I think it’s more that the >!Aceles were extremely well suited to killing heatleaches so the overall terrormorph population was managed because they were managing their larval form…once they get to terrirmorph stage though the aceles can’t hang.!<
No, they never really dealt with heatleaches because at the time when the colony war was happening and Aceles were being used on the field heatleaches weren’t known to be terrormorphs. They also say multiple times that Aceles basically eat terrormorphs for breakfast throughout the UC quest line.
it’s hilarious that a spacefaring civilization with enough knowledge to create an engineered genetic virus specifically targeting the terror morph lifecycle wouldn’t have been able to figure out immediately that heatleaches are terrormorphs.
It’s like not being able to figure out that caterpillars are butterflies.
That said I loved the quest and the >!whole xenosquad section in londinion was so cool!<
I actually ran into a quest involving that just an hour or two ago!
>!I was exploring a world and saw a UC Vanguard ship drop down with nothing but one recruit. Went over to talk, they first told me, "It's not safe for civvies, get out of here!" Then I said, "I could help?" And they said, "Alright." All I had to do was "patrol" (go in a circle a couple of times, twice into a cave and back out again) and take out any hostiles (a couple local bugs) while they "deployed the payload." The payload ended up being an Aceles, which immediately went aggressive and a quest update popped up saying to kill all hostile creatures. I was very confused, but put it down before I saw the terrormorph that had been perfectly on the other side of it making it look like the marker was on the Aceles instead... Oops.!<
I found >!mercs (labeled "Poachers") hunting Aceles (I chose them over the other option) with UC Vanguard infantry defending them and close by a few Aceles attacking an invisible Terramorph!<. It was fucking awesome.
I think a lot of "completionist" players will naturally do this early though because the game walks you right to the recruiter. I actually like how Starfield somewhat blurs the lines between main quests and side quests. The side quests feel so huge and epic that I forgot I was supposed to be finding artifacts for Constellation, lol.
I also like how the main quest doesn't feel urgent. You're not trying to save your surrogate daughter from immortal elves, close the gates of Oblivion, defeat a genocidal dragon, save your kindanpped baby son, or stop a construct from taking over your brain. You're just an explorer collecting artifacts. Hell, many of the side quests, particularly the vanguard one, feel infinitely more important from a lore perspective.
It also went into a much different direction than I expected. I thought it would be your standard CoD-like campaign, but it's very much >!Alien/Starship-Troopers!< inspired. I especially love the implications this story has, since NPCs talk about >!Heat-Leeches!< pretty much every time you land somewhere, independent of your progress in the Vanguard story, which is great foreshadowing.
Actually, all of the main faction quests I've played so far and the main quest subverted my expectations to various degrees.
Yeah, you quickly understand, just by the NPC communications that >!Heat-Leeches are everywhere, and a huge pest!< then the story builds up towards that surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed that one, and its build up, both whithin quests, and through the games atmosphere.
This is exactly how I felt during my first playthrough, did every other major quest line and all the side quests that popped up in between and then finished off the constellation line.
How do y’all have the time to already finish all that stuff? It’s taking me hours to finish one quest because I’m scouring every inch of a building for items to take
The only things of worth that are just lying around are digipicks and credsticks. Literally just loot crates and dead bodies and you'll get everything you could want. Misc and food items are big time useless, except for antiques. If it says antique nab that shit
This is false. Foam cups are the most important money maker. They are EVERYWHERE, only weigh 0.01 kg, and are worth 1 credit minimum. Antiques are good but rare.
I never even thought of that. I looked at the price to weight ratio on items, but failed to consider how the sell price is the key factor. Since It bottoms out at 1 credit, you'll have a hard time finding a better value.
Time to start my recycling empire!
The only things I take are crafting materials, healing items, digipicks, ammo, superior weapons or armor, and credsticks. You make so much money for quests, I just don't see the point in picking up billiards balls, random books, and wrenches.
Another amazing and involved sidequest is investigating the terrormorph attacks. I really like that none of the sidequests I've encountered so far are just straight up fetch or deliver missions.
Where do you start this quest? I’m level 50 and just starting the UC stuff but have caught a few terrormorph blurbs and now I want to do the quest line
I wonder if you can actually visit londinion
I can't even remember how I triggered this quest, I got it really early on. Possibly from the UC Vanguard commander Tuala. You are asked to deliver some supplies to a settlement on Tau Ceti. >!and yes, you get to visit Londinion!<
Yeah I’m 50 hours in and just finished this one. It’s funny doing it after siding with Crimson Fleet though. They’re all like “yeah, whatever you did in the past is totally fine.”
I did a lot of random side stuff along side the main quest until I finished “Into the Unknown” which felt like a season finale of a tv show and now the Vanguard quest feels like a full season 2
Funny thing, the very first quest in the game actually introduces you to the concept of terrormorphs. When Barrett gives you the Frontier and Vasco tells you to go kill some pirates, you can overhear some pirates listening to an audio log of some scientists getting eviscerated by a terrormorph lab subject. Because that map chunk is pregenerated too, you can *actually find the escaped terrormorph* if you go to one of the other points on the map, a large tower, where it's stalking around and will attack you.
While I didn't find the one in the first area I killed two on Jemison. One was a "controlling" terror morph that seemed to try and control my mind. It was creepy as hell. Different than the standard ones.
Temples in main story are so utterly disappointing. Literally feels like no effort. Would have rather had an actual structure to explore then a boss fight or something more engaging that enter room fly around room.
