I just don’t understand what people were expecting. I expected Skyrim in Space and got that. Expecting a true space sim on top of that? That’s an entirely different ask. I’ve got E:D and NMS if I want to spend hours hopping from one system to the next and deal with space physics. But if I want a story, Starfield is delivering for me.
I think a lot of people that are extremely critical of it weren't going to buy it anyway and just want to enjoy banding together to shit on it in camaraderie because it's popular to hate it.
There's also this sort of awkward dynamic that Bethesda has created with its player base where the extensive amount and kinds of mods their games end up with means people view every small facet of the game that they don't love as something that they want to change and modify, where a different game that's bolted down and doesn't have guaranteed mod support would just never have those little bits talked about at all, and the players would just talk about what they like instead.
If you look at comments about Starfield even from players that enjoy it, you notice that most of the time nobody says anything about what they think it's doing right, aside from a "and it's still a good Bethesda RPG", while also having a small list of things they don't like or want to change. Just knowing that changing these things is possible makes people fixate on wanting them gone or different.
But it absolutely does need at least one mod. That inventory mod linked a few days ago, for example. That mod is a godsend.
I’d also like to see some sort of automated bulk-selling for outposts… or at least, bulk vendors and the ability to link to landing platforms/warehousing in cities (or some cities.)
And one that lets you create presets for ship power settings.
Hopefully it doesn't seem like I'm saying the mods aren't a good thing or that the game is perfectly fine without them, I just believe it creates this strange mindset for players.
I even do this, as I play Bethesda games I make these little mental notes of small mechanics and things as I play and then go look for mods to change them, sometimes even saving and stopping right then to go look, whereas in normal games I'd probably just be like "huh, that's just okay" or "I don't care for that much", but just move on.
I love the mods. I think starfield is a great game and I think the mod community is going to turn it into an incredible game. So looking forward to console mods in a year.
I've actually not felt the need to mess with the inventory, but I'm sure I will eventually because it could certainly be better, but I find it just fine, the fact that people are releasing mods for that can say just as much about their preferences as it might about any inherent design failing. A lot of mods come out quickly moreso because they're staple changes that some part of the audience always would like to have upon release, not specifically because it's so god awful people just had to do it or they couldn't enjoy it.
I haven't noticed anything UI wise as egregious as being unable to sort your inventory by sell value in Borderlands 3.
Seriously, you should try this mod. Like, the inventory screen might be 'tolerable'... but it still sucks. The reality is that bethsada relies on modders to finish polishing out their game. all I'm saying is that the optimizatin and UI tweaks being so popular is a signal that they messed up, and that it's okay to have nuance: the game is flawed, but it's still enjoyable.
as a side note, another mod I'd like to see is the ability to build mother and parasite ships- that is, to be able to dock to a carrier platform with better cargo, dogshit handling and such, while being able to jump into a fighter for the heavy lifting. Or at the very least, sending jacked ships to port rather than your former home ship.
Yeah, that mod is definitely better than default UI, but I've also never felt like the UI was straight bad and I haven't felt frustrated or like I was unable to do something or sort what I needed to. I'm trying to wait for a few significant patches before I get into mods.
As soon as I start adding mods I then need to keep up with updating them as patches for the game release, and some mods don't get updated and break, and you know how Bethesda save files can become dependent on the mods you installed to load, so I'm trying to not go down that road yet. The UI is perfectly fine enough for me to not be the igniter for me to start modding, even though chances are high they'll keep it updated, I'm just enjoying the game for now in its own right.
I've been searching for a nice planet with titanium deposits and adhesive dropping plants to farm - by the time I find it I probably won't need it, and I definitely could've grinded out the mats waiting for merchants to restock. I do have two outposts that are just resource mines (I think its tantulum for one and titanium or something for the other). The idea is very intriguing as it seems like I could make an actual factory - but then there's really no point other than to do it just because.
Yea this is another aspect of the game I'm not really interested in but I recognize that's just me. I just buy frames I like and then upgrade components.
I wish for a mod that makes it easy to find stuff in space - like do you think i can remember the planet where I have ytterbium marked when I need it? Or even find a named planet without clicking and zooming on every star. Kind of ridiculous it's not there really.
I'm thinking... a sortable database, after you've scanned it, the data gets added to it. You can then filter by material (or... combinations of materials.) and sort by distance. Also. A planetary coordinate system, that I can then place coordinates to directly land at rather than clicking around.
I think a lot of people that are extremely critical of it weren't going to buy it anyway and just want to enjoy banding together to shit on it in camaraderie because it's popular to hate it.
I actually feel like there's WAY too much emptiness in Starfield and for its scale, there are very few different types of places to visit.
Bethesda needed to scale down quite a bit to make more meaningful places to visit because as it stands, there's very little to find through organic exploration.
It is so space skyrim and i'm at 70 hours in. It's almost like space Daggerfall with all the procedural encounters. I've even warmed up to planetary exploration somewhat.