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Starfield feels "like it wasnt made to be modded", says Unnoficial Patch Modders

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member
starfield-community-patch-logo.jpg


Via Eurogamer

Two months on from the release of Starfield, players are still waiting for Bethesda to address the numerous bugs which are present. But there's a whole other group of players out there taking matters into their own hands - the team behind the Starfield Community Patch, an ambitious and surprisingly professional taskforce trying to fix the game themselves. The project came under the spotlight about a month before Starfield released. It was wild to think that a group of modders could already be working on a mod for Starfield before it had even released, but there they were - anticipating the Bethesda jank fans have come to expect.

It is evident from analysing both the data structures in the provided module files and from decompiling game code that modding capabilities were not a consideration in the development of the game engine up to now. This can also be inferred from the fact that there has been no quality assurance testing of modding functionality from Bethesda, as various current engine bugs that appear in the context of using mods would have been obvious showstoppers. Any existing modding capabilities appear to be incidental, stemming from the engine's legacy code base and the required work needed in that context to maintain functionality within the confines of editing Starfield.esm using the internal version of CK2.
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Halgari boils this down to simpler terms for me.

"It's essentially a hack, like they built this game thinking they would add modding some day, and they haven't actually added it yet," he explains.

"The only reason we can mod it already, is because we've modded the other games using the same engine and we know what to do. But a lot of stuff is really broken compared to the other games."
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Halgari estimates the modding scene for the game won't take off until next year once Bethesda releases official mod tools.
 
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Gaiff

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
If Bethesda was going to stick to this shit engine, then modding should have been a priority. I would have been fine with a new engine with limited modding if the game wasn't the usual Bethesda jankfest but polished and well optimized.
 
D

Dane

Member
diffusionx said:
i thought they kept Gamebryo for the modding? Did the shills lie to me?
Click to expand...
Is there even any significant traces of Gamebyro at this point? Call of Duty was using Quake 3 codebase from the first game until BO4 and god knows what it even has outside of the map brushes still being compatible with GTK Radiant.
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Gold Member
They delayed it a year, so they probably didn't want to invest resources into that stuff until after launch since they already were missing their initial launch date. We know its coming eventually.
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Well, the game is a pretty subpar game for being a major AAA title. The glaring flaws and really bad design decisions are far more offensive. Stuff like this just reaffirms how, if true, they just cut all the corners they could and the game is bad. Bad. It's average. What you should wish for is that their flagship title in the Elder Scrolls isn't as bad as this, or the studio will be far more devaluated than it already is because I think if you're rational and like Bethesda like I do, you know that this studio, as it is right now, is nowhere near what it used to be. Times change and other studios adapt and continue to evolve, this isn't one of them and Starfield really doesn't deserve more than 15 or $20 of your money. If even that. I would rather recommend something like no Man's sky, which lacks some of the elements that Starfield has
 
James Sawyer Ford

James Sawyer Ford

Member
LiquidMetal14 said:
Well, the game is a pretty subpar game for being a major AAA title. The glaring flaws and really bad design decisions are far more offensive. Stuff like this just reaffirms how, if true, they just cut all the corners they could and the game is bad. Bad. It's average. What you should wish for is that their flagship title in the Elder Scrolls isn't as bad as this, or the studio will be far more devaluated than it already is because I think if you're rational and like Bethesda like I do, you know that this studio, as it is right now, is nowhere near what it used to be. Times change and other studios adapt and continue to evolve, this isn't one of them and Starfield really doesn't deserve more than 15 or $20 of your money. If even that. I would rather recommend something like no Man's sky, which lacks some of the elements that Starfield has
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Yup

It’s probably the worst AAA game I’ve ever played. Cyberpunk had flaws that were fixed, because the basic game was still good. You can’t fix Starfield’s main flaws with patches or mods
 
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JackMcGunns

JackMcGunns

Member
James Sawyer Ford said:
Yup

It’s probably the worst AAA game I’ve ever played. Cyberpunk had flaws that were fixed, because the basic game was still good. You can’t fix Starfield’s main flaws with patches or mods
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Cyberpunk had MAJOR flaws, don't even try to compare a game that was fu*in RECALLED, the first time in history I might add, has there been another Playstation title that underwent an official recall? Crazy... You clearly have something against Starfield to even suggest that it's in the same clusterfuck that Cyberpunk was, and suggest it can't be fixed. Double whammy, clearly biased.
 
