Starfield

[Grogan]

I bought Starfield last night (but haven't installed it yet). Probably the last Bethesda game that was developed before they got Microsofted.

I just happened to get it 33% off last night (with about 5 hours to go)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1716740/Starfield/

It gets horrible reviews everywhere, it's a boring game. Well, I like boring games

(Others say "don't listen to them, if you liked Skyrim and Fallout games you'll like this too")

The bottom line is, I like space RPGs.

P.S. OOPS, another stupid thing I have to deselect for that media embedding plugin. We don't need it posting Steam links inline with "buy now!" WTF lol

I think only enabling what we want is the ticket (youtube and other video sites perhaps) rather than finding out we hate shit and disabling it as we go.

[Grogan]

Well, pretty good so far. It works great on "Ultra" with all those stupid resolution scaling features turned off, that reduce your graphics to increase performance (e.g. AMD Fidelity Shmidelity).

It seems like a good old Bethesda RPG. It didn't waste too much time getting off the ground. I start out as a miner that encounters a strange sample that sends me on a vision, then I'm given a ship and a robot to go to the scientists to figure this stuff out.

Then, similar to other games, when the game starts for real you're given a character creation interface. It lets you start with a preset biometric ID and change it... and it lets you create fuglios

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It has both first person (default) and third person modes if you zoom out with your mouse wheel (like previous Bethesda RPGs). I'll be playing in first person mode, so I won't have to look at my fugly character from behind

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I did some pistol combat, some space combat and now I'm headed to eliminate a pirate captain on a remote moon. I've just landed (in one of the shots below). I won't dump them all in the thread, there's a gallery here too:

http://www.mikeserv.org/coppermine/thum ... p?album=20

[Zema Bus]

I missed the sale before it ended. Kind of a pricey game particularly the digital premium edition.

[Grogan]

Yeah, I paid $90 CAD for that, on sale. I'm not one to buy a game without the DLC though.

I like the game so far though. That last moon where I had just landed, I had to explore an abandoned research facility to find where those pirates were holed up, and kill them all. I was exploring all these rooms with labs, futuristic lab equipment and loot containers etc. Now I'm in the Alpha Centauri system in New Atlantis, a city of buildings and spires. I've just joined this "Constellation" organization and I'm on a mission to find more artifacts.

For me, exploration... what's not to like. This is somewhat like Fallout meets No Man's Sky.

[Grogan]

... and just like a Bethesda game, I pressed tilde ~ to bring up a console and typed "tgm" for total god mode, where you don't take damage and you don't consume ammo

HOWEVER, unlike a Bethesda game, it warned me that certain console commands will disable achievements. I don't care. But what it also did was make all my saves disappear. I saved my game and quit, to see if they would come back but I realized it was because I enabled god mode.

Oh well, as long as it stays like that now. I'm not having any trouble staying alive or anything, it's the bloody ammo that made me want tgm.

P.S. Ahh... Here's what happens (and I don't mind this). If I go right out, all the way, my saves will all show up. As soon as I load one where god mode was enabled, they disappear and only my recent ones shows up. This persists until the game is exited completely (quitting to menu won't show the saves again). Kind of petty (like achievements matter) but as long as it doesn't mess up MY game, I don't care if they care about their silly adornments.

[Grogan]

Well, with the "tgm" god mode, where I don't have to worry about health, or oxygen, or weight, or how long I can sprint, or taking damage in space combat or pretty much anything, I love the living shit out of this game. All those nifty weapons I'm picking up, I can actually use them as much as I want now that they don't consume ammo, too

Like a typical Bethesda RPG, I'm getting caught up in side quest lines. I hope to see some more variety in planetary terrain soon (though I haven't been to that many places yet) but I'm enjoying exploring old research outposts and stuff that have been overtaken by pirates etc.

I think I can go anywhere I want with my "gravjump" hyperdrive, and land anywhere I want on a planet or available moon (on the star system map). I haven't done that yet, but I've gone off the beaten track on planets I've had quests on and found more outposts and shit. Right now though, there are so many quests that I'm busy enough that I don't need to do anything else.

