Starfield’s New Landing Mod Just Reopened a 4-Year-Old Debate

Starfield players may soon be able to experience one of the most immersive parts of space exploration—without leaving their ship. A new PC mod by Frederick Wessberg, called “Seamless Landings,” aims to let players travel from orbit to a planet’s surface without a single loading screen. The work-in-progress Starfield mod even allows players to walk around their ship during the descent, manually pilot it toward the surface, and witness atmospheric effects such as volumetric clouds, thunderstorms, and reentry heat.

Looking at what Wessberg is trying to accomplish, it’s worth revisiting GameRant’s interview with Bethesda’s Tim Lamb earlier this year. The lead creative producer explained that the team had initially expected players to prioritize reaching their destinations as quickly as possible, which influenced its decision to streamline space travel. Yet, with modders now working to introduce the kind of interrupted planetary exploration thatStarfield originally lacked, I think it’s worth looking back at whether Bethesda underestimated just how much players wanted to experience the journey itself.

Starfield’s Space Exploration Has Been Controversial Since Launch

Starfield was first promoted as a massive sci-fi RPG built around exploring hundreds of planets, but Bethesda confirmed before releasing that seamless flight between a planet’s surface and space wouldn’t be possible. So, players instead had to rely on transitions and select destinations through menus. I remember this became quite a sticking point for some fans who expected freedom and organic exploration, which is closely associated with Bethesda’s earlier open-world games. To me, traveling was what made me fall in love with games like Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Though there is the option to fast-travel to the parts of the map you’ve already visited, there is a clear emphasis on the journey to each destination. This lets you really enjoy how much effort has been put into every corner of the world.

Unfortunately, Starfield didn’t seem to capture that same sense of discovery. Its planets might be vast, but traveling between them often feels like a quick-select destination rather than embarking on an adventure. Rather than stumbling across something unexpected, like in Skyrim or the Fallout series, you’re frequently taken out of the experience by excessive menus and loading screens. It’s a shame, because a game about exploring the stars should make the journey feel exciting, travel and all.

Starfield’s Mod Is Making Planetary Exploration More Immersive

That’s where Frederik Wessberg’s upcoming Seamless Landings mod comes in. After roughly six months of work, the modder has shared footage of a project that lets players travel from orbit to a planet or moon’s surface without the usual loading screen. This could make the overall Starfield experience more seamless, but the mod doesn’t just make the transitions smoother. Players can also let autopilot handle the descent while walking around their ship or fly manually to take in the view. This seems much more immersive, as players can interact with Starfield‘s atmosphere in a much more engaging way.

The work happening behind the scenes is even more impressive, and Wessberg explains that Starfield‘s vanilla planet rendering relies on relatively simple textures when viewed from space. This meant that he had to reimplement planetary rendering in 3D to make close approaches possible. His mod incorporates volumetric clouds, weather effects, thunderstorms, auroras, terrain shadows, and atmospheric lighting, which are all based on the game’s own data. I think that these details demonstrate how much more engaging traveling through the Settled Systems could feel if the journey itself were treated as an essential part of exploration.

Bethesda Misjudged What Starfield Players Wanted from Space Travel

Interestingly, Bethesda’s approach to space travel wasn’t a matter of technical limitations. In the aforementioned GameRant interview earlier this year, lead creative producer Tim Lamb discussed how the team had initially misunderstood what players would want from Starfield. As Lamb explained, Bethesda expected players to prioritize reaching their destinations as quickly as possible. This influenced the decision to cut down on parts of the journey, and looking back, I think this highlights an important distinction between making exploring convenient and making it engaging.

I guess I can understand why Bethesda made that decision: Starfield is an enormous RPG, and constantly traveling between planets could become tedious. But I think the problem is that there’s a difference between removing unnecessary downtime and removing the opportunity to enjoy the journey itself. Skyrim made traveling across its world an experience in its own right, and in Fallout 4, wandering off the beaten path leads to unexpected encounters and hidden locations. In Starfield, however, sometimes the universe feels like a collection of places to visit.

Wessberg’s mod could become necessary for Starfield. Its seamless landings suggest that players can have more control over the space-travel experience, without sacrificing convenience. Those who want to reach the surface quickly can use autopilots, while those who want a more absorbing experience of descent can take control of the ship. Players don’t have to pick between convenience and immersion, and Seamless Landings offers a way to accommodate both.

Starfield Needs to Make the Journey Matter

Wessberg’s mod is undeniably a glimpse into an alternative vision for Starfield. Seamless Landings isn’t just about loading screens, and though the project is still in development, I think that it demonstrates how the journey could become one of the defining parts of the gameplay. It’s also important to ensure that convenience and immersion don’t have to compete with one another, which is something Tim Lamb admits that Bethesda may have misunderstood. Wessberg’s mod inclusion of autopilot takes an interesting middle ground here, as players can save time when they want to, without losing the option to take control of the descent.

We see time and time again that modders explore ideas that Bethesda hasn’t prioritized: Wessberg’s project follows other community efforts to make space travel more seamless, including mods for grav jumps and planetary takeoffs. But the bigger question is what Bethesda decides to do next. Wessberg’s approach offers a possible approach to becoming an official feature, but its performance demands and unfinished state mean it’s too early to know how well it will work for everyone.

Released

September 6, 2023

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ / Blood, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs, Strong Language, Violence, In-Game Purchases