Starfield

[smr1957]

[Starfield] Official Patch 1.7.29 by Arthmoor
"So it begins... like Skyrim and Fallout 4 before, we'll be keeping a log of the official updates here."

[smr1957]

I see people complaining about things in the game that they do not like - ergo, it is a problem with the game mechanics.  Of course, they also seem to be playing the game as if it were Fallout 4 or Skyrim, and seem to be expecting the game to play as those do - instead of taking the game as what it actually was designed and developed to be, which is neither Skyrim, nor Fallout 4, but Starfield. 

[Arthmoor]

What? You mean it's not Skyrim in space with guns?

[smr1957]

14 minutes ago, Arthmoor said:

What? You mean it's not Skyrim in space with guns?

And amazingly enough, it's not FO4 either, but without Mutants! 

[smr1957]

What is really frustrating is how people refuse to acknowledge that perhaps they should change the way they are playing, but instead insist that the game should be changed.  One big example is that vendors do not have enough money (a common occurrence across many games).  And people go on to state that it is a fundamental flaw that vendors cannot even afford to buy one really high priced item - when the issue is not that vendors cannot buy them, the issue is that people are complaining that they do not get the full value.  The vendors can buy the item, and the player can sell it to them, it's just that the player will not get the full amount. So, in that case. if the player really wishes to sell, then they accept the lower price.  Sort of like how people complain about carry weight not being high enough - because they picked up everything they encountered.  If that's a problem, just don't pick up everything - or drop items so that the character is not encumbered.

 

But, no matter what is said, they insist that there should be no limits on the way they want to play the game - and because there is, it is the fault of the game mechanics.

Edited September 16, 2023 by smr1957

[Lonewanderer]

Hello,

my take on Starfield:

It is a good game, no doubt. But in a certain way it seems less appealing when you start as a Newbie, for the first time. For several hours I was very confused. The interface is just awful (PC, mouse+keyboard), this does not help. In Skyrim or Fallout I was drawn in in the first few hours, in Starfield it took considerably longer.

But I did something wrong: In many YT videos and articles they said to follow the main quest line for at least up to a certain point (the first 4 parts, not counting the first journey to New Atlantis). This led to me playing the part where you return to the mine where it all started, Sarah in tow. And there I stood, with nearly no ammunition, no Medpacks (really zero, only food), and I managed barely to finish the part with around 20% of my hit points. While it was a success, I hated it. No good weapon, and level 8.

At this point I remembered Fallout 4. I went back to a save with my arrival in New Atlantis, at the point where the next main quest can be started by 'Talk to Sarah'. At this point I walked out, found 3 small and nice quests in New Atlantis, then took my ship and started to explore Jemison by landing in random points. Found a cave without enemies, but full of loot, found 2 POIs with enemies, soon had one level more, a lot of ammunition, better weapons, enough Medpacks, and so on. At this point the game draw me in. I found some 'Abandoned Science Outpost', which was neither an outpost, nor abandoned. I was full of Pirates, huge, had tons of valuable loot, tons of  experience and was very nice to play. And it was totally random, and had the Bethesda quality, telling small stories why it was abandoned, and so on.

So every time I do not want to play a 'quest' or 'mission' I just land somewhere and find POIs, and there are a lot of surprises.

There are also very nice quests, for example the 'Generation Ship' you can find. This is a nice and interesting quest, where you should try to solve a conflict. There is more than one way to solve it. But the ship itself is amazing. There is a teacher with her class. This NPC has nothing to do with quest itself - but if you talk to her, she has a rather big dialogue, explains the history of the ship, and so on. She plays no role in any of the solutions (I think), but they gave her full voiced dialogue - I was impressed.

Sadly the game is easily underestimated because of the awful interface, which often hides possibilities, and it is badly documented.

Also the crafting system is badly documented, you have no good place to store things, and the obvious place - your ship - has much too small a space to be useful. It is constantly full, even if you carefully only collect things you think you may need at the moment. I really miss the versatile 'Workstation' of Fallout 4. You had to carry everything to a Workstation, but then things were usable, provided you had the skills. In Starfield you have 'bottomless' containers too, but not in very useful places. You cannot access your cargo hold from the Lodge, and I would love to rent some warehouse in the Starport so I can store things - or something like that. Also as silly as it sounds, if I buy 'Ship Parts' in a store in the city, I have to carry them myself to the ship - 10 mass each. While you can sell things from the ships hold, you cannot deliver things to the ship from a store. A limit enforced by the inflexible and awful interface, I think.

The Outpost system seems to be a solution to this dilemma, I did not yet touch it, Maybe it helps with the chronically overload of character and ship...

Also the decision to have no city maps is awful, especially with huge cities like New Atlantis. But I read that they will look into this, because many players complained.

