Octopus Overlords

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:14 am**

Completed the main storyline last night and moved on to new game +. Took around 30 hours and ended up about level 31. I had fun, but I feel content to park it for now maybe until the 1st expansion comes out. Time to get ready for Phantom Liberty.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:09 am**

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 12:31 am Nvidia driver update should improve Starfield performance for many

Released today, Nvidia driver 537.34 adds optimizations for Lies of P and Mortal Kombat 1, but more urgently includes some Starfield-related performance notes. The biggest is the addition of a resizable BAR profile that Nvidia says will improve Starfield performance on RTX 30-series and 40-series GPUs.

Before this update dropped, we explained how to enable Resizable BAR manually for Starfield. You can find more details in that article, but the short of it is that BAR stands for "Base Address Register," and the feature has to do with improving the game's access your graphics card's memory. According to Nvidia, this update improves Starfield performance by an average of 5% on RTX 40-series desktop GPUs.

The Resizable BAR profile will be "automatically applied for gamers running the latest Game Ready Driver (537.34) or the previous release (537.17)," Nvidia said. The new 537.34 driver also adds Starfield to the "optimal settings" GeForce Experience feature, which tweaks the game's graphics settings based on your hardware config.

I was about to post this. I'm now in the upper 40's lower 50's. Before it was upper 30's to lower 40's. Much better

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:25 am**

One giggity-byte patch. The bolded part is the actual patch notes.

First, an enormous thank you to all of you playing Starfield and your support. We are absolutely blown away by the response and all you love about the game. We’re also reading all your great feedback on what you’d like to see improved or added to the game. This is a game we’ll be supporting for years and years to come, so please keep all the feedback coming! Even if we don’t get to your requests immediately, we’d love to do it in the future, like city maps. Our priority initially is making sure any top blocker bugs or stability issues are addressed, and adding quality-of-life features that many are asking for.

This first update is a small hotfix targeted at the few top issues were are seeing. After that, expect a regular interval of updates that have top community requested features including:
Brightness and Contrast controls
HDR Calibration Menu
FOV Slider
Nvidia DLSS Support (PC)
32:9 Ultrawide Monitor Support (PC)
Eat button for food!

We’re also working closely with Nvidia, AMD, and Intel on driver support, and each update will include new stability and performance improvements.

Additionally, we are working on our built-in mod support (Creations) that will work across all platforms similar to what we’ve done with Skyrim and Fallout 4. This full support is planned to launch early next year. Until then, we know our PC community is already very active in the modding space and if you have any feedback on how we can make this better, please let us know . Modding and creating in our games will always be a vital and important part of who we are, and we love seeing the community get off to such a strong start.

Keep the feedback coming, we really do read it all, and thank you all again for taking this journey with us!

Bethesda Game Studios
---
Update Version 1.7.29 - Fixes and Improvements
Performance and Stability
Xbox Series X|S Improved stability related to installations.
Various stability and performance improvements to reduce crashes and improve framerate.

Quests
All That Money Can Buy: Fixed an issue where player activity could result in a quest blocker.
Into the Unknown: Fixed an issue that could prevent the quest from appearing after the game is completed.
Shadows in Neon: Fixed an issue where player activity could result in a quest blocker.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:28 am**

Emphasizing, announced for future updates:

FOV Slider
Nvidia DLSS Support (PC)

Mod tools will be 'early next year.'

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:40 am**

Also note that this absolutely will break the script extender, so either delay the update, or plan on a short break until the SFSE update arrives.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:40 am**

I'm 24 hours or so in, and I had my first crash last night. Not too bad, all in all.

I love that they're talking about rolling out city maps in the future. Awesome!

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:42 am**

96.8 hours in, all achievements accomplished and I think I am ready for a break.

I finished the achievements up last night and got to the final step of the main quest in NG+ and saw that I have 12 <spoilers> left. They only take a few minutes each but those few minutes are incredibly repetitive and not really fun. Knowing that the main reason to go to NG+2 is to do those again, and again in +3, etc and suddenly my interest in the game in waning.

