One of us! One of us!

I'm still neck deep in the game, too, and on my third character. I'm really enjoying the Kid Stuff trait - it's fun to visit your parents when you are in New Atlantis.

Captain James recently used his accumulated credits from helping various factions to design a proper (and big) exploration ship to probe the furthest reaches. I sank at least $300k credits into it, but it's got everything one needs to explore - and there are no ladders!

So Kane, what is a resource that is good to have plentiful access to in the early game?

Pop an outpost down somewhere that you can extract Helium-3 and Aluminum. Just having an outpost extracting He-3 gives your grav jump range a boost. Aluminum is essential to more outpost construction. (Kurtz is a good option for this, since it's orbiting Jemison.) Try to land in a zone that has both elements together and you should be able to find an outpost spot where they intersect.

Just like in Fallout 4, you're going to need adhesive for most weapon and spacesuit mods. Sealant and adaptive frames are another good one to buy up. Being a resource hog in general helps a lot.

When you get more crafting skills unlocked, you'll be on the lookout for Tungsten and Titanium. I always seem to be short on those two.

And if you want a nice ship with a 2k+ cargo space, (faction spoiler ahead)

Thanks for the info! Saturn’s moon Titan is a good place to find titanium, if you didn’t already know.

And Pluto has Tungsten. I haven't been back for a while to do some mining - probably why I keep running out, lol. I was just on Titan, too. My latest ship is all Nova Galactic parts.

I have another question. Any tips for the persuasion system? Like how to know what options would have a greater effect on a given character, etc. In Dez’s game, I feel like I’ve just been getting lucky when I pick an option that works.

Persuasion is tricky and more often than not I just hope for a skill check. Taking bribery and intimidation perks can help I think, but I've not yet invested in them. Interestingly enough, I've noticed that the dialogue options change, too. My newest character just did a MQ mission on Neon and the options to persuade an enemy agent were completely different from the ones I picked last time.

It's nice, in a way. Makes the game not be repetitive every time and encourages you to pick more skills. I probably would have by now if I didn't have so many in Science and Tech!

Also, if you feel like doing some corporate espionage (more faction spoilers)

I too have noticed that the options can change. I guess having it be kinda iffy at first is to be expected for just starting off.

The company you mentioned in the spoiler warning is going to be right up my cyber runner character’s alley!

It's a fun, stealth oriented questline. A nice departure from the usual style of BGS quests.
Also, pro tip if you haven't already discovered it (took me a while): holdong down the aim button with the cutter focuses the beam and lets you mine more quickly.

Dez is currently on a mission to find something called a coralline (sp?) landmass in the Indum system. She’s got Sarah with her because we are also going to be hitting the Sol system for a lead on an artifact.

Funny thing, when we got to one of the planets in that system there was an ongoing scrap between some random spacers (or maybe they were pirates?) and the Freestar Collective. We engaged the spacers but for some reason the FC forces were hostile to us after destroying the last of them. I guess maybe one of my shots went astray and hit one of them? I reloaded a save to see if I could do the fight again but nothing spawned when I arrived back at the planet/moon.

Love doing survey missions like that!

Yeah, that happens to me sometimes, too. It just happened to me last night when I tried to help in a fight between SysDef and pirates. 'Course my ship has 6x particle cannons, so there are a lot more chances to miss the target!

Hmmm, particle cannon. Reminds me of the Particle Projection Cannon (PPC) from the BATTLETECH franchise. What is the particle cannon in Starfield?

So it sounds like Speech has become ... I don't know the word. Improved? In-depth? (from Skyrim) Especially if it's not always the same approach that's needed, eh?

Arguably the best option for ship weapons. Particle weapons do the same amount of damage to shields and hulls, so you can have one weapon type in lieu of lasers and ballistics. My ships are typically A Class reactors, which is all you need for the Vanguard Obliterators (need to join UC Vanguard to get them, though). And I usually attach some missile launchers for that "fire torpedoes!" feel.



It's more reminiscent of New Vegas and way more in-depth than Skyrim or Fallout 4. Persuasion mini-game, skill checks, even traits can influence it. And sometimes there are even options to let your follower weigh in instead.

Something that drives me nuts though is that we lose digipicks on successful attempts. That is going to be the first thing I mod out.

I get why it’s like that, but yeah, it’s a bit annoying.

I took the “targeting systems” perk for Dez recently. We’ve only been able utilize it once since picking it, and we ended up destroying the ship we were fighting in the end. Any tips for disabling ships?

EM weapons to disable the engines. Leaves them adrift so that you can board.

Oh ok. The game talked like I could do it with missles.

I only managed to disable engines without EM weapons one time. I think you have to get the engine health to less than 10% work.

Ok I’ll keep working on it.

Dez is still in the Indum system looking for this flippin Corralline Landmass…

Yeah, those can take a while when you have to hunt through the system. I'm currently perking into Astrophysics for that chance to learn a trait when you scan a moon or planet.

That would be helpful, lol

First rank is only 10%, so it's definitely an investment. I think the highest it gets is 40%, which would be way more helpful, lol.

I sort of wish you could see POIs like that from orbit after you scan. Then landing wouldn't be such a crapshoot. But I suppose that would negate the exploration aspect of it.

That would definitely be helpful.

Speaking of landing, if you build an outpost away from where you land in an area, can your ship start landing closer to your outpost?

Yes, you can also build landing pads. There is even a big landing pad you can build that has a shipbuilder terminal. It has a lot of different ship modules, too.

Neat! I’m thinking we need a sort of “depot” outpost near Jemison to store resources and such. I have read that the Lodge has unlimited storage in the basement, but there are no such containers in my game. *shrugs*

The safe in your Lodge room is also unlimited. I thought it strange that they brought back limited storage containers after so many years.

