Highlights
- Starfield, the upcoming Bethesda sandbox title, will allow modders to expand the game by adding new planets to its star systems.
- The game will feature over one thousand planets without mods.
- The modding scene for Starfield is expected to be massive.
True to its core as a Bethesda sandbox title, Starfield will allow modders to fundamentally expand on the base game by even allowing them to add new planets to its numerous star systems. Starfield runs on Creation Engine 2, the spiritual successor to the engine that powers Skyrim's unprecedented modding scene, and though it will no doubt have its share of quirks, the Starfield Direct deep dive presentation showed an impressive graphical and technical leap compared to Creation Engine titles such as Fallout 4.
The baseline experience for Starfield will feature over thousands of planets, albeit only 10% of them will be habitable. Though it will have hundreds of hours of handcrafted content, Starfield is set to utilize procedural generation on a more ambitious scale when compared to previous Bethesda titles. These planets with procedurally generated zones will no doubt offer some variety to players at launch, but one might argue that they'd also be ripe for the modding scene (or official DLC) to transform them into something special.
In a recent Gamescom interview shared on Twitter by Darrius Fears, Pete Hines confirmed that modders will not only have access to tools to make new quests and stories, but also new planets altogether. The ability to create new planets from scratch, either by utilizing Starfield's procedural generation tools or by doing things the old-fashioned way, opens up some incredible possibilities for total conversion mods. There's little doubt that Mass Effect fans will want to recreate some of the franchise's most iconic locations within Starfield, and the powerful features coming with Creation Engine 2 could make that ambitious undertaking possible.
Given the sheer amount of content coming at launch, including Starfield's Shattered Space DLC, the game's modding scene could end up supporting the game on an even bigger level than Skyrim. For many modders, it's a fresh start, and a blank canvas to fill on a completely new engine with a modern Creation Kit. Though it remains to be seen how Starfield mods will work within its Creation Club, players will likely stick to Nexus Mods as the main provider of modded content.
With The Elder Scrolls 6 also being built on the Creation Engine 2, Starfield modders will have a major headstart when the long-anticipated sequel to Skyrim comes out. Todd Howard shared his ambition for The Elder Scrolls 6 as the ultimate fantasy simulator – a counterpart to Starfield's own vision for sci-fi. Though it remains to be seen if Starfield will meet its immense expectations, the early reactions have all been largely positive.
Starfield will be available for PC and Xbox Series X|S on September 6, 2023.