Core Gameplay Changes & Improvements

While striving to be a Total Conversion, Star Wars Genesis also fixes, improves, and builds upon many aspects of the core game. This serves as an overview of all those changes as well a deterrent for those referring to Star Wars Genesis as simply a “reskin” or “coat of paint” of Starfield with the same flaws. The bones of Starfield are still present in Genesis, which isn’t inherently a bad thing. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with a Space RPG that lets you travel to planets with a ship, shoot things, do quests, and level up. Everything wrong with Starfield is the actual content you experience while doing those things, which we are changing or have already changed.

The Galaxy

Problem:
The Starfield Galaxy has little to no variety. 100 POIs and 4 enemy factions spread across 1000 planets with less than 20 visually distinct biomes. Within just a few hours, it can feel like you have already discovered most of what the galaxy has to offer, turning exploration from a source of excitement into a predictable cycle of repeated content.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis understands the value and potential of procedural generation, but places a much greater emphasis on handcrafted experiences. The Genesis galaxy contains over 40 handcrafted planets, many featuring their own unique POIs, gameplay loops, stories, encounters, and environments designed specifically for those worlds. Procedural exploration has also been dramatically expanded, with over 150 new POIs, 9+ factions, and more than 100 visually distinct biomes, nearly tripling the environmental and encounter variety of the base game while ensuring that handcrafted content remains at the heart of exploration.

Progression

Problem:
Progression in Starfield feels largely pointless as enemies scale to your level, while weapon and armor drops scale up to the level you were when they dropped. Due to this, unique weapons and armor you get during difficult quests often become obsolete and often completely outclassed by a common weapon/armor. The inherent existence of a leveled world punishes the player for progressing, and is simply a mechanic introduced into a game to compensate for a lack of content.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis features a completely unleveled world. The Mandalorian armor that took you hours to research and gather beskar for will never provide less protection than a jacket simply because of the level you crafted it at. Weapons and armor are balanced around their actual properties and lore rather than dynamically changing values that make little logical sense. This makes difficult quests, exploration, crafting, and rare equipment genuinely rewarding because what you earn retains its value throughout your playthrough.

Combat

Problem:
Combat in Starfield is extremely spongey, often requiring multiple magazines to kill a single enemy while the player simultaneously facetanks fire from an entire group. Combined with a grounded NASA-punk setting, this looter-shooter balancing feels especially out of place and eventually turns combat encounters into chores rather than genuine threats.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis eliminates bullet sponges through its unleveled world. Most enemies die in only a few shots, with natural exceptions based on their armor and enemy type. Players looking for the same rules to apply to themselves can select Immersive Difficulty, while Normal and Hard provide a more forgiving but still challenging experience. Enemy NPCs are also significantly smarter and more aggressive, with behavior varying by faction as they move between cover, flank, suppress, and attempt to overwhelm you with numbers. Base accuracy is higher for both the player and NPCs, giving you greater control over your weapons while making standing in the open and absorbing incoming fire far less viable.

Quests & Writing

Problem:
It is no secret that Emil Pagliarulo, the lead writer of Starfield, has embraced the principle of “Keep It Simple, Stupid,” and nowhere is that philosophy more apparent than Starfield. Despite having over 200 quests, only a handful stand out as genuinely memorable, while meaningful consequences for the player’s actions are almost nonexistent. You can be directly responsible for the destruction of a UC capital ship, then join the UC Vanguard the next day with virtually no acknowledgment of what you have done. NG+ only compounds the problem by presenting the illusion of infinite possibilities while repeatedly confronting you with the same choices, essential NPCs, and outcomes, aside from a few comic relief variants involving the main cast. For a game with an infinite number of universes, it is remarkable how little freedom you have to actually change anything in them.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis is not afraid of real choices and consequences, so much so that we have completely removed NG+. Major decisions can lock you out of entire questlines and truly alter the galaxy around you. Do not expect to join the Empire one day and then join the Rebellion the next day without consequences. Genesis also avoids relying on endless exposition or treating the player as though they have just arrived in the galaxy and need everything explained to them; you are treated as someone who already belongs in this universe. Beyond that, the largely RNG-driven persuasion system has also been replaced with dialogue options determined by your perks, background, abilities, and previous choices, allowing the character you build to actually influence how situations unfold. We are by no means claiming to be writing Academy Award-level stories, which would put us in the same territory we are criticizing, but we can objectively point to a more serious overall tone, fewer essential NPCs, and major decisions with lasting consequences.

Character Visual Identity

Problem:
The extent of armor customization in Starfield is limited to just three slots: Spacesuit, Helmet, and Backpack. With fewer than 20 visually distinct spacesuits in the entire game, many of which share similar designs or aesthetics, there is very little room to create a character that truly feels like your own. For a massive RPG built around exploring an entire galaxy, the lack of visual variety and meaningful outfit customization makes it difficult for many players to develop a strong connection to their character.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis contains over 150 unique armors and features its own cosmetic addon system, allowing you to simultaneously equip hoods, capes, cloaks, scarves, masks, waist addons, hats, left and right shoulder pieces, left and right thigh pieces, left and right ankle pieces, and more. Character creation has also been dramatically expanded, with nearly triple the number of hairstyles, beards, colors, and other customization options available to the player. Your character’s look is completely unique to you, with the available options continuing to expand with every update.