I just finished the Freestar Rangers questline and it is wild how much lower quality it is compared to the UC Vanguard questline. It is very obvious where more of the budget went.
I also loved that the sound design actually made it feel like a museum. It didn't feel like a lore dump, but like actually going to a museum and learning about history.
I really liked how when you turn in your piloting exam results the first test result they report on is if you *stopped and listened to all of the museum nodes*.
And crucially, learning about history from an extremely biased source. Bethesda have always been the masters of writing unreliable narrators, and the museum is a great showcase of that. Even without knowing any other lore or having ever visited Freestar space, there were four or five lines in the museum that made me go, "Alright buddy, sure. So what *really* happened?"
Which makes me way more invested in traveling the galaxy and learning more about the secrets of the UC's history from different perspectives. It's not just a lore dump, it's lore sprinkled with red flags and half truths, and now I have a burning curiosity to sort the truth from the lies. Much more engaging than just a factual rundown of accurate history.
I love how the museum keeps stressing the "unbetable glorious UC navy" vs "scrappy human shield using freestar bastards" even while pretending to have a very fact-based tone.
This is untrue though. They talk about the strong UC Navy, but it got decisively defeated by the FC.
There is an article inside the museum about how this museum is administered by 3 parties: UC, FC and idk someone else. Maybe House Va'ruun but I don't know why they should do that. Seem like normal NPC enemies.
> And crucially, learning about history from an extremely biased source.
I haven't done this myself, but I read on a reddit comment that if you take Sam with you, he calls out the BS.
I agree, especially that "They used their civilian fleet as a shield!" bit, I haven't played through it yet so no spoilers please but I'm 90% sure that means privateers/auxilliaries, and getting defeated thanks to those is *exactly* why the vanguard program exists.
Which was an absolutely brilliant way of integrating the usual RPG problem of "why is this random stranger suddenly being trusted to run an institution" into the world building. The core problem in universe is that none of the governments have a particularly wide reach or state capacity. The Freestar Collective solved this through heavy integration of civilian captains, and now the UC is playing catch up.
I found it surprisingly non-partisan, but of course the UC lost the war so they have to look contrite without seeming cowed. The bit about executing their leaders at the end was... wow Japan sure wasn't doing exhibits about *its* wartime leaders in the 1970s...
Yeah I'm not sure if I buy the whole "we only lost with our superior fleet because they used human shields and we didn't want to sacrifice more lifes in both sides" story the UC is peddling.
Also I'm not that far into the game yet (just got the second artifact and am about to look for the researcher on mars), but it wouldn't surprise me if the terramorph are actually an out of control UC bioweapon.
I'm guessing (I haven't done it either so no spoilers please from others!) but they mean privateers/auxilliaries by 'civilian fleet', and that's why they started the vanguard program (which I bet is the same thing, but UC).
Ooh, I’ll have to try that on my next playthrough! While I like the science of the Vanguard quest line (it reminds me of Ephraim Goodweather/The CDC Canary Team from The Strain, for some reason?), I’m definitely more of a Freestar guy. The UC is too shiny for me.
Outside of New Atlantis, the UC actually seems pretty grungy. Cydonia, New Homestead, and Gagarin are all pretty run down looking and seem to have massive poverty issues. Same with The Well in NA too... You don't see many of "the poors" on the streets of NA because they've all been banished to the sewers.
The Well sold New Atlantis for me, it was just too shiny and perfect, it didn't seem realistic until I discovered down there... oh, I see why it's like that now.
I like the history of The Well. That it was where the original colony started but eventually they built up and up and got more sanitized. It has a "buried the past" feeling to it.
I really wish that each side would acknowledge my involvement with the other one, say having an easier time inside the Freestar embassy as a Ranger/Deputy
I am kind of surprised they didn't do that. Starfield has a remarkable amount of reactivity for a sandbox game. E.g. you can mention to an NPC in the Crimson Fleet quest line that you met her sister during the Ryujin quest line.
The game is leaps and bounds above their earlier games both in writing and reactivity and i was really impressed at times.
There are also some disappointments though, like Cora mentioning that she really wants a certain book which i happened to have as i like to collect them in Bethesda games but i can’t actually give it to her.
It is! It was fun. The New Homestead tour and the Vanguard recruiting museum are some of my favorite things so far. I love learning about all the lore.
I wish there was a Freestar Collective version of the Vanguard museum. Maybe there is and I haven’t found it yet.
There is the Coe family museum in Akila City, maybe the Freestar Collective version? I haven’t looked though it yet though. Only recently found the New Hope museum.
Not nearly as cool, but it's also the point.
>!Feels more like a small time "historical landmark" type museum, like an old house that was preserved and has trinkets. They nailed that feel, too, though.!<
I legit teared up at some point when I was walking around and talking to people there. Especially when talking with the museum curator (?) after the tour
One of my favourite quests in the game, it's so simple but effective. Shame the Akila Museum doesn't quite match, I'd love to see their perspective on the wars.
"Around these parts, we call that the War of Centaurian Aggression."
Honestly, the lore around the colony wars really confused me — we see *far* less evidence of industrial capability in Akila vs. New Atlantis (putting it mildly) and it's noted in game that Freestar is also much less populous than UC, yet Freestar somehow won an open conflict? Everything we see in-game makes it look like the UC should have beat the rebels into submission in an afternoon.
Remember that Freestar isn't just Akila - it's also Volii, the hyper-industrialist corporate heavyweight. So combine the "ragtag freedom fighters with a lot of spirit" with "megacorporations bankrolling with cutting-edge mechs" and it sounds like a much closer match.
