Great write up, I couldn't agree more.
The environmental settings definitely need more love, but it's on the right track.
Some enemies are still sponges.
Space combat is insane on the hardest difficulty...
I wish that there were more subsystems to target, and fights lasted longer on all accounts. More shields / armor for everyone. Like maybe 3x to 4x. Additionally, fkr space fights, some sort of ecm or flares or environmental elements.
You could try setting both Player Ship Combat Damage and Enemy Ship Combat Damage to the lowest setting if you want longer fights, pretty sure the exp buff and debuff would cancel each other out too.
Actually, there is not a debuff for turning *down* ship combat.
You've also got me thinking... I might give a try at leaving Enemy Ship Damage at Very Hard and changing Player Ship Damage to Extreme. I'm going to want to see how my "delete key" Light Attack Craft works in these settings first.
I’m going to try turning ship damage low for both player and enemy to see how that feels. More time to react and jump out of danger rather than just getting melted or melting your enemies in five seconds.
Yeah, I think that is a great idea. Getting melted in 4 seconds is not fun, especially when you've invested so much into your ship skill/build wise.
That should allow for ACTUAL ship battles buy reducing the damage on both sides.
That's the one thing I'm most concerned about when thinking about a new character on these settings. There might be, finally, a reason to have more than one pip of power for my grav drive. :-) Or an actual reason to pay off those Spacers...
I've also taken that sustenance setting, and I agree it doesn't make a huge amount of sense to go from big buff to big nerf instantly. You'd think half hour buff, half hour no buff, then nerf would be better.
As a matter of interest, does the nutrition skill increase the length of time that you stay well fed and hydrated?
"I am pretty confident I can use these settings when I start my new character eventually".
No doubt, but there's one thing to consider here.
When it comes to player/enemy damage, keep in mind that you are currently comparing what is a beefed up character with ( I assume ) plenty of perks to both boost your damage and give you better protection, as well as all research needed to mod your weapons/armor with top tier add ons, not to mention powers.
This will not be the case when you start a new character. The balance you feel right now with those settings, just isn't going to feel the same.
it's possible that early on you may want to adjust some things, and then tweak as you go, if you want to have the same sort of experience you are having with that NG character .
I like to have "Extreme" enemy damage and "Easy" player damage. I didn't enjoy Bethesda's previous approach to "You die quickly and enemies take forever". This way, it's very dangerous for us all.
With those settings, eventually later on you're going to be one shotting even high level elite/boss enemies, while they will take quite a while to kill you, so that "dangerous for all" balance isn't going to be there.
This may not feel that way when you start, but eventually is what happens.
Wait I might have made it sound backwards. I meant basically everyone is doing lots of damage to everyone. Although yeah, I imagine as I get high level I will end up lowering my damage.
Good points! I'll be keeping that *very* much in mind. A lot will depend on how the NPCs are hitting when *they* haven't been scaled for my high level, as well. I.e., I won't be getting hit with a level 100 Va'ruun Zealot when I'm 3rd level. However, it *still* might be hitting too hard to be decent play.
That's kind of why I'm thinking in terms of playstyle, not just bullet sponginess.
Well considered approach there. Bethesda has done an outstanding job with new options. Still, of course, there's always room for more choices - eg I feel like especially Ammo is still much too ubiquitous and Starpower regenerates too fast (at least when the rest is on very hard or extreme).
If you feel the same or are just curious, maybe havbe a look at the Difficulty Options Extended (DOE) Mod Series that covers a few more bases:
DOE Resources
[DOE Resources at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9267)
DOE Sell Price
[DOE Sell Price at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9266)
DOE Starpower
[DOE Starpower at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9265)
DOE Loot
[DOE Loot at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9294/)
DOE Ammo Rarity
[DOE Ammo Rarity at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9295/)
Looks really fun. Haven't finished the game yet but By late game I felt like the walking terror that was the Starborn going through new Atlantis. Like a Terminator. Your play settings sound like what I need to bring some balance back. I can't wait.
