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STARFIELD |OT| 2023: A Space Toddity

March Climber

Gold Member
I disagree.

Right now quest giver tells me: go see this character and that's it. It's magically marked on my HUD.

Without quest markers quest giver would say something like this: go to Residential District in New Atlantis. When there look for a blue skyscraper. It's called Athena Tower. Go to the lobby and take 2nd elevator from the left. You meet your contact on top floor, apartment 312.

Yes, you would have a map to see where the Residential District is. But that's normal and expected. All the other steps you'd have to memorize and actually scan your environment to find. You know, explore and use your brain. Instead of just running after a blue dot.
I recommend people turn off the blue dot in settings to get more accustomed to the cities. You can use the scanner here and there to get a quick helper line, and it will be frustrating at first, but once one of the NPCs says 'you can find X in the clinic at Y area' you CAN eventually remember where things are. At least that's how I've been doing things and I've been better off because of it, because I've been noticing tiny details and secrets due to not fully focusing on just a blue dot on my screen.

That is odd. I figured time passed in the game? I don't know how it all works though.
Time does pass in game while you're running around and talking to people. For proof of this, do what I did and accept a mission on the mission board, then start roaming around. I didn't realize those were timed and I was almost was too late on one of them with about 2 hours left to make a delivery. Also, talking to people no longer stops time(like in other Bethesda games) as you'll see other people moving in the background and things changing around them if you hold in a conversation with them. There's even been situations where someone can physically hurt the person you're currently speaking with, removing the convo option.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
I recommend people turn off the blue dot in settings to get more accustomed to the cities. You can use the scanner here and there to get a quick helper line, and it will be frustrating at first, but once one of the NPCs says 'you can find X in the clinic at Y area' you CAN eventually remember where things are. At least that's how I've been doing things and I've been better off because of it, because I've been noticing tiny details and secrets due to not fully focusing on just a blue dot on my screen.

No, fuck that. Game is clearly not designed to be played without quest markers.
 
A small tip from an experienced ship stealer, something I haven't seen said yet, but you don't actually have to fly the ship you just stole to claim it, just sit in the pilot seat and get up again, you'll see the ship in your ship list and you can just leave.
The ship will disappear from your list when you go back to your old ship, but it will be there when you visit a ship dealer; this is also why you should save before trying to steal a ship, as long as you can sneak onto it, it won't take off (if it does just reload), this way you won't get stuck with a possibly inferior ship and you can just continue what you were doing instead of getting your main ship back.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I recommend people turn off the blue dot in settings to get more accustomed to the cities. You can use the scanner here and there to get a quick helper line, and it will be frustrating at first, but once one of the NPCs says 'you can find X in the clinic at Y area' you CAN eventually remember where things are. At least that's how I've been doing things and I've been better off because of it, because I've been noticing tiny details and secrets due to not fully focusing on just a blue dot on my screen
Didn't know that was an option. Dang, that would be hardcore. I might have to try it.
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
I recommend people turn off the blue dot in settings to get more accustomed to the cities. You can use the scanner here and there to get a quick helper line, and it will be frustrating at first, but once one of the NPCs says 'you can find X in the clinic at Y area' you CAN eventually remember where things are. At least that's how I've been doing things and I've been better off because of it, because I've been noticing tiny details and secrets due to not fully focusing on just a blue dot on my screen.
Guess I know what I'm doing in my last NG+

Man imagine doing the Ryujin Questline with that shit. Sounds like a fun time.
 
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March Climber

Gold Member
No, I wouldn't. I would run aimlessly looking for people and get annoyed really quickly.
Yes, you will get annoyed at first. I've stated that to be the case. However, after spending enough time exploring a city it is entirely possible to do it without the dot. The issue is that you will have to get over the hump of annoyance until you remember the general layout of a city, which to me these cities have some pretty memorable layouts compared to other video games.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
Yes, you will get annoyed at first. I've stated that to be the case. However, after spending enough time exploring a city it is entirely possible to do it without the dot. The issue is that you will have to get over the hump of annoyance until you remember the general layout of a city, which to me these cities have some pretty memorable layouts compared to other video games.

I mean cool if you enjoy playing this way. I just wish that the game would be designed with no markers like Morrowind was. I explained that 1-2 pages back. Starfield's quests are designed with floating markers in mind. Sorry, but that's just how it is.
 
