Bethesda's Starfield

[Max Peck]

Here's some free survey data for anyone having trouble finding enough adhesive, especially in the early game:

Spoiler:

Native to Gagarin, in the Alpha Centauri system.

...and you can make a farm for it! I think I mentioned that a dozen pages or so ago.

Yeah, I remember that, but it took me this long to find a specific source. Figuring out how to set up a glue farm is on the to-do list now.

[Unagi]

So, PureDark, the modder that decided to charge for his DLSS mod (discussed earlier in the thread), then responded to the backlash by putting DRM on his mod, has apparently responded to the cracking of said DRM by threatening to add malware to the mod in the future.

Wow. I'll need to avoid that asshat

[Unagi]

Here's some free survey data for anyone having trouble finding enough adhesive, especially in the early game:

Spoiler:

Native to Gagarin, in the Alpha Centauri system.

Paige, NO!!

You're thinking lubricant, not adhesive.

[jztemple2]

Here's some free survey data for anyone having trouble finding enough adhesive, especially in the early game:

Spoiler:

Native to Gagarin, in the Alpha Centauri system.

Paige, NO!!

You're thinking lubricant, not adhesive.

Yeah, you wouldn't want to make that mistake

[Blackhawk]

That would explain the kitchen tile problems...

Anyway, someone brought up Starfield in a different thread, and I posted an update there thinking it was the Starfield thread. Here's the content of that post:

A few pages back I commented on seeing lots of recommendations for following the main storyline for a bit at the start, but I kind of stumbled through the reasoning. I thought of a good way to clarify the recommendation that people follow the main quest for a bit before branching out:

Skyrim.

If someone were playing Skyrim for the first time, I'd recommend that you follow the main quest until after you talked to the Greybeards and did their quest. It is only then that you'd gain access to Shouts, and all of the benefits that brings, including learning the various words in the various dungeons to gain even more shouts. You could certainly play without shouts and and understanding of the dragon words, but you'd lose out on a major mechanic.

It's comparable to that. Not that you get dragon shouts, but that there's a core mechanic that unlocks partway in.

And with that said, I'll throw in a disclaimer: I've done exactly that. I've played Skyrim as not-Dovahkiin, never taking the shouts, never following the main quest. In other words, play however you want, and do what's fun. This is a suggestion and an FYI, not me telling anyone how to play.

(I'm aware that my suggestions, online, in game, and in real-life, sometimes come across as demands. I think it is a habit from my career - when I had one - in which I was literally giving orders all the time as part of my job. I've been working on it for years, but I'm not entirely sure where my blind spot is - one of the unpleasant aspects of autism. If I seem like I'm giving orders, please remember that I don't mean them that way.)

[jztemple2]

Yeah, trying to place storage containers, in particular, with any precision is a mess. If I get too close to another container, the one I'm trying to position will snap over to the other one, and usually not where I'd like it to go. It can be frustrating.

I anticipated wanting to cherry pick resources from storage, so I went horizontal instead of vertical for the automatic system and have long rows that are only two containers high. I can quickly scan the bottom layer from the ground and hop up on top to check the top layer. I do have storage towers as well, but they are connected to individual resource harvesters, so each tower only contains a single resource that I can pull from the bottom.

I've build my base and put up all the workbenches and the research station, but now I'm kind of wondering what I'm going to do with all of it. I wasn't really planning on making a manufacturing center as cash isn't any kind of issue. But it was good experience.

Question about that big storage farm... I can land my ship at the landing pad that is part of the outpost. Is there some way to transfer stuff I have stored to the cargo hold of my ship, other than putting it into my own inventory and schlepping it up the stairs to my ship, running out of O2 all the time? I do have ways to offset that use of O2 but I was looking for some systematic way to transfer from storage to the ship without using me as a pack mule.

[Blackhawk]

As someone who has managed to start Starfield during an unusually hectic month (IE - I haven't gotten far), I have yet to start an outpost. I know you can have multiples. Two questions, looking for general answers.