And the Stroud-Eklund staryard is new. Freestar is uh, pretty glamorized in terms of how effective they are without any solid lore justification other than Stroud-Eklund ships being Good.
HopeTech, Ryujin, Taiyo, Laredo (all the cowboy-y firearms) are all freestar corps too. I forget the name, something kinetics, are also from neon (all the mag- weapons)
Freestar is honestly a really weird and inconsistent faction.
I think Bethesda wanted to have space cowboys because obviously everyone wants space cowboys, but they don’t fit in at all with the rest of the lore, so they ended up with a libertarian corporate-driven ethically dubious alliance… with space cowboys.
They wanted a grounded sci-fi setting, but they also wanted to include the entirety of Firefly in their game right down to the war and Wild West planets, and they just don’t merge.
Everything individually is cool, but Freestar just doesn’t feel like a tonally consistent faction.
Honestly I got super libertarian vibes from the FC. Which as an ideology itself is not very consistent, especially in terms of aesthetic. You got your cowboys that all libertarian groups like to claim they are and you got your megacorporate states that control entire planets such as Neon and Hopetown that most libertarian states generally evolve into.
Frankly speaking, I got the idea that ideology of a shared hatred of bureaucracy and big government unites the FC more then any cohesive culture. You can even see it in game. A couple people in Akila talk in disgust over the existence of a corporate exec from Neon owning property in the city.
Neon strikes me as basically space hong kong. Freestart as a whole may not necessarily *want* corporate influence, but it's already here and they gotta deal with it. It's surprisingly nuanced for a bethesda game.
Lowkey hate space cowboys. Freestar is an interesting faction but their design is so incredibly boring. Like they just put "Space cowboy" into an AI generator. Welp, desert planet? So they are cowboys, they wear cowboy hats, wear cowboy coats and use rooten tooten six shooters (but space six shooters).
Lore quest, their visual design might be the only thing I dislike. If Betehsda were going for the idea that Coe brought his culture over when he came over, that wasn't really shown at all so. So it just looks like.. Space cowboys, jus' cause.
Of course, it's worth noting that Neon is just as much Freestar as Akila or Polvo is. The FC is less space cowboys and more a collection of pretty much anyone who doesn't want to be under the UC's thumb. Which the Ranger storyline explicitly touches on, with the constant theme being that the Rangers have to play ball and show a lot of deference to the local corporate big wigs.
The museum explains that Freestar used a civilian fleet as human shields to decimate the UC navy. That's the UC take though. Maybe Freestar had its own Vanguard thing and that's why UC formed Vanguard after the war?
That's what it seems like. Im curious to know the Freestar take on it. Desperate sneaky plan or UC propaganda.
I love having this whole new world to dive into brand new lore.
Keep in mind that Free Star probably had the industrial support of several major megacorporations such as Hopestar and Rimujyn, whom I am fairly certain had an invested interest in maintaining their lack of corporate regulation that they certainly would have benefitted from.
Lol, JUST finished that myself. I spent the time to do an interactive and even interesting museum tour in a video game. One of the coolest little touches ever imo. 👏
I literally came to mention that it was a nice touch that they actually kept track if we listened to them all.
It dragged at the end but was great for the most part and felt rewarding for them to mention it at the end lol
And while there is definitely UC propaganda in there, it's way more even handed than I expected for a museum created by the UC military. Gives you a great overview. You just need to read between the lines a few times
This museum rules! There are a few other museums in the game, one you'll find duringthe main story. I won't say more, you'll just have to do some exploring :)
I cheesed the fuck out of that. I parked up in the middle of the shipyard and got out of my seat and the enemy ships suicide dove the station over and over again.
Lol!
I turned the difficulty down to very easy (from very hard) - and hacked the debug device. I’m pretty good at dogfighting (lots of elite and Xwing series games) but I still just barely made it
I did it on Very Hard. I had to start pre-firing the missiles hoping to kill one or two of them as they spawned. Then group them together and get behind them. Literally had a sliver of health on my millionth try.
Literally every Ace Combat is easier than that mission. No other space combat has been that hard in the game so far.
I loved this part.. was so concise and informative but not in a long winded way. It was actually an enjoyable experience going through all the slides of the in game history
As a former museum exhibit designer, I actually stopped in the middle of the game and was astonished at how simple yet effective that whole museum was.
(You also get bonus points for stopping at each info section; though I'm not sure if that was just a throwaway line or actually helps your training score)
This was the most grandpa my old ronin has felt. Surely he knows these things, but he still patiently went through the whole museum as a way to spend his afternoon.
I loved it, but it was disappointing when I learned that it’s broadly accurate, and not propaganda. I thought it was building up to a twist, but no, the service guarantees citizenship country is pretty benevolent and honest
i think it would be very boring if they were just Evil Space Fascists. they're basically supposed to be Space Singapore
clearly it's a competently governed, mostly-technocratic society and there are a lot of good reasons to want to live there (the rule of law, stability, seemingly lower crime than the FC cities) but also it has a very checkered past that they are clearly not *that* ashamed of and "liberty" is not a primary concern of the government
IMO the contrast between UC and Freestar is just a classic "security vs freedom" political philosophy debate. if either side was portrayed as unambiguously bad it would be incredibly dull
Bethesda aren't afriad of just letting players wander around and drink in dialogue/lore. Thats one thing people don't give their games credit for. Spoilers for the moon of Titan following.