Yes, I did grind out 40 levels making adaptive frames doing boring, repetitive work. But it was like 2 hours and I knew it would end in a reasonable time. The actual end game though... maybe I will come back after a break. We'll see.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:45 am**

Kurth wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:40 am I'm 24 hours or so in, and I had my first crash last night. Not too bad, all in all.

I love that they're talking about rolling out city maps in the future. Awesome!

Maybe. I'd expect to see a modded-in version long before they release anything. This was a hotfix. After that they're adding technical tweaks and more fixes/stability updates. Their 'city maps' comment was in the 'someday in the future, we'd sure love to look at your wishist requests' section. If Bethesda really has changed their tune with MS at the helm, then it may happen, but it'll be after everything else is patched, and possibly not until after the mod tools are released next year. If it's the old Bethesda, it'll probably happen with the Starfield Legendary Edition.

Either way, I wouldn't count on it until a future playthrough.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 1:24 pm**

coopasonic wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:42 am 96.8 hours in, all achievements accomplished and I think I am ready for a break.

Are the achievements tied to doing [X] number of things required on a single play through or does it keep track across NG+ restarts?

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 1:34 pm**

Brightness and Contrast controls
HDR Calibration Menu
FOV Slider
Nvidia DLSS Support (PC)
32:9 Ultrawide Monitor Support (PC)
Eat button for food!

These are "Top community concerns"? My three year old system hasn't had any problems whatsoever running this game, and eating food just means clicking on it.

After about 30 hours in I'm really enjoying the game. The building is limited to the No Man's Sky/Subnautica style of piecing together modular components, but almost everything else I've ever wanted in a game is here: Massive Open World(s), crafting and some building, flying space ships, space combat, landing on and exploring new planets, fighting with pirates/spacers/ecliptics/alien life forms etc., a solid story with tons of interesting side quests, and the ability to land anywhere and "Make Your Own Adventure!".

I did have a lot of early frustrations in the way some things worked, but I stuck with it and now I am so glad I did. I'm taking my time with the game as I expect to be playing it for the next couple of months.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 1:45 pm**

Apollo wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 1:34 pm Brightness and Contrast controls
HDR Calibration Menu
FOV Slider
Nvidia DLSS Support (PC)
32:9 Ultrawide Monitor Support (PC)
Eat button for food!

These are "Top community concerns"? My three year old system hasn't had any problems whatsoever running this game, and eating food just means clicking on it.

None of those would fix actual problems running the game, but they would fix a lot of issues with the game.

The brightness/contrast and HDR menu would let people fix the washed-out look the game has (partially - the fog and LUTs (color reference tables) are also responsible.) The FOV slider would help people with motion sickness or who don't like feeling like they've got binoculars strapped to their faces. The DLSS support would significantly improve performance for people with Nvidia cards. Ultrawide support would let people with absurd monitors run the game without it looking distorted.

I have no idea what an eat button for food would do. Let you hotkey the food? Eat it directly instead of picking it up?

FWIW, the brightness/contrast, haze, and FOV were the very first things I fixed when I started.

FOV through the StarfieldCustom.ini with these lines:

[Camera]
fFPWorldFOV=100
fTPWorldFOV=100

The brightness/contrast with Nvidia Game Filter (alt-F3 if you have the Nvidia overlay)

The godawful haze with this mod and with these settings in the StarfieldCustom.ini (which disables the fog):

[Display]
bVolumetricLightingEnable=1
bVolumetricLightingEnableDistantScattering=1
bVolumetricLightingEnableNearSpatialFiltering=0
bVolumetricLightingEnableScatteringVolume=1
bVolumetricLightingFogMapUseWeatherSettings=0
bVolumetricLightingUseAreaLights=0
bVolumetricLightingUseDistanceCulling=1
bVolumetricLightingUseOcclusionCulling=1
bVolumetricLightingUseWeatherSettings=1
bVolumetricLigthingInLiteBrite=0
bVolumetricLigthingUseLightGobos=0
bEnableVolumetricLightingOnParticles=0

That mod alone does this (no spoiler):

Spoiler:

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 2:00 pm**

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 1:24 pm
coopasonic wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:42 am 96.8 hours in, all achievements accomplished and I think I am ready for a break.
Are the achievements tied to doing [X] number of things required on a single play through or does it keep track across NG+ restarts?

