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STARFIELD |OT| 2023: A Space Toddity

I’m no game designer but I’d make a map for settlements with fog of war, you unfog it as you explore it. And if you find a kiosk / info center, you could just buy the map. On that map all major points of interest would be marked but only after you visited them. Oh and you should be able to drop pins with comments to mark stuff for later.

Quest givers should give detailed descriptions to allow marker free exploration. Markers could be turn on or off. You could make some stupid game device like AR googles that players can unequip if they don’t want any floating shit covering the screen. Or just an extra functionality to existing scanner.

Same with procedural planets. I hate that your scanner can pick up points of interest kilometres away but when I land on a coast I have no way of knowing which way the actual fucking coast is.

Agree with these criticisms.

Game feels more like a survival game than Morrowind in this area.

Having played a ton of Grounded, this type of exploration is second nature to me. But I can see people getting annoyed
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
So what do you guys do basically with so many ressources? Sell?

Seems like most of my science is locked anyway as of now so they're sitting and taking place in cargo.
I just keep 10 of everything and sell the rest. Just make sure you are crafting everything you can first, including industrial parts like adaptive frames, etc. If you are trying to level up crafting you can just grind the same part over and over to get your level up also. I got spacesuit crafting to level 2 all in a row despite having just 1 mod available. You get a crafting attempt point for taking the mod off, then again for just putting it back on. So I did that like 20x and it used a lot of resources. Craft in the Lodge basement has the industrial workbench also, which I've found less of in the wild.

I haven't tried just literally putting the ore on the floor in that basement room but that would work too honestly.

Outpost construction also uses a lot of resources if you start that, and you can build storage tanks too.

You can also keep it all in the infinite storage chest in your room at the Lodge and come back to it when you are ready to dig in to crafting.
 
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Thanati

Member
Stamina meters are stupid but hey other games have it so why not include it our game. Equipment that reduces O2 consumption is what you need. Also one of the super powers generate your own oxygen field that insta refills your O2 to the full.
At the beginning of the game you’re doing so many “fetch and carry” quests, that continually running out of oxygen is a pain.

Many games ditched the stamina aspect (except survival games) as it’s not a fun mechanic. It’s all very well saying “get better equipment” but if it’s not fun trying to get that equipment (and players may not know they exist), then it’s a pain.

Also, not having a mini map exasperates the situation. Continually running into dead end corridors is a pain. There are so many inside missions that have the same coloring, which makes it harder to gauge if you’ve been there or not. And, as you are usually running down these corridors, having to pause because of needing to take a breath is just a pain.

So yeah. I stand by my points.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The "come at me bro" post in the photo mode is my new favorite thing.


starfield-2023_09_11-qqcws.png
 
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Magic Carpet

Gold Member
Speaking of maps, at this point of my exploration I've been to a couple of dozen planets, I would prefer a simple list of stars with planets and moons listed under them, rather than drag the star map around.
 

Roberts

Member
So what do you guys do basically with so many ressources? Sell?

Seems like most of my science is locked anyway as of now so they're sitting and taking place in cargo.
As I have a barely functional outpost, I mostly unload all of my resources at the basement of the Lodge. There are two unlimited chests to store stuff. The only downside is that for some strange reason the workbenches and research lab doesn't recognise the resources and you have to transfer them from container to your inventory to use them. I think Grounded did it better - as long as the workbench was in in the near vicinity of the chest, you didn't have to get resources out of it.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
At the beginning of the game you’re doing so many “fetch and carry” quests, that continually running out of oxygen is a pain.

Many games ditched the stamina aspect (except survival games) as it’s not a fun mechanic. It’s all very well saying “get better equipment” but if it’s not fun trying to get that equipment (and players may not know they exist), then it’s a pain.

Also, not having a mini map exasperates the situation. Continually running into dead end corridors is a pain. There are so many inside missions that have the same coloring, which makes it harder to gauge if you’ve been there or not. And, as you are usually running down these corridors, having to pause because of needing to take a breath is just a pain.

So yeah. I stand by my points.

But stamina only becomes an issue when you've taken on too much stuff. Most games have a hard limit to how much a character can carry. And Starfield is actually an improvement over previous Bethesda games such as, in Skyrim, you can only walk very slowly when over-encumbered or, in Oblivion, where you can't move at all. MidGenRefresh MidGenRefresh is pointing out other work arounds to this which is all part of the game and other games don't have these at all.
 