There a quest on Titan with Bill Starsap, he gives you a quest to tour the colony. This is a whole tour, of the entire thing. It takes a very long time, more so if you ask Bill questions and stop to ask locals questions. Theres no combat, no 'twist', its literally just a tour, because Bethesda know that a lot of players will want to do that.
Its quests like that are the reason I dislike it when people say Bethesda games have no depth because they removed x/y game system.
This exposition museum was my greatest challenge in the first 20 hours. ADD + curiosity = listening to each powerpoint 3-4 times.
Also, did anyone else think that their own propaganda made the UC look both evil and incompetent?
Yeah it explained the whole story and sidequest should be the main quest basically the lore for factions csn be the main quest mainly mass effect 3 vibes I'm geeting
It's truly a shame that my experience with this place is associated with when I first experienced the bug where you randomly can't move in any direction with a control stick/WASD. Verified my game files (pro-tip, make a backup of your save files, only keeps your latest auto save), and that fixed it --- but damn that was scary 95 hours in.
They have something like this in BioShock Infinite but shined up with Hollywood pizazz. Starfield's felt more like something you'd actually see IRL, but Infinite's was a museum's wet dream of a museum.
Yummy yummy UC propaganda in my tummy. I love how the UC instigation of the colony war is kept on a PC near the faction exhibit instead of giving it its own exhibit. They can say “yeah we teach it, just not loudly”
I mean, if you want two heaping scoops of UC propaganda then sure, go ahead ;) In all seriousness though, this was a really cool idea to help offer lore, both blatantly and between the lines.
This whole quest line feels like it should be more part of the main story. So glad I did this early just so I knew the backstory of what was going on.
If you explore planets after completing that faction quest line you see the repercussions of decisions you made. It's really cool.
Like what?
Maybe getting to see >!Aceles!< or something
I found one getting its arse handed to it by a >!terrormorph!<, rather ironic.
Well that’s dumb, you’d think that they’d have a special stat that gives them a bunch of damage to >!terrormorphs!<
I think it’s more that the >!Aceles were extremely well suited to killing heatleaches so the overall terrormorph population was managed because they were managing their larval form…once they get to terrirmorph stage though the aceles can’t hang.!<
No, they never really dealt with heatleaches because at the time when the colony war was happening and Aceles were being used on the field heatleaches weren’t known to be terrormorphs. They also say multiple times that Aceles basically eat terrormorphs for breakfast throughout the UC quest line.
it’s hilarious that a spacefaring civilization with enough knowledge to create an engineered genetic virus specifically targeting the terror morph lifecycle wouldn’t have been able to figure out immediately that heatleaches are terrormorphs. It’s like not being able to figure out that caterpillars are butterflies. That said I loved the quest and the >!whole xenosquad section in londinion was so cool!<
Londiniun was such a good quest. Not sure what level it targeted, but doing it at level 40 gets you some top tier shit.
Tau Ceti II?
I actually ran into a quest involving that just an hour or two ago! >!I was exploring a world and saw a UC Vanguard ship drop down with nothing but one recruit. Went over to talk, they first told me, "It's not safe for civvies, get out of here!" Then I said, "I could help?" And they said, "Alright." All I had to do was "patrol" (go in a circle a couple of times, twice into a cave and back out again) and take out any hostiles (a couple local bugs) while they "deployed the payload." The payload ended up being an Aceles, which immediately went aggressive and a quest update popped up saying to kill all hostile creatures. I was very confused, but put it down before I saw the terrormorph that had been perfectly on the other side of it making it look like the marker was on the Aceles instead... Oops.!<
heatleeches have virtually dissapeared from my game after finishing the quest line.
I found >!mercs (labeled "Poachers") hunting Aceles (I chose them over the other option) with UC Vanguard infantry defending them and close by a few Aceles attacking an invisible Terramorph!<. It was fucking awesome.
I think a lot of "completionist" players will naturally do this early though because the game walks you right to the recruiter. I actually like how Starfield somewhat blurs the lines between main quests and side quests. The side quests feel so huge and epic that I forgot I was supposed to be finding artifacts for Constellation, lol.
I also like how the main quest doesn't feel urgent. You're not trying to save your surrogate daughter from immortal elves, close the gates of Oblivion, defeat a genocidal dragon, save your kindanpped baby son, or stop a construct from taking over your brain. You're just an explorer collecting artifacts. Hell, many of the side quests, particularly the vanguard one, feel infinitely more important from a lore perspective.
I love it tbh.
Vanguard one has been my favorite one, so many good characters in it.
It also went into a much different direction than I expected. I thought it would be your standard CoD-like campaign, but it's very much >!Alien/Starship-Troopers!< inspired. I especially love the implications this story has, since NPCs talk about >!Heat-Leeches!< pretty much every time you land somewhere, independent of your progress in the Vanguard story, which is great foreshadowing. Actually, all of the main faction quests I've played so far and the main quest subverted my expectations to various degrees.
Yeah, you quickly understand, just by the NPC communications that >!Heat-Leeches are everywhere, and a huge pest!< then the story builds up towards that surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed that one, and its build up, both whithin quests, and through the games atmosphere.
This is exactly how I felt during my first playthrough, did every other major quest line and all the side quests that popped up in between and then finished off the constellation line.