They could have done a better job on the faces too, for example most of the people all seem to have the same stupid smile lol

I don't care if it isn't perfect though, I love an exploration type RPG, and especially space games. I'm seeing similarities between a Fallout game, No Man's Sky with a bit of influence by Mass Effect Andromeda. It's not terribly original and a somewhat disappointing effort from Bethesda. I can't disagree with some of the complaints, from their perspective. But from mine, they gave me "tgm" mode and all this shit to do, explore and shoot, so pffft

[Grogan]

So yes, you can go to any system you want, land on any planet you want (within reason... you can land on the moons of a gas giant). There may not be anything there, but most have at least one marked landing spot ("abandoned facility" of some type). I've found some interesting installations. They are "abandoned" because they are taken over by pirates/spacers/cultists/criminal militias and you get to go exploring them and killing them all

With "tgm" god mode, it doesn't matter if the areas are way higher leveled than me. I've got wicked guns from some baddies that are easily 3 times the damage of what I'd have just following missions.

There are campaign and side missions that take you to what I'd presume to be fixed common areas, but most of the game is procedurally generated. While shamelessly borrowing ideas from it, Starfield is far more realistic than No Man's Sky. A lot of the terrain is boring, but that's probably reality. I've also been to some nice planets now too, even some of the random ones I chose were grass and trees and cool wildlife (some of which attacks).

I'm just about to kill all the bad spacers and recover an artifact when I took this shot. There are several landing spots already marked on this planet, it's a nice one and I'll probably stay and explore it after I finish the mission. I stayed up here and sniped most of them:

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[Zema Bus]

Can you fly into the atmosphere of a gas giant? One thing that bothered me about No Man's Sky was the lack of gas giants, it's likely that most star systems have at least one. I'll have to pick up this one. Would you say it's worth the $100 US for the Premium Edition if I don't want to wait for the next sale?

[Grogan]

Shit... I thought I answered this but must not have finished composing it. I've been blacking right out at my computer at the end of the night/morning, and waking up so stunned I have trouble replying to posts and then even shutting down my computer (root password fumble, shutdown -h fumble lol). It's a vicious circle of not getting enough sleep in bed (both cause and effect).

What I (apparently, almost) said was that unless you're going to spend a lot of time at it to make your own interesting game out of this sandbox, it's probably not worth 100 bucks to you. I'd envision you liking it, playing a bit of the campaign and then on with the next. I can see why a lot of people might say it's boring. So unless it's something you're going to play for the rest of your life (there are something like 1000 star systems) wait for a sale

I don't think you can fly into the atmosphere of a gas giant. You don't actually approach planets yourself, you bring them up on the planetary map and click to choose a landing site (whether a facility is marked or not). Clicking on a gas giant simply tells you that you can't land there (I checked, just to make sure it wasn't stupid lol). There are usually several moons and some might have marked facilities. That shit is random in random systems I'd think (not sure about mission systems).

No Man's Sky was a silly, cartoony simulation of a universe (in the game I mean). Created by the "Atlas". That's why there were no gas giants and you could land on every planet.

You don't fly your ship in the atmosphere of a planet in Starfield, you only land and take off. So if you want to get closer to something, you'd get in your ship, take off, bring up the map and click for a new landing site etc.

While actually flying your ship in space, even with boost engaged, it's not fast enough to traverse any great distance in a solar system. That's more for space combat and docking approaches on space stations.

Anyway, you haven't finished Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Wonders await. Seriously, you should go back to that one.

There's still Far Cry 6 too that you haven't finished. (and I need to get back to that myself, I've been enjoying that... very nice pace etc. and I haven't gotten angry at it yet)

[Zema Bus]

Thanks Grogan.

I'm all too familiar with being sleep deprived lately, waking up multiple times with heartburn and quenching it with Gaviscon and slipper elm while watching youtube videos

[Grogan]

This game seems to let you do whatever the Hell you want. I'm with my organization's benefactor (Walter Stroud, CEO of Stroud-Eckland, a ship manufacturing company). We're in this mining colony town built on a platform, Neon, meeting a clandestine buyer to obtain a stolen artifact. I have to find the guy, somewhere in a VIP suite. I go in one and find this guy standing there, thinking he might be the guy, I talk to him and he's this arrogant, self important asshole. He owns the club, and he's the CEO of the mining corp. that owns the town. He chides me for wasting his time because I'm not important enough. There are just a few conversation choices, "so, you're the owner" and such. He informs me yes, and he can call security and have people thrown off the roof any time he likes.

