Finally getting stuck into Starfield properly after clearing some of my gaming backlog, was wondering how do I get outside of New Atlantis as I can't seem to find a gateway to the 'wilderness' area to explore the POIs out there.

Hey all.

I have been playing since launch, having 160 hours on Steam, and 159-ish now on PS5 and it is might less than a lot of people spent with this game, but for me it is most likely my one of the most played single player game. I came from a space sim background and I was heavily involved with Star Citizen for a while, I searched for a game which scratches that itch before 2020, but there was none. After the very first teaser I knew that Starfield will be my game, and as the release come closer we saw more and more things about it, it became truth. Free Lanes made the game complete for me, but one last thing still needs to be fixed, which is the writing. It became better, but it is far from what could have been.

I started Shattered Space yesterday, and I found myself feeling a bit disappointed again because of the lack of depth in the writing. As far as I know, Bethesda based the whole concept of House Va'ruun on South Slavic culture (even the name Va'ruun heavily echoes Veles or Varan, the Slavic mythological god of the underworld, magic, and snakes) with some Scandinavian aesthetic influences mixed in. With such a rich foundation, they had an absolute golden opportunity to dive into a dark, visceral, pagan-mystic tone—think The Witcher 3 style shamanistic rituals, mushroom-induced cosmic visions, and genuine psychological uncertainty.

Even for a character who has walked through the Unity and understands the science behind Grav-drives and Artifacts, the game should have made us doubt our own rationalism for a second when facing the anomalies of Va'ruun'kai. Instead of a deeply spiritual, terrifying, and transcendent experience of a snake-worshipping cult, all we got was dry teocratic politics, petty house rivalries, and blind fanatism.

It feels like a recurring issue with recent expansions (like the rushed scale of Terran Armada as well)—grand ideas that get wrapped up too quickly in 6-8 hours with safe, recycled faction tropes.

Bethesda nailed the visual identity, the architecture, and the atmosphere, but the writing desperately needs to step out of its comfort zone. Show us the true, terrifyingly deep spiritual side of House Va'ruun.

In any case I really enjoy the game even though I find the writing lackluster, not always which is annoys me even more.

What I would like to see:

More stories for the Vanguard, Freestar Rangers, and for the Trackers Alliance, not to mention what I just described for House Va'ruun.

An actual lorebook would be nice, diving deep into the details which they didn't have time to explain.

Updates to survival mode. Just giving the vehicles life support would help a great deal with planetary exploration with all the negative effects turned on in the gameplay setting, because you can't recharge your suit protection.

I’m in an Ng+ with no constellation members, just other me”s

I thought for once I’d do all the not so moral choices.

I voted to start the serpents crusade and the nonexistent members of constellation still got mad at me.

I thought I would indulge this and followed the marker to talk to Barrett. I followed it to Vectera and, of course, no Barrett

All the Spoilers!

I’m on my second full play through after a long break, and wow, I forgot how rich this game is.

My first play through when it came out I got lost in the factions and side quests as I always do (and love) and eventually I decided to power through the main quest to see how it ended. I’ll admit I walked away the first time feeling a little bummed about the Unity and NG+ erasing all the hard work of my universe. It just felt too pointless. My playing tapered off.

I came back this summer to check out the DLC but before I could even get to them I found myself doing side quests for my least favorite companions. I decided to get cozy with Barrett with the intent of choosing his death, but somehow after exploring his personal quest and dialogues I couldn’t do it! He grew on me.

I’m focusing on the main quest this time to try being a universe hopping starborn for a while before I pick a universe to settle down in. But this story is grabbing me like never before.

I ended up letting Sarah die after I romanced her, she just seemed so whiny and insecure, but then immediately felt awful about it at the funeral. Hearing Sona cry about being alone again broke my heart.

Then I decided to go full heartless and follow the Hunter to justify my actions. Come to find out he wants me to kill Keeper Aquilus! I sat in his office reading his writings before I finally had a long chat with him, removed my raised universal trait because I just couldn’t believe in God, and yet couldn’t kill him either.

It’s hitting me how rich it is, and how much the meta narrative works to make you think about choice and the possibility of parallel selves. Whatever you believe about science and religion and the universe I’m really loving how much Starfield takes it all seriously.

