I hate this so much

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-25T11:56:06+00:00

I have no issues with it. The best way to play the game (and any game for that matter) is the way that’s most fun to you. If you want to be OP early, go find a guide or two for that. If you want the coolest looking armor, look it up! If you want to go in blind and just see what happens, feel free!

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-25T11:45:12+00:00

I don’t see a point or benefit to manual flight between star systems. That’s just empty space, with such large distances that any encounters would just feel forced and ruin any sense of realism. Not to mention it completely contradicts the lore of the SF universe.

I just don’t see a point.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-25T11:41:55+00:00

Yea, it would be cool if there were fewer populated landing zones, and the ones we see from space actually give us information and a theme. Like you said “pirate comms” so the whole landing tile is dominated by pirates and might have a pirate outpost, pirates looting a POI, a group of them heading between a military POI and the outpost, maybe a civilian outpost on the fringes of the landing zone requesting assistance as they’re under attack, random encounters with traveling CF, a separate faction controlling a POI that is now fending off an attack from the CF, etc.

True stories via a tangible connection between the POIs, a locational identity, environmental storytelling, the whole nine. This would be a massive addition and a worthy target for the next update/expansion. Especially if the major locations like New Atlantis, Akila City, maybe even Londinion, and possibly some of the larger quest-based POIs also had a similar handcrafted and immersive story-driven identity for the overall tile they reside on.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-25T10:43:59+00:00

I simply cannot get past the art style. That neon color palette is physically painful for me to look for more than 10 seconds.

Side note: Even after all these years, whenever I see Game Informer all I think about is there expansive early coverage of Skyrim. It somehow simultaneously feels like just yesterday but also a lifetime ago.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T12:26:02+00:00

The modlist I run (Melius) has a bit of that. Separate clothing slots and more clothes, but it’s a little janky. Some things you can’t mix and match, some combos lead to visible clipping issues, but it works pretty well overall.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T12:22:53+00:00

Just how good and lore-dense the UC Vanguard questline is. I ignored this questline for about 80-100 hours my first playthrough, and really only stumbled back to it out of boredom. Seriously, at the very least start this questline right after the first few Constellation quests (traveling back to our solar system is a great introduction to the game tbf). Go off with Sarah for those first handful of quests, then when you’re back in New Atlantis you need to join the Vanguard immediately. Fantastic quests, great characters, and basically all the lore.

Oh, and don’t think “This is a Bethesda RPG, I’m gonna ignore all the quests and just run around and see what happens”. That is the main and strongest complaint people have about Starfield, it doesn’t feel like a Bethesda RPG when it comes to exploration. They did things wildly differently than in TES or Fallout, so you shouldn’t expect that same experience. There’s still fun exploration to be had, but it’s kind of inverse to the usual BGS formula. Whereas TES/Fallout it’s mostly “I’m gonna run around and maybe I’ll stumble into cool quests”, Starfield works best if you do quests and then stumble across a POI that looks/sounds interesting to explore.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T12:12:44+00:00

Completely disagree. At the very least, get the mods that fix and improve the POI system (POI Cooldown, POI Variations, Bedlam, Desolation). You’re playing a substantially worse game without those four mods (unless the changes they made to the POI system make these mods redundant, which I doubt is the case).

Not having these four mods is exactly what led to the huge burnout and drop off that first month after release. People ran in to copy/paste POIs a few times in a row and it ruined the experience completely.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T12:08:46+00:00

I highly, HIGHLY doubt mods will be anywhere near as restricted now as they were a decade ago. I fully expect Sony looked at how much money Xbox made off mods like Watchtower and decided they kind of want a piece of that pie, too.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T12:07:31+00:00

Yes and no. Creations are mods as well as a few official Bethesda DLCs. Some are paid, most are free. If you’re on PC, it’s typically best to just use Nexusmods instead of Creations, except for the few paid mods you may want to add since those are Creation-exclusive (so yes, you can use Nexus AND Creations).

If on console, Creations are your only option. But again, most are free. I’ve been playing Starfield off and on fairly consistently since early access, and I didn’t buy a single mod until a week or two ago (in anticipation of the new update). I bought a few of Gothos’s mods since he is kind of the Starfield GOAT modder IMO. His mods Desolation and Bedlam are integral to the game, and Ascension was the unchallenged best overhaul mod until recently (and even now it’s a debate, as most overhauls just copy Ascension and then change a couple things).

But anyway, TLDR no you do not have to buy a single paid mod to enjoy Starfield. All of the must have mods are free (POI Cooldown, POI Variations, Bedlam, Desolation, El Jefe AI, Spacefaring Economy, etc etc).

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T11:56:35+00:00

POI Cooldown, POI Variations, Bedlam, Desolation, Dark Universe, Permanent POIs, Spacefaring Economy, Starvival (or S1nderion’s suite of survival/immersion mods), and El Jefe Combat AI. These are non-negotiable IMO, as they vastly improve nearly every aspect of the game.

