Topic: Starfield

@Balta666 Glad it's not just me! Thought I was going mad, especially when people claiming the game is bug free. lol

@themightyant yep, it is strange. I reckon maybe the series S version is somewhat more stable than the X as it appears most people saying it is not buggy are playing that version

One thing I kind got into and would like to hear from other people is that as I finished the campaign and most sidequests I am level 45. On the skill trees I completely ignored the science sector as I am not in starfield for exploration/outposts and 90% of my skills are on the tier 1 of each of the other trees (with most of them leveled to max). At some points I thought that I should move to the higher tiers but at the same time I wanted the max upgrades from each item I have already unlocked...

@Balta666 Yeah I don't think you can respec, which is annoying. I spent quite a bit in Science recently and regret it. It's definitely scaled for multiple playthroughs. There were also many skills I didn't want that I had to get to get to the next tier.

@themightyant @Balta666 yes there’s a lot of ‘dead’ level points that you just don’t need, or others that you don’t want to put points in but the game kinda makes you (carry weight for example)

I'm about 23-24hrs in and only at the 4th main mission out of 19 or so. At least that's what I've read. I think I'm done with side missions like Vanguard and Freestar Rangers and going straight for the main stuff. With October being as crazy as it is for releases, I can't keep playing starfield into November or even December.

@NintendoByNature fair enough but I would recommend to focus more on the faction's quests than the main story. There is where Bethesda games shine brighter

@Balta666 trust me, I actually enjoy them alot. But it's getting to the point where I have too much to play and not enough time. I might be buying 3 or 4 full priced games this month. Not to mention, might fire up amnesia and RE8.

How's everyone feeling about the game now? I'll be honest the gloss has faded for me quite a lot and i'm making a beeline for the end before I dislike some aspects of the game even more. I've just got a couple of crimson fleet and main questlines to do I think.

I've lost count of the number of bugs i've had and the game keeps crashing more and more the longer my save file gets - an old Bethesda bug - and i've got several blocked quests which is frustrating too. Lots of other mini-rants like bad writing, repetitive exploration and more. But all in all it just feels the magic has died and all the little annoyances have broken my immersion, i'm ready to move on.

Just hoping the end of the last few questlines I have to do are good.

@themightyant I have been away from it for a couple of weeks now after I was done with all quests I could do (not bugged) and while all you said it is true for my experience I still loved it as most quests are well written imo.

@Balta666 It's a tough one as i've enjoyed a lot of what i've played. And i've put in a lot of hours, but it also reminds me of my worst experiences with Fallout 4 or Dragon Age: Inquisition, which just seemed designed to eat up time without much happening.

As for the writing I just feel it is really inconsistent. Some of the characters like Andreja seem really deep and interesting, other like Sam Coe a paper thin copy of a human. Moreover some of the questlines just seem ridiculous in their solutions. E.g. (Very minor spoilers for a mid Crimson Fleet quest) I had to go and get a file from a safe in the CEOs office. How did I get it? I talked to the secretary who overshared about how much he hated his job and boss and then opened the safe for me. Really! That was the solution. I at least thought I might have to sneak in, or do something interesting. I just feel now i've started to notice things like this it's hard to put the lid back on. Seeing it everywhere, hence I want to get our while I still mostly like it.

@themightyant I can get that. As I romanced Andreja and got her with me most of the time, I did not mind much (Sarah for example allways complains whenever you go for illegal stuff so it got annoying really quick). Also on the quests as I had the deep persuasion skill from the corporate quest I allways could persuade almost anyone to whatever I wanted and I found it really funny most of the time. But I still get your feelings at lot as the game is really janky from the get go and only gets worse.