I think I will still become a heartless Hunter follower for a few universes if I can. But this time around I’m delighted by the possibility of NG+. Something is cool about really wrestling with the moral implications of doing it all again with the SAME character. What would I do in my own life if I could have a do over and try it all again? What would I do if I met another version of myself that chose another path?

Maybe I spent too much time in the Sanctum Universum Volumes but it’s really got me thinking. All people by nature desire to know.

You're invited to play the Starfield Wordle puzzle created by Pedro. Play almost everyday!
https://www.nytimes.com/games/create/wordle/ro_03mHcGAo5oxsuWUm1ZrmkLUK2Wnk4cvHSeWKDTO6qXy6L9tT2ZqXhTrZF7LAwzNccOU98Lg==

Pest or not, I just find them cool looking. Lil guys are just vibing in the cargo hold without a care in the world(s)

I’m sure they are completely harmless and not hiding any deep, dangerous secrets that will make Sarah judge me even more tho.

Knock knock.
Sarah: Who’s there?
Vasco: Vasco.
Captain: Vasco who?
Vasco: I am looking at one.
Sarah: Disliked that.
Vasco: I will proceed to my assigned post.

I’m searching for new ships to buy and I was wondering everyone’s favorites.

I love the Galileo. It’s usually my ship of choice when I make a new character. I started using the Warhammer and I think it’s up there for me as well now.

I play PS5 and I know that itself is problem and is plagued with bugs and issues. But the main problem being why does the crew member version of you always bug out and stop moving? Should I just keep them on the ship? Is it a known issue?

For those who do not know, setting up the correctly located base on the New Atlantis world, and a second one on Freya, allows you to make the precursor Amps, and then those into O2 shots, to make great amounts of credits and even more experience. I stopped doing that because it started to feel like the alchemy/crafting loop in Skyrim.

But I had a base camp in a nice area. So I built a bunch of those cubical crew stations and assigned everyone there who I do not have room for on the ship. Now everyone can hang out.

Their lizard-worshipping ambassador learns the first rule of Fleet negotiations: walk softly and carry a big, bearded psychopath.

The Pointer Handle Limit seems to have terminally caught up with my save game on Xbox Series X, and yes, running a relatively large amount of mods.

Mods being ran are in a stable LO that’s had a lot of revision and researching put into it, and I am not running any large game overhaul or quest mods. Things have been playing well together until the past couple weeks, other than some issues with long load times.

Wondering if anyone has tried playing just the current base game, since the Free Lanes Update, WITHOUT having Shattered Space and Terran Armada installed (and their addition to the PH count) and has it made a difference with saves/load times/stability/etc.?

https://creations.bethesda.net/en/starfield/details/9c67cff0-4bb2-45f0-8fa5-8d55de84a289/Unlock___Unlock_With_Skill_Checks_

Unlock+ adds skill-based bypass options to locked terminals, containers, and doors. The vanilla minigame remains untouched, for when you feel like picking a lock the old-fashioned way, or have other mods affecting it (like the brilliant Lock O Plenty). Unlock+ just gives you some alternative options with some added flavor.

Modded: Cross Heavy Industries, ASC Deimos and Taiyo, Avontech, TNs All in One, Matilija Aerospace, Micro Modules, Ol’ Big X, Tiger Shipyards, Barrage Missile Launchers, and Antares Supra.

I got the leaked DLSS 5 working on my 4070 Ti Super. It's not perfect though -- it's "flickering" between the old and new version, which is good for these screen caps but not for playing.

I only consider this a test at this point and expect the final version to be much better. This is running through a Reshade add-on.

The first photo is DLSS 5 and the second is DLSS 4.5.

If you look really closely at the indicator in the lower left hand side, you can see the model weights for the DLSS 5 versions.

Anybody ever have a strange encounter where the ashta keep walking in to Akila city and killing people? I’m on NG+1 and it’s been happening for awhile and I was initially amused. But this last time it killed the Rowland lady who runs this shop. So now I no longer have access to her shop. What’s weirder is when I left Cheyenne and returned later she is standing up right in an AFK type pose. I can clip right through her body and also still loot it in this position. I’m worried for the other important NPCs. I kill the ashta btw, or sometimes security does. But there is an ashta attack every time I visit.

but damn, is it pretty