Most of the hardcore Bethesda RPG fans who’ve invested thousands of hours into Skyrim and Fallout 4 can't wait for the release of Starfield, which is set for September 6.
These would-be interstellar explorers got plenty of fresh answers regarding what to expect from their trip to space at this month’s Starfield Direct, which featured everything from the Adoring Fan, to a few surprisingly valuable sandwiches and even a ship with a rage quit button.
While some have since been trying to work out the scale of a planet, which version of the game they’ll have to buy to get a physical disc, or what their first in-game death will look like, one prospective player has taken to Reddit to urge their fellow fans to keep their expectations in check regarding the mods that’ll be available just after release.
What do you hope modders will be able to do in Starfield?
Posting to kick off a thread on the subreddit r/starfield, user _Robbie, a modder and long-time member of Skyrim’s modding community, responded to the array of recent threads on the forum that have discussed the game's potential for modding or outlined ambitious mod ideas people want to see made by urging these eager astronauts to temper their expectations.
“I get that mods seem like magic to people to people who don't make them, and that ‘modders’ are seemingly capable of anything,” they asserted, continuing: “but there are many facets of Bethesda games that are hard-coded and can't be altered in the normal way.”
While _Robbie emphasised that, given time to work out how Starfield’s world and mechanics are put together, it’s certainly possible that the game’s modding community will develop ways to do things like add new vehicles to it or make an entire planet resemble Skyrim’s world, but expecting advanced works like these to pop up just after the game releases probably isn’t realistic.a
To back up their point, they cited the difficulty modders had in making changes to the skill and perk trees of both Fallout 4 and Skyrim until the arrival of tools like Neanka’s ‘LevelUpMenuEx’ and meh321’s ‘Custom Skills Framework’ several years after release.
So, if you’ve got an elaborate mod idea you want to see implemented in Starfield, you should prepare for a bit of a wait and certainly don’t try and pressure any existing Bethesda game modders to make it for you, as has seemingly been happening to legendary Skyrim and Fallout modder Elianora recently.
Regardless of what you’re hoping modders will be able to do in Starfield once they’ve had time to get comfortable with it, make sure to follow us for lots of guides to its world and mechanics.
You can also check out our latest mods of the month for some killer Skyrim and Fallout mods that’ll help tide you over until release.