Starfield

[smr1957]

This was just pointed out by Ilja in Helpful Links and References in Steam's Starfield forum and clears up a long standing mystery concerning Chesko, one of Skyrim's premier modders, and his disappearance from the modding scene (well, it was a mystery for at least some of us):

"Well, now we know what happened to Chesko." - Ilja

 

Posted on the Bethesda Starfield site under News - this is the relevant quote from the above linked interview:

"Do you have a favorite mod?

There are a couple of classics that I love. Frostfall for Skyrim is an immersive survival mod that really changes the way you play the game, and it was done by David Pierce, who came on board Starfield and has handled a lot of our economy design."

[Pseron Wyrd]

A new video this afternoon:

 

[smr1957]

Well, my preload has started!!  WHOOO HOO!!!

Edited August 30 by smr1957

[smr1957]

For those interested, this was just posted on Nexus regarding their community patch project:

Starfield Community Patch

 

[Pseron Wyrd]

A musical video from Bethesda this time:

 

[smr1957]

Thanks for that, Pseron!  And there is also this version:

 

[smr1957]

Posted by Bethesda - STARFIELD COSPLAY GUIDES

Edited August 30 by smr1957

[smr1957]

Good day, all!  Well, today's the day!  Finally, after a long incubation, Starfield will be released (at least for some of us).  Hope everyone enjoys it, and hope that the Unofficial Patch team has absolutely nothing to do (I also have some lottery tickets with the winning numbers on them that I am prepared to sell - just all the numbers are not on the same ticket ).  Good luck and enjoy!

[smr1957]

Okay, my first impressions of Starfield. (safe to read - no spoilers - LOL!)

First, as regard performance, for me, and from what I have read in the Steam Starfield forum - the overwhelming response is that the game runs great, very smoothly and without any performance issues - with the FPS being uncapped on PC and Laptops. I can tell you that on my rig, the performance is comparable to how my Skyrim Special Edition runs - very smooth and that's with everything set to ultra. The specs for my laptop are as follows:
HP Pavilion Gaming Laptop 17
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9750H CPU 2.60 - 4.60GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q Design
Primary VRAM: 6143 MB
RAM:  32608 Mb

As for other things. so far, with my admittedly very limited play, Starfield is quite good - but, like any game, there will be things to nit-pic at.  for example, while there may not be many bugs, it does seem like there were some debatable design decisions that were made. I won't say wrong, because when developing a game, the developers are forced to walk a fine line between "too little" and "too much" as far as gameplay, mechanics, and ease of use for the player is concerned; sometimes they hit it just right, sometimes it's just a popup or a dribbler down the line, and sometimes it's a swing and a miss - and in those less than satisfactory results, well, that's where the modding community comes in.

The community turns those dribblers down the line into smart bunts and great squeeze plays (or they just buckner through); the popups become drop in hits - Texas leaguers; and the swing and misses - that's where a pinch hitter is sent in - LOL!

Is the game the equivalent of my modded Skyrim Special Edition as far as looks and play options?  Absolutely not - but then, my modded SSE is quite singular, and really can't be compared to anything else - nor should any vanilla game be compared to it.

There have been a number of nitpicking comments posted by others, but, it would seem that overall, Bethesda has another big success - and one which will become even more successful once the modding tools are released and modders can have at the game.

Edited September 7 by smr1957

[smr1957]

A new vid by Bethesda - more progress on Adam Savage's spaceship model:

 

Edited September 1 by smr1957

[smr1957]

The one thing that I am unhappy about, as regards the game, has nothing to do with gameplay at all - it has to do with the appearance.  The game has an overall green tint to it, which, to my eyes, is pretty bad.  If I were ever to have printed a photo that looked like that, I would have immediately reprinted it and never let it leave the studio - or even the lab.  So, I have been looking at ReShades to correct it. I've tried some, and though they do eliminate the greenish hue, they do not (even with some tweaking), totally hit the mark.

Well, if that's all there is to gripe about, that's actually pretty good!

Make that two things - LOL!  The other is the character movement speed.  Why do game have the character's walking speed slower than a tortoise?  And in Starfield it's not different - the player character walks at a snail's pace!  And what makes it even worse, is that the running movement speed is like Forrest Gump on speed! 

Still, all in all, so far, so good!

Edited September 2 by smr1957

[smr1957]

Now available:
Starfield Script Extender (SFSE)

From the description page for SFSE:

"Compatiblity: SFSE supports the release of Starfield on Steam. Other stores (Windows Store/Game Pass) are not supported."

 

Now we just need the CK and xEdit.
 

[Pseron Wyrd]

On 9/1/2023 at 9:27 PM, smr1957 said:

character movement speed. 

This bothers me too.  Another is that horrible Oblivion-style dialogue zoom.  Why oh why did they have to go back to that rancid, unimmersive system?  Fortunately these things are fairly minor and can be fixed with mods.  I'm happy to say that I'm enjoying the rest of the game.  