FoxMcChief

Gold Member
I think this was the case with past Bethesda games too, but are weapons magically brought into the game, once the player has reached a certain level?
 

twilo99

Gold Member
I warped into a system last night, got some random transmission. 2 hours later, random side quest completed. I mean fuck. I had a plan on doing something, and Starfield says, “fuck yo plans bitch! Side quests muthafucka!”

Yes, something like that happens to me every time I play. Yesterday I was supposed to finish the crimson thing but nope.. went to Pluto to check it out and ended up spending almost two hours there doing nothing lol
 
Fast travel is pretty fucking fast.
lol. I just mean, say I'm at New Atlantis and sell some stuff. I go back to my ship, take off, warp to some other star system, land somewhere, get a quest, liftoff, fly to some other planet (maybe in another star system), complete the objective, fly back for a reward, then fly to New Atlantis again it's like barely any time has passed. Even if I'm not using fast travel literally. I guess time is passing when I'm "standing" around or moving across a given world, but it seems like there's no baked in "travel time" that passes for going to a different planet within a system or travelling from system to system itself (which that one I kind of get, it's a warp of sorts).

I'm honestly finding myself pretty immersed in the game, but when I go do several quests and feel like I'm in the far reaches of the galaxy and then come back to see the vendor is still out of cash it really pulls me out to have to go sleep somewhere for a day when it feels like I went and did so many things in the mean time. I think the fast travelling options they do have in this game are really great for those moments you don't feel like going back to ship or whatever it may be, but most of the time I manually do the whole, or most of the, process. Why even have a limit for the vendors (or such a low limit) if you can just go wait on a bench any time with no consequence anyway?

Great game.
 
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Orbital2060

Member
The space combat missions you get from commander Myeong (cant remember exact name, sorry) for saving the infirmary in the Altair system from the Spacers; outside of Altair II and V. Are you supposed to upgrade the ship to pass those, or do I just have to get gud? Or space combat in general. There are three ships in each encounter, and the first mission I did by using the ship parts I had as backup. Got none left, and it seems pretty tough to take out the other three.
 

twilo99

Gold Member
I thought this game will be more casual but I was wrong, if you want to get satisfaction out of it you need to invest a lot of time, so I’d say this game is more for the “hardcore” gamer and less for the “casual” gamers if these distinctions can even exist. Very similar to BG3 in the regard.
 
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So what do you guys do basically with so many ressources? Sell?

Seems like most of my science is locked anyway as of now so they're sitting and taking place in cargo.
So for a long time I wanted to keep everything. I could barely carry any loot and my cargo hold was slammed full, so were any random containers on my ship like coolers and things. I ended up just selling anything that was "common" and kept rare/exotic etc stuff, figuring I can get common stuff easy later in the future if I need it. In the end I got a much bigger ship and for now just shove it all into the cargo hold since I'm way off from the limit, made a world of difference. I hated seeing "cargo hold full" when trying to loot a ship in battle, getting up, shuffling around to fix it, encountering it again five seconds later. I haven't really messed with crafting much at all though, I did some basic research and that's it because I don't have the skills I guess.
 
I thought this game will be more casual but I was wrong, if you want to get satisfaction out of it you need to invest a lot of time, so I’d say this game is more for the “hardcore” gamer and less for the “casual” gamers if these distinctions can even exist. Very similar to BG3 in the regard.
It's classic Bethesda really. Their games attract a casual audience and convert them to hardcore players, IMO.
 
There are oceans. It's just difficult to find them. I too was stuck hardcore on a planet scanning until I realized there are little swimming son of a bitches in the ocean.
It'll say "Biome name (COAST)." It's not present on many planets, but it's on a few. Also the birds as said above are challenging.

And like MidGenRefresh MidGenRefresh said, you can land on the coast, but then you have to make sure you start running in the right direction which may take a little trial and error, and maybe using your photo mode drone to look up high.

Thanks for the tips but I’ve seen and tried all of that already. If this planet has an ocean then it’s the tiniest little sliver of ocean ever. The closest thing to water I have seen are swimming pool size puddles outside of a random cave.

What kind of building is the one that can give you scanner info on creatures and plants on a planet? I’ve never seen one myself but I have heard they exist. Maybe that’s the only way to 100% this.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Sticking a silencer on my primary rifle has made increasing the Stealth skill way too easy. Especially considering you do 2x damage in stealth, so headshots are doubly deadly.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Thanks for the tips but I’ve seen and tried all of that already. If this planet has an ocean then it’s the tiniest little sliver of ocean ever. The closest thing to water I have seen are swimming pool size puddles outside of a random cave.