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Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I mean cool if you enjoy playing this way. I just wish that the game would be designed that way like Morrowind was. I explained that 1-2 pages back. Starfield at its core is designed with floating markers in mind. Sorry, but that's just how it is.
If it's a questline mostly within the city, I could see it being doable. Morrowind didn't even have a quest log if I remember right. If it's describing some kind of notable city landmark and that's in your quest log, it's not that impossible. Once you get outside the city though, I wouldn't do it. Morrowind describes actual physical landmarks in the wild with directions.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
If it's a questline mostly within the city, I could see it being doable. Morrowind didn't even have a quest log if I remember right. If it's describing some kind of notable city landmark and that's in your quest log, it's not that impossible. Once you get outside the city though, I wouldn't do it. Morrowind describes actual physical landmarks in the wild with directions.

No, of course not. Outside of major settlements you'd get an exact coordinates and you just go there. I mean, we're talking about entire planets here.

BTW, I'm about to level up form just exploring and surveying one small solar system. YEAH!
 

March Climber

Gold Member
Starfield at its core is designed with floating markers in mind. Sorry, but that's just how it is.
It is but it isn't. It's hard to explain. Morrowind would give so many fine details to such a degree that you should ask the quest giver 'if you knew all of this why didn't you just do it yourself?'

Starfield is usually giving you a location and a person and saying 'find them in this area', but unlike other games, their city maps are pretty straightforward and have a specific memorable layout to them. If someone is saying 'they're at SSNN building' then I know that SSNN to the upper left of the terrabrew coffee shop, which you will see immediately to your left after exiting the NAT. The face-editing place and Galbank would be on the other side of the coffee shop. They have huge distinct signs, patterns, colors, etc to where you are easily able to spot these things if you aren't paying attention to a blue dot.

It is possible.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
It is but it isn't. It's hard to explain. Morrowind would give so many fine details to such a degree that you should ask the quest giver 'if you knew all of this why didn't you just do it yourself?'

Starfield is usually giving you a location and a person and saying 'find them in this area', but unlike other games, their city maps are pretty straightforward and have a specific memorable layout to them. If someone is saying 'they're at SSNN building' then I know that SSNN to the upper left of the terrabrew coffee shop, which you will see immediately to your left after exiting the NAT. The face-editing place and Galbank would be on the other side of the coffee shop. They have huge distinct signs, patterns, colors, etc to where you are easily able to spot these things if you aren't paying attention to a blue dot.

It is possible.

No, it's clearly not.

My post from earlier today:

I disagree.

Right now quest giver tells me: go see this character and that's it. It's magically marked on my HUD.

Without quest markers quest giver would say something like this: go to Residential District in New Atlantis. When there look for a blue skyscraper. It's called Athena Tower. Go to the lobby and take 2nd elevator from the left. You meet your contact on top floor, apartment 312.

Yes, you would have a map to see where the Residential District is. But that's normal and expected. All the other steps you'd have to memorize and actually scan your environment to find. You know, explore and use your brain. Instead of just running after a blue dot.
 

March Climber

Gold Member
No, it's clearly not.

My post from earlier today:
I read that post. It's why I quoted your post above. I'm saying it is possible. It's okay to disagree with someone doing it my way, but you can't say 'it can't be done' when the dev team clearly designed these cities to be remembered and gave them specific layouts and signifiers. I literally just told you how to go somewhere(4 places) without looking at the game.

My point is that the city layouts are memorable if you decide to actually remember them and not chase a blue dot. You don't need every single small detail like Morrowind, because turning a different direction in a Starfield city won't feel like getting lost in the environments of Morrowind. It only feels that way at first because no one is actually paying attention to their surroundings.
 
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Antwix

Member
Saw some people hating on the Ryujin questline. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Loved the corp espionage theme and the stealth was really fun. Helped that I have stealth maxed out though.

Probably some spoilers


Good points but I disagree with the guy's 3rd point about doing the Ryujin quests first. I'd argue the Freestar Rangers quest is better to do first. Although I haven't done the UC/Crimson ones yet so not sure.

The main reward is an extremely good starship. It is better than anything you'd get that early on considering everything else costs so much for being that early in the game.
 
