Starfield discussion thread

[Dragam1337]

LOL, DAMN you Dragam, you always get me! I was wondering if that highlighted object below the rear left one was another gun, but somehow I dismissed it as such. Nor did I see on the chart I looked at that they use only 2 power each. So yeah, it would be 6.65 x 11 = 73.15 x 6 = 438.9!

So yeah, I may use those weapons, but it seems just for them it costs like 175,000!

Lol xD

Yeah, my ship cost a million to make - but now i got the best of everything AND can have all resources on my ship, not needing to micromanage resources all the time, which is a real pain in the butt in this game ! Much worse than fo4 in that regard (aswell as others).

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Lol xD

Yeah, my ship cost a million to make - but now i got the best of everything AND can have all resources on my ship, not needing to micromanage resources all the time, which is a real pain in the butt in this game ! Much worse than fo4 in that regard (aswell as others).

Not sure you read what I edited into my last post. What's the REAL damage stat on that second weap group, because the pic you posted shows 11.54, and the INARA chart shows 11? I mean with 6 of them, just that .54 would bring the total DPS up to a little over 460 by my calculations.

 

[thesmokingman]

LOL, DAMN you Dragam, you always get me! I was wondering if that highlighted object below the rear left one was another gun, but somehow I dismissed it as such. Nor did I see on the chart I looked at that they use only 2 power each. So yeah, it would be 6.65 x 11 = 73.15 x 6 = 438.9! One strange little thing I noticed though is that in your pick it shows that gun as 11.54 hull/shield damage, but on the chart on the INARA site it shows it as 11 hull/shield. If your pic were right that would mean 460.446 per that group, so that makes me curious which it actually is?

So yeah, I may use those weapons, but it seems just for them it costs like 175,000!

Your perks play into the dmg calcs dude.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Your perks play into the dmg calcs dude.

RIGHT, you mean Particle Beam Weapon skill in this case. I just now bumped that up to level 2. I'm definitely going to upgrade my Star Eagle to have a large particle weapon group so I can cut through that 4000 damage requirement for level 3 access fast!

One question that's been lurking in my head that I forget to ask though, is, if you buy a given part to put on a ship, will you then own it outright and be able to place it on ANY ship free?

After a bit of searching for answers to this, it appears you cannot keep a collection of ship parts, or swap ship parts from one ship to another. This seems strange, especially if you've built or hijacked several ships and want to mix and match, or upgrade on a shipbuilder platform you've built. I know many are into hijacking ships, but honestly, since you then have to register them before you can sell them, it seriously cuts into your profits. This is also the kind of thing that certainly legitimizes the use of mods.

 

[thesmokingman]

RIGHT, you mean Particle Beam Weapon skill in this case. I just now bumped that up to level 2. I'm definitely going to upgrade my Star Eagle to have a large particle weapon group so I can cut through that 4000 damage requirement for level 3 access fast!

One question that's been lurking in my head that I forget to ask though, is, if you buy a given part to put on a ship, will you then own it outright and be able to place it on ANY ship free?

Unfortunately parts are only per session, you have to get them onto a ship and the ship be flyable. Otherwise you won't be able to exit the build menu. There's a mod so you can save your unfinished ships though. Some of the limitations of in the logic of this game just seems really lazy and short sighted, like this aspect. * And in case I missed it you don't own that part as a part of your inventory but it's locked to the ship in question afaik. If you delete said part, oh snap!

Also, from earlier posts, suppressors are what you want for raiding ships. And there's a specific mechanic to it, if you're in a battle, any space battle you can only board one of the X number of ships so save the ship you want to board for last. Thus you have to remember to use the suppressor and target the engines so you don't blow the whole thing up.

 

[Dragam1337]

Not sure you read what I edited into my last post. What's the REAL damage stat on that second weap group, because the pic you posted shows 11.54, and the INARA chart shows 11? I mean with 6 of them, just that .54 would bring the total DPS up to a little over 460 by my calculations.

