Thanks @Victork2! I’m asking too much. Part of the problem is that bloody BG3 discussion. I mean, who doesn’t want to have a go with a bear? Really! Who!? The other problem is me. I distinctly remember saying exactly what you said, “I just want Skyrim in space!” But I am a trash hauler by trade and birth (did was also). It is in my nature to takeoff and land. So I was lying to myself. But serious players say it’s great if given the time to appreciate what’s gone into it. And I want to be a good player so I’ll put in the time
4 Likes
I went into it with the hope that it would be 1) less buggy than usual. 2) better gunplay than fallout 4 and cyberpunk 3) large. 4) at least interesting enough to “want to walk over that hill and see what is there”
4 out of 4. Happy.
Its absolutely not going to change the face of gaming. Its not better or worse than anything else. I absolutely get the criticisms. But I really REALLY like it. That is good enough for me. I want to explore, see @weaponz248 post above. Its intriguing! I’ve studiously not read ANYTHING about the game. I wanted to try it on my terms. I love it.
Seeing the wife hoovering up coffee and spoons and notepads while i refilled my beer makes me remember the summer I had off work when fallout 3 came out and we spent (truthfully) 48 hours straight just absolutely hammering it as we were so invested.
Also that time i ate a brownie that my wifes friend brought round and didn’t tell me it was “enhanced” and i spent from 8 pm to 8am looking for nirnroots in oblivion. She definitely did an evil thing there but man, that was a fun evening.
Its all of that. In space, with guns.
Good enough for me
4 Likes
In space. With guns. Spaced out on hash brownies. Oh yeah 
3 Likes
So, the big question… is this game the new Skyrim? Is it worth it?
I don’t know if I should wait for a sale or just pull the trigger. 
2 Likes
Wait, IIRC it’s coming to Gamepass.
EDIT:
1 Like
I’m 3 hours or so in and i believe it might be. Its much MUCH more already than the outer worlds appeared to be. I couldn’t be happier with it. Lets face it. Bethesda main stories always suck… the fun is in exploring and seeing what you can do and find. This is epic.
3 Likes
Starfield has the best sense of space exploration I’ve experienced. Even just exploration in general, without any missions active.
And one of my biggest “meh” expectations was the fast travel. And sure enough, I generally prefer manual travel to my ship, takeoff, plot and jump. Just adds a great sense of connection to the travel.
But for on-foot exploration, the fast travel back to ship really is a plus, IMO. With out it, I’m constantly watching the clock on the wall.
“I need to wrap up in 45 minutes. That means I can go out-bound from ship exploring another 15 to 20 minutes. That’ll give me time to get safely back to the ship.”
Not so, with fast travel back to ship. I can just explore and discover, enjoying everything possible right up to quitting time, without worry about a long (or arduous) trip home. Then click back to ship and save/sleep, for the next session.
The game really exceeds my expectations. I’ve been getting a bit stale on Elite (and after what, 6 or 7 years? OK), and hoped Starfield could perhaps “replace” it. Yes, I know they are different types of games, different in many ways.
But Starfield is giving me like the majority of what I enjoy in Elite, and a huge (HUGE) part of the stuff I wished for years that Elite could provide. Functional ship interiors, massively diverse and active planetary biomes to explore, docking with and capturing enemy ships… NO engineering. And truly massive.
For my space gaming time, this is awesome stuff.
8 Likes
I know nothing about Starfield, ED, or any of the other space games. What does no engineering mean? Just curious. This game is on my radar for when it’s on sale in a couple years.
1 Like
In Elite Dangerous, any modifications to the ship, flightsuits, and personal weapons are done at Engineer workshops. There are many, maybe 20 to 30, each only doing certain special modifications to specific modules.
My dislike with the Engineers system is primarily based on the amount of grinding to get something I want.
First there are some things you’ve got to do to simply gain access to an Engineer, at all. Each one is different, and they are nested behind each other, too. So maybe an early Engineer requires me to first travel 1,000LY of total jumps before they will allow me access to services.
This is not always a big problem. But the nested access was, for me. First meet one, and meet requirements. Now I’m required to complete “X” quantity of Engineering upgrades they offer, before they tell me about another Engineer.
Only then, the cycle restarts. Meet access requirements, then complete mandatory number of upgrades again, and hey… Meet this OTHER Enginner… And again. Getting to an Engineer I wanted was just too much of a hassle, not to mention so MANY materials spent on the mandatory upgrades at each prior Engineer.
Just IMO, of course.
Then once I can visit the Engineer I want, now I need an array of “materials” to complete each modification that Engineer offers. Finding these can take literally hours and hours, as some are very rare (and several may be needed to complete the Engineer work). There are no stores to purchase any Engineering materials. So that means in some rare “Core Dynamics Armor” only drops in a specific type of star system, and only from specific types of encounters… I simply MUST do that thing until I get the lucky rare drops.