Daneel Elijah

Daneel Elijah

Gold Member
geary said:
Didnt they said that they will release the modding tools next year? Is this another article based on a rando reddit or twitter post?
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Damn you, you made me use Eurogamer! This is a pretty long article, The OP just put a really small part of it in his post. I have yet to read it, but the team that is working on this mod already seems to have made some work:

Changelog | Starfield Community Patch

Things change, and so does the Starfield Community Patch. See what's new here!
www.starfieldpatch.dev www.starfieldpatch.dev
I can understand joking about Eurogamer, but this team seems to be a pretty good effort from the community. I hope that this initiative continue and can really help the game, as I plan to play it in a few months with my new PC.
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
JackMcGunns said:
Cyberpunk had MAJOR flaws, don't even try to compare a game that was fu*in RECALLED, the first time in history I might add, has there been another Playstation title that underwent an official recall? Crazy... You clearly have something against Starfield to even suggest that it's in the same clusterfuck that Cyberpunk was, and suggest it can't be fixed. Double whammy, clearly biased.
Click to expand...
Let me be the one to speak up on this since I love cyberpunk and it's current state. You can try to go back if you want to take your time and look at my post history with this game, it fell off after the game come out. It needed to be patched and I meant what I said when I said I would wait for the game to be in a better state. And that was on PC. But it didn't have what Starfield has an issues that really no modding or anything the community does can fix. Cyberpunk was enjoyable on PC day one with some of the flaws that it has. That was an is still a much better overall game than Starfield and it's an insult to compare the two.

Phantom Liberty absolutely destroys anything Starfield tries to do in almost every way. They are not comparable again just by virtue of them being different types of RPGs but Starfield can be compared more to a mediocre game and cyberpunk is nowhere near that. And I have nothing against anybody because I support these studios and Bethesda is where it currently is despite me liking several other games in the past. Much like I really like CDPR and they have equity with me and have proven themselves once again with how they've patched up cyberpunk and released an amazing expansion for it.

Really easy to say that there's an agenda against something because of whatever the reason you want to use. But the fact of the matter is I want games to be good and starfield is a mediocre game.
 
JackMcGunns

JackMcGunns

Member
LiquidMetal14 said:
Let me be the one to speak up on this since I love cyberpunk and it's current state. You can try to go back if you want to take your time and look at my post history with this game, it fell off after the game come out. It needed to be patched and I meant what I said when I said I would wait for the game to be in a better state. And that was on PC. But it didn't have what Starfield has an issues that really no modding or anything the community does can fix. Cyberpunk was enjoyable on PC day one with some of the flaws that it has. That was an is still a much better overall game than Starfield and it's an insult to compare the two.

Phantom Liberty absolutely destroys anything Starfield tries to do in almost every way. They are not comparable again just by virtue of them being different types of RPGs but Starfield can be compared more to a mediocre game and cyberpunk is nowhere near that. And I have nothing against anybody because I support these studios and Bethesda is where it currently is despite me liking several other games in the past. Much like I really like CDPR and they have equity with me and have proven themselves once again with how they've patched up cyberpunk and released an amazing expansion for it.

Really easy to say that there's an agenda against something because of whatever the reason you want to use. But the fact of the matter is I want games to be good and starfield is a mediocre game.
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I'll I read was "Opinion...opinion...opinion"

Cyberpunk was officially broken and even recalled. Facts. It was fixed and Phatom Liberty is the freakin bomb, congrats to them, but let's avoid the sugar coating here. Can Starfield be fixed? I certainly believe it can be, but again opinions. We'll see, what is a fact though is that Stafield released in MUCH better shape.
 
B

bbeach123

Member
Dane said:
Is there even any significant traces of Gamebyro at this point? Call of Duty was using Quake 3 codebase from the first game until BO4 and god knows what it even has outside of the map brushes still being compatible with GTK Radiant.
Click to expand...
Compared to others engine ? 100% . Its may not look like Gamebyro , but its feel 100% Gamebyro . The loading , the physics , the clunkiness .

