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About this mod
A streamlined immersion mod that simulates various costs associated with space travel in a reactive manner.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
- Donations
This mod came from a synthesis of two ideas.
- Space travel in vanilla Starfield is inconsequential and, despite all relevant dialogue indicating the opposite, costs absolutely nothing. I wanted to address this without introducing friction to the player experience.
- I love hardcore needs mods. However, I don’t find myself enjoying the interactions as much in a game like Starfield as I do in, say, Fallout. I wanted to strip back what ‘needs’ mods do and create something a bit more abstracted.
The solution to both of these was, of course, credits. They are the main way you interact with the game systems, but in the late-game they can become as inconsequential as travel. So, Cost of Spacing simply takes credits from the player when they make port to simulate all of the costs of space travel at once.
A wide variety of factors, such as your ship, skills, port of call, factional allegiances, and more are all taken into account to dynamically determine costs, then you are charged accordingly and can go about your business. This should incentivize thoughtful travel and shipbuilding, as well as more interaction with the game world’s factions and mission systems. It should also be completely seamless and never get in the way of the game experience.
Note: Spacefaring Economy is the recommended counterpart to Cost of Spacing.
It scales most space-related costs and rewards around the idea that space travel costs credits.
They were designed together, but still function independently should you prefer to use only one.
Version 1.0 has been released.
An abbreviated list of features added since Version 0.81, the last stable release, can be found below.
Spoiler:
Gameplay Unique handling when the player’s Constellation Stipend expires. Unique events when piloting Starborn vessels. More immersive handling of Maintenance events. New Heatleech Catastrophe event (that costs up to 5 figures).
New Systems Fueling - in Real Fuel mode, fuel is paid for and automatically replenished on port call. Quality - total operation cost varies based on manufacturer. Wages - a small allowance is paid for each crew member.
Cost Calculations Some costs have inverse scaling for location richness - to simulate material availability or scarcity. Ship costs in all modes are weighted with fuel capacity. All costs scale more heavily on player skills.
Fixes/Improvements The mod no longer tracks wear-and-tear when disabled, and it is reset upon re-enabling. Most crew-related costs scale off of headcount instead of slots. The mod operates in states to reduce script load at each step. Mod now correctly initializes in NG and NG+ across more scenarios. Reputation bonuses calculate less frequently. Streamlined mode soft-caps costs across all scenarios.
Compatibility Provisioning will automatically add food to your ship’s stores if Crew Eats Food is present. Real Fuel mode for use with Fuel Consumption Unlocked or similar. Landing Animation Reloaded no longer causes multiple charges.
Show
Gameplay
New Systems
Cost Calculations
Fixes/Improvements
Compatibility
The mod consists of a single script. When the player lands in a settlement or enters a properly equipped starstation, all calculations are triggered and ship costs are determined dynamically. The system attempts to withdraw the appropriate amount of credits from the player, incurring a strike if the player has insufficient funds.
If it is your first visit to a settlement, costs will not trigger until you exit the ship. Similarly, no costs are incurred at starstations until you enter the station.
How are costs determined?
The port dues are split into three distinct types of Costs, a Stipend system, and a Maintenance system.
There is also a Penalty system handling delinquent payments and a Skill system that lets you influence costs.
Costs
Stipends
These are varied and are entirely influenced by player choice, background, and factional allegiance. Not all are positive, so beware!
Maintenance System
The maintenance system has gone through a few overhauls and is now fully integrated with all other systems. Put simply, travel will slowly accumulate ‘wear-and-tear’ to simulate systems damage taken from regular use. Whenever you make port or dock with a consumer-facing starstation, there is a chance you will incur a slight cost for maintenance, which will remove some of this simulated damage. Maintenance is performed for free at your Outposts and certain unique starstations.
There are also two ‘catastrophic’ events that may trigger if wear accumulates past a certain point - Engine Refit and Heatleech Infestation. An Engine Refit is a complete overhaul of ship systems that reduces all damage to 0. Heatleech Infestations run on a separate system and trigger very rarely. Both can be very expensive, but there are some mitigations. Only one can occur at a time, they only occur in major cities, and your skills and a bit of luck are factored in for a chance to reduce the cost.
Medical Bills are only issued if your ship has hull damage, to simulate possible crew injuries. They will not trigger if your ship has full hull points.
Penalty System
I have opted to keep the punishment system simple, so instead of what you might expect from a needs mod - like ship or player debuffs - the mod operates on a three-strike system. Each time you are unable to pay port dues, the outstanding balance is logged and a strike is added. After your third strike, your next landing will incur a bounty of your entire outstanding balance (with slight compounding) with the local authorities (Or the UC, if the local authorities are not detected.)
