Erlkönig: Starfield: Play Novelly

Adding novelty and challenge to Starfield runs

(Some of these were tested when the max difficulty was still only Very Hard. The nude runs are MUCH harder with the later-added full environmental effects, where even several levels of Personal Atmosphere won't save you)

All restrictions still allow using powers. These apply from the start to building the Armillary

Variants

Dig up a list of the universe variants from the web, note that some of them are a bit redundant, and the rest are almost perfect for making NG+2 to NG+10 each be a different variant. You can choose the upcoming variant during the credits at the end of an NG+ run (i.e. you have no control over the pre-NG and NG+ universe). Forcing the credits to scroll faster is recommended. There will eventually be a distinctive sound and an option will be presented to skip the rest of the credits. Don't quit. Instead go into command mode and use the following two commands, where "N" is replaced with a number from the list. I recommend saving 1 for a run where you plan to stay in that universe for a while, it is imminently repeatable. :-)

set 17E727 to 100  ; chance of a special universe
set 1801B9 to N    ; which universe (replace N)

Where N is (trying to avoid spoilers while still being identifiable)

• -1: normal
• 0: vasco
• 1: YOU? (may have to fast travel away/back from the lodge to keep YOU?)
• 2: dopplegängers
• 3: andreja
• 4: walter
• 5: hunter
• 6: cora
• 7: nemesis
• 8: kids
• 9: retired

Universe 1 normally forces a skip of the main questline (there's not way to avoid telling the you're starborn when there are two of you) so if you want to pursue the main quests with YOU?, reportedly you can choose the default universe, then: startquest 187431

Simple playstyle choices

Starfield's core weapon buff system and the lack of any way to craft a weapon from scratch appear to support a key goal

• Change your playstyle by focusing on the best weapon the game hands you

The inability to craft means this extends into NG+, since otherwise any advanced player could just remake the same favored weapon from the last game. Instead, the rarity of perfect legendary buff combinations is almost certainly intended to shape the player's game experience, and boost replay value.

Other pretty normal options include:

• Play all three versions of the SysDef / Crimson Fleet epic questline
  • triple agent
  • double agent
  • direct hire (in Cydonia)
• Choose different followers, or invert whether you have followers
• Change your weapon (or combat style) of choice as soon as you master one
• Change between ships with very different capabilities
• Change focus between main questlines and side quests frequently
• Explore systems outside of what seems like a reasonable level range
• Switch between heavy looting / large cargo playstyle and a lightweight playstyle - easiest by dumping all your ballast into a base somewhere
• Switch between pacifist and aggressive dialogue options
• Heavily customize your ships
• Heavily customize one of your outposts
• Customize all your weapons
• Collect resources from the wild instead of from vendors
• Open up game subsystems and restricted areas, like the Key, the Trackers, and various others hidden behind questlines
• Capture ships
• Fly the Razorleaf into combats

Restriction ideas for NG+ runs

Doing each of NG+2 to NG+10 with either a different play style or some weird constraint to make it more challenging can keep play fresh.

The most implacable enemy on Extreme is the atmosphere (or lack thereof), making suitless runs nearly impossible in pre-NG (you'd need ~40 essences for NASA) and difficult, even later, with yet only low levels of Personal Atmosphere. A trialog with Barretts is also very tightly timed, air-wise, and the cave artifact mission really needs Creator's Peace to allow escaping with fast travel.

Keep that caveat in mind with the list of options below:

• Restrict weapon use to those for a certain skill, the cutter only, or unarmed
• Restrict weapon use to blades (and powers) for a "swordmage" run
• Restrict armor by no helmet (challenging if pre-NG+3-ish), no suit, no jetpack (ugh), or no armor, period
• Restricted to no apparel at all
• Restrict purchases from vendors to, say, digipicks and/or ship and ship parts, or nothing at all
• Restrict selling items to vendors to just contraband, or nothing (or some variation)
• Restrict ship modifications to only at your large landing pads
• Restrict to specific followers, or none
• Restrict ship updates to quest rewards and captures only (no ship vendor use except to reach the Legacy)
• Ban the use of med/trauma/emergency kits (most impactful for new 'toons on Extreme)
• If you're a nut, banning use of ship vendors too (your large landing pads are fine, but that Cabot cockpit is only going to be yours by capture)
• Avoiding mods that allow you to move epic gear perks around
• Avoiding any mod, trick, etc that would trivialize the difficulty

Going without a helmet also means you don't have a flashlight. This can be unsettling. I recommend it.

Added objectives that should have been achievements

• Find all 105 skill magazines
  • On the same run
    • Pre-NG+

Added objectives almost no one will ever complete

• Build an ultimately-networked Outpost that all known resource are either produced at or flow to
  • This is a huge project probably best saved for a universe you plan to stay in
  • Combines very well with a no-vendors run on full Extreme, forcing full survivalist on you
  • Attempt it naked for bonus karma

Crazy objectives for new characters

• Reach the Unity at the lowest possible level (on at least Normal diff, w/o glitches/zips/etc, or mods that trivialize the run). E.g reach NG+1 at level 18.
• Reach the Unity with the minimum possible kill count in your character stats [my best: humans 9, animals 14]

