Starfield's Greatest Faction SHOULD’VE Been The Freestar Rangers

[@lihkan]

What soured my enjoyment most was the lore. Freestar collective is supposed to be major galactic player. Yet they rangers are club of 12 people, in dilapidated building. It really hammers down the "whole Starfield is game of 4 villages in space" feel, while we are supposed to take it as major star-spanning civilisations.

[@pmpowalisz]

The Rangers are glorified space cops with authority over local cops in the collective. They are not supposed to be a big police or military force.

[@HotMochaCake]

I dont like Starfield but you are far from being right. The whole game takes place after a long war so everything delapidated is exactly because of the war efforts.

[@dkindig]

@@HotMochaCake Spin it any way you want, but ffs they could at least have paved streets. The Star Eagle is a nice perk early on. (side note: I like the game, about 1780 hours in now)

[@Onasaki]

I knew Hope was evil the second I realized his voice actor was the same as Lucien LaChance, and Mr. Burke.

[@aschergamer2213]

Ah, the classic voice spoiler. Well spotted.

[@DrLynch2009]

They even modeled Hope after Wes Johnson when he was young.

[@qinntt]

Holy shit just clicked here for the title and your quality is amazing. I would be surprised if you weren’t at 100,000 in the next couple years

[@pmpowalisz]

The Shaw gang literally told the Marshal that they wouldn’t talk to rangers or militia, so the Marshal literally had no choice but to trust a random person who was willing to help. You have a point about the hostages being invulnerable though. Also evil corporate plans being unexciting is very realistic lol. Hope used the farmers because they would be cheap and under the radar of the competition. He also planned to take over the farms before they found out about the crops (they take time to grow you know). The questline could have used a little more work however, such as having more of a aftermath with it.

[@skyriminspace]

"A dish which in contrast to revenge is apparently best served lukewarm...." 😂 Epic!

[@zacharymurdock8215]

My biggest disappointment with this quest line was the lack of a third option at the end, actually arresting Ron Hope and bringing him to justice. Whether by dialogue or by knocking him out, we haul him back to Akila to face trial. Instead, it was either the bribe or killing him, which wasn't satisfying at all. And yes, it would have been nice to have a working brig in the base game that we could stick prisoners in.

[@caiooca5793]

I had a blast with the questline, but you have good suggestions. My main ones would be: - Decent outfits; - Cooler ships; - All in the 3 Free Star systems; - Full on Witcher investigative quests; - Better characters - A ranger elite force in total clash with The First. I can make cooler ships and outfits, maybe the elite force, what would you prefer for me to do first?

[@TheBlooMoose]

Yeah the ranger outfits could be so much cooler - I much prefer the First soldier uniforms.

[@fredshannon8110]

I only play it to get the Star Eagle which is almost as bad as the Frontier. But, have learned how to upgrade them into something to be feared.

[@truthseeker4470]

Good take. The whole idea that any kind of fertilizer would increase mineral content of soil doesn't make any sense--unless you're adding those minerals in the fertilizer itself, which makes the whole premise ridiculous. There are many way thus could have been better. If they wanted to keep the aspect of Ron Hope strong-arming farmers, why not simply have him discover valuable minerals on the land--something that doesn't show up on normal scans but is very valuable.

[@omnius279]

yea this quest makes total sense , as soon as you find out who is responsible for all this you run straight to him alone, not giving any of your Ranger friends this information or call for reinforcements. This is really stupid behavior .. or just bad writing..

[@TheBlooMoose]

When I first played through the quest, I went back to the rock after learning Ron Hope was behind everything on instinct, and was shocked to find I had no way of telling the Marshall what I had learnt.

[@windwalker5765]

They spent the entire quest foreshadowing a Mech as the final boss and then gave us another underground base shootout.

[@villings]

13:30 best moment right there game of the year stuff

[@justinw1554]

I have played though like 14 ng+ and never realized that the bank hostages are invincible, I always tried very carefully to take the robbers all out before a shot was fired if I went in using a time slowing ability or just being stealthy and fast. This kinda stuff is what I really dislike about this game the more I uncover how much they refuse to let you even have an option to fail a mission like this. It wouldn't be the end of the world if you failed the rescue. You could still progress the story with losing a hostage, maybe the freestar collective just more resultantly lets you join. Or they don't let you join and it's something you can come back to in NG+ or just reload a save if it's so devastating to fail a mission. Not letting you lose the game makes the game meaningless.

[@DamnedSilly]

I don't know if it _should_ have been the best, but it sure fell far short of how good it _could_ have been. My first full 'WTF' moment with the game was when I worked really hard to disable a whole crowd of people trying to kill me just so I could bring the man I was after in alive, in the spirit of all the old, classic westerns I'd watched as a kid, only to find out the ONLY way to progress was to kill him really, really let me down. How did they miss that? It really wouldn't have been that much more work to allow for the option particularly how thematically valid it was. I wasn't a 'dead or alive' bounty hunter... I was a Lawman. Pissed me off to no end.

[@vickilombas8829]

Here's a thought. You discover a new power source or other amazing find in their solar system, they become immensely wealthy and powerful.

[@moochcat8439]

I felt the same way about the questline, definitely half cooked. They could have done so much more.

