Key Takeaways
- Starfield’s ship builder was originally based on an outpost resource system, but it was cut due to feature creep.
- Ship parts in Starfield can be obtained with credits, making ship customization popular with players.
A recent interview with former Bethesda designer, Bruce Nesmith, revealed that Starfield was originally meant to have a completely different ship-building system – one that relied on outpost resources instead of credits. While Starfield has endured its fair share of criticism, its ship builder received universal praise from the gaming community, as it allowed players the freedom to both make original concepts and recreate famous vessels from established franchises.
The ship builder in Starfield was designed to be modular, and though not every ship part is available in every port, they can all be obtained if the player’s pockets are deep enough. Earning credits in Starfield is much easier than gathering resources, which are primarily used in constructing outposts and crafting equipment or mods. However, at one point during its development, the ship builder and the outpost system were much more closely intertwined.
As revealed by Bruce Nesmith in a recent interview with Kiwi Talkz, one of the major features in Starfield that ended up on the cutting floor concerned its ship builder mechanic. Instead of purchasing parts directly from the ship manufacturers in Starfield, players would have been compelled to engage with the outpost system more thoroughly. “We wanted a complete set of being able to mine materials, send them to a factory on another world that would then build space-ship modules that you could build your own spaceships with.”
Former Starfield Designer Discusses Cut Ship Building Feature
Nesmith went on to say that the team at Bethesda initially wanted to build Starfield‘s entire economy using this system as the foundation, but ultimately, it ended up contributing to feature creep, and the developers had to pull it out of the game. Considering how players found gathering rare resources in Starfield tedious, this may have ended up being a correct decision on Bethesda’s part. Convenience has ultimately been a huge reason why the ship builder became so popular with Starfield players.
While a Starfield mod could bring back the original ship building system, it would likely face a challenge in how to make the process of establishing a network of interstellar factories engaging. Outposts in Starfield are an optional feature, and an argument could be made that the ship builder isn’t a mandatory mechanic either. Starfield players have engaged with these features precisely because they’re fun, rather than forced. Though it remains to be seen how Bethesda’s post-launch support will continue, the upcoming Shattered Space expansion is set to be the team’s biggest attempt at addressing player feedback.