Starfield: 15 Things You Might Have Missed

Bethesda has got everyone riled up with their new game – Starfield. With over a hundred solar systems, it’s bound to be the biggest RPG ever. And no, they’re not all talk and no game. Judging from the recent gameplay trailer at the June 2022 Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, the company plans to deliver exactly what it is promising.

However, as closely as you might have been watching, there’s a huge chance you missed some key details in the trailer. But don’t worry; we will be discussing Starfield things you might have missed so that you know everything about what’s going on. Let’s dive in!

You can continue reading our feature or watch the video on the subject here: 

Character Creation

From what Bethesda revealed, the character creation system is one of a kind with tons of sliders, backgrounds, traits, and more. They even introduced a new layer to character customization by allowing players to customize their character’s walking styles.

Of course, some of the players might find the variety of options to be a little overwhelming, but not to worry. Judging from what’s written in the bottom left corner of the customization panel (as shown in the image), we can change our biogenic characters by visiting a genetics facility later in the game. We’re yet to see these facilities, but chances are they’ll be all around the major cities.

Skills

Players can also choose from pre-built backgrounds with pre-determined starting skills. But these skills aren’t limited to the backgrounds they come with.

As you’ll move to the skills section of the game, you’ll notice that all these skills are available as part of the main skill tree. So, you can essentially choose whatever skill you want, regardless of your starting background.

Religion

You can also choose three optional traits for your character, which really give us an insight into the game dynamics. For example, we know that there are going to be multiple religious factions in the game. Raised Universal gets you a discount at the church store, but that means you can’t avail the Enlightened store.

We’re not sure if the Enlightened is another religion or a group of atheists but what we do know is that choosing one religion puts you at odds with the other. So, you might want to choose carefully.

The Serpent’s Embrace trait makes for an interesting choice because if you worship the Great Serpent, you get to make grav humps, Starfield’s versions of hyperspace jumps. We’re not quite sure of the connection here, but we’ll likely find out soon enough.  

Player Housing and Debt

The next Starfield feature that you might’ve missed has to do with housing. We’re also going to see player housing and in-game player debt judging from what was written in the description for the Starter Home Trait: “A small house on a peaceful moon, but it comes with a 50,000-credit mortgage.”

Another trait called Kid Stuff said, “Your parents are alive and well, and you can visit them at their home. But 10 percent of all money you earn is deducted automatically and sent to them.”

So, not only will you have “space-parents,” but you’ll also be visiting and supporting them. These features undoubtedly bring a realistic touch to the entire game.

The Reveal on The Prologue

Now Bethesda didn’t reveal much on this front but on the screen for character selection, we saw Argos Extractors written on the top left corner. So, it’s possible that players start off in the Starfield universe as miners, working under the corporation in question.

We’re not basing the theory on one name. In fact, there’ve been other indications to this storyline as well. At some points, we saw miners working with mining lasers. And then, one of the NPCs said something along the lines of about how most “dusties” don’t make it this far. It’s not very hard to figure out who “dusties” refer to over here.

Joining Factions

Here’s another Starfield feature that you might’ve missed about factions. The miner storyline seems to be the origin. We’ll eventually be joining Constellation, the first group of space explorers. We’ll also be interacting with other factions that seem to form a big part of the game.

So far, we know about seven confirmed factions:

• Constellation
• United Colonies
• Freestar Collective
• Crimson Fleet
• XenoFresh Corporation
• Ryujin Industries
• Ecliptic Mercenaries
• Spacers
• House Va’ruun.

Crafting also seems to be pivotal in the game. From the reveal, it seems like we’ll be researching crafting recipes in five different areas: food, pharmacology, outpost development equipment, and weaponry. We’ll be making use of the iron, nickel, and other materials we mined earlier.

Story

A videogame is only as good as the underlying story. And although, Bethesda hasn’t pulled back the curtains on that one. One eagle-eyed fan has pieced it all together.

Earlier, we mentioned how the players start out as miners. Well, according to the wild theory, you come across some rare, buried artifact that gives us visions while working in the mine.

You obviously don’t keep it to yourselves because a Constellation pilot comes by to check. He’s unfortunately killed by the Crimson Fleet, the bandit faction that also tries to take over the mining field.

