Bethesda has once again published a Creation spotlight video for Starfield, and this time it is the Cryomancers faction mod by zone79. To tell the truth, it is looking quite stunning. Literally, it is cool because these characters deal with the matter through cryogenics, and of course, the freezing and shattering of their enemies. You get to experience a mission at their central base, where new friends, places of interest, weapons, a ship, and even a custom player home all come along for the ride. At times it seems like modders are the ones actually carrying this game but what about the players’ response? This is where it gets tricky.
As soon as the official Starfield account tweeted about this new Creation, it was already a done deal. The tweet was merely a suggestion for the players to explore the new content created by one of the developers featuring the ice-themed space wizards. But the reactions quickly turned out to be a lament about the treatment of the game by Bethesda rather than hearing the children’s joy at the idea of ice-powered space wizards. A user going by the name of Swagbelly wrote, “Once again, promoting user-generated content instead of providing us with information about the anticipated DLC and updates.” And he is right?? The Shattered Space DLC has been postponed for such a long that it has already taken ages to feel like forever.
The whole affair has caused me to reevaluate Bethesda‘s changing stance on mods, which have, throughout the years, become increasingly complicated. Remember when mods were just free community additions? Not anymore, we now have this whole paid Creation Club scenario, and the players’ frustrations are escalating. One player, Dave Lukewski, bluntly stated, “and, of course, it’s a paid in-game shop” as though he already accepted it. Another player, Cawl, shared that he found the official DLC “really unexciting,” so he actually preferred the mods created by fans over them. Wow, it’s like the roles have reversed or something.
But the main problem lies in the technical issues with Starfield right now that are behind the scenes. SPAR7AN put forward that the game becomes unstable and then crashes with the turning on and off of a plug-in, “Before you buy any more paid content, we need to find out why the game is unstable.” And BryanLafev responded saying the same goes for PC after switching from Xbox calling it “unplayable” and demanding a hotfix. Just think of the scenario where one is paying for mods when the base game cannot even handle them properly.
It is simply mind-boggling how split the community is when it comes to the entire Creation process. While some players like Hoodnewzmedia are saying that Starfield should get an online version like Fallout 76 to facilitate a more united experience, others are just happy to have new content regardless of the creator. Eugene Mystere called the Cryomancer mod “excellent” with “huge HQs” and “must-play” content. So, it’s not that the mods are bad; in fact, some players think they are very good.
However, the central issue here is communication or, more precisely, the lack of it. MAJ_Starman put it succinctly: “Been delaying my return to SF for months thinking that we’ll get a new DLC or at least a sort of roadmap so I can know if I can really go crazy at modding or if there’s an update right around the corner that’ll break my LO.” That is the annoyance – players are confused whether or not to spend their time on modding when official updates might break everything.
The competition with other space games has opened up another argument. Fredovitche was the first to say that “This supposed to be Star Citizen’s big competitor, but because it’s from Microsoft, the game ranked at the very bottom of the space games.” Ouch. But, to be fair, another player from Spain replied “El mejor juego de xbox,” meaning “the best xbox game,” and so the opinions differ greatly.
What strikes one as most bewildering about the whole issue is that Bethesda continues to showcase the new Creations while being completely mute about their own content. Tweetfacemcgee pointed out, “It’s been over a year since Shattered Space & no BGS content. Even if the DLC is coming next year, why not release some official BGS creations this year?” This is, honestly, a valid question. Why are we getting mod spotlights instead of the news about the actual DLC that we have been so patiently waiting for?
Nevertheless, some players are still attempting to be positive. For instance, Dammon15 suggested bringing in the Fallout 4’s takedown mechanics to upgrade Starfield‘s “terrible” unarmed and melee combat arguing that it would result in higher player counts. And you know what? He is probably right. Combat is in need of some enhancement.
In the end, the Cryomancers mod really does seem to be super cool – and that was not even intended as a pun. New faction, new weapons, new companions, you name it. The discussion around it, though, reveals a much bigger problem with Starfield‘s current situation. Players are asking for stability, for communication, and for the promised official content. The modding community is performing wonders in keeping the game fresh, but they cannot resolve the communication issues that exist between Bethesda and the players or fix the technical problems.
Hence, the Cryomancers are awesome and all, but maybe Bethesda should repair the foundation first before adding more furniture, if you know what I’m saying? The players have spoken, and they are becoming increasingly impatient while waiting for answers and at the same time being shown paid mods. It is undoubtedly a difficult situation but one that Bethesda has to tackle immediately if they want to keep their community engaged.
