Starfield

[AceGoober]

I'm not using Vortex.

Well then, which one? MO2?

 

[SecretStash]

Is vortex good for starfield nowadays? Back when I was playing it didn't always get mesh replacements right and manual effort was needed.

But everything, including modding methods were super new, so stuff that was standard in TES and fallout wasn't quite yet there for starfield.

 

[Dan_D]

Well then, which one? MO2?

None. I installed everything manually. I tried Vortex and it was a shit show. It didn't work for me.

 

[AceGoober]

Is vortex good for starfield nowadays? Back when I was playing it didn't always get mesh replacements right and manual effort was needed.

But everything, including modding methods were super new, so stuff that was standard in TES and fallout wasn't quite yet there for starfield.

To answer your first question, from my experience as being an adopter form its release, Vortex has improved leaps and bounds over what it was when originally released. I am using Vortex for a multitude of games and not having a single issue with mod installs.

That said, it * should * be simple to install mods and generally it is depending upon which type of mod being installed. The best, and highly recommended, thing to do prior to installing a mod is to read what the mod alters. I can't stress this enough since there may be extra steps involved in addition to loading in the mod manager.

For example, POI mods definitely need to be paid attention to. There are two POI mods I will not install since they may - have - replace mission or side quest dependent locations halting progress.

For # two, any newly released game may not be fully functional; especially from Bethesda. It takes time to develop and test new or revised modding tools to to keep up with each patch released by Bethesda. This applies to DLC such as Shattered Space and Terran Armada as QoL fixes are also implemented.

Load Order: LOOT, which is embedded into Vortex, does a great job of sorting mods but it isn't the end all, be all of sorters. There are times where a conflict may arise but might not be discovered until later in the playthrough. I had one with the mod Akila Rising where the vendors didn't have any stock whatsoever. Turned out I had to manually move Akila Rising below Richer Vendors in order to resolve the issue.

In summary, modding tools have improved greatly since Starfield's release. So have the mods. If you need help, just post in this thread and I'll assist as best as possible.

 

[DWolvin]

Seconded on Vortex being good now- might not be completely intuitive but it's well documented and hasn't failed me in any game in a year or two.

 

[CAD4466HK]

Seconded on Vortex being good now- might not be completely intuitive but it's well documented and hasn't failed me in any game in a year or two.

Agreed.
I also endorse MO2, I've used it for many, many games and have had no issues.
I'm using it now for the Tale of Two Wastelands mod for FO3 & FO:NV with excellent results.

 

[SecretStash]

I have used vortex for a while now but I remember there was certain changes that had to be done in the "my games" folder which wasn't very normal compared to other Bethesda games. Glad to hear it's smoother now.

 

[Sycraft]

Seconded on Vortex being good now- might not be completely intuitive but it's well documented and hasn't failed me in any game in a year or two.

I haven't used it on Starfield, as I haven't gotten around to playing it yet, but it works great on Cyberpunk 2077. I got bitten by the replay bug and decided to try modding it up heavily and Vortex did the thing. I just loaded in the collections and additional mods and it handled it. Game has been running well.

 

[Q-BZ]

For Vortex: Folder Junction... yes or no?

 

[AceGoober]

For Vortex: Folder Junction... yes or no?

Yes. Instsll Baka Disable My Games Folder then manually copy \My Games\Starfield folder contents to \Starfield\Data

 

[Flogger23m]

Anyone finish the new DLC quest line? If so how long is it?

 

[Armenius]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQdlpJergWs

 

[Comixbooks]

Paging through Imagine FX issue 248 they had the guy from Starfield Box Art featured Mike Butkus.

 

[Flogger23m]

Put around 7-8 or so hours into the DLC, still have some quests left. And apparently have some companion quests that have yet to start. The new "real time travel" to planets is a gimmick. You hold T and wait a few minutes to get there. Not really any different than the fast traveling, just more annoying. And they force you to use it for the DLC missions. Quest design is still not that good. More of the same. No improvements in any notable way. I'll finish it and hope if lessons were learned, it shows in their next game.

 

[Algrim]

So I'm running a clean install with zero mods, what in the heck is this thing?

View attachment 795850

You can buy the power armor set from trade authority merchants if you don’t get lucky on drops. The ability to change affixes and upgrade quality is a real game changer for people with bad luck on the RNG gods. There are still some affix combinations you can get on random drops that you can’t get through the crafting system (see weapon Lateral Thinking and its rank 2 Chilling affix, though it’s not a random drop).

 

[Comixbooks]

View: https://youtu.be/gAnBrn9cEWM?si=GGmQJAssTYmF5sn-

 

[AceGoober]

1.0GB Starfield patch released. May utilities such as script extender are also in the process of being updated. Downloading as I type this.

It'll be interesting to see what Bethesda has fixed or added.

 

[Algrim]

1.0GB Starfield patch released. May utilities such as script extender are also in the process of being updated. Downloading as I type this.

It'll be interesting to see what Bethesda has fixed or added.

I’ve not been noticing anything really different pre- and post-patch.

Thanks to the TA patch changing the suit and weapon crafting system, I’ve taken the lowly Equinox and made it my primary sniping weapon. I have a Starlash that will do triple the damage but I don’t think it’s fair to use on enemies.

 

[Flogger23m]

Terran Armada main quest line is quite lame. Though there is a side quest line which is decent. It has to do with someone who left a team to die, stranded planet as he took their only ship and they did not have enough food supplies. Ended up taking about 2 hours to finish. For once it was a decent quest line, has to do more with your own morality in choosing the outcome. Feels more like the Fallout quest design from FO3/NV. The characters were minor but relevant and interesting enough for a side quest. Whatever their next game is needs to have more quests like this. And if they can't push it past a 70-80 hour play time full of a good main story and decent side quests like this, they need to cap it at that length. 70-80 hours of good quests is superior to 150 hours, where 80+ hours are garbage quests.