All in all it is game which I will play for long time

 

[Scythe Bearer]

3 hours ago, smr1957 said:

What is really frustrating is how people refuse to acknowledge that perhaps they should change the way they are playing, but instead insist that the game should be changed.  One big example is that vendors do not have enough money (a common occurrence across many games).  And people go on to state that it is a fundamental flaw that vendors cannot even afford to buy one really high priced item - when the issue is not that vendors cannot buy them, the issue is that people are complaining that they do not get the full value.  The vendors can buy the item, and the player can sell it to them, it's just that the player will not get the full amount. So, in that case. if the player really wishes to sell, then they accept the lower price.  Sort of like how people complain about carry weight not being high enough - because they picked up everything they encountered.  If that's a problem, just don't pick up everything - or drop items so that the character is not encumbered.

 

But, no matter what is said, they insist that there should be no limits on the way they want to play the game - and because there is, it is the fault of the game mechanics.

There are plenty of mutants.  Anyone who has encountered a Terrormorph will testify to the existence of mutants.  They just look different while still being bullet sponges. 

As for vendors being "short on credits", the trick remains the same as it is in every Fallout game.  Buy all the vendors ammo to run their credit count up.  Then sell your high-valued item. 

This trick only works because ammo and credits weigh the same, making ammo as good as credits.  You can later parcel the ammo out to other vendors to zero out their residual credits after you're done selling.   

If you have several high value items, wait three days and do it again.  Rinse and repeat. 

Hell, if you don't mind being over-encumbered, buy all the vendors Resource and Aid items as well as their ammo.  All the Resource items are useful for crafting, and the Aid items are either usable by the PC as is, or are used in crafting. These items add greatly to a vendors credit counts.   

My point ... The problem does not lie with the creativity of the game's makers, but with the game's player.

 

Edit: On "Fallout in Space" or "Skyrim in space with guns", it's much closer to Fallout.  But then, such is the nature of open world RPG games.  Since the game isn't on rails and the player is allowed to choose what is next, a lot of the elements will feel the same.  Fetch and carry, save the damsel, destroy the ne'er-do-well, go, do, and come back for your meager reward. 
 

Edited September 17, 2023 by Scythe Bearer

[Talyn82]

I don't know I'm enjoying the game.  I like how the factions are done though I've only joined two.  Just started the main quest.  In my opinion it's far more enjoyable than Skyrim and FO4.  I love Skyrim but the mods is what makes the game interesting.  The storylines for both the main quest and factions are terrible.  FO4 I never really got into.  The controls on PC are similar to Skyrim.  Though it took me awhile to get used to the inventory.  The NPC's look good I mean they can't do worse than Oblivion.  I like that when I am encumbered (which I am all the time) I can still run even though my Co2 drains.  My biggest gripe is that the enemies are bullet sponges.  One enemy takes a full clip to kill.  Anyway I did not buy the game I got it with Xbox Game Pass and when they decide to remove it or when mods get interesting I will buy the game on Steam.

[Pseron Wyrd]

A small behind-the-scenes video today:

 

[Nico coiN]

The game is quite enjoyable IMO. Not as much as Skyrim but way more than Fallout 4. The general atmosphere is indeed close to Interstellar and I feel quite sad that there's actually no alien intelligent race. But on the other hand it's a new IP. It's not Star Wars nor Mass Effect. It has its own identity. It was a perilous exercise for Bethesda and I think they brilliantly succeeded. More DLC will come, so I still can't speculate on the long term playing enjoyment, but I have a quite embarassing question and I'd really like to hear your feelings about it:

It's a new IP and so, we are in the mood where we may expect a game sequel one day or the other. The problem is that IMO (and without telling any spoiler) the game ending is not really 'open' to this possibility... ? 

[AKABacon]

Anyone else hear about this topic,

BGS "encrypted" the nif files and you will have to purchase SF's version of CK and decryption key to edit nifs and to make new/edit cities/lands/worlds

I have seen this floating around a few forums. I wouldn't put it past "micro" soft to do this but would BGS really agree to that? I'm an xedit user and work on textures, so this really doesn't effect me but I could see it having a major impact on the modding community as a whole. "If I have to pay for the mod tools, you're paying for my mods". Seems to me SF has "upset" a good portion of the modding community so far. I have seen many posts get removed for calling out flaws with the game ... the removals have been mainly on YT, steam and nexus (what happen to nexus, not the same platform when I joined "forever ago") 

[Arthmoor]

There's no basis for these rumors. Bethesda has said nothing about charging for the CK, and it wouldn't be in line with how they've handled it with previous games.

What people don't seem to get is that the .nif files are simply different this time around and are more of a bridge file to the actual structure data that is now contained in separate files. Just because nobody yet knows how that information is stored doesn't make them encrypted.