Weird objectives

• Run up maximal bounties with maximal factions (bad aspect: cops catching you by mere proximity)
• Every kill means you have to add another plushtoy loose in your ship.
• You have to collect all your corpses for display
• All your loot belongs in a huge pile you can run around in to stress your computer as much as possible
• Marry all the romanceables in one run (hint: Andreja must be first)
• Without using a mod for it, dress twinsies with your spouse, where both of you ar wearing the same outfit that spouse starts in (requires prioritizing looting over shooting in a certain late-game starborn fight that teleports you to the Lodge
  • caveat: I've seen cases now where only some companions drop clothing, and I don't know if it's randomized, a bug, etc.
• Capture/exchange your way up to a level 75 ship without doing ship upgrades

Command-heavy objectives

• Force the Universe with YOU? (possible as early as NG+2 - in the credits of NG+1) and take her (or him) to the temples with you, teaching her powers as you go
  • Reportedly, there's a way to drop YOU? in the Lodge in any universe but I haven't tested it yet, and it might break your save. That comamnd is: setstage 187431 1

(If you're not familiar with the PC console command interface, this is probably not the place to start)

Adding powers is probably best put in a script in the same directory as Starfield.exe - rough example:

; my-me-sb.txt  - to be run with "bat my-me-sb"

prid  1a9054       ; you YOU?'s ID, make sure to check it first!
addkeyword e53a8   ; immunity to terrormorph mind control
addkeyword 28d935  ; actortype starborn (affects? Sense Star Stuff)

setav starpowerratemult 100   ; These match the player's defaults,
setav starpowerrecoverrate 1  ; but YOU? defaulted higher, so
setav starpower 60            ; I lowered it to match

; Obvious combat use and have AI bits, noted so where I found some,
;   but some other powers might be using something I missed,
;   or in actuality be nonfunctional.
;
;;+alien reanimation - has AI - CAVEAT don't give this to followers...
;  addspell 2c538f  ; \_ together these provide level 1 of a power
;  addperk  25e19d  ; /                                  (…I think)
;  addspell 23af10  ; for each increase of power level
;
; Make addspell and addperk commands using this table:
; 1st                later calls to
; addspell  addperk  addspell
;   2bacb6   25e19e    23af06    AI +reactive shield
;   2bacb7   25e195    25e195       +gravity well
;   2c5387   25e187    23af03       +supernova
;   2c5388   25e188    23af04    AI +sunless space
;   2c538b   25e191    23af0a    AI +life forced
;   2c538c   25e196    23af0d    AI +grav dash
;   2c538d   25e19a    23af0e       +creator's peace (I avoided this one)
;   2c5390   25e19b    23af0f       +create vacuum
;   2c5399   25e192    23af0b    AI +inner demon
;   2c5a4e   25e190    23af09    AI +moon form
;   2c5a53   25e186    23af02       +void form
;   2c5a59   25e189    23af05       +solar flare
;   2c5a62   25e193    23af0c    AI +gravity wave
;   2c5a66   25e18d    23af07       +particle beam
;   2c5a67   25e18e    23af08    AI +parallel self
;
; I recommend keeping followers' powers low level, I kept YOU?'s at level 1.
;
; You can reverse all of these to clean up YOU? by swapping out
; the command names with these (I left the starpowers modded)
; 
;   removespell
;   removekeyword
;   removeperk

Warping Progression

• Use commands to keep your character stuck at level one.

This feels like receiving a kind of systemic shock after having played the game normally before, since you will only have 3 skills, period, and at this point I'm certain no skills are required to reach the Unity. Many weird, but totally reasonable side effects can further warp what you thought you knew about the game. I really enjoyed this run.

I made a batch file (my-noxp.txt), so that I could keep just one character affected, although I forgot to load it a few times, levelled, and had to restore from an earlier, level one save.

(defaults are in parens)

setgs fXPModBase 0        ; (1) multiplier to result's XP, to which 1 is added
setgs fXPDeathRewardHealthThreshold 100
setgs fXPStart 123456789  ; (200) base amount between levels
setgs fXPBase  123456789  ;  (75) added interlevel amount, multiplied by level
setgs fXPMult  0          ; (.0015) added multiplier to fXPBase

Role playing

(based on ideas from another player)

• Hoarder: You find a use for anything that crosses your path, you cannot sell anything and always find a place for it to live.
• Fat bastard: You prefer to eat a mountain of food to replenish your health, literally, instead of using meds.
• Space pirate: Armed with a pistol and cutlass (i.e. any sword) you make your own rules among the stars.
• Stoner: You always have a supply of Aurora when you need it, which is all the time.

Experience Your Youth

• Use the coc command on Vectera to dump yourself somewhere totally different, like Neon, and then stay there until you can buy or capture a ship. You'll probably have to head to Vectera (or coc back) at that point, since the game restricts free travel until you meet Constellation.

Game-changing Mods

Too many possibilities to list.

Other Thoughts

I did an NG+12 run at level 153 totally naked, weaponless, and only buying from ship vendors, and it still isn't especially difficult. But it is funny. Especially when a Vanguard chick in the Den told me she didn't recognize me "out of uniform".

The problem with what I'm doing is that the fewer things I'll let myself use, the more variety in that sense is lost. On the flipside, I get a new sense of urgency (mostly from the looming asphyxia problem, but some from being a glass cannon) and definitely am hitting POIs differently with only powers to attack. Some sets of restrictions can make Nishina, in particular, a nightmare.