Starfield is getting a ton of new fixes, changes, and requirements in its upcoming May update. These include ship interiors, new surface maps to make navigation less frustrating, new difficulty and gameplay options, and more. The update is now live via Steam beta, but will be released to the public on May 15th.
The information comes from a dedicated video from Bethesda, as well as a blog post that dives into each individual change and fix in the May update. We also got a tease of the future with this video, where we learned that the Starfield team is working on land vehicles, more missions, and a “massive” Shattered Space expansion pack. Additionally, the beta creation kit is in the hands of proven Starfield creators, so expect some wacky new community creations to pop up in the near future.
To dive into some of the big new content coming in the May update, let’s start with the surface map overhaul. Instead of the vague maps we got at launch, Starfield’s planets will have more comprehensive overviews with more detail and utility. When this update goes live, you’ll be able to see structures and terrain. In cities, markers for all the shops and places of interest will also be there, hopefully making exploration more intuitive.
Gameplay also affects difficulty in a variety of ways, from space combat to maximum cargo capacity. These can be switched from Easy all the way to the new extreme difficulty, and provide XP bonuses when set to more challenging settings. This will hopefully give more hardcore players something to dive into, and give more casual players a way to keep things simple and fun.
Perhaps a fan favorite is the addition of appropriate interior decoration modes for ships, allowing you to decorate and beautify your own spaceship. It’s basically the same system you use at Outpost. Additionally, you can start with an “empty hold,” which is a completely barren section of the ship that you can customize from scratch.
You can now respec your traits in New Game+ and also change your appearance, which is nice. The main platform-specific focus of this update is obviously the Xbox Series X version of the game, which will now offer performance and visual modes that allow those who care about FPS to bump up the frame rate to 60. Quality of life changes and bug fixes – all of which can be read in full in the above blog post. There are many!
It’s a nice, chunky update to Starfield that will likely make the game more appealing to those fresh off their space adventures, while giving those still active a better overall experience. What about you, do you find yourself drawn back to Starfield by this news? Let us know below!
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