Trykz

And 6 months in, I could have said the same thing about Skyrim. Or Fallout 4. Yet here we are. Enderal is a reality, and Fallout: London is literal days from release. But speaking of Conan Exiles, Funcom proved one thing: It is unwise to follow up an MMORPG with an RPG. I played Age of Conan online for a fair few years. It was a great game, and I enjoyed it immensely. Couldn't really get into Exiles. Conversely, it is unwise to follow up an RPG with an MMORPG. Hence, Skyrim's wild popularity when compared to Elder Scrolls: Online. Bethesda proved it again with Fallout: 76. NEVER has there been a truly successful follow-up of either. RPG's and MMORPG's are beasts in immensely differing veins. And it is unwise to try to follow up one with the other. I attribute this to their playerbases being so vastly different. YMMV. So I say again: History is the greatest teacher. For me, the biggest problem with Starfield was the choice to start the game in the mine on Vectera. Because it drops you into the game waaaaaay beyond the rich backstory it tries to feed you later. It would have been far better to start the player learning about the Earth being doomed to destruction, and then sending them through Constellation to the moonbase to discover the origins of grav-tech space travel, the Artifacts, the Starborn, and how it all relates to round out the MQ. But, as is typical BGS, they decided to go the ass-backward route 🤣

This: And this: Admittedly, I was less than impressed with the overall state of the game at launch. But do I regret buying it? No. The story was a bit boring. And the NG+ was quite disappointing after finishing the story. Travelling back in time just to start all over again, knowing all that happened before while everyone else acted like we never met, was rather unimpressive. I did quite enjoy all the little side quests scattered throughout. Enough that I restarted the game with a fresh character to run through again. The shipbuilder is a lot of fun to play with as well. I've built a fair few from ships that I stole from spacers, Va'Ruun zealots, and the Crimson Fleet. Probably close to half of my playtime is spent in the shipbuilder. The potential of this game's foundation is immeasurable. A lot of "adult oriented" content is already in place. From bounties to shipboard brigs, seedy cities with sketchy backstories, to "goody-two-shoes" actors and religious cult factions/figures who don't need any reason to nefariously harrass you, because your mere existence offends them. All this in the "native", unmodded game. All it needs is a CK, and scripting and animation tools to exploit it all. All of this WILL come. Just as it did for all of the most popular BGS games. In a few years (or less) we'll likely see an Enderal-esque total overhaul of Starfield's main story. All the naysaying around the possibilities surrounding this game have been heard before. In 2006 when Oblivion released. In 2011 with the release of Skyrim. In 2015 when Fallout 4 released. How many times has the doom-and-gloom crowd peddled this bullshit, and how many times have modders proven them wrong? EVERY time. Full stop. 97%? What depths of who's ass does this bullshit come from? 🤣 I suspect it's more impatience than disappointment, but we're barely 6 months in. So people need to settle down and let BGS get their shit together. They will. Because they always do. History is the greatest teacher.

