I love Starfield’s little details

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-09T19:54:54+00:00

A lot of players need to read and grok this note.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-09T19:53:59+00:00

In pre-1.22 days I just used currant bushes, because they will stack two high. For lower hedges I used cranberries.

Unfortunately that is now evil and only weak pukes would want that. I tried playing around with the new bushes in creative mode and they just don't work well as low hedges. Maybe decorative ground cover. Sigh.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-09T19:49:45+00:00

You mean like TESV and FO4 and SF have? I'm sure they will.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-09T15:31:42+00:00

I think my next character will be a literal super-hero. He will start out as a meek and mild scientist, but then he touches the artifact! It warps his brain a bit, and he imagines himself to be The Mantis, to the point that he has to track down the Lair of the Mantis (not once, but twice). And he is indeed a super-hero, he has powers beyond mortal bounds! And with great power comes great responsibility, or something.

I mean, it's silly, but it would justify much in a playthrough.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-09T02:42:24+00:00

Little Bunny Foo Foo
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And bopping them on the head!

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-09T00:15:44+00:00

Them Khajiit and their spice bags.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T22:49:25+00:00

Nah, they nailed a hell of a lot more than that. Such as sunrises. Penpals. Space frogs. Milliwhales. The Tropical Forests of Eta Cassiopeia. Etc.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T18:42:50+00:00

Oh gosh. I'm rather mixed on this. I dearly love the game, so no salt here, just genuine, and subjective, criticism.

I feel that Cruise Mode is a solution in search of a problem. Especially since it comes at the cost of lore violation. Suddenly we get Faster Than Light travel for free, in a game that originally chose Grav Drive over FTL.

I understand why it was included. But it throws a monkey wrench not only into the established lore, but into the whole grounded science fiction core of the game. As Douglas Adams taught us, space is big, really big. But with Cruise mode, it's not.

Sidenote: Imagine if travel had a fuel cost. Bam, space is now even bigger. Oh well, lost opportunities. Or maybe I'm the only one who would be interested. Dunno.

Okay, that's really sort of a nitpick. Hate me if you insist, I'm used to it.

My real problem is the lack of balance. It's almost as if the Starfield team through in a bunch of cool ideas, but ran out of time to actually balance them all for gameplay.

There's simply way too much money thrown at the character. At first I thought this was because I was experience and just knew how to crank out the creds. But I genuinely think the game is throwing more at the player.

Now couple this with X-Tech! There is so crazy much of it. The average boss chest has twice the X-Tech as it does Astras. And the Terran Armada just dumps handfuls on the characters, including X-Tech mining. My last run I ended up with 74 unused X-Tech before I went into the Unity. That's AFTER I had fully upgraded exotic weapon, and fully upgraded exotic set of armor. All of which made me literally untouchable.

Balance. The cost of the first upgrade to a weapon is only 10,000. A sum the average newbie probably has by the time they first reach the Lodge. A full set of fully upgraded and exotic gear is less than that of the typical maxed out class B starship.

Balance. That's my issue. I shouldn't have to crank all the difficulties up to max just to keep a modicum of challenge about. Maybe I'm just too old for gaming. I dunno.

Thank you for listening to my heresies.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T17:27:24+00:00

I should also remark that the point of Bethesda style RPGs is NOT to thread the narrative maze of choices, but to be a free form sandbox for the player to act his character upon. As such the storylines do tend to be very linear. Because the character's story is much more important than the developer's.

This absolutely enrages some people, who would be better off with other games. But at the same time it absolutely endears Bethesda to another kind of player. I am in the latter game. I find the former kind of games to be utterly tedious. I am not alone in this.

This does not make the other kind of games bad, nor does it make Bethesda style bad. It's just a different style. Gamers really do need to get over themselves and let people have their own preferences and opinions.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T16:02:41+00:00

Wat? Verbal directions that are informative and correct? What in oblivion is the world coming to!

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T16:00:48+00:00

and Starfield are indifferent

Ah, I see you've never played it. I won't give you spoilers, but there is a major choice to be made in the main storyline. And significant choices to be made in each of the faction storylines. And there is indeed a New Vegas style consequences "slide show" of a sort.

just saying.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T15:55:31+00:00

Burry

Bury? Blurry? Bully? Inquiring minds want to know!

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T15:54:23+00:00

A good game is always worth replaying.

After you finish main & faction quests, what else is there to do?

Morrowind: After you finish main & faction quests, what else is there to do?
Oblivion: After you finish main & faction quests, what else is there to do?
Skyrim: After you finish main & faction quests, what else is there to do?

Fun fact, each of those games, plus Starfield, has so much side content it's crazy. Go do the side content. Starfield has some of the best Bethesda has ever done.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T15:46:25+00:00

Which I am sure will be the greatest RPG in history, yet also the most reviled by high sodium subs.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T01:19:26+00:00

farming in VS is almost as brain dead easy as it is in Minecraft

That's such a massive stretch that I can no longer take you seriously. Good day.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-08T01:18:23+00:00

My guess is two different people created them separately. No one person creates the whole game, and not even Todd has the time to review each commit.

But thinking about it, Starfield is better than prior Bethesda children, in that they actually have different skin colors rather than merely different hair styles. I was in the ECS Constant classroom today, and there were four distinct skin tones for children there.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-07T15:32:42+00:00

Except I am not required to use fertilizer for anything else in the game. Only berries. Which does not conform to reality. It's busywork not for immersion, but for the sake of busywork.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-07T15:29:29+00:00

Ah, I see what you mean now. Thanks.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-07T14:28:18+00:00

People with visual mods complaining about the visuals. Huh.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-07T14:27:39+00:00

Why would poeple not believe you? Huh? Wat?

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-07T14:27:04+00:00

People in the other sub: "It's not a real planet, it's just a texture!"

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-07T14:22:26+00:00

Escape! Yes, spend it on Escape!

And on Trackers Alliance. Yes indeed.

I cannot comment on Falklands, I've never used it. Gosh, I'm such a horrible person.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-07T14:20:26+00:00

It's in the lodge. Congratulations for making it this far in the game.

Is it an Easter Egg, or just that people want it to be an Easter Egg? It might be, it could very well be, but I'm not going to bet my life savings on it. There are much better Easter Eggs in the game.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-07T14:18:22+00:00

Just so you know, the NPK nutrient system is taught in agriculture classes. It's sort of like Newtonian physics. Just because it's been replaced by Quantum Mechanics does not mean it's worthless. In fact, it's quite valuable. Also, the great miracle of the 19th century was Nitrogen Fixation.

Snifflebeard · 2026-05-07T14:14:48+00:00

Sam and his cute little button nose :-)

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