Since I posted above, I purchased and downloaded the Premium edition. Took just about two hours, including 5+ GB of OST. I’m enjoying every bit of it so far.
Lots of classic Bethesda features…F5 for quicksave, essential companions, etc. Overheard conversations leading to quests.
Meanwhile, there is a lot that’s new. I have a lot to learn about spacecraft operation and combat. I think I should excavate my joystick for this.
I need to remember to stand up once in a while and walk around the house.
Slight quibble (with Tested more than you, as they use the same language)
Using 3-D prints doesn’t count as scratch-building in my eyes. There is some scratch building happening in the build (e.g. the ramp) but overall, I wouldn’t call this a scratch build. Maybe if they’d done the 3D modelling themselves, rather than just clean up/modify the files Bethesda supplied to them. But only maybe.
The game is suggesting I build an outpost, and I’ve read posts that say one should “build an outpost as early as possible”. I’m only level 7, but I think I can scrape up the minimum suggested materials list specified in the below article. Should I, at this early stage? I have one or two available outpost managers.
There’s a difference between using the save/reload feature to take breaks in playing, salvage a game from a serious bug or glitch, etc, and using the feature to avoid living with any mistakes you might make. Especially in RPGs, it can add to gameplay to not be able to easily go back and try doing things differently.
That said, save scum all you like if that’s the way you like playing. I won’t sneer. I occasionally save scum when I feel the situation warrants it.
Yes, and there are games that let you save so that you can take a break, but don’t let you create multiple save states, because you are supposed to live with the choices you make. Many roguelikes are that way. Then there are games like Starfield.
ETA: Also, save-scumming is not saving a game to reload it if something goes wrong, or to undo an experiment. Save-scumming is saving and reloading over and over again to create the optimal outcome for a random thing. I’ve done that sort of thing before, but that I’m not proud of. I try not to do that.
I tend to avoid save scumming but I will do it on occasion to get by something in the game that causes me no end of problems. I just want to keep playing the game and not deal with frustrating game-play that is stopping me from advancing. It is why I will never, ever play a Souls-like game (I want to, they look cool but endless bashing your head on a problem is not for me).
I also may do it just to see how a different choice plays out…and then go back to my original decision. I may not feel like re-starting a game and playing 20 hours just to see how a different choice might work out.
From what I can tell, base building only really matters if you’re going to do a lot of crafting stuff. It’s how you set up automated resource extraction and component construction.
I built a janky outpost on a moon that’s just a bunch of storage containers for all the resources I keep finding but I haven’t done anything else with it.
Yes, the thing that a lot of people seem to be missing is that there’s a lot of different ways of accomplishing the same travel task. If you get a mission deep in a habitat location, you can walk all the way out to your landing site, climb aboard the ship, walk to the pilot’s chair, launch into orbit, interact with some ships in orbit (trade, fight, talk, whatever), then target the new planet or system for a high-speed jump, then reverse that whole process to finally arrive at your target.
Or, you can use fast travel for the whole damn thing (with certain limits). Set the target from wherever you’re standing, and in one move, you’re at the front door of the new place, or on a landing site, or whatever. Or you can use fast travel for some parts but not others. Fast travel back to your ship at the landing site, but then fly the ship mostly manually, for example.
This gives a far greater degree of freedom to play how you want, and even to mix it up, if you aren’t in the mood to fiddle with all the little details, or something.
It’s been ages since I played Skyrim, but I remember that every single location in FO4 was also a fast travel point - you only ever had to walk up any given place once. And the areas between locations were largely uninteresting spaces, peppered with Bethesda’s brand of environmental storytelling.
Some more thoughts:
I hate hate hate the lockpicking minigame. Full stop. I do like that lockpicking and computer hacking are a single skill.
I was trying to figure out what I was really digging about the environments and then I realized that I love the variety. Fallout only had two tilesets: grungepunk and institute. Starfield has a lot more going on, and while it’s definitely got “Bethesda vibes” it’s a lot nicer to look at than the same rusting corrugated metal texture over and over again.
I stumbled into a fight on an abandoned space station and had a shooting match in zero-g complete with gun recoil pushing you around. That was really neat.
Just like Skyrim, there are questlines to get friendly with various factions. The one for the Rangers ends with a very satisfying reward and I’m glad I hopped on it early; I’d recommend the same for y’all.
Yes, some of the random encounters are entertaining. I jumped into one system to find myself in the middle of a giant dogfight. I couldn’t figure out who was shooting who, or why, but they all just ignored me, so I just casually flew by…
I just recently discovered the comic books. They’re collectible too, and give you perks when you read them, like in Fallout 4. There’s even one in the Lodge, right near the middle of the main room (no story spoilers here!).
But the stuffed animals? I saw a really creepy spacesuit cat stuffy, thinking it reminded me of Jangles the Space Monkey from F4. So there are more types of these? I’ll be on the lookout.
As for me, my venturing through the main quest storyline is putting me in situations in which I would rather be at a higher character level. So this means: Time to do more side quests.
Also base building. One of the first things the game asks you to do when surveying a planet the first time, is to place an outpost beacon. But then you’re told you need a certain skill. So OK, can’t post it yet. But in the meantime I think I gained that skill. I’m eager to try the base building, because it promises to marry together the resource extraction mechanisms from, say, Eve Online, with Bethesda style base building and connecting them together for mutual benefit. So I’ve had a major character onboard, waiting their time to run my first base, when and wherever that may happen.
Do you mean the Lodge in New Atlantis? Or the Lounge bar on Neon?
Yes, outposts/extraction/managers do things while you are off-planet.
After spending probably 3 hours trying to find the unicorn spot on Andraphon (a moon of Sumati in the Narion system, pretty close to Alpha Centauri) where a single outpost can mine both iron and aluminum, I gave up and just built 2 outposts (some players have found such unicorns, but I was spending too much time trying to find the right spot).
A fairly wide but shallow learning pool in building out the outposts; every time I wanted to do something (like connect storage to a mining drill or assigning outpost managers) I had to consult the Intertubes, but once you know the technique it isn’t difficult.
I am now mining iron and aluminum (which apparently you need in abundance for further construction), as well as He3 gas (which can power generators, beyond other uses). I have managers for both.
Now: is it really worth it? It seems the main purpose of establishing outposts, at least at this stage, is that one can mine the materials to…increase the size of their outposts. I’m not far along, but I do believe there ARE future benefits, such as research being conducted somewhat independently of your direct actions (I’m not certain, but that’s the implication of what I’ve read).