1. What makes a good outpost location? I assume that the areas of resource-marked ground are a factor.

2. For a 'main base' outpost, does it make sense to locate it near the center of the galactic map to make it more likely to be able to jump straight there? Or does that become irrelevant?

[Punisher]

Here's some free survey data for anyone having trouble finding enough adhesive, especially in the early game:

Spoiler:

Native to Gagarin, in the Alpha Centauri system.

Paige, NO!!

You're thinking lubricant, not adhesive.

Yeah... like WD40!!

[Blackhawk]

Here's some free survey data for anyone having trouble finding enough adhesive, especially in the early game:

Spoiler:

Native to Gagarin, in the Alpha Centauri system.

One of the earliest planets I explored (not the starting planet, but somewhere I went right after) had a cactus - sort of a thick, armless saguaro - that had it. I'm guessing that it's a feature of cacti.

[Max Peck]

Yeah, trying to place storage containers, in particular, with any precision is a mess. If I get too close to another container, the one I'm trying to position will snap over to the other one, and usually not where I'd like it to go. It can be frustrating.

I anticipated wanting to cherry pick resources from storage, so I went horizontal instead of vertical for the automatic system and have long rows that are only two containers high. I can quickly scan the bottom layer from the ground and hop up on top to check the top layer. I do have storage towers as well, but they are connected to individual resource harvesters, so each tower only contains a single resource that I can pull from the bottom.

I've build my base and put up all the workbenches and the research station, but now I'm kind of wondering what I'm going to do with all of it. I wasn't really planning on making a manufacturing center as cash isn't any kind of issue. But it was good experience.

Question about that big storage farm... I can land my ship at the landing pad that is part of the outpost. Is there some way to transfer stuff I have stored to the cargo hold of my ship, other than putting it into my own inventory and schlepping it up the stairs to my ship, running out of O2 all the time? I do have ways to offset that use of O2 but I was looking for some systematic way to transfer from storage to the ship without using me as a pack mule.

IIRC, everywhere in the outpost should be within range to magically tranfer stuff from your inventory directly to the ship without actually carrying it there. Once you've loaded up yourself with the stuff you want to put on the ship, you just need to open the ship UI (H), bring up the cargo UI (F), switch to your personal inventory (Q) then store items on the ship. I don't think there's a way to directly transfer items from a storage container to the ship, but I'm not 100% certain that there isn't a way to do it either (that's pretty much my standard Starfield disclaimer -- I haven't spent any time reading guides, so there is a tonne of stuff that can be done that I just don't know about until someone tells me).

[jztemple2]

As someone who has managed to start Starfield during an unusually hectic month (IE - I haven't gotten far), I have yet to start an outpost. I know you can have multiples. Two questions, looking for general answers.

1. What makes a good outpost location? I assume that the areas of resource-marked ground are a factor.

Depends on what you need it for. One of my outposts is a combined XP Farm and dump for all the crap I was carrying in my ship's hold. I have two others, one that mines titanium and another that drills for He-3. Yet I'm finding that I don't really need any outposts at all.

If you intend on manufacturing stuff, you'll probably want outposts that generate the raw materials and one outpost that does the manufacturing. But that's a whole different area I've yet to explore.

2. For a 'main base' outpost, does it make sense to locate it near the center of the galactic map to make it more likely to be able to jump straight there? Or does that become irrelevant?

It really doesn't matter, once you have enough range in your ship and have explored enough systems, you can travel almost anywhere. At least that's been my experience. I'm still a big hazy on the whole range thing, but once I got a skill that extended my jump range 15% and upgraded my He-3 tanks I find myself able to reach wherever I want to go.