[@hihosilver1234]

Whole game is half cooked right?

[@iNathanLite]

The only thing I can think of his Hope could sell the fertiliser itself, and that paying the mercs is more cost efficient than paying for labour, especially if it's only a few groups of mercs going round to dozens of farms. I'm reaching though.

[@aschergamer2213]

It feels like these stories should’ve been side quests of the side quests. I really, REALLY, hope that one of the DLCs will be a reigniting of the colony wars. I know this has been said umpteen millions of times, but this whole game felt 1/3 done - I’d rather they had focused on the “make your own fun” of some survival games and just let us be smugglers, bounty hunters, and general ne’er do wells than shoehorn everyone into these poorly planned “hero” roles. And now I have to pay $1 to get holsters that should’ve been added from the start? If they keep this up, I might not buy their ultimate edition of whatever comes out next. Probably just the mid tier. And then upgrade. Bethesda, why do you do this to me?!

[@moggtow]

The fact that Rangers are "not that cool" seems to be kinda the point imo. Marika Boros and Sam Coe are already two good exemples of people who go disappointed with them.

[@aschergamer2213]

And there’s one, ONE, Ranger per system. Per system?? What the heck, man?!

[@Benu54321]

I hated that there was only really an aesthetic difference between the Free Star and UC. The UC is ruled by an elite council, led by an elected president, and otherwise staffed with the heads of branches of government. And the FC is ruled by, a council of elites, and only one seems to have been elected, the rest are just the people who happen to own the biggest companies in FC space. Outside of Akila City, the FC seems to effectively be a corporate dictatorship, even the Rangers are subservient to these corporate leaders. The UC has its shitty Citizen/Non-Citizen class divide, a bit of corruption, and a propensity for biological warfare. Both suck. Also, why the fuck does The Well even exist? How did it come to exist? Why aren't they citizens? Why not just build more housing on the edge of the city? You've got a basically empty planet, why the fuck is there a slum? Slums develop where that's the only land available, and people build lives there around informal economy jobs in the city. What informal economy are the people in the pit working in? Is there a landfill they are picking in? An electronics dump they scavenge in? A graveyard they dig graves in for mourning families? Why does The Well exist!?

[@TheBlooMoose]

Had me laughing at your comments about The Well! You’re absolutely right, they should probably consider using some of the vacant land spanning the entire surface of the planet.

[@thezeropike]

I wanted Cowboy Bebop, instead this quest chain gives me a horrible version of the movie Chinatown. With its bonkers land grabbing scheme.

[@pmpowalisz]

Cowboy Behop is bounty hunting not law enforcement.

[@DrLynch2009]

Nah, Barret quest is the most boring. Half of it is you sitting to talk with a lawyer.

[@nathanthreshie199]

Yeah Cowboys in space and that awful music makes my stomach funny lol!

[@mrbl3azy]

Consider me subscribed good sir!

[@TheKonkaman]

Ryjin questline is far worse than the freestar rangers

[@TheBlooMoose]

I have gone back and forth on this, but I think I just prefer the stealth focus of the Ryujin questline overall. Both pretty close in my mind though.

[@ToeMcTaggins]

I was put off by cowboys in space in the 24th century I avoid Akila at all cost and wish a mod will remove the ball caps and cowboy hats. Can't a dystopian future NASA punk bullshit if there's cowboys running around and then I guess the spacers in the crimson fleet are space Indians that shit's lame just like the whole entire starfield storyline it's a hell of a sandbox

[@hihosilver1234]

Man, in a game full of terrible factions, it's a bummer the faction I didn't interact with is the worst? This game is only a year old and it's already aged like complete crap... Hard to believe tbh

[@BungusFungus69]

The whole game is lukewarm.

[@bhekking]

Great video! I think a year from now, SF will be a forgotten relic. The writing is so bland and lazy.

[@hihosilver1234]

Agreed. Biggest let down of my gaming life.

[@bobbobbins4877]

The Freestar Rangers, like a lot of things in Starfield, were poorly thought out. They're supposed to be the most formidable faction in the galaxy, yet their capital is a dilapidated shanty town. A significant aspect of the game's world building falls apart just because Bethesda thought it would be cool to have a western themed location with people wearing cowboy hats.

[@MeTaLISaWeSoMe95]

Since when is the Freestar Collective the strongest force in the galaxy?!

[@bobbobbins4877]

@MeTaLISaWeSoMe95 since they battered the UC in the colony war.

[@aschergamer2213]

It feels like these stories should’ve been side quests of the side quests. I really, REALLY, hope that one of the DLCs will be a reigniting of the colony wars. I know this has been said umpteen millions of times, but this whole game felt 1/3 done - I’d rather they had focused on the “make your own fun” of some survival games and just let us be smugglers, bounty hunters, and general ne’er do wells than shoehorn everyone into these poorly planned “hero” roles. And now I have to pay $1 to get holsters that should’ve been added from the start? If they keep this up, I might not buy their ultimate edition of whatever comes out next. Probably just the mid tier. And then upgrade. Bethesda, why do you do this to me?!

[@caiooca5793]

I wonder who, who could help us in this situation... - A modder comes out of the fog wearing a super man outfit.