Starfield Chronicles: Part 1 — Taking Flight in a Borrowed Ship
I had thought this first post might not much further than character creation. But turns out you play a little before hitting the character creator… and then I kept on playing quite a bit after having created the character anyway. So here we go!
For a game that will ultimately take you to the stars — you sure do start about as far away from them as possible, heading deeper under the crust of some as yet unknown to you planet or moon.
You don’t spend a great deal of time down here though. A particular discovery knocks you on your ass and sends your consciousness out to the great unknown on an unscheduled trip.
When next you awaken, you’ve been brought topside to the staging building of the whole mining shin-dig.
I don’t really know precisely why your character (no matter who they ultimately become or the backstory you choose) was here in the first place, but it did strike me as passing odd that you weren’t in some form a prisoner.
Breaking with Bethesda tradition, it does appear that you were there voluntarily.
… Unless perhaps it was some meta-commentary on doing what needs to be done just to survive. A further juxtaposition to the one already set out by starting below the dirt when you’re here to soar amongst the stars…
Nah.
Anyway, next up is character creation!
I decided on a Diplomat, whose parents were still alive and well and who had been able to secure himself a nice home through his past work and connections… albeit still on mortgage.
After you’re done confirming who you are, a member of Constellation arrives, coming in hot with Crimson Raiders, a nasty semi-organised pirate faction, in tow.
The battle isn’t too intense, even for an ol’ diplomat like my guy, before being quickly ushered away. Barret, the Constellation agent who came ostensibly for your discovery, decides to stay but to send you onward with Vasco, his robot companion with the program code ‘Indigo’ to make sure you get back to the Constellation base with all haste.
You know…
After a small diversion in space which convinces Vascoe that the only way forward is to go pay the local Crimson Raider base a visit and give them a bit of a what-for.
In dealing with the leader of the Crimson Raiders, it perhaps started to become clearer why my character is no longer a diplomat.
He is not good at persuasion. Rather than talking out of the battle, I rather thoroughly convinced them that a fight to the death was the way forward. Whoops. Also of note, there were several more points of interest planetside that I could’ve explored further. However, over burdened and almost entire out of ammo, I decided to forgo extensive wandering and headed back to the ship as instructed.
But on the plus side — we made it to the stars!
Sure, the ship isn’t technically ours, but for the time being it recognises us as Captain and that’s good enough for me.
It became clear that already, I was under no real obligation to follow the main questline, despite the impression given to the contrary. But I figure it a good idea to at least join the faction, unlock the base of operations I assume that will come with it, and then see where my wings will take me from there.
… Maybe even find a way to get better at the whole ‘Diplomacy’ thing…