[Unagi]

1. What makes a good outpost location? I assume that the areas of resource-marked ground are a factor.

While you can scan for resources from above, and see where they are on the planet, they actually correspond to Biomes and there is no way to show exactly where the Biomes are.
So, the scanner shows you Iron, but you click there and see that it's actually "Hills"... Copper may be over in the "Rocky Desert".

The best place for an outpost will be one that can collect many resources - and to maximize that, you want the game to create a map that actually contains 2 (or maybe even 3) biomes.

(Save game here)
So, what people do, is they click around an area that doesn't show any resource and take note of where "Hills" changes to "Rocky Desert" (for instance)... pixel, by pixel... until they feel they are right where the game has the border for those biomes... Looking for 3 biomes that all actually kind of meet together is the most ideal, as that could give you an outpost with 5 or 6 resources in one place - but that is hard to really find.

Keep in mind, you always are selecting 'a biome'... so you will always just hope that it really isn't just "Hills", but also "Rocky Desert" (and maybe Mountain too, if you were seeing that in your little pixel hunt).

You then land at your chosen location and run around for 30 minutes with your Outpost marker out, waving it around to see if you can find a place that has access to more than just that 1 biome's resource(s). So, at the base of a mountain, perhaps - you will see Rocky Desert begin, and if Hills just happens to be a smudge to the side of that - you are golden.

You may also 'give up' - and just by looking around realize you are basically in 1 biome... so that's when you Load the 'Save Game' from above. This is so you don't litter the area with Landing Zones.

Hope that makes sense.

2. For a 'main base' outpost, does it make sense to locate it near the center of the galactic map to make it more likely to be able to jump straight there? Or does that become irrelevant?

I think at first your 'main base' will just be where all these resources are being stored.

But, I can't really answer this one... so that's all I got.

[jztemple2]

IIRC, everywhere in the outpost should be within range to magically tranfer stuff from your inventory directly to the ship without actually carrying it there. Once you've loaded up yourself with the stuff you want to put on the ship, you just need to open the ship UI (H), bring up the cargo UI (F), switch to your personal inventory (Q) then store items on the ship. I don't think there's a way to directly transfer items from a storage container to the ship, but I'm not 100% certain that there isn't a way to do it either (that's pretty much my standard Starfield disclaimer -- I haven't spent any time reading guides, so there is a tonne of stuff that can be done that I just don't know about until someone tells me).

Thanks, that works great! I keep forgetting about that ship UI.

[Max Peck]

Here's some free survey data for anyone having trouble finding enough adhesive, especially in the early game:

Spoiler:

Native to Gagarin, in the Alpha Centauri system.

One of the earliest planets I explored (not the starting planet, but somewhere I went right after) had a cactus - sort of a thick, armless saguaro - that had it. I'm guessing that it's a feature of cacti.

The planet where I found it is in the Alpha Centauri system, right next door to the starting planet, so it sounds like it's the exact same species of plant. I don't even know if there are other species of cactus on other planets.

[Unagi]

(Just sharing)

One fun thing about going into Photo Mode and taking some nice pics (and curating them down to just the great ones), is that your load-screens will show them.

[jztemple2]

Question regarding NG+, once you have started an NG+ game, do you have to reach some milestone before you can start another NG+ game?

[Max Peck]

Question regarding NG+, once you have started an NG+ game, do you have to reach some milestone before you can start another NG+ game?

I would assume you need to do the thing that let's you start the first NG+ (i.e. play through the main story to it's conclusion each time), but that's just my best guess without having even completed the OG playthrough yet. #TeamPilgrim

Edit: Actually, I'd qualify that that assumption by adding that I can think of ways to allow NG+ players to bypass the main story content if they wished, but it would probably require giving the player a hypothetical ability that doesn't exist in the pre-NG+ phase of the game.

[Blackhawk]

2. For a 'main base' outpost, does it make sense to locate it near the center of the galactic map to make it more likely to be able to jump straight there? Or does that become irrelevant?

I think at first your 'main base' will just be where all these resources are being stored.

