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Cake day: June 1st, 2023

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  • Bethesda did a good job. I have played SC and SB2 and while I like how they do space travel, the rest of their game sucks by comparison. Bethesda really knocked it out of the park.

    This. Just exploring the first POI after leaving the tutorial I thought to myself, “This is how SC, NMS, and ED should have done their ground FPS exploration and combat.” The FPS gameplay is much better than Fallout 4/76, Bethesda improved that aspect a good amount. And with any Fallout/Scoll game, I love the clutter loot. I’m now 42 hours into the game, lots of new Bethesda style detailed POIs to discover and explore. People complaining about empty moons/planets are ignoring the hand crafted content and focusing on the unpainted mod canvas… or to give them a bit of a pass they have never played ED, NMS, or SC as those have lots of empty moons as well.




  • Going to dump my initial impression. Note my bias, I love clutter looters and this is a Bethesda clutter looter in space with a bunch of additional systems resting on top of that genre.

    It’s a space clutter looter

    Played 8 hours last night so this is a very early impression. I love clutter looters and didn’t expect much else from Bethesda’s Fallout/Scrolls main studio. The Bethesda crafted areas are excellent if you are looking for what I call a Fallout / Elder Scrolls clutter looter. Lots of stuff to loot, the FPS combat is much better than Fallout 4 or 76. Don’t expect a space sim like SC or NMS this is a Bethesda Fallout/Scrolls style game with a bunch of additional systems on top of it.

    First person combat

    I’ve played both SC and NMS. While exploring a station in Starfield I thought to myself… this is what SC should have been for their foot exploration. The derelict stations in NMS are rather static environments and never cared for them much. What surprised me about the Starfield AI is they will “flee” or “flank” by running past you at times. I’ve lost track of enemies at times because of this and have had to go hunting for them. If I had to compare a more recent rpg shooter I’d say the combat is sort of close to Remnant 2 but where Remnant 2 combat is more deliberate and paced, Starfield fire fights are more erratic and frantic. I did find myself enjoying hunting down the AI that will run off and setup elsewhere.

    Ship travel

    There is fast travel. If you are looking for a space flight sim this is not for you. I don’t have an issue with fast travel as I get no thrills from traveling in space 1:1. There is simulation and there is stupid… SC leans a bit too heavy into the latter. Don’t expect 1:1 space travel in Starfield, it isn’t made for that.

    Ship combat

    Again this is not a space flight sim. Most recently coming off Everspace 2 I do miss the strafing controls and pedal usage, but that game is star fighter like combat. Starfield does have a ship editor and seems to be more about load out than fighter style combat. Think a bit more like Expanse style combat. I don’t have much time in this area of the game so I can’t say a whole lot more about it.

    Additional systems

    I haven’t played enough to have an impression on the other systems but they are there: ship building, research, resource gathering, surveying, and base/output construction.

    Initial impression

    I love Bethesda clutter looters and this one is in space. The first few locations are fantastic in their detail, interactivity, and clutter; I going to eat up the Bethesda crafted clutter looter areas. The 1,000 worlds will likely function as a massive canvas for future mods.


  • It’s a space clutter looter

    Played 8 hours last night so this is a very early impression. I love clutter looters and didn’t expect much else from Bethesda’s Fallout/Scrolls main studio. The Bethesda crafted areas are excellent if you are looking for what I call a Fallout / Elder Scrolls clutter looter. Lots of stuff to loot, the FPS combat is much better than Fallout 4 or 76. Don’t expect a space sim like SC or NMS this is a Bethesda Fallout/Scrolls style game with a bunch of additional systems on top of it.

    First person combat

    I’ve played both SC and NMS. While exploring a station in Starfield I thought to myself… this is what SC should have been for their foot exploration. The derelict stations in NMS are rather static environments and never cared for them much. What surprised me about the Starfield AI is they will “flee” or “flank” by running past you at times. I’ve lost track of enemies at times because of this and have had to go hunting for them.

    Ship travel

    There is fast travel. If you are looking for a space flight sim this is not for you. I don’t have an issue with fast travel as I get no thrills from traveling in space 1:1. There is simulation and there is stupid… SC leans a bit too heavy into the latter. Don’t expect 1:1 space travel in Starfield, it isn’t made for that.

    Ship combat

    Again this is not a space flight sim. Most recently coming off Everspace 2 I do miss the strafing controls and pedal usage, but that game is star fighter like combat. Starfield does have a ship editor and seems to be more about load out than fighter style combat. Think a bit more like Expanse style combat. I don’t have much time in this area of the game so I can’t say a whole lot more about it.

    Initial impression

    I love Bethesda clutter looters and this one is in space. Going to eat up the Bethesda crafted clutter looter areas. The 1,000 worlds will likely function as a massive canvas for future mods.



  • Lab cotton could, hopefully, be efficiently grown

    While there are not many details this is hopefully a great step toward more efficient cotton production. There are a number of possible reductions from this method (hard to know without full details though), that being lower usage of land, water, pesticides, herbicides, and shipping.

    Longer term what I find exciting is the some of these lab grown systems may work well “closed loop” which mean they might work off planet at some capacity or another. That is a much longer term vision though and we have a long way to go before we master that aspect.






  • Any chance this will allow multiple subjects in a single stack? Right now it is a single query that is only refined to be more specific instead of being additive as a subject group.

    Example keyword strings:

    • space spacex rockets = Exclusively (for the most part) Space X news.
    • space rockets = Rocket news and launches for many different companies.
    • space = All types of space news, mostly not related to rockets.

    Yes I could make a stack for each subject… but if I were to use this as I was hoping it would allow multiple subjects in a single stack. Multiple keyword queries would merge their results into the stack; would love that. I like the UI for sorting content, really quick to save and archive.










  • Developers have been trying to put themselves out of their own jobs since the beginning. Automating/scripting things, creating tools, IDEs, etc.

    As a developer I always thought this was sort of the point. If the mostly automated system doesn’t require less maintenance, make life easier for the user(s), or require fewer humans, I’m doing something wrong. Always feels a little bit like undermining your position, but when things do break you are also the person most likely to know the fix and fix it quickly.