StarChat - An Adventure For NG+

Update 2024-12-22: Minor bugfixes and edited documentation for clarity Update 2024-11-19 : Added lip-sync and facial expressions

You can add this to an existing game but note that nothing will happen unless or until your character has been through Unity at least once.

Once installed, it is recommended that you leave it enabled in your load order until you are ready to start an entirely new play-through.

DESCRIPTION

A chatbot called StarChat has taken over your normal dialogue, ostensibly to prevent you revealing the existence of Unity to the general population. People can talk to each other as normal but when you try to talk to them yourself all you get is StarChat. Apart, that is, from members of Constellation, who will soon know about Unity anyway.

Although StarChat's responses might be mildly amusing at first, this rapidly becomes annoying because you can't talk to traders, hire crew, talk to guards and so on, which makes normal progress through the game somewhat awkward. You need to disable the bot and fortunately there is a quest to do it.

The quest will take you to a distant moon and you will need a ship that can make long jumps. The Starborn Guardian will do fine but in case you have already switched to a less capable ship, you can talk to Ships' Technicians as normal. They seem to be mysteriously immune to StarChat. Probably something to do with their technical training?

On the moon, look for a tented hab not far away from your landing site and enter through the airlock. Don't worry if everything seems to be slightly tilted away from the vertical - it's not a bug, I made it that way for fun because the hab is built on uneven ground. You now have a choice - you can try to destroy StarChat, or you can subscribe to its services. Either way will remove its annoying interjections but what you gain from the two alternatives is quite different.

Destroying StarChat

There is a hatch in the middle of the hab, down to the vault where StarChat's host computers are kept, but it's concealed by a column of pictures. To prove you are not a robot, you will need to solve the picture puzzle ("Select all the images with ...") to uncover the hatch. It's a kind of Starfield version of Captcha. Someone will be there to guide you through in case you are perplexed by it.

Down in the vault, about the first thing you will find is the body of an Ecliptic floating in mid-air. It's not a havok bug - I just wanted it to look weird. You are expected to loot it. There is a special version of a Disruptor that uses 3KV ammo rather than the usual cartridges. You can use it to shoot out turrets and the nice thing is, that dead turrets can be looted for more 3KV ammo. The Disruptor is yours to keep and can be improved at weapons benches as normal.

The vault is indeed defended by turrets and there is no cover so if you have powers like Phase Time, don't forget to use them. Getting killed while you stand there in the open shooting at a turret is no fun.

There is a small maze to negotiate to reach the room where the power plant for the vault is located. Talk to the scientist you find there to find out how to destroy it. Get it right and there will be a satisfying explosion with useful debris. You can then leave the vault, whereupon the quest will end and everything will be back to normal.

There is a small industrial compound near the tented hab, with some containers of loot in the middle. You won't be able to reach the containers until you have disabled the power plant in the vault.

Subscribing to StarChat

There is a computer terminal in the hab where you can sign up for StarChat's services. There are three options - a free trial, Gold membership, or Platinum Membership. You can return there later to upgrade your membership if you wish.

• The free trial allows you to give a StarChat-generated compliment to anyone you speak to. This is for role-playing.
• Gold costs 10,000 Credits, gives you a permanent +10% chance on all Persuasion checks, and when you compliment someone your companion may be impressed with your eloquence and like you better.
• Platinum costs 25,000 Credits and gives you +25% Persuasion, you can compliment the same person twice, your compliments are more eloquent, and you will receive nice compliments in return. This is for the warm fuzzies.
• NOTES
• The compliments generated by StarChat are gender-blind.
• The return compliments are not voiced and you will need to have Dialogue Subtitles enabled in the game's Accessibility Settings to see them.
• Exchanging compliments with other people will have no perceptible game effect unless your current companion is one of Sarah Morgan, Sam Coe, Andreja, or Barrett.
• The game imposes a 5-minute cool-down on affecting you current companion's opinion of you (as in: 'Sarah liked that'). Exchanging compliments with people does not circumvent this restriction.

Afterwards

Taking either path will complete the adventure - whichever choice you make will block the other. If you subscribe, the hatch down to the vault will be locked whereas if you destroy StarChat, you obviously can't then subscribe to it.

Either way, the NPC in the tent will now be available as a crew member, for free; the normal hiring fee is vaived. He or she will have level three in one ship skill, at random.

Replay Options

Next time you go through unity you will have the option to replay the quest in your new universe, and maybe take a different option, or to skip it this time around. If you do decide to skip, you will have the option to have a free expert crew member anyway - but it will be a random one, not necessarily the same as the one in the previous universe.

Acknowledgments

To PrincessMely for helpful comments during development

Compatibility

This mod adds a unique overlay on Rana II-a at 3°30'15"N 169°47'33"E

Support

If you have comments or questions about this Creation, please post @OldMansBeard in the #starfield-mods channel of the BGS discord. I will usually see your post within 24 hours.

Enjoy.

OMB