Great example of people thinking differently. I don't store all of my resources and then call that my main base - I won't store all those resources until I figure out where my main base is. Most other outposts are likely to be much smaller and less elaborate.

I do the same thing in Fallout or Elder Scrolls - I decide which settlement/home I'm going to be using at the same time I'm creating a character, then work out from there.

[Blackhawk]

If you intend on manufacturing stuff, you'll probably want outposts that generate the raw materials and one outpost that does the manufacturing. But that's a whole different area I've yet to explore.

That much I figured. Which resources remain rare and/or which aren't necessarily rare, but are used in such quantities in building/crafting/etc that it makes sense to farm them?

[Unagi]

2. For a 'main base' outpost, does it make sense to locate it near the center of the galactic map to make it more likely to be able to jump straight there? Or does that become irrelevant?

I think at first your 'main base' will just be where all these resources are being stored.

Great example of people thinking differently. I don't store all of my resources and then call that my main base - I won't store all those resources until I figure out where my main base is.

To be fair, my answer was not really an answer - just that at first you will simply just have an outpost that has storage of those resources. And then eventually you will have more than one outpost, and eventually get all your resources to one of em.

I put my heart into the other answer, which was actually quite helpful

[Unagi]

Question regarding NG+, once you have started an NG+ game, do you have to reach some milestone before you can start another NG+ game?

I would assume you need to do the thing that let's you start the first NG+ (i.e. play through the main story to it's conclusion each time), but that's just my best guess without having even completed the OG playthrough yet. #TeamPilgrim

Edit: Actually, I'd qualify that that assumption by adding that I can think of ways to allow NG+ players to bypass the main story content if they wished, but it would probably require giving the player a hypothetical ability that doesn't exist in the pre-NG+ phase of the game.

I believe coop earlier implied that once you finish it once, there is indeed a way to fast-track the main mission on subsequent runs.

[Blackhawk]

To be fair, my answer was not really an answer - just that at first you will simply just have an outpost that has storage of those resources. And then eventually you will have more than one outpost, and eventually get all your resources to one of em.

Nope. Nosir. Uh-uh.

First I will find a place for a main base. It will be a spot that I find appealing, chosen for aesthetics and possibilities, not mechanics. After I have found that place, then I will build said main base. After that I will have outposts from which those resources will be collected. To do otherwise would be spontaneity, and that cannot be.

Now, it is possible that I will end up placing an outpost prior to the above due to some necessity, but if so, it will be intentionally bare-bones, and will never serve as any sort of 'base.'

[Unagi]

Now, it is possible that I will end up placing an outpost prior to the above due to some necessity

yep, "at first," ... it's part of the thing I wrote.

[Smoove_B]

Question regarding NG+, once you have started an NG+ game, do you have to reach some milestone before you can start another NG+ game?

Not sure how to answer without directly making it a spoiler, so I'll say that it's not a "milestone" as much as something specific and intentional that you need to do - a choice.

Does that help?

As someone that is in NG+, I simultaneously understand and don't understand the point of what happened.

[Unagi]

First I will find a place for a main base. It will be a spot that I find appealing, chosen for aesthetics and possibilities, not mechanics. After I have found that place, then I will build said main base.

I have plans for a nice main base as well, but I don't think it will be built in this universe, likely in NG+1, or after I have a taste of what that really means and what may be meant when it's said that going to NG+10 can reveal more depth of the game, etc.. - - I will try and decide if I will just truly sandbox things out in NG+1 or what...

I think this first game will be a story-rich dive, learning mechanics-rich, and I'll put efforts in to support that, etc... but some of my bigger dreams I don't think I will want to leave behind, so I don't know that I want to completely deck out a real 'main base' in this run of things. I may then also try and save some more end-game side-mission and faction stuff to that 'sandbox' universe.

I guess all I'm trying to say is that the whole NG+ aspect has me holding back on certain efforts that I know will just vanish.

sigh... like what point is this amazing mug collection?

