Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios Upcoming Title Options

[Renee]

Blea, they should give us more time flying before that first obviously scripted attack.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

What are your experiences with the first Starfield flying experience? I'm finding it hella frustrating, in the sense we get into orbit,

I hate this. We barely have time to learn the controls when all hell breaks loose!

There's a learning curve here, which happens way too fast imo, so how did y'all learn flying a spaceship? 🌌🛰

Spaceship combat is harder than on-the-ground combat, IMO. But you won't be running into enemies every time and not every one of them is going to be a tough battle. Like Khajiit said, give it a few times and you'll get the hang of it. And like Kane said, absolutely invest in piloting and some of the other spaceship perks. It's a night and day difference.

Spaceship combat and on-the-ground combat also have separate difficulty sliders, so you can tweak both of them to your heart's content. Harder combat gives you more XP, while easier combat gives you less XP.

...And I forgot for a long time that you can hold space bar to maneuver easier....

Wait, what? This is a thing?? I don't remember using spacebar in ship combat. Whoa, that might be a gamechanger for some of these tougher ship fights.

[Kane]

Wait, what? This is a thing?? I don't remember using spacebar in ship combat. Whoa, that might be a gamechanger for some of these tougher ship fights.

Yeah the difference is insane. You lose speed, but it fires your thrusters and you can bank sharply to pursue a ship.

This post has been edited by Kane: Jan 2 2026, 12:49 PM

[Renee]

I give up on flight for now. I hate that feeling like I'm a sucky n00b, and it's not even my fault. We've got like 8 seconds to figure how to fly before gettin attacked, come on now. Before then, the view as we orbit the moon is so peaceful. LOVE IT.

Skye found the hatch to the miner's quarters, found the cutter she dropped, and is now walking all over the moon. She found a few ore deposits a few days ago so.....time to get rich, I hope.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 2 2026, 06:47 PM

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Kane and Raider: can’t you postpone the attack from the first pirate ship by simply not doing what the flight tutorial asks you to do? I was thinking they didn’t attack until you had progressed through the first couple parts of the flight tutorial. Correct me if I’m wrong.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jan 2 2026, 10:01 PM

[Renee]

Kane and Raider

Rader....

can’t you postpone the attack from the first pirate ship by simply not doing what the flight tutorial asks you to do? I was thinking they didn’t attack until you had progressed through the first couple parts of the flight tutorial. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Not that I've seen. All Vasco tells to do is how to change direction (SORt of....) and how to power up the engines and shields. Next thing, he's yelling at us we're under bloody attack!

I read a YouTube post which suggests STOPPING the ship before aiming and returning fire to the Crimson Fleet ship, but I haven't tried this yet.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 2 2026, 11:31 PM

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Kane and Raider: can't you postpone the attack from the first pirate ship by simply not doing what the flight tutorial asks you to do? I was thinking they didn't attack until you had progressed through the first couple parts of the flight tutorial. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Hmmmm. I haven't done the beginning since the game came out, so I'm not sure. I don't think you can avoid getting into the fight completely, but I'm not sure and didn't try it.


@Renee - There are a couple things you can do. One, knock the ship combat difficulty setting down all the way. I know it feels cheap but it will make the fight much easier.

Two, you can reroute power from your other systems into your grav drive. It's tricky to do in the middle of a fight, but the more power you put into your grav drive, the quicker it will fire up. Just select a planet in a different system (that you can reach) and you'll eventually see the countdown to when the grav jump happens (quicker if you put more power into the grav drive). That'll let you avoid ship fights. (It has to be a planet outside the system. You can't choose one in the same system because you don't use the grav drive within the same system, so theoretically you would still be chased by the enemy.)

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Jan 3 2026, 06:11 AM

[Renee]

@Renee - There are a couple things you can do. One, knock the ship combat difficulty setting down all the way. I know it feels cheap but it will make the fight much easier.

Ha, you know me well. Indeed it feels cheap and cheaty to me. I've mostly left difficulty on default all these years in every Bethesda game. Kind of ridiculous to already need to manipulate difficulty at the start of the game.

Two, you can reroute power from your other systems into your grav drive.

See. That's part of the problem right there. What the [censored] is the Grav drive? I mean, of course I know it's part of the ship's controls but what does it do? Most of the controls don't get explained in the ship "tutorial". and then BAM we're under attack.

The game does have a Help section in its menus; I know this, but dammit it's the start of the freekin' game! Am I really needing to learn from the Help section or Google already? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

All right sorry, I'm ranting. Need a smoke or lunch, maybe both.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

@Renee - There are a couple things you can do. One, knock the ship combat difficulty setting down all the way. I know it feels cheap but it will make the fight much easier.