As far as calling out flaws, plenty of places are doing this. The game has some issues, but for the most part they're minor outside of a few quest blockers which I think will be getting addressed before too long. Just keep reporting the bugs to Bethesda, because if people don't do that, they have no right to complain there are still bugs 2 years from now.

[smr1957]

As Arthmoor posted, there are a ton of rumors floating around and being posted by people who know nothing - which by the way, isn't that much less than many of us know so far - except that we know we don't know yet.  So, people need to take a lot of what they read with a grain of salt - plus, take into account where and my whom it is being posted.

[AKABacon]

@Arthmoor @smr1957 thanks for the replies. I figured BGS would give out more details about CK after the first/main DLC release and would give early CK access to their CC/market place mod partners. But I wanted to check and see if the info was above board. I felt like I would get a reasonable reply here, which I did.

[smr1957]

3 hours ago, AKABacon said:

@Arthmoor @smr1957 thanks for the replies. I figured BGS would give out more details about CK after the first/main DLC release and would give early CK access to their CC/market place mod partners. But I wanted to check and see if the info was above board. I felt like I would get a reasonable reply here, which I did.

All of us here are always glad to help!  Feel free to stop by anytime. 

[Pseron Wyrd]

Another video from Bethesda today:

 

[smr1957]

Patch/Update released for Starfield:

 

[smr1957]

Starfield Script Extender (SFSE ) - https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/106
Has been updated.
SFSE Version 0.1.3 compatible with Starfield version 1.7.33

[Pseron Wyrd]

A new interview with Todd Howard:

 

[smr1957]

Thanks, Pseron!  Posted the link for that in my threads on Steam and Nexus.  Good stuff!

Edited September 26, 2023 by smr1957

[martinjamesdell]

On 7/31/2023 at 2:36 AM, Scythe Bearer said:

 

I see this as little more the someone attempting to capitalize on the fame (notoriety?) of the AFKMods unofficial patch project in their efforts to create a patch of their own.  A patch which they like better than Arthmoor's. 

I also see this as a thinly veiled attempt to preempt the AFKMods Unofficial patch team and get their patch on the landscape first.  The "I was here first" childhood mentality. 

Finally, given the contentious nature of  patches (unofficial or otherwise) and the people involved, their open solicitation to "the modding community", and their nonexistent coordinating efforts, I see this endeavor fraught with bad portents.  The infighting over which "my script is better" patch will prevail will be their downfall, is suspect.   

But alas, I am just one old mod author who actually knows the truth behind "war never changes".  I wish them luck.  Arthmoor et al, you guys rock.  🤟🏽

 

EDIT ...

A little sleuthing, and I have discovered a couple interesting tidbits:

This "project" is more than a year in the making, and was initiated (or at least claimed to have been initiated) by one u/aixsama, the chief moderator for r/starfieldmods.  See the thread Best License for the Starfield Community Patch in that reddit.  In this thread, there is a link to a Nexus thread which I am unable to access (I assume it is tucked away in the MA forums someplace, out of public view): https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/11289128-community-patch-license-discussion/.  So I am assuming that one of Nexus' blessed Mod Authors can view that thread.  for more useful information. 

And, FYI, the website itself is rated "CAUTION": Websites rated "Caution" may have a small number of threats and annoyances, but are not considered dangerous enough to warrant a red "Warning". Proceed with caution.

Did someone tried https://www.pcgamesn.com/starfield/community-patch/ ? is it an official patch?.

Edited September 27, 2023 by martinjamesdell

[Arthmoor]

No, that's the patch being run by Nexus. It's not official.

[Scythe Bearer]

6 hours ago, martinjamesdell said:

Did someone tried https://www.pcgamesn.com/starfield/community-patch/ ? is it an official patch?.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but official patches come from the game's makers.

[smr1957]

There have been some reported instances of some NPCs not being where they should be and being unaccessible.  If that happens, using the moveto player command should place them at your player character.  A list of the FormIDs may be found in the below linked guide:

Useful NPC ID's for .moveto player command

Added to Helpful Links and References, General Troubleshooting

Edited September 29, 2023 by smr1957

[smr1957]

Added the following to the Modding the Game section of Helpful Links and References, but it is worth repeating in full here:

The Golden Rule of Modding
"No matter how good a mod may look or sound, no matter how much you may really want a mod, if the mod does not work as it should, causes issues in your game, or even seems to have the potential to cause issues, dump the mod. A game that does not work is no game at all."

And, with the advent of Collections on Nexus, a new corollary to that:
"No matter how good a collection may look or sound, if it has a poor success rate, don't use it - and if it doesn't work, or causes issues, dump it."

 

Because there are already people who are breaking their game with mods.

Edited October 1, 2023 by smr1957