Modders have started to rescue Starfield by adding new features to what was otherwise seen as a disappointment of a game. This mod doesn't add anything particularly thunderous to the game, but it does add personal lives to the game's NPCs, adding a new layer of immersion that was previously missing.
News in brief
- Mod NPCs Have Routines and Stores Have Schedules means NPCs have their own lives and don't just wait around for you all day
- This behaviour was common in previous Bethesda games
- Hopefully this is the start of a fightback for Starfield
Fresh out of a disappointing DLC launch, you might have assumed Starfield was dead in the water. And you may be right — but as ever where Bethesda games are concerned, the modding community is on hand to put right what needs correcting. In this case, it's a mod that adds an element bafflingly missing from Starfield: The ability for NPCs to wander off and do their own thing.
"NPCs Have Routines and Stores Have Schedules" does exactly what it says on the tin — now, instead of waiting around for you, the player character, to turn up, NPCs have their own lives to attend to, making it clear you're not actually the center of their particular universe. This was an addition we'd previously seen in other Bethesda games, like Skyrim and Oblivion, so it was odd that Starfield didn't include it from the start.
Immersion is the key here; When NPCs aren't so obviously tied to you, it gives the sense is wider than simply revolving around you. It hints at a larger and more expansive world, a more lived-in world. Remove it, and the game world feels flat — exactly what a lot of critical reviews found about Starfield.
Thankfully, shopkeepers being off eating their lunch or whatever isn't likely to impact on you all that much, as while they're out, helpful robots will be manning their stations. Which does make you wonder why they're there in the first place.
You can find this mod, and many others, over at Nexus Mods.
