Starfield, Bethesda Game Studios Upcoming Title Options

[SubRosa]

Cool, I am looking forward to hearing more about it.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Ok, so I’m rolling a version of my Fallout character, Désirée Devreaux. I picked the “Space Scoundrel” for her background, which gives her 3 starting skills: pistol certification, piloting, and persuasion. She would much rather have a rifle certification (it shouldn’t be hard to grab it very soon though), but otherwise the background suits her to a tee!

Had a pretty funny incident occur while wandering around New Atlantis (basically Starfield’s Imperial City). Dez was walking around at night seeing the sites and noticed a coffee mug laying on the ground in a shop. She walked over and picked it up (using the “grab” function, not sending it to her inventory) and set it down on the shop’s counter. The shopkeeper flipped out and called the law on us! Got a 27 credit bounty which I would have lived with, but something else happened around that same time that I wasn’t happy about so I reloaded a save from before picking up the cup.

This game has a climb mechanic! If there is a ledge or crate that is just a bit too high for you to jump onto, your character will grab the edge and pull themselves up as long as it’s not too high! I thought that was neat for a BGS game.

[SubRosa]

So it is just like every other Bethesda game when it comes to touching an option in a shop. The merchants go insane and instantly call the cops on you.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

So it is just like every other Bethesda game when it comes to touching an option in a shop. The merchants go insane and instantly call the cops on you.

Do they freak out in other BGS games for using the physics engine to move items? I’ve either never noticed this since Oblivion came out, or just forgot.

[SubRosa]

So it is just like every other Bethesda game when it comes to touching an option in a shop. The merchants go insane and instantly call the cops on you.

Do they freak out in other BGS games for using the physics engine to move items? I’ve either never noticed this since Oblivion came out, or just forgot.

I learned from Oblivion not to try, or even get anywhere near things like countertops for fear of accidentally nudging an item laying on top of them.

[Renee]

Ok, so I’m rolling a version of my Fallout character, Désirée Devreaux. I picked the “Space Scoundrel”

Nice! Too bad Lopov's not around. Lopov means Scoundrel in his language.

Wow, a CLIMBING mechanic, very cool. Daggerfall fans will be pleased, I bet. Wonder if we can scale certain walls, Lara Croft style...

Edit; Yes the Grab function counts as stealing if the object belongs to someone else, or another faction.

This post has been edited by Renee: Jan 19 2024, 12:20 AM

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Ok, so I’m rolling a version of my Fallout character, Désirée Devreaux. I picked the “Space Scoundrel”

Wow, a CLIMBING mechanic, very cool. Daggerfall fans will be pleased, I bet. Wonder if we can scale certain walls, Lara Croft style...

Maybe calling it “climbing” was a bit generous. It’s more like your character will grab a ledge that you jump at then pull themselves up. No wall climbing, at least, not that I’ve seen.

[Renee]

Still, that's a start. Better than walking in place!

[Turija]

After reading some debate online about the RPG aspects of this game, I will be interested to hear people's experiences. From what I read, it sounds like the story elements don't change depending on how the player completes quests, so from a story point of view, player decisions don't matter too much. But I have also read that from a game mechanics perspective they did a good job with skills and traits (aka attributes) and the game supports a wide variety of play styles and the ability to create diverse characters with varying strengths and weaknesses that approach problems quite differently. That sounds quite interesting to me.

The minimum specs are somewhat concerning. My current PC is i5 9600k with a GTX 1070ti, 16 GB of RAM and a 1 terabyte SSD. But reading the posted minimum specs, it sounds like that might not quite be enough to get decent performance since I have a fast i5 but not an i7 and everything else is just minimum spec? I got the i5 because prior Bethesda games never used more cores so there was no point in an i7. I have read Starfield is a CPU rather than a GPU intensive game. Is Bethesda finally making games that use multiple cores/hyperthreading?

This post has been edited by Turija: Jan 19 2024, 06:49 PM

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

After reading some debate online about the RPG aspects of this game, I will be interested to hear people's experiences. From what I read, it sounds like the story elements don't change depending on how the player completes quests, so from a story point of view, player decisions don't matter too much. But I have also read that from a game mechanics perspective they did a good job with skills and traits (aka attributes) and the game supports a wide variety of play styles and the ability to create diverse characters with varying strengths and weaknesses that approach problems quite differently. That sounds quite interesting to me.

