Summary
One recently releasedStarfieldmod gives the game’s shipbuilding mechanics another purpose by tasking the player with becoming a spacecraft designer through a series of intricate and never-ending quests. In doing so, thisStarfieldmod addresses a fairly common fan complaintabout the game’s ship builder being underutilized.
AlthoughStarfieldoffers an extensive system for building and customizing ships, it never asks the player to engage with it. Some fans praised this design decision as being in line with the game’s sandbox nature, positing that they have little interest in tinkering with custom spacecraft and are hence glad that Bethesda didn’t force them to do so. Meanwhile, others have criticized the lack of tangible incentives to create and customize ships as an example of the game’s disjointed design.
A newly releasedStarfieldmod calledAstroneer: Become a Starship Designerdoes a lot to address such complaints. Developed by Nexus Mods user CodeGangsta, this ambitious project extends Bethesda’s latest title with the addition of a new system of radiant quests tasking the player with putting together a wide variety of spacecraft. Doing so nets XP and monetary rewards, as well as Salvage resources that can be used for completing more than two dozen new Research Projects.
While the Astroneer quests are picked up from Mission Boards, much like all the other procedurally generated tasks inStarfield, the mechanic has been implemented with an impressive amount of thought and polish. For example, the whole starship design system comes with a fully voiced NPC called Aria Collins, who acts as both the player’s guide and collaborator throughout their engineering endeavors. Every vessel that the player designs and delivers as part of these missions also has a chance of later being encountered in outer space, making this whole activity that much more immersive and consequential.
Astroneer Only Works With the Steam Version of Starfield
Be that as it may, this release is yet another major addition to the selection ofexcellentStarfieldmodsthat have surfaced online since the RPG hit the market in September. Much more user-created content is likely to follow once the game’s official modding tools are released in early 2024.
Starfield
WHERE TO PLAY
Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.The year is 2330. Humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling new planets, and living as a spacefaring people. From humble beginnings as a space miner, you will join Constellation – the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy – and navigate the vast expanse of the Settled Systems in Bethesda Game Studios’ biggest and most ambitious game.
