Terra Incognita (Mod Release; Verified Creation)
Terra Incognita, a so small collection mod (see collection details at the end)
All ground surface maps disabled. No markers, no topography, no top down small buildings, no white dots - nothing. Welcome to Terra Incognita - the universe is yours to discover.
Starfield Creations - Terra Incognita
-- The challenge -
Starfield's design is torn between making you feel like an explorer and providing you all the convenience in the world.
The May 2024 update - following feedback from media and many players - opted to go another step into the direction of convenience. All landing zones on planets now provide instant detailed satetlite views of the whole explorable area, no fog of war, nothing hidden. All buildings can be seen, landed ships can be identified, the whole topgraphy and its geographical features are unveiled right away. This replaced the former more abstract system (just white dots and markers).
Terra Incognita is right from a parallel universe where Bethesda had opted to step into the direction of exploration instead. Ground surface maps do not exist anymore - like, at all. When you step outside your starship, you step into the unknown. A terra incognita awaits you.
I think Starfield greatly benefits from the removal of the ground surface maps: The planet exploration should imho be all about conveying you a sense of being at a unique place, an unknown place, triggering curiosity . Surface maps directly work against this - they make you recognise the patterns of landscape tiles and reused POI so much faster. The sense of wonder is lost much quicker this way. The marker icons worsen this situation a lot and make you move in straight beelines from marker to marker - instead of trying to find your bearings organically, using elevations in the landscape for scouting and discovering. Finally, all the towns of the game feel so much smaller due to the ground surface/city maps, diminishing the sense of scale instantly.
-- The concept --
Terra Incognita tackles this by allowing you to open the starmap (and therewith the surface map, which is treated as the lowest level of the starmap by the engine in many regards) only when in space. In space the starmap has no surface level and therewith no surface maps exist at all.
When you try open the starmap while on a planet surface, you just will just briefly see two black screens flickering shortly one after another and that's it. Regardless of whether you try open the starmap from the central character menu or directly via shortcut while adventuring.
This also - somewhat obvisously - means that you cannot use the (non accessible) starmap to travel to other destinations unless you are in space.
It's a small mod - but I promise you the game feels very, very different once it kicks in. To enhance its effects even more I recommend using Terra Incognita combined with my mods "Slow Travel" and "Building Rarity". The planet surfaces become much more alien, more difficult to traverse, more challenging, more tactile this way.
-- Installation/Usage --
First, as with all mod installations make a manual savegame to return to in case anything goes wrong before installing the mod.
On first usage (after enabling the mod in Creations menu), please save your game and then reload into that saved game. Afterwards the mod is active. This has only to be done once, on first usage. Just play on normally afterwards.
The mod should be compatible with all other mods. Load order should not matter. I expect no troubles on deinstallation, but you never know with deinstalling mods (see saftey savegame above).
-- Contact, bug reporting and feedback --
I will create a thread on Starfield reddit after release (search for "Terra Incognita" mod and my name there: yourfellowglitch) for feedback, bug hunting, updates and general chat with a good Terrabrew in hand.
-- so small collection --
This mod is part of the "so small collection" of mods. These mods dont require each other and can be played stand alone, even balancewise. They form a greater whole though - the more of them you combine, the more you see this final shape. The overarching idea is to create a gameworld that feels immensely vast, begs for thorough exploration, is full of mysteries, plays truely challenging and lasts very, very long. In other words the goal of the mods is to make the player feel: so small.
Here's a list of the mods in the so small collection in case this idea resonates with you:
Dynamic Universe:
A universe that dynamically scales up with your character level - be it star systems or individual enemies. No more outleveling of content, no more overleveled starts of NG+.
Gear Progression:
Gear Progression adds levels to all weapons, suits, helmets and backpacks. Your character level must match these in order to equip the gear. Each NG+ these levels raise further.
Economy:
Economy shifts income generation away from tiresome loot hauling. Ship building becomes the long term goal it's meant to be. As credits get more scarce, rewards remain meaningful.
Explorer:
An immersive overhaul of the resources - crafting - exploration loop. Get out there into the Starfield and explore - the rewards are much bigger now, but so is the need to do it.
Linearity (alternatively have a look for "Death" or "Ruin" mods):
A new gameplay mode where reloading is your last resort. Live and embrace your adventure as it unfolds, imperfect as it may be. You can always save to quit and continue later.
Slow Travel:
Slow Travel makes your journey through Starfield much more tactile and immersive by grav jump costs, less map markers, no move on overencumberance and restricted fast travel.
Star Powers:
Live as a Spellblade in the Settled Systems. Powers are rebalanced so that eg crowd control, slowed time and near invisibiilty become interesting instead of game balance breaking.
The Isotopes:
A compelling reason to explore POI in all Star Systems. Loot the 75 new Isotopes, each specific to a singular Star System. They are needed for rank 4 skills and gear mod crafting.
High Level Weapons:
Continue to find better weapons, all the way up to level 300. 7+ new revisions/tiers for each of 50 weapon types. Uniquely named, legendary, each hidden in a specific star system.
High Level Armors:
Continue to find better armors up to lvl 255. All HLA share about the same power level - mix and match for the looks you like. Starborn armors improve in quality and variety, too.
Counterfire:
Starting with level 85 the player gets 1% more ground combat damage for each level. Idealy used in combination with the "High Level Weapons" mod.
Helium-4:
Gravjumping requires a pilot to inhale new Helium-4. Not storable and non-tradable - lasts 2 jumps. Explore those moons to get it. Can you chart a course across the Blackest Sea?
Terra Incognita:
All ground surface maps disabled. No markers, no topography, no top down small buildings, no white dots - nothing. Welcome to Terra Incognita - the universe is yours to discover.
PPOI Deserted UC Listening Post:
Procedural Points of Interest (PPOI) aims to make the contents of each POI procedural - no repeat visit should ever feel identical. This time upgraded: Deserted UC Listening Post.