My Kurtz outpost was my supply depot until I could build a ship big enough that it didn't matter, lol. I had a small hab to craft in, aluminum and he-3 extractors and a pile of storage containers. Now my deep space ship has 2400 cargo which I haven't even come close to filling.

Are there mods on Xbox? Even so, I'm assuming there isn't a way to manage them, or create stuff which is outside the normal assets. Which is fine. Be nice to have some sort of limit to modding on consoles, therefore there's still a reason to get the game on PC.

There probably will be once the Creation Kit 2 releases. All the mods out now are textures, config files, or stuff made in xEdit. There won't be any script extenders though.

Edit: script extenders for Xbox that is. SFSE is already out on PC.

I just hope they don’t do away with offering the free unofficial mods in favor of the newest incarnation of Creation Club. It was nice having free mods you could download for Skyrim and Fallout4 on consoles.

Nah, I don't see free modding ever going away, even for consoles. That worry has come up time and time again. I think long ago Bethesda initially stated that paid Creation Club would be the way of the future (when console modding for Skyrim first began in 2013 or '14) but the outcry from the community was deafening. As I recall, the idea of sole paid mods was then dropped.

Correct me if I'm wrong!

Wish I could say you are right, but they just keep coming back to this business model of monetizing what is essentially mods while marketing it as “DLC”. When free mods interfere too much in making money off of Creation (or whatever they are calling it these days), I bet you Micro$oft will crack down on it. Actually, now that I think about it, hiring the mod authors to work on these projects could be used as a way to stop them from producing free mods if in the future such a crackdown were to occur. Maybe I’m just being a bit of a conspiracy nut, but now that BGS is owned my Micro$oft, nothing would really surprise me.

I guess the question then is has Microsoft already done that with another franchise? I don't really know. I am not up on what games/companies that they own. Aside from Flight Simulator of course.

Not that I know of, but then no other game company’s games are so intrinsically bound to modding like BGS games are. With BGS games, some people would argue that mods are a huge part of the appeal of those games, and, in my opinion, the fact that BGS has tried to monetize mods repeatedly throughout their existence proves that they think modding is an important aspect of their games as well. The only thing I can see holding the money hounds back, is that more negative PR for a company that, for whatever reason, can’t seem to do anything right in the press these days, would be highly undesirable.


Sorry, I probably sound like a lunatic. Lol

A fur-covered lunatic! Kidding.

Nah, I don't see paid mods becoming a thing, at least not as a widespread across-the-board measure which ALL modders need to deal with. There's just too much work involved, making sure every persons' mods won't ruin the millions of variables, all the potential conflicts and other issues all our individual modified games could present.

Who would be in charge of making sure all this stuff works, most of which is Unofficial, and can potentially ruin a player's gamesave if they're not careful. Again this has come up in the past. Bethesda can't do it. They're too busy with the next game, which Microsoft (if they're smart) will just let them continue with. So I do not see Beth saying "You gotta pay for ALL mods, starting NOW" while not thoroughly testing each one.

Wouldn't surprise me if Microsoft tries to make such a thing happen, though. At least for Xbox. If so, MS doesn't understand Bethesda's business model. And I predict that if MS tries to implement such nonsense that they'll be forced to rescind their decision.

I really hope you are right, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do something like this.
Anyway, I’ve taken us waaay off topic with this. Sorry ‘bout that.

I need to figure out how to get some screenshots for y’all!

Dez got a new toy! She started a non-faction related side quest by killing a Spacer somewhere and ended up with a new ship that was just left sitting around in an underground hangar!! Tomorrow I’ll check it out in greater detail.

I know exactly what you mean, lol. That mission is a great way to get an early upgrade from the Frontier.

Archimedes V-a is my new favorite place for a late game outpost. Beautiful temperate moon that closely orbits a gas giant for those incredible views. Gravity is less than earths, mild temps, good magnetosphere, breathable air, and lovely biomes. I even found a coastal location that reminds me of a scottish moor.

Stunning moon in a level 75 system, lol.

That sounds awesome. Have you found any Dagobah like planets?

Nah, most swamp or wetland biomes I've found aren't that intricate. There are some wonderfully dense deciduous forests out there though.

Yeah the planet where Dez got that new ship is beautiful, with its snow and coniferous trees.

Just got to Neon. Place has vibes. I love it!

I’m sorry, I just had to record this happening. Today Dez was in Akila City and NPCs started acting like they do when there is a fight going on. Apparently an Ashta had somehow made it into the middle of the entry area around the Solomon Coe statue, near the gun shop. After dispatching the offending beast, Mademoiselle Chanceuse Discovered that it had managed to kill, of all people, a Chunks employee! Even Ashta love Chunks, it seems!

Don't apologize. I miss the days when we all shared these little moments. I like the sound of that "NPCs started acting like they do when a fight's going on..."

Gonna guess that Chunks is a fast food place?

Yes, exactly. Their gimmick is that they make a variety of foods and desserts into handheld sized cubes (ie: cheesesteak, beef, eggs, cake, pie, wine, just to name a few). Their stores seem to be mostly automated with one or two human employees around for, presumably, customer service issues.

The new rover-type vehicle looks like fun and I can't wait to see what else they add to the game. I'm gearing up now for a PC upgrade to I can play newer games, gotta buy a new CPU and GPU.

Ooo, new PC components! Be sure to share what you end up getting!

I've got it all picked out already:

XFX Speedster SWFT 319 Core Radeon RX 6800 16 GB Video Card
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor

and another 16gbs of RAM, because why not.

You going through New Egg, Amazon, or other?