Starfield Omnibus Thread

[J.T.]

@odessasteps

One of the research projects you complete that adds decorations and equipment to your Outpost or any living spaces you own will allow you to put up a dartboard on the wall. 

I have a collection of blue and yellow flighted darts so time to display them near the dartboard at the outpost where I have Lin and Heller assigned. 

Edited October 3, 2023 by J.T.

[odessasteps]

They need a darts mini game like GTA 5. 

[Craig H]

Ohhhhhh boy, did I ever fuck up. I'm going to try to explain this as best as possible without spoiling anything so that others don't repeat my mistakes.

I rolled credits last night and I did so in a way that was basically just rushing through. For the first time I'm actually going to go back to a prior save because I ran into some pretty big shit on my planet hopping to get to the final temple. So that's mistake number 1, not freely exploring. On the other hand, I think one of the issues with the game is they don't give you a reason to visit some of these systems or planets that you have to hop to en route to your further destinations. Had I not had to go to the planet where the last temple is, which is pretty far off, I wouldn't have had to go to grav jump to one of the other systems first and when you get to this system, there's a giant event going on...

Spoiler

Basically, you find yourself in the largest ship battle in the game. It's where a shipyard called "The Key" is located. Once you grav jump there, the fight is on and there's at least a dozen or more spacer and Crimson Fleet ships you're fighting against, plus a bunch of space turrets, and some of the ships are real heavy hitters. We're talking a level 48 ship and some level 30 ships, a bunch of level 20s, and then even more lower level ships. It is by far the hardest fight I've had in the game and it almost made me stop right there, grav jump back to Alpha Centauri, and change from the Razorleaf to a newer ship I acquired that's pretty badass.

Mistake number 2 was after what I ran into there, I didn't stop my progress and go back and re-assess what I was actually doing.

Mistake number 3 was going headfirst into finishing the game. I think by rolling back to a previous save that I'll get more of an emotional impact, but things felt pretty hollow the way I was just brute forcing everything.

And mistake number 4 was doing literally everything else I did prior to finishing the game. I'm not sure where I should pin this blame, but I think there's something to be said for the game itself and not the devs on Twitter or YouTubers not telling you or putting you on a path to completing the main storyline first. A better structure for the game would have been to have the main storyline, put you on that, and then have a sampling of the other side quests you can do instead of giving you the full side quest for things like the UC, Vanguard, Ryujin, etc. There should be some things to distract you from the main story a little bit, but on your first playthrough, the game should have done a better job of funneling you into that main storyline. Instead, there are folks like me that spent over 100 hours fully completing all of the big side quests. Now that I rolled credits, I don't have anything big left to do and if I wanted to do things differently, then I'm at way, way, way, way, way too high of a level to do them now. I'm 55, which for completing the game, is pretty fucking high and you're basically unstoppable at this point. Had I been funneled into the main story sooner and progressed through that instead of spending 100+ hours on all of the larger side quests, I would have been at a lower level upon completing the game and doing those side quests in "NG+" would have been more of a challenge.

At the same time, there is...stuff...that happens in the endgame where everything you did in the game matters and those bigger quests matter. The problem is, I think by doing all of them, you're not leaving yourself much new to experience on replay. I have a feeling that the outcome(s) you experience in the endgame won't change. Or maybe I'm wrong and this is something like Elden Ring where there's 6 or more different endings depending on what you do (and FWIW, I did only one ending in Elden Ring and while I essentially stumbled into the everything goes to shit ending, it is also the coolest ending based on what I watched on YouTube).

So yeah, now I get why others said to do the main quest first. It makes total sense. At this point I'm going to do what I said and rollback my save to before I decided to brute force the ending and sort of reassess how I want to finish things up. Then once I do, I'm going to keep playing it, but I'm not going to be so hardcore into it because I'd like to get back to Armored Core 6 and Jedi Survivor. I'll probably pass on Spider-Man 2 and maybe just ask for that for Christmas. Plus there's BG3 waiting in the wings, although DFA described that game perfectly. For as amazing as DFA is, it's the most save scummy game of all time. It just has the cold brutality of having quite possible the harshest DM ever for a D&D game and you're basically forced to save scum just because of how poorly things can go very quickly. I mean, that's basically what playing tabletop D&D is like, but any time I've played D&D, including now, I've never had a DM that's basically just seeking to fuck you over at every turn.

Hell, I may even just start all the way over in Starfield, do things in the order that I think they should be done (main story and just focus on the character driven side quests instead of the very large side quests and see how things play out from there.