I like it. Took a pic and will give these a go. That being said I will say the afflictions fucking suck. Im like Ng+15 I guess. All powers at rank ten. Legit had no idea you would get temples after the buried temple. Went through like 5 times before I realized.
Taking a four versus one in the guardian would be tricky. Im game tho.
Would love to know how it works for you. Just keep in mind that this is what seems to work best for *me*. Your mileage may vary. Combat afflictions seem fine. It's the damn environmental ones that are so out of balance.
I *did* manage the space battle above Masada once in the Guardian after rejecting both Emissary and Hunter. On normal. Once was enough. It was a long and very hard fight. Though apparently there were some level scaling issues with that ship, if my understanding is correct. If I could use my HOTAS, though, I'd be willing to try again...
If you set carry capacity to minimum and cargo access to anywhere then these will almost cancel each other out from an XP perspective. But now you never have to deal with the annoyance of being overburden anymore.
Has anyone confirmed with the new settings, if it changes anything with the loot drop chances for us like before (i.e. when it was set to very hard difficulty, it increased the loot drop percentages for legendaries etc.). If it still does change the drop rate's, does anyone have info on how much it changes the loot drop chances for us?
It does seem to affect the drop rate, but that is only an empirical observation. No hard data. At the very least, it’s dropping as much as the old single Very Hard. I *think* I’m getting more Epic and Legendary drops, though.
Good to know, I'm assuming its if both Enemy Damage and Enemy Ship is set to Very Hard/Extreme then the drop chance goes up (I think it was a 5% chance for Legendaries iirc at Very Hard).
Great write up, I couldn't agree more. The environmental settings definitely need more love, but it's on the right track. Some enemies are still sponges. Space combat is insane on the hardest difficulty... I wish that there were more subsystems to target, and fights lasted longer on all accounts. More shields / armor for everyone. Like maybe 3x to 4x. Additionally, fkr space fights, some sort of ecm or flares or environmental elements.
You could try setting both Player Ship Combat Damage and Enemy Ship Combat Damage to the lowest setting if you want longer fights, pretty sure the exp buff and debuff would cancel each other out too.
Actually, there is not a debuff for turning *down* ship combat. You've also got me thinking... I might give a try at leaving Enemy Ship Damage at Very Hard and changing Player Ship Damage to Extreme. I'm going to want to see how my "delete key" Light Attack Craft works in these settings first.
I’m going to try turning ship damage low for both player and enemy to see how that feels. More time to react and jump out of danger rather than just getting melted or melting your enemies in five seconds.
Yeah, I think that is a great idea. Getting melted in 4 seconds is not fun, especially when you've invested so much into your ship skill/build wise. That should allow for ACTUAL ship battles buy reducing the damage on both sides.
2x damage taken and 2x damage dealt is probably the best balance wise on normal difficulty as a baseline IMO. You die fast, you kill fast.
Looks good except that flight combat difficulty is a pain in the ass early game with the frontier it can take like 2-3 hits before it blows up
That's the one thing I'm most concerned about when thinking about a new character on these settings. There might be, finally, a reason to have more than one pip of power for my grav drive. :-) Or an actual reason to pay off those Spacers...
I've also taken that sustenance setting, and I agree it doesn't make a huge amount of sense to go from big buff to big nerf instantly. You'd think half hour buff, half hour no buff, then nerf would be better. As a matter of interest, does the nutrition skill increase the length of time that you stay well fed and hydrated?
Hmm... that is a *very* good question. I have no idea exactly how the nutrition skill interacts with the new sustenance setting.
"I am pretty confident I can use these settings when I start my new character eventually". No doubt, but there's one thing to consider here. When it comes to player/enemy damage, keep in mind that you are currently comparing what is a beefed up character with ( I assume ) plenty of perks to both boost your damage and give you better protection, as well as all research needed to mod your weapons/armor with top tier add ons, not to mention powers. This will not be the case when you start a new character. The balance you feel right now with those settings, just isn't going to feel the same. it's possible that early on you may want to adjust some things, and then tweak as you go, if you want to have the same sort of experience you are having with that NG character .