Now, the developer did eventually add a “Material Trader”, where you can swap materials you have, for those you need. But IMO, the exchange rate is brutal for the rarest types. I’ve only done a bit of this for mid-tier materials, as I just didn’t want to trade so many (MANY) lower tier materials which took hours to gather, for ONE rare material I wanted.
Add in the twist that those materials only work on ship parts. Suits and personal weapons have their own unique material lists, and Engineers with demands, too. I’ve been playing Odyssey for hours and still have next to zero such materials. I’ve seen them around, in surface settlements here and there. But I’d have to steal them, and that means somebody will get angry and try to stop me.
I just never felt right about murdering the entire staff of a Pharmaceutical Research Center… to get a roll of DUCT TAPE and a TUBE OF EPOXY RESIN.
So anyway, this system never really settled well for me. Others players I’ve known really have got busy with this system, though, and have many maxed out upgrades. Just up to each player.
*And one weird side note about Engineers that was always in the back of my mind. I go to this ONE guy in the galaxy who’s the only way to get this SPECIAL modification. And yet, every time a ship is destroyed with modified modules… The insurance company somehow manages to get that EXACT mod on the new replacement ship?!
**And weirder still, I can pin a blueprint for an Engineer mod, and then have ship maintenance dudes at ANY station in the galaxy do this same rare mod to my other ships (for the same materials cost)!
Why all the gate keeping for something the local tire shop can do?
***To my feeble imagination… “Crafting” is a way better fit. I make the mods myself, with some “learned” skills. Crafting is how it’s done in Starfield. Only time will tell if the grind is long on some required resources/materials.
But at a minimum I’m more hopeful with Starfield, simply due to the existence of HARDWARE STORES that sell some of the stuff right off the shelf.
Sorry if that was a long rant.
9 Likes
Great explanation, thanks for taking the time. That does sound tedious and awful.
2 Likes
Nono I kind of agree with you.
Not a bad idea, but a less than… stellar… implementation.
5 Likes
I remember back with they added the Engineering feature.
The SRV vehicles were new, and you can land at a surface outpost, and the deploy the SRV from inside the ship hanger, and drive out a special garage underneath your landing pad.
But there is absolutely NOTHING for the SRV to do or interact with, otherwise, at the entire surface outpost.
I recall writing the devs and saying that if they just added a basic drive-up Materials Dealer store front on some random wall in the surface outpost, from which a CMDR in the SRV could buy (or even sell) materials. Rare ones maybe pretty pricey, but hey, I’m happy to pay money in this case to avoid the rest.
Interactivity on surface bases, a meaningful reason to visit and drive around inside the otherwise impressively modeled sites… 
Anyway, not to sound all negative on Elite. It’s got it’s awesome side, too.
3 Likes
Exploring in Starfield feels like Stargate SG-1 to me, You never know what you are going to run into.
If you get bored travel to the Charybdis system and do Operation Starseed, You will get a companion that you would never guess you would ever get.
My newest ship
On our honeymoon…
Love it
7 Likes
did someone say stargate?
3 Likes
3 Likes
I am ten or so hours in and it just feels amazing. The gunplay is awesome fun.
I accidentally took some contraband into martian space last night and have ended up on a secret spying mission which is absolutely great and feels very much inspired by “the expanse”
I love it. So much so that i have the real hump that i have to work this week. I really should have booked a few days.
Having a minor operation at the end of the month (wife doesnt want any more kids) and am forced to sit still for at least a week as both my jobs involve heavy lifting…so starfield will be getting the hammering it deserves
6 Likes
Your pain will be less than a fraction of what your wife went through (apparently 
)… But milk that for all it is worth baby.
Sitting down for a week with nothing to do but play Starfield, my advice is not to tuck an ice pack between your legs but a tub of ice cream 
4 Likes
Oh i plan to. Shock and awe for her that week 
2 Likes
Given the rest of your post, I so want to say it. I so so want to. But we are not close friends. And this is the internet. And my jokes are often way less funny than I imagine. So forget all that.
I haven’t found love in a bikini yet. But I have had terrific fights in unexpected places. The best thus far was in a space station cruise ship that was overrun by spacers. Me and Vasco floated through its vastness while he taunted them for fatally picking the fight. I would get good hits but the recoil of the gun kept floating me out of the firing position. It would have been even more fun if the recoil caused rotation as well as translation. But the fight would have been way harder. There was so much detail in that station that I must assume that it was part of a side quest. Not for us though. We just boarded on a whim.
4 Likes
I have a question: on all screenshots of the game that I have seen those people all have that same facial expression.
But that has to be coincidence. They do have animated faces, don’t they?
1 Like