Crimson fleet or U.C.?

[🎀Hara🎀]

seems a simple choice crimson fleet 100%, if you choose the U.C. you lose a lot of special things, like the criminal and smuggler missions, as well as losing access to the grog drink and all the pirate merchants, all those losses and it feels pretty crappy to betray all of the characters you met.

choosing to side with the crimson fleet you lose basically nothing and keep all of the above benefits, siding with the U.C. basically gets you an extra bounty hunt mission terminal that gives the same missions as anywhere else

so why am i having trouble choosing?

because siding with the crimson fleet means they will always be friendly to you while you explore in space or on planets which reduces the already low chances for combat.

i never wanted to play as a pirate i wanted to be a shady smuggler or mercenary and pirating civilian ships isn't my style but i lose the mission board for the jobs i do want if i betray the crimson fleet, and if i side with them i keep that but lose all opportunity for fun combat

it's a lose-lose situation

honestly i wish the "crimson fleet" were more "crimson fleets" separate groups that have a truce at the key and team up when needed but outside of the Kryx system they will still fight eachother.

[Jeff]

Crimson fleet. Let me explain:

FIrst, completely finish UC questline, and then just hold onto the "start crimson fleet" mission forever. Don't actually do it, just wait until you are done with all other game content.

You want to be able to kill pirates, crimson fleet ships, farm 'The Key' ships, etc. during your game.

When you are ready to NG+ or are bored with no content, THEN do the crimson fleet faction quests. This way you don't miss out on XP/loot/magazines/the entire faction questline.

[PIT_DEFENDER]

I am not sure, but I think if you side with crimson fleet you wont be able to get vanguard ship upgrades right ? They are like best gear in the game ;p

[🎀Hara🎀]

nope you can still get those

[PIT_DEFENDER]

Well what can I tell you life is hard ;p Ppl want to kill you bad, ppl dont want to kill you boring ;p you just have to accept it as it is ;p

[Baphled]

Crimson fleet mission boards do give some smuggling quests too, but the whole questline feels a little off. You spend your time doing missions for the fleet, most of which get resolved without any violence. You meet the different pirates, and they're not all bloodthirsty monsters. But if you end up siding with them, everyone goes "How could you!?", even though the UC and FSC did way more damage to the known system than the pirates have, and continue to operate relatively morality free.

Also, do you really miss the combat with the pirates? The combat in this game isn't particularly amazing, and there's still spacers and zealots. If you really want people to attack you, you can just attack them first.

I do agree that having different factions in the Crimson Fleet would have been nice. Such as having a bloodthirsty group and a more reasonable group. Allowing you to still fight some pirates in space and not get the guilt trip for supporting people who want independence from the flawed governments.

[Arieark]

UC. Only because i got called Rook too many times, so he had it coming.

[ImHelping]

New Vegas started the trend of "Diet cola of fascism is easiest to work for, and the most annoying to have mad at you. Other guys... uh... Well people are gullible enough to think working for drug addicted slavers proves you hate fascism. If it was worth anything that would overpowered!"

Every time you get more of that is a monkey paw wish from people saying they wish more games were like new vegas.

Welcome to pirate town. No we won't touch your ship unless you register it with the government first, that ship is stolen you naughty boy.... So uh, anyways... wow so overpowered so antifascist amirightbro

[DANEDANGER]

Does it really matter? you choose uc and when dont like it simply rush the NG+

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by 🎀Hara🎀:

seems a simple choice crimson fleet 100%, if you choose the U.C. you lose a lot of special things, like the criminal and smuggler missions, as well as losing access to the grog drink and all the pirate merchants, all those losses and it feels pretty crappy to betray all of the characters you met.

Pick the U.C., less insurrable NPCs and you get random money put into your pockets when you help U.C. in space and don't ask for rewards.

Also U.C. unlocks u.c. missions. Aftter you are done, just talk to the Commander, i think? They tell you, you'll now get to fly U.C. missions for them.

And seriously, how anyone can pick crimson fleet is beyond me. Those NPCs are insufferable. I couldn't wait to be allowed to shoot them. Not even a competition.

Originally posted by 🎀Hara🎀:

so why am i having trouble choosing?

Dunno, it changes nothing and the radiant missions are not worth your effort. If you want random space fighting you can just pick bounty missions.... the exp is bad once you are past level 60 anyway. The payout isn't worth it... and if you need xp and credits, then landing on a random location on a planet in a level 60+ system is a quicker way to get a lot of money and xp.

And you can sell contraband in the Den anyway.

[Jaggid Edje]

I had trouble choosing as well, and I went into it being 'sure' of what I would do. But as I played through, I began to waffle.