No penalty is incurred if you have insufficient funds when docking with a starstation, but no maintenance will be performed.
Skill and Ship Checks
Most costs ‘check’ a variety of player skills to determine the outcome.
Skills are factored in for fuel costs, heatleech growth, port dues, provision costs, and much more.
For example, Captains with the Long Hauler background leverage their experience to pay less fees at most ports of call.
Spacefarers in the Serpent’s Embrace may find their blessed grav-drives with less damage than before after making a jump.
There is also a Quality system that checks attributes, like the Manufacturer, of your ship to adjust costs.
Ship Cost calculation is done using a dynamic soft-cap system, with scaling ramping up strongly as ship sizes approach C-class and beyond.
Leveling now has a slight impact on prices - if you can’t notice it working, it’s working.
Additionally, total costs will scale a bit based on location to simulate local pricing.
Below is a Stronghold landing in Neon - which is already an expensive city for non-locals.
However, a small fighter dropping by the Waggoner farm to refuel and grab some star-veggies can expect to pay a fraction of this.
Somewhere in between, a B-class skiff finds itself in Cydonia with a pilot in desperate need of some Beertinis from the Broken Spear.
Players traveling in the Frontier get all port dues paid by Constellation. You’ll see a unique message when this happens.
Starstations and staryards are now fully integrated and perform maintenance for significantly less than terrestrial ports.
And of course, that’s all before the reputation system comes into play. The interplay between this system and shipbuilding is the main ‘gameplay element’ of the mod as your choices directly impact your financial situation - a savvy player with the right connections can still turn a profit running space semis, but make the wrong choices and fail to plan properly and even the Frontier will become burdensome to maintain.
Simply install with your mod organizer of choice and enable the plugin.
The mod will start tracking the next time a settlement is landed in after installation.
If the next settlement happens to be New Atlantis in the course of the vanilla intro, a unique startup flow should be shown.
There are no requirements for the mod to function aside from Starfield updated to at least 1.13.61.
The mod is published as a small master and should be loaded as early as possible.
No vanilla records are touched and all operations are performed through the script.
It is, in theory, compatible with everything.
Automatic Detection
Shattered Space’s city locations are detected automatically in the script, with unique mechanics for players with the Serpent’s Embrace trait.
If either SKK Fast Start or Crimson Start New Game are detected, the mod will start immediately upon new games.
If Crew Eats Food is detected, a small amount of provisions will be added to your ship’s cargo on landing. Don’t worry - you’re still paying for it!
If Landing Animation Reloaded is detected, events are handled a little differently to avoid multiple charges (from the multiple landing events it triggers).
Note: Fuel consumption mods are not automatically detected. The Fueling feature is available in [REAL FUEL] mode under Gameplay Options.
If you simply wish to disable the mod this can be done indefinitely by selecting [DISABLE] under Gameplay Options. The mod will begin running again once re-enabled.
If you wish to uninstall entirely, enter
cgf “_CostOfSpacingScript.COSShutdown”in the console and wait for the message to appear. Save the game, uninstall the mod, load the game, and save again.
This procedure is not needed for updates. It will revert some leveled lists for safety and is not recommended unless you are about to enter the Unity.
Tweaks/QoL
Notifications Number and Display Duration Increased - This makes the messages appear for a bit longer, especially useful with 60 FPS interface mods.
Build Outpost Items with Credits - I've come to really enjoy outpost building with this, and it uses similar logic to COS - just abstract everything into Credits!
Economy/Balance
Spacefaring Economy - This is a complete scaling overhaul designed around COS, and the two mods together comprise a complete simulated economy.
Dynamic Repair Bill - This uses dynamic scaling to determine how expensive hull damage repair is.
Cost of Living - Lightweight taxation for outposts and home ownership.
Immersion
Peak Performance - Lightweight standalone needs system for Hunger, Thirst, etc. Automatically detected by COS.
Crew Eats Food - A fun way to ensure that purchased provisions go to use. Automatically detected by COS.
By design, the mod does not need heavy configuration, as the scaling covers most scenarios.
The recommended option is the default, [SIMULATION]. This performs all calculations for a deep and reactive experience.
If you wish for a simpler or cheaper experience, you can select [STREAMLINED] for lower expenses across the board.
If you are using a Fueling mod like Fuel Consumption Unlocked, you can select [REAL FUEL]* for a special compatibility mode.
[DISABLED] simply prevents all mod logic from triggering until the mod is re-enabled.
*See Notes section below for a primer on how Real Fuel works.
Under the Notifications setting, there are a few new options.
[DEFAULT] is the recommended setting and is the least intrusive. It has no pop-ups and never disrupts game flow.
