RPGHQ

In case anyone else is interested, I'm going to start keeping a list of mods I'm using for Starfield, and why.

Feel free to ask for help if you run into problems, or suggest ones of your own.

Fix the ****** inventory UI designed for an Xbox hooked to a TV across the room.
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/773

with both
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/621
and
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/1026

To make sorting better.

Allow use of the console without disabling achievements.
(Because you know there's gonna be a glitch that will require it sooner or later...)
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/658

Requires SFSE (and a lot of mods will in time)
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/106

Get rid of that annoying fog everywhere. It's ****, but can be tamed with a few more entries in your StarfieldCustom.ini file
From: https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/1607

Works well with this LUT mod pack (has to go in your documents Starfield Data folder, not the install one):
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/1119

Build your outposts and place things however the **** you want:
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/1638

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:37

Fix the ****** inventory UI designed for an Xbox hooked to a TV across the room.
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/773

with both
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/621
and
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/1026

To make sorting better.

It still baffles me that Bethesda has been using the same dogshit inventory UI since the days of Oblivion, with no noticeable improvements whatsoever. Why isn't there an option to toggle the inventory to a grid view that covers the whole screen? Why aren't there more sorting options? Why can't you create your own categories?

gerey wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:48

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:37

Fix the ****** inventory UI designed for an Xbox hooked to a TV across the room.
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/773

with both
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/621
and
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/1026

To make sorting better.

It still baffles me that Bethesda has been using the same dogshit inventory UI since the days of Oblivion, with no noticeable improvements whatsoever. Why isn't there an option to toggle the inventory to a grid view that covers the whole screen? Why aren't there more sorting options? Why can't you create your own categories?

Consoles.
It took a modder a handful of days to make a vastly superior solution, bethesda could have easily done it: they already had the blueprint to do so in skyui etc.,

They don't bother making a separate UI for PCs tho.

StarUI is a top-tier example of an inventory fwiw.



A modder made something better than in 98% of RPGs on the market in a couple days. Amazing, really.

gerey wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:48

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:37

Fix the ****** inventory UI designed for an Xbox hooked to a TV across the room.
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/773

with both
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/621
and
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/1026

To make sorting better.

It still baffles me that Bethesda has been using the same dogshit inventory UI since the days of Oblivion, with no noticeable improvements whatsoever. Why isn't there an option to toggle the inventory to a grid view that covers the whole screen? Why aren't there more sorting options? Why can't you create your own categories?

How the **** did they playtest the **** out of this for literal tens of thousands of man-hours and get mogged by a single modder (and a couple of others with some name sort mods) in just a couple of days after the early access release?
Did they:

a) not realize it was ****
or
b) not give a **** because they were all resigned to it and had stopped noticing
or
c) the people who wanted to fix it could never get approval from the ******* running the show

I still don't quite understand why the 3D model of the item needs to take up nearly 2/3s of the screen. What purpose does this serve? If you wanted to look at the thing, they could have just added an "Examine" option ala Resident Evil games. In fact, the very first Resident Evil game had a vastly superior inventory than any Bethesda game after Morrowind.

Then again, it really begs the question of why they're not using the Morrowind inventory UI either.

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:52

How the **** did they playtest the **** out of this for literal tens of thousands of man-hours and get mogged by a single modder

The ones doing the testing were likely Pajeets. The modder is an autistic *****, formerly a straight white man.

a) not realize it was ****
or
b) not give a **** because they were all resigned to it and had stopped noticing
or
c) the people who wanted to fix it could never get approval from the ******* running the show

This has been an issue that the community has been complaining about since Oblivion, and with each new game modders come up with a superior UI solution within the limitation of the tools available. Said mod then becomes almost mandatory for anyone that wants to play the game.

I can only assume someone at Bethesda simply enjoys making people suffer.

gerey wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:53

Then again, it really begs the question of why they're not using the Morrowind inventory UI either.

Because icon-based inventories suck.

The guns are much better than Fallout 4's abominations, but they ****** the reflex sights up.
Turn them into something you can actually sight through:
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/1266

(note: again, has to go into your Documents\My Games\Starfield\Data folder, not the install location one)

Name your items, outposts and ships something longer than 14 characters:
https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/1635

(Requires SFSE)

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:55

Because icon-based inventories suck.

I disagree. They're extremely useful to give you a quick overview of all items available - it's much faster to identify images than to read text. And like I said, the ideal solution would have been to add a toggle that would allow you to switch between a list and a grid view, so you get the best of both worlds.

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:55

gerey wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:53

Then again, it really begs the question of why they're not using the Morrowind inventory UI either.

Because icon-based inventories suck.

Does Baldur's Gate 3's inventory bother you?

Alternate icon based UI, huh?
Someone made this mock-up.
I dislike the fact I would have to remember what the item icons are, but the fact it displays more info like resistances and such pleases me.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https: ... y9amb1.png

@Rand

Might I recommend you edit the first post in this thread with the list of mods and why you're using them, to make it easier for other users?

gerey wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 20:04

@Rand

Might I recommend you edit the first post in this thread with the list of mods and why you're using them, to make it easier for other users?

I can make a basic list as I go, sure.
I'll be adding to this for a while, so it'll get a bit fragmented.

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 20:03

Someone made this mock-up.

