Starfield's space travel just got a lot more immersive
One of the biggest complaints that many Starfield players have is the amount of fast travel which occurs in the game.
While it is kind of possible to fly to planets, as Twitch streamer Charalanahzard proved in her seven hour flight to Pluto, this is not especially rewarding, can be dull, and you can't actually land on the planet you have flown to.
A new mod, available on NexusMods, allows players to travel between planets without the need for loading screens or fast travel, essentially removing the problem that so many people have with Starfield.
A new mod adds seamless space travel to Starfield
Slower than Light, from modder 105gun, lets players seamlessly fly between planets with no need for loading screens or fast travel.
According to the description on NexusMods, the Slower Than Light mod "allows you to control the speed gear of your ship with hotkeys, from regular flight speed to the equivalent of hundreds of times the speed of light. It allows you to fly inside a star system in a relatively elegant way."
It seems like the mod does not currently allow players to land on planets, however there is every chance this could be modded into Starfield in the future. Similarly, the mod currently only allows for travel within the same systems.
Does fast travel ruin immersion Starfield?
A lot of online discussion has pointed out that players feel let down by the amount of fast travel in Starfield.
This was not something that Bethesda kept secret in the run up to the games launch, with Todd Howard telling IGN in January that he didn't think the feature was that important.
Howard told IGN: "People have asked, ‘Can you fly the ship straight down to the planet?’ No. We decided early in the project that the on-surface is one reality, and then when you’re in space it’s another reality."
Despite this, many players think that the ability to fly and land on planets would make the game a lot more immersive.
Reddit user FrankWhiteKingofNY3 said: "About 4-5 hours into the game so I don’t have any opinion to offer about the game yet…only I’m surprised by the amount of fast travelling this game gets me doing, I mean I’m fast travelling every 2-3 minutes! It’s like I’m just teleporting around from place to place it’s a strange feeling! Didn’t expect it!"
Many players agree, thinking that the constant cutting away from the action makes Starfield feel like a game rather than a space exploration experience.
Other players, however, have pointed out that flying from place to place, sometimes for long periods of time, would get boring quickly, and if that was the primary way of transport fast travel mods would be quickly being made.
One commenter wrote: "I’m fine with it, in my opinion. If I want to grav jump, I will. If I want to turn in a quest quickly, I will. The point is, I have options on how fast or how slow I want to take things. I’m not too concerned with immersion, I want to have fun, and I am."
The modding community for Starfield is already adding so many quality of life improvements to the game, that it is hard to imagine that there won't be fixes for almost any complaints in the near future. It is great to see so many people taking the game as a base that they can make the way they want it to be.
