Starfield’s space combat is taking its cues from a beloved indie game

techradar.com:

Bethesda’s upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield is taking inspiration from beloved indie spaceship sim FTL, and its in-game footage has given us a solid understanding of how exactly that plays out.

Inspired by the indie game, Starfield’s space combat will involve redirecting power to the various subsystems of your ship mid-flight. Game director Todd Howard told IGN(opens in new tab) earlier in June that you’ll be shifting power between various modules of your ship to keep its weapons and systems functioning.

“Your ship has various power systems,” Howard said.”[There’s] a little bit of FTL there in terms of putting how much power into three different weapon systems, then your engines, and shields, and the grav drive is what lets you jump and get out of some situations that you have to put power to.”

As spotted on Reddit(opens in new tab), the recent Starfield gameplay preview shown during Summer Game Fest's Xbox and Bethesda Showcase appears to demonstrate exactly how that power play works in the game. In the cockpit view, a panel on the left-hand side of the screen displays what looks like various ship modules, each with a power gauge.

Engine, shield, and grav drive power are all displayed, alongside three other modules: LAS, BAL, and MSL. Those could be lasers, ballistics, and missiles. It looks as though you’ll shift power between them using the D-pad, and have room to either maximize output to the modules or pump power to them in discrete units.

Power management mechanics have become common across space sims. Elite: Dangerous has a similar control system that lets you prioritize power output to specific ship modules, distributing it around damaged components and power shortages. We’re yet to see whether Starfield will include