[VERBOSE] converts some event notifications to pop-up message boxes and adds a few intermediate messages to the flow.
[MUTE] silences the credstick jingling noise across all interactions.
[DEBUG] gives you a comprehensive overview of all costs incurred when making port.
How does Real Fuel mode work?
This will only be functional if you have a mod that causes travel to reduce your ship's Actor Value SpaceshipGravJumpFuel - or, simply, that makes travel use fuel. In this mode, the system will now withdraw an appropriate amount of credits for fuel in ship costs, and then automatically refill your tanks.
Default behavior is like (the cut feature in) vanilla - the current price of Helium-3 will be referenced to determine final costs.
There are some alternate modes that have yet to be finalized.
For now, I recommend an Economy mod that increases the value of Helium-3 if you find costs too low (Such as Spacefaring Economy!)
This will also influence costs when purchasing from Ship Services if vanilla calculations are used.
It has been tested with and designed for Fuel Consumption Unlocked.
It may or may not work with others like Ships Need Gas, Starvival, etc - let me know one way or the other.
How heavy is the mod?
While this is my first Papyrus mod, I believe it should be very light - the main logic has been changed since release but it still triggers off of vanilla events and is only registered for one or two at a time. It should do nothing at all in the background as all necessary values are stored in Global forms. An overview of utilized event triggers and states is below for the curious.
Spoiler:
Note: As of 0.97 the mod now uses States to reduce load from constantly checking globals. A basic overview is presented here, for anything more, either see the script source (or ask me, especially if you plan to extend or reference this mod!)
Once Startup procedures are finished, the mod will alternate between Empty, Tracking, and Static states.
All States call the same OnLocationChange Event, which is only defined in the Empty state (meaning, it is referenced in all states). This is used to check if we have disabled the mod, traveled to a new planet, and more. Generally, if we change locations or planets, the mod will go back to Tracking.
In the Tracking state, we are checking for Dockings, Landings, or Grav Jumps.
Grav Jumps are only used to increment wear and tear counters.
Docking (or Landing with an animation, so for the first time) goes to the Static state and registers us for OnExitShipInterior. When this event is called in the Statis state our generic HandleLandingEvents() function will be called and the player or Constellation will pay all relevant fees if applicable.
Landing immediately (fast travel to known location), which triggers abComplete in the event, triggers HandleLandingEvents() immediately and triggers payment.
Anytime HandleLandingEvents() is called, we go back to the Empty state. This prevents double-charging and makes it so we are only watching for OnLocationChange where akOldLoc != (is not equal to) akNewLoc (in other terms, we have traveled somewhere else. If LAR is present, this check is altered to check the LocTypeMajorOrbital of the current location, so that the system only resumes Tracking if we have changed planets.
That's about it. In practice, all of these fire in rapid succession when fast traveling from city to city, and the loop resets itself at each port.
Show
Note: As of 0.97 the mod now uses States to reduce load from constantly checking globals. A basic overview is presented here, for anything more, either see the script source (or ask me, especially if you plan to extend or reference this mod!)
Once Startup procedures are finished, the mod will alternate between Empty, Tracking, and Static states.
All States call the same OnLocationChange Event, which is only defined in the Empty state (meaning, it is referenced in all states). This is used to check if we have disabled the mod, traveled to a new planet, and more. Generally, if we change locations or planets, the mod will go back to Tracking.
In the Tracking state, we are checking for Dockings, Landings, or Grav Jumps.
Grav Jumps are only used to increment wear and tear counters.
Docking (or Landing with an animation, so for the first time) goes to the Static state and registers us for OnExitShipInterior. When this event is called in the Statis state our generic HandleLandingEvents() function will be called and the player or Constellation will pay all relevant fees if applicable.
Landing immediately (fast travel to known location), which triggers abComplete in the event, triggers HandleLandingEvents() immediately and triggers payment.
Anytime HandleLandingEvents() is called, we go back to the Empty state. This prevents double-charging and makes it so we are only watching for OnLocationChange where akOldLoc != (is not equal to) akNewLoc (in other terms, we have traveled somewhere else. If LAR is present, this check is altered to check the LocTypeMajorOrbital of the current location, so that the system only resumes Tracking if we have changed planets.
That's about it. In practice, all of these fire in rapid succession when fast traveling from city to city, and the loop resets itself at each port.
Reputation System Triggers
Note: I would advise learning these organically as you play the game, as some can be pleasant (or unpleasant) surprises!
Spoiler:
This information is provided for debugging or extension/patching purposes only.
Jemison Grant: 2700 credits until another stipend is gained or level 35 is reached.