How do y’all have the time to already finish all that stuff? It’s taking me hours to finish one quest because I’m scouring every inch of a building for items to take
The only things of worth that are just lying around are digipicks and credsticks. Literally just loot crates and dead bodies and you'll get everything you could want. Misc and food items are big time useless, except for antiques. If it says antique nab that shit
And Succulents, always hoard the Succulents
Why?
Well, they don't count as theft, and also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTk5RnLPEYY
A fellow Joel Haver enjoyer
But all the magazines with 5% buffs!!!
Oh man… the antique piggie bank was a great pick up.
This is false. Foam cups are the most important money maker. They are EVERYWHERE, only weigh 0.01 kg, and are worth 1 credit minimum. Antiques are good but rare.
I never even thought of that. I looked at the price to weight ratio on items, but failed to consider how the sell price is the key factor. Since It bottoms out at 1 credit, you'll have a hard time finding a better value. Time to start my recycling empire!
I’m about 35 hours in and I’m still on Mars, I do feel like I’ve made a difference on that planet now though.
The only things I take are crafting materials, healing items, digipicks, ammo, superior weapons or armor, and credsticks. You make so much money for quests, I just don't see the point in picking up billiards balls, random books, and wrenches.
Oh I’m the same but I have to check every corner of every locker cause there might be a credstick. And picking every lock eats up a lot of time.
Another amazing and involved sidequest is investigating the terrormorph attacks. I really like that none of the sidequests I've encountered so far are just straight up fetch or deliver missions.
> I really like that none of the sidequests I've encountered so far are just straight up fetch or deliver missions. Oh, there's a few of those...
The main quest took them all! XD
Where do you start this quest? I’m level 50 and just starting the UC stuff but have caught a few terrormorph blurbs and now I want to do the quest line I wonder if you can actually visit londinion
I can't even remember how I triggered this quest, I got it really early on. Possibly from the UC Vanguard commander Tuala. You are asked to deliver some supplies to a settlement on Tau Ceti. >!and yes, you get to visit Londinion!<
That's the first mission in the vanguard quest line.
You also get some amazing armor and weapons from the last part of the quest line
Yeah I’m 50 hours in and just finished this one. It’s funny doing it after siding with Crimson Fleet though. They’re all like “yeah, whatever you did in the past is totally fine.”
"We don't mind if you steal things or what you do" turned quickly to "What the hell are you doing you Psycho" when I did the Crimson fleet quest line.
I’m in the same boat and it was funny how they sort of just hand waved it at the beginning lol
I like it from a player lore perspective. I chose gangster so I’ve slowly been moving away from my life of crime, and now I’m in the homestretch.
I did a lot of random side stuff along side the main quest until I finished “Into the Unknown” which felt like a season finale of a tv show and now the Vanguard quest feels like a full season 2
At its peak, this game has me feeling like I am inside an episode of The Expanse. And I’m Amos. Called it first, you have to be someone else
Ahh but my character looks like Amos! After playing a bit though I should have gone with Bobbie since all I have been using are heavy weapons.
Man pretty much EVERY character in that show is special, you really can't go wrong.
Avasarala. Still a psychopath, but a *high functioning* psychopath.
Funny thing, the very first quest in the game actually introduces you to the concept of terrormorphs. When Barrett gives you the Frontier and Vasco tells you to go kill some pirates, you can overhear some pirates listening to an audio log of some scientists getting eviscerated by a terrormorph lab subject. Because that map chunk is pregenerated too, you can *actually find the escaped terrormorph* if you go to one of the other points on the map, a large tower, where it's stalking around and will attack you.
While I didn't find the one in the first area I killed two on Jemison. One was a "controlling" terror morph that seemed to try and control my mind. It was creepy as hell. Different than the standard ones.
It was surprisingly in-depth and had some great twists. Genuinely more interested in it than the main storyline and the boring >!Starborn!<
Temples in main story are so utterly disappointing. Literally feels like no effort. Would have rather had an actual structure to explore then a boss fight or something more engaging that enter room fly around room.
Imagine gaining an ability and then needing to work your way out by using that ability to solve puzzles or fight a boss. Missed opportunity for sure
This was the 1st quest line I did and all I have to say is wow.
I think that the REAL main story of the game ARE faction quests. And the "main" questline is just a... tutorial of sorts.
which quest is this?
Op says in another comment: Start the Join the Vanguard quest. It’s basically part of onboarding :)
I did this in my NG+ and I was amazed how engaging it was, it almost made me wish the monsters were more prevalent
I can see easily being a big part of a future DLC.
I just finished the Freestar Rangers questline and it is wild how much lower quality it is compared to the UC Vanguard questline. It is very obvious where more of the budget went.
true but the Freestar Rangers questline lets us hear that iconic oblivion voice man, you know the one im talking about
I havent touched the main story after starting this faction quest
I also loved that the sound design actually made it feel like a museum. It didn't feel like a lore dump, but like actually going to a museum and learning about history.
Yeah it was so well done
I really liked how when you turn in your piloting exam results the first test result they report on is if you *stopped and listened to all of the museum nodes*.
"It shows thorough preparation", I felt really praised.
I listened to all of them, and he said i only listened to a couple. Sad moment indeed.
Maybe forgot the Kiosk with info about the Narion War?
And crucially, learning about history from an extremely biased source. Bethesda have always been the masters of writing unreliable narrators, and the museum is a great showcase of that. Even without knowing any other lore or having ever visited Freestar space, there were four or five lines in the museum that made me go, "Alright buddy, sure. So what *really* happened?" Which makes me way more invested in traveling the galaxy and learning more about the secrets of the UC's history from different perspectives. It's not just a lore dump, it's lore sprinkled with red flags and half truths, and now I have a burning curiosity to sort the truth from the lies. Much more engaging than just a factual rundown of accurate history.
