Source: https://bethesda.net/en/article/1wOjXJY0FvNxadcmQR8nfM/meet-zachary-wilson-senior-level-designer-on-starfield-at-bethesda-game?linkId=100000215493316

Inspired by u/kturker92's inverted countdown for Tears of the Kingdom, I forked it for Starfield! Here's a description of how it works, from the creator:

Its basically how much 1 day of waiting is compared to the journey we have left. If there's 1000 days left, 1 more day of waiting is insignificant (0.1% of the rest of the journey) If there's 1 day left, 1 more day of waiting is all that's left of the journey! 100% But if there is no journey left, 1 more day of waiting is.. infinite journeys hahah

We're getting pretty close to only one month left of waiting! :)

About 4 years ago I got a 13.3" Thinkpad laptop to replace an old Chromebook for portable development, and installed Arch + i3 on it (btw). After a bit of ricing the configs, it started feeling really homey. I love using workspaces here! They feel perfectly suited for laptop screens which have minimal space, allowing me to keep my browser full-screen and my IDE full-screen while still quickly switching back and forth to reference one or the other.

On the other hand, I don't really use workspaces when I'm on my desktop PC (I use a 27" monitor). I just installed KDE to get ahead of the Windows 10 EOL, and while I looked into combining i3 and KDE, I haven't really felt the need for i3's workspaces or using KDE's virtual desktops. With a 27" monitor, I feel like there's enough space to split my browser and IDE half-and-half on screen, and I'm ok using a file browser or terminal window as floating windows. Another consideration is that I'm always using a mouse on my desktop, so switching between workspaces with the keyboard wouldn't feel as natural.

What about you? Do you use workspaces differently between devices? Does screen size affect your choices at all?

Link to the doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EmbmCwL3gJqKX1ul4radDpYYdm9usnvcdhSdmO667QI/edit?usp=sharing

Link to a downloadable version that you cant preview in google docs but is only 300mb: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A6jv2fWf36MyFhu6_hF2VaSc70HsEwWb/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104820491290205215928&rtpof=true&sd=true

For those this don't know, before the 2022 showcase for Starfield came out, I made a 120 page document going through every single interview, trailer, and concept art that had ever been released about Starfield. With so much information so spread out, I wanted to make a single source with all of it. Then, after the 2022 showcase, I increased that to a massive 409 pages, and up to 459 before this years showcase.

Talk about dedicated fan analysis! :)

This looks like an awesome character creator to use, and I can’t wait to spend hours in these menus once the game releases, ha. Here are my thoughts on the various features:

I hope the body types are a little more subtle and less exaggerated than previous Bethesda games, and I’m glad they’re still included. I’d honestly forgotten the body type options were in Fallout & Skyrim, having more recently played games like Dragon Age and Cyberpunk that don’t let you customize your body shape. Seeing body type and walk style labeled 1 vs. 2 is a nice gender-neutral touch. It’s great to have the ability to customize the walking style, as I’m flashing back to horribly exaggerated female walking animations in other games. cough Dragon Age Inquisition cough

The shape customization options for face shape and other face parts seem solid. Playing with shape blending via sliders feels like something you only got in Skyrim via an extended character creation menu; I prefer that to Fallout’s method, where you click and drag on the face model itself. Given the shots of NPCs and possible characters in the direct, it looks like a good range of wildly different character appearances can be created.

What are your thoughts on the character creator? Do you like creating the most off-the-wall bizarre faces or something more realistic? Are you going to recreate yourself in the game or go for something different?

In the fall of 2022, my workplace decided it was time to enforce return-to-office and informed us we had to be in the office 3 days a week or else. The only bags I’d used to this point were hand-me-down promotional backpacks or an over-the-shoulder canvas bag - neither of which worked well for what I take to the office when I drive in.

I’d initially considered the Brevite backpack primarily because they demonstrated the water bottle holder expanding to accommodate a large hydroflask. However, I wanted a bag quickly, and they were out of stock then. I was also looking at more commonly recommended brands like Belroy, but none of their water bottle holders seemed compatible with my 40 oz stainless water bottle. Finally, I decided on the Moment MTW Backpack 17L (I’m short). It met the following qualifications:

• Separate laptop compartment that fits a 16” Mac Pro
• Large/expandable external water bottle holder
• Luggage passthrough

Since then, it’s been my primary work bag and personal carry-on bag on several flights, and I’d recommend it depending on your own needs.

