Starfield wouldn't be a Bethesda game without goofy, systems-based nonsense. I say this with complete affection in my heart for this sort of thing—I genuinely think stuff like this adds a lot of nonsensical charm, like how you can stuff a thousands of potatoes into a cargo hold, or build the galaxy's most cursed L-shaped spaceship.
All that was missing was a good bloodbath—and now we've got one. Reddit user Predator-FTW encountered this bug during his space exploration, an absolute all-out brawl between every ship in the system and the Deimos Staryard.
Every ship in the system randomly started attacking the Deimos Staryard from r/Starfield
"Oh yeah, you're done!" one pilot cries out, while another taunts: "Can't get away from me!" Meanwhile, enough salvos to flatten a city slam into the bulkhead of the Deimos Staryard for reasons completely unknown, dozens of ships firing upon it like a swarm of hornets raging around a kicked nest.
- Bethesda intended Starfield to be more violent, including 'meat caps' for beheaded astronauts, but the gore was toned down for technical reasons and because it 'didn't fit thematically'
- A Skyrim dev broke the game before launch when they made thousands of tiny ants cast individual shadows: 'Why is the game running so slow?'
One of the ships, an SSNN Sloop, belongs to the Settled Systems News Network, which seems like some kind of censorship to me. What are they trying to hide? I tried to reach out for comment, but I've been informed by my editors that the network is, in fact, entirely fictional.
This whole thing could be some mass insurance scam, though, as none of them are doing a lick of actual damage. "[I think] it’s an essential building that can’t be destroyed just like New Atlantis," writes Predator-FTW. The station definitely has a health bar, though Predator-FTW maintains that they didn't see it budge.
The station is also level 50, so the level differential could also be the culprit, but it wouldn't surprise me if the staryard was just indestructible. While there's not an exact precedent for this sort of thing in Bethesda RPGs (it's not like you were able to slam the White-Gold Tower with a warcrime's worth of missiles, not without mods anyway) their other titles have had vital story NPCs you can't kill.
Watching these bees buzz around a major space station gives me a weird sense of nostalgia, even if the visuals are different. I'm taken back to my Oblivion days—where the meeting of daily NPC routines, quest interactions, and monster attacks could, without warning, cause a domino-effect style slaughter that led to bodies in the streets. Bethesda NPCs never need a reason to throw down, as is tradition.
