For those who’ve invested thousands of hours into the likes of Skyrim and Fallout 4, the release of Starfield, which is now pencilled in for September 6, can’t come soon enough.
Regardless of what you want to see from the next showcase of Bethesda's venture into space or how many interstellar mods you plan to install once it arrives, the idea of being able to delve into a freshly curated game filled with new quests, characters, and locations has RPG lovers of all stripes intrigued.
Currently, some of the fans who’ve spent the last few months speculating about the game have turned their attention to the NPCs that’ll join them on their spaceships.
What would you like to see Bethesda handle ship crews in Starfield?
Their crew-based concerns are the subject of a recent thread on the Starfield subreddit, which was kicked off by a post from user Wwekris, who kicked things off by asking: “What are your hopes for the crew system?”
They went on to give their own thoughts on what this should ideally look like, suggesting that if it’s based on Fallout 4’s settler system: “It would be great to be able to find (and recruit) people with specific perks for the ship.”, and giving the example of a crew member with an engineering skill being able to perform more effective engine maintenance.
User SynchroMega pointed out that Fallout Shelter did a pretty good job in this area, giving a few more examples of useful skills that crew members could have, such as speech abilities to help sell cargo at better prices or combat skills that allow them to effectively lead missions themselves.
Meanwhile, user Marshal_Rohr announced that they wouldn’t be a fan of crew members not being fully fleshed out characters, saying this is usually: “Half the fun of space games.” and proposed that these NPCs could work a bit like the allies from Fallout 76’s Wastelanders update.
Others implied that the system could work similarly to Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds, with regular companions and followers taking on the major roles aboard the craft, such as being the player’s co-pilot.
Meanwhile, user TheDukeOfDementia joked: “As long as they’re not hammering away at literally nothing on top of the spaceship (I’m looking at you Sturges) while it’s in flight, I’ll be happy.”
Regardless of whether you’re praying that you won’t have to worry about clueless crew members trying to do exterior maintenance while you’re trying to jump into hyperspace, 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 it arrives.