I've heard there are certain things that get reset on NG+ but I am not sure how many are impacted. Having 10 ships you have to have all at once, I've heard that the collect 300 organic and inorganic resources gets reset, but didn't test it. I can tell you that the game doesn't think monster parts are organic resources. It only counts fauna gathering.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 2:34 pm**

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:40 am Also note that this absolutely will break the script extender, so either delay the update, or plan on a short break until the SFSE update arrives.

So don't use the sfse_loader.exe?

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 2:44 pm**

From PC Gamer, a new article: If you finish Starfield 4 or 5 times, some seriously weird s*** starts happening.

There are plenty of weird sights in Starfield, from a zero-G casino to alien critters with exposed brains to Nicolas Cage's face in your flashlight beam. (To be fair, that last one was created by a modder.)

But some of the weirdest and most surprising stuff in Starfield is hidden pretty darn deep into the game. In fact, it's so deep you won't even find it until you've completed the main quest, and not just once but several times using Starfield New Game+.

NOTE: MAJOR SPOILERS from here on out! Because to explain this I'm gonna have to talk quite a bit about Starfield's main quest and how New Game+ works.

Spoiler:

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 2:57 pm**

I love looking at the whiteboards and desks to see if any interesting notes have been written. There was one that's got to be written by Cora in her grandpa's house:

Dear Management,

The AC is broken and the people here smell. Please fix.

Sincerely,
Anonymous

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 3:18 pm**

I entered orbit around a planet and got a hail from another ship. He wanted to let me know that my warranty was expiring and now would be a good time to talk about getting an extended warranty

. I destroyed him

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 3:47 pm**

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 2:34 pm
Blackhawk wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:40 am Also note that this absolutely will break the script extender, so either delay the update, or plan on a short break until the SFSE update arrives.
So don't use the sfse_loader.exe?

That works, but be aware that some mods (like the achievement one) will not function and may cause errors.

The preferable option is to avoid actually installing the update until after the new script extender is released (which should be soon.)

The other option is to use the old, pre-update .exe file. Here are some instructions, pulled from Reddit:

For anyone on steam, here's a quick way to downgrade your install:

Open "Run" menu (Windows Key + R)

Type steam://open/console/ and hit enter, you should see a CONSOLE tab appear in the steam main window.

Enter the command download_depot 1716740 1716741 4447793252473787578 into the console.

Youll see:

Downloading depot 1716741 (27 MB) ...
Depot download complete : "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\content\app_1716740\depot_1716741" (21 files, manifest 4447793252473787578)
Go to the folder path in the last line, and all the old files will be there.

After that, back up your Starfield.exe, replace it with the one there, and you're good to go. Simply replace the older one with the backup once the SFSE update is released.

Short version: Bethesda always updates their .exe on any patch with the current version, even if they don't actually change anything in it (and they usually don't.) Script extenders work by hooking into the .exe as it is run, and adding additional functions. So when the version changes, the script extender stops functioning until there is an update. (This is also why it won't work with the Game Pass version - MS uses a completely different .exe file, and limits access to it.)

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 3:48 pm**

It's a bit of a hassle with each patch (and it's a good idea to keep a backup of each current .exe for just this reason, taking the fix down to a few seconds), but it's been the same with every game since Oblivion.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 5:05 pm**

And just like that, SFSE has been updated.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 5:44 pm**

ok the secret starbase mission.... make sure you pay attention to dialogue. I was half paying attention and couldn't figure out what to do...