What CDPR did with the RED engine was magic , it doesnt even feel like they use the same engine .
 
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Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
Alebrije said:
Plot twist.

"Mod Tools" will be relases a 1st DLC for Starfield..
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I honestly think they’ll sync the release of Shattered Space with the modding tools to pull in more people.

Personally I would’ve released the tools as they are right now and evolved them over time with the help of the modding community. Someone said that there are about 300 mods coming each week on nexus as it is. They need to do more to not lose that engagement.
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
JackMcGunns said:
I'll I read was "Opinion...opinion...opinion"

Cyberpunk was officially broken and even recalled. Facts. It was fixed and Phatom Liberty is the freakin bomb, congrats to them, but let's avoid the sugar coating here. Can Starfield be fixed? I certainly believe it can be, but again opinions. We'll see, what is a fact though is that Stafield released in MUCH better shape.
Click to expand...
It's not worth arguing the fact that you are correct in terms of certain things. But have you seen the design choices and pour optimization in their menu systems and just doing anything like traveling and moving around is basically boring? What difference is it make? If this supposedly most polished Bethesda game ever, which we've since seen to be. Not entirely true if you see the exact issues that all the videos have poked fun at.

I don't think it's just a matter of my opinion, which you're right that it is my opinion. But there's enough opinion out there that can ignore any review above a with this game as certain things can be fixed. But fundamental story and games. You can let them have that with the sequel maybe. But what is currently there is mediocre. I'm not dismissing or telling you that you couldn't enjoy it, but if you did enjoy this then your standards need to go up and demand more from studios like this because any other AAA studio would be getting a lot of grief for putting out a game of the quality of Starfield with all that money being put in there.

So let's reserve the right to say that if they make another game like this, it should be better. But what we have now is not good.

Beyond that, it's running around in circles and you're welcome to your opinion, but there's no cheerleading or wishful thinking enough that it's going to make Starfield more palatable.

You should really want to play squadron 42 or star citizen if this game wets your whistle because those are what I consider major league games compared to this. This game should be a lot better with the kind of money they put into it. And I think we could all agree that it's not.

Cyberpunk, it's best if we took the Will Smith approach and leave that name out of our mouths.
 
Fredrik

Fredrik

Member
LiquidMetal14 said:
Let me be the one to speak up on this since I love cyberpunk and it's current state. You can try to go back if you want to take your time and look at my post history with this game, it fell off after the game come out. It needed to be patched and I meant what I said when I said I would wait for the game to be in a better state. And that was on PC. But it didn't have what Starfield has an issues that really no modding or anything the community does can fix. Cyberpunk was enjoyable on PC day one with some of the flaws that it has. That was an is still a much better overall game than Starfield and it's an insult to compare the two.

Phantom Liberty absolutely destroys anything Starfield tries to do in almost every way. They are not comparable again just by virtue of them being different types of RPGs but Starfield can be compared more to a mediocre game and cyberpunk is nowhere near that. And I have nothing against anybody because I support these studios and Bethesda is where it currently is despite me liking several other games in the past. Much like I really like CDPR and they have equity with me and have proven themselves once again with how they've patched up cyberpunk and released an amazing expansion for it.

Really easy to say that there's an agenda against something because of whatever the reason you want to use. But the fact of the matter is I want games to be good and starfield is a mediocre game.
Click to expand...
Why so negative? It’s okay to like both games, both are great, different reasons.

I had my crush on Cyberpunk in 2020, late 2020 it was all I played, was my GOTY, warts and all. PC version. Replayed it at the 2.0 drop but I realized that I’m kinda over it after 300 hours played. Still fantastic. 9/10

Late 2023 has been about Starfield for me, it’s my most played game of the year, and my current GOTY, warts and all. PC version. 180+ hours played. Definitely have some issues but it’s still fantastic. 9/10

I had a crush on Zelda TOTK earlier, was a 10/10, but I fell out of that by the third temple and hasn’t jumped back in so it has dropped a bit, still fantastic. 80+ hours played. 9/10
 
DJ12

DJ12

Member
BigLee74 said:
So, modders complain about the difficulty of creating mods in a game where mods and modding tools are not officially released (ie fit for production) yet, but are coming?