It's the magezines you can pick up - added 5% particle damage

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Unfortunately parts are only per session, you have to get them onto a ship and the ship be flyable. Otherwise you won't be able to exit the build menu. There's a mod so you can save your unfinished ships though. Some of the limitations of in the logic of this game just seems really lazy and short sighted, like this aspect. * And in case I missed it you don't own that part as a part of your inventory but it's locked to the ship in question afaik. If you delete said part, oh snap!

Also, from earlier posts, suppressors are what you want for raiding ships. And there's a specific mechanic to it, if you're in a battle, any space battle you can only board one of the X number of ships so save the ship you want to board for last. Thus you have to remember to use the suppressor and target the engines so you don't blow the whole thing up.

Do you know of any mods that allow you to store just ship parts though?

It's the magezines you can pick up - added 5% particle damage

Uh, please don't think me stupid again, but I'm not sure what you mean by this. How does one "pick up magazines" for a ship gun?

 

[thesmokingman]

Do you know of any mods that allow you to store just ship parts though?

Hmm, no but then again the game doesn't allow you to store ship parts in the first place. You can however use the mod shipyards unlocked. It's get fkn annoying having to keep a list of which yards sell which parts lmao. Yea, I used to keep a list but with the mod below, no longer have to hustle around for weapon mounts. /smh

Shipyards Unlocked

-DISCONTINUED- Unlocks ALL VENDOR shipbuilding parts in ANY shipyard (except for Outpost one) - Also unlocks space station parts for ships.

www.nexusmods.com

Uh, please don't think me stupid again, but I'm not sure what you mean by this. How does one "pick up magazines" for a ship gun?

Mags and brochures randomly placed in the game give bonuses.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Hmm, no but then again the game doesn't allow you to store ship parts in the first place. You can however use the mod shipyards unlocked. It's get fkn annoying having to keep a list of which yards sell which parts lmao. Yea, I used to keep a list but with the mod below, no longer have to hustle around for weapon mounts. /smh

Shipyards Unlocked

-DISCONTINUED- Unlocks ALL VENDOR shipbuilding parts in ANY shipyard (except for Outpost one) - Also unlocks space station parts for ships.

www.nexusmods.com

Mags and brochures randomly placed in the game give bonuses.

So you mean actual magazines, not weapon magazines. LOL, sounds like something Bethesda would do. I been picking up a few, usually GRUNT, I had no idea they acted as perks. I'll have to get more of those. Is it just the finding of them though, meaning can you sell them and still keep the perk? I always sell them.

After reading this, the same could also be done with a mere level 1 Particle Beam Weapon System skill, as it adds 5% damage. Also 5% faster recharge.

Particle Beam Weapon Systems - skill | Starfield | INARA

The companion site for Starfield. Game data, galleries, news and more...

inara.cz

5% of 11 is actually .55 though, so it seems there was some rounding up or down somewhere.

 

[thesmokingman]

So you mean actual magazines, not weapon magazines. LOL, sounds like something Bethesda would do. I been picking up a few, usually GRUNT, I had no idea they acted as perks. I'll have to get more of those. Is it just the finding of them though, meaning can you sell them and still keep the perk? I always sell them.

After reading this, the same could also be done with a mere level 1 Particle Beam Weapon System skill, as it adds 5% damage. Also 5% faster recharge.

Particle Beam Weapon Systems - skill | Starfield | INARA

The companion site for Starfield. Game data, galleries, news and more...

inara.cz

5% of 11 is actually .55 though, so it seems there was some rounding up or down somewhere.

Yea actual mags. They remind of the French SARL meme lol. Loot them and it adds a flat bonus, etc etc.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

Yea actual mags. They remind of the French SARL meme lol. Loot them and it adds a flat bonus, etc etc.

Well I thought I'd found a good guide with names, descriptions of bonuses, and even locations to find them (IGN), but correct me if I'm wrong, I don't see one that pertains specifically to particle weapons. The Vanguard Space Tactics 05 mag adds 5% more damage to "Ship Weapons" though, which I assume means ALL ship weapons.

Skill Magazine and Book Locations - Starfield Guide - IGN

Much like other Bethesda games, you can get permanent buffs and other bonuses by collecting magazines in Starfield. These can usually be found on tables,

www.ign.com

I've also read you not only don't have to carry them in your inventory to get the buff, you just have to read them, and after that, you can even sell them and still get the buff.

