Starfield has a release date

[Sly Boots]

I had the same y-axis frustration with the ship builder, until I realised it's R/F to move objects up or down - you can actually see it very faintly on the right-hand side of the ship building window.

There are a lot of little frustrations like that, fortunately I've been able to google a lot of stuff that wasn't explained (as far as I could see) in-game, but still, it shouldn't be necessary to do that.

[Wrathbone]

Looks like a few quality of life features are coming from Bethesda:

https://www.eurogamer.net/starfield-get ... s-bethesda

Why these were missing in the first place is bewildering, but at least they're listening to feedback.

I've tried a couple of mods for QoL improvements: StarUI (much improved inventory) and Undelayed Menus (makes it much snappier navigating menus). Both highly recommended.

[Sly Boots]

No mods on the Game Pass version sadly, best I can tell

[Wrathbone]

Should be possible with many mods:

https://gameishard.gg/news/how-to-mod-s ... ss/144496/

Just checked and both the mods I'm using supposedly work with Game Pass, although the menus one has some people saying it doesn't work.

https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/773
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/404

Incidentally, if you do try them then install the menus one first otherwise it will overwrite some files from StarUI.

[Mantis]

Well, I tried. I couldn't get more than two hours in before dropping it. Couldn't find a single thing about it that didn't feel absolutely bang average.

[Animalmother]

My mate was so excited about the release, he paid for the early access as well. He can't get into it and is gone back to playing Skyrim. Just not for everyone I suppose.

[Wrathbone]

I don't think it needs to be. I love it for what it is, but a lot of people seem to have expected something closer to Skyrim and Fallout and can't get into Starfield. Others can't get past the janky Bethesda design in places, which is fair enough (it's never bothered me). I think it's definitely more divisive than previous BGS titles.

Eurogamer aren't exactly singing its praises, which if anything has made me realise how little value I place in reviews these days.

https://www.eurogamer.net/starfield-review

For what it's worth, I strongly disagree with the claim that it's lacking exploration. It's a different sort of exploration than Elder Scrolls and Fallout, but it is there.

[Sly Boots]

I am enjoying playing it. However, I would say that I'm playing it in such a way that I know I will enjoy, and I have some fairly big criticisms overall.

I'm almost exclusively doing missions, some of which have been very good. The Vanguard missions in particular were a highlight with some mystery to uncover and some excellent setpieces. But, and this feels really weird for a space opera and Beth RPG, I'm almost not exploring, at all. It doesn't really feel like there's much point in it. Early on I landed on some random planets and encountered some average proc-gen content, and I spent a while running around a couple of planets fully scanning them, but stopped doing either when both felt rather pointless. I mean, I got some guns to sell in the first instance, and a few thousand credits for the second, but particularly with the scanning given how long it took to complete it doesn't feel like something you'd be able to generate a decent income from.

Also, outposts feel completely pointless. It seems you build one in order to get the resources that... allow you to build more outposts? I built a tiny one early on as an experiment before deciding not to bother, and I don't feel like I'm missing out for not doing it. Fallout 4's outpost system was not amazing, but it did at least feel like it was an actual part of the experience rather than completely separate to it, which is how Starfield's feels.

Even the argument about using them as a home base feels a bit flat, considering I was given a massive penthouse apartment in New Atlantis for free, for completing the Vanguard faction storyline, which I was quickly and cheaply able to populate with every crafting station and basic furniture. I've also got crafting stations in my ship, so again there doesn't feel like there's a point to spending a lot of time and resources building an outpost to do those things.

Like I said I am enjoying it, but I am aware that's largely because I'm cherry-picking the aspects of it that I know I will enjoy.

[Wrathbone]

Also, outposts feel completely pointless. It seems you build one in order to get the resources that... allow you to build more outposts? I built a tiny one early on as an experiment before deciding not to bother, and I don't feel like I'm missing out for not doing it. Fallout 4's outpost system was not amazing, but it did at least feel like it was an actual part of the experience rather than completely separate to it, which is how Starfield's feels.