Jemison Grant (NA): 4800 credits in New Atlantis only with equivalent conditions
Vanguard (UC02): 400 credit reimbursement at any port
UC Citizen (UC05): 6400 credit reimbursement, but only in UC space. Vanguard bonus removed
Freestar Ranger (FC02): 600 credit reimbursement in Freestar patrolled space
Ryujin Agent (RI02): 1200 credit reimbursement anywhere.
Ryujin Agent in Neon: reimbursement quadrupled.
Piloting a Taiyo craft will increase these bonuses by ~50%.
Crimson Fleet Rook (CF02): -3800 credit tribute withdrawn at all ports
Note: If you entered the Fleet via the Vanguard, they will pay a portion of this.
Finished Questline (Fleet): 7500 credit reimbursement at all ports
Finished Questline (SysDef): no tribute
Triggering any of the above except for finishing CF with the Fleet removes the Jemison Grant.
Finished Red Mile: no longer pay the tourist tax at Red Mile
Made an enemy of Zoe Kaminski in the Well: Trade Authority fee quadrupled
Helped Zoe Kaminski in the Well: Trade authority fee halved
Finished UC09: Heat Leech inspection cost tripled, with greater chance of triggering the heat leech event
Also gives discount on the event itself
Background: Long Hauler, Space Scoundrel, Pilgrim: Up to 50% discount on all costs except taxes
Neon Street Rat or Ryujin Agent: No longer pay extortionate ‘tourist tax’ in Neon
Show
This information is provided for debugging or extension/patching purposes only.
Jemison Grant: 2700 credits until another stipend is gained or level 35 is reached.
Jemison Grant (NA): 4800 credits in New Atlantis only with equivalent conditions
Vanguard (UC02): 400 credit reimbursement at any port
UC Citizen (UC05): 6400 credit reimbursement, but only in UC space. Vanguard bonus removed
Freestar Ranger (FC02): 600 credit reimbursement in Freestar patrolled space
Ryujin Agent (RI02): 1200 credit reimbursement anywhere.
Ryujin Agent in Neon: reimbursement quadrupled.
Piloting a Taiyo craft will increase these bonuses by ~50%.
Crimson Fleet Rook (CF02): -3800 credit tribute withdrawn at all ports
Note: If you entered the Fleet via the Vanguard, they will pay a portion of this.
Finished Questline (Fleet): 7500 credit reimbursement at all ports
Finished Questline (SysDef): no tribute
Triggering any of the above except for finishing CF with the Fleet removes the Jemison Grant.
Finished Red Mile: no longer pay the tourist tax at Red Mile
Made an enemy of Zoe Kaminski in the Well: Trade Authority fee quadrupled
Helped Zoe Kaminski in the Well: Trade authority fee halved
Finished UC09: Heat Leech inspection cost tripled, with greater chance of triggering the heat leech event
Also gives discount on the event itself
Background: Long Hauler, Space Scoundrel, Pilgrim: Up to 50% discount on all costs except taxes
Neon Street Rat or Ryujin Agent: No longer pay extortionate ‘tourist tax’ in Neon
Bethesda for Starfield and the Creation Kit.
The CK Wiki (and UESP for hosting a clone as it undergoes eternal maintenance.)
Game Maker’s Toolkit for an illuminating YouTube video on how video game economies are balanced.
RenamonNonaka’s Ash and Adoring Fan for keeping me company in a convenient savegame for testing.
Darkfox127 for a great Scripting with VS Code tutorial (external site link.)
Ceres07 for suggesting a clever way to implement the maintenance tracker system.
Spacefarer is a modular, immersive Vanilla+ overhaul that aims to bring out the best of what Starfield already has to offer. Check it out below.
Combat
Deadly Effective - Overhauls numerous combat-related vanilla perks for playstyle diversity (and fun!)
Balanced Ballistics - Lightweight and immersive overhaul to weapon handling for Ballistic and Laser weaponry.
Suit Up [RTFP] - Smart and compatible system to make spacesuit selection more impactful.
Space Economy
Cost of Spacing - Simulates a complex space economy by introducing costs to space travel in a lightweight manner.
Spacefaring Economy [RTFP] - Overhauls prices and rewards with heavy scaling to avoid hyperinflation.
Captain’s Choice - Rebalances ship classes and modules for more thoughtful shipbuilding and combat.
Survival
Real O2 - Makes O2 a real consideration when exploring zero-atmosphere environments.
Peak Performance - A lightweight system to handle Hunger, Thirst, and Rest.
Immersion
No More Magic Boost Packs - Prevents boost jumping unless you are visibly wearing a boost pack.
First Person Messages [RTFP] - Converts game messages to first person.