[EDITED]
Turns out as usual, it's not the guide so much as the game's tendency to randomize pickups. Yes, you can get all Vanguard mags in the locations they say, just not necessarily in the order they're described. I found the particle weapon one at The Colander derelict space ship, not The Sonder space station.

 

[Space Lynx]

Yea, the loot tables are trash. To fix it... hmm, you can use a trainer which can max the equipment and loot percentage. You can also use a mod (bat command) to increase/max the frequency of elite mobs and their drops.

no i mean there is no exciting drop here, its not about the drop rates, its the drop itself, if you read the article its a level 98 most legendary pirate, so you would expect it to drop somethign crazy good right? well be prepared for sadness, it dont drop shit worthwhile.

that lack of attention to detail really brings this game down a few stars for more, loot isn't everything, but the most legendary pirate should have some awesome loot, just sayin

 

[Dragam1337]

Redesigned my ship a bit - feel like this works a bit better.

Ship reached a bit over 1 million in value, which the game doesn't seem to be able to handle... lol. Just cuts a number off.

no i mean there is no exciting drop here, its not about the drop rates, its the drop itself, if you read the article its a level 98 most legendary pirate, so you would expect it to drop somethign crazy good right? well be prepared for sadness, it dont drop shit worthwhile.

that lack of attention to detail really brings this game down a few stars for more, loot isn't everything, but the most legendary pirate should have some awesome loot, just sayin

Seems like you are new to bethesda games...

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I managed to considerably improve my Star Eagle to about 553 W0 group, 573 W1 group, and 222 W2 group, using all Par just to see how fast I could take out ships on Hard. It's done a really good job so far, but I don't understand why the shield stat keeps changing. It will say 639 in the builder, then 960 when in space with my crew, but 1600 when I highlight the Shield column. I swear it also showed as well over 2000 once. What the hell is going on with that?

I have 9 crew capacity but have not even touched Ship Command skill yet, as I need to spend 2 more points just in Social category, then 1 to unlock it's first tier. I DO NOT like at all the way Ship Command is leveled though if what I'm reading is true. Supposedly you need to board ships with 1 more crew than your ship is rated for, which apparently is worked around by adding habs. Even then it peeks at a total of only 8.

I am not completely sure it even makes sense to have 8 crew let alone 9 though, because finding people with good skills to buff with is not easy, as crew mates with good skills seem to be rare.

Since posting these pics I made a very slight adjustment swapping the positions of the 2 rear guns in group W0 and W1. I just didn't like that the W1 group weapons look wide enough to partially obstruct the line of fire of the gun I had placed behind it. In fact it's even more strange the builder will actually let you put a gun, even of the same type, on the mount just behind where the front W0 gun is placed, without highlighting it red to indicate misplacement. I mean I couldn't afford a lot on this project, but I want it to look as good and practical as possible.

I realize now I will be better off with a strong EM for W2, as this beast as is wants to destroy vs disable. Interesting thing I found about auto turret weapons though. The auto doesn't mean higher fire rate like you said. They actually will not fire manually, and a prompt comes onscreen telling you that when you try to. So it sucks a little bit that you can't use them at range, but it's also pretty good auto defense for when ships do flybys at an angle above that you can't manually aim at.

The thing is, I'm kind of tossed between getting the EM and boarding lots of ships to build a better crew, but it also seems like a hassle, especially not knowing how much more battle capable it will make me. I think for now at least I'd rather focus on maxing out Particle Weapons skill to get the extra punch and faster recharge, but these beasties already do pretty good at both. I plan to build up the Engine skill to max too, never know how much you'll need it to evade quickly.

Total value comes to about 412,000, but I'm pretty sure that includes the value of the stock Star Eagle before building it up, because I only spent not much over 350.000 on it. If I put the EM on though I'll be losing about 28,000 on those auto turrets. The White Dwarf 3030 engine hangs a bit off the back and is slightly fugly, but it's the only one that kept my Top Speed and Mobility where I wanted it. I'm still going to go through the Stroud-Eckland questline again to see if I can get that Bounty Hunter ship built. It will likely be the last sky horse in my barn this playthrough though.

