Starfield's New Game Plus Sparks Controversy Among Players

Recently, numerous players of Starfield have taken to the internet to voice their biggest grievance with the RPG's New Game Plus (NG+) mode. While Starfield introduced an intriguing take on NG+, the latest criticisms highlight how Bethesda's approach to this feature has divided the fanbase.

In Starfield's NG+ mode, players retain their levels, skills, powers, and research projects when embarking on a new playthrough. However, their inventories, outposts, credits, and ships are reset after completing the main story quest. Bethesda attempted to balance this by rewarding players with a unique ship and armor that improve with each subsequent NG+ run, up to six times for the ship and ten times for the armor. Nevertheless, many fans have found these rewards lackluster compared to what they lose.

The focal point of discontent among players is the inability to carry over their ships to NG+. A discussion thread lamenting this situation gained prominence on the Starfield subreddit, garnering hundreds of like-minded responses. Some players expressed their disappointment at losing their spacecraft fleets when starting a new playthrough, while others admitted to deliberately avoiding completing the main quest to preserve their custom Starfield ships.

Certain players even declared that they wouldn't consider another NG+ run until a solution is found to bypass this limitation. However, changing the core mechanics of NG+ seems improbable due to story-related reasons, and Bethesda may be hesitant to make such alterations. Players who wish to preserve their ship fleets are aware of this, but they remain hopeful that the Starfield modding community will eventually address this perceived shortcoming.

To make that a reality, the game will likely need official modding support through its Creation Kit, slated for an early 2024 release. Historically, Bethesda has released such tools approximately four months after a game's launch. Based on this timeline, the Starfield Creation Kit could potentially arrive in late January or early February.