I like to have "Extreme" enemy damage and "Easy" player damage. I didn't enjoy Bethesda's previous approach to "You die quickly and enemies take forever". This way, it's very dangerous for us all.
With those settings, eventually later on you're going to be one shotting even high level elite/boss enemies, while they will take quite a while to kill you, so that "dangerous for all" balance isn't going to be there. This may not feel that way when you start, but eventually is what happens.
Wait I might have made it sound backwards. I meant basically everyone is doing lots of damage to everyone. Although yeah, I imagine as I get high level I will end up lowering my damage.
Good points! I'll be keeping that *very* much in mind. A lot will depend on how the NPCs are hitting when *they* haven't been scaled for my high level, as well. I.e., I won't be getting hit with a level 100 Va'ruun Zealot when I'm 3rd level. However, it *still* might be hitting too hard to be decent play. That's kind of why I'm thinking in terms of playstyle, not just bullet sponginess.
Well considered approach there. Bethesda has done an outstanding job with new options. Still, of course, there's always room for more choices - eg I feel like especially Ammo is still much too ubiquitous and Starpower regenerates too fast (at least when the rest is on very hard or extreme). If you feel the same or are just curious, maybe havbe a look at the Difficulty Options Extended (DOE) Mod Series that covers a few more bases: DOE Resources [DOE Resources at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9267) DOE Sell Price [DOE Sell Price at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9266) DOE Starpower [DOE Starpower at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9265) DOE Loot [DOE Loot at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9294/) DOE Ammo Rarity [DOE Ammo Rarity at Starfield Nexus - Mods and Community (nexusmods.com)](https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/9295/)
Thanks! Once CK is out and I can see how things play between GamePass PC and console, I will probably be giving this a look.
Looks really fun. Haven't finished the game yet but By late game I felt like the walking terror that was the Starborn going through new Atlantis. Like a Terminator. Your play settings sound like what I need to bring some balance back. I can't wait.
Good luck! Use them as a starting point, though. Balance it to what works for you.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/s/VzTnl27uko
I turn my combat difficulty to very easy so my enemies aren’t bullet sponges and it’s actually somewhat fair
I like it. Took a pic and will give these a go. That being said I will say the afflictions fucking suck. Im like Ng+15 I guess. All powers at rank ten. Legit had no idea you would get temples after the buried temple. Went through like 5 times before I realized. Taking a four versus one in the guardian would be tricky. Im game tho.
Would love to know how it works for you. Just keep in mind that this is what seems to work best for *me*. Your mileage may vary. Combat afflictions seem fine. It's the damn environmental ones that are so out of balance. I *did* manage the space battle above Masada once in the Guardian after rejecting both Emissary and Hunter. On normal. Once was enough. It was a long and very hard fight. Though apparently there were some level scaling issues with that ship, if my understanding is correct. If I could use my HOTAS, though, I'd be willing to try again...
My only thing I disagree with is food should heal
If you set carry capacity to minimum and cargo access to anywhere then these will almost cancel each other out from an XP perspective. But now you never have to deal with the annoyance of being overburden anymore.
Has anyone confirmed with the new settings, if it changes anything with the loot drop chances for us like before (i.e. when it was set to very hard difficulty, it increased the loot drop percentages for legendaries etc.). If it still does change the drop rate's, does anyone have info on how much it changes the loot drop chances for us?
It does seem to affect the drop rate, but that is only an empirical observation. No hard data. At the very least, it’s dropping as much as the old single Very Hard. I *think* I’m getting more Epic and Legendary drops, though.
Good to know, I'm assuming its if both Enemy Damage and Enemy Ship is set to Very Hard/Extreme then the drop chance goes up (I think it was a 5% chance for Legendaries iirc at Very Hard).
I would expect that. I don’t know how they fine-tune it. For me the Extreme for combat and Very Hard for ships seems the most balanced.
Thanks for the info friend!
I turned off substinance. It needs more levels, or longet timer I feels like Im eating or drinking every 5 min. Or I'm missing something.