Starfield gets big bug fix and improvements patch to accompany Shattered Space DLC

Performance! Stability! Other stuff!

Image credit: Bethesda

Starfield’s first major story expansion, Shattered Space, is now here, opening up a new, aggressively purple corner of the galaxy for players to explore – and its arrival has been marked with the launch of a big new patch bringing a sweep of fixes to the base game.

Patch-wise, update 1.14.70 is fairly lacking in eye-catching headline additions, although it does promise the likes of performance and stability improvements (always welcome), game-wide lighting changes and enhancements,visual updates for weapon models, improved player head tracking when exiting dialogue, and more. That’s on top of a chunky list of more specific fixes throughout the game, as detailed in Bethesda’s patch notes – and, for those who want to preserve their clicking fingers, at the bottom of this story.

One thing not addressed in Bethesda’s patch notes is the Lookup Failed error message that’s been dogging Starfield on and off since launch, and which has seen a spike in reports (presumably thanks to the sudden influx of long-absent players) following the release of Shattered Space. This seemingly shader-related issue manifests on the star map, replacing planetary textures with an error message (“Default Planet Material. The swap hasn’t occurred you shouldn’t be seeing this”) in a delightfully jaunty typeface.

Starfield: Shattered Space – Official Launch Trailer

Starfield: Shattered Space launch trailer.Watch on YouTube

If you’re running into this, most players are reporting it’s easily fixed by restarting the game or clearing Starfield’s shader cache on PC, but that doesn’t appear to do the trick for everyone, so you might need to hang tight in that case.

Players that do manage to access Starfield’s Shattered Space expansion hitch-free can explore House Va’ruun’s homeward of Va’ruun’kai, where Bethesda appears to very much be leaning into pure space horror – as Eurogamer’s Lottie Lynn discovered back in August. If it’s Starfield’s 1.14.70 patch notes you’re after though, you’ll find them below:

FEATURES:

Creation Kit: The automated process used to create models for Distant LOD is now available

GENERAL:

General performance and stability improvements
Resolved an issue that limited the number of loaded creations to 255
Lighting changes and enhancements have been made throughout the game
Made several visual improvements and bug fixes for weapon models
Improved player headtracking when exiting dialogue
The player’s camera should no longer be jostled when jumping

GAMEPLAY:

The Annihilator Particle Beam damage-over-time effect no longer affects Companions
Robots and Turrets will now take damage from EM weapons
Crafting: Addressed an issue with The Boom Pop! Dynamite recipe
Elite Crew: Autumn Macmillan no longer repeats herself when asking about her sister
Addressed an issue with Crowd behavior near The Well elevator in the New Atlantis Spaceport when combat is initiated

QUESTS:

Brownout: Addressed an issue with progression after speaking with Joyce Osaka in New Homestead
Due In Full: Addressed a rare issue with The Delinquent Space Ship appearing
Eye Witness: Player can no longer enter the destroyed ship on the spaceport landing pad
Hostile Intelligence: Addressed an issue that could cause the door to the Security Office to be inaccessible if they fast travel away and wait during this quest objective
In Memoriam: Addressed an issue that could prevent progression during the “Speak with Sarah” objective that takes place near the waterfall
In Memoriam: Fixed an issue that could prevent the objective “Proceed to Cassiopeia I” from completing if the planet had been visited previously
Leader of the Pack: Addressed an issue that could prevent the Ashta Alpha from being aggressive
Legacy’s End: Addressed an issue that could prevent interaction with Delgado if siding with SysDef
Legacy’s End: Released Crimson Fleet prisoners will no longer target Ikande after obtaining weapons
Managing Assets: Addressed a rare issue that could prevent Tomo from appearing at Paradiso
One Giant Leap: Fixed an issue that could cause incorrect music to play during the Unity Scene
One Giant Leap: Addressed an issue with Audio that could occur during the credits
One Small Step: Resolved a rare camera issue that could occur if the first Crimson Fleet ship in the tutorial is boarded
Revelation: Addressed an issue with Quest Target consistency in the final encounter
Rook Meets King: Dmitri Moldavski will now respond as intended if Austin Rake is killed during the encounter
Rook Meets King: Addressed an issue where one of the Ragana crew was using the incorrect weapon animations
Rough Landings: Fixed a rare issue with Milena Axelrod’s ship to appearing
The Best There Is: Addressed an issue that could prevent Huan from moving to the Jade Swan after the first meeting
The Best There Is: The Jade Swan is now accessible if the player still has the “Search and Seizure” quest active
The Best There Is: Addressed an issue that could make the UC Vigilance difficult to locate because it was very far away
The Showdown: Resolved an issue that could cause the door to the Strikers Hangout to remain locked

