Oblivion on the 360 many, many years ago, and have tried most of the Elder Scrolls games, plus Fallout 3 and 4, and I don't know, none of them really hooked me in. Fallout was great, but I just kind of lost interest after a while. Both Oblivion and Skyrim, I bounce hard off every 2-3 years that I try them again, but something about Starfield really has me hooked. I don't know anything about Skyrim beyond the first attack of the dragon way in the beginning despite owning it on like 3 platforms. lol.

I guess the scifi setting? It feels like a totally different genre of game, but with RPG elements. Which I guess is my favourite type of RPG game (other than hack and slash dungeon crawlers like Diablo). These RPGlite things which are a different genre, but have upgrading your build, weapon loadout, character skills and abilities as a core mechanic. Less of a focus on character stats, more on skills/abilities. Another series I really like is Assassin's Creed (playing through Valhalla, have Origins on standby which I will return to after spending a few dozen hours on it). Those are like action-platformers with RPG elements, and Starfield so far feels like an FPS with RPG elements. They seem like pretty similar franchises, the focus is more on upgrading weaponry and skills as opposed to assigning points.

TES games are more traditional RPG games, I guess, and Fallout is more on the skill points side of things which is why I didn't really enjoy them.

 

[skazz]

I got to finally play my preloaded Gamepass version today. Ended up using Hardware Unboxed recommended settings and so far seems fine, although I expect some framerate challenges with my RTX3070 in New Atlantis when I get there.

The introduction section had me more interested to play an RPG than pretty much anything in the last 10+ years, which is good. Skyrim didn't pull me in at all at the start in comparison.

 

[Yagisama]

I found Fallout (Black Isle/Interplay) to be absolutely amazing and Fallout 2 was excellent too. You could feel the decaying world, with lots of atmosphere, and especially with Fallout it felt like there was an imminent and looming danger over everything. Especially since the game was timed (though the patch removed the time limit with the second part of the game).

Then Fallout 3 came and it didn't seem nearly as dark and was more cartoony with bumbling enemies. Same with Fallout 4. Even though I bought both Fallout 3/4 at release, Obsidian's New Vegas was the only one of the newer Fallouts that I really liked.

Starfield is closer to New Vegas than Fallout 3/4 for me. It feels more serious business even with the inclusion of space magic!!!

 

[hestermofet]

Played for an hour today.

Initial impressions after having put like 50 hours into Baldur's Gate 3 is, this is a bit disappointing in comparison.

I know I'm right at the start, but what exactly is the point of the ships? It seems like all you can do is take off, fight some ships if they are in the "level" that exists around the planet, and then fast-travel to another planet. Yeah there is some base stuff on the ship, but it's not really a ship as much as it's just a base you can use for fast-travelling.

My impression so far after admittedly limited play time is that ships are more or less the equivalent of horses or other mounts in an RPG in a more traditional high fantasy setting. Which is a-ok by me. I don't really like space sims nor do I enjoy the spreadsheets in space genre. I don't want to be a space trucker, or play an endless loop of high-repetition, low-payoff fetch quests (space mining), I want to skip forward to the action, which is what the ships basically let you do.

 

[Ladnil]

Of all the complaints about this game "most of the planets have nothing on them" is the most nonsensical. Were people expecting 1000 FO4 Commonwealth type locations? It's ludicrous. Space is big and empty.

The idea that the ships compare unfavorably to Elite or NMS, sure, I understand why you might have thought they'd be some other way. Doesn't bother me, but I understand the perspective. Ditto the planets being broken into cells so you can't circumnavigate the globe even if you had 3 months to leave the game running. But that the planets are all empty... if anything they're entirely too crowded. Do you know the most effective way to find random ships to attempt to steal? land on the most desolate airless world you can find, and since it can't spawn any life-based random encounters it'll reliably spawn a bunch of landing ships encounters instead.

 

[Yagisama]

Of all the complaints about this game "most of the planets have nothing on them" is the most nonsensical. Were people expecting 1000 FO4 Commonwealth type locations? It's ludicrous. Space is big and empty.

The idea that the ships compare unfavorably to Elite or NMS, sure, I understand why you might have thought they'd be some other way. Doesn't bother me, but I understand the perspective. Ditto the planets being broken into cells so you can't circumnavigate the globe even if you had 3 months to leave the game running. But that the planets are all empty... if anything they're entirely too crowded. Do you know the most effective way to find random ships to attempt to steal? land on the most desolate airless world you can find, and since it can't spawn any life-based random encounters it'll reliably spawn a bunch of landing ships encounters instead.

If anything, the opposite is more surprising. In a barren moon with nothing around, a secluded cave with tons of human stuff including fresh food around.

Personally, I have no interest in NWS or the like, nor any interest in "accurate" space sims. Wing Commander level is good enough for me. What I really miss is a good way to traverse local terrain. Pie in the sky wish would be a supersonic jet that lets you get around a planet in a matter of real time hours. Not that you'd want to go around the planet, but add that option to fast travel would be very nice.

---

Silenced sneak damage multiplier head shots for everyone!


---

And level 23 for shooting some poor shmuck in the head, for science! The best part is that leveling refills up your HP. Boss got you down for the count? Shoot his sidekick, level up, and come back good as new!

Spoiler

 

[zakael19]

Oh, are the white health bars armor? Is THAT what the armor pen mods/skills bypass?