BTW, thanks Dragam, you literally taught me the A, B, Cs of shipbuilding. It appears I need to learn more about the dang shields though.

[EDITED 10/15, in the AM]
Just checked this morning and now my ship value is back to showing as 412,146.

I also have the Shield Skill maxed, which should at the very least yield a 60% increase on Shield capacity. This is why it showed as 2560 once.

And I have Vas onboard, his level 2 Shield skill I've yet to see boost the stat, but I can never tell by looking at the stats as they fluctuate.

I've seen both ship and hand held weapon stats vary depending when and where you look at them. Is this a bug?

 

[Dragam1337]

I managed to considerably improve my Star Eagle to about 553 W0 group, 573 W1 group, and 222 W2 group, using all Par just to see how fast I could take out ships on Hard. It's done a really good job so far, but I don't understand why the shield stat keeps changing. It will say 639 in the builder, then 960 when in space with my crew, but 1600 when I highlight the Shield column. I swear it also showed as well over 2000 once. What the hell is going on with that?

I have 9 crew capacity but have not even touched Ship Command skill yet, as I need to spend 2 more points just in Social category, then 1 to unlock it's first tier. I DO NOT like at all the way Ship Command is leveled though if what I'm reading is true. Supposedly you need to board ships with 1 more crew than your ship is rated for, which apparently is worked around by adding habs. Even then it peeks at a total of only 8.

I am not completely sure it even makes sense to have 8 crew let alone 9 though, because finding people with good skills to buff with is not easy, as crew mates with good skills seem to be rare.

View attachment 317546

View attachment 317547

View attachment 317548

View attachment 317549

Since posting these pics I made a very slight adjustment swapping the positions of the 2 rear guns in group W0 and W1. I just didn't like that the W1 group weapons look wide enough to partially obstruct the line of fire of the gun I had placed behind it. In fact it's even more strange the builder will actually let you put a gun, even of the same type, on the mount just behind where the front W0 gun is placed, without highlighting it red to indicate misplacement. I mean I couldn't afford a lot on this project, but I want it to look as good and practical as possible.

I realize now I will be better off with a strong EM for W2, as this beast as is wants to destroy vs disable. Interesting thing I found about auto turret weapons though. The auto doesn't mean higher fire rate like you said. They actually will not fire manually, and a prompt comes onscreen telling you that when you try to. So it sucks a little bit that you can't use them at range, but it's also pretty good auto defense for when ships do flybys at an angle above that you can't manually aim at.

The thing is, I'm kind of tossed between getting the EM and boarding lots of ships to build a better crew, but it also seems like a hassle, especially not knowing how much more battle capable it will make me. I think for now at least I'd rather focus on maxing out Particle Weapons skill to get the extra punch and faster recharge, but these beasties already do pretty good at both. I plan to build up the boost skill to max too, never know how much you'll need it to evade quickly.

Total value comes to about 412,000, but I'm pretty sure that includes the value of the stock Star Eagle before building it up, because I only spent not much over 350.000 on it. If I put the EM on though I'll be losing about 28,000 on those auto turrets. The White Dwarf 3030 engine hangs a bit off the back and is slightly fugly, but it's the only one that kept my Top Speed and Mobility where I wanted it. I'm still going to go through the Stroud-Eckland questline again to see if I can get that Bounty Hunter ship built. It will likely be the last sky horse in my barn this playthrough though.

BTW, thanks Dragam, you literally taught me the A, B, Cs of shipbuilding. It appears I need to learn more about the dang shields though.

[EDITED 10/15 AM]
Just checked this morning and now my ship value is back to showing as 412,146.
View attachment 317581

I also have the Shield Skill maxed, which should at the very least yield a 60% increase on Shield capacity. This is why it showed as 2560 once.
View attachment 317582

And I have Vas onboard, his level 2 Shield skill I've yet to see boost the stat, but I can never tell by looking at the stats as they fluctuate.
View attachment 317583

I've seen both ship and hand held weapon stats vary depending when and where you look at them. Is this a bug?

I would advice you to just use C class engines, and have sam as crew - gives 167 top speed.