Ha, you know me well. Indeed it feels cheap and cheaty to me. I've mostly left difficulty on default all these years in every Bethesda game. Kind of ridiculous to already need to manipulate difficulty at the start of the game.

Two, you can reroute power from your other systems into your grav drive.

See. That's part of the problem right there. What the [censored] is the Grav drive? I mean, of course I know it's part of the ship's controls but what does it do? Most of the controls don't get explained in the ship "tutorial". and then BAM we're under attack.

The game does have a Help section in its menus; I know this, but dammit it's the start of the freekin' game! Am I really needing to learn from the Help section or Google already? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

All right sorry, I'm ranting. Need a smoke or lunch, maybe both.

Well, lots of people share your opinion about the difficulty (myself included). But the only one who will know about it is you, and we won't judge you. (But I get it, I'm the same way about difficulty settings.)

Not sure what happened in your case, but while it's been some time since I've done it, the tutorial does explain the controls. Maybe you accidentally skipped the rest of the tutorial? Don't remember if that is possible. I do seem to remember it being a bit overwhelming to learn the ship mechanics at first, though, and it does seem complicated until you do it several times.

Anyway, the grav drive is what actually lets you travel from star system to star system (not planets within the same star system). Here's how to use it:

• On your ship's HUD at the bottom left, there are a max of 6 systems, including your various weapon systems, speed, shields, and grav drive. The grav drive is abbreviated as "GRV" and is the furthest to the right.
• If you are on PC, you cycle through your ship systems with the left (<) and right (>) directional keys. To add or subtract power to each system, use the up and down directional keys.
• You'll know if you have power to add to any systems by looking at the big bar at the bottom of the HUD underneath your ship systems. If there are any "ticks" on that bar, you can add more power to any of the systems.
• The grav drive needs at least one "tick" on its bar to work. Adding more ticks to it will make it boot up faster. Your grav drive will be automatically engaged when you choose a planet or moon in a different star system that is close enough for you to jump to. (Buying better grav drives and certain perks will let you jump farther in one go instead of having to stop at a bunch of places along the way).

It might be useful to think of the Help section as akin to the physical manual you used to get in old games. Those old games expected you to read the manual, so if for some reason the tutorial isn't popping up for you or you didn't see an explanation, go to that "manual" built into the game.

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Jan 5 2026, 10:25 PM

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Not sure what happened in your case, but while it's been some time since I've done it, the tutorial does explain the controls. Maybe you accidentally skipped the rest of the tutorial? Don't remember if that is possible. I do seem to remember it being a bit overwhelming to learn the ship mechanics at first, though, and it does seem complicated until you do it several times.

Yes, Vasco tells you at the very beginning how to adjust the power levels to the various systems, and I found it to be a bit “fiddley” at first on an Xbox controller. I destroyed the three pirate ships that attack, but I played it over a few times until I really got a feel for what I was doing. I had played other space flight games before so the basics came easy to me. It was trying to change power levels mid combat that I had a problem with at first.

[Renee]

[ot sure what happened in your case, but while it's been some time since I've done it, the tutorial does explain the controls. Maybe you accidentally skipped the rest of the tutorial?

No. Stop it. I'm not that much of an idiot, come on now.

All Vasco says is we can adjust those controls individually, or set them all to Max. The bot explains how Eng (Engines) works and how to adjust speed, maybe one other variable, that's it. We're on our own, which is ridiculous. Suppose a prospective Air Force pilot in the real world wants to fly real planes, the way to do it is NOT put them into the cockpit right away, explain some of the controls on the fly as we're about to be attacked in enemy territory. I mean, come on!

Vasco tells you at the very beginning how to adjust the power levels to the various systems, and I found it to be a bit “fiddley” at first on an Xbox controller.

No. He tells us we Can adjust them but that's not what I'm talking about. Never does he explain what each control actually does, which is very Un-Bethesda like. In past Beth tutorials, Oblivion thru Skyrim, we learn how to Sneak, how to block, how to jump, et cetera, before we even encounter any enemies on our own. I mean yea, in Skyrim we're under attack right away by a dragon while our hands are literally tied, but the pertinent lessons still occur once we're in Helgen Keep.

[censored] it, might as well Google at this point. Okay, What does the Starfield spaceship Grav drive do?

The Grav Drive, formally known as the Graviton Loop Array, is a module that allows ships to make faster-than-light jumps from one place to another, and also provides ships with artificial gravity. Grav Drives come with different specifications and can be swapped out in Ship Customization.
See more on starfield.fandom.com

There, it's done, bang! Vasco should tell us an abbreviated version of the above info, along with all the other controls. and then we should have a few moments to gently fly the craft on our own, until we maybe get bored, and THEN we get attacked. I should NOT have to turn to search engines or even this forum to learn this stuff.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 6 2026, 03:10 AM

[Renee]

I mean, look, maybe all that stuff gets explained after we deal with the Crimson Fleet, if so, I aplologize. But my point is, these lessons should occur before those attacks happen.