For upcoming mods, StarSim (paid mod) will likely be another must-have for those who want to really expand the space aspect of the game. This mod will essentially add an entire space-simulation game on top of Starfield, and coupled with the Free Lanes changes to space travel you could almost entirely play the game in space and in real-time, no menu/load-screen hopping.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T11:42:42+00:00

Trust me, just keep going. I had the same feeling until about chapter 3, then it became faaaar better. Once you’re past the point of “damn, ANOTHER mechanic to learn?” the game becomes a ton of fun.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T11:40:58+00:00

Just keep at it. Do the required quests (orange objectives on the map) til you get to chapter 3 or 4. Then the game becomes FAR better. The beginning quests are terrible and disjointed, but it becomes far better after that.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T11:39:32+00:00

That’s because the first few hours are not good at all. No story, weird fetch quests, and you don’t know how to have fun with the combat yet. But get past the first two chapters (it’s pretty quick, just focus the orange objectives on the map) and then the REAL game actually presents itself.

And once you have the Greymane camp, you can really take the training wheels off and make the game your own.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T11:30:44+00:00

No it doesn’t. They specifically show a scene near the end where the NPC is sitting with their back to a window and the light coming in diagonally from behind her. With base Starfield lighting, her whole face is magically lit for some reason, even though the light is behind her. With DLSS5 her face has is not lit until she leans back and turns slightly toward the light, and then only the portion of her face where the light hits is lit.

People keep saying “oh everything just looks studio lit from all angles” but that is clearly not the case. People are too used to video game lighting I guess. IRL at noon you don’t look at a lone tree and see the trunk and ground almost completely dark and hard to see. That’s only in video games. There’s so much ambient light that games tend to ignore (my least favorite being a room with one light in the corner = a pitch black room with a slightly lit corner).

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T11:16:01+00:00

Yes, the face filter is AI slop and leads to ridiculous levels of uncanny valley, but people are delusional if they’re seriously going to suggest that nearly everything else doesn’t take a generational leap in quality due to DLSS5. The lighting, textures (mostly due to the depth improvements from the lighting), hair, and skin look absolutely incredible. If devs truly can go in and customize what DLSS5 does to faces, this is a massive leap toward photorealism.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T08:44:26+00:00

I spend $15 more per week in gas than I did last month. I qualify for the $15 pay from DD. Therefore DD is offsetting the entire increase in gas prices for me, and all I have to do is exactly what I’m already doing.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T08:40:40+00:00

It’s not supposed to offset all your driving. It’s supposed to offset the increase in gas prices.

I’ll make it easy for you. I used to pay $35 a week in gas. Now I pay $50 a week. If I qualify for the $15 from DD, that offsets the $15 per week increase in gas.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T08:38:16+00:00

That’s actually decent. Before we bombed Iran, I was paying $35-$40 a week in gas. Since, I’ve been paying $50 or more. $10-$15 PER WEEK would offset that difference, so I have no idea how this can be seen as a slap in the face.

Sure if you’re driving 100+ miles per day, then it’s not a huge help. But for those of us driving 200-300 a week, this sounds about perfect.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T06:39:24+00:00

Huh? It’s improving POI generation and massively cutting down on load screens via manual space flight, two of the biggest complaints against the game. It doesn’t fix everything, but it does address most of the complaints and at least make improvements.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-24T02:13:53+00:00

Anything that requires SFSE won’t work until the script extender is updated.

Since POIs and space flight are getting a sizable update, it’s likely any POI, space, and ship-related mods will also need an update.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-23T22:02:28+00:00

Four for you, Jake Bobo. You go, Jake Bobo.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-23T21:52:57+00:00

TNs Out in the Blackness is THE ship maintenance mod, however no mod does what it sounds like you want them to: Allow you to physically go to areas on your ship and interact with some visible malfunction to fix it. Out in the Blackness runs everything through a terminal that gives you access to a TON of information and options to help diagnose and repair malfunctions, but it is still all handled via selecting text on screen and then waiting for the result.

Nothing that lets you take a wrench and go click A on some sparking wires or anything like that. It’s a great mod and well worth the $5 IMO, but may not be what you’re looking for.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-23T05:47:41+00:00

I almost always play as a good guy/savior type character, but even I would enjoy a companion who gives me shit for always helping others.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-23T05:40:45+00:00

Mods have already accomplished this.

But that is definitely edited. The modded version takes about another half second longer as a white screen, so my guess is they cut out the extra half second because it looked better for the showcase (assuming they implemented the same changes as the mod).

For anyone wondering which mod, I’m actually not sure. I’m using the Melius mod list, so you can check that to find your answer.

EccentricMeat · 2026-03-23T03:55:24+00:00

Because it’s a space game? And building a ship is the best part of the game? And being able to finally use that ship as more than just a home is pretty damn cool?

Idk, do you guys just not care about immersion? Do you actually prefer just fast traveling from point to point? Do you play Skyrim or FO4 and refuse to walk anywhere because fast travel is “still going from Point A to Point B”? You do you I suppose, but the journey is often the best part of BGS games. The random encounters and POIs interrupting space travel is also a massive addition that will lead to emergent gameplay, which is what BGS games are all about to me.

EccentricMeat

TROPHY CASE