All in all, if I were to rate a game, which I sort of don't like doing, I'd give it a 9/10. I think it's my favorite BGS just for how well it played, for how ambitious the stories were, and for the emotional connections you develop. I never played Daggerfall because my PC couldn't run it back then, but Morrowind, Oblivion, FO3, FONV, FO4, and Skyrim all had quite of bit of jank to them in various ways and I never felt the emotional connection to, well, anything in most or all of those. There were certainly characters I really liked and I think there are characters in those games that are better than anyone I've met in Starfield, there are quests I thought were funny as hell in the Fallout games and I didn't run into much that made me laugh in Starfield, and there is some wild, wild, wild shit in the Elder Scrolls games that make them feel like an MMO with long lasting effects, like becoming a werewolf or vampire and being forever cursed to live out the rest of the game like that, and that just isn't in Starfield. Where Starfield beats those games is connecting you to the characters you surround yourself with, having missions go in such insane or unique directions that I've only ever seen maybe one or two other games even attempt, giving you multiple ways of traversal even if on planet you're just stuck to running around, and giving you so many non-combat outs. It's probably the easiest BGS game to do a pacifist run on, but that doesn't mean doing so is easy. I started my game trying to emulate Amos Burton from the Expanse and was just a no nonsense, kill the bad guys, be the "I am that guy" guy, but then as I progressed along, and I'm talking for maybe half of the game, I mostly chose non-violent outcomes and talked my way out of things even though I wasn't a diplomat. I'm a Neon Street Rat, and yet here I am using Persuasion almost all of the time because influencing enemies or others with my words wound up being just as satisfying as just killing shit and that's the first time I really felt that from a BGS game.

Based on how much I played it and fell in love with a lot of it, despite it's many shortcomings, it's probably my game of the year at the moment. I have a lot to finish up though so that could change, but nothing this year has drawn me in quite like how this drew me in. We'll see how that opinion changes once I get back into Tears of the Kingdom or get further in the Jedi Survivor story, or see what the Spider-Man 2 story is like, but this was a pretty incredible game to play.

[RIPPA]

I got Andreja as a companion yesterday and within 5 minutes of her following me - she started giving me credits

Yeah... I am gonna have to keep her and Sara on opposite ends of the ship

[J.T.]

Andreja is good for that.  Her reactions to theft are confusing if you are trying gain her loyalty.  She doesn't mind it if you steal from red dots, but stealing from anyone else will make her angry, including non-adversarial enemies. 

Stealing from a Crimson Guard rook is fine.   Stealing from a Crimson Guard rook that won't agro thanks to you making a Persuasion check is not fine.

Edited October 3, 2023 by J.T.

[J.T.]

Well, it took about three real life hours for me to find the location on Bessel III-B where Sylver constructed his Day 1 Outpost, but I managed to locate it and put down my beacon.  No sooner did I head back to the Frontier to get an hour's rest while my Iron and Aluminum Extractors went to work, but a fucking sandstorm decides to engulf the place. 

On the positive tip, the longer it takes for the storm blows over, the more resources will get sent to my storage box while I am chillin' in my ship..   I can use the bonus raw materials to construct more stuff, including cargo links and a landing pad.

On the negative tip, each piece of machinery has an Integrity slider and have no idea if hazardous weather or adverse environmental conditions can harm my equipment.

Hopefully Bethesda did a very Bethesda thing and made it so that only weapon damage or physical damage from aliens damages my shiznet..  I am assuming that the main reason SGT Sylver picked this location is because of the lack of wandering fauna.

Edited October 3, 2023 by J.T.

[Raziel]

I mean, pretty accurate.

[Craig H]

Ehhhhh

[Kevin Wilson]

Its funny but I wouldn't call it a particularly accurate portrayal, but I think its trying to be more funny than anything else.

[odessasteps]

Did maybe biggest heel action so far. The governor of Mars wanted his stolen ship destroyed. I parlayed with the pirates and let them keep the ship. Then, I got back on board ship and blew up the mayors ship anyway. 
 

then did the mars missions w Trevor and recover his missing mining equipment. 

[J.T.]

Who knew you needed a Masters in Civil Engineering and a Bachelors in Interior Design in order to properly kit out your Outpost habs?

Oh, BTW, if any of you own an apartment you know about the widget on the wall that you flip on and off in order to decorate the place.

Putting furniture and equipment in an outpost hab is the same principle, only you use your scanner watch.

1. Enter the hab you want to decorate.
2. Activate your scanner watch. (LB)
3. Enter Outpost Build mode (X Button).
4. Place items where you want them and click off of them once they are in place.

