:.:. Starfield .:.: - by Vae
Malf on 18/9/2023 at 09:00
To echo Jason, I'm actually really enjoying this too, with one massive caveat: it's probably best to ignore the scripted content and just trundle off and do your own thing.
I do major quests when I need quick XP, but for the most part, I'm trundling the galaxy trying to build up enough momentum so that I can just be a Space Bastard.
The majority of scripted content is annoyingly moralistic, and every fucker in Constellation is a bit of a goody-two-shoes who gets annoyed when I do something Space Bastardish, so I have discovered that the best companion is the Adoring Fan.
No matter what I do, he's got my back!
He's also specced into weight-lifting, so can carry more than all the other weaklings. The perfect pack mule.
It's actually giving me a lot of the experience I wanted from Elite Dangerous, but which that game never actually delivered. And for all of the complaints about loading screens, it has no more than Elite Dangerous.
It can get annoying how many of the best skills are locked deep in to certain sections of the skill trees, but at the same time, it does give me something to work towards.
I'm currently quite heavily specced into tech for the ship-based benefits, and I have regretted spending points in some trees prematurely before understanding how levelling works, but at the moment, it doesn't feel like a game where I will be able to max out everything, and so specialising is probably best.
The narrative and the way it's delivered are shit, and feel massively dated. There have been no advances in the way Bethesda handle this stuff since Skyrim. So again, a good reason to avoid it and just go full Space Bastard.
It's certainly massively jarring coming off the back of Baldur's Gate 3.
And it all feels very derivative of existing works. I have yet to encounter anything original, and I get strong Hyperion vibes from the main quest (the Dan Simmons sci-fi series of novels, that is).
There's annoying colour correction everywhere, and characters and animations are as bad as they always are in Bethesda games.
But playing it in gung-ho asshole mode is very cathartic, and enough to keep pulling me back.
WingedKagouti on 18/9/2023 at 10:02
Quote Posted by Malf
To echo Jason, I'm actually really enjoying this too, with one massive caveat: it's probably best to ignore the scripted content and just trundle off and do your own thing.
I do major quests when I need quick XP, but for the most part, I'm trundling the galaxy trying to build up enough momentum so that I can just be a Space Bastard.
The majority of scripted content is annoyingly moralistic, and every fucker in Constellation is a bit of a goody-two-shoes who gets annoyed when I do something Space Bastardish, so I have discovered that the best companion is the Adoring Fan.
I've found that the faction stories are a lot more involved this time around and I recommend trying the Vanguard. The main quest is also worth going through. Sure you can get a lot of moralizing from some NPCs, but you could also just not bring a companion with you unless forced by a mission.
Quote:
There's annoying colour correction everywhere, and characters and animations are as bad as they always are in Bethesda games.
There's at least one mod to fix/remove the colour correction.
Malf on 18/9/2023 at 10:37
Quote Posted by WingedKagouti
There's at least one mod to fix/remove the colour correction.
Yeah, I installed it yesterday, but it's not working for some reason. I'll poke at it tonight. I probably missed something in the description on Nexus.
I seriously thought there was something wrong with my monitors when I first fired it up, as it's so bad, black is rarely actually black. And in a game about
space, that's not good.
Edit: I've also progressed the main story quite far, in that I have something like
8 space magic powers, and I've had to make a choice between Eye and Lodge, but nothing about it has really gripped me.
I think I may have also just had it spoiled by a single word in an RPS article that otherwise was spoiler-free (that word being
simulation).
Also, aren't the Vanguard "good" guys?
See self-described Space Bastard.
I'm approaching this game completely differently to how I would usually play a Bethesda game. Where I would previously sneak around and engage in conversation and obligingly walk into obvious traps so the game story could progress in a prescribed way, this time, it's quite often "Shoot first, loot the corpse after".
The quest with your CEO buddy to get the artifact piece from Slayton?
Yeah, I just shot everyone in the face.
That final room, when I got to it and saw Slayton standing on a balcony armed and flanked with goons? I didn't even enter the room, as I knew it would trigger a conversation. I just popped heads from the doorway.And I must admit, it's very cathartic playing this way.
I
do have points in persuasion and deception, but that's with the intention of becoming proper piratey.
Unfortunately, I don't often get a chance to talk to other pilots, as at the moment, the energy weapons on my primary ship are lasers, and I think I need to equip some EM weapons in order to better disable enemies rather than blow them to space dust.
Jason Moyer on 19/9/2023 at 02:21
Here's something TTLG-ish I wish I had known before I played for 50 hours:
If it seems like you're making a ton of noise when you're sneaking, it's because your spacesuit (dunno about pack/helmet) makes more noise if you're wearing it. I dunno what the exact mechanic is, maybe it's like TES/Fallout where the weight of your equipment is factored into the sound you make. So if you're trying to be stealthy in a non hazardous environment, taking all this shit off makes it much much easier. To the point that I've accidentally run fairly close to an enemy facing the other way during a mission and they didn't notice me.
