Ooooooooh
Oh noes!
YEAY! Ergh, only now read the Aug 30 for steam ;-(
Adam savage and his team:
Developer Q&A Session on the official game Discord yesterday had Lead Quest Designer Will Shen and the Design Director Emil Pagliarulo answer selected questions about the game:
These are the questions asked along with their paraphrased and summarised answers.
Q1: Can we buy houses or properties in the main City?
- You can buy houses in every major city, and you get a special one for completing a specific quest.
Q2: If we get the Kids Stuff trait, will our parents be generated based on our characters look or are there standard parents put in place?
- The parents will be generated to look like your character if you get the Kids stuff trait.
Q3: For those of us who have never played a BGS game and will be starting with Starfield, what information should we know that will make the experience more impactful right from the start?
- You can play it without having ever played a BGS game before. If you have any problems selecting character traits, you can select an anonymous background. Starfield is a simulation and role-playing game so players should experiment and do things.
Q4: How will the smuggling cargo system work? Can we hide it somewhere on the ship and sell it for more currency later?
- Certain items are considered contraband, and you might need to smuggle them past security ships orbiting major settlements. You can hide contraband with certain modules that can be purchased.
Q5: Will there be a jail system if we committed crimes?
- Yes, there is a jail system, you can go to jail or, depending on the crime, choose to pay a fine. There is law and order in the Settled Systems.
Q6: Will time pass when not in the game? For example, will my trade routes, outposts, and mining operations continue to produce or does that only occur while actively playing?
- The sim only runs while actively playing. No passive income, etc.
Q7: Can you be a double agent in the game? For example, if you join the United Colonies, can you also join the Crimson Fleet and give the United Colonies information?
- Yes, in some cases. All playable factions can be completed independently. You can infiltrate the Crimson Fleet and work for UC systems.
Q8: Depending on traits selected during character creation, will it at all be possible to play through the game in a āpacifist modeā, i.e. without killing anyone, or even potentially, anything?
- Short answer, no. Canāt guarantee every mission can be completed in pacifist mode, but there are systems that can help. A number of quests and challenges can be completed using non-lethal means, but a complete pacifist playthrough wasnāt feasible.
Q9: What are the beliefs and basic history of the religions in game? (Sanctum Universum, Enlightened, Great Serpent)?
- Existing IRL religions are part of the Starfield universe but are not explored. The three main religious factions explored were created for the universe of Starfield, they are The Enlightened, House Vāaruun and Sanctum Universum.
Q10: How many companions total will we be able to recruit?
- Over 20 named characters can join your crew in various locations. Companions are tied to the main quest and some have abilities that can boost your chances of success.
Q11: When we assign crew members to work at outposts, do we have to pay them salaries?
- You pay them a one-time fee, the option for a steady salary was explored but they chose to go with a one-time fee to reduce the amount of ābusy workā players would need to remember to do.
Q12: Will our companions be able to level up their perks? Will their perks stack with ours?
- All crew members start with a set of skills at specific ranks, they donāt level up. But you can use the crew members for tasks they are particularly suited to.
Q13: What are your personal favourite parts of the game?
- Will Shen loves seeing content he hasnāt seen or has forgotten about and Starfield is so big, he doubts any one person has seen absolutely everything in Starfield.
Q14: What books or movies had a big influence on some of the quests?
- Star Wars, OG Battle Star Galatica, Ice Pirates, Battle Beyond the Stars, Space: 1999, Buck Rogers and The Destruction of Jaryd Syn. History also influenced Starfield as did the writings of authors like Clark and Heinlein, and more.
Q15: What are some of the small details in Starfield that add to the immersion?
- The universe is lived in even though it is in space. The space suits and the patches on them that are detailed, specific and tied to the skills the person has. The books, noticeboards, and notes all add to the environmental storytelling. There are also lots of buttons.
Q16: What is the history of the mechs?
- The mechs are left over from the Colony War. Both sides had mechs but the FreeStar Collective mastered them. The United Colonies, however, also relied on controlled alien beasts developed by their Xeno Warfare Division.
Also, it seems that one of the reasons for the really early pre-load period is because Bethesda want to give selected media reviewers a fair bit of time to play through the game. A number of reviewers started playing the game today.
The review embargo has been set for Thursday, 31 August, the day before Premium Edition owners start their 5-day Early Access.
Tom Warren: https://twitter.com/tomwarren/status/1692178809574088722?s=20
Parris: https://twitter.com/vicious696/status/1692177054169702547?s=20
Jez Corden was very succinct: https://twitter.com/JezCorden/status/1691943863399702855?s=20
Windows pre-install is now available @ 140 GB
That is extremely irritating to someone like me with a slow internet connection. If I had known, I would have bought it outside of steam.
I feel your pain. Still donāt understand why theyāre releasing a pre-load so early in the first place, other than to reduce server loads on launch, and for player convenience. To then exclude the many, many Steam buyers from that equation makes no sense to me.
I guess that Steam Premium buyers will have at least two days before Early Access starts to download, and the Standard edition folk will have six days before launch is something. But still, a kak move all round. I wonder if itās something on Steamsā end that they wonāt allow a pre-load so far in advance?
Refunded Steam, bought the MS premium and started downloading. Been doing some research, MS promised that the game would be fully moddable on the MS version going forward. There is still some debate in the modding community if this is going to hold true, especially for the more deep mod tools like script extenders. Apparently MS removed the file restrictions on their game folders to facilitate this. Will have to see if it will help.
I am fully hoping that this will be Skyrim in space for the next few years. The modding community certainly seem to be up to the challenge.
Using the windows settings to control my download rate limit so that my family does not get extremely unhappy that I am eating up all our meagre bandwidth 
Is there any difference in price between buying now, and buying a week after it releases? Anyone know?
No official pre-order / pre-launch discount that I know of from MS/XB/Bethesda. R1399 for Standard and R1959-R1999 for Premium is all Iāve seen since we first saw the pricing back in June.
A couple of the 3rd party stores have been offering some small discounts. Some (like GMG) are now only available for subscriber types. The two that Iāve found that are ZAR priced and giving discounts:
Green Man Gaming: (For XP Club members) -17% off = R1162 / R1626
Fanatical: -17% = R1108 / R1584
Only other route is key resellers. Iāve seen similar prices to Fanaticalsā (R1100 and R1550) on CD Keys for example, but Iām personally not sure about going that route for a pre-release title - YMMV.
Doubtfull
All good, I was going to buy early, thinking it would be cheaper. But Iāll wait till the end of the month, and buy then. I mean, it could still turn out to be garbage. Might as well be sure, and wait a week for those steam reviews to roll in. Canāt even trust the pre-release reviews, cos of day1 updates, potentially regressing the experience 
I must say, I am pretty excited about playing an open world/s game again. Also excited that I can play it without being connected to the internet and have lag issues.
Neat launch times map made by a Redditor. Both Early Access and Game Launch are scheduled for simultaneous global release at 00:00 UTC on 1 September and 6 September respectively. Thatās 02:00 SAST if youāre really keen.
Some things better done at 2am:
Sleep
Dreaming of the next sim racing upgrade, that you donāt need
Dreaming of a new puppy
And 