Thankfully, there’s plenty of other sci-fi games out there that Bethesda can use as sources of inspiration. Perhaps one of the best is No Man’s Sky, the once-troubled but now-redeemed spacefaring survival title from Hello Games. In No Man’s Sky, the tutorial involves repairing the player’s starting starship, but shortly after that, players can start hunting for new ships at their leisure. Starfield can learn a lot from No Man’s Sky’s broad roster of collectible ships with internal customization, as well as its lack of exterior communication. By borrowing a few ideas from Hello Games, Bethesda can craft an excellent spaceship system.

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No Man’s Sky’s Starship Strengths

The sheer diversity of starships in No Man’s Sky should be a core part of Starfield’s system. No Man’s Sky players can obtain starships belonging to a variety of archetypes, including high-damage Fighters, Haulers with huge inventories, and massive Freighters that can function as flying bases. Each of these No Man’s Sky archetypes also spawns with a letter-grade class, usually ranging between S, A, B, and C. Between archetypes that determine a ship’s capabilities and classes that determine a ship’s strength, No Man’s Sky ships come in all shapes and sizes. Starfield could use a similarly diverse catalog of ships, encouraging players to seek out the right ship to support their playstyle.

No Man’s Sky ships can also be modified to a pretty major extent. Players can install new technology and upgrade modules into their ships that provide bonuses to the ship’s innate statistics or give it new forms of attack. In this way, No Man’s Sky players have a lot of liberty to customize their ship’s mechanical functions, either specializing a ship for a specific use or making up for the ship’s weaknesses. It would be great to see Starfield introduce a similar customization menu in its ships. As an RPG, Starfield will almost certainly allow players to learn some engineering skills, and there’s no better use for those skills than upgrading one’s own spaceship.

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Self-Expression in Starfield

Starfield’s ships could outdo No Man’s Sky in one department. For years, No Man’s Sky fans have had little means of customizing the visuals of their spaceships beyond hoping that they’ll find something that’s to their liking. Starfield could easily introduce decoration systems, allowing fans to repaint their ship, attach different exterior cosmetics to the ship, and so on. Bethesda may be enthusiastic about Starfield’s unique “NASA-punk” aesthetic, but it can still provide players with customization options while remaining in the vicinity of the new IP’s distinct look.

Overall, No Man’s Sky sets a bar for space travel that Starfield would be wise to reach for. No Man’s Sky travel is quick and easy, while both obtaining and upgrading ships work well as long-term objectives for players. If Starfield can live up to some of these principles and expand on them, then its own spaceships could be just as interesting. It’s not hard to imagine special ship upgrades that can only be found on certain planets or specific Starfield cities like New Atlantis. The more reasons Starfield players have to get excited about their vehicles, the better.

Starfield releases on November 11, 2022 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

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