My original plan was to side with the Crimson Fleet, 100% no doubt that was what I was going to do. Being a pirate is 'cool' plus the Key is such an excellent resource to have available.

By the end of the mission chain, I ended up being quite un-decided. But eventually I sided with Sysdef, the opposite of what I originally was so sure I was going to do. I think the main reason is because the pirates were written to be so very unlikeable. Especially Naeva and Delgado.

I get that pirates shouldn't be "decent people" but at the very least they should have been treating me with much more respect by the end of that mission chain. Lt. Toft of Sysdef, on the other hand, was quite respectful by the end, so I sided with her.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

I get that pirates shouldn't be "decent people"

Precisely because they shouldn't be decent people they should be a lot more charismatic. You do not raise to the leader of a criminal organisation full of cutthroats and murderers by being a J-off. You do so because the other cutthroats and murderers don't want to cut your throat and think you are a cool person to hang out with.

Delgado and Nevea should be some of the most likeable characters in the game. So likable that their atrocious acts should make you question yourself if its okay to like them as much as you do.

But alas... they wrote them as massive J-offs and the most insufferable people. Not a single NPC i spoke with in the Key was likeable... everyone was just a massive D-bag.

And that is what would happen if the Crimson Fleet was real. People would shiv each other in a corner all the time. Or tamper with fuselage or what have you. You have a bunch of killers even if you would manage to somehow intimidate them collectively, as soon as your back is turned, they off you or sell you out to someone that gets rid of you.

This is also why it never works in movies when you see the Bad guy taking out their bad mood on their henchmen. No Henchman would work for a guy that randomly decides to kill you. Why would you? Even if you are super crazy, you wouldn't hang out with the guy that kills you because he got up on the wrong side of bed this morning and discovered his favorite T-shirt snagged somewhere.

Why would anyone want to work with Delgado? He offers nothing, is on some mad quest for a legacy of which the random Pirate will not even get a cut... you can just pirate random frighters in systems anyway and sell the loot to the Trade Authority. There is no reason to side with Delgado and suffer his abuse and ill temper.

[Alcohol Bear]

I think the CF is believable. I mean they're written as a video game faction. I don't think they see themselves as pirates, more as outcasts and have a hate for most of the factions of the settled systems. I think the fleet has little to do with atrocious acts and more with a heavy metal kind or kind of prison culture.

[Chip Patton]

Originally posted by 🎀Hara🎀:

seems a simple choice crimson fleet 100%, if you choose the U.C. you lose a lot of special things, like the criminal and smuggler missions, as well as losing access to the grog drink and all the pirate merchants, all those losses and it feels pretty crappy to betray all of the characters you met.

choosing to side with the crimson fleet you lose basically nothing and keep all of the above benefits, siding with the U.C. basically gets you an extra bounty hunt mission terminal that gives the same missions as anywhere else

so why am i having trouble choosing?

because siding with the crimson fleet means they will always be friendly to you while you explore in space or on planets which reduces the already low chances for combat.

i never wanted to play as a pirate i wanted to be a shady smuggler or mercenary and pirating civilian ships isn't my style but i lose the mission board for the jobs i do want if i betray the crimson fleet, and if i side with them i keep that but lose all opportunity for fun combat

it's a lose-lose situation

honestly i wish the "crimson fleet" were more "crimson fleets" separate groups that have a truce at the key and team up when needed but outside of the Kryx system they will still fight eachother.

When you consider the misery that the CR has brought upon simple, innocent people, the choice for me was a no-brainer.

However, while people like to dog the game, this one mission is a shining reminder of the psychology research that went into the game when writing these missions.

If you know anyone in law enforcement that's ever had to do deep covers, you hear stories like this: They find out that many of the criminals are sometimes good at heart, just misguided or had a bad deck of cards dealt to them, and then they have to take them down and even testify against them in court. Many of these people that have to run deep covers can only do it once or twice because it takes a psychological and emotional toll that drives some people crazy or to turn-coat which is why these officers are thoroughly vetted and psychologically evaluated before embarking on a deep cover.

I've heard the stories before, but playing it and feeling that regret when I turn them in - I'm just glad I didn't have to experience it in real life like some of my LEO friends did, is all.

But, this was spectacular writing.

[RobbIe]

Before you make the decision, make a Savegame: Quicksave or exit the game for an Exitsave. Copy your Quicksave or Exitsave file from folder { %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\Starfield\Saves } to any other folder you like. Because there exist always only one Quicksave or Exitsave file, it will be overwritten the next time you exit the game or do a quicksave.
Now you can decide what you like. And if you are not satisfied with your decision, return to the start point by moving the saved Exitfile or Quicksave back to the 'Saves' folder and load it to choose the other decision.