[Isgrimnur]

I'd have been playing for the past few days if my internet was working decently and I wasn't stuck at the Syncing Data stage every time I tried to start the game.

[coopasonic]

Question regarding NG+, once you have started an NG+ game, do you have to reach some milestone before you can start another NG+ game?

I would assume you need to do the thing that let's you start the first NG+ (i.e. play through the main story to it's conclusion each time), but that's just my best guess without having even completed the OG playthrough yet. #TeamPilgrim

Edit: Actually, I'd qualify that that assumption by adding that I can think of ways to allow NG+ players to bypass the main story content if they wished, but it would probably require giving the player a hypothetical ability that doesn't exist in the pre-NG+ phase of the game.

I believe coop earlier implied that once you finish it once, there is indeed a way to fast-track the main mission on subsequent runs.

Each time you go to new NG+ you get the option to skip the main quest. There is a set of activities you have to do to unlock the next NG+ and you do have to repeat the end of the main quest that requires a combat capable ship and solid ground combat capabilities, so you can't really skip through too quickly. also there really isn't much reason to skip through too quickly.

[jztemple2]

<ramble mode on>

I think I have burned out on Starfield, at least for a while. I am probably several missions away from finishing the main campaign. However, I could feel the burnout when I got a significant side mission which involved Sam Coe and his wife and I found myself repeatedly mashing the Enter key to zip through the dialog; I just didn't care what they had to say. And then when I faced bad guys I just whipped out my most powerful gun which can burn through a 150 round magazine in a few seconds and shredded each of them. Went through about three thousand rounds that way.

But the most telling part was when I got to one of the enemy bases, instead of carefully going through every room searching for loot, I figured I already had so many resources and cash I just didn't feel like bothering with all the poking around. And I've solved so many locks that doing another safe just to get a bit more loot didn't seem appealing anymore.

I did try selling goods I've made at my outpost, but the cash is insignificant compared to what I can get doing other things. And as I noted above, there's no way to automate the selling.

I have in just a hair under 150 hours and am at level 71 with 32/50 achievements. I've played all but one of the 28 days I've had the game and that's quite a lot for me. I thought I'd last till a week from now when AC Mirage and Forza Motorsport both arrive, but I think it's a good time to quit and spend a few days doing other things before I spend the rest of October on the computer

<ramble mode off>

[Unagi]

Can I have your stuff?

[Max Peck]

I've run into the same bug (assuming it is a bug) that caused me to roll back to an old save a couple of days ago. While playing this morning, I ran across 2 grounded ships: one Starborn ship that I was able to board (normally they are inaccessible) and one Ecliptic Claymore that didn't lower its boarding ramp and therefore couldn't be boarded. In both cases, there was no sign of an away team from the ship on the ground. The last time this happened, I thought I knew what might have caused it and didn't do that thing this time around. At this point, the only common thread I can see between the two instances is that the weird behavior started after I captured an Ecliptic Claymore and added it to my hangar.

[Blackhawk]

StarUI HUD and StarUI Inventory have both been updated.

StarUI HUD now gives full crosshair customization, including (presumably) the ability to set the crosshair to always be a dot. I don't need accuracy indicators in this sort of game. Rainbow Six? Sure. StarFallRim? No. It also gives the ability to maintain the crosshair while aiming. If you use Chameleon effects (which turn you invisible), it's a huge plus. After almost a decade, Bethesda still hasn't figured out that if you turn a player's gun invisible, you're also turning the sights invisible.

Another mod that is worth considering: Clean Reflex Sight Lenses. This was a complaint of mine, as I use a lot of pistols for close-quarters, and the reflex sights were almost unusable due to the extreme tint. I'm using some of the author's other mods (the compact UI stuff), and they're solid.



