Starfield is due out in just under two months, and I can’t wait to dive into it and lose hours of my life with the game’s ship customization system.
There’s a lot that’s unknown about what you can do in the game and that includes how truly robust the ship customization will be. But Starfield developer Bethesda has been semi-open about some of the details. There’s a whole segment of the Starfield Direct from back in June’s Xbox Showcase that was dedicated to the ship customization. And a recent tweet from the morning of July 14 states players will be able to “Customize everything about your ships, right down to their names!”
And honestly, I’m here for it. I am a sucker for a game with a good customization system. I’m talking about one that lets you spend hours upon hours diving into every little detail. Tuning the looks of your characters, which you can also do in Starfield, to find just the right style to represent your avatar.
With Starfield, though, what really gets me excited is the ships. You’ll be able to mix and match tons of ship parts for what seems like an untold number of combinations. Rearranging things to get your desired mix of ship system values and features. Like a larger area for the ship’s crew. Or faster drive systems to propel you through space at higher speeds. You’ll even be able to name your ships. Because why in the world would you go to all the trouble of giving players this much customization freedom and not allow ship names? It only seems natural to have them. And thankfully, Starfield will.
Customize everything about your ships, right down to their names! 🚀 #Starfield pic.twitter.com/9jC04v1oan
— Starfield (@StarfieldGame) July 14, 2023
Starfield ship customization will be like a game in itself
There’s going to be a lot to explore in the game of Starfield, and that will include ship customization. So much so that your ship will almost feel like another character with how much you can do to and with it. According to the lead ship designer for the game Ryan Sears, players will be blown away with the amount of stuff you can do. If that turns out to be true, then we’re all in for a good time. As tinkering with the ship and all its potential outcomes will feel like a game in itself.
That all depends on how much you care about these sorts of things of course. Not everyone gets super in-depth with these elements in games. You might be someone that prefers to do the bare minimum for ship building once you take to the stars this September. And that’s totally fine. But if you do like spending time with customization, it seems like you’ll be pleasantly surprised with what Starfield offers.
Just based on what’s been shown off so far, there appears to be six ships you can acquire in-game. And you’ll be able to expand things like the cargo hold, the hull, and more. Not to mention move around all these part add-ons to create a ship that’s truly unique.
A story as old as time
If you’ve spent any amount of your free-time playing games that are expansive and offer tons of story-driven quests for you to complete, then you know how things go. You can get lost in any number of things that make it easy to deviate from the main questline progression. It’s a story as old as time and there’s definitely going to be lots for you to do in Starfield.
Although at the moment I can only imagine what you’ll need to do to acquire more ships and more parts. But I can already assure you that whatever it is, I’ll be spending lots of time doing it. Some part of me hopes that there’s a significant level of grind to the nature of gathering materials or currency needed for ship upgrades. Because it’ll give me something to look forward to each time I boot up the game. Something to chase.
The “carrot on the stick” if you will. I want to get absolutely lost in Starfield’s universe. Hunting down resources for whatever I might need them for. And completing a collection of mundane or otherwise less exciting tasks for currency that allows me to buy new parts for the ship. Granted this all hinges on how many ship parts there are to acquire. But if there are tons, I’ll happily work towards adding them to my own personal collection. All while ignoring the game’s main story. As much as I can anyway.
It all starts with the ship builder mode
The ship builder mode is the meat and potatoes. It’s where you’re likely to blink and realize that multiple hours have just passed by without you noticing. While you can upgrade individual parts at ship ports (where you can also buy ships), the ship builder mode is where things will get truly bonkers. This mode will give you tons of granular control. You can swap out and upgrade your ship’s systems here. But you can also change the layout of every single module.
This includes the very first ship you get in the game, the Frontier. All of the modules you see in the image above will be things you can swap out and move around. And just looking at it I’m instantly reminded of playing with LEGOs. Where I’d put something together only to take it apart again 20 minutes later. I wouldn’t be happy with how things were set up. So I’d take them apart and rearrange them. Getting ever and ever closer to my goal of an ultimate creation. I can see myself falling into a similar endless pit of customization in Starfield.
Then once the ship is finished, I’ll be free to finally explore the universe and take on more missions. The point is, Starfield is promising some insane customization mechanics. The universe is your oyster, and it all begins with your ship. Starfield launches on September 6 for Xbox Series X/S and PC.