Highlights

  • Bethesda's hotfix for Starfield introduces a change to the Creation Kit, preventing mod creators from uploading altered ini files.
  • Modifying ini files can affect game performance and settings, leading to potential issues.
  • Fans argue that a warning message for mods with altered ini files should be implemented instead of a complete ban.

A hotfix for Starfield brings in a variety of bug fixes and tweaks focused around Creations while also introducing a controversial change to the Creation Kit, which prevents mod creators from uploading Creations containing altered ini files. This is pretty bad news both for Starfield modders and regular players alike due to the change somewhat restricting creators' freedom in terms of what they can make and share, though Bethesda claims that the decision was made in order to improve players' overall experience with the game.

For the uninitiated, ini files are configuration files that determine and store values, parameters, and rules for a game. They're usually pretty easy to access on PC, allowing gamers to edit such values themselves in a simple text file in order to fine-tune their gameplay experience in games such as Starfield. For example, basic values such as item costs, XP gains, and weapon damage could easily be modified in an ini file to make a game either more challenging or more relaxed. However, modifying these files can change much more about a game, including performance and visual settings such as render distance and texture quality.

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Considering how powerful and accessible Starfield's Creations system is to players across a variety of different platforms, it makes some sense that Bethesda has decided to restrict future mods from containing altered ini files in the name of overall stability for the game itself. In a tweet regarding Starfield's latest hotfix, Bethesda claimed that this change to the Creation Kit was made "since some altered ini files are resulting in more negative effects than the benefits for allowing this functionality," citing a common mod-related bug that causes audio to be corrupted on Xbox as an example of such a downside.

Performance-boosting mods for Starfield as well as other Bethesda games tend to work by using altered ini file values to adjust graphical settings and draw distances. Similarly, though, these same values could be leveraged by modders to essentially allow for Ultra graphics presets to be applied on console, which could potentially break the game in a surprising number of ways. While mods available through Starfield's Creations shouldn't really be considered "dangerous" in any meaningful way, it seems like Bethesda has made this considerable change to future Creations to minimize the risk of save files, or the game itself, from becoming broken by complex mods.

Many fans argue that the developer should reconsider how it approaches this problem though, with many in the community suggesting that mods containing altered ini files should provide a message to warn players of potential risks prior to being downloaded, rather than such mods being banned entirely. Bethesda has stated that it's currently investigating how to address currently existing mods that use modified ini files, though it should be mentioned that such mods fall within a minority, meaning that most players' favorite Starfield mods are here to stay.

Aside from this notable change to the Creation Kit going forward, this hotfix for Starfield brings a couple of helpful quality-of-life and accessibility updates to the Creations system. It also addresses an issue that can cause the game to become unresponsive when loading a save after disabling installed mods.

Starfield Hotfix Patch Notes

  • Resolved an issue that could cause an unresponsive state when loading a save with removed Creations
  • Addressed an issue with opening the Microsoft Store after using Quick Resume
  • Improved Credits purchase flow when using the Steam Store
  • Addressed a cosmetic issue with Creation Store buttons while using Large Font Mode
  • (Creation Kit) Resolved an issue with applying keywords to newly created folders