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 6:30 pm**

Uh oh, problem with Starfield... It just crashed on me, which it did once quite a while ago. Only this time it wouldn't back up to the cloud. I restarted Steam and tried a few times and then it finally did save to the cloud on it's own. But now when I try to start it the game crashes within about ten seconds, no matter what I do, even if I do nothing....

Nope, now it is working, or I thought it was. It started OK and I played for a while longer and it crashed on me again. And it crashes when I try to start the game again. I'm going to walk away and have dinner and check it out later.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:46 pm**

I haven't had any problems post-patch so far but I've got my fingers crossed.

The combat in this game is far better than any previous Bethesda game I've played. Part of it is how the enemy AI moves, hides for extended periods when badly wounded, moves around while under cover to new locations, etc. But since I haven't played a Bethesda release since the first couple months of Fallout IV, I can't say for sure what's new and what's not. But it's definitely much more entertaining than in their past games.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:57 pm**

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 6:30 pm Uh oh, problem with Starfield... It just crashed on me, which it did once quite a while ago. Only this time it wouldn't back up to the cloud. I restarted Steam and tried a few times and then it finally did save to the cloud on it's own. But now when I try to start it the game crashes within about ten seconds, no matter what I do, even if I do nothing....

Nope, now it is working, or I thought it was. It started OK and I played for a while longer and it crashed on me again. And it crashes when I try to start the game again. I'm going to walk away and have dinner and check it out later.

And now magically everything is working

. Oh well, no point in trying to think about it too much.

I went to the interwebs and just looked at a main mission title list to see how close I was to finishing it... Oh, I've only done less than a quarter of them

. I'm at 78 hours and still having fun.

By the way, I got my first Starfield trading card and sold it for 88 cents as I saw the prices were dropping fast. Still the most I've ever gotten for a trading card.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:05 pm**

Coop's comment a while back about how he was unlocking master locks in a couple of minutes made me reassess my lockpicking methods and I realised I've been over complicating things. Now I'm doing them a lot faster and without paper, so thanks Coop!

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:10 pm**

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:57 pm By the way, I got my first Starfield trading card and sold it for 88 cents as I saw the prices were dropping fast. Still the most I've ever gotten for a trading card.

How do you get trading catds?

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:11 pm**

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 6:30 pm Uh oh, problem with Starfield... It just crashed on me, which it did once quite a while ago. Only this time it wouldn't back up to the cloud. I restarted Steam and tried a few times and then it finally did save to the cloud on it's own. But now when I try to start it the game crashes within about ten seconds, no matter what I do, even if I do nothing....

Nope, now it is working, or I thought it was. It started OK and I played for a while longer and it crashed on me again. And it crashes when I try to start the game again. I'm going to walk away and have dinner and check it out later.

I’m noticing some additional post-patch issues, too. All of a sudden, my ships don’t show up. I landed at a planet, went out exploring, but when I fast traveled to my ship, nothing was there. Just Vasco standing outside where my ship should have been.

Went into the star chart and fast traveled to New Atlantis figuring that would set things right. Nope. I’m on the spaceport landing bad, but my ship is no where to be seen. Strange. Will quit out and see if that fixes things.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:23 pm**

Punisher wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:10 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:57 pm By the way, I got my first Starfield trading card and sold it for 88 cents as I saw the prices were dropping fast. Still the most I've ever gotten for a trading card.
How do you get trading catds?

It's a Steam thing: Steam Trading Cards

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:25 pm**

Kurth wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:11 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 6:30 pm Uh oh, problem with Starfield... It just crashed on me, which it did once quite a while ago. Only this time it wouldn't back up to the cloud. I restarted Steam and tried a few times and then it finally did save to the cloud on it's own. But now when I try to start it the game crashes within about ten seconds, no matter what I do, even if I do nothing....

Nope, now it is working, or I thought it was. It started OK and I played for a while longer and it crashed on me again. And it crashes when I try to start the game again. I'm going to walk away and have dinner and check it out later.
I’m noticing some additional post-patch issues, too. All of a sudden, my ships don’t show up. I landed at a planet, went out exploring, but when I fast traveled to my ship, nothing was there. Just Vasco standing outside where my ship should have been.

