@bentframe I bit the bullet and actually bought the Steam version on Friday to support my own mod development. So I also started a whole new game with a whole new character—but for some reason I thought “meh it’ll be fiiiiiinnnneeee on total Extreme mode with maxed-out XP boosters”.

#SpoilersAhead

Holy hell. That first battle with the Crimson Fleet was actually fight-or-flight level victory-or-death real. That little peashooter basic Eon you can grab? Being the one and only firearm provided by Argos Extractors for a contract in Freestar space? Yeah, useless, even with concentrated headshots. Might as well be a BB-gun. Yet surprisingly effective for pistol-whipping. So that’s what I did. Snuck around, beating pirates to death one-by-one until finally one of them dropped a Maelstrom assault rifle and I could go on the offensive.

I think it’s a little messed-up that the writers included special NPC chatter from your fellow Argos miners and dialogue with Barrett and Lin when the player manages to single-handedly kill every pirate. Followed up with a grotesque bonus monologue from the Adoring Fan, featuring a play-by-play retelling of the whole sordid event. It was so horrible, my guilt-pangs so visceral, I bailed out and loaded a past save, then installed the Adoring Fangirl mod to make it less stomach-churning. She’s scripted as a word-for-word replacement of the vanilla fanboy, but the way she talks it’s so much easier to dissociate, smile and nod, and seriously consider installing The Unity Awaits.

So anyway. I’d say it’s a damn amazing weekend so far. I got my new PT far enough along to start testing pretty much anything I want to create. The debug information available in the Steam edition is so much richer than the Gamepass edition. The BetterConsole mod is particularly useful. Not to mention the Trainwreck crash logger for when you inevitably crash the whole engine livehacking the game. And seamless CK integration, of course. It’s exciting.

#Spoilers #Starfield #ExtremeMode #StarfieldCreations #StarfieldMods #CreationKit