I didn't like his attitude so I just pulled out a gun and shot him in the head and that shut him up, real hard and he fell over dead. I heard someone in the background shriek in surprise at the sound of the gunshot, but there were no consequences. No security came. I thought I was going to have to go back to a save because my hot headed ego just blew the mission, but nope

[Grogan]

By the way, no, the game doesn't let you do what you want. I didn't get into any trouble for popping that CEO (because of no witnesses I presume, the shot was only heard) but I got in to manufactured trouble (I think it was scripted) and got arrested by the UC (corporate authority that think they run all the colonies etc.) and they tried to coerce me into going undercover to take down a pirate organization, the "Crimson Fleet". I'm funny that way, I'd have been happy to if they'd have just asked me. But since they tried gunboat diplomacy (even after I've aided them in fighting that group previously) fuck them. The game wouldn't let me fight them (well, in god mode I could indeed keep defeating endless ships but it was just that) so I had to surrender and it wasn't a bounty that could be paid like normal. I did nothing but kill shoot first and ask questions later scavenger type pirates and take their shit, not a real crime. I refused and went to prison on Mars (Cydonia colony they call it) in a brief cut scene. They really couldn't hold me, it was just the inconvenience of the matter... and now the UC are enemies.

I also got huge bounty with the UC (and aggressively attacked in orbit with no option to surrender) for fighting "Starborn" (aliens wanting to prevent humanity from acquiring the knowledge from these artifacts and ancient temples) in the city that were attacking us to prevent our egress. I actually went back to a save for that one, I just didn't fight on the way to the ship. Let the UC deal with powers and technology they've never seen before. That's what RPGs are all about I guess, you make your own game out of it.

Thing is, I hate that "Crimson Fleet" too so I probably am going to take them down despite the UC. I was approached by a contact after I got released and now I'm a "member". Checkout this justin bieber-esque puke. You can't tell me that likeness with the backwards cap etc. is accidental. Games do shit like that, it's not actually that person and they can claim it's a coincidence

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[Grogan]

So I finished this game. The main story, and I acquired all the Starborn powers by going to all the ancient temples. I still had a bunch of side quests queued up, and still countless systems I could have gone to, but I decided I'd rather do all that in a New Game+

After acquiring all the artifacts, and assembling the device on your ship, it takes you to this "Unity" where you cross over into alternate universes. At the end you have a choice to just turn around and go back to your present universe, or go through the Unity and emerge in a new one. That starts a New Game+ where you emerge as a Starborn, with a cool, ultra fast Starborn Guardian ship.

At first I was annoyed that you don't keep your gear (you keep all your levels and stats and powers etc.) and I lost some unique weapons I'd never seen again, but it's a different universe and the game is a bit different. You go to your colleagues where you have another choice. A conversation choice one of which is to "skip the main story" and just fill them in on what's happened. It then starts you out with a bunch of quests right off the bat to find the remaining artifacts and temples in that new universe and stuff.

It left me with only a shitty gun so I just jumped to a far system that was level 75 and fought Spacers (rescued some colonists in a side quest) and looted some good weapons

[Grogan]

So this "New Game+" is kind of cool. I skipped the story part and got right to getting artifacts and finding temples to acquire powers. I thought I had all the Starborn powers, but when you acquire the same power again, it upgrades it to version II (currently). Also the new playthrough opened up some new powers, that I didn't have before.

