Setting up outposts to extract resources that I then could use to turn in for missions started to feel quite appealing. I also just love that kind of thing, so I wanted to dive right into the whole thing and see how it first was. Outposts ended up being a lot more useful than I was expecting and ended up taking up a lot more of my time as well.
While exploring some solar systems I found myself in a bit of a bind. I found a mission that demands 2k Nickel. I had no idea at the time just how challenging that would end up being if I wanted to manually attempt to mine that much.
I even found a planet and went around with my scanner looking for nickel. After gaining just a couple I could tell that was going to take forever. My next attempt was going to be setting up an outpost. I, however, ran into another issue.
Many planets in Starfield require the proper skills to even put out an outpost marker. Since I'm quite a low level and have no skills whatsoever in anything outpost related. Let alone have any idea how they work. It became quite clear I was not going to be getting lots of Nickel any time soon.
Sure, you can go buy different ores and materials at shops on different planets. Those prices would however start to add up. They also rarely sell large amounts. So, getting 2k of anything in the short term was not going to happen anyway.
I also like the idea of just gathering my resources. I decided even though it would make things a lot harder. If I could avoid for the most part buying anything I needed to make outposts and all the different kinds of buildings on them. That would be my kind of fun.
At the time I did not realize just how many resources there are even in Starfield. While over time I would give in and buy things from shops. In the short term, I'd attempt to go out and find everything I needed.
At least at the beginning, it was not that challenging. I already had quite a buildup of resources between my ship and me. So, it was more about trying to find somewhere to plop down my first outpost marker and start learning that system.
While I did not travel that far. I started by scanning every planet and moon in the Sol system. I lacked quite many of the skills to build on for the time being. I also lacked the skills to get more detailed scans about higher-level ores that would just blend in with everything else. That, however, would end up being an issue I'd discover later on before I'd start investing skill points into different skills.
One thing I decided to do for the most part was avoid planets that had wildlife on them. While most spots I'd land there be a building not that far off with a chance of pirates coming to gank me. That I'd learn the hard way is just the way of a life of running outposts.
I’m not sure what it was but I decided to first settle on mining for aluminum. I just assumed I'd be needing some of it for basic structures anyway. I was also not that concerned with trying to get several ores and mineable in the same area.
I knew my first outpost was going to be rather basic and if I needed to, I could always tear it down and rebuild it on the planet I had picked or elsewhere in the future.
I ended up building on Kurtz for my first outpost. I had no idea at the time how smart it was to have an outpost near the starting solar systems of the game. In the future, I'd be using these outposts as a quick way to jump through quite a few locations in space without having to take more of a manual approach due to being more limited on fuel when not selecting an outpost you own. Kind of a strange way the game treats these things.
After getting my first mining extractor down I then needed to power it up. Since I again did not have any skills or even higher-level resources. Everything I'm building is just the basic tier-one building. Since I was on the moon, I ended up going with solar arrays for my building of choice for powering the extractors I'd set up.
I was rather happy to see I did not have to link the power generation sources to the machines that would use them. I kind of wish other buildings in the outpost system would be a bit smarter if you do not need to link things up. That, however, I quickly found out, would not be the case.
You would think if you plopped down quite a few storage containers right next to each other that are touching they would auto-connect. That I guess would make things far too easy. After some trial and error, I discovered you needed to link cargo containers to how you wanted materials to flow through them. The good news at least they don’t need to be touching to be linked.
All I have to say is finally a game that is not going to require me to set up 10k conveyer belts to move ores around. I’ll more than put up with having to just create an invisible link between containers and other objects that you can only see in scanner mode.
Storage in Starfield would end up being the bane of my existence. A constant struggle. Thankfully the game has some quality-of-life things included. Such as when crafting items or buildings if the materials you need are in storage or on the ship at the current planet you are on you don’t have to be carrying them.
The characters' carrying capacity is also dreadful. It would be an even bigger nightmare if you had to carry everything you needed to craft. That, however, over the long run could not keep me from making lots of different short runs to different planets for a resource or two just to craft one thing.
Along the way, I started to notice and learn little things about outposts. While thankfully I started mining something that was a solid that used solid storage. You can also extract gas and liquids if they are on the claim you took, and they require the correct corresponding storage containers to collect them.
I would also start to spend a lot more time going around scanning planets and moons as I moved on and ran a bunch of different missions. At some point, I'd need quite a few more outposts to make me fulfill my ever-growing demands for different things.
Even quite early on, however, I'd run out of the limited number of materials I had already gathered before giving outposts a tire. While I'd go off onto many planets manually mining for a couple of resources at a time. I soon discovered you could mine quite a few different things out of asteroids in space.
While most asteroids would only give something basic like iron. Early on I needed all the iron I could get until I'd set up an outpost targeting it. Iron asteroids were however not where I was looking to spend a lot of time mining around. I was looking for clusters that had other things like gold that I did not want to have to grind out by walking around on the ground on planets looking for.
There was also another massive benefit other than the increased rate you could far materials out of asteroids than on a planet or moon. While exploring around looking for other areas that had asteroid spawns. I would sometimes run into pirates.
Pirates as it turns out have a chance to drop ores and other materials as well. Even manufactured materials that I'd be needing in more advanced buildings. Since I was hunting in rather low-level areas the pirates, at least for now, are not a challenge.
My first little base would see over time many different upgrades and changes. Just setting up a couple of extractors is not nearly enough. There was also the added question of working out how to transport things from one planet to another. Thankfully there is a building for that as well but it’s not the most bug-free thing ever.
I was somewhat disappointed anytime I'd run into a bug regarding outposts. Most times just deleting a building and rebuilding it or simply reloading the game would fix the bug. I was, however, hoping by now the game would have such things resolved.
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Starfield.
Disclosure: Starfield received for free through AMD rewards from the graphics card I purchased.