The character then moves to take over the deceased pilot’s ship and becomes partners with his robot pal Vasco who you can actually see in the trailer. And with that, you’re all set to start out on your journey.

Gameplay

From what we’ve seen so far and from what Bethesda has revealed, we think it’s safe to say that the game will not be combat-focused. Instead, Starfield is going to be all about exploration and discovery.

As the players roamed about on planet Kreet in the trailer, they scanned a dusty root plant as part of the survey and then added the survey data to the planet Kreet. So, safe to say survey data is going to make a huge chunk of the gameplay.

This gameplay feature even extends out to the galaxy map view. There was one shot of a planet being 36 percent surveyed, so we’re not too far off here.

Other Gameplay Mechanics

There are also a bunch of other gameplay mechanics in Starfield things that you might’ve missed. Like the built-in photo mode, the time slowed weapon swapping with a quick-select wheel.

Bethesda didn’t leave out lock-picking but considering it’s a company trademark, it’s not a surprise. We have the digipicks this time. It looks like the updated version of the one we got to see in Skyrim. The one we saw had a difficulty level NOVICE, so we’ll obviously see more levels to it.

Gravity And JetPacks

Since the game is set in space, there are some situations where we’ll have to deal with lower-than-normal gravity. The hud has a toggle switch that lets you keep tabs on the important environmental factors like gravity, temperature, and oxygen levels.

We also got to see some zero-gravity gunplay that looks pretty cool. In these circumstances, jetpacks seem to play an important role.

In fact, from what we saw in the gameplay reveal, it seems like you can take down enemies by shooting at their jetpacks, causing them to malfunction and shoot up in the air.

Some fans think that the jetpacks are optional since, in some shots, we saw the player with no jetpack and then a standard square backpack. It’s still a pretty neat Starfield feature that you might’ve missed!

Base Building

Perhaps the most exciting feature that players want to explore is base building. You’ll once again need the same materials you needed for crafting. There’s an option named Variants that most probably offers different visual looks for the base components.

What’s more: you can also customize your spaceships. Like the character creation, the shipbuilder offered a versatile of options. With stats like crew, jump range, and mobility, you can build a ship depending on what system you need to go to.

In the flight mode, we get both first-person and third-person views. Interestingly, we can also dock on other spaceships. The purpose is not yet clear, but overall, it seems like a whole lot of fun.

Your Character Doesn’t Speak

One thing that most fans might have picked up on is that the character doesn’t talk at all throughout the trailer. Turns out that no one will be voicing your character, as we saw in Fall out 4.

The news was confirmed by Bethesda, so there’s really no speculation here. You’re going to play a strong and silent type of character. It’s certainly not everyone’s style, but there’s not much that can be done about it.

Landing On Planets

The landings in Starfield are not seamless. If it was, we probably would have seen it. Instead, we saw a prompt X to land a few times in the trailer. Every landing scene we got to see looked like an in-engine cinematic or a cutscene.

It’s quite different from what we got to see in No Man’s Sky and Star Citizen. These games featured seamless planetary landings.

There was no break for a loading screen. But in Starfield, you can fly around in space, but it appears that when you wish to land, you’ll be instantly dropped off at your location.

Visiting Our Solar System

Now here’s a Starfield feature that you might’ve missed that will blow your mind! We already know about the hundred-star systems and a thousand planets. During the trailer, we got to peak at Starfield’s galaxy map showing off destinations like Jaffa, Nation, Alpha Centauri, and others.

Turns out one fan was paying more attention than others because they managed to spot our very own solar system on the map as well.

There was a brief shot of someone walking past a half-buried object on a very red planet which we can only guess to be Mars. And as for the dusty half-buried object, fans think it’s one of NASA’s range rovers.

The Galaxy Map

There are actually quite a few Starfield things that you might’ve missed about the galaxy map.

First up, there’s the planet layer with that survey data percentage we mentioned earlier. Other than that, there were basic stats for every planet viewed.

Then, we move on to the solar system layer of the map with the Alpha Centauri at the center. The mini-map in the corner showed each planet along with its moons.

What we don’t know is whether the thousand planets are going to become explorable as we progress in the game or will they be available from the get-go. That seems like something we’ll find out with time, as with the other details concerning the game.

With that, you know all of the Starfield things that you might’ve missed. There’s plenty of exciting content in the game, and it’s looking to be really promising thus far!