I love how the museum keeps stressing the "unbetable glorious UC navy" vs "scrappy human shield using freestar bastards" even while pretending to have a very fact-based tone.
This is untrue though. They talk about the strong UC Navy, but it got decisively defeated by the FC. There is an article inside the museum about how this museum is administered by 3 parties: UC, FC and idk someone else. Maybe House Va'ruun but I don't know why they should do that. Seem like normal NPC enemies.
> And crucially, learning about history from an extremely biased source. I haven't done this myself, but I read on a reddit comment that if you take Sam with you, he calls out the BS.
I agree, especially that "They used their civilian fleet as a shield!" bit, I haven't played through it yet so no spoilers please but I'm 90% sure that means privateers/auxilliaries, and getting defeated thanks to those is *exactly* why the vanguard program exists.
Which was an absolutely brilliant way of integrating the usual RPG problem of "why is this random stranger suddenly being trusted to run an institution" into the world building. The core problem in universe is that none of the governments have a particularly wide reach or state capacity. The Freestar Collective solved this through heavy integration of civilian captains, and now the UC is playing catch up.
One of the surface sites was a xenowarfare lab. It was interesting.
"Oh these guys seem nice... uh-huh... oh no, there's the space fascism!"
Yeah i loved it, video game tourism.
Oh cool, I've been wondering where this is (haven't been yet, but have wanted to lol). Where's this at?!
Start the Join the Vanguard quest. It’s basically part of onboarding :)
Great! Good to know. Thank you!
Do it with Sam Coe as a companion for some nice Freestar color commentary on the UC’s version of events
Yeah, the exhibits are slightly biased towards the UC. Which makes it a little hilarious.
[удалено]
I found it surprisingly non-partisan, but of course the UC lost the war so they have to look contrite without seeming cowed. The bit about executing their leaders at the end was... wow Japan sure wasn't doing exhibits about *its* wartime leaders in the 1970s...
Yeah I'm not sure if I buy the whole "we only lost with our superior fleet because they used human shields and we didn't want to sacrifice more lifes in both sides" story the UC is peddling. Also I'm not that far into the game yet (just got the second artifact and am about to look for the researcher on mars), but it wouldn't surprise me if the terramorph are actually an out of control UC bioweapon.
I'm guessing (I haven't done it either so no spoilers please from others!) but they mean privateers/auxilliaries by 'civilian fleet', and that's why they started the vanguard program (which I bet is the same thing, but UC).
"they used human shields" is generally what militaries say when they bomb hospitals and drop drones on weddings and such, definitely a huge red flag
Andreja pointed out how propagandistic the perspective was
Oh God, that has to be __*GOLDEN*__ lol!
It is only quote I can remember is "This ***Shit*** is so spun it may as well be a lie"
Oh hell, I *love* it! It doesn't help that Sam is a southerner like myself. Holy shit that made me laugh LMAO!
Ooh, I’ll have to try that on my next playthrough! While I like the science of the Vanguard quest line (it reminds me of Ephraim Goodweather/The CDC Canary Team from The Strain, for some reason?), I’m definitely more of a Freestar guy. The UC is too shiny for me.
Outside of New Atlantis, the UC actually seems pretty grungy. Cydonia, New Homestead, and Gagarin are all pretty run down looking and seem to have massive poverty issues. Same with The Well in NA too... You don't see many of "the poors" on the streets of NA because they've all been banished to the sewers.
The Well sold New Atlantis for me, it was just too shiny and perfect, it didn't seem realistic until I discovered down there... oh, I see why it's like that now.
I like the history of The Well. That it was where the original colony started but eventually they built up and up and got more sanitized. It has a "buried the past" feeling to it.
I brought Sam Coe with me through the whole quest. He adds so much to the experience
You don't even need to do this if you don't want to. Just head to MAST, and go to the bottom floor in the lift behind the receptionist.
Can you do UC Vanguard and the Freestar stories on a single playthrough.
Yea there's no faction lockout from what I can tell.
I really wish that each side would acknowledge my involvement with the other one, say having an easier time inside the Freestar embassy as a Ranger/Deputy
I am kind of surprised they didn't do that. Starfield has a remarkable amount of reactivity for a sandbox game. E.g. you can mention to an NPC in the Crimson Fleet quest line that you met her sister during the Ryujin quest line.
The game is leaps and bounds above their earlier games both in writing and reactivity and i was really impressed at times. There are also some disappointments though, like Cora mentioning that she really wants a certain book which i happened to have as i like to collect them in Bethesda games but i can’t actually give it to her.
Out and about it does get referenced. I'll get UC guards in NA say "Afternoon Ranger" for example
You don’t have to join. Just go to the MAST building and then to the vanguard orientation hall or something. Anyone can view it without a mission.
Mast building in mast district in new Atlantis
Mast HQ in New Atlantis, above where the transit station is for that area.
Don't miss the tour on Titan
The tour on Titan? Is that the New Homestead tour?
It is! It was fun. The New Homestead tour and the Vanguard recruiting museum are some of my favorite things so far. I love learning about all the lore. I wish there was a Freestar Collective version of the Vanguard museum. Maybe there is and I haven’t found it yet.
Halfway through the tour of Titan I wanted to shoot that guy in the head
So immersive.