Immersion & Roleplay

Problem:
From the moment you begin Starfield, you are forced into a role you never chose. Regardless of your background or traits, your character is always introduced and treated as a miner, immediately undermining the freedom to define who your character is.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis features a custom Alternate Start that places you at a major hub of your choosing with your selected starter armor. Any references to your character’s past are determined solely by the background and traits you choose during character creation. The only pre-defined aspect of your character is your possession of an artifact and a potential buyer on Coruscant. Everything that came before is yours to define.

Loading Screens

Problem:
While I do not think that the loading screens were the deciding factors in why Starfield is a boring game, it certainly plays a part. Going through 6 different loading screens just to do a quest that involves talking to people is obviously a problem.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis has not completely fixed the loading screen problem with Starfield, but it has masked some loading screens. Intergalactic loading screens have been replaced with hyperspace cutscenes, and the loading screens that occur when fast traveling to a map marker within 250 meters have been completely removed.

NPC Variety

Problem:
The crowd NPCs in Starfield stand out as lifeless and soulless, which is impressive for a game that came out before “soulless” became synonymous with AI slop. The feeling of simply walking through a city or settlement is a major downgrade from older Bethesda titles, where NPCs had names, routines, homes, and lives that made the world feel inhabited rather than populated by randomly generated bodies. The problem extends beyond crowds as well, with details such as children sharing just two face presets and NPC behavior during conversations, combat, and other situations often feeling noticeably unnatural or robotic.

Solution:
From countless droid variants to dozens of new species, the visual variety of NPCs in Star Wars Genesis is exponentially greater than in the base game. Many generic crowd NPCs have also been replaced with mercenaries who draw their equipment from a massive pool of armor and cosmetic combinations, greatly reducing the feeling of seeing the same characters repeatedly. Beyond visual variety, NPC behavior has been improved across the board with more natural blinking, greetings, conversations, reactions, and movement, helping settlements feel less like collections of background NPCs and more like places actually inhabited by people.

Movement

Problem:
Movement in Starfield is a significant improvement over previous Bethesda titles, but in several areas it still feels surprisingly dated. Third-person melee is particularly rough, with attack animations largely locking you in place and making it unnecessarily difficult to hit mobile enemies. Boostpacks offer some additional mobility, but their limited movement and lack of precise aerial control leave a lot to be desired. The complete absence of a dodge mechanic also feels increasingly strange in a modern action RPG, especially when fluid movement and responsive combat have become standard across so many other games.

Solution:
One of the biggest changes incorporated by Star Wars Genesis is proper third-person melee animations that allow you to move and attack at the same time. Truly revolutionary. Genesis also introduces an entirely new jetpack mode called Free Fly, granting full 360° aerial movement along with the ability to hover. Players can perform iframe dodges through a dedicated keybind, while pistols can be fired using an improved one-handed animation, all working together to make movement and combat significantly more fluid, responsive, and modern.

Beyond that, minor improvements have also been done such as:

• Increased first person slide distance
• Increased mantle speed
• Increased sneak speed
• Reduced movement speed while aiming
• Increased movement speed while blocking with a melee weapon
• Implementation of two different run/jog animations
• Proper automatic lower and raising of weapons

Bug Fixes

Problem:
Starfield is not the buggiest game in the world, especially compared to Skyrim/Fallout, but it is still relatively buggy than other games.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis carefully includes many community bug fixes, engine fixes, and optimizations for Starfield. The biggest ones including the fix for menu lag, a critical engine bug that makes large modlists unplayable for low players with low VRAM , which I personally funded and encouraged a fix for with my $500 bounty.

Visuals

Problem:
The visuals in Starfield look great, but the quality of textures was largely held back by consoles and their outdated hardware.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis has built-in support for the comprehensive and optional HD Overhaul mod, which overhauls the game with 2-4k textures. It also incorporates many visual improvements by default such as improved effects, weather, lights, shadows, LUTs, hair, skin, body, eyes, and more.

Freedom

Problem:
For a game built around exploring an enormous galaxy, it is surprising how often Starfield restricts the player’s freedom. Ship building is constrained by numerous arbitrary limits, while even basic actions such as using weapons are disabled when your scanner is active. Individually these restrictions may seem minor, but together they create unnecessary friction in a game that is supposed to encourage exploration, experimentation, and player freedom.

Solution:
Star Wars Genesis completely removes the arbitrary restrictions placed on ship building, leaving your creativity and the number of credits in your bank account as the only real limits. Weapons and other necessary actions can now be used while your scanner is active, eliminating the constant need to switch in and out of scanning mode during exploration. Resources can also be harvested simply by shooting them, providing a viable alternative to pulling out a dedicated mining tool and removing yet another unnecessary restriction on how you choose to play.

New Systems (didn’t have time to make problem/solution for these yet)

Star Wars Genesis goes beyond the limitations of the vanilla game, and adds many new systems in place commonly requested by the community.