I'm not much interested in them, I like to shoot guns, but some of them are pretty cool. Some do damage, some make you invisible, some slow time, generate gravity, remove gravity, spawn another you from an alternate universe to fight with you... all kinds of shit. One of them looks amusing, and I keep meaning to try it... it creates a vacuum in its area of effect. That could be funny if inside a base or something... suffocate enemies (and hopefully cause some discomfort). What it probably does is panic enemies and drain their "Oxygen" (which is like stamina in this game, if you're not in god mode)

I wanted out of that first playthrough because I somewhat ruined my game by joining up with the Crimson Fleet. I no longer had the opportunity to contact the U.C. Authority and take that quest once I had infiltrated them, I was an actual member of the Crimson fleet with questlines and shit that I didn't want to do. (I'm brutal, but I am a good guy in games). It also ruined exploring, because now when I go to abandoned facilities they were allies. Un-fun.

I'm doing more planetary exploring in this round. I've found that if I land on a planet interesting enough to walk around on, even if there are no marked locations, it doesn't mean nothing will be generated when you get there or start walking. On one relatively green planet with some hostile wildlife to shoot while walking, I just kept walking and walking and eventually came across a tall radio mast antenna and a shelter. There were two pirates outside that attacked me. I went in, and they had murdered the antenna operator. There was a job board note with a contract to go and take out the leader of this gang, on a remote moon in the solar system.

So there's lots to find, if you get lucky and cool things get generated.

What's cool about the way New Game+ works is that you can get through it quickly if you want, all you need are the artifacts. So you can keep going through new alternate universes this way, each one different. Do whatever you want, or don't. It's the ultimate in free roam. It's only boring if you want to think it's boring. Well... I can see why people think so (and I came to think so too for a while) but when I think about it, I've not had a better endless exploration game. Sure it's not original ideas, but they did a good job and made it somewhat realistic in comparison to No Man's Sky-like games. Also, the way the god mode works in Bethesda games is something I've always liked and this one is similar, but is necessarily broader in scope because the game is more complex. It takes most everything into account.

Big update coming on May 15, but available as Beta right now. I'm going to test it now, to see if it's going to ruin anything or if I'm going to need to work around anything etc.

[Grogan]

So I'm just going around, exploring systems, murdering any pirates that have taken over abandoned facilities, taking quests that might be interesting etc. I went to Mars, to the mining colony Cydonia to sell some shit and wound up getting roped into a quest line for the head mining provisioner. He's having trouble getting executive approval for some mining equipment, without which he can't increase productivity and hiring and stuff. So I'm to infiltrate, and get a job as this executive's assistant, since his old one never came back. The bureaucracy here is slow and stupid, and this executive can't get a new assistant hired and approved. So I go to the moon Deimos to apply for the job, fill out an application with test questionaire. It doesn't matter what I say, because I'm going to go hack the computer to delete every other job application but mine

I'm infiltrating as his assistant, because I need access to his computer to approve the new equipment request. First I have to go and find out what happened to an important package. It's probably something illegal or embarrassing. I have to go talk to the colony governor, where I find out this executive is behind on his taxes and everything of his is being held. To get the governor to release it, and defer his taxes, I have to go do a little dirty job for him. He says his ship was stolen by the Crimson Fleet and he needs it found and destroyed. Obviously because he doesn't want something discovered. I found it in the system, but it didn't seem like a hostile ship that I'm supposed to destroy. Things didn't seem right. I get a hail for help, where if I accept the hail I can choose to [LIE] I'm a Crimson pirate too, let me come aboard and help, or say "sorry, I have orders to destroy you". The voice seemed hesitant, like ".... OK, as long as you have ship parts and can help". I first accepted the choice to board and find out just who I'm murdering first, but decided to destroy the ship anyway and get on with my quest line, to get access to the computer terminal. It's just a game.

So now as this exec's assistant I have to deal with his messages at his computer. While there, after approving the mining equipment, I also approved every single employee request (generous me!) at his computer, upping their vacation time, providing free beverages etc. lol

The quest line still isn't done, but my real reward for that tomfoolery was getting to read his emails. I came across this message from his old assistant.

Blarg! Boogedy boogedy boo!

(I'm still giddy from this)

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[Zema Bus]

lol!

[Grogan]

Boo!