Saw some people hating on the Ryujin questline. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Loved the corp espionage theme and the stealth was really fun. Helped that I have stealth maxed out though.


Good points but I disagree with the guy's 3rd point about doing the Ryujin quests first. I'd argue the Freestar Rangers quest is better to do first. Although I haven't done the UC/Crimson ones yet so not sure.

The main reward is an extremely good starship. It is better than anything you'd get that early on considering everything else costs so much for being that early in the game.
It is nuts how good it is, got it really early and have never stopped using it.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
I read that post. It's why I quoted your post above. I'm saying it is possible. It's okay to disagree with someone doing it my way, but you can't say 'it can't be done' when the dev team clearly designed these cities to be remembered and gave them specific layouts and signifiers. I literally just told you how to go somewhere(4 places) without looking at the game.

My point is that the city layouts are memorable if you decide to actually remember them and not chase a blue dot. You don't need every single small detail like Morrowind, because turning a different direction in a Starfield city won't feel like getting lost in the environments of Morrowind. It only feels that way at first because no one is actually paying attention to their surroundings.

Yes, the cities are designed that way. Proper sings and everything. BUT. Quests are not designed to support it. A major disconnect between the teams.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
So I watched a video of a dude playing with Sarah's hair. Apparently there is an 'interact' button that lets you pick up objects but im playing with a controller and cant figure out what that button is.

Asking for a friend.
 

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?
 
So I finally decided to take a break from BG3 waiting for the next performance patch for Act 3 and bought this game. So far I'm enjoying it.
It's not ground breaking as BG3, it's just an evolution of the BGS game taken to the next level. The only problem is I'm getting motion sickness playing this in FP. Which happens to me in some FP games, but never happened with FO3, FO4, or New Vegas. Anybody else have this problem?
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
So I watched a video of a dude playing with Sarah's hair. Apparently there is an 'interact' button that lets you pick up objects but im playing with a controller and cant figure out what that button is.

Asking for a friend.
Hold A. You can spin with triggers. Throw with X.

I may or may not have picked up a few corpses and watched as they spun around into a pretzel.
 

March Climber

Gold Member
Yes, the cities are designed that way. Proper sings and everything. BUT. Quests are not designed to support it. A major disconnect between the teams.
The quests give you the specific building and person to talk to. They do that because the cities are designed in this memorable way and you don't need extreme detail. This mainly applies to cities though. There were multiple times in games like Daggerfall, Morrowind, and even Oblivion where you are in a city and quite a few of the houses and structures in that location look very similar, causing you to check your log to make sure you're where you are supposed to be.

The design philosophy for Starfield, when it comes to cities, seems more like japanese dev philosophy. The extreme example is something like A Link to the Past. Very, very memorable map and towns, but citizens and people weren't describing to you extreme levels of details to get to specific areas, because the entire area is memorable in itself. It encouraged you to look around and remember landmarks. I'm not saying Starfield is the exact same as ALttP(to repeat, it is not the same as ALttP), I'm saying that they are following that philosophy more. From that, it is completely possible to not need the blue dot for quests that involve you exploring cities more. You simply have to be open to learning the layout.

When it comes to planets, after landing on a planet, I have no choice but to bring up the scanner to see which compass direction I need to go and follow it to the best of my ability. I will admit that planetary areas without cities are slightly flawed in design.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
The quests give you the specific building and person to talk to. They do that because the cities are designed in this memorable way and you don't need extreme detail. This mainly applies to cities though. There were multiple times in games like Daggerfall, Morrowind, and even Oblivion where you are in a city and quite a few of the houses and structures in that location look very similar, causing you to check your log to make sure you're where you are supposed to be.

The design philosophy for Starfield, when it comes to cities, seems more like japanese dev philosophy. The extreme example is something like A Link to the Past. Very, very memorable map and towns, but citizens and people weren't describing to you extreme levels of details to get to specific areas, because the entire area is memorable in itself. It encouraged you to look around and remember landmarks. I'm not saying Starfield is the exact same as ALttP(to repeat, it is not the same as ALttP), I'm saying that they are following that philosophy more. From that, it is completely possible to not need the blue dot for quests that involve you exploring cities more. You simply have to be open to learning the layout.

When it comes to planets, after landing on a planet, I have no choice but to bring up the scanner to see which compass direction I need to go and follow it to the best of my ability. I will admit that planetary areas without cities are slightly flawed in design.

