Starfield’s first major expansion is finally here! We attached the official launch trailer in this article for your perusal, but like many other fans of the game you are probably wondering about improvements to the core gameplay. The reception so far has been mixed in that regard, both in reaction to the trailer and the first wave of user reviews, but we do have a few bits to share with you to help you decide.
Price
The current sale price is $29.99, which is arguably on the lower side as far as major game expansions go (which may or may not mean something for those new gameplay features); you can check it out right now on Steam. If it helps you decide, we did also cover PC System Requirements. Note that the expansion is also available for for Xbox Series X | S.
Story
If you are here for the story, today’s launch trailer certainly got you covered.
In fact, for better or for worse, the story is pretty much everything that today’s trailer reveals, so it’s understandable that a lot of players have expressed doubt about investing their money and their trust once again after the tenuous endgame and exploration experience the last time around.
That being said, if you are excited about the story and eager to finally learn more about the mysterious House Va’Ruun, we will leave you with a couple of instructions on how to access the content:
If you bought the Premium Edition or the Constellation Edition of the game, you’ll get Shattered Space for free when it comes out. Otherwise, you’ll need to buy the Digital Premium Upgrade to gain access to the expansion — this also comes with some goodies like the Digital Art book, Soundtrack, 1,000 Creation Credits and the Constellation skins. Game Pass users can pay to upgrade to the Premium Edition of Starfield to access the expansion.
In game, all you’ll have to do is finish the first mission, One Small Step. Once that’s done, grav jump to any orbit that is not part of a mission or enemy encounter, and you’ll receive a distress call that sends you to The Oracle, a large star station.
Level 35 is the recommended level for the expansion.
Gameplay
Finally, let’s discuss what we can expect in terms of gameplay improvements. As mentioned above, today’s trailer didn’t focus on any of the long-awaited features and content requests. Yet, developers did leave us with a long list of patch notes in a separate announcement. We will link them for you below.
But, you probably already have a hunch, especially since even the previous announcements primarily focused on the summary of improvements to the game since launch. It just didn’t sound like devs had plans to fix or improve on a lot (a lot) of areas of the game the community has found lacking. There was hope that the integrated community mods, Starfield Creations, might fill in some of this void, but it doesn’t help when the game sits abandoned due to the lack of compelling content in the first place. We will have to see whether the new expansion will attract enough attention for that to change.
So, no, you will notice that the release patch is mostly gameplay fixes, not really features. If it’s been a while since you have played, the summary of updates so far in the announcements like the last one the developers did will point you to a handful of more compelling improvements since launch, but whether that’s enough gameplay content for you to pick up the game again alongside the expansion would be up to you.
Starfield Update 1.14.70 Patch Notes
Starfield’s latest update is here, and with it comes the game’s first story expansion: Shattered Space! Embark on a journey to the handcrafted home world of House Va’ruun and unravel the mysteries surrounding the elusive followers of the Great Serpent.
This update also contains fixes for Quests, the REV-8, the ship builder, and more. Read on for the full update notes!
Creation Kit: The automated process used to create models for Distant LOD is now available
General performance and stability improvements
Resolved an issue that limited the number of loaded creations to 255
Lighting changes and enhancements have been made throughout the game
Made several visual improvements and bug fixes for weapon models
Improved player headtracking when exiting dialogue
The player’s camera should no longer be jostled when jumping
The Annihilator Particle Beam damage-over-time effect no longer affects Companions
Robots and Turrets will now take damage from EM weapons
Crafting: Addressed an issue with The Boom Pop! Dynamite recipe
Elite Crew: Autumn Macmillan no longer repeats herself when asking about her sister
Addressed an issue with Crowd behavior near The Well elevator in the New Atlantis Spaceport when combat is initiated
Brownout: Addressed an issue with progression after speaking with Joyce Osaka in New Homestead
Due In Full: Addressed a rare issue with The Delinquent Space Ship appearing
Eye Witness: Player can no longer enter the destroyed ship on the spaceport landing pad
Hostile Intelligence: Addressed an issue that could cause the door to the Security Office to be inaccessible if they fast travel away and wait during this quest objective
In Memoriam: Addressed an issue that could prevent progression during the “Speak with Sarah” objective that takes place near the waterfall
In Memoriam: Fixed an issue that could prevent the objective “Proceed to Cassiopeia I” from completing if the planet had been visited previously
Leader of the Pack: Addressed an issue that could prevent the Ashta Alpha from being aggressive
Legacy’s End: Addressed an issue that could prevent interaction with Delgado if siding with SysDef
Legacy’s End: Released Crimson Fleet prisoners will no longer target Ikande after obtaining weapons
Managing Assets: Addressed a rare issue that could prevent Tomo from appearing at Paradiso
One Giant Leap: Fixed an issue that could cause incorrect music to play during the Unity Scene
