It has been a rocky road forStarfieldsince its launch in 2023, with Bethesda receiving a decent amount of criticism because of the title’s relatively poor performance. Despite the glitches and a tough start to life, Bethesda has continued to support the title in the hopes of bringing it to the same level as the developer’s other titles, likeSkyrimandFallout 4. It has done a decent job so far, adding more content a year after launch, but one of its biggest problems persists, and it has nothing to do with gameplay.
One of thebiggest assets that Bethesda titles have over practically every other game is the modding community that tends to come with them. With the power of the Creation Kit, titles likeSkyrimandFallout 4can allow for grand projects,likeFallout: London, andStarfieldhas one of these Creation Kits as well. In fact, Bethesda understands how important modding is to its games as it has allowed for modding on console via Bethesda.net, but the management of this website has caused a few issues in and of itself.
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Starfield’s Most Annoying Problems Are Because Of Modding
Creators Are Being Verified Too Easily
Although the majority of the modding community for Bethesda titles tends to sit pretty on PC,console users have to settle for Bethesda.net and its modding capabilities. The mods are limited by comparison, but creators can be verified by Bethesda in order to guarantee quality. Unfortunately, this quality isn’t exactly a guarantee, since many creators can be verified very easily, meaning that some low quality mods can come from verified creators, as pointed out bySigmaChadbinoon Reddit.
This issue doesn’t apply to official Bethesda mods, since the developer has to ensure the quality of these; however, verified creators are meant to be symbols of quality and aren’t quite that. Due to the ease of verification, practically anyone who can tamper with the Creation Kit can make mods forStarfield, and this means that it is even harder for those using Bethesda.net to mod to find high quality content. It also gives modding a bad name in general.
Bethesda.net creations are also available forFallout 4andSkyrim: Special Edition.
This issue is further compounded by the UI of Bethesda.net and the problems some players have with navigation, as mentioned byOk_Cost6780on Reddit. Bethesda.net prioritizes paid creations over mods that are popular and highly liked. There also isn’t a way to search based on how recently a mod has been updated, which is important if players are looking for longstanding, essential mods that are still being supported. All of these issues compound together to makemoddingStarfieldon consolea less than ideal experience.
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There’s A Reason Why PC Modders Use Nexus
Other Modding Websites Are Better Than Bethesda.net
In theory, an official modding website from an AAA developer should outclass everything other site, yet this is not the case. Ever since the early days ofSkyrimmods,Nexus Mods has been the home of PC modding for Bethesda games, and there is a good reason for this. Modders are known and pushed in the community because their mods are popular and everyone wants them, not because they are arbitrarily verified. In general, there is more content too, and popularity is a much easier way to ensure that a player is getting good content.
Although Bethesda titles likeStarfieldare some of the most popular on Nexus Mods, other titles likeCyberpunk 2077andBaldur’s Gate 3also have a strong presence on the site.
Nexus Mods is also far easier to navigate than Bethesda.net, and although it isn’t as pretty, the better functionality has kept it on top for a long time. The integration it has with other tools, like Vortex and Wabbajack, makes modding even easier despite the added intricacy some complex mods on PC ask for. Yes, there is always a risk in modding, and it can be finicky at times, but Nexus Mods, unlike Bethesda, make modding as easy as possible for users, although it isn’t always fast without Nexus Premium.
In order to makemodding on consoles forStarfieldbetter, Bethesda.net might need a bit of an overhaul. Better search filter options would be a good start, as well as a stricter verification process to better ensure the quality of the content on the site. Although there is a risk with modding, the process should be as easy as possible if Bethesda wants as many players as possible to get involved, since the modding communities have always been important to keeping its games not only alive, but healthy and thriving.
