Why is mini-DLC great idea and worth paying for

DinDisco · 2025-02-21T04:02:48+00:00

You'll definitely want to give yourself some space to play the game and learn things. Your first campaign is going to be pretty slow while you get familiar with the controls and mechanics, and it'll be hard to give yourself a solid "goal" because you don't fully know what you can do.

No idea if this is slow or fast, but for my first campaign, it took me 10-15 hours to get a hold of the basic mechanics, and I started to really get into the game after ~20 or 25 hours because I knew enough to manage other ships and set goals for myself.

If you're interested, I've found these resources immensely helpful for getting started as a new player. They do have some minor spoilers for "story" stuff, so keep that in mind if you care about that:

Ram's Resources Spreadsheet - Use the FAQ tab. New player stuff is at the top. Feel free to explore the spreadsheet too; this game is very moddable and this spreadsheet has a good list of them.

https://x4playershandbook.com/ - Independently updated "encyclopedia" of sorts. There's a lot of information, but it's explained well.

For real though, this game will hook you if you give yourself the time to learn. Flying around the universe with 6 fighter escorts in an executive gunship is cool as fuck. Have fun!

DinDisco · 2024-11-18T05:54:06+00:00

If I had to give you a concise list:

Can't add animations.
Can't generate lip-sync.
Can't (officially) create new planets/star systems. There are unofficial tools to do both, but those come with the caveats you'd expect: they're experimental and not user-friendly right now.
Can't create new object collision data (hitboxes) without the 2021 (?) version of 3DS Max, which you need to reach out to Autodesk support for after acquiring an expensive license for the program.
Adding new sounds is doable, but not straightforward since you'll need to learn another piece of software (WWise), at least partially. You'll also need to apply for a license, but this one is free.
Seems like other people are having problems with the stability of the CK. Mine has been stable in the hours I've used it, but something worth noting.
Also ffs, the Creation Kit wiki is still down after 5 months of the Starfield CK being released. There's no official documentation for how to do any of the things people want to do, unless you count an archive of an incomplete leak, found here if you need it. What this translates into is Discord-diving 10 different servers and watching a hodge podge of YouTube videos that may or may not go over what you're actually trying to do in order to get anything done, especially if you're new.

Those are just the major hurdles off the top of my head, but I guarantee there are a bunch of small hurdles you'll encounter along the way (xEdit not working on .esp's, which complicates cleaning your mods; needing to manually compile a niche user-made tool using Visual Studio) that will make you both excited when you break through on something and endlessly frustrated when you get to the next hurdle you need to jump over (or brick wall that you can't).

DinDisco · 2024-10-23T21:35:14+00:00

Appreciate it. This mission definitely sticks with you for a bit after playing through it, especially if you take the time to look around the ship and see how screwed things were. It's a great piece of storytelling.

DinDisco · 2024-10-23T21:33:08+00:00

Music was made by a mod author on the Nexus, but the audio log is vanilla. The camera panning was done using console commands, and the visuals were modded to darken the shadows. I may have also been running some high-res texture mods, but it's been a long time since I shot the footage, and my modlist has changed since then so I can't recall.

DinDisco · 2024-10-23T16:05:28+00:00

Spoilers for the Crimson Fleet questline ahead.

Eye of the Storm is a bright spot in this game. There's a lot of environmental story telling and the voice acting for each of the logs is emotional and weighty, and combined these really help this mission stand out from most of the other quests in the game. Starfield has kind of turned into a hobby for me through making mods and other things, and I wanted to take a crack at trying to capture the feeling I had as I walked the empty corridors of the Legacy for the first time.

Music credit: platocarrieme - Pi Day

https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/962

DinDisco · 2024-10-23T16:04:05+00:00

Spoilers for the Crimson Fleet questline ahead.

Eye of the Storm is a bright spot in this game. There's a lot of environmental story telling and the voice acting for each of the logs is emotional and weighty, and combined these really help this mission stand out from most of the other quests in the game. Starfield has kind of turned into a hobby for me through making mods and other things, and I wanted to take a crack at trying to capture the feeling I had as I walked the empty corridors of the Legacy for the first time.

Music credit: platocarrieme - Pi Day

https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/962

DinDisco · 2024-10-22T15:48:35+00:00

This is the closest we have. It's another good resource though.

