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Daggerfall in SPAAACE - Starfield

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Kadmus said:
It's also, like, a hundred years in the past of the current situation, and the current situation is, uh, significantly fucked up? What with the Va'ruun Zealots, the pirates (literally everywhere!), the not-pirate spacers (literally so powerful they can take over areas next door to the second biggest city in the UC), the Terrormorphs, and so on.
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It's a little weird, because the logistics are given an explanation, however handwaved: both the UC and FC set up bases everywhere in the Settled Systems, and after the Colony War they just abandoned them. There's a common-ish drop on Ecliptic mercs of a dataslate where an Ecliptic leader confirms that UC and FC authorities told him they have no interest in the bases now, so Ecliptic is free to take over. Which the Ecliptic leader interprets as "now we have free bases with which to take over the galaxy".

Pirates, whether Crimson Fleet or regular, and Spacers probably have the same free run of these bases.

But the manpower is left unexplained. Even if we take Bethesda's explicit statement that cities are supposed to be far larger in lore than they are in-game, that doesn't really explain where the near-constant stream of space bandits are coming from.

Having said that, the player character can themselves just choose to go pirating on a whim, so maybe being a pirate isn't that unusual.
 
Adloquium said:
But the manpower is left unexplained. Even if we take Bethesda's explicit statement that cities are supposed to be far larger in lore than they are in-game, that doesn't really explain where the near-constant stream of space bandits are coming from.
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Same place they come from in FO4 and Skyrim probably.

That said, I do like that you can join the Crimson Fleet after which their ships won't attack you anymore.
 
I would like to know where and how Va'ruun are. And not to make them knock up raiders/Ceazar Legion.
Any lore about the whacky cult? I've heard a companion is one of them.
 
Hykal94 said:
While I do find Starfield to be a pretty game, I think it lacks the character of Skyrim or even the Capital/Commonwealth Wasteland. Which is wild, really. You're seeing the Burj Khalifa sunk into the sands, gorgeous skies and huge expanses of land and it's just, pretty neat. The game needs an on-land vehicle system so much. At least when I'm running around Skyrim, there's something interesting every five minutes hidden around the corner. At least we've got shitty horses.

But I'm landing on Mars, very impressed how pretty it is, and but hating to traverse it. It's just so flat. I can see POIs, a ship landing on the sands, a ruined watch post but the scanner just shows it all to me. It feels, oddly enough, more Ubisoft than Bethesda.

And yeah I'm upgrading my pack and all that but even compared to literal walking simulator Death Stranding, it does feel like a step in the wrong direct - STARFIELD IS ACTUALLY DAGGERFALL IN SPACE.
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Starfield feels like a collection of themed vistas. "Here w have space cowboy planet. Here we have cyberpunk planet. Here we have boring neoliberal future planet"
Ford Prefect said:
The backstory is actually about a huge and successful exodus establishing a new civilisation out in the stars, a die off is just a supposition someone in this thread made. It's not in the game lol
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The age old Bethesda world building question "Is the game empty feeling because humanity mostly died or because the engine still can barely support a dozen npcs on screen at any one time?"

Pidl said:
Same place they come from in FO4 and Skyrim probably.

That said, I do like that you can join the Crimson Fleet after which their ships won't attack you anymore.
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fantasy medieval world (TM) doesn't require the bandit having his own starship and the skills to pilot it. It's way easier to bandit in a world where all you need is a spear and a moderately healthy body and not a pseudo warship.

I mean I can spend 5 seconds and write a logical source for all these disgruntled spacers, but it'd involve my mild pet peeve of the game which is dragging the colony war up like a decade. For how much of the game revolves around it, you'd think the colony war was WAY more recent than it actually was.



EDIT: Also it's funny to me the two major political factions you interact with in game are two different versions of "What if America was in space?". I haven't interacted with Vha'run much, so maybe they are also "What if america, but in space?" too, but I kinda doubt it.
 
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On old Skyrim/Fallout trick that still works for trading is finding out what is weightless or near enough and converting loot that way.

First you buy up - for Starfield medpacks and other medicines seems to have the best value to weight ratio - and then dump all the guns and such onto the now rich vendor.

This does not work with the unmanned kiosk by the starports. And some vendors only like a class of stuff. But the photographing journalist or the Provisioner you can run into when exploring both carry meds and are willing to buy everything.
 
Adloquium said:
But the manpower is left unexplained. Even if we take Bethesda's explicit statement that cities are supposed to be far larger in lore than they are in-game, that doesn't really explain where the near-constant stream of space bandits are coming from.
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I'm not entirely clear on how long ago the Colony War was, but it's entirely possible they're just dealing with a huge mass of demobilized soldiers. This was typically a problem of more feudal armies, where after the war a fraction of them (sometimes a large fraction) turned bandit.
 
I've been enjoying the dogfights more and more since I modified the Frontier (thanks to a YouTube video). Currently doing the questline for the Freestar Rangers, because I know I can get a pretty cool ship out of it. I feel this is the power armor feature from Fallout 4, as in the big thing that sets previous games apart. Sure, it's not even nowhere close as complex as say, Star Wars Battlefront II on the PS2, but it's enjoyable for what it is.

It does show that thanks to the engine, Bethesda is not capable of pulling a Star Wars with massive carriers and small jets and whatnot. Your ship, no matter how you tune it, is still gonna have cargo space, still have some crew, and still need to arm themselves proper. You ain't gonna get Star Destroyers or X-Wings or the like. No, your ship is the Bebop, and that's that.

That being said, where are the quests where I haul a bunch of space cows? Or use my ship to fly over a train and drop onto it? Or just, use it as a general flying thing on a planet? I want my goddamn space horses and mechs/power armor, dammit.
 