On a related note, it apparently defaults to not showing your helmet/pack/spacesuit when you're in settlements. I was wondering why guards kept saying "you know you can take your helmet off on this planet, right?"
Anyway, I'm a smidge over 60 hours in and it feels like there's still a ton of stuff to do, plus I haven't upped any skill tree past the second level. I'm on my last MISC mission that doesn't involve going to a system I'm way underlevelled for finally, then I guess it will be time to dig into the faction stuff before doing another MQ mission. Game is seriously massive, even by Bethsoft standards.
Sulphur on 22/9/2023 at 10:49
There's an understated but frankly perfect level of irony to the fact that Bethesda hired a mod creator to officially add clutter to the game, and now there's a mod to undo it.
WingedKagouti on 22/9/2023 at 13:16
I'm using the Overkill setting of this mod and it makes things much more reasonable.
EvaUnit02 on 25/9/2023 at 20:10
Ah, I remember this dance. A new patch dropped this morning so now I have to wait for a new Script Extender to be put out before I can play. ZZZZZ.
Quote Posted by Malf
I'm approaching this game completely differently to how I would usually play a Bethesda game. Where I would previously sneak around and engage in conversation and obligingly walk into obvious traps so the game story could progress in a prescribed way, this time, it's quite often "Shoot first, loot the corpse after".
The quest with your CEO buddy to get the artifact piece from Slayton?
Yeah, I just shot everyone in the face.
What I've been doing: talking people down with persuasion to get the XP, THEN fill them with lead for even more XP + their loot.
Jason Moyer on 27/9/2023 at 08:14
So other than all the faction quests ending with making a mostly binary choice between two awful things and the usual Bethsoft scriptjank (i.e. multiple quests that break because they both involve the same character, so talking to him about one quest triggers a mid-point in the other one that I haven't started and breaks shit), occasionally there's an element of reactivity I don't expect in their games. Nothing like New Vegas or something, but there's a bit in the MQ where someone gets kidnapped, but the faction he was kidnapped by happens to be one that I'm working with. So none of the guards attacked me, and I was fully expecting it to let me just go in and grab the hostage without comment. But unexpectedly the person who would have been the boss of the mission initiated dialog, and one of the replies was a faction specific one. I was just kind of shocked they accounted for that, because normally in a Bethsoft game it would just break in a way that makes sense in terms of how the systems work but doesn't really make gameplay/story sense. So that was cool.
I'm past the 100 hour mark and it still feels like I haven't done much. I think I've hit most of the big city/settlement quests and all but one faction quest, but I'm still too low level for 2/3 of the star map and the quests in those systems. I will say that the MQ might not be everyone's cup of tea, but the faction quests have been pretty awesome so far. The United Colonies one feels like it would have been a good main questline, except it might be a bit too much of an homage to a certain sci-fi franchise. The 'working as a corporate agent' questline was amazing, especially towards the end when it got a little difficult since you ideally don't want to be noticed by the guards in the missions. Not mindblowing stealth, but fun. The 3 big cities each have a pretty good faction questline that centers around them and there's a 4th one that you kind of stumble into (there's an action that can trigger it, but I think I found out about it via a random encounter). Anyway, still having a good time, although I'm wondering where things are going to go when it seems like I have a lot of questing done but a massive chunk of map I haven't been to.
Malf on 27/9/2023 at 08:47
I completed and quite enjoyed the Crimson Fleet quest line, but now every fucker in Constellation has gone all judgy on me.
Let alone which, outside of that, there's none of the reactivity Jason found in this quest.
Other pirates still refer to me as "Rook" and are unaware that they've actually beaten SysDef.
I've gotten so fed up with the bland, goody-two-shoes Constellation members, I've taken to just defaulting to the Adoring Fan. He doesn't care what I do. Plus, he's specialised in weight lifting, so can carry more than the other plebs.
I'm also disappointed that there aren't more opportunities to be a bastard and that the remaining major quests all seem to be focussed on being a good guy.
All in all, my interest is dying off quite quickly, and Phantom Liberty has just dropped and I've just managed to replace my crappy 7900 XTX with a 4090, so it's running slick as a greased ferret with eveything turned up to max, including Path Tracing, so yeah, fuck Starfield.
There's some fun to be had there, but there's very little pulling me back to continue, expecially with shinier, more polished things available.
The ship building and piracy are very fun, as is the crafting/upgrade system.
But the narrative, especially coming off the back of BG3, is just fucking atrocious, and the talking-heads approach to dialogue feels so dated now, especially as it breaks 50% of the time, and the NPC you're talking to has their back to you / gets stuck in scenery making the camera judder / walks away from you during the conversation.
The score on Metacritic is gradually dropping too, and it's now rated worse than Fallout 76, so I think everyone has finally realised that the emperor has no clothes.