@Balta666 [Sarah Morgan Disliked that] lol

My worst bug so far was on Barrett's loyalty mission which was busted and he was STUCK permanently as my companion until the quest was completed... which I couldn't complete. Bit of a major problem as I didn't really like Barrett, I just wanted to do ALL the companion quests, but now all I wanted was Andreja back. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that. Plus i'm a sucker for a 15% EXP boost

I'm usually pretty good at doing manual saves but the last one didn't fix it and the previous one was too many hours before and I didn't want to lose all that progress, I was torn but I went on. Thankfully, many hours later, I eventually found a way to unbug it after lots of searching online. I had to return to the previous quest step I had done miles away, NOT where the map marker was pointing, and repeat the same conversation again with that previous person, which then fixed the quest. Apparently this same idea fixes several quest bugs, it seems there is fundamental problem with their quest logic and things being not being marked as 'completed' internally when they should.

I'm still having a decent time. But, I am ready to move on. Forzas out, mario wonder and sonic superstars is almost out. And I'm trying to play some Horror/Halloween games in the meantime. So my gaming time is running thin for October and I've been playing starfield since launch.

@themightyant thankfully I did not have any major bugs on either main story or factions but have my fair share of doors that do not open or people that are not there or don't talk to you. I saw someone that got bugged at some important thing on the moon and trapped inside which is a bummer.

@themightyant I'm heading for the end of the game over the next couple of days and have clocked around 60 hrs so far. I've been pretty fortunate in that I have no game breaking bugs and really, only a couple of visual bugs like companion heads disappearing or things in the background whilst an npc is talking shimmering like a dodgy insta filter! My time has been pretty uneven, some of the quest design is so straight up fetch quest dullness with bland writing and combat with laughably bad AI. Yet when it gets right it can be so freaking good!! Stumbling upon a ship with pirates on where the gravity drive intermittently cuts out so that you intermittently fight in zero g, finding a casino planet with a giant unknown ship in orbit, jumping into a new system into the middle of a big space dog fight, working in a fish gutting plant to make drugs, going through an abandoned prison searching for treasure have all been brilliant. I won't spoil the crimson fleet stuff you are away to do but it's been my favourite stuff and one quest blew me away! Yet whenever you do something brilliant, your probably going to follow it up with a couple of minutes in a menu and your next quest, mainline or not, playing out like a bloody radiant quest with basic repetitive structure and bare bones dialogue. I was pretty disappointed in Akila and never even bothered to join the freestar rangers and gave up on the Ryujin quests as stealth is broken and I find the persuasion check writing some of the weakest stuff in the game. Someone says "ill never give you x thing", then you hit a dialogue choice that amounts to "c'mon" and they reply "I'm listening" 🤣🤣 I've enjoyed my time but I'm ready to wrap it up but when they drop dlc, I'll likely check back in.

So I rolled the credits. About 36-37hrs. For those that got that far, I ended up not choosing either emissary or hunter to side with. Not sure if that made that final stretch all the harder, but i was really struggling with that last section. Wondering how others decided to take a stance, and how the story ended up for them because of it. All and all, I had a really great time with the game. It was my first Bethesda rpg so it was a little cumbersome at first, but eventually I got the hang of it. I guess at some point, I should give skyrim an honest try 🙂.

@NintendoByNature I had the same choice as you and did not struggle that much in the final fight but I had double the time in game... Although Bethesda games' enemies scale with you as you have better gear and skills the games tend to become easier. Definitely recommend Skyrim. It is more of the same in many ways but has a more coherent world where you can go anywhere (for a 2011 game anyways)

Really interesting to see the different times we all had.

@NintendoByNature Wow finished in 36-37 hours! I think I spent longer than that in the ship builder. lol
My current clock sits at around 8 days. But I've fallen asleep enough that I think at least a day or two can't be counted. But i'd exepct it to be around 150+ hours when i'm done. I also picked the Emissary. Didn't really like wither option and think maybe I would have preferred to pick neither and attack both... but that also seemed a bit evil and against my in-game character

Also can recommend Skyrim. It's very similar in a lot of ways, and even though it's dated, so is Starfield. I think it does a lot of things better than Starfield, especially exploration and sense of place.

@balta666 @themightyant sweet deal. I kind of felt like I was over staying my welcome in the game and was ready to try something else. I'll definitely be giving skyrim a try at some point.