As for ship from the stroud quest - there are only 2 options. Cheapo B class ship, or expensive C class ship.

And yes, it's a bug.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I would advice you to just use C class engines, and have sam as crew - gives 167 top speed.

As for ship from the stroud quest - there are only 2 options. Cheapo B class ship, or expensive C class ship.

And yes, it's a bug.

Actually, as I said earlier in one post, I tried many other engines on the Star Eagle, but they kept dropping my mobility. That said, I'm starting to think I don't need mobility as high as it is. As far as Sam, I can see that for top speed, and I may swap him out for Vas, since he doesn't seem to boost my shields any farther. Shields might be capped at 2560 for all I know. There's no way I'm going to give up Barret and Andreja with their level 3 Particle Weapon buffs though.

From what I've seen so far on ships, I'm not convinced B class vs C class is the problem, especially when you're just looking a a free platform to start from. I'm more interested whether the other option to the Kepler 2 I got before, which was huge and sluggish, could perform more like the bounty hunter type ship the lead of the design crew described.

Yeah the fluctuating stats need to get fixed, it makes things confusing as hell and it makes it hard to know what you've got or show it off. Can you tell me though if crew skills stack on with equal value to player skills? In other words, should Vas' level 2 shield skill add what the level 2 Shield perks say to my level 4 perks?

I guess I could try fiddling with engines a bit more. I often worry about added mass, but with the 38 power reactor I'm using and being at only 1431 mass, I doubt that should be a problem. I am more inclined to for now work up building up the boost skill. When I first got in the very first Starborn ship you get, I noticed right away it had better speed. I don't think it was it's top speed so much as acceleration though. It seems to me acceleration is a very important stat they omit, because the quicker you get up to top speed, the quicker you can use boost where it gives you the most distance. Too bad the Starborn ships suck on everything but accel and cloak though.

I was also thinking it would be cool if at say NG+ 3-5 range you could acquire a new skill category called Starborn that infuses certain parts with certain Starborn Powers, like Void Form, Grav Dash, Moon Form, Particle Beam, Reactive Shield, and Supernova. Imagine if carriable weapon ammo or reactors/engines or ship weapons had Quantum Essence infused in them. The possibilities would be endless, and the effects amazing. The latter might choke my PC though.

 

[Vayra86]

Just tested with the engines i wanna use for my C-class ship, and i was indeed right that i would be able to do just over 15k cargo with 50 mobility - 17k cargo infact.

Obviously aint what my ship is going to look like, but just for testing purposes.

You can get far more, both in cargo cap and mobility combined, but that requires the right set of skills. They tweak shipbuilding quite a bit.

You can also build more efficiently and get higher even without skills to support you - minimize the Mass of your ship and get the fattest set of engines you can find. Not all cargo boxes are made equal, the same goes for cockpits, engines, etc.

OK, I read up on it, but the one thing I disagree with in using such a term to describe my position in the discussion is that supposedly part of it's meaning is you're going off topic. I think I adequately explained in my last reply why I said what I said though, and it seems he WAS misinterpreting my meaning. For me it's not about who plays on what mode, it's about finding out how I can play on Hard if possible. And that's the ONLY reason I asked what mode he was playing on, to see if just the ship and dog fight tactics you use can make Hard doable.

And as well, just because a person tasks themselves with playing on harder or hardest modes in some games doesn't automatically mean he/she is labeling others whom don't choose to, or bragging. There are PLENTY of games I've not been able to come anywhere NEAR playing on harder or hardest modes, so I fully understand why some don't choose to. So it seems Strawman is inappropriate term there as well. I don't feel I intentionally tried to divert the topic to an irrational or illogical argument, my words were just misinterpreted.

I just want to find a way to A) get more replay value out of the game. and B) justify the time spent on it. So far it kind of feels like I'm not accomplishing that. Their NG+ system doesn't seem to help at all in dog fights (although the better Starborn armor and Powers DO help on ground), and if anything it just makes the game feel more repetitious. If one however could upgrade Starborn ships, or at least apply cloak boost to another ship, that might to a degree even out the dog fighting with the ground fighting.