What kind of building is the one that can give you scanner info on creatures and plants on a planet? I’ve never seen one myself but I have heard they exist. Maybe that’s the only way to 100% this.
Research tower. Ive yet to see one myself
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
OK, I just got the most annoying bug you can imagine. My beautiful outpost on Mars... it's unsuable. Every object I try to interact with it says it's obstructed. Bed, chair, crafting tables, you name it. FUCK.

I need to scrap it and build again.
 

Thanati

Member
But stamina only becomes an issue when you've taken on too much stuff. Most games have a hard limit to how much a character can carry. And Starfield is actually an improvement over previous Bethesda games such as, in Skyrim, you can only walk very slowly when over-encumbered or, in Oblivion, where you can't move at all. MidGenRefresh MidGenRefresh is pointing out other work arounds to this which is all part of the game and other games don't have these at all.
No, stamina is an issue at the very beginning. You’re assuming that people are walking from location A to location B etc. many early missions (please forgive me if I’m wrong but this has been my experience) were “go here, then go here and finally, go here”.

Players like me (again, I’m saying like me, here) just want to get these done and so we run from point to point, which comes to a grind when the Co2 issue kicks in and you HAVE to walk. Ok, it’s only for around 10 seconds or so but it’s still a pain.

As I said, not having a mini map really exasperates this issue. There was a mission where I was inside a muddy/sepia colored section and I had to find a bunch of electrical boxes. I spent around 20 minutes doing this mission, running around trying to find the last bloody box and if it wasn’t for my companion suddenly jumping up onto a higher level, that I knew where it was. However, during this time, I was running around everywhere, which became a frustrating experience when you continually had to stop for “air”.

It doesn’t just become an issue when you are encumbered, as it’s an issue I’m having now, as are other players.
 
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Xcell Miguel

Gold Member
By far the most aggravating thing in this game to me is that vendor refresh time - not the time itself, but the fact that I can travel all over the galaxy, do several quests, go to 5-10 different planets and yet when I come back to say New Atlantis, it still hasn't been "24 hours" or whatever the refresh is so I have to take a long ass nap in my ship. It just makes me feel like I'm teleporting everywhere because I know it means no time has really passed since I used the vendor!
Go sleep on the Moon, 1 hour there advance the global time by 26 hours or so (I don't remember the exact number).

The local time it tied to the movement of the planets around others and the Sun, looks like a day is 24 hours on any planet, but 24 hours spanned on a full sun cycle, which can depend from planet to planet as they don't rotate at the same speed on themselves and around their sun.
On Earth 24h is 24h, on the moon, we only see one side of it as it's tidally locked to Earth, it also cycles from full moon to full moon (a "moon day") in 29 days or so.

Yesterday I went to visit the Moon and it was like 6:35 AM local time, I thought "Great, it's the morning and I'll have plenty of day light".
30 minutes after or so, the sun did not move much, I check the time in the pause menu, 6:45 !
Then I understood they replicated the real world logic, a day on the Moon is 29 Earth days.
I found a cave with beds (I did not try in my ship), and sleeping 1 hour local time on the Moon advanced the global time for more than 26 hours.

I found this was fantastic to experience that, it's logical and I did not thought of it at first.
 
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Topher

Identifies as young
No, stamina is an issue at the very beginning. You’re assuming that people are walking from location A to location B etc. many early missions (please forest me if I’m wrong but this has been my experience) were “go here, then go here and finally, go here”.

Players like me (again, I’m saying like me, here) just want to get these done and so we run from point to point, which comes to a grind when the Co2 issue kicks in and you HAVE to walk. Ok, it’s only for around 10 seconds or so but it’s still a pain.

As I said, not having a mini map really exasperates this issue. There was a mission where I was inside a muddy/sepia colored section and I had to find a bunch of electrical boxes. I spent around 20 minutes doing this mission, running around trying to find the last bloody box and if it wasn’t for my companion suddenly jumping up onto a higher level, that I knew where it was. However, during this time, I was running around everywhere, which became a frustrating experience when you continually had to stop for “air”.

It doesn’t just become an issue when you are encumbered, as it’s an issue I’m having now, amongst other players.