Night said:
I'm not entirely clear on how long ago the Colony War was, but it's entirely possible they're just dealing with a huge mass of demobilized soldiers. This was typically a problem of more feudal armies, where after the war a fraction of them (sometimes a large fraction) turned bandit.
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They ended 19 years before the start of the game, so while it may well have been a contributor, it's one that should have begun to settle down by now.
thor2006 said:
I would like to know where and how Va'ruun are. And not to make them knock up raiders/Ceazar Legion.
Any lore about the whacky cult? I've heard a companion is one of them.
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As far as I can tell, House Va'ruun proper aren't on the map (the companion in question doesn't know where they are on account on how they got into known space). I suspect that may be kept in reserve for a dreamed-off sequel (a DLC runs into issues with the same thing that makes me think they're not on the map - too many quests that don't make sense if you can just go visit Va'ruun space).
 
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Hykal94 said:
've been enjoying the dogfights more and more since I modified the Frontier (thanks to a YouTube video). Currently doing the questline for the Freestar Rangers, because I know I can get a pretty cool ship out of it.
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It is a very nice ship, with parts you can't install for yourself until some pretty hefty perk investment. You can also easily add 1500 more cargo space to it as well.
 
I am having hard time taking Freestar Collective seriously. Akila City doesn't even have paved cities and in general it looks like something that was build only recently, yet it is supposed to be one of the oldest settlements and the capitol to boot.

Whole Freestar Collective feels way too much like people larping around, rather than actual interstellar organization. FFS, I get invited to join Rangers just because I know how to talk down some robbers. In contrast, UC feels far more organized and having their shit together, with Vanguard actually having proper recruitment protocol rather than "Hey, you're one of us now".

I get whole setup is "bureaucratic central state vs. independent frontier people" but I would have liked if FC was made little bit more... I dunno, less frontierish? Maybe I have't spend enough time in FC to really be sold on them, but when I went to New Atlantis I was instantly sold on "This is a capitol of major power", Akila City felt more like... well, a frontier settlement.
 
One thing that really didn't need copying from other RPGs was stealth missions.
I'm doing the Ryujin quest line and my stealth is not up to the task. Luckily I do have quicksave.
 
'Why are there so many bandits?' 'Why doesn't this match real world populations numbers?' 'Why are the locations themed?' It's a video game.
 
The weapon/armor modding system feels a bit overtuned tbh, especially since I can't seem to make things like 'high tensile spiridoin' or whatever it's called myself. It lacks the reusability to not be annoying as I can't just pull off optics or mount a suppressor as needed.
 
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Mandemon said:
I get whole setup is "bureaucratic central state vs. independent frontier people" but I would have liked if FC was made little bit more... I dunno, less frontierish? Maybe I have't spend enough time in FC to really be sold on them, but when I went to New Atlantis I was instantly sold on "This is a capitol of major power", Akila City felt more like... well, a frontier settlement.
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Lore-wise, the tension between United Colonies and Freestar Collective appears to be more "all the rules all the time" and "no rules but what I make".

Because the Freestar Collective not only includes Akila City and its Wild West aesthetic, it also includes Neon and its cyberpunk megacorp aesthetic. As in, the Freestar Collective became a major power in the Settled Systems because Akila and Neon allied together, declaring independence from the United Colonies.

In practice, it looks like the Freestar Collective has its strongest law enforcement presence in Akila City itself, and a token presence in other nominally FC territories, like Neon or the HopeTech company town. So the people who might plausibly swear an oath of allegiance to the Freestar Collective are mostly Akila people, while other allegedly Freestar communities are just using the association for their own benefit.

The game itself also seems to operate on the default that "Freestar Collective" means the Wild West Frontier aesthetic, rather than all of Freestar.
 
According to the Marshal, there's only twelve Freestar Rangers? I realise they're supposed to be elite, but only twelve? For like three solar systems?
 
I feel like Starfield is the ultimate refinement of the modern Bethesda formula, and I think it's going to be very polarising. It's the (current) apex of Bethesda's trend of simulantionist games where you're allowed and expected to do everything, and the world exists as a fairly consequenceless place for you to mess around in freely. There's no value judgement in that —it's just a type of game— but I slipped off of it like it was made of teflon as a result. It's actually a very odd feeling.
 
Hykal94 said:
According to the Marshal, there's only twelve Freestar Rangers? I realise they're supposed to be elite, but only twelve? For like three solar systems?
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I don't recall the exact phrasing, but you could perhaps take it as twelve full Freestar Rangers, with deputies not counted, but that still leaves them very thinly spread (and while they may be unusually few at the time of the game, IIRC the high number the marshal mentions was still only in the twenties, so not exactly a massive difference).
 
Yeah, it's just so weird. There needs to be at least two zeros added to that twelve. I get it's video game logic but all I had to do was one board mission and I get given a gun and a badge, like that. At least the UC Vanguard needs me to do a VR sim and a check first.

I know people are drawing comparisons to the NCR but the UC Vanguard is more NCR than the Freestar Collective, cowboy hats and cool space revolvers aside. (Where the hell is my space repeater tho?)
 
Hykal94 said:
According to the Marshal, there's only twelve Freestar Rangers? I realise they're supposed to be elite, but only twelve? For like three solar systems?
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They probably want it that way. Like, my impression of the Freestar Collective is you've got the ideological Libertarians in charge, represented by the Old West Ammon Bundy Cosplayers on one side and the Soulless Peter Thiel Corpos on the other. People with a lot of power to enforce the law are anathema to them.
 
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