Summary

  • New Starfield mod Astroneer tasks players with becoming spacecraft designers through a series of never-ending and highly rewarding quests.
  • In doing so, the mod addresses a common fan complaint about Starfield's intricate shipbuilding mechanics lacking a greater purpose.
  • The mod also adds a fully voiced NPC who acts as both the player's guide and collaborator, as well as over 25 new Research Projects.

One recently released Starfield mod gives the game's shipbuilding mechanics another purpose by tasking the player with becoming a spacecraft designer through a series of intricate and never-ending quests. In doing so, this Starfield mod addresses a fairly common fan complaint about the game's ship builder being underutilized.

Although Starfield offers an extensive system for building and customizing ships, it never asks the player to engage with it. Some fans praised this design decision as being in line with the game's sandbox nature, positing that they have little interest in tinkering with custom spacecraft and are hence glad that Bethesda didn't force them to do so. Meanwhile, others have criticized the lack of tangible incentives to create and customize ships as an example of the game's disjointed design.

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A newly released Starfield mod called Astroneer: Become a Starship Designer does a lot to address such complaints. Developed by Nexus Mods user CodeGangsta, this ambitious project extends Bethesda's latest title with the addition of a new system of radiant quests tasking the player with putting together a wide variety of spacecraft. Doing so nets XP and monetary rewards, as well as Salvage resources that can be used for completing more than two dozen new Research Projects.

Astroneer: Become a Starship Designer Starfield Mod Features

  • A variety of ship contracts to undertake.
    • Build Explorers, Fighters, Haulers, Luxury ships, and Interceptors.
    • Each mission type comes with unique requirements and challenges.

  • Aria Collins, a fully voiced NPC guide and collaborator.
  • Detailed progression system.
    • Completing contracts nets XP, Credits, and Salvage rewards.
      • Salvage is used for completing over 25 new research projects that unlock new ship parts, discounts from Aria, and global upgrades.

  • New space encounters featuring player-built ships.

While the Astroneer quests are picked up from Mission Boards, much like all the other procedurally generated tasks in Starfield, the mechanic has been implemented with an impressive amount of thought and polish. For example, the whole starship design system comes with a fully voiced NPC called Aria Collins, who acts as both the player's guide and collaborator throughout their engineering endeavors. Every vessel that the player designs and delivers as part of these missions also has a chance of later being encountered in outer space, making this whole activity that much more immersive and consequential.

Astroneer Only Works With the Steam Version of Starfield

Astroneer requires the Plugins.txt Enabler mod to work. That dependency makes the PC Game Pass version of Starfield incompatible with this and many other mods. While theoretical workarounds are possible, no one has yet taken it upon themselves to try getting Astroneer to work with the game's Microsoft Store executable, which is the one that's distributed to Xbox Game Pass subscribers on PC.

Be that as it may, this release is yet another major addition to the selection of excellent Starfield mods that have surfaced online since the RPG hit the market in September. Much more user-created content is likely to follow once the game's official modding tools are released in early 2024.

Rating block community and brand ratings Image
Starfield Tag Page Cover Art
10 /10

Starfield
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Action
RPG
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Systems
PC-1 Xbox-1
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Top Critic Avg: 85 /100 Critics Rec: 83%
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Released
September 6, 2023
ESRB
M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Strong Language, Violence
Developer(s)
Bethesda
Publisher(s)
Bethesda
Engine
proprietary engine
Cross-Platform Play
no multiplayer
Cross Save
no
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WHERE TO PLAY

SUBSCRIPTION
DIGITAL
PHYSICAL
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Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, create any character you want and explore with unparalleled freedom as you embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.
The year is 2330. Humanity has ventured beyond our solar system, settling new planets, and living as a spacefaring people. From humble beginnings as a space miner, you will join Constellation – the last group of space explorers seeking rare artifacts throughout the galaxy – and navigate the vast expanse of the Settled Systems in Bethesda Game Studios’ biggest and most ambitious game.

Genre(s)
Action, RPG
How Long To Beat
20 Hours
File Size Xbox Series
101 GB (September 2023)
Metascore
86