Well hello, 2011..... it's been a while, my naysaying friend 🤣

It was so easy for many to write off Cyberpunk 2077. Saying it was a doomed game with little to no future potential. I know. I was one of those people. And I still am. But not because it's a horrible game. Nor for it's buggy release or lack of any feeling of real connection to the character you spend so much time playing. Cyberpunk's redemption tour was implemented for a single purpose: to redeem CDPR's reputation PRIOR to their true flagship IP's next release: The Witcher 4. Had they not done something for CP2077, there was a good chance Witcher 4 might never see the light of day. Investors felt robbed. Devs felt betrayed and underappreciated. And fans felt deceived. And those feelings were well justified even before it released. That said, I didn't hate the game. But I didn't love it either. The world was outstanding. The side-quests were engaging and fun. The important characters had depth and meaning. But the main story and it's outcomes sucked. I never felt like there was any real connection to my V character when I was working through the MQ. It was ALL about Johnny Silverhand. I was playing HIS story. He had unfinished business, and i was just along for the ride. I had more fun doing fixer jobs, side objectives, and being chased by cops than I did playing through the MQ. It felt like a chore that I HAD to work on before I could get back to the stuff I had fun doing. The worst thing was realising that it really ISN'T an "open world" game. Take Skyrim or FO4 for example. In Skyrim, you exit the cave after the intro and go do whatever you want. You can set the MQ aside for as long as you wish. In FO4, you exit the vault and do the same. But in CP2077? You finish the intro and save the girl, only to immediately go into the Watson Lockdown. Which "gates" the ENTIRETY of the remaining game, and forces you into the MQ to access anything further. You can't even leave Watson to explore the rest of the world. I cheated my way out of Watson, and could do NOTHING. No fixer jobs. No side objectives. Nothing. That is NOT what an open world game is. It's just the opposite. It's a "one and done" game because CDPR achieved their goal. Redeem themselves to salvage the potential of their future Witcher game. I haven't bought Phantom Liberty. I don't know if I ever will. I'm just not that interested in it anymore. And that says a lot coming from a once diehard fan. Maybe when I'm bored, or Steam has a giveaway promo I'll grab it and check it out. But I doubt I'll spend any real money on it. Anyhoo, @blue1820 is right. This should get back on topic. So where are we at right now as far as tools go? I haven't been paying a lot of attention as I've been working on Droids on and off for the past few weeks. Anything for working with meshes and textures? Nifskope, GIMP, etc.... ?

Steam reviews aren't really indicative of how the game is truly faring. For example: of the total 87,887 (mixed) reviews, steam placed only the last 7,392 into the mostly negative category according to that screenshot. Worse yet, they don't break those numbers down further to give an accurate assessment of the state of the game. So you're left to "assume" that the game is doing horribly based on that limited information. So, of that 7,392 negative reviews, what percentage is positive? And of the total reviews, "including" the last 7,392, what percentage is positive vs. negative? Which would be a more accurate indication. And as far as I know, Steam's reviews are derived solely from PC players. So what are XBox players saying? Can they even use mods yet? I think not without a CK capable of creating them. I said earlier in this thread that I don't believe Bethesda was ever looking for any game awards or the like. They're building, patching, and planning new content with an eye on "longevity". They're in it for the long haul. And they know mods are the key to that longevity. And not just the mostly R and PG shit on Nexus. Seriously. Who plays a non-adult, un-modded Oblivion, Skyrim, or FO4 anymore? In 6 months to 1 year's time, Starfield will begin it's path to becoming no different.

Agreed. Even without a CK, Starfield's modding scene continues to grow. And that's what I mean.... more seasoned modders may go, but more likely than not, return once Starfield's CK is released to see what they can do with it. I also expect that if the necessary tools to accomplish what they want are not yet available even after the release of the CK, it will simply be that much longer before they're drawn back. But many/most will come back. I haven't picked apart the game's files much at all. Yet. But I intend to. My main hope is that Expired will look into building a new RaceCompatibility mod for Starfield so multiple custom races can co-exist in a load order. We'll see..... If not, I'll likely go with the runtime Leveled List injection method I made for Fallout 4 using a generic injection script. I'll know better when I finally sit down to dig through the game's files.

Yes, how thoughtless of me..... please forgive me for not keeping EVERY version of Skyrim installed. And for somehow forgetting that I am obligated to keep YOU happy with your particular version of the game, in perpituity. You complain that I'm no longer here to serve your needs, to then brag that you have the tools and technical knowledge to do the thing you expect me to do..... yourself? Please accept my deepest apologies..... 🙄

A reasonable plan. But modders claiming to be disinterested in a Bethesda game without one is really no great surprise. I myself haven't touched the game in almost 2 months. And I'm much more a sci-fi fan than fantasy. I suspect once the CK is out, many will return to the game to see what they can do with it, or to see what new mods they can add to reinterest them. But even then, with Bethesda updating roughly every six weeks, I suspect it will still be a bit slow before we see adult mods of any significance, as once again Bethesda repeatedly breaks many mods that depend on SFSE (I'm looking at you Skyrim 1.5 patch 👿), given their planned patch/update schedule (roughly every 6 weeks or so).