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My follower got corrupted (and it's saved in the game state lol). It's the administrator of the "Freestar Rangers", I decided to follow that quest line and join that faction. It's like their police, that go around helping people in "Freestar Collective" space. She's coming with me on this mission to rescue a farmer from some pirates, to make sure I know what I'm doing etc. It happened when she boarded my Starborn ship, I saw her face like vanish when she spawned through the entry portal. She didn't materialize right lol. From the side view, her face and jaw are missing, invisible. This game has pretty good, realistic looking faces, she was a pretty normal looking black lady before we boarded my ship. Oh well, it won't break the quests and probably when we get back to her city and I go to her office that will rectify.

I did manage to find a glitched quest though. I was exploring some random moon in some random system, when I came across a fracking/mining installation. The contracted workers were getting burned, because the site wasn't producing and they wanted the fuck out of there. I was to take them to this colony where they would be safe (from their "employers" I presume).

When I got to the system the quest marker on the planet was actually pointing me to this big waypoint pin like icon, that was called "Natural" (natural phenomenon I guessed) and not the colony marker. The way point was presumably where I was supposed to take them. They didn't get off my ship, and what I found was a cave, with lots of crystal formations and stuff, and some nasty little creatures that I shot. Then this big "Terrormorph" (a big ant-like bug enemy, like a miniboss) creature that I killed. I went through the cave system and killed everything and there wasn't anything interesting.

Then my waypoint has changed to the colony so I went there and found my waypoint on the pavement. It was an enclosed installation, I jump-boosted in (found the small door later lol). By listening and talking to some people I quite rightly deduced that I had to fix things here first before my passengers could disembark here.

It turns out that it's a prison reform type colony where suitable prisoners can be released from prison here. The organization pays off their bounties and they are kind of indentured there. The ex-cons there that I saw were all good workers wanting to make a better life for themselves. Anyway, missing worker, and I was tasked to find him. The quest wouldn't advance. I was to go talk to the injured security guard in the infirmary, but there was no quest and he was all "leave me alone, can't you see I'm hurt".

A reddit thread told me it was because I killed the terrormorph in the cave first. Ahh, OK, that I did so I went back to a save from right before I did that and the quest trigger worked. When I got to the cave, the terrormorph wasn't even there, it was just incidental (what you'd call a "rare spawn"). What glitched the quest was simply clearing out the cave of enemies before taking the quest. This time I found the missing worker and escorted him safely through the cave and back to the colony, which set off the rest of the quest line.

In the end my original quest resolved itself. It kind of just merged into the quest line, I can't even find it (it's not in completed or failed quests) and the passengers on my ship were simply gone. Its purpose was to get me to go to that colony and start the quest line.

[Zema Bus]

Looks like she stuck her head in the engine exhaust and turned into charcoal lady lol!

I'm good at doing things out of the expected order in games

[Grogan]

By the way, if I'd have quit right out that would have fixed itself. When I started the game fresh the next night the follower was back to normal.

That actually turned out to be a GREAT quest line, joining the Freestar Rangers. It's doing what I love to do, going to seedy, dangerous places, saving people from criminals and pirates, investigating crime syndicates and picking up little side quests to help people. I like the Freestar Collective's society better than the United Colonies, it's a bit freer and they tolerate a bit more shade etc. (though with that comes less safety for the individual). They were one time at war with the United Colonies.

[Grogan]

Man, there's all kinds of shit in this game. I was doing Freestar Ranger job board missions, which keep coming as long as you finish them, for example go to this system and kill the crime boss in the abandoned facility, or go to this system and board this ship and kill the pirates holding the captain hostage etc. Anyway, I picked up a distress call which put a quest in my inventory.

I come to find a colony, with a robot bossing people around. One of the colonists give the robot shit, "this is our guest" etc. while the robot demands that I produce 100 units of copper. Anyway, I come to find the society is divided into 3 factions, the Pragmatists, the Renegades and the Believers. The Pragmatist is the guy I want to talk to.

I recognize the face from somewhere, it's a politician I know. These games often take the piss out of people without making it really them, but in this case it's FDR!

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Now, it's a shame that this game puts the same/similar smile on every face at certain conversation junctures. That really wrecks the otherwise very good (and unique) faces. This one isn't too bad, they toned it down, but often the smiles don't suit the character's faces. When he was talking he looked ALOT more like Roosevelt, but I wanted the screenshot with the conversation choice.