You win because there's no way in hell I'm reading all of that. Back to playing some Starfield, these planets won't scan themselves!
 

Antwix

Member
So I finally decided to take a break from BG3 waiting for the next performance patch for Act 3 and bought this game. So far I'm enjoying it.
It's not ground breaking as BG3, it's just an evolution of the BGS game taken to the next level. The only problem is I'm getting motion sickness playing this in FP. Which happens to me in some FP games, but never happened with FO3, FO4, or New Vegas. Anybody else have this problem?
I assume you're playing on PC? Check out the .ini tweaks to change your FOV. I have no idea why they didn't include FOV sliders.
 

twilo99

Gold Member
So I finally decided to take a break from BG3 waiting for the next performance patch for Act 3 and bought this game. So far I'm enjoying it.
It's not ground breaking as BG3, it's just an evolution of the BGS game taken to the next level. The only problem is I'm getting motion sickness playing this in FP. Which happens to me in some FP games, but never happened with FO3, FO4, or New Vegas. Anybody else have this problem?

Might be an issue with the shallow FOV in this game…
 

March Climber

Gold Member
You win because there's no way in hell I'm reading all of that. Back to playing some Starfield, these planets won't scan themselves!
I'm not trying to win anything lol. I'm just making a positive suggestion for those who want to give it a shot, and showing with my own words as proof that it works. If you decide not to play the game that way, it's fine.

I think that Starfield's cities are putting Bethesda on the right track to making more memorable city layouts, rather than just creating dense cities just to give the appearance of density.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
I think that Starfield's cities are putting Bethesda on the right track to making more memorable city layouts, rather than just creating dense cities just to give the appearance of density.

Yes and no because let's face it... the way The Well was incorporated into New Atlantis is being fucking stupid. There are 2 elevators that'll take you there.
 
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Roufianos

Member
2 hours in, I actually hate this game. People weren't joking when they said it's a slow burn.

Combat sucks, loads of jumping around in menus and I literally just docked near the moon and had to load again to go through a door.

Animations feel a decade behind, as usual with Bethesda. Running looks especially ridiculous.

Lack of location maps is staggeringly poor.

I'm sure it will grow on me if I can find the patience to stick with it.

Soundtrack is awesome though 🔥🔥🔥
 
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Just went to Venus to check this out, since on Venus a day there is equal to 243 days on Earth….and it took pretty much a full 24 hours just to move it a minute on the clock. The interesting part though was that the minute ticked down instead of up (It went from 20:30 local time to 20:29) which I’m guessing is because Venus rotates in reverse to Earth and the other planets, so it basically ends up running the clock backwards.
Interesting, I'll go there to check a few things too.
What happens if you want to sleep there ? As the local time goes backwards, I wonder how they handled that.

Is Mercury landable too ? I did not check yet.
Sleeping screws it up. It’ll move the clock forward instead of backwards, and the difference is only 1 hour to 4 UTC (I’m guessing so you don’t end up spending almost a year in game waiting for 24 hours lol).

And yeah you can land on Mercury.

And if anyone wants to try sitting on Venus for that long I suggest two songs while landing at a spot that’s 00:02 (2 minutes ahead/behind midnight local) and playing these two songs on repeat as the clock ticks down 🤣:



 
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Antwix

Member
Yes and no because let's face it... the way The Well was incorporated into New Atlantis is being fucking stupid. There are 2 elevators that'll take you there.
I could be making this up but I swear I encountered an NPC that said something about the Well being an unappealing part of the city that they don't want people to see so they kinda segregate it from the main parts of the city. Whether you wanna believe that "lore" is up to you lol

I haven't even been to the Well yet! Need to make a trip there soon.... if I can find it.
 

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I could be making this up but I swear I encountered an NPC that said something about the Well being an unappealing part of the city that they don't want people to see so they kinda segregate it from the main parts of the city. Whether you wanna believe that "lore" is up to you lol

I haven't even been to the Well yet! Need to make a trip there soon.... if I can find it.
Its literally an inhabited sewer
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
I could be making this up but I swear I encountered an NPC that said something about the Well being an unappealing part of the city that they don't want people to see so they kinda segregate it from the main parts of the city. Whether you wanna believe that "lore" is up to you lol

I haven't even been to the Well yet! Need to make a trip there soon.... if I can find it.