I think that happens when you focus not too much on the ship building and combat in space, or combat whatsoever, and rather focus on the story. NG+ opens up things in that aspect, not so much in others, and kills your investment in ships and combat. That's my experience anyway; shipbuilding is/was mighty fun, but you can honestly do more with your ship in a game like Space Engineers. And that's saying alot.

 

[Frag_Maniac]

I think that happens...

"That" meaning? Sorry, but it's a bit too vague for me to catch your meaning. Part of the reason I find it confusing is, as much as I like a good story, if anything I'm far more tolerant on that aspect of a game than I am on the actual gameplay. Sorry if it comes off sounding like I think you're trying to assume too much, but it DOES feel that way a bit.

And while I agree (and have said) that it's a bit of a shame that NG+ destroys the very things you've spent some of the most time acquiring/building, by just tossing them aside like yesterday's news, I am mainly going through NG+ to eventually do a fully fleshed out playthrough on NG+ 10 at Hard or hopefully Very Hard mode. It has zero to do with what I want to get out of the story.

So far I am trying my best to include other things I did not the first playthrough to keep things less monotonous, like choosing the Attack option at the buried temple, visiting different planets, and experimenting with new ship upgrades. I have a feeling by NG+10 the inevitable repetitious parts are going to weigh heavy on me though.

 

[Vayra86]

"That" meaning? Sorry, but it's a bit too vague for me to catch your meaning. Part of the reason I find it confusing is, as much as I like a good story, if anything I'm far more tolerant on that aspect of a game as I am on the actual gameplay. Sorry if it comes off sounding like I think you're trying to assume too much, but it DOES feel that way a bit.

'That' is the part I bolded in your comment/quote. Not assuming anything, I just recognize what you're saying there.

 

[thesmokingman]

I've been making a new ship cuz with the mod unlimited crew members... you know need a ship with a grip of crew stations. I think that's gonna be my next thing is to get as many crew onto one ship as I can. Currently have my ship up to a max of 16 crew. And its not too much of a fatty at this point but its a ways to go till the max follower of 26, lol.

**Hmm, I hit the real estate cap for my current ship build doh. Gonna gave to go even larger to balance the reactor requirements. I'm currently at 17/20...

 

[Dragam1337]

You can get far more, both in cargo cap and mobility combined, but that requires the right set of skills. They tweak shipbuilding quite a bit.

You can also build more efficiently and get higher even without skills to support you - minimize the Mass of your ship and get the fattest set of engines you can find. Not all cargo boxes are made equal, the same goes for cockpits, engines, etc.


I think that happens when you focus not too much on the ship building and combat in space, or combat whatsoever, and rather focus on the story. NG+ opens up things in that aspect, not so much in others, and kills your investment in ships and combat. That's my experience anyway; shipbuilding is/was mighty fun, but you can honestly do more with your ship in a game like Space Engineers. And that's saying alot.

Does skills help ?! Wauw, what a revelation !

And no, you can't get better engines or cargo boxes, smart guy...

But in your traditional style, you clearly didn't read my post through.

 

[Belfaborac]

I prefer the opposite approach. I can have 8 crew on most of my ships, but I've sacked all but one person. The constant cackling as I was moving around the ship was doing my noggin in.

 

[Belfaborac]

So I'm planning on building my first base. Well, my second, as I've built a monstrosity already, just to get to grips with the mechanics.

Anyway, I'd like suggestions for pretty and interesting locations if you have any. Mineral deposits are of no interest, as I don't plan to collect anything. I just want a pretty place where I can hang up my helmet, do my research and crafting and look out the window at the lovely view and strange critters outside.

 

[thesmokingman]

So I'm planning on building my first base. Well, my second, as I've built a monstrosity already, just to get to grips with the mechanics.

Anyway, I'd like suggestions for pretty and interesting locations if you have any. Mineral deposits are of no interest, as I don't plan to collect anything. I just want a pretty place where I can hang up my helmet, do my research and crafting and look out the window at the lovely view and strange critters outside.

Just make sure its not in regulated territory so its a safe haven for contraband etc etc.

 

[Belfaborac]

Not a problem; as always I'm a good, law-abiding citizen and wouldn't even think of involving myself with contraband.