Starfield Playthrough Discussion

[neogunhero]

9 hours in according to Steam, save says 8.4 hours so I guess that doesn’t track loading time or something. RTX 2060, Ryzen 1600X, 16GB RAM, performance is weird. Mostly not great in big cities and most larger open areas, but interior slices, space and caves are all rock solid 60FPS with everything set to Low and FSR set to 75%. Surprisingly, the game still looks decent. A little muddled but increasing percentage of FSR helps. I can live with it.

Bug wise, I’ve seen a couple but nothing that hinders my experience at all. In fact most bugs I’ve ran into were quite hilarious. You got the usual Bethesda “guy gets head stuck in ceiling so his body dangles there” gag, the whole “guy gets head stuck in trash bin then infinitely spin around violently” shtick also. The only annoying bugs I’ve ran into is something on the Map certain things won’t be displayed on the controls towards the bottom of the screen and requires me to back out of the map and reopen it for them to appear.

Game wise it is exactly what I was expecting it to be which is GREAT. If you were a fan of Fallout 4, flaws and all, you are gonna want to check Starfield out. It’s got all of the same mechanics in place, but with a more robust RPG system, better dialogue and stories, and tons of fun exploration. I’ve only barely scratched the main story, I’ve just got to Akila City but immediately turned off quest markers and went exploring. That’s what I did in New Atlantis also, completed 4 side quests before ever stepping foot into The Lodge. That’s what makes this game great and has always been my favorite factors of Bethesda games. You get lost exploring every nook and cranny and talk to so many random people, end up with so many random quests so you just choose one and go.

The voice acting and facial animations are one of the biggest improvements in any of their games. It has been so improved it is kinda crazy. The level of detail is impeccable as always. Great game, can’t wait to play more!

 

[neogunhero]

Taking the Kid Stuff trait really was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in this game. Your parents are funny and supportive and it’s so great to see them in different places. They were checking out The Lodge, totally awestruck at the place. I played it cool, “yeah, I work here, it’s alright I guess”. Then while exploring Akila City, I stumbled upon an alien zoo. It was shabby, run down, ran out of some guys shack. It was the last place I’d expect to find my parents, but there they were, just as shocked to find me there as well. I can’t wait to see where else I find them at. I wonder if Dad has his own ship or if they use some sort of shuttle?

 

[neogunhero]

Baldur's Gate 3 has ruined Starfield for me

Bethesda's latest can't help but feel shallow by comparison.

www.pcgamer.com

I hate to sound like a Starfield fanboy, but I’m getting tired of the Starfield vs BG3 articles/debates. They are two entirely different games. The only similarities is they are both RPGs where you get to choose who you want to be. Everything else is so different from each other and the expectations players have about each game are way different too. The article basically seems to say “BG3 is way more innovative than Starfield, causing me not to like SF as much”. That is accurate, valid and makes a good point at how SF isn’t the most technically innovative or boundary pushing game to be released. But, does it have to be?? Every new game doesn’t need to be something completely unseen before, doing things no other game ever has. I get that BG3 does exactly that and I applaud it for being as game-changing for this industry as it is. At the end of the day, they are two entirely distinct and different games. SF is the most fun I’ve had with a new game in such a long time, I haven’t put 9 hours into game within a single 24 hour period in years. I’m happy for all the BG3 players who have found their dream CRPG, but realize SF is nothing like BG3 at all and stop comparing the two.