The minimum specs are somewhat concerning. My current PC is i5 9600k with a GTX 1070ti, 16 GB of RAM and a 1 terabyte SSD. But reading the posted minimum specs, it sounds like that might not quite be enough to get decent performance since I have a fast i5 but not an i7 and everything else is just minimum spec? I got the i5 because prior Bethesda games never used more cores so there was no point in an i7. I have read Starfield is a CPU rather than a GPU intensive game. Is Bethesda finally making games that use multiple cores/hyperthreading?

I’ve heard and read that people with fairly high end rigs weren’t getting the performance expected for the game citing low framerates while running at graphics settings their machines should be able to handle no sweat. This makes me wonder if the game just wasn’t well optimized for PC’s. And of course, it may just be people trying to find a reason to join in crapping on Starfield just because it’s trendy. *shrugs*

In any case, spending $1000+ to build a new computer that would last me another 7-8 years just wasn’t an option right now, so I opted on getting an Xbox Series X as a compromise. Signed up for the Gamepass thing for $16, and immediately installed Starfield. I’m enjoying it so far. Is it groundbreaking? Not really, but I feel it does improve on the usual BGS formula, by a good margin.

[Kane]

One of us! One of us!

I'm still neck deep in the game, too, and on my third character. I'm really enjoying the Kid Stuff trait - it's fun to visit your parents when you are in New Atlantis.

Captain James recently used his accumulated credits from helping various factions to design a proper (and big) exploration ship to probe the furthest reaches. I sank at least $300k credits into it, but it's got everything one needs to explore - and there are no ladders!

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

So Kane, what is a resource that is good to have plentiful access to in the early game?

[Kane]

Pop an outpost down somewhere that you can extract Helium-3 and Aluminum. Just having an outpost extracting He-3 gives your grav jump range a boost. Aluminum is essential to more outpost construction. (Kurtz is a good option for this, since it's orbiting Jemison.) Try to land in a zone that has both elements together and you should be able to find an outpost spot where they intersect.

Just like in Fallout 4, you're going to need adhesive for most weapon and spacesuit mods. Sealant and adaptive frames are another good one to buy up. Being a resource hog in general helps a lot.

When you get more crafting skills unlocked, you'll be on the lookout for Tungsten and Titanium. I always seem to be short on those two.

[Kane]

And if you want a nice ship with a 2k+ cargo space, (faction spoiler ahead)

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Thanks for the info! Saturn’s moon Titan is a good place to find titanium, if you didn’t already know.

[Kane]

Thanks for the info! Saturn’s moon Titan is a good place to find titanium, if you didn’t already know.

And Pluto has Tungsten. I haven't been back for a while to do some mining - probably why I keep running out, lol. I was just on Titan, too. My latest ship is all Nova Galactic parts.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I have another question. Any tips for the persuasion system? Like how to know what options would have a greater effect on a given character, etc. In Dez’s game, I feel like I’ve just been getting lucky when I pick an option that works.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Jan 25 2024, 05:21 PM

[Kane]

Persuasion is tricky and more often than not I just hope for a skill check. Taking bribery and intimidation perks can help I think, but I've not yet invested in them. Interestingly enough, I've noticed that the dialogue options change, too. My newest character just did a MQ mission on Neon and the options to persuade an enemy agent were completely different from the ones I picked last time.

It's nice, in a way. Makes the game not be repetitive every time and encourages you to pick more skills. I probably would have by now if I didn't have so many in Science and Tech!

Also, if you feel like doing some corporate espionage (more faction spoilers)

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Also, if you feel like doing some corporate espionage (more faction spoilers)

I too have noticed that the options can change. I guess having it be kinda iffy at first is to be expected for just starting off.

The company you mentioned in the spoiler warning is going to be right up my cyber runner character’s alley!

[Kane]

It's a fun, stealth oriented questline. A nice departure from the usual style of BGS quests.
Also, pro tip if you haven't already discovered it (took me a while): holdong down the aim button with the cutter focuses the beam and lets you mine more quickly.