Don't bother building a scan booster for your first outpost  You will get a production bonus if you build a outpost on a planet that is 100% surveyed.  The best outpost for a scan booster is one located on in an outpost on a planet / moon where there is a lot of fauna.  The boost allows you to scan flying critters that are out of the range of your watch and also scan aggressive beasties from afar without having to kill them for the data.

You will need to put a Crew Desk somewhere in your outpost (preferably inside of one of your habs) if you want to assign crew members to the outpost. 

Building a hab complex is a healthy and frustrating investment of resources.  SGT Sylver's Day1 Outpost Guide will get you started, but find some more intermediate level videos on Outpost Building to get a better grasp of cargo links and structure building and for God's sake, don't forget to finish up by adding a robot or two and some automated defenses.

Edited October 4, 2023 by J.T.

[Kevin Wilson]

Unless I missed it (possible) one thing they need in-game is the ability to fast travel to any home you own or any outpost you made. I mean they already have very friendly fast travel so its not outside the realm of what they do, but it'll make things quicker and uh help people remember where their things are. I made one outpost early in the game but forgot where, and I actually forgot which tower one of my homes was in and had to google "where is my home" to find it. A fast travel menu would have been nice 

[RIPPA]

I decided I am not even bothering with homes - I can't waste more time on this game

[odessasteps]

I got my skill point last night only to find I need 2 more skill points to fly B class ships. So my flying the Kepler will have to wait a few more days. 

[J.T.]

3 hours ago, RIPPA said:

I decided I am not even bothering with homes - I can't waste more time on this game

Outposts are homes on roids.  You could probably spend days on interior design and supply chain management. 

It occurred to me that Lin and Heller might not like the idea of relieving their bladders in the open or sleeping on rocky terrain while freezing rainstorms give them acute hypothermia, so now I am trying to get some ideas together on interior design for the habs I plan to construct.

We're not even talking about perimeter defenses to protect the mining operation or automation and fabrication should I decide to move from ore extraction to making finished goods like Adaptive Frames or other crafting widgets.

It is testing even my ridiculous level of OCD and min/max.

 

Edited October 4, 2023 by J.T.

[RIPPA]

Yeah I plan on only doing enough outpost stuff to clear out these couple of quests I accidentally picked up

I also need to do them just to burn through these resources I have because my ship is maxed out again

[Death From Above]

I lied, I started a second character

 No escape

[Craig H]

So did I.

[odessasteps]

I think a second playthrough is def a good idea. Both to fix the learning curve mistakes from.a first play through and to make different choices in storyline. 

On the pod, I was talking about all the stupid things I did when starting the game, like not knowing how to boost or crouch or running part the first gun you get on Kreet. 

[Craig H]

I thought I would try and do my first ever pacifist run, but I think I’m going to go melee only. Now how that will work against a terrormorph, I have no idea.

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, Craig H said:

Now how that will work against a terrormorph, I have no idea.

It will go poorly.  Swords and martial arts work perfectly fine on humans but if you are up against robots or alien critters, guns and explosives are your best friends.

2 hours ago, odessasteps said:

I think a second playthrough is def a good idea. Both to fix the learning curve mistakes from.a first play through and to make different choices in storyline.

Agreed, I am playing on PC with mods and have a copy on Xbox as well, so I haven't unlocked the achievements I'd normally get through a solid playthrough.  I'm going through this once for the lolz and then I will pick this up again when Shattered Stars is released and that might be my "for realz" playthrough. 

In the meantime, I'm getting a good grasp of all the game mechanics including outpost building and crafting.  By the time the new content rolls around, I won't waste time with experimentation.  I'll already know what to do and how to do it.

Edited October 4, 2023 by J.T.

[odessasteps]

Did a bunch of side missions. Was going to put my skill point towards piloting, but then I saw I have to destroy 15 ships toget level 3 and be able to pilot a B class ship, so putting that on hold.

learned best way to deal with heat leeches is my suped up axe. 
 

has anyone put the sensor on the mars tower? Do you need a leveled up boost pack or just have to clever while climbing up the tower?

[Raziel]

17 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

 

has anyone put the sensor on the mars tower? Do you need a leveled up boost pack or just have to clever while climbing up the tower?

Just be clever.  between Mars gravity and your level 1 boost, you can do it easy.

 

As for destroying ships, if you've at least Started the Vanguard questline, it gives you access to a flight sim where kills there count toward your Piloting perk.

[odessasteps]

I figured it was doable. I got about 3/4 away when I stopped for the night. 
 

havent started Vanguard storyline yet. Still doing Ranger storyline first. 

[Death From Above]

Man, I skipped it on my first character but the Ryujin questline is fucking great.

Anyway, here's Neon at night in the rain.