 

[Pifanjr]

Baldur's Gate 3 has ruined Starfield for me

Bethesda's latest can't help but feel shallow by comparison.

www.pcgamer.com

I hate to sound like a Starfield fanboy, but I’m getting tired of the Starfield vs BG3 articles/debates. They are two entirely different games. The only similarities is they are both RPGs where you get to choose who you want to be. Everything else is so different from each other and the expectations players have about each game are way different too. The article basically seems to say “BG3 is way more innovative than Starfield, causing me not to like SF as much”. That is accurate, valid and makes a good point at how SF isn’t the most technically innovative or boundary pushing game to be released. But, does it have to be?? Every new game doesn’t need to be something completely unseen before, doing things no other game ever has. I get that BG3 does exactly that and I applaud it for being as game-changing for this industry as it is. At the end of the day, they are two entirely distinct and different games. SF is the most fun I’ve had with a new game in such a long time, I haven’t put 9 hours into game within a single 24 hour period in years. I’m happy for all the BG3 players who have found their dream CRPG, but realize SF is nothing like BG3 at all and stop comparing the two.

I agree. The only worthwhile part of this article is where they compared Starfield to previous Bethesda games.

 

[Brian Boru]

Every new game doesn’t need to be something completely unseen before, doing things no other game ever has

You are so right. This is a journalistic thing originally if I recall correctly, and has gradually permeated out into the impressionable. There is a definite bias towards unusual and away from quality.

Many more clicks and views to be had drooling over something new, than marveling at the finer points of polishing and perfecting.

 

[Ryzengang]

I agree. The only worthwhile part of this article is where they compared Starfield to previous Bethesda games.

Even more bizarrely, they aren't even remotely similar games.

 

[Colif]

Why you don't play this on a hdd

 

[neogunhero]

Why you don't play this on a hdd

I’m so glad I got a new SSD for this game. My mobo only supports up to 3500mb/s so that’s what I got and boy does it load fast. I don’t mind all of the fast travel and load screens at all when it loads this fast. I can only imagine how snappy it would be on a PCIE Gen 4 SSD.

 

[Colif]

the biggest speed increase you ever see on storage (so far) is when you go from hdd to nvme. The difference between PCIe 3, 4 or 5 isn't that noticeable in the real world, its only benchmarks that show the difference.

So its possible the load times wouldn't be that much different on PCIe 4. Is a few seconds worth the cost?

refer https://forums.pcgamer.com/threads/nvme-ssds-vs-sata-ssds.137365/

 

[neogunhero]

So its possible the load times wouldn't be that much different on PCIe 4. Is a few seconds worth the cost?

Having used only SATA SSDs for the past few years, $40 to upgrade to a 1TB PCIE 3 SSD was very worth it. Windows is much faster and snappier, and games seems slightly faster in load times. But you’re right about PCIe 3 - 4, in the Forespoken video it was usually less than a second difference, but SATA to PCIe 3 was usually seeing load times cut in half or more.

 

[DXCHASE]

Started playing Starfield tuesday. Its pretty good imo. I mean... im probably not going to play hours and hours of it, probably just the campaign but ive spent more time trying to tweak the game with mods than play the actual game at this point lol. I give it a solid... 7/10

I got the suit from the mannequin in the beginning and its made traveling easier. I did some exploring and its fine and i also think the gunplay is good too, no destiny 2 or COD level gun play but still, good, the landscape looks nice and the animations in npcs is... improved.

I, personally, like the fact you can fast travel everywhere. Im not a fly-through-space-for-hours kind of space player and im using an nvm.e pci 4.0 so loading isnt an issue for me, i like being able to be on a planet in a different galaxy in a matter of a minute or 2.

Performance is meh, i get hangups in cities and i have to tweak settings even at 1440p which is a bummer to me, but again ive been modding it to make it more stable, which it has.

Edit: I dont like that there arent vehicles to use to explore planets and the space combat leaves a lot to be desired but these things dont take much away from my play experience since you can A. Fast Travel when you get too bored running around the wilderness and B. Im not going to be doing a lot of space battling lol.

So thats it for now, its not a terrible game by any means but im just still more interested in playing diablo 4, destiny 2 and (as of late) counter strike.

 

[Colif]

Having used only SATA SSDs for the past few years, $40 to upgrade to a 1TB PCIE 3 SSD was very worth it. Windows is much faster and snappier, and games seems slightly faster in load times. But you’re right about PCIe 3 - 4, in the Forespoken video it was usually less than a second difference, but SATA to PCIe 3 was usually seeing load times cut in half or more.