You can walk. You can run. You can sprint. Sprinting is what takes up O2. Not running. And no, you don't have to walk. If you simply stop sprinting and continue running then your stamina will return.

To help find things, turn on your scanner and point at the marker. Arrows will appear on the floor showing you which way to go. This was an issue for me early on as well and Punished Miku Punished Miku helped me so yeah, you are not alone on that one.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Go sleep on the Moon, 1 hour there advance the global time by 26 hours or so (I don't remember the exact number).

The local time it tied to the movement of the planets around others and the Sun, looks like a day is 24 hours on any planet, but 24 hours spanned on a full sun cycle, which can depend from planet to planet as they don't rotate at the same speed on themselves and around their sun.
On Earth 24h is 24h, on the moon, we only see one side of it as it's tidally locked to Earth, it also cycles from full moon to full moon (a "moon day") in 29 days or so.

Yesterday I went to visit the Moon and it was like 6:35 AM local time, I thought "Great, it's the morning and I'll have plenty of day light".
30 minutes after or so, the sun did not move much, I check the time in the pause menu, 6:45 !
Then I understood they replicated the real world logic, a day on the Moon is 29 Earth days.
I found a cave with beds (I did not try in my ship), and sleeping 1 hour local time on the Moon advanced the global time for more than 26 hours.

I found this was fantastic to experience that, it's logical and I did not thought of it at first.
I was wondering if that was the case, but wasn't smart enough to figure it out. Pretty cool.
 

GymWolf

Gold Member
I thought this game will be more casual but I was wrong, if you want to get satisfaction out of it you need to invest a lot of time, so I’d say this game is more for the “hardcore” gamer and less for the “casual” gamers if these distinctions can even exist. Very similar to BG3 in the regard.
I have no idea what that means.

Bg3 feels way hardcore than this in basically every aspect to me.

From challenge to roleplay freedom to sandbox gameplay...

Starfield for some aspects is watered down compared to skyrim, you can't just look at a character with a dress you like, wait until night, follow them at home, kill them and steal their robe (just an example)

Starfield feels like kiddy first rpg in so many aspects.
 
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DosGamer

Member
Are all of the temples supposed to give you a power? I swear I completed one and got nothing but the guy trying to kill me after completing the ring puzzle.
 

Xcell Miguel

Gold Member
I was wondering if that was the case, but wasn't smart enough to figure it out. Pretty cool.
Yeah it's great they did that.

Now I just have to be careful where I sleep if I have timed missions, as it could expire in a few local hours :D

I'll have to a moon that move fast, to experience very short days and planet rise (like Mitterrand Hollow in Elite Dangerous).
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Yeah it's great they did that.

Now I just have to be careful where I sleep if I have timed missions, as it could expire in a few local hours :D

I'll have to a moon that move fast, to experience very short days and planet rise (like Mitterrand Hollow in Elite Dangerous).
This is exactly why I didn't want the house trait lol. It's like that Interstellar scene, but with a mortgage and late fees.
 
Are all of the temples supposed to give you a power? I swear I completed one and got nothing but the guy trying to kill me after completing the ring puzzle.
Per my experience they all do once you go in the ring. The prompt/text disappears quickly, but so far I've done 3 and all 3 have shown up in the menu afterwards (above your character). But I only had someone trying to kill me starting at the second one (or maybe I left the first too quickly).
 

twilo99

Gold Member
I have no idea what that means.

Bg3 feels way hardcore than this in basically every aspect to me.

From challenge to roleplay freedom to sandbox gameplay...

Starfield for some aspects is watered down compared to skyrim, you can't just look at a character with a dress you like, wait until night, follow them at home, kill them and steal their robe (just an example)

Starfield feels like kiddy first rpg in so many aspects.

Its probably just me since BG3 and Starfield are my first RPG games..
 

DosGamer

Member
Per my experience they all do once you go in the ring. The prompt/text disappears quickly, but so far I've done 3 and all 3 have shown up in the menu afterwards (above your character). But I only had someone trying to kill me starting at the second one (or maybe I left the first too quickly).
Yeah, so I have done 4. I have 3 powers and have had somebody try to take me out in 3 of the 4 completed.
I did one tower that was exceptionally fast compared to the others. I think I only went thru it 4-5 times before it stopped rotating. odd.
 