I've not delved much into outposts yet, nor did I in Fallout 4, but as I understand it you can create outposts to generate trade routes and assign companions to manage them, so they can be big money makers. It's part of the sandbox experience I guess - there's no need to do outposts, but they're an option for those who want to be an enterprising space trader. I know that my dad has earmarked that side of it as something he specifically wants to do when he plays it.

I'm going to attempt to build the ship to end all ships this weekend. I've saved up about 700,000 credits, I've got max skills in piloting and ship design so all parts are at my disposal, so all that's left is some design inspiration and a ship name. To be honest I'm uncertain on both.

[DjchunKfunK]

Yeah outposts are much more interesting than they were in Fallout 4 and are a really good way of making money. You can set them up in such a way that you can get mini production lines that help with research and crafting. I was reading an article on PCGamer about Outposts early where the person being interviewed said that in a way it is like a less fully featured version of Satisfactory.

[Animalmother]

I started 2 outposts and just gave up after I ran out of some resources. Haven't bothered with it since.

There's some great tutorials online for building ships, somebody did a really cool X Wing design. Once I have the skills and cash I'm doing the dropship from Aliens and something silly like a B17 bomber.

[Wrathbone]

This one looks pretty sweet (aside from the colour):

[Raid]

My own forays into the obviously procedurally generated content were every bit as disappointing as I was expecting. In space I came across a space station casino that had been raided, which presented the interesting challenge of a zero gravity environment... which the game doesn't handle well. It's entertaining having your weapons' recoil propelling you backwards, but after the first few times it just gets annoying. It's evident from the layout of the place that the station isn't designed to have gravity either as there aren't any stairs or lifts and there are roulette wheels on the walls... but how would that work exactly? There are playing cards floating around, so it's not as if they do everything digitally. It's also an absolute chore to navigate the place because there are no clear routes to follow. The only thing of interest was a single manager's terminal, which had a combination to win a jackpot on one machine. The "jackpot" was 3000 credits, and for some reason it was in a vent shaft? The location didn't make any sense from the context of the email you read to access it, as it was made clear that this was something customers would be using.

On a planet I saw a ship landing in the distance, so decided to go and see if there was anything there. Firstly, I agree with the comment someone made about the game needing vehicles for planetary travel, as it's exceedingly dull to run and jet for entire kilometres. I passed a few points of interest along the way, mostly just little houses with absolutely nothing inside except the same clutter you get everywhere else. When I did eventually get to the place I thought I'd saw the ship land, there was just nothing. I was expecting an illicit meeting place or something, but I scoured the area and there was nothing but survey stuff.

I know others have differing opinions on procedurally-generated content, but this is just reinforcing my belief that it simply isn't worth the development time. Use it to decorate spaces with clutter (I'm largely assuming this is how they've done it anyway, else I can't really explain the weird number of toilet roll tubes I found in a server farm), or maybe to build structures that a developer then goes and populates, but I just don't think how they're doing things adds anything to the game's entertainment value, and in reality probably detracts from it. I could have been doing a mission in the time I spent running to the non-existent landing spot, but instead I ended up bored. I'll just not bother going off the beaten track again in this I don't think, I'll stick to my quest log.

[Wrathbone]

It's evident from the layout of the place that the station isn't designed to have gravity either as there aren't any stairs or lifts and there are roulette wheels on the walls... but how would that work exactly?

There was an email or tablet I found which suggested to me the staff and customers thought the realities of a zero-G casino were an experimental disaster, so the fact that it makes little practical sense seems intentional.

[Raid]

Oh, hah. I just stumbled upon the place by accident heading to the system where I became Space Batman. I guess that's another perception issue with a game with scope as large as this - I had no indication this was part of a trail a developer had presumably written. Even so, that they wrote a little story for an in-universe idea that is so blatantly stupid speaks volumes about the people populating this universe - it's like the devs couldn't make their mind up about the level of realism they wanted.