As always, if I recommend something, it's going to be safe for your saves. That doesn't guarantee it'll be bug-free (although I don't recommend anything unless it's very, very stable), but it does mean that it won't corrupt your saves/break your progress. And most mods (including any I've recommended so far) can be safely disabled if you don't like them.

And to repeat my earlier warning: If a Starfield mod includes a .esp or .esm file, stay far, far away. Until the mod tools are released, there is no way to make these stable. They're hacked together by using the other games' systems, but there's no way to correctly set things like headers. Even a minor tweak (like a cool one I saw that gives you more landing cinematics) are likely to permanently corrupt your saves. But as long as they don't use .esp or .esm files, you're fine.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Short explanation of why some are safe and others are not, for those who care:

Spoiler:

Bethesda has all of their files in archives (.ba2 files.) The way Bethesda game/mods work is this: when you load an area, it collects all of the sounds, models, and textures from the .ba2 archives. If there are any loose files with the same name (like "HatTexture.dds") in the folders, it then loads those, overriding the ones in the archive.

So, if you install a mod that changes a UC cap into a Make Earth Great Again cap, the mod will place a file called "HatTexture.dds" into the /data/textures directory. When you launch the game, it first sees you have the cap, and loads the "HatTexture.dds" from Bethesda's own archive. It then checks the /data/textures director, sees another file called "HatTexture.dds", and uses that one instead. That's it. The fact that you have the cap is in your save file - the textures for the cap are not. Delete the mod, and it will load the file from the archive, not see anything in the /data/textures directory, and just display the default cap.

This is how mods that replace sounds, textures, models, and interfaces (which are just .swf - Shockwave Flash - files.) You can replace them and remove them all day. You can go convert the infamous ass banjo image to a .dds file, name it "adtrident02_color.dds", and place it in /data/textures/setdressing/advertisements, and you'll see an ass banjo on the billboards around New Atlantis. That's all there is to it.

Other mods work by changing settings in the .ini files (which are loaded when you launch - change them back, and it loads the default values), by entering console commands to tell the engine to do things that its already designed to do (often as a .bat file run through the in-game console), or by hooking into the .exe and tweaking the engine itself (this is how the Achievement Enabler works.) Again, very few are going to change anything that affects your saves (there is only one mod that I avoided out of caution this way - one that lets you give outposts and ships longer names - it's probably safe, but I can't be sure.)

There is another way to mod - the system that they originally called 'plugins.' This is instructions to the game to change what is loaded, or to load something new. Adding a new structure or item, adding a quest, changing what's in a box, changing how containers work (like making them infinite, or by linking all player storage to share contents), that sort of thing. These are the things that are done with the editor or via a tool called xEdit (FO4Edit, SSEEdit, etc.), and results in a .esp (Elder Scrolls Plugin) or .esm (Elder Scrolls Master) file. They are new or altered instructions to the game itself, and, unlike changes to the engine, interface, or textures, those changes are generally included in your save file.

The tools for doing this safely do not exist yet.

Mods with these cannot sneak up on you. Any mod that uses those files will include instructions on adding the name of the .esp/.esm file to your .ini files, since the 'addons' menu doesn't exist yet (which is where you'd normally activate them.)

And again, any mod I recommend here is going to be a simple replacer, ini tweak, SFSE utility, etc. that should be safe.

[Punisher]

Question.
Ate you using Vortex or or something else to install them or doing everything manually?
I'm using Vortex and I dint think everything is loading correctly.
Is there a way to see if you've been flagged for achievements?
That might let me know if at least one mod works or not.

[Blackhawk]

Question.
Ate you using Vortex or or something else to install them or doing everything manually?
I'm using Vortex and I dint think everything is loading correctly.
Is there a way to see if you've been flagged for achievements?
That might let me know if at least one mod works or not.