Thanati

Member
You can walk. You can run. You can sprint. Sprinting is what takes up O2. Not running. And no, you don't have to walk. If you simply stop sprinting and continue running then your stamina will return.

To help find things, turn on your scanner and point at the marker. Arrows will appear on the floor showing you which way to go. This was an issue for me early on as well and Punished Miku Punished Miku helped me so yeah, you are not alone on that one.
Wait, there's three levels of movement? How do you just "run"?
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Wait, there's three levels of movement? How do you just "run"?
I think there's 4 honestly.

Walk
Barely tilt the stick to jog (can recover fatigue while encumbered)
Run full tilt stick (uses fatigue if encumbered)
Sprint (uses fatigue all the time)
 
Wait, there's three levels of movement? How do you just "run"?
On controller you run by just moving the analog stick all the way forward. Clicking in the analog stick sprints. You walk by just moving the analog stick a bit. I'm not sure what the PC controls are, but I'm guessing there is a walk toggle.
 

sainraja

Member
Good post. I've noticed over the years that I don't remember nearly as many street names as I did when I was younger due to my dependency on GPS on my phone, that real life mini-map. Playing Starfield, I've started looking around more for landmarks and such to find my way around. Now the city of New Atlantis is almost second nature to me. Now I'm not saying I'm ready for maps to be a thing of the past. I can't imagine trying to play a game like GTA without it, but in a game like this I think it has turned out to be a decision I can appreciate even if it was a bit annoying early on.
I am not as far along as most of you guys are, and I am not saying this from a gameplay point of view, but in a game that is set in the future, not having a map seems silly—I think they could have kept the "discoverability" aspect even with having a map system. One example of doing that could be like how "fog of war" works in RTS games. Having a map should not mean having markers all over the map.
 
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Buggy Loop

Member
I think there's 4 honestly.

Walk
Barely tilt the stick to jog (can recover fatigue while encumbered)
Run full tilt stick (uses fatigue if encumbered)
Sprint (uses fatigue all the time)

What i hate the most is that there's the follow NPC's slow as fuck walk during quests but the walk doesn't keep up to NPC pace and then running is basically making circles around them. Like cmon guys, at least match NPC walking speed or vice-versa.

On KB
 

Topher

Identifies as young
I am not as far along as most of you guys are, and I am not saying this from a gameplay point of view, but in a game that is set in the future, not having a map seems silly—I think they could have kept the "discoverability" aspect even with having a map system. One example of doing that could be like how "fog of war" works in RTS games. Having a map should not mean having markers all over the map.

Sure.....I was just noticing how the lack of maps made me notice the area around me rather than focusing on which way the icon on the map was heading.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
What i hate the most is that there's the follow NPC's slow as fuck walk during quests but the walk doesn't keep up to NPC pace and then running is basically making circles around them. Like cmon guys, at least match NPC walking speed or vice-versa.

On KB
I had one last night that was pretty silly. Most of the time it's fine but here I was having to really guide them around corners and I ended up just lightly jogging backwards so I could watch and steer them lol. Not the best moment, but it was mercifully short.
 

Antwix

Member
The space combat missions you get from commander Myeong (cant remember exact name, sorry) for saving the infirmary in the Altair system from the Spacers; outside of Altair II and V. Are you supposed to upgrade the ship to pass those, or do I just have to get gud? Or space combat in general. There are three ships in each encounter, and the first mission I did by using the ship parts I had as backup. Got none left, and it seems pretty tough to take out the other three.
Not sure if I've done that mission (I've def met Myeong before) but yeah some of the 3 ship encounters are pretty tough. I've found success by just blasting head on with them for a few seconds until you get hit then activate boosts and veer off in a diagonal. Then pull a U-turn once you have just gotten past them. Proceed to shoot them in the back and just kinda repeat. I can usually get one ship down on the first U-turn I do, then it becomes a lot easier once you get one ship down.
 

sainraja

Member
Sure.....I was just noticing how the lack of maps made me notice the area around me rather than focusing on which way the icon on the map was heading.
That's fair, and I'm sorry; I didn't mean to imply otherwise. I just wanted to add that I don't think the issue is the map; it's how the map is intended to be used in those other games that is probably the issue, that prevents us or makes it easier for us to ignore/try to remember paths and areas. Perhaps it's just me, but I think they could have had the map and let us control areas we've discovered and mark them up on our map manually, to add to the discoverability aspect, but I suppose with procedural generation that could be challenging.
 
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