Went into the star chart and fast traveled to New Atlantis figuring that would set things right. Nope. I’m on the spaceport landing bad, but my ship is no where to be seen. Strange. Will quit out and see if that fixes things.

Have you tried fast traveling directly to yoyr ship? Or set a destination in space and travel?
Save first of course.

Posted: **Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:30 pm**

Max Peck wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:23 pm
Punisher wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:10 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:57 pm By the way, I got my first Starfield trading card and sold it for 88 cents as I saw the prices were dropping fast. Still the most I've ever gotten for a trading card.
How do you get trading catds?
It's a Steam thing: Steam Trading Cards

Interesting. Not sure if I have any or. Will have to look onto it.

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 7:21 am**

I've been running around the galaxy accompanied by my companion, Headless Sarah.

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 8:33 am**

Brian wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 7:21 am I've been running around the galaxy accompanied by my companion, Headless Sarah.

Huh, haven't seen that before. Does she still talk?

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 8:55 am**

Punisher wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:30 pm
Max Peck wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:23 pm
Punisher wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 10:10 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Wed Sep 13, 2023 9:57 pm By the way, I got my first Starfield trading card and sold it for 88 cents as I saw the prices were dropping fast. Still the most I've ever gotten for a trading card.
How do you get trading catds?
It's a Steam thing: Steam Trading Cards
Interesting. Not sure if I have any or. Will have to look onto it.

I think they just activated them for Starfield in the last day or so. Yesterday evening I only had 2, and after last night I've got all 5 drops. I'll wait for the prices to go down and fill out the set when they're down to the usual single-digit pennies range. The $.54 in my Steam wallet won't go far at the current prices.

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 10:57 am**

jztemple2 wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 8:33 am
Brian wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 7:21 am I've been running around the galaxy accompanied by my companion, Headless Sarah.

Huh, haven't seen that before. Does she still talk?

Constantly.

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 12:16 pm**

Accidentally clicked the wrong game last night and ended up putting a little more time in on Starfield. Decided to fix up my xp grind outpost to improve efficiency and 5 levels later wandered away bored. I decided to progress and took the leap to NG+2. I am not sure what my goal is this time through. I might play around with space piracy.

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 2:46 pm**

So once I proposed marriage Sarah was undismissable, but now that we're hitched...

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:10 pm**

jztemple2 wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 2:46 pm So once I proposed marriage Sarah was undismissable, but now that we're hitched...

If only it were that easy in real life

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:14 pm**

Tampa_Gamer wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:10 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 2:46 pm So once I proposed marriage Sarah was undismissable, but now that we're hitched...
If only it were that easy in real life

Don't be so dismissive.

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:15 pm**

jztemple2 wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 2:46 pm So once I proposed marriage Sarah was undismissable, but now that we're hitched...

I went with Andreja, she is way hotter.

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:22 pm**

Scraper wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:15 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 2:46 pm So once I proposed marriage Sarah was undismissable, but now that we're hitched...

I went with Andreja, she is way hotter.

Andreja has her own issues, but I also went with her the first time around. I may give Sarah a go in NG+2, but she is less morally flexible than Andreja so it may not work out if I decide to mess around too much.

Does Sam like guys? He seems fun.

Posted: **Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:24 pm**

coopasonic wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:22 pm
Scraper wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 4:15 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Thu Sep 14, 2023 2:46 pm So once I proposed marriage Sarah was undismissable, but now that we're hitched...

I went with Andreja, she is way hotter.
Andreja has her own issues, but I also went with her the first time around. I may give Sarah a go in NG+2, but she is less morally flexible than Andreja so it may not work out if I decide to mess around too much.

Does Sam like guys? He seems fun.

I had flirt options with Sam and my male character so I think all of the characters are flexible in how you romance them

Octopus Overlords

Bethesda's Starfield

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