Edited September 4 by Pseron Wyrd

[Arthmoor]

Toss one minor complaint in for regressing back to the persuasion mini-game. It sucked in Oblivion and it sucks now.

[Nico coiN]

Oblivion-style dialogue is an atrocity. Not for itself, but because the lipsync has not been regenerated for any foreign language (I'm playing in french). It has always been the case for Bethesda games. While it will surely be possible to regenerate lipsync in batches when the CK may come, it was an additional ~900 mb of additional data in my Skyrim load order, and required hours for regenerating. I managed to almost ignore/not seeing it too much because I'm mainly playing in 3rd person view with a quite distant camera, but in Starfield it's a no-go atm, and there are ~254 000 dialogue lines...

I can tell you that it's affecting A LOT my playing experience.

Considering that foreign players pay the same price, it's some kind of huge PITA! 

[Fenrus]

In Oblivion I used to bypass the speech mini game using a 2 second 100 point charm spell. (Also bypassed the lock picking minigame using open spells or the skeleton key.) :-)

Starfield is becoming and enjoyable game. A bit different to Skyrim and Fallout 4. New Atlantis is like a modern Vivec in size. I am only using an Nvidia 1060 6GB GPU, but it runs alright locked at 30fps.

 

[smr1957]

xEdit for Starfield (Extremely experiment and can only be used for viewing files and not editing them)

Don't know if people are generally aware of this, but there is an extremely experimental version of xEdit for Starfield (viewing only, not for editing things as of yet) - xEdit team had it listed on their Discord - here’s the download link:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/518048160526893057/1149734581075976344/xEdit_4.1.4i_EXTREMELY_EXPERIMENTAL.7z

Name to SF1View.exe or, for the 64 version, SF1View64.exe or add -sf1 and -view to command arguments.
Again, extremely experimental and can only be used for viewing records - it cannot be used for editing, as of yet.

[smr1957]

Just so people know, this was posted by Ilja over in the Steam forum:

"Currently there is a bug, where players need to complete "Into the Unknown" before doing any big quests. Otherwise game will bug out. BGS also warned about it."

Edited September 10 by smr1957

[Selene310187]

I still haven't made my final decision whether I buy/play Starfield now or later. Two sides are fighting in me: my brain and my gut. The brain says I will feel guilty when I delay my Skyrim mod project anew because I'm afraid of disappointing those who are looking forward to the finished mod. My gut says I would miss something if I don't play it now. I think it's mainly the mutual exchange about a (new) game that I miss. Can you give me some advice on how I can get out of this dilemma, please?

Edited September 11 by Selene310187

[smr1957]

well Selene, I put off doing my Coffee House East mod - but part of the reason was I had brought my playthrough to a perfect conclusion - nut the fact that Starfield was going to be released also was a big factor in doing so.  As to Starfield - I can only say that myself and many others are enjoying it tremendously - it is an incredible game!  If you enjoy space based stories, and space games, it is everything you could want.  Plus, playing the game for the first tie when everyone else is also experiencing it for the first time is also a great feeling - the sharing of that new game feel, excitement, and shared discovery is something that just can't be beat!

Your mod will still be there waiting for whenever you get back to it, and the fact that you can't decide and are in a quandary over this, would seem to me that you would probably feel betty and be better off playing Starfield - because, if you work on the mod, Starfield will still be in the back of your mind - and that would detract from the total attention needed when doing creative work.

[Pseron Wyrd]

My opinion is that modding should never feel like a job.  It is a hobby, and we should want to participate in our hobby because we love doing it.  I think, if the situation is explained to them most mod users will understand.  I imagine many of them are playing Starfield themselves.  

And smr1957 brings up a good point.  A wonderful feeling of community can arise among those who experience a new game together for the first time.  The shared sense of excitement at discovering new things can be exhilarating.

So my advice would be to go ahead and play Starfield now.  Who know, it may give you ideas for your mod that will make it even better.  

[Selene310187]

2 hours ago, smr1957 said:

Your mod will still be there waiting for whenever you get back to it, and the fact that you can't decide and are in a quandary over this, would seem to me that you would probably feel betty and be better off playing Starfield - because, if you work on the mod, Starfield will still be in the back of your mind - and that would detract from the total attention needed when doing creative work.

Good point.

 

1 hour ago, Pseron Wyrd said:

My opinion is that modding should never feel like a job.  It is a hobby, and we should want to participate in our hobby because we love doing it.  I think, if the situation is explained to them most mod users will understand.  I imagine many of them are playing Starfield themselves.  

Ok, I will leave a note regarding Starfield in the WIP thread of my mod.

 

Thank you, smr1957 and Pseron Wyrd, your posts really helped me to mitigate my inner conflict. So I bought Starfield about 10 minutes ago 

[smr1957]

Congratulations, Selene!   And stop by The Coffee Pod for talk about the game (and other related - and some occasionally unrelated - discussion).

Edited September 11 by smr1957

[Pseron Wyrd]

A new video from Bethesda Softworks:

 

[smr1957]

SFSE is updated:
0.1.1 for game version 1.7.29