So Bethesda dropped the newest story DLC(“Terran Armada”) for “Starfield” just over a month ago, alongside the latest content update (“Free lanes”), so now seemed like a good time to give my thoughts on the subject… again, as I’ve already dropped a review previously of this content. My main goal here is to discuss how well the content is holding up, the modding situation, and that sort of thing.
First of all, let’s discuss replayability. I think TA has more replayability than the first DLC for the game, “Shattered Space”, as it seems more of a threat to the whole of the game, as opposed to SS’s more secluded storyline. One can skip “Shattered Space” entirely and not affect your gameplay in any meaningful way. One cannot say the same for “Terran Armada”, which is a great change. The same can be said for “Free Lanes”, as it is basically a game-wide rework of space travel, as well as other important changes.
As far as I’m concerned, one of the most important subjects to discuss would be the status of Creations in the game. “Free Lanes” is a massive update to “Starfield”, and it upended many Creations. many were made redundant, or forced the creators to completely rework their Creations to fit in with the current version of the game. This has been a major project for many mod creators, which I for one very much appreciate, but it may be too much work for many.
We already have a lot of mods left abandoned on the Creations store. How many more will be left in the coming months, and how will players know which to avoid downloading, especially those that are free (and thus not QA-checked by Bethesda)?
While it appears that Bethesda gave some Trusted Creators early access to FL and TA, so they could update their Creations to come out at launch (or shortly thereafter), other modders were not so lucky. This has caused no small amount of chaos in the free mods scene, but nothing insurmountable.
Regardless, at this point my opinion of “Terran Armada” has not changed in the last month. I would really like to get back to using all of the many, many Creations I have, but I suspect they will all be properly updated in due time, and those that have been abandoned will be replaced by other mods.
