I am still playing Starfield.
I just finished my first run, and entered the NG+.
I can see why the way it works could be contentious, but fortunately for me, it is ideal for my way of playing the game.
No “my engagements and hard work were all for nothing in the end, intentional nihilism meta narrative” for me. For now at least.
I’m a proponent of the “role playing is knowing when to not engage, and saying no” school of RP.
So in my first run, I was just a member of constellation here for science!, exploration, and recruiting a large crew for my research station of a ship.
As a consequence, I did not do a lot of side quests.
I did exactly 6.
The three quests where you help a botanist in New Atlantis (science!, I appreciate how my botanic skill appeared in the dialogue, even if it was without consequences)
Walter Stroud quest, since I have starship design.
One companion quest. (Sarah)
The First Contact quest. Because I romanced Sarah, and the wedding happens in Paradiso, where the quest starts when you approach in orbit. It involves a generation colony ship that took the slow way to the planet, since FTL travel was found after their departure, a classic of science fiction. I did the whole quest in my character wedding clothes. (insert Doctor Who, Donna reference. It was honestly the vibe of a Doctor Episode. I liked it)
So now, the NG+. I will replay the same structure. For the record, you can completely skip the main quest by doing an in-universe info dump to your allies, but for the first one, I relive it.
In my first run Sarah was the mandatory “one of the four main companions will die”. It was her or Sam for me. I (1) wasn’t going to leave Cora without a father, and (2) it made sense RP wise to prioritize defending the Lodge, there were two children there. It was in-universe a week after the wedding, and I RP a grieving spouse burying themself into work and revenge after it. So I will aim to correct that.
Because NG+ involves your character going to a new universe, retaining their memories, ready to do it all over again, or just going there to gain more power, or just to explore.
So the RP narrative goal of my NG+ will be to have everybody lives (just this once Rose!). And the game has to be given credit, your character knowing what will happens is frequently used. The antagonist / other starborns see what you are doing, and their dialogues are completely different, as a matter of fact their entire intent towards you becomes different.
I won’t explore locations, quests, and faction until at least NG+2. It’s partially thought up, and could be a good arc to create.
I mean, if you take Cydonia, Mars as an example. It’s a place with a whole questline (and frogs apparently 
). Currently I just went to the bar in the entrance corridor for the main quest, and nothing else. It’s what my character would do.
What I will say though, is that the start from scratch also means loosing all equipments. And since my character is based around being dependant of advantage gained through the crafting mechanics (and companions), it means doing that all over again.
And the crafting in Starfield is egregiously large for the sake of being large and complex
This is the list I took 2 hours to make of what I need, and what I have to manufacture, and in which order.
The whole document is 430 lines long.
(at least I front loaded the research skills, and the manufacturing skill. Without them, the complexity of the list would be two fold)
It also be reusable for the next NG++, and beyond.
But WTF Todd
For the curious, here were my two main ships.
The first one is the much expanded and improved version of the one I posted at the start of my run.
The second one is inspired by Interstellar, made to cross the larger distance between late game star systems.
I have a bunch of other things to say about the game.
I think that in 2-3 months I will make a larger write up of both my campaigns/story, and of the game itself.
I will say for now, that the game is not made to be RPed during quests. You can RP what to play, how you make money and xp, but once you are on a story, you follow the narrative and its flavours.
For the way I will play the side quests later on (my NG++ onward will be “The Pilgrim” path, of observing what the universes and its inhabitants have to offer), it will meld well for me. But I can absolutely see how it could be infuriating.
The game frequently does not pass the "I thought about a solution while the 10 seconds of dialogue played, and it’s not allowed, nor acknowledge.
I understand when a RPG does not let you do something you thought about 10 minutes later, after much reflection. But when it’s something I instinctively think about before the prompt arrived ? That’s an issue.
Nonetheless, I am surprised by how much I like Starfield. It just fitted right for me, and the way I wanted to play it.
But it’s a very particular fit. The shape of will not go well for a lot of other way of playing, or other expectations.
(New Vegas is still way superior)
ok weirdo lol… I think it looks about the same as the first which was decent overall, though I’ve only seen the major showcase trailers and that’s it.