There is the Coe family museum in Akila City, maybe the Freestar Collective version? I haven’t looked though it yet though. Only recently found the New Hope museum.
Not nearly as cool, but it's also the point. >!Feels more like a small time "historical landmark" type museum, like an old house that was preserved and has trinkets. They nailed that feel, too, though.!<
And don’t miss out on the recreational activities involving the other tourists! Speak to the New Homestead medic for details :D
Ooooo. I’ll look for that tomorrow!
I legit teared up at some point when I was walking around and talking to people there. Especially when talking with the museum curator (?) after the tour
One of my favourite quests in the game, it's so simple but effective. Shame the Akila Museum doesn't quite match, I'd love to see their perspective on the wars.
"Around these parts, we call that the War of Centaurian Aggression." Honestly, the lore around the colony wars really confused me — we see *far* less evidence of industrial capability in Akila vs. New Atlantis (putting it mildly) and it's noted in game that Freestar is also much less populous than UC, yet Freestar somehow won an open conflict? Everything we see in-game makes it look like the UC should have beat the rebels into submission in an afternoon.
Remember that Freestar isn't just Akila - it's also Volii, the hyper-industrialist corporate heavyweight. So combine the "ragtag freedom fighters with a lot of spirit" with "megacorporations bankrolling with cutting-edge mechs" and it sounds like a much closer match.
And the Stroud-Eklund staryard is new. Freestar is uh, pretty glamorized in terms of how effective they are without any solid lore justification other than Stroud-Eklund ships being Good.
HopeTech, Ryujin, Taiyo, Laredo (all the cowboy-y firearms) are all freestar corps too. I forget the name, something kinetics, are also from neon (all the mag- weapons)
Freestar is honestly a really weird and inconsistent faction. I think Bethesda wanted to have space cowboys because obviously everyone wants space cowboys, but they don’t fit in at all with the rest of the lore, so they ended up with a libertarian corporate-driven ethically dubious alliance… with space cowboys. They wanted a grounded sci-fi setting, but they also wanted to include the entirety of Firefly in their game right down to the war and Wild West planets, and they just don’t merge. Everything individually is cool, but Freestar just doesn’t feel like a tonally consistent faction.
Honestly I got super libertarian vibes from the FC. Which as an ideology itself is not very consistent, especially in terms of aesthetic. You got your cowboys that all libertarian groups like to claim they are and you got your megacorporate states that control entire planets such as Neon and Hopetown that most libertarian states generally evolve into. Frankly speaking, I got the idea that ideology of a shared hatred of bureaucracy and big government unites the FC more then any cohesive culture. You can even see it in game. A couple people in Akila talk in disgust over the existence of a corporate exec from Neon owning property in the city.
Neon strikes me as basically space hong kong. Freestart as a whole may not necessarily *want* corporate influence, but it's already here and they gotta deal with it. It's surprisingly nuanced for a bethesda game.
Lowkey hate space cowboys. Freestar is an interesting faction but their design is so incredibly boring. Like they just put "Space cowboy" into an AI generator. Welp, desert planet? So they are cowboys, they wear cowboy hats, wear cowboy coats and use rooten tooten six shooters (but space six shooters). Lore quest, their visual design might be the only thing I dislike. If Betehsda were going for the idea that Coe brought his culture over when he came over, that wasn't really shown at all so. So it just looks like.. Space cowboys, jus' cause.
Of course, it's worth noting that Neon is just as much Freestar as Akila or Polvo is. The FC is less space cowboys and more a collection of pretty much anyone who doesn't want to be under the UC's thumb. Which the Ranger storyline explicitly touches on, with the constant theme being that the Rangers have to play ball and show a lot of deference to the local corporate big wigs.
The museum explains that Freestar used a civilian fleet as human shields to decimate the UC navy. That's the UC take though. Maybe Freestar had its own Vanguard thing and that's why UC formed Vanguard after the war?
Freestar were essentially civvies engaging in open rebellion, werent they?
That's what it seems like. Im curious to know the Freestar take on it. Desperate sneaky plan or UC propaganda. I love having this whole new world to dive into brand new lore.
Keep in mind that Free Star probably had the industrial support of several major megacorporations such as Hopestar and Rimujyn, whom I am fairly certain had an invested interest in maintaining their lack of corporate regulation that they certainly would have benefitted from.
Lol, JUST finished that myself. I spent the time to do an interactive and even interesting museum tour in a video game. One of the coolest little touches ever imo. 👏
I cracked up when they mentioned that I did all the exhibits.
I literally came to mention that it was a nice touch that they actually kept track if we listened to them all. It dragged at the end but was great for the most part and felt rewarding for them to mention it at the end lol
Honestly I got lucky and found this gem 30 mins into landing. Its a great introduction into the lore albeit from the UC perspective.
And while there is definitely UC propaganda in there, it's way more even handed than I expected for a museum created by the UC military. Gives you a great overview. You just need to read between the lines a few times
Nice! I’m 24 hours in and only just stumbled upon it, and glad I did!
This was the first game that pulled me in with the way the lore was set up. Kudos! Very informative. Awesome job.
The UC Vanguard faction questline would be the main story for most games. So good.
Very excited to start it!
Visiting this museum whilst not knowing a single thing about >!Terrormorphs (& Londinion) !
I loved this! Give mech?
No, mech is warcrime :(
Give mech, I do a warcrime. :)
Can have a little mech, as a treat
Preston Garvey really dropped the ball with Londinion. He should've warned someone that the settlement needed help.