 

[AceGoober]

You know what irks the [H]ell out of me?

Modder creates a good weapon. Well done, plenty of mod options, great looks. Then the modder sets the spawn so every one and their great, great grandmother have one on their person. Seriously? I've removed mods that pull that crap more times than I have fingers and toes.

Anyways, regarding the latest patch, it's nice to have two computers to test on. I run Starfield on both my laptop and desktop by swapping the gaming drive between them. I've definitely experienced performance increase on both systems alongside other features that I use.

 

[AceGoober]

Has anyone beat UC Simulator Tier 6? I just did. Hacked the terminal and got the damage upgrade and extra wingman.

Took a few tries loading save after each attempt but got it. Tough fight. Survived by using the asteroids as cover and popping out from behind them to take a few shots then ducking back behind cover.





Have also been doing a bit of ship modding, of course.

Ran with the Frontier and it turned out better than expected This is the most powerful ship I've ever built. Or, in this case, ever upgraded. Weapons and shield are from a combination of Darkstar paid mod and Darretech. Ship habs and such are from Hopetech, Straud-Eckland, Deimos, and Ancient Mariner.

When I first put this together it was a pain navigating through the different habs. Did a bit of rearranging and now it is easy to get from one to another without much effort.

The combination of weapons contributes destroying Crimson Fleet or Spacer ships in less than two seconds. Capital ships are done and gone within roughly eight seconds. Yeah, not much effort but damn is it sure fun.

For the inquisitve, the dual weapons underneath the cockpit are howitzers. Those might be replaced with something else but right now they do the job.

 

[AceGoober]

Lost my level 407 character due to four poorly implemented mods.

Irked me to start over completely but I did, with exceptions. New game. After finishing introductions and such, cheat leveled character to 600. Completed every research (except Darkstar's mods). Completed every skill (except for Takedown mod). Gave character 100,000,000 credits. That all happened prior to leaving Vectera. Once the initial mission with Constellation was completed off to the Ship Services in New Atlantis with stops at Derretech space station and Darkstar kiosks.

Spent roughly the entire weekend putting this together. Trying different combinations of parts within the limits I'd set.

Max mass: 1400​

Weapons maxxed​

Armored to [H]ell and back​

Enough crew capacity to hire whatever crew I choose​

Crafting stations​

Command center​

Infirmary​

Free Lanes mods​

The base was the Frontier and am very happy with the modifications. It is a tank. End-game certified. Took a [H]ell of a lot of experimentation and credits to get this ship to its mostly final form. Still have a few minor touches to do prior to painting.









Oh, and here's a meme from Sonny's island.

 

[AceGoober]

Lost my level 407 character due to four poorly implemented mods.

Irked me to start over completely but I did, with exceptions. New game. After finishing introductions and such, cheat leveled character to 600. Completed every research (except Darkstar's mods). Completed every skill (except for Takedown mod). Gave character 100,000,000 credits. That all happened prior to leaving Vectera. Once the initial mission with Constellation was completed off to the Ship Services in New Atlantis with stops at Derretech space station and Darkstar kiosks.

Spent roughly the entire weekend putting this together. Trying different combinations of parts within the limits I'd set.

Max mass: 1400​

Weapons maxxed​

Armored to [H]ell and back​

Enough crew capacity to hire whatever crew I choose​

Crafting stations​

Command center​

Infirmary​

Free Lanes mods​

The base was the Frontier and am very happy with the modifications. It is a tank. End-game certified. Took a [H]ell of a lot of experimentation and credits to get this ship to its mostly final form. Still have a few minor touches to do prior to painting.

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Oh, and here's a meme from Sonny's island.

View attachment 806991

Modding a game can be a test of patience. A simple mod update shouldn't cause any harm, right? Whelp, the latest updates for two mods did.

It appears as though the ship and its configuration was invalid due to to two mod updates which borked my save files since I posted the aforementioned Tuesday. And, here we go again!

The old saying is "If it weren't rocket science we wouldn't be doing it." Everyone's case will be different depending upon the mods they have installed. Apparently, the mods I have installed don't conflict with the troublesome mods.

Removed the mods, reinstalled the mods, started new game... got quite a ways into playthrough... same shit, different day. Checked load order, ran XEdit, performed every variable check I could think of (substantial) to determine WTH was corrupting my game.

Whelp, tough. Removed the mods completely and started new game. Lo and behold "It just works!" (shamelessly quoted from Todd Howard)

Wiped every save file then followed the steps for new game as previously posted. Hit up the Ship Tech in New Atlantis and got to work. What I came up with doesn't equal the previous build but considering the circumstances there is no doubt in my mind that the previous build was corrupted which inflated the overall specs.

This time around, given the limitations for ships to land at each landing pad, I had to compromise a bit on length. Despite my personal endeavor of pushing the limits, it was necessary to back off a bit considering the length restrictions. I'm playing Terran Armada right now so I'm hoping to find a Terran ship with the Reduce Mass by 20% mod.

 

[AceGoober]

Made a few ship updates.

I like this configuration better than previous since it allowed for moving the Terran Armada ship mods off the top and bottom to the area between the outer and inner habs. It also allowed for moving two of the EM weapons away from the Neo-Howitzers line of sight.

 

[theplaidfad]

I bought the game at release, and just finally got around to playing it two months ago. I've just made it through the unity for the 10th time...