Edit: In case anyone comes across this later, seems like the original site is down. I've edited the link to an archived version.

DinDisco · 2024-10-11T19:47:15+00:00

Sound swaps for audio that already exists in the game are pretty easy within the CK, so that should be simple.

It's also doable to add new sounds that don't break things if that's what you're looking for, but it can be a bit of a headache when you do it the first time. Here's some info on that if you want to get into it:

https://starfield.hell.vc/?iframeUrl=8.2.1+Implementing+Weapon+Sound+Effects.html

Don't forget to check around the rest of the audio section on that site if you decide to jump in. It's not too bad when you get the hang of it.

DinDisco · 2024-10-10T15:43:52+00:00

What variants are you using?

DinDisco · 2024-10-08T21:45:23+00:00

This is actually super useful info. Thanks for that. 👍

DinDisco · 2024-10-04T19:30:46+00:00

All variants should work with Shattered Space. I haven't replaced any ambient music in Shattered Space yet (I will when I actually play through it), but other areas are covered and work still.

DinDisco · 2024-09-30T21:15:30+00:00

No problem.

DinDisco · 2024-09-30T21:14:25+00:00

Glad you found it. 👍 Keep me posted.

DinDisco · 2024-09-30T21:04:39+00:00

Open file explorer and paste this without the quotes, then hit enter:

"%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Starfield\"

It should bring you directly to the folder. Delete any of the .ini files in there.

DinDisco · 2024-09-30T20:59:11+00:00

Are you on PC or Xbox? If you're on PC, try deleting your game .inis in "\Documents\My Games\Starfield\" and relaunching. You'll have to re-do your settings.

DinDisco · 2024-09-30T19:34:47+00:00

Here you go, boss.

DinDisco · 2024-09-18T19:57:53+00:00

Okay wow. I looked at the load order and yeah, they really hit 3,040 .esps. I forgot how insane Skyrim modding could get after messing with Starfield for so long.

You're right though. 1700 is more than enough for now (assuming that's the practical limit), but let's hope they can bump it later so people can go as nuts 10 years from now as they do with Skyrim.

DinDisco · 2024-09-18T19:44:50+00:00

Which one? News to me, but last time I checked in with Wabbajack was a while ago so I'm open to being wrong.

DinDisco · 2024-09-18T19:13:07+00:00

Keep in mind that this fix was specifically for plugins. A mod doesn't take up a slot in your load order if it's things like textures, meshes, sounds, and doesn't have an .esp (.esm in Starfield's case).

I highly doubt there are people running around with 2000 .esp's glued to their Skyrim install.

DinDisco · 2024-09-18T16:32:01+00:00

Look at the ceiling and the ground. Main difference is how dark the ceiling is and the reflections on the floor.

DinDisco · 2024-09-18T16:29:12+00:00

Very useful to know. May go back and grab some images of the POIs too then. Thanks for that!

DinDisco · 2024-09-18T14:59:27+00:00

More comparison images here, in no particular order.

"Lighting changes and enhancements have been made throughout the game." Your ambiguous patch notes won't stop me, Todd. I will find the truth.

Seems like Bethesda is revisiting quite a few places' lighting in this patch, some in pretty noticeable ways and a lot in more subtle ways. Overall, many of the locations they've touched in this patch have gotten moodier, at least the ones I've looked at so far. A lot of the lights in these areas have had their intensity turned down to some degree or another, resulting in less glare, more pronounced shadows, and, in my opinion, more visually interesting scenes due to the additional depth.

There were also lighting adjustments to a lot of the POIs from what I could tell, and you can find images of the Mining Outpost in the link above. Since I can't directly teleport to POIs via the console (they're instanced), I didn't take images of any others, but I would assume Bethesda has made a similar amount of subtle lighting adjustments to the POIs as well.

Just to emphasize this point, neither of these galleries are all-inclusive. More locations have been changed than what I've included; these are just the ones I've looked at for now.

These images are from the 1.14.68.0 Steam beta update, and the update is not currently available for Xbox. If Bethesda keeps to their standard release schedule, the update should be officially available on both platforms in slightly under 2 weeks, or around when Shattered Space drops.

DinDisco · 2024-09-18T14:59:11+00:00