Well fuck me sideways!
Click to expand...
A valid concern when Modder are the ones that fix Bethesda games, not Bethesda themselves.

Guess you will be happy when all these modders fixes are added to the main game in the GOTY editions when Bethesda officially wash their hands of the game
 
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Solidus_T

Solidus_T

Member
After reading that article, I feel really bad for the team taking this up. At this point, they could just assemble a team and, in their own free time they use to mod this game, build their own game.
 
Dr. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson

Member
I think they just struggled to make this game the best they could and at a certain point they were like we have to just release what we got and we’ll have to figure out the modding thing later 🤷‍♂️

Then again, what I just described is basically how every game is made, though.
 
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BigLee74

BigLee74

Member
DJ12 said:
A valid concern when Modder are the ones that fix Bethesda games, not Bethesda themselves.

Guess you will be happy when all these modders fixes are added to the main game in the GOTY editions when Bethesda officially wash their hands of the game
Click to expand...

Pffft. What kinda point is this? Im not disrespecting modders, and look forward to what they bring, I’m just saying their complaints should be taken with a pinch of salt at the moment.

When Bethesda finally turn around and say…”ok, now you can mod the game and here are the tools” (and according to them this won’t be until some time next year), only then can the modders inspect the apis/documents/tools etc and make valid claims that it’s not open enough/easy enough to do what they need.

Until then, they are just hacking about, and their concerns are not definites.

Finally, I’ve already completed Starfield, and encountered no major issues that I need a patch to address, never mind a community made mod. I am unlikely to go back to it for a long time, as I kicked the arse out of it and have had my fill (for what it’s worth, I thought the game was very good but too flawed to be considered great, and probably worthy of a solid 8/10).

First modder to bring a nice functional land vehicle for planet exploration gets a shot of my wife for the night.
 
LordBlodgett

LordBlodgett

Member
That sucks, since I feel like the only reason to stay on this engine is for the world persistence and ability to mod. If they are not focused on allowing mods then Bethesda needs to move on to another engine so they can have a world with way less loading screens. I'm now over 200 hours in, and still having fun, but the menus and loading still drives me mad...................
 
LiquidMetal14

LiquidMetal14

hide your water-based mammals
Fredrik said:
Why so negative? It’s okay to like both games, both are great, different reasons.

I had my crush on Cyberpunk in 2020, late 2020 it was all I played, was my GOTY, warts and all. PC version. Replayed it at the 2.0 drop but I realized that I’m kinda over it after 300 hours played. Still fantastic. 9/10

Late 2023 has been about Starfield for me, it’s my most played game of the year, and my current GOTY, warts and all. PC version. 180+ hours played. Definitely have some issues but it’s still fantastic. 9/10

I had a crush on Zelda TOTK earlier, was a 10/10, but I fell out of that by the third temple and hasn’t jumped back in so it has dropped a bit, still fantastic. 80+ hours played. 9/10
Click to expand...
I'm a little reverse when I was a little disenchanted with cyberpunk and came away more blown away later on.

My stand on cyberpunk and Starfield. I just don't think it will have the favors and benefit of some longevity similar to Skyrim. The end is still at this appointment and I think I've said enough as it is.

Doesn't mean I'm upset or anything. But certain points bear repeating.

My personal gave me the year right now is Star Ocean. The second Story R. That is a game that has exceeded my expectations by a lot, even if it is a remake of an old classic.
 
simpatico

simpatico

Member
Repeating great success time and time again is the hardest thing to do. People get rich, fat and complacent. Starfield is a game that no one loved. "Skyrim in space" sounded fine during the pitch, but it never went further than that. There was no grand vision, just "Skyrim in space" and they expected all the details to work themselves out along the way. Look no further than Neon. Laziest design ever. Cool cyberpunk city with neon everywhere.... what should we call it? It's been almost a decade since Bethesda have released a good game and I'm losing hope that they ever will. At least we got TES 3-5 and the Fallout games.
 
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