Anyway, these people are all clones still being managed by an automated research facility, for hundreds of years. If a clone gets killed, the Facility puts another one out. If they go more than a few miles from their enclosure, the Facility kills them and puts out another clone.

Roosevelt is the Pragmatist leader. Genghis Khan is the Renegade leader. The Believer is an Indian princess. The "sheriff" is Wyatt Earp (but he's lying, he's actually a clone of Holmes, the serial killer and I have to kill him lol)

ALL are programmed to think they are the rightful leaders, and they want out of their cage to take over the settled systems. Only Roosevelt has a sane plan, he just wants the Facility reprogrammed to stop killing them so they can be free to colonize the planet. Roosevelt understands that they are not ready for the stars and must achieve it when the time is right. I agree... I am not going to turn them loose on the galaxy. They still need the Facility (the robots) to care for them at this point though, they build and provide etc.

That's where I'm at now, in The Facility on the other side of the planet (they can't go there). It's all overrun with horrific bugs and biomatter. I have to reprogram the facility, only I have to find an access code to get at the computer that runs it. Based on records and notes found on PDA's, I see how the denizens of the facility learned about their natures and origins (clones, and they came here on a space ship) etc. I'm probably going to have to repair some stuff too, and I expect I'm going to have to deal with Roosevelt's plans too, in some way, as he could suffer from the same megalomania.

Awesome quest line!

[Grogan]

So I ended up turning over control to Roosevelt, and it was the right call. The other two faction leaders allied, and demanded that I turn over control to them (each wants to rule the settled systems if let out of their cages) or they were going to kill everyone. I didn't banter, I just went after the two faction leaders and killed them. Neither could exist if I were to free these people. Roosevelt just wants them all to live as humans. Even though they don't have a ship (the whereabouts of the ship that brought them there is unknown) they do have communications if they control the Facility. So they'd soon be out of their cages if I gave control to the other faction(s).

Anyway, what I was faced with when I got the override code that gained me access to the computers and the rest of the facility, was an emergency override contingency. The Facility is beyond repair, the experiment has failed, the chain of command is gone etc. The Facility's systems need a reboot into failsafe mode and I am faced with three choices. Reboot and continue with current protocols (not helping anyone) or:

I can either reboot and install a new Super-Administrator (One of the cloned leaders is the contingency plan if all scientists are dead).

Or I can Cleanse the Facility. I thought perhaps that might mean just shutting down the Facility and letting them live on their own, but no... it was extermination protocols. Kill all subjects and destroy evidence of the experiment.

So in the end, the only choice I had left myself was really to install Franklin D. Roosevelt as the Super-Administrator. It was the right one. Some colonists won't be happy with what I've done (Roosevelt said so) but they are all going to be OK together now etc.

[Grogan]

So there is zero G space combat after all. I knew there would have to be, because I picked up some gear before that had specific bonuses for it. I just hadn't encountered any. I think after doing a certain number of Ranger police board missions, I got approached by the Trackers Alliance, that take bounties for more elusive criminals and it led to a derelict, exposed station that they were using as a "chop shop" for stolen starships. Now I have a bunch of those quests to do.

[Grogan]

A quest where I got essentially kidnapped by the United Colonies (UC) authories on some trumped up crime and they tried to force me to infiltrate the Crimson Fleet pirates organization, came up at random again in this third universe.

I was right that it was trumped up, because I had committed no crimes, I've done nothing but help people in both the UC and Freestar Collective (I'm both a Ranger, and Tracker that takes down criminals). I've done nothing but help the UC fight pirates and they even give me praise and money when I walk past them on entering their cities lol

Anyway, this time I didn't blow it. I swallowed my pride and let this commander Ikande use me like that. After I did he turned into a commander that respected me though. I just wish there was a "why didn't you just ask" conversation choice, as I fight the Crimson Fleet at every turn too. Moreover, the only reason I wouldn't be compromised to be a mole like this is because nobody from the Crimson Fleet, in space or in person that has ever seen me, is alive! It turned out to be a fantastic, interesting quest line that I would have missed out on. It culminated in having to equip some special mods to my ship, to enter the EM field of a certain type of gas giant to retrieve this digital currency vault from a derelict GalBank transport freighter.