Bethesda said Q1 2024, so more realistically..... June at the earliest. Maybe even July or August. Which is fine with me. If they're truly in this for the long haul, then they're likely going to keep a reasonably sized team on this game for at least the first 8-9 months post release to hash out as many bugs, glitches, and broken content as they can before they release a CK. I'm thinking we'll see a CK sometime just prior to the first DLC.

Repeatedly asking isn't going to get it finished any sooner 😜 However..... Coming closer to my retirement years, I've left my career in plumbing for good. I'm now working as a maintenance department head for a local campground. It affords me a little more free time during the week, and the work environment is far less stressful because I'm not stuck inside scheduling constraints for completion. Be that as it may, I still need to get the place into better shape than I found it. So for the moment, I have "a little" more free time to mod. But not a lot. In the coming weeks that will grow as I get things in order and better organized. By month's end, I should be in a far better place, with lots more free time as I hire in a new team for the grounds and facilities work. That said..... I just finally finished the sixth sub-level of ten total you'll need to get through in the final dungeon. Without saying too much, I can give you this to stew on..... Sometimes up is down. And sometimes down is up. EVERY level is connected to EVERY OTHER level. So..... if you were thinking to yourself, "meh, 10 levels? Pfft..... no problem!" Think again. I built the damn thing. And even I keep getting lost during playtests 😈

I might be there right along with you 😜 But seriously, I know I'm no god of modding. But it wasn't a drawn conclusion. JuiceHead is a YouTube "content creator". He's not a modder. That's just a fact. People FAR deeper into the scene, and far more "in the know" can be found right here on this site. Or even Nexus. If an in-depth and far less "speculative" state of the Starfield modding scene were truly sought by the interviewer, they would have spoken to an actual modder. Preferably more than one. It's like asking a WalMart door greeter who regularly watches home improvement shows to tell you why your home's lights are flickering or your toilet keeps clogging up 🤣

The following is what made me take that article as the novice reporter BS that it is: Really? Not as far as I can tell. It's following the typical "texture swap->mesh replacer->companion appearance" order of things that nearly every other Beth game has gone through this soon after release. Did someone report some sort of LOOT for Starfield as a technical impossibility or something? 🙄 And that may be the case. However, Bethesda did JUST release a beta client version of the game. Which to me says they're taking things seriously. It also tells me they don't care as much about GOTY status as they do about the longevity and viability of the game over the long haul. Does anyone really think that they'll still be playing BG3 TEN YEARS FROM NOW? Not likely. But I'll bet my last buck they WILL still be playing Skyrim, Oblivion, FO4, and more likely than not, Starfield. So "later in the year" for a CK? Fuck it. I have little doubt that it'll be worth the wait in the end if at least that part is accurate. But I prefer to get my information concerning modding capability from actual modders who know what they're talking about. Not clickbait hungry YouTubers.

The tools CDPR did release were a joke. Nothing substantive can be done with them. No worldbuilding tools. No quest building tools. Without those, CP2077's modding scene is severely limited. Unless another Alt, Judy, or PanAm outfit retexture is enough for you. CDPR could have saved themselves a LOT of heartache with the disastrous launch of the game had they released a set of REAL modding tools so modders could squash bugs and build new content for the game. Releasing a set of Bethesda level tools was suggested more than once to CDPR. And not just by modders, but a whole slew of highly respected games reviewers as well. They simply didn't want to listen.

Not sure why anyone would want to bother converting this old mod. I already converted it to SSE and added a second race to it here. The newer SSE mod has far more features as well. Ahh, I see. That conversion attempt was from 2018 🤣