Looks pretty great. Sadly, I don't think it's going to be possible to implement it in the game, not unless Bethesda changed how the UI is handled. Modders have been puttering Skyrim's UI for more than a decade and no one has been able to redesign the inventory menu into something better since it is hardcoded from what I recall.

gerey wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 20:08

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 20:03

Someone made this mock-up.

Looks pretty great. Sadly, I don't think it's going to be possible to implement it in the game, not unless Bethesda changed how the UI is handled. Modders have been puttering Skyrim's UI for more than a decade and no one has been able to redesign the inventory menu into something better since it is hardcoded from what I recall.

Partially hardcoded, yeah.

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 19:50

StarUI is a top-tier example of an inventory fwiw.



A modder made something better than in 98% of RPGs on the market in a couple days. Amazing, really.

You should really add in those two other name adjusters I listed.
Makes it so AID category has meds separated from food and drinks for easy access.
Does a lot of good stuff on the other types as well.

I'm starting to think that bad UI is another one of those things mandated by ESG.

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 20:15

You should really add in those two other name adjusters I listed.
Makes it so AID category has meds separated from food and drinks for easy access.
Does a lot of good stuff on the other types as well.

Now this goes without saying that maybe meds shouldn't have been just lumped in with food. And digipicks with clutter. And so on.

This is part of a larger issue that the people making games at bigger companies often don't seem to be people who play games.
And barely seem to even play the ones they're making at the time.
This would explain why they never seem to learn from better UIs in other games, and the various mods fixing their ****.
They literally never see it.

Why do modders like Ian Patterson have to keep making script extenders? It would be child's play for a competent dev at Bethesda to allow default access via modules. But no. Never even seems to cross their mind.

How do you continue to make garbage when the modders post literal how-to manuals that you can crib from for free.
You could even give them something for their work. Most would be happy with a lifetime of free games from you and recognition of their contribution.

(I mean, not Arthmoor, but he has a personality disorder I've not been able to properly quantify...)

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 20:03

Alternate icon based UI, huh?
Someone made this mock-up.
I dislike the fact I would have to remember what the item icons are, but the fact it displays more info like resistances and such pleases me.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https: ... y9amb1.png

you know you ****** up when even a typical soulless AAA inventory looks more functional than your own.

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 20:03

Alternate icon based UI, huh?
Someone made this mock-up.
I dislike the fact I would have to remember what the item icons are, but the fact it displays more info like resistances and such pleases me.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https: ... y9amb1.png

Looks like ****. I hate icon inventories.

StarUI is top-tier.

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ September 11th, 2023, 02:26

Rand wrote: ↑ September 10th, 2023, 20:03

Alternate icon based UI, huh?
Someone made this mock-up.
I dislike the fact I would have to remember what the item icons are, but the fact it displays more info like resistances and such pleases me.

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https: ... y9amb1.png

Looks like ****. I hate icon inventories.

StarUI is top-tier.

Icon inventories have their place, and I agree Starfield isn't it.

StarUI has issues, but they're a result of Bethesda's lazy, sloppy work in the engine making it impossible to do what needs to be done.

wndrbr wrote: ↑ September 11th, 2023, 01:59

I'm starting to think that bad UI is another one of those things mandated by ESG.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that they have to pass the UI through some certification board where it needs to be useable by a mentally ********, glaucoma-eyed, color blind, paraplegic, from across the room on a controller. I remember some article from a few years ago where they were talking about how they were trying to force all games to make their voice chat "accessible" for deaf/mute people.

agentorange wrote: ↑ September 11th, 2023, 03:08

I remember some article from a few years ago where they were talking about how they were trying to force all games to make their voice chat "accessible" for deaf/mute people.

Which is why a lot of newer online games now no longer feature any form of text communication.

IIRC, they're required to implement TTS or somesuch if the game has text chat.

edit:
here's the article on it, and you could be right, I forgot about all the other accessibility parts: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ ... fying-cvaa
"Operable with limited cognitive skills. Provide at least one mode that minimizes the cognitive, memory, language, and learning skills required of the user."

rusty_shackleford wrote: ↑ September 11th, 2023, 03:09

agentorange wrote: ↑ September 11th, 2023, 03:08

I remember some article from a few years ago where they were talking about how they were trying to force all games to make their voice chat "accessible" for deaf/mute people.

Which is why a lot of newer online games now no longer feature any form of text communication.

IIRC, they're required to implement TTS or somesuch if the game has text chat.

edit:
here's the article on it, and you could be right, I forgot about all the other accessibility parts: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ ... fying-cvaa

Is this why every ******* action game has an "epilepsy warning" at the beginning of it wasting seconds of my precious life?
************, it's a video game. If you're epileptic and don't get that it may be an issue, you may be too ******** to play, ffs.

agentorange wrote: ↑ September 11th, 2023, 03:08

wndrbr wrote: ↑ September 11th, 2023, 01:59

I'm starting to think that bad UI is another one of those things mandated by ESG.

It's not out of the realm of possibility that they have to pass the UI through some certification board where it needs to be useable by a mentally ********, glaucoma-eyed, color blind, paraplegic, from across the room on a controller. I remember some article from a few years ago where they were talking about how they were trying to force all games to make their voice chat "accessible" for deaf/mute people.

Oh, you're spot on with that observation! I've noticed that game dev schools have really shifted gears lately, particularly here in the Viking homeland. It's all about making games for everyone now. And if your main character isn't diverse enough, you might as well wave goodbye to winning any competitions or getting the spotlight at events.