The laptop compartment is one of my favorite parts of the bag; the two pockets give my wireless mouse and AirPods a permanent home, and the laptop sleeve juuust barely fits my work laptop. The main compartment has very little in the way of organization – just one mesh zip pocket – but that also means it’s flexible in what I pack in there (lunchbox for work, clothes for an overnight stay, or my Switch, a book, and snacks for a plane ride). The front zip pocket has more pockets for organization, which I don’t use much day-to-day but are suitable for organizing all the little things you might want to bring on a trip, like headphones, pill bottles, etc. I’m a keys-in-jeans-pocket sort of person, so I don’t use the pocket’s attached key holder much.

The water bottle holder does indeed stretch to fit my 40oz bottle, but it’s a pretty tight fit and pushes into the main compartment space. My partner’s 32 oz bottle fits much better without pushing into the side of the bag as much. Ultimately I’ve found it more convenient to put my water bottle in the main compartment when commuting, but having the external holder for travel is handy.

In general, with the 17L bag, there’s not a huge amount of room, and filling up one section will reduce the space available in others. I like a smaller daily-use bag, so I’m cool with that.

When I was researching the bag, people mentioned that the fabric does collect dust, and scuffs can show up noticeably on the darker fabric color. I chose the green to avoid that, and aside from a few faint scuffs, I think it’s still looking good. From a quality perspective, all the materials feel good in the hand, though there are a few loose threads on the bag’s inside pocket.

Do be aware that while Moment’s website says, “We designed the base so the bag doesn’t fall over when it’s set down,” that is definitely not true for my bag, especially with a laptop in it. The back feels like it has a rigid plastic backplate in it, and even when empty, the bag will always fall forward. I don’t find it a huge annoyance, but some folks might.

Reviews also mentioned the sternum strap mechanism is fiddly – personally, I removed it as soon as I got the bag and haven’t used it since.

A closer look at the slide in the recent direct that breaks down all ship parts that can be used to construct a spaceship.

I think most of them are self-explanatory, but I wonder what the distinction between grav drives, engines, and reactors is, and what exactly fuel tanks affect.

I also wonder how cargo capacity manifests, and if there's cargo that we can't carry on our person but only on our ships. It would be a bit silly if we could carry tons of ore in our spacesuits to our ship, so having some way to transfer directly from outpost resource collectors to our ships would make sense to me.

• Outside of major cities, the procedural systems pull from a pool of handcrafted content & chose where to place it on planets when you land.
• Only 10% of planets have alien life (roughly 100 out of the 1k worlds)
• Some planets are single biome, others are multi-biome
• Major monetary rewards for fully surveying planets
• No land vehicles
• "the 4 Constellation companions are the romanceable characters"
• Ship-building is deep and expensive, meant for late game
• Modding confirmed; implication that Creation Club style modding will continue

I noticed that there are "advanced skills" (green bar) and "expert skills" (blue bar) - I'm guessing the last bar is "legendary skills". Advanced skills might unlock after spending 4 skill points in the tree, while unlocking Expert skills seems to require somewhere between 7, 8, or 10 skill points. I wonder if ranking up skills might reduce the number of skill points needed to unlock Advanced/Expert/Legendary skills?

Discussion: What skills are you most excited about? What do you think the un-labeled skills will do? How do you feel about the new skill challenges as the way to gain ranks within skills? Are you going to focus on combat skills or non-combat skills or a mix?

Text breakdown of the known skill descriptions, ranks (what gameplay effects the skills have), and challenges (gameplay challenges that "rank up" skills) below:

When Barrett hands you the compass for the first time (presumably after meeting you at Argos Mining and telling you to head to the Constellation headquarters), he says that it tells the time.

Well, how do you represent the time of day in a game where you visit lots of planets and moons? By showing the terminator line dividing day and night as it moves over the planet you're on. Pretty clever!

favorite songs in order of appearance:

• geometry and theology
• red oleanders (straight 🔥)
• ecclesiastes

(also posted here)