I actually read through some of the help docs yesterday, they're pretty solid.

Was NOT expecting the UC Vanguard quest line to go off the rails so quickly, honestly cool pivot.

Spoiler: creatures

I guess when they make such a fuss of them in the museum thing leading up to the flight sim it should've clued me in. I'd already run into a random terrormorph on a world doing exploration though, using your grav power on them makes it ez.

 

[Semi On]

So I finally read through the whole thread over the day. I'm not far in but there were a lot of complaints earlier about persuasion that I never saw addressed. Here's how it works:

The person you're trying to persuade has a set number of points you have to hit which is shown by a number of white lines (it's all be 4 for me so far). Each statement option you make can add some number toward that total. The bigger the number, the harder it is for that particular statement to work, powered by RNJ. So, for instance, you may need to hit a total of 4 (not sure if this varies for harder persuades). Your options will be something like +1, +2, +3, and +4. The one and maybe 2 will be green meaning RNJ is more likely to favor you. The 3 may be a yellow and the 4 will be a red meaning they are harder to get the point. You'll have a certain number of attempts during which you have to hit the original total of 4.

You can largely ignore what you're actually saying to them and just pick based on statistical likelihood and value.

 

[Yagisama]

So I finally read through the whole thread over the day. I'm not far in but there were a lot of complaints earlier about persuasion that I never saw addressed. Here's how it works:

The person you're trying to persuade has a set number of points you have to hit which is shown by a number of white lines (it's all be 4 for me so far). Each statement option you make can add some number toward that total. The bigger the number, the harder it is for that particular statement to work, powered by RNJ. So, for instance, you may need to hit a total of 4 (not sure if this varies for harder persuades). Your options will be something like +1, +2, +3, and +4. The one and maybe 2 will be green meaning RNJ is more likely to favor you. The 3 may be a yellow and the 4 will be a red meaning they are harder to get the point. You'll have a certain number of attempts during which you have to hit the original total of 4.

You can largely ignore what you're actually saying to them and just pick based on statistical likelihood and value.

Persuasion is really funny and I’m at rank 3 if I remember correctly.

“You WILL accept my help or else I’ll kill everyone you love”

+ 6 points acquired

“Thank you so much you are so kind and you are the best ever !!!”

 

[Jonathon]

So I finally read through the whole thread over the day. I'm not far in but there were a lot of complaints earlier about persuasion that I never saw addressed. Here's how it works:

The person you're trying to persuade has a set number of points you have to hit which is shown by a number of white lines (it's all be 4 for me so far). Each statement option you make can add some number toward that total. The bigger the number, the harder it is for that particular statement to work, powered by RNJ. So, for instance, you may need to hit a total of 4 (not sure if this varies for harder persuades). Your options will be something like +1, +2, +3, and +4. The one and maybe 2 will be green meaning RNJ is more likely to favor you. The 3 may be a yellow and the 4 will be a red meaning they are harder to get the point. You'll have a certain number of attempts during which you have to hit the original total of 4.

You can largely ignore what you're actually saying to them and just pick based on statistical likelihood and value.

It's also possible to crit at any point-- I think that's an immediate success for the whole conversation (at least, it was when I got one).

I'm less certain about what auto-persuade is supposed to do-- the first time I tried it, it popped the "persuasion success" message as though I'd passed, but then dropped me back into the persuade interface which I proceeded to fail. That might've been a bug; the other times I've used it, it's completed the conversation and counted as a success.

 

[Yagisama]

It's also possible to crit at any point-- I think that's an immediate success for the whole conversation (at least, it was when I got one).

I'm less certain about what auto-persuade is supposed to do-- the first time I tried it, it popped the "persuasion success" message as though I'd passed, but then dropped me back into the persuade interface which I proceeded to fail. That might've been a bug; the other times I've used it, it's completed the conversation and counted as a success.

Yup I’ve gotten critical success at persuasion a few times.

 

[Lt_Storm]

Also, a warning, some weapon racks in some ships apparently eat guns... because keeping your hard earned loot in the armory abord your ship is too much to ask a Bethesda game.

 

[zakael19]

Use your Autos up, and don’t forget about drink/meds if you want to boost. I’ve been running into a number of 6 slot, and one 8 slot iirc.

However a non-zero number of my failures have been “no, I shall not give you info, you’ll have to take it from my cold dead body.”

“sir, are you aware you’re standing 4 feet from a guy holding a shotgun.”

 

[invertedpanda]

So, I discovered you can remove (at least some) of your starter traits.

On a whim when talking to a certain NPC I saw a dialog relating to Introvert, about wanting to be more social basically.. Well, as it turns out, you can go through a bit of a conversation about wanting to change and build relationships with people, and you can remove the Introvert trait that way.

Pretty interesting the way it was implemented.

 

[Yagisama]

So, I discovered you can remove (at least some) of your starter traits.

On a whim when talking to a certain NPC I saw a dialog relating to Introvert, about wanting to be more social basically.. Well, as it turns out, you can go through a bit of a conversation about wanting to change and build relationships with people, and you can remove the Introvert trait that way.

Pretty interesting the way it was implemented.

After my time with my companions and their constant “we need to talk” at the worst possible time, I’m ready to have the wanting to be less social conversation.

 

[zakael19]

You can also cancel your religious traits by talking to priests and telling them you’re questioning your faith; I think there might’ve been a cancel your UC native one somehow too?