Am I making any sense? I suppose the average FPS/Call of Duty gamer's going to go OH COOL, I GET TO FLY ALREADY and then [censored] YEH, COMBAT!

.... but in my case I'm like "whoa, not yet! I don't even know what I'm doing fer crissakes!"

Does that make sense, or am I just way off here?

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 6 2026, 04:07 AM

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Starfield is an absurdly ambitious game. It’s so different from anything BGS had done up to that point, and while I think the intro did an admirable job, I think it suffered a bit for the ambitiousness of the game. Game intros have goals that they need to accomplish.

1. Set up the game’s narrative.
2. Introduce the player to the game universe.
3. Familiarize the player with the games main mechanics.
4. Establish the gameplay loop.
5. Hook the player and make them want to keep playing.

Now, with a TES or Fallout game, those goals are easier to achieve. It’s usually just create your character and fight your way through the tutorial section. With Starfield, not only did they have the usual “on foot” mechanics, you also had the flight and flight combat mechanics, as well as navigation, and then you had to tie them all together into the larger narative. The tutorial was never going to be able to be as in depth as it needed to be. I honestly think that, overall, BGS did a decent job of balancing all of these things as best they could, but obviously a bit more attention to the flight systems (the newest mechanics for a BGS game) would have been helpful.

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

No. nono.gif Stop it. I'm not that much of an idiot, come on now.

Whoa, whoa, never meant to imply you're an idiot. It's a complicated system that took me a while to get the hang of, too.

I mean, look, maybe all that stuff gets explained after we deal with the Crimson Fleet, if so, I aplologize. But my point is, these lessons should occur before those attacks happen.

It's all good. I guess I just don't remember well how exactly the tutorial worked. Though the more I think about it, the more I seem to remember it being a bit overwhelming at first. I found it difficult to get the hang of the ship controls, though of course that's partially because it's your first ship and as such it sucks at combat. Hell, @Kane mentioned the other day about using the spacebar and I don't remember that being mentioned at all, so they could make a bigger point of these mechanics.

I agree that they should ease you into it more. Maybe have a really weak Crimson Fleet ship attack you first, give you an easy kill, and then the one that was on your tail appears.

Starfield is an absurdly ambitious game. It’s so different from anything BGS had done up to that point, and while I think the intro did an admirable job, I think it suffered a bit for the ambitiousness of the game. Game intros have goals that they need to accomplish.

1. Set up the game’s narrative.
2. Introduce the player to the game universe.
3. Familiarize the player with the games main mechanics.
4. Establish the gameplay loop.
5. Hook the player and make them want to keep playing.

Now, with a TES or Fallout game, those goals are easier to achieve. It’s usually just create your character and fight your way through the tutorial section. With Starfield, not only did they have the usual “on foot” mechanics, you also had the flight and flight combat mechanics, as well as navigation, and then you had to tie them all together into the larger narative. The tutorial was never going to be able to be as in depth as it needed to be. I honestly think that, overall, BGS did a decent job of balancing all of these things as best they could, but obviously a bit more attention to the flight systems (the newest mechanics for a BGS game) would have been helpful.

I think the ambitiousness is both the boon and bane of Bethesda games. It's awesome that they want to swing for the fences and it does give you a game experience you would never have gotten otherwise. Unfortunately, that also leads to things like cut content (which Skyrim had a ton of, for example) and clunky new gameplay systems.

This post has been edited by RaderOfTheLostArk: Jan 6 2026, 08:04 PM

[Renee]

Hey I need to apologize to most everyone in this thread, and mirocu in the Fallout 4 thread, for my outbursts as of late in these forums. Not that this is an excuse, but I've been suffering mental problem IRL, and should probably be committed at some point.

That's all. Enough off-topic nonsense from me, enjoy your games, folks, while I try to figure my own probs from now on....

[Kane]

Don't be a stranger, Renee. It's always fun to have you around.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Renee, you don’t owe any of us an apology. Just take care of yourself and I hope you feel better soon! We are always here to help with game stuff if you need us!

[RaderOfTheLostArk]

Hey I need to apologize to most everyone in this thread, and mirocu in the Fallout 4 thread, for my outbursts as of late in these forums. Not that this is an excuse, but I've been suffering mental problem IRL, and should probably be committed at some point.

That's all. Enough off-topic nonsense from me, enjoy your games, folks, while I try to figure my own probs from now on....

Aww, sorry to hear that. Don't apologize. Reach out to us if you need anything.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

So what mods are y’all playing with for Starfield. Not really asking about equipment so much as gameplay tweaks, but feel free to include your whole load order if you want.

[Kane]

I'll share my modlist tonight, it's at or over a hundred I think.