The only thing I installed manually was Starfield Script Extender (SFSE.) I use Mod Organizer 2, which I find superior to Vortex*. But the Starfield version is currently in (rock-solid) beta, available only through their Discord. It's been many, many years since I have used Vortex, so I'm not sure how to check on there. I'm not sure if Vortex actually installs the mods to the game folder (MO2 does not - that's a big part of the appeal) I also don't know which achievement enabler you used - there are two. I'm going on the assumption that you used Baka Achievement Enabler, the more popular option. If not, I'll take a look at the other. For now, though, my questions are me firing blind here under the assumption it was Baka.

Did you install the Starfield Script Extender? Check in your install directory and see if sfse_loader.exe and sfse_1_7_23.dll are in there. They should be in the same folder as Starfield.exe.

Did you install Baka? Check in your install directory and see if there is a folder called "SFSE", and within that, "Plugins", and within that should be a file, BakaAchievementEnabler.dll.

Ignore what's below if you don't care.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The reason I use Mod Organizer 2 is that it gives better fine control over the mods, and because it leaves the game folder alone. It installs the mods to its own folder, keeping them separate from the actual game and from each other. It then runs them through some coding magic that makes Starfield think that the MO2 folder is the Starfield Data folder. It does the same with the .ini files - the ones you edit in MO2 are not the actual files in the game/my docs directories.

Why does any of that matter? 1. Since the game folder is untouched, you can create multiple profiles and run several different mod setups through the install (like if more than one person is playing, or if you have two different characters that benefit from different mods.) 2. Since the .ini files are separate, it prevents Bethesda or Steam from 'fixing' them by setting them all back to default (this was a huge problem in the past - the game launcher always removed and reset non-standard entries on launch.) It also prevents things like verifying files from altering anything.

The downside is that it's got a steeper learning curve due to the extra options.

[Max Peck]

I've run into the same bug (assuming it is a bug) that caused me to roll back to an old save a couple of days ago. While playing this morning, I ran across 2 grounded ships: one Starborn ship that I was able to board (normally they are inaccessible) and one Ecliptic Claymore that didn't lower its boarding ramp and therefore couldn't be boarded. In both cases, there was no sign of an away team from the ship on the ground. The last time this happened, I thought I knew what might have caused it and didn't do that thing this time around. At this point, the only common thread I can see between the two instances is that the weird behavior started after I captured an Ecliptic Claymore and added it to my hangar.

I did some digging and found several claims that might shed some light on what I'm seeing:

Spoiler:

Apparently there is a window of opportunity to steal a Starborn ship pre-NG+ because after it lands the ship is accessible while the Starborn away team is disembarking. If the bug afflicting me is something like a broken script that fails to spawn and disembark the away team from all NPC ships after they land, that would explain why I can't board any non-Starborn ship as well as why I can board all the randomly spawned Starborn ships.

[Punisher]

Question.
Ate you using Vortex or or something else to install them or doing everything manually?
I'm using Vortex and I dint think everything is loading correctly.
Is there a way to see if you've been flagged for achievements?
That might let me know if at least one mod works or not.

The only thing I installed manually was Starfield Script Extender (SFSE.) I use Mod Organizer 2, which I find superior to Vortex*. But the Starfield version is currently in (rock-solid) beta, available only through their Discord. It's been many, many years since I have used Vortex, so I'm not sure how to check on there. I'm not sure if Vortex actually installs the mods to the game folder (MO2 does not - that's a big part of the appeal) I also don't know which achievement enabler you used - there are two. I'm going on the assumption that you used Baka Achievement Enabler, the more popular option. If not, I'll take a look at the other. For now, though, my questions are me firing blind here under the assumption it was Baka.

Did you install the Starfield Script Extender? Check in your install directory and see if sfse_loader.exe and sfse_1_7_23.dll are in there. They should be in the same folder as Starfield.exe.

Did you install Baka? Check in your install directory and see if there is a folder called "SFSE", and within that, "Plugins", and within that should be a file, BakaAchievementEnabler.dll.