That commander Ikande was a voice that I knew, one that was endearing to me. It didn't occur to me exactly who it was until near the end of the quest line, it was the same voice actor that's been in some of my Mass Effect games (Javik in Mass Effect 3 and other misc. voices in Andromeda) as well as a shit tonne of other games and voices in animated shows and stuff. Ike Amadi is his name.

They actually have a few voices I didn't recognize, actors that are older now.

Armin Shimerman who played Quark (the Ferengi) on Deep Space Nine

Keir Dullea, who played the main character Bowman in 2001 Space Odyssey.

Tony Amendola... Bra'Tac from Stargate SG1

Adrienne Barbeau... she was a character on Maude lol

Linda Gray... from that Dallas shit

I guess it's hard to find work and these voice acting parts would be some easy money

[Grogan]

In this playthrough, where I've actually been following all the side quest lines, every time I think I'm done, and ready to go to the final quest and spawn a new universe, I find another interesting quest line. This time I joined a gang, "The Ebbside Strikers", a local gang on the colony/ocean platform city Neon where everything is corrupt. The main function of the place is an illegal psychedelic drug, Aurora, that's only "legal" on Neon if bought from the establishment. It's produced there from a species of fish they harvest and process. Illegal most everywhere else.

I normally don't want to do criminal gang quests, but this one had the element of taking out a larger, very bad gang called The Disciples. I'm the guy for the job, I just slaughtered them all in every quest for this Strikers gang. In the end (corrupt) Neon Security came in and said enough was enough and asked me what my motivation was. "Somebody has to take out the Disciples" and it something like was "Oh is that so... we see that".

I was thinking that they were complicit with the Disciples, but no... "they have been getting to be a real pain in my ass, so here's the deal...". To make a long story short, the "gang violence" makes them look bad and they want both gangs dissolved. The Ebbside Strikers are to join Neon Security, with uniforms and all. The Strikers gang is less corrupt than those clowns anyway

Some of these quest lines you find by doing "Activities" (kind of like mini quests). They may turn into a full blown quest or quest line. Some of them you pick up just by walking past somebody, and they are a quest in your inventory that doesn't look like anything I want to waste my time on, but they turn into interesting quests. Not all of them, some are indeed things I should have left unstarted.

I didn't realize how much I liked this game until this third universe, but once I've done all the quests I'll probably have to leave it alone until some serious DLC comes out. I don't think I will start another playthrough.

[Grogan]

Got to test a pic upload anyway (test directory permissions etc.) but this is probably my most favourite gun in this game. If I start another playthrough I'll lose it

That's practically a sniper rifle

20240603213801_1.jpg (218.53 KiB) Viewed 128719 times

Note (late edit): This gun seems to be a quest reward, because I did start another playthrough and the exact same gun just magically appeared in my inventory, after doing a few FreeStar Rangers quests

[Grogan]

Finally, they have added land vehicles to the game. I just got a 1.3 Gb update and that's what it was about

Starfield’s latest free update is here and is bringing a highly-requested feature: the REV-8 land vehicle! Now is your chance to explore new frontiers (and reach new heights) in your very own land cruiser.

Ready to head out in the REV-8? Visit your favorite city’s ship technician to install a vehicle module and you’re good to go! Once you have the module in your ship of choice, the REV-8 will automatically deploy right outside your ship wherever you land. You can even show off your personal style by customizing the REV-8 with unique colors.

As you’re touring planets in Starfield, you’re bound to run into some hostile elements. The REV-8 is equipped with a powerful mounted turret as well as armor for additional protection when driving. Your boosters can help get you out of a sticky situation quickly, but they’re not just forward boosters… you can also hit the boosters to add some jump to your ride, letting you sail through the air and reach areas that would have previously been much tougher to get to.

I'm still playing this game pretty much every night for a while. Endless bounty hunting quests and stuff and I'm getting awesome legendary weapons. Too bad you lose all your gear when you start a new universe.