I noticed that as well when i got this PC, previously had an ssd but windows loads so much faster now. Sure, rest of PC was new as well, but windows went from 40 second loads to about 10.

The 2nd video reinforced my idea of buying a 2tb ssd to add to PC instead of an nvme as really, there is no difference if its just a storage drive. I suspect I would have fun installing a 2nd nvme in my PC as it would have to go under my 7900xt, and I don't think there is space.

anyway, back to the normal topic

 

[neogunhero]

It’s funny when you start a mission that gives you a mandatory companion, just for you to stop tracking that quest and do something else. I’ve practically kidnapped Sam Coe’s daughter and have been traveling through space with her just wandering around my ship while Sam waits for me to speak to him in Akila City. She’s a good spirit though, she wants to help fix up the ship. I think her and Emma Wilcox (who is also waiting for me to take her somewhere) will get along fine in the back of my ship while I head back to New Atlantis and knock out some more side quests.

 

[neogunhero]

So I’m about 14 hours in now. Level 12. This game is amazing. This is the point people are saying it gets fun, but I’ve been having fun from the first seconds of the game. One big complaint I’m hearing is there is so much talking that people are getting bored. Have they never played any other Bethesda RPG before? It is amazing to me how much voice acting there is, how there are so many random names NPCs placed all throughout the galaxy that can potentially have you sidetracked for hours. There are also lots of smaller side quests with tiny self contained stories which are always great and a fun little treat to do. All the fast traveling does not bother me at all. If I had to fly between New Atlantis and Akila City every single time I want to travel between them I would get so annoyed.

I tried ship building a little bit. It certainly is expensive and expansive. If I had the credits, I could spend an hour building my dream ship, so I’m still grinding towards that.

One minor complaint, not really a complaint but a gripe idk, I have with this game is that it takes so long to level up, get credits and get research done. I know it’s like this so you can play the game longer and there will always be something to do, but it’s gonna take me a really long time to unlock all weapon upgrades when I wish I could upgrade them now. I don’t have too much time to play, and putting 14 hours into this game over 6 days is quite a feat for me. However on the other hand I like that as I will have something to play for a very long time

I downloaded the DLSS mod and it seems to improve my frames a tiny bit but any increase is welcomed. My Ryzen 1600X is pushing its limits here, Starfield absolutely is CPU intensive. Like I stated before, most interiors and caves and outer space run at a good 45-60FPS, but in the big cities it dips to 30-40FPS, everything in Low settings, DLSS at 80%. I was surprised when at one point I was getting 60FPS in Neon when I have had 30FPS in the same area I was in.

I have not touched base building yet and I don’t know when I will. I think I want to focus on building up a huge ship, my base in space. The small modifications I made to the Frontier so far are nice, adding in some workbenches, extra cargo storage and some portholes to look at the stars from. I want to make it much more lively though.

I need to try to board enemy ships better. I unlocked Targeting Control Systems but have not yet put it to the test. I focus too much on killing the enemy ships, not disabling them so I can board. I heard that enemy ships usually have contraband on them, so make sure to find it, place it in the cargo bay, then jettison it so you don’t get caught. Selling enemy ships also seems like a good way to make money, maybe I should convert the Frontier back into a smaller fighter ship and focus on doing that for a while.

Overall I am having a blast with this game. It has everything I love from past Bethesda games while still packing in tons of new features and secrets. One of my highlights was having Ron Hope and the Adoring Fan in one room together. Ron Hope’s voice actor also does the iconic Imperial City guards in Oblivion, and the Adoring Fan is, well, the Adoring Fan. It was an Oblivion voice actor reunion!

 

[GamingBets]

I also started starfield a few days ago, not really sure why some people are not liking it, its really good so far imo.

