Hoping to make this a discussion/brainstorming thread.
I hit level 20 and noticed that I had accumulated a healthy supply of random crafting items, so I decided to go into manufacturing. I set up my initial base on Sirius 3-B, and started expanding to other moons throughout the system, but I’m not sure what I should be manufacturing.
I’ve invested pretty heavily into my weapon and spacesuit design skills, but I’ve only got two points into outpost construction; I can set up simple and commercial fabricator/extractors, but I’m not sure what I’ll need down the line. Any advice or suggestions from veteran Outpost builders?
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I’ve been playing with my outposts for the last few days and I can now say with confidence that they are completely useless. The problem comes down to how storage and cargo links work.
FO4 had a simple “network” system. Add a node to the network, and all nodes had access to all materials at all other nodes. That encouraged you to use each node (settlement) to specialize in some kind of resource, which became building blocks for your crafting node.
In Starfield, you only have access to the material in your backpack, ship, and transfer storage. Everything else is stored in unlabeled boxes that you keep adding as you run out of storage. If you need a mat that isn’t in your backpack, ship, or transfer storage, you have to manually search for it amongst all of your unlabeled boxes. You can attach an assembly machine to a box, but how do you get the right materials into the box? Manually? Everything time? Great fun.
Rather than networking your resource outposts, you daisy chain them. Your first outpost sends everything to your second. Your second takes all of that, adds its own, and sends it to the third. By the time it gets to your crafting outpost, the transfer pipes are hopelessly clogged and you get nothing but your final outpost’s resources showing up. What can you make with Beryleum and He3? This doesn’t really matter because what would you have done with the unsorted mess from all of your other outposts? You can’t feed it automatically into your construction machines, because you will, inevitably, not get the right mix of goods.
So I now have 5 outposts mining elements I can’t use and shipping (some of) them to an outpost that can’t do anything with them. This is hopelessly borked and I will now move on from outpost building for approximately 18 months, after which BGS or modders should have a functional replacement system available. Until then, it is literally pointless.
BTW, I am not a Starfield hater. I just logged my 123rd hour and I’m mostly having a good time. But this seems like a lot of work went into making something that just doesn’t do anything useful.
I thought I had a workaround that I saw in a video, but tried it today and it failed.
A guy said to build things in your outpost that use the type of resource you need, then delete and it goes into your inventory. I thought it happened at first, but today it didn’t appear to work. Maybe I did something wrong though.
I thought i had a good system where each outpost was only exporting 1 solid, 1 liquid, and 1 gas. This allowed me to isolate and sort at the receiving outpost.
The problem occurs when each outposts import & export containers get full. At which point materials flow from the export station, go to the import location where they can’t be unloaded, THEN THEY COME BACK to the original outpost where they get offloaded. You wind up with all the same materials filling both the import and export containers. Now the entire material flow is completely borked, nothing is getting imported, and all you have access to is the stuff thats locally produced.
I haven’t figured out the point of outposts yet. You can use them to make money, I guess, but it’s not like money is hard to make in this game. It would be cool if they put something in the game that you could only get through outposts, like end-game crafting mats for modding or something.
But AFAIK, there’s no point to outposts… another of the many shallow mechanics in this game.
It’s part of how you can gather materials more on demand or long term than hoping you loot some or going and buying them, and it’s about being able to make your own space to live in and feel like you made something neat.
I tried to make a ship to live out of with every crafting station and tons of cargo, but the ship just ended up massive and unwieldy to move around in.
I ended up creating a base with lots of organized storage and such so that I can now have whatever size and kind of ship I want, just for funsies, and I can leave all the storage and crafting shit at “home”.
I’m glad they let you gain materials and such in different ways, so if I really really wanted to, I could just bust my ass running missions and use my money to buy mats.
You are describing sandbox elements, which are great for those that enjoy them, but have no point by definition.
Well, I enjoy them, and enjoyment is the point of me playing this game. If you like things like Minecraft or Terraria/Starbound/the building portions of Valheim, then you can find enjoyment in outpost construction. Otherwise, you might like it as a way to make resources or a way to store things and have a living space without resorting to a ship that you’re locked to because any other ship not made to accommodate all of your crap and need for workstations won’t do.
The pros are not purely creative, but that is a pro if you’re into that. Every game has parts that some people will like and others won’t like, just because you think sandbox elements have no point by definition doesn’t mean someone like me won’t enjoy noodling around in Garry’s Mod without any mechanical incentive. Exploring the mechanical space of a game and creating just to create can be fun. Not for everyone, but it can be in its own right.
Well, I enjoy them, and enjoyment is the point of me playing this game.
This is a tautology.
Regardless, I feel like you’re arguing to defend the honor of sandbox elements when I’m not attacking sandbox elements. I said they’re fun for those who enjoy them. You said you enjoy them. We are in agreement.
You said they had no point, they are saying the point is to have fun
That’s a stupid thing to say. Obviously, it’'s a video game, everything is in there to have fun with.
How do you add crafting stations to your ships?
Put a “workshop” hab on it for most of the things, and a “science” hab for the pharma stuff and a kitchen.
Infirmary also has pharma and research station.
Some of the Living Quarters and All In One and Mess Halls, etc have cooking stations.
Stroud-eklund and Deimos 2x1 workshop hab have them. Stroud-eklund dealership can be found on Neon, Deimos’ dealership can be found orbiting Mars’ moon Deimos. Those two workshop habs have industrial, gunsmithing, spacesuit and research benches.
Thanks! Are there different habs available at different facilities? I’ve just started scratching the surface of this game
Yeah. Besides the two mentioned, Hope on Polvo in the Valo system, Taiwo on Neon, and … shit I’m missing one, it’s on a moon I think but I can’t remember the system or the brand. There are two geezers out front to welcome you to the place, very run down spot. Not sure if it was Gagarin.
Thanks!
I’m skipping the whole building aspect of all Bethesda games. I buy the research and crafting resources from vendors.
When I land on a planet and the thought “I should build an outpost here” pops into my head, I just boot up Satisfactory and start a new build in a similar biome.
I like the idea of constructing a productive home base in Starfield, but the current implementation just seems to be a combination of useless, tedious, and generally lacking in features, and I just can’t be bothered.
My home base is my ship and I’m happy with that.
Looking at it, it looks like just busywork for Lin and Heller. Looks like Andromeda has an outpost specialty too.
https://www.polygon.com/starfield-guide/23853471/companion-crew-member-hire-recruit
For my first playthrough I made a chunk of change making/selling adaptive frames. They’re made from iron and aluminum which are very abundant. Outside resource gathering via herbing or mining, the only point of them is as a home for you to decorate and store excess crew/loot. You can setup crafting stations but every station minus a herb farm you can setup for an outpost, you can buy to put in your ship. For me that makes them less useful as I just use my ship as my home and only visit outposts to gather up mined resources to craft into goods to sell or upgrades. In my initial 70 hour playthrough I even setup defenses and made sure the crew stationed there had bitching weapons but was never attacked to my knowledge.
Extractors, cargo links, and cubicles. I’ve got the
annoyingadoring fan all alone on the moon with nothing but the outpost beacon and a desk.I’ve not bothered with them. Seems like a lot of faff and organisation my ADHD brain cannot be arsed with.
I use them to make a base for myself, I like having tons of displays for armor and weapons and chests for random stuff like notes and books, basically to hoard
Workbenches in a circle and stacks of shipping containers everywhere.