[Grogan]

OK! Performance issue sussed out.

Back a month or so ago, I noticed a significant performance regression in this game (worse than "normal"). While having it, it felt like 2015, with the performance problem I had with Fallout 4, when I first got that R9 380 card. It was dynamic clock control power management that was at fault, and a MSI overclocking utility ("MSI Gaming App") that seemed to override it, fixed it until AMD added a setting in the AMD control panel (in Windows).

Even after the performance regression seemed fixed (Don't know if was the Proton build, Mesa or amdgpu) I still had that nagging feeling that it was GPU underutilization, because I was noticing poor performance in places where it shouldn't have been. For example, indoors, in the Tracker's Alliance headquarters.

So I sought out a way to turn that off and where I found the clue I needed was Arch's AMDGPU wiki. That's one thing I'll say for them, they have the best wikis (better than Gentoo!)

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU

5.4 Performance levels

AMDGPU offers several performance levels, the file power_dpm_force_performance_level is used for this, it is possible to select between these levels:

auto: dynamically select the optimal power profile for current conditions in the driver.
low: clocks are forced to the lowest power state.
high: clocks are forced to the highest power state.
manual: user can manually adjust which power states are enabled for each clock domain (used for setting #Power profiles)
profile_standard, profile_min_sclk, profile_min_mclk, profile_peak: clock and power gating are disabled and the clocks are set for different profiling cases. This mode is recommended for profiling specific work loads

By default, it's set to auto. I can query it like this:

Code: Select all

cat /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_force_performance_level
auto

Setting it to high for that, is what I want to do. Just bugger off and use full clocks. There is also a value for performance profiles (pp_power_profile_mode) for different usages: BOOTUP_DEFAULT, 3D_FULL_SCREEN, POWER_SAVING, VIDEO, VR, COMPUTE, CUSTOM and WINDOW_3D available for my card (query it to find out), but I'd rather just temporarily force them to the highest power state rather than second guess that shit.

So this is what I did:

Code: Select all

echo "high" > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_dpm_force_performance_level

You can generally query sys values as a user, but to set them it's with root privileges, and it only persists until reboot or the value is changed.

That made a difference in the places where it was happening, smooth instead of shitty.

This game has other performance issues, but in more expected scenes, like vast spaces with a lot of objects or complex terrain.

Since I don't have this problem in other games, I would set it back to "auto" when finished playing Starfield.

[Zema Bus]

Interesting. I'll try to remember that in case I run into any performance issues in a game.

[Grogan]

Just when I thought I'd been everywhere, done everything, I found a whole series of quest lines I'd never played before. I didn't realize you could actually join the "UC Vanguard" (United Colonies special forces, sort of thing). I had done UC missions in the city, and done UC Sysdef missions but I missed this.

An interesting one I'm on right now that takes me to secret labs on Mars and shit, to find out what's causing "Terrormorph" (nightmarish boss enemy-like creatures) attacks, and how to stop them.

Then, it actually leads to the quest where I was blackmailed into infiltrating the Crimson Fleet pirates by Commander Ikande (I have that quest in my inventory now for as soon as I finish this quest line). Only this time I don't have to be blackmailed (that bugged me that the game made me submit to that, I'd have been happy to do it). There's a bunch more after that, too.

[Grogan]

I've been meaning to say, that thing with the GPU power management was bogus, it's just that the game takes intermittent performance spells (at times it was Proton and/or Mesa but that was reproducible and it was a while back and that's fixed now), so it seemed like it fixed something but had no effect. Either keep playing (it's not that bad, just feels a bit sluggish) or save and quit and start the game again.

I soon quit doing that, because it's harder on the card... higher wattage and fan running all the time. My video card power management is actually working perfectly, ramping up when needed and then down when not. You don't need the thing fully engaged when the games are paused in menus and shit either.

What reminded me is a commit to the kernel that changes the default bootup profile for amdgpu to "Full Screen 3D" that I notice just landed in Linux 6.11.7. I don't want that change, it means I'm going to have to override that more aggressive default.