According to a former Bethesda developer: Star field almost had a management system. It was scrapped due to scheduling conflicts, but the mining resources and shipbuilding mechanics were originally going to be tied together. Starfield was going to be a “strategy/resource management game” on top of an RPG, since you had to send materials to factories to build spaceships. I think it sounds great, but I totally understand why it had to be scrapped. Starfield is a huge game, so sometimes you have to decide what to keep and what to throw away.
With Starfield Shattered Space’s release date fast approaching, Bethesda’s latest RPG is back in the spotlight. The new pre-DLC patch is here, and there’s plenty more to come as we delve into House Va’ruun soon. Before that, a former Bethesda designer has spoken out about what was cut from Starfield and what we could have done with a more in-depth management mechanic.
Former Bethesda systems designer Bruce Nesmith – who worked on Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 4, and Starfield – sat down with the Kiwi Talks podcast for an interview (which was originally spotted by Pure Xbox). Nesmith discusses his time at Bethesda, working with Todd Howard, and even the growing anticipation for Elder Scrolls 6. For me, what he has to say about a scrapped Starfield feature is by far the most interesting.
“In Starfield there was a whole [mechanic for] building ship parts from natural resources. There just wasn’t room in the art scheme or the programming scheme for ways to make it work well enough with the design to be usable in the game.”
“We wanted to have a complete set with which we could mine materials [and] send them (automatically) to a factory on another world. It would then build spaceship modules that you could then build your own spaceship. We wanted to have a whole economy that worked with that as a base, and become a strategy/resource management game on top of the roleplaying. But it was just too much, and it had to be taken out [of Starfield].”
A shipbuilding economy sounds like a really interesting Starfield mechanic, but I can see why it was cut. We already have mining, outposts, and ships in the game, but merging them all together would be a lot more work. You can build and buy ships with credits and mine for resources with outposts or crafting, but extrapolating that to entire starships would require a massive economic overhaul. I always thought it was a bit odd that you couldn’t use mined resources in shipbuilding, but removing the connective feature makes sense.
If you want to read more of what Nesmith has to say about his time at Bethesda, there’s a lot to check out. He thinks Starfield would have been better with fewer planets, and understands that Elder Scrolls 6 was revealed incredibly early to avoid the “pitchforks and torches” of fans. I’d also recommend checking out any of Kiwi Talkz host Reece Reilly’s interviews, because they always have great developers on the show.
With Shattered Space firmly within reach, you’ll want to download some of the best Starfield mods to keep you busy in the Settled Systems. We’ve also listed all the Starfield weapons you’ll need in your inventory.
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