Ignore what's below if you don't care.
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* The reason I use Mod Organizer 2 is that it gives better fine control over the mods, and because it leaves the game folder alone. It installs the mods to its own folder, keeping them separate from the actual game and from each other. It then runs them through some coding magic that makes Starfield think that the MO2 folder is the Starfield Data folder. It does the same with the .ini files - the ones you edit in MO2 are not the actual files in the game/my docs directories.

Why does any of that matter? 1. Since the game folder is untouched, you can create multiple profiles and run several different mod setups through the install (like if more than one person is playing, or if you have two different characters that benefit from different mods.) 2. Since the .ini files are separate, it prevents Bethesda or Steam from 'fixing' them by setting them all back to default (this was a huge problem in the past - the game launcher always removed and reset non-standard entries on launch.) It also prevents things like verifying files from altering anything.

The downside is that it's got a steeper learning curve due to the extra options.

Thanks for all that. I'll double cgeck for the sfse folders. I think i am using baka but not positive.
If it's not there then vortex may not be working.
I might decide to nuke everything and start all over with mod organizer.

[Punisher]

How is mod organizer with downloading moda? Its one of the reasons why i likw bortex. Its easy to download and install byt if it turns out its not working then eassy doesn't help.

[Blackhawk]

How is mod organizer with downloading moda? Its one of the reasons why i likw bortex. Its easy to download and install byt if it turns out its not working then eassy doesn't help.

Pretty much the same. You set it to capture links from Nexus, then just click the link and it downloads directly in the manager. MO2 is on good terms with Nexus. It's not that much more complicated, but it's a little different. Just make sure that anything you do to the game you do within MO2, not directly to the game's files. If you go with it, I'll find a good setup video.

[jztemple2]

Can I have your stuff?

Nope, sorry, after spending the day celebrating my birthday, I'm back at Starfield again . I guess I will keep playing it off and on till something else comes along.

IIRC, everywhere in the outpost should be within range to magically tranfer stuff from your inventory directly to the ship without actually carrying it there. Once you've loaded up yourself with the stuff you want to put on the ship, you just need to open the ship UI (H), bring up the cargo UI (F), switch to your personal inventory (Q) then store items on the ship. I don't think there's a way to directly transfer items from a storage container to the ship, but I'm not 100% certain that there isn't a way to do it either (that's pretty much my standard Starfield disclaimer -- I haven't spent any time reading guides, so there is a tonne of stuff that can be done that I just don't know about until someone tells me).

Oh my gosh, thank you for telling me about this! I'm now using it whenever I'm on a mission and I pick up some stuff and don't want to weight myself down. Now I just send it magically to the ship

[Max Peck]

I've run into the same bug (assuming it is a bug) that caused me to roll back to an old save a couple of days ago. While playing this morning, I ran across 2 grounded ships: one Starborn ship that I was able to board (normally they are inaccessible) and one Ecliptic Claymore that didn't lower its boarding ramp and therefore couldn't be boarded. In both cases, there was no sign of an away team from the ship on the ground. The last time this happened, I thought I knew what might have caused it and didn't do that thing this time around. At this point, the only common thread I can see between the two instances is that the weird behavior started after I captured an Ecliptic Claymore and added it to my hangar.

I did some digging and found several claims that might shed some light on what I'm seeing:

Spoiler:

Apparently there is a window of opportunity to steal a Starborn ship pre-NG+ because after it lands the ship is accessible while the Starborn away team is disembarking. If the bug afflicting me is something like a broken script that fails to spawn and disembark the away team from all NPC ships after they land, that would explain why I can't board any non-Starborn ship as well as why I can board all the randomly spawned Starborn ships.

Yet another thing that may tie into all of this is that I've discovered that if I board a ship in space there is no crew aboard it.

[Unagi]

Seen inside an abandoned cryogenics lab.
(also, finally moving the main quest up a notch here)



Yes, I took the carrot.