It's an unappealing part of the city... that you can reach by 2 elevators... and one of these elevators will also take you to one of the most breathtaking terrace in the whole city. It's just so lazily slapped together.
 

Alan Wake

Member
2 hours in, I actually hate this game. People weren't joking when they said it's a slow burn.

Combat sucks, loads of jumping around in menus and I literally just docked near the moon and had to load again to go through a door.

Animations feel a decade behind, as usual with Bethesda. Running looks especially ridiculous.

Lack of location maps is staggeringly poor.

I'm sure it will grow on me if I can find the patience to stick with it.

Soundtrack is awesome though 🔥🔥🔥
It'll get better. And better. And better.
 

March Climber

Gold Member
Yes and no because let's face it... the way The Well was incorporated into New Atlantis is being fucking stupid. There are 2 elevators that'll take you there.
True, that's why Starfield is a good step in the right direction but not a final destination. I hope they improve on it for the next ES and potentially Starfield 2.
 
Its literally an inhabited sewer
I forgot about the area early on, but still remembered the reference to the area, so when trying to find it later on without a mission marker. Holy crap! They really did hide them, there’s only one elevator to it (that I know of) and it’s basically one that is near impossible to find other than if you’re sent to view the waterfall landmark or a quest marker in that spot, and of course no other public transit goes there and no landing point where they have it everywhere else.

It is a damn good commentary on modern society at least when it comes to major cities and people affording housing, and made that commentary without saying a word.
 
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Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
I forgot about the area early on, but still remembered the reference to the area, so when trying to find it later on without a mission marker. Holy crap! They really did hide them, there’s only one elevator to it (that I know of) and it’s basically one that is near impossible to find other than if you’re sent to view the waterfall landmark or a quest marker in that spot, and of course no other public transit goes there and no landing point where they have it to everywhere else.

It is a damn good commentary on modern society at least when it comes to major cities and people affording housing, and made that commentary without saying a word.
There's 1 right near the train under MAST. Very convenient.

And I agree. Its obviously the darkside of their UC citizen requirement for housing and reflects current issues. The main elevator has anti UC graffitti
 
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Chukhopops

Member
I love the OST soooooo much in this game

One of the best sci-fi track in years

Soon as this track hits for example, i never get tired of it.


The ambient music is incredible, one of the reasons surveying is so pleasant.

Weirdly, the ambient music does not feel sci-fi… like, at all. It feels a lot more like Oblivion/Skyrim music.
 
I wish piracy paid off more. I stole some ship, but had to register it first which cost me 12k, the ship sold for 14k - or something along those lines.

I had one Class B ship that I had finally excitedly disabled in a space fight with about 3 enemies - I boarded it but found I didn't have required piloting skill.. so that ship has been sitting there for a day or two (irl time) while I do other things in the game and focus on getting that skill up to par. I finally got the skill to the required level, got excited thinking this is my big break, going to take this expensive, huge ship and sell it off (not that I am at a want for credits, have hundreds of thousands of them just from selling EQ)! I was able to steal the ship, got back to the ship guy and it'sreally the same story. After registration it's a few thousand in profit, the ship is only worth 20k despite seeming so big. Sigh. Strangely Alendreja or whatever her name is was pissed when I killed the captain - we were being attacked! They're space pirates! Not sure why she cared about that specific NPC. I do love that the disabled ship just stays persistent, right there next to that planet forever until I come back to either destroy it or steal it.

Still cool to be able to just jack ships though. I like the whole process - disabling the ship, boarding the ship, murdering everyone, taking ship.

I don't like that it feels like there's less freedom than ever in terms of killing random people or quest related people. Like there's a quest in the well
in which one of the shopkeepers is concerned about some potential thieves. You're tasked with investigating and you find out they are planning to break in to a store - but you can't kill or confront them then, you have to go back to her and then she wants you to report to security. To the game's credit, you can go confront them after that point and murder them, she gets upset but the quest resolves the same way no matter how you end it, but I feel like you should be able to confront and kill them right then
.

In addition to that there are just way too many "essential" NPCs. I'd rather have it Morrowind style where the threads of fate are severed, but you can murder all you like.
 
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