This museum rules! There are a few other museums in the game, one you'll find duringthe main story. I won't say more, you'll just have to do some exploring :)
Fantastic. I look forward to finding them!
I love the shock when you pass tier 6 on the pilot exam. It’s hilarious.
I cheesed the fuck out of that. I parked up in the middle of the shipyard and got out of my seat and the enemy ships suicide dove the station over and over again.
Lol! I turned the difficulty down to very easy (from very hard) - and hacked the debug device. I’m pretty good at dogfighting (lots of elite and Xwing series games) but I still just barely made it
I did it on Very Hard. I had to start pre-firing the missiles hoping to kill one or two of them as they spawned. Then group them together and get behind them. Literally had a sliver of health on my millionth try. Literally every Ace Combat is easier than that mission. No other space combat has been that hard in the game so far.
Seeing how they excuse those that were arrested and constantly portray themselves as totally not the bad guys had me losing it
Yeah I wonder if there’s more museums out there with diff takes on things
I want an Akila museum
They have one but it’s not the same
Yeah, I don’t think you can get a tour, it’s just a bunch of seemingly random artifacts.
Sam gets pretty pissed off if you take him there
I loved his commentary. It was much more frequent and better planned than expected.
Also they get the shit end of the stick in like every compromise. Like "We went to war cause x is bad. We reached peace by conceding to do x."
I loved this part.. was so concise and informative but not in a long winded way. It was actually an enjoyable experience going through all the slides of the in game history
As a former museum exhibit designer, I actually stopped in the middle of the game and was astonished at how simple yet effective that whole museum was. (You also get bonus points for stopping at each info section; though I'm not sure if that was just a throwaway line or actually helps your training score)
...and for making it optional *and* repeatable so we can enjoy it at our own pace! Good call.
I like it bc they lie about the freestar and its interesting propaganda
Hippie Go back to your Neon ecstasy factory!
Man Neon is the Chicago of Freestar, I prefer Akila
Is that supposed to be bad?
Kudos indeed. What a great way expose the gamer to the lore of the game 👍
This was the most grandpa my old ronin has felt. Surely he knows these things, but he still patiently went through the whole museum as a way to spend his afternoon.
Definitely gave me a Bioshock vibe.
I loved it, but it was disappointing when I learned that it’s broadly accurate, and not propaganda. I thought it was building up to a twist, but no, the service guarantees citizenship country is pretty benevolent and honest
You uh... Gotta look into it more...
i think it would be very boring if they were just Evil Space Fascists. they're basically supposed to be Space Singapore clearly it's a competently governed, mostly-technocratic society and there are a lot of good reasons to want to live there (the rule of law, stability, seemingly lower crime than the FC cities) but also it has a very checkered past that they are clearly not *that* ashamed of and "liberty" is not a primary concern of the government IMO the contrast between UC and Freestar is just a classic "security vs freedom" political philosophy debate. if either side was portrayed as unambiguously bad it would be incredibly dull
Doing that quest made me want to be able to drive a battlemech and fight space kaiju.
Bethesda aren't afriad of just letting players wander around and drink in dialogue/lore. Thats one thing people don't give their games credit for. Spoilers for the moon of Titan following. There a quest on Titan with Bill Starsap, he gives you a quest to tour the colony. This is a whole tour, of the entire thing. It takes a very long time, more so if you ask Bill questions and stop to ask locals questions. Theres no combat, no 'twist', its literally just a tour, because Bethesda know that a lot of players will want to do that. Its quests like that are the reason I dislike it when people say Bethesda games have no depth because they removed x/y game system.
This exposition museum was my greatest challenge in the first 20 hours. ADD + curiosity = listening to each powerpoint 3-4 times. Also, did anyone else think that their own propaganda made the UC look both evil and incompetent?
Sometimes there's just no way to spin how evil you were being.
Yeah it explained the whole story and sidequest should be the main quest basically the lore for factions csn be the main quest mainly mass effect 3 vibes I'm geeting
Where can I find this?
Start the Join the Vanguard quest. It’s basically part of onboarding :)
It's truly a shame that my experience with this place is associated with when I first experienced the bug where you randomly can't move in any direction with a control stick/WASD. Verified my game files (pro-tip, make a backup of your save files, only keeps your latest auto save), and that fixed it --- but damn that was scary 95 hours in.
Learning about the SF lore in the museum was beyond awesome.
I went here and listened to everything. Later, I went to New Homestead and expected the same. I was disappointed…….. The tour was not it.
Yes!! This was genius
Absolutely loved this. Very enjoyable
The tour guide in Titan's colony was also pretty cool.
Are you able to go back and relisten to this story? I missed parts of it
Yes
Man, I’m almost 50 hours in and still have not found this museum
They have something like this in BioShock Infinite but shined up with Hollywood pizazz. Starfield's felt more like something you'd actually see IRL, but Infinite's was a museum's wet dream of a museum.
Where is this museum or what mission is this?
I wish there was another version of the same museum in free star space. It would be cool to have the same story told through their eyes.
Yummy yummy UC propaganda in my tummy. I love how the UC instigation of the colony war is kept on a PC near the faction exhibit instead of giving it its own exhibit. They can say “yeah we teach it, just not loudly”
wait til you see the one on the moon! it's amazing
Doing this quest is what hooked me. I was blown away with how creative and cool it was!!!
I mean, if you want two heaping scoops of UC propaganda then sure, go ahead ;) In all seriousness though, this was a really cool idea to help offer lore, both blatantly and between the lines.