 

[Colif]

what stars? - https://www.tomshardware.com/news/starfield-fails-at-stars-on-amd-gpus

 

[Kborom]

It's mental how big this game is. I've got over 1200 hours in Skyrim with multiple characters, I can see me hitting 1000 hours in Starfield with just one character.

There's also the BGS way that you have to learn everything for yourself, normally by trial and (very regular) error!

 

[neogunhero]

It's mental how big this game is. I've got over 1200 hours in Skyrim with multiple characters, I can see me hitting 1000 hours in Starfield with just one character.

There's also the BGS way that you have to learn everything for yourself, normally by trial and (very regular) error!

This is the kind of game where I really had to watch “10 THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE PLAYING STARFIELD” type of videos. Holding left and right while mining materials has been a life saver haha.

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I have 17 hours on my save and I finally just did the main mission where you get the Fus Ro Dah powers. I didn’t use them much in Skyrim, but I’m guessing there are only 8 total here so I might use them more often. I like how you can save them to your favorites also, but I need a SkyUI kind of mod for Starfield so my favorites can be an endless list instead of keybinds 0-9.

My Adoring Fan has been my main companion since I picked him up. He’s great for comedic relief, often spitting out funny one-liners at the worst possible times. I also equipped him with an Ashta Hunter, not the best idea for someone who can’t shoot above chest height. When he has that gun, I make sure to stay as far away from him as possible. We like to kick back too, do some Aurora, hit up some clubs, the usual.

 

[neogunhero]

First hot fix after standard release in available today. They say it fixes some performance and stability issues, but with how vague they are in the patch notes, I don’t expect that they truly fixed the optimization. I wonder if there will be a noticeable difference at all.

Also, official DLSS and FOV slider confirmed! I really hope it is DLSS 3.5, which older RTX card like my 2060 can take advantage of. The videos Nvidia has put out for DLSS 3.5 look to be a game changer especially for people with older/lower end RTX cards. I hope they eventually implement FSR 3.0 as well.

 

[neogunhero]

Update, seems like most people are not seeing any significant performance boost from the hotfix. Figured as much, since they don’t go into any details about it. Seems like they fixed a CTD bug and then said “we improved performance and stability”. It’s like having your house infested with flies, killing one single fly then saying “our fly problem has gotten better”.

 

[Brian Boru]

Fyi:

 

[Frindis]

51.5 hours in here and just got Sam (Deus Ex Mankind voice actor!) as a companion. Probably finish the game around the completionist mark, seems reasonable.

 

[neogunhero]

51.5 hours in here and just got Sam (Deus Ex Mankind voice actor!) as a companion. Probably finish the game around the completionist mark, seems reasonable.

Everyone really does have a different experience, I did his quests as soon as I could then branched off to do Freestar quests after a while with Sam haha. His voice acting is some of the best in the game.


One of my new favorite locations in this game is The Clinic. The amount is detail is insane, and the Freestar Ranger quest there was honestly pretty intense. Ari is a cool guy too, wish I could recruit him.

 

[Frindis]

@neogunhero Not started on the Freestar Ranger quest, so looking forward to that. In case you have not done it yet, I can recommend the espionage quests through Ryujn. I thought the quest chain was well made with some nice twists and turns. From the looks of it, I'd say Bethesda has really nailed the faction quests.

 

[neogunhero]

@neogunhero Not started on the Freestar Ranger quest, so looking forward to that. In case you have not done it yet, I can recommend the espionage quests through Ryujn. I thought the quest chain was well made with some nice twists and turns. From the looks of it, I'd say Bethesda has really nailed the faction quests.

I’m this recent PCG article , Fraser Brown says they enjoyed the Ryujin quest line after completing the Freestar faction missions. That’s exactly what I had in mind too, after some doling out some intergalactic justice I want to try my hand at corporate espionage. I like to try to focus on one faction quest line at a time so I don’t get too mixed up and confused about what’s going on, so I’m definitely doing Ryujin next!