Just went through a Starfield experience that sort of awed me. Wanted to capture some pirate ships, I took a mission from Freestar Rangers mission terminal to destroy a “Crimson Fleet Captain.” I thought it was a person, but that’s the name of a ship.
Engaged the ship, battle was fairly easy, took out their engines with EM weapons and boarded the ship. I was immediately blown away by how big and full of stuff the ship was. I’ve got a couple class B ships, but this one was probably 5 times the size of my Aegis. There were rooms after rooms, a few big open areas, several kitchens and sitting areas, a medical bay, storerooms, weapon rooms, armor mannequins, and a medium size trek-like bridge. The ship had at least 3 levels, and had probably 10-15 pirates to fight. Got to the captain’s chair and was able to sit in it because I had leveled up my pilot skill enough. The ship was mine! I did this sort of thing last week with a smaller but impressive ship, but wasn’t able to sit in the chair because my pilot skill was too low, so I had to abandon it.
All the time I was fighting my way through the ship I was saying “oh my god” to myself as I saw how much bigger this ship was than the ones I was used to.
For all it’s shortcomings Starfield really nailed the ships, they are very unique and even compare very favorably to ships from Space Engineers, Empyrion, and Elite Dangerous. Elite Dangerous ships might give them some design competition but you can’t walk around in them IIRC.
ETA: The ship is apparently originally a Crossbow III, it’s not all that huge but compared to the starter ship it’s massive: https://inara.cz/starfield/ship/1984/
They have differences. Certain habs for instance come with slightly different crafting stations or other amenities depending on the brand. The info on the internet about it isn’t extremely thorough yet, but there are little nuances.
I would expand that while there are technically differences between, its impact would be so small it would never matter in a Bethesda game.
For someone like me that was trying to maximize facilities in a minimum amount of ship sections I’d love for there to be more clear info out there
I’d love for there to be 1x1 workshops- maybe give up the research section.
I would also love it if they created a structural module- kinda like the equipment plate, where it can be placed on nodes without taking up a block, only it created a hatch/door/open-bulkhead;
And I really would love the ability to flip modules sideways- so they’d be 1x2 or 1x3
I assume whatever wizardry is going on with the auto placement of ladders and doors gets much more complicated if you were allowed to flip them, but I agree, it really sucks being pretty heavily led to make long ass ships because making them wide is not as natural or means using multiple smaller habs instead
it’s just a path-finding algo. It takes the first solution it finds that doesn’t include loops. Which, if there’s more than one solution (lets say you stack 2x1’s on top of each other,) it’s going to be mostly random as to which solution it finds.
which is why I want a module that behaves a bit like the equipment plate. The equipment plate converts connection nodes that don’t normally accept weapons to a weapons mount, it doesn’t take up any space like other modules would. Such a module could be used to tell the game to slap in whatever kind of door or hatch goes on that connection; including the ability to specify an open passage or what kind of door.
Such a change would allow us to create pathing options that actually make sense to us as individuals rather than the veritable maze it takes to get through now.
I’d really prefer being able to load into your ship interior during construction and marking ladder or door points that way, but having the ability to do it from the exterior view would be handy too. I’d assume the ability to move facilities within a hab would also be extremely useful so you didn’t have to choose between losing a workbench or putting a door where you want it.
It’s just difficult to imagine what it’s like walking through your ship and just how far it feels to walk certain distances.