My Thoughts on the Free Trackers Alliance MIssion in Update 1.12.30

[Kappa Omicron]

So, I just finished officially joining the Trackers Alliance faction that was added in Update 1.12.30.

I thought it was a pretty cool mission, I especially liked the zero-g firefights involved.

But there was still several things that felt odd when playing through it, making it feel pretty disjointed and feeling like part of a paid mod, which it seemingly is since in order to play another similar mission, I would now have to spend 700 Creation Credits to purchase a mission called The Vulture. Which also means I would have to now spend £8.99 for 1000 of these "Creation Credits" so I could purchase the 700 credits needed since 1000 credits is the minimum you can currently buy.

I completely agree with the backlash on this because needing to spend £8.99/$9.99 just to purchase a single mission for a faction that was already part of the base game via a paid mod is just ridiculous. Imagine each faction mission in Skyrim costing that much per mission, it's just plain wrong.

The fact that this first mission for the Trackers Alliance came in a free update to the game, and now needing a paid mod to be purchased in order to continue it just feels plain wrong to me. How is it optional content when you're literally forcing it on us?

We're literally given a free taste test of joining a faction that was already established officially by Bethesda in the base game, but in the form of a free update and now we're being pushed to buying paid mods to expand it further. Creations should not be used this way. If Bethesda wants to officially add new content by themselves via free updates to the game, then they should stick to those updates being done for free by Bethesda themselves or by making official DLC, not outsourcing official factions to freelance modders to sell.

Another thing that just made this free update feel off was despite the free mission being pretty fun and interesting, with cool new NPCs to talk with, the fact that Andreja who was in my party at the time had zero interacting with any of the dialogue involved during the quest just felt really odd to me. Considering that pretty much every single quest that I've done so far when a companion has been present, they have always had something to comment on at some point during the dialogue and quest.

It just made this free update feel more like a fan-made addition due to the lack of companion interaction that has now become an expected thing after doing so many of the quests in the game. Bethesda has made the companions so reactive to pretty much all the quests in the game, that's it's one of the things I was really impressed by while going through the official base game content.

And I expect the companion reactions to quests and joining in the dialogue to continue in official future content like in Shattered Space, since that's the bar Bethesda themselves have already set with the companions.

So having this free update with a quest lack that reactivity that's become expected just felt all the more glaring when it was missing while I was playing through the Trackers Alliance quest.

These blurring of the lines Bethesda has been trying to merge between paid mods (Creations) and official content is not good, it's terrible and needs to stop.

I am not interested in Creations purely because they are all subpar and at the end of the day, just paid mods with minimum Bethesda backing. I always disable them in Skyrim, and I will continue to disable them in Starfield.

I am only interested in official DLC created by Bethesda. Not these nickle and dime paid mods.

It's a real shame that these Trackers Alliance content has been tainted by being part of paid mods with exploitative pricing practices, because like I said, I actually really enjoyed the free mission that was included in the update. It had some really cool things going on, including impressive dialogue back and forth between multiple NPCs at one point.

The only thing it was missing was more Constellation Companion reactions that are there for all the other quests in the game, and the rest of the faction quests telling a complete story like the other factions in the game currently have.

But instead, they've hid it all behind paid mods that may or may not ever finish the faction story.

The criticism on this is definitely justified in my opinion.

[CurrySpirals]

I’m waiting to see if they update for a full quest line. Did the free stuff, enjoyed it, haven’t bought anything. Whether they call it dlc or mod just seems like a semantics argument, imo. I don’t really care.

[Kappa Omicron]

Originally posted by CurrySpirals:

I’m waiting to see if they update for a full quest line. Did the free stuff, enjoyed it, haven’t bought anything. Whether they call it dlc or mod just seems like a semantics argument, imo. I don’t really care.

Yes, but would you seriously spend 700 credits per mission to finish the faction quest line?

There is 9 faction missions in the Vanguard questline. Let's say the first two quests are free just like the Trackers Alliance faction currently is.

That's 7 quests left to do before the faction story is finished. 700 x 7 = 4900 credits total.

That means you would need to spend $49.99/£42.99 for 5500 credits to be able to afford all the quests at once.

That is bloody diabolical.

[whatdoesthisbuttondo?]

Pricing seems completely unreasonable, I could see €10 for a full quest line, maybe with some additional side content to discover at the locations.

But for a single mission, that is a hard pass from me.

And the same goes for everything else in terms of paid creations, if something that could be considered a flagship offer isn't worth the money, I'm not going to waste my time checking out what could be.

[AuddieD]

I have never bought a single creation for any game since they started making them and I won't start here. I didn't even want the free ones they gave away in SE Anniversary and Fallout 4 NextGen.

[Kappa Omicron]

Originally posted by AuddieD:

I have never bought a single creation for any game since they started making them and I won't start here. I didn't even want the free ones they gave away in SE Anniversary and Fallout 4 NextGen.

Same here, that's why I always make sure to disable them. They just ruin the games for me because they all feel tacked on because...well... they are kinda' tacked on.

They're in this weird grey zone where they're half official content and half fan-made mods which leads to them never feeling quite right.

Just like how in this free Trackers Alliance mission, none of the Constellation companions ever makes a comment about anything, despite always having something to say for all the other quests in the game.

I still have the 1000 free credits Bethesda gave me and I refuse to spend any of it.

[CurrySpirals]

Originally posted by Kappa Omicron:

Originally posted by CurrySpirals:

I’m waiting to see if they update for a full quest line. Did the free stuff, enjoyed it, haven’t bought anything. Whether they call it dlc or mod just seems like a semantics argument, imo. I don’t really care.

Yes, but would you seriously spend 700 credits per mission to finish the faction quest line?

There is 9 faction missions in the Vanguard questline. Let's say the first two quests are free just like the Trackers Alliance faction currently is.

That's 7 quests left to do before the faction story is finished. 700 x 7 = 4900 credits total.

That means you would need to spend $49.99/£42.99 for 5500 credits to be able to afford all the quests at once.

That is bloody diabolical.

Nope.

[Ihateeverybody]

I didn't care much for it myself. 9/10ths of it was the harrasment features. You are stalked by the MT, they treat you like a newb and you have no actual ability to effect THEIR story.

Spoiler (Free Mission) :

I sussed out the twist just outside the Space Station and could nothing about it

The bad dialogue and the even worse companion put the last nail in that coffin. I value the Astra more than any legendary gun....and the constant whining of the MT.