Ok, I’ve put 3hrs and 14min into starfield. It looks pretty and runs fine. But it has yet to draw me in. In fact, both times I sat down to play it today, it made super tired and I had to quit and take a nap. I’ll keep playing though since I haven’t really got much else to do. Especially since all my friends are already deep into it so there won’t be any of the multiplayer stuff going on for a while.
FWIW:
It seems you’re not the only one who feels that way (I am only 2 hours in so do not have an opinion yet…I’ve barely begun).
There is a minor use for it, but still just as sellable junk in a different manner. Upgrading skills after level one requires doing a challenge, and the challenge for bartering is selling unique items(up to 150 for master level eventually). So keeping a couple of each of the trash things makes that process much quicker.
I thought BG3 was impressive at ~830,000. Starfield has surpassed that:
BG3’s 830k was for Steam players only. Starfield’s 1m was across PC (Game Pass & Steam) and Xbox consoles. Its concurrent players on Steam topped out at 270k.
(Obligatory disclaimers that I’m not talking about the merits of either game, just that the two figures aren’t measuring the same thing)
I got a chance to dip my toes in the game and I like it.
There’s nothing revolutionary so far, it feels like a bunch of other games I’ve played before all mashed up together. But it’s fun and I want to keep playing. And it came with my Game Pass.
And a huge chunk of those players are giving it a shot because it’s part of an existing subscription.
I’m enjoying Starfield but BG3 outshines it in literally every metric I can think of.
I agree.
I am enjoying Starfield a lot but it lacks the polish that BG3 has.
For example, the inventory system in BG3 is not good. In Starfield, it is fucking awful. Just…awful. Shockingly so and the one thing ruining my experience (otherwise I like the game but damn…every time I need to deal with the inventory, which is often, it fucking sucks.)
That’s because you’re not looking for excuses to be Performatively Outraged at All The Wokeness Being Shoved Down Your Throat.
Seriously, there’s a whole community out there now who go out of their way to act outraged at everything that even hints at LGBTQ+ or ‘wokeness’ in any media property, purely as a matter of political and/or sociological strategy. They want to drive it all back into the closet, and will shit on anything they have to in order to accomplish that goal.
A shortcut I learned for leveling the piloting skill, which requires blowing up lots of ships and is difficult to do if you’re not a pirate.
If you decide to join the Vanguard,* the first thing they do is plop you in a flight simulator to fight waves of ships. You can repeat it as much as you want and your kills there count towards the skill challenge.
Now I can pilot my enormous C-class ship. She’s built like a steakhouse but she handles like a bistro.
*I highly recommend it. All the faction questlines have been pretty interesting. I’m in the middle of the Vanguard one now and it’s actually pretty wild.
Has anybody found out if it has the mechanic from Oblivion where specialized merchants pay more? Like a weapons dude will only buy weapons, but will pay more for them. But the general merchant(ship side trade kiosk specifically) will buy all types, but pay less.
I’m massively over encumbered and don’t want to take hours to walk to a shop to check. 
I haven’t been looking too closely at the prices, but it seems to me, most vendors don’t have enough cash on hand to buy all my crap, so I end up cleaning them all out no matter what. Just last night, I think I hoovered up all the available credits in New Atlantis, and I still have some crap in my ship’s hold.
What’s the deal with encumbrance?
I give my loot to Vasco. He says it is his thing to carry shit. My inventory says I am 0/(some number).
But, I cannot fast travel because I am “encumbered.”
WTF?
When you first open the trade menu with VASCO what you see is HIS inventory. So if you empty out that menu you actually take everything FROM him.
I wouldn’t expect you to hit 0/X unless you’re naked and unarmed. So that implies to me you’re looking at his inventory.
The inventory system in this game SUCKS!!! (I mean really sucks…not just a little fiddly, a little annoying…it fucking sucks!) I usually tolerate mechanics being a little bad but…this is BAD! It frustrates me repeatedly.
I’ll have to try the mod @Johnny_Bravo suggested.
Other than that I do like the game. Just this one thing annoying me to no end.
I hear this a lot, I’m not sure I get it. The inventory system feels identical to every other Bethesda game? I really like that I can send things to my ship on the fly and that when overencumbered rather than being unable to move or only at a slow walk I can run at full speed (just using more stamina).
Sell your crap at Jemisin Mercantile, walk outside, sit down, and wait 48 hours. The shops will reset both their inventory and money.
Can you still do the Skyrim trick of dropping your crap on the ground and telling your companion to pick it all up ignoring maximum carrying capacity? Or better yet putting everything in a container for the companion to pick it all up in one action?
There’s no way to order companions that I’ve seen.
You can do that? How? (really asking…that would help me so much!)