One Giant Leap: Addressed an issue with Audio that could occur during the credits
One Small Step: Resolved a rare camera issue that could occur if the first Crimson Fleet ship in the tutorial is boarded
Revelation: Addressed an issue with Quest Target consistency in the final encounter
Rook Meets King: Dmitri Moldavski will now respond as intended if Austin Rake is killed during the encounter
Rook Meets King: Addressed an issue where one of the Ragana crew was using the incorrect weapon animations
Rough Landings: Fixed a rare issue with Milena Axelrod’s ship to appearing
The Best There Is: Addressed an issue that could prevent Huan from moving to the Jade Swan after the first meeting
The Best There Is: The Jade Swan is now accessible if the player still has the “Search and Seizure” quest active
The Best There Is: Addressed an issue that could make the UC Vigilance difficult to locate because it was very far away
The Showdown: Resolved an issue that could cause the door to the Strikers Hangout to remain locked
Akila: Updated some textures in the Slums
Akila: Resolved a collision issue with bunk beds
Deserted Biotics Lab: Fixed missing panels on the exterior floor
Lair of the Mantis: Resolved a minor texture issue that could appear on some panels
Londinion Steam Tunnels: Fixed collision in an area that could allow players to get out of bounds
Maheo I: Closed an open gap on the roof of Sonny Di Falco’s Mansion
Neon: Nyx’s Apartment: Fixed an issue with collision in the area
Neon: Addressed a collision issue with grated panels in Ebbside
New Atlantis: Addressed small areas where water in the lake North of New Atlantis could appear to intersect terrain
Stroud-Eklund Staryard: Addressed collision in an area
The Clinic: Addressed a visual issue that could appear in Dr. Cassidy’s office
The Red Mile: Addressed a collision issue under the platforms in the final area
Ship Builder: A new option has been added to the game settings to allow for toggling Flip Merge behavior use
Ship Builder: Fixed an audio issue that could occur when deleting a hab
Ship Builder: Fixed a crash that could occur when modifying a ship that contained a live mine
Addressed an issue that could allow non-sellable ships to be sold to vendors
Addressed an issue with Set Active in the Vehicle menu when using a gamepad
Fixed an issue with the position of Wheel VFX
Addressed an issue with opening the Favorites menu while entering the vehicle
Name plates and health bars will now display consistently while in a vehicle
Settings for look sensitivity will now affect the vehicle camera
Kaiser and Vasco will no longer both sit in the Rev-8 when following the player
The vehicle icon will no longer display in interior maps
The vehicle lights will no longer be automatically on when loading a save
The fast travel distance for the vehicle is now in-line with other POIs and landed ships
Xbox Display Settings: Resolved an issue where setting the frame rate target to 60 would automatically revert the priority back to performance
Removed a debug string that would display when uploading saves on Xbox to Customer Service
Updated the Skills menu to resolve an issue in Large Font Mode for certain languages
Resources with long names are now truncated for Large Font Mode when scanning
Resolved an issue with Large Font Mode in the Barter Menu when selling higher quantities of items
Temporary text will no longer display if you quickly select the “Continue” option from the Main Menu
Ship registration costs will now display the accurate amount both on vendors and the hangar menu
Addressed Mass display when selling items from ship cargo
Skill Challenge pop-ups will now have truncated text instead of shrunken text where applicable
Resolved an issue with gravity wells appearing on the Missions Menu when opening it from the Starmap
Location names and quest objectives will now truncate properly on the planet map
Creations store title displays fully in all languages
A message prompt will appear when trying to load a save where a Creation is unavailable on the current platform
Weapons will default to their original skin in menus if a weapon skin creation is disabled
Addressed an issue with sorting for Best Results in Creations menu
Addressed an incorrect notification of insufficient credits when an exceptionally large number of credits are available
Ammo counts should now display correctly for values over 100,000
The damage popup can now display numbers larger than 4 digits
Addressed an issue caused by aiming down sights while pickpocketing a character
Crew menu will now correctly display when someone is assigned to the player’s home
The repair button is no longer visible in the hangar inspect menu
Resolved an issue with waiting that could briefly cause unintended text to appear
Healing items now preview the amount of health restored
Storage containers will now have their weight updated when all items are cleared from them
The ship marker in the scanner will display at the correct location when docked at a space station
Crafting completion confirmation prompt will now be spaced correctly for longer titles
Tunneling creatures will no longer show their nameplates or quest targets when tunneling
Scanner Anomalies can now be a landing target while piloting a ship in orbit
Increased center channel audio usage for surround sound setups
Addressed an issue that could cause power allocation audio to play repeatedly while the engine system is damaged with one power allocated
Ecliptic Mercenary voices now use the same filtering in all languages
Dedicated contributor at EIP Gaming and a part-time collector of books she will never have time to actually read. Jumps on the newest releases just as quickly as on the uncovered dusty collections from the basement. For her, shiny graphics can never be an excuse to not have a polished player experience or an immersive story.
