Hehe. So, I've got 243 hours into Starfield. Level 45.
For me, the game is side quests, killing bad guys all over the place, and taking over as many ships as I can.
I've completely ignored the main mission. Haven't really done any crafting other than upgrading weapons. I started a base and forgot where its at.
The companions are all horrid. I hang out with the robot guy. He's got good guns.
I use Heller's Cutter, Arc Welder, and Auto-Rivet. Nothing else. Seemed fitting for a miner. And people burn real good.
I mostly don't use ship storage except for uncommon stuff. I go through the ridiculous torment of tossing all my junk on the ground in a hold of my ship. Silly fun.
I don't do a lot of space combat. I've got a stack of Class C ships whenever I get around to optimizing them. At some point that will be a new piece of the game that I'll play.

I may never pursue the main mission. Looks kinda dumb. Can't tell you exactly what I've found fun in this game where I've opted out of most of the game. But ... every now and then I quicksave and just start burning down all the civilians. A lot of em won't die. But I keep trying. And then I load my save, because I want to be able to land there again.

People still care about Starfield in 2025? I thought everyone went back to Skyrim a year ago.

I had super high hopes for this game. I hope its not abandoned completely and we can retry for a starfield 2 in the future. It has a great concept.

The problems of Starfield, the ones that prevent it from being great even if only through modding, are engine-level problems. Those can't be fixed without remaking the entire game from scratch in a new engine, and nobody wants to do that.

Maybe in a couple decades we'll get Starfield Remastered made in UE9.

Maybe they should just stay in their lane and keeping making Elder Scrolls and Fallouts..I'd be down with that.

If the base game has to be made better with mods then you’ve failed as a game designer.