LOCATIONS:

Akila: Updated some textures in the Slums
Akila: Resolved a collision issue with bunk beds
Deserted Biotics Lab: Fixed missing panels on the exterior floor
Lair of the Mantis: Resolved a minor texture issue that could appear on some panels
Londinion Steam Tunnels: Fixed collision in an area that could allow players to get out of bounds
Maheo I: Closed an open gap on the roof of Sonny Di Falco’s Mansion
Neon: Nyx’s Apartment: Fixed an issue with collision in the area
Neon: Addressed a collision issue with grated panels in Ebbside
New Atlantis: Addressed small areas where water in the lake North of New Atlantis could appear to intersect terrain
Stroud-Eklund Staryard: Addressed collision in an area
The Clinic: Addressed a visual issue that could appear in Dr. Cassidy’s office
The Red Mile: Addressed a collision issue under the platforms in the final area

SHIPS:

Ship Builder: A new option has been added to the game settings to allow for toggling Flip Merge behavior use
Ship Builder: Fixed an audio issue that could occur when deleting a hab
Ship Builder: Fixed a crash that could occur when modifying a ship that contained a live mine
Addressed an issue that could allow non-sellable ships to be sold to vendors

VEHICLES:

Addressed an issue with Set Active in the Vehicle menu when using a gamepad
Fixed an issue with the position of Wheel VFX
Addressed an issue with opening the Favorites menu while entering the vehicle
Name plates and health bars will now display consistently while in a vehicle
Settings for look sensitivity will now affect the vehicle camera
Kaiser and Vasco will no longer both sit in the Rev-8 when following the player
The vehicle icon will no longer display in interior maps
The vehicle lights will no longer be automatically on when loading a save
The fast travel distance for the vehicle is now in-line with other POIs and landed ships

UI:

Xbox Display Settings: Resolved an issue where setting the frame rate target to 60 would automatically revert the priority back to performance
Removed a debug string that would display when uploading saves on Xbox to Customer Service
Updated the Skills menu to resolve an issue in Large Font Mode for certain languages
Resources with long names are now truncated for Large Font Mode when scanning
Resolved an issue with Large Font Mode in the Barter Menu when selling higher quantities of items
Temporary text will no longer display if you quickly select the “Continue” option from the Main Menu
Ship registration costs will now display the accurate amount both on vendors and the hangar menu
Addressed Mass display when selling items from ship cargo
Skill Challenge pop-ups will now have truncated text instead of shrunken text where applicable
Resolved an issue with gravity wells appearing on the Missions Menu when opening it from the Starmap
Location names and quest objectives will now truncate properly on the planet map
Creations store title displays fully in all languages
A message prompt will appear when trying to load a save where a Creation is unavailable on the current platform
Weapons will default to their original skin in menus if a weapon skin creation is disabled
Addressed an issue with sorting for Best Results in Creations menu
Addressed an incorrect notification of insufficient credits when an exceptionally large number of credits are available
Ammo counts should now display correctly for values over 100,000
The damage popup can now display numbers larger than 4 digits
Addressed an issue caused by aiming down sights while pickpocketing a character
Crew menu will now correctly display when someone is assigned to the player’s home
The repair button is no longer visible in the hangar inspect menu
Resolved an issue with waiting that could briefly cause unintended text to appear
Healing items now preview the amount of health restored
Storage containers will now have their weight updated when all items are cleared from them
The ship marker in the scanner will display at the correct location when docked at a space station
Crafting completion confirmation prompt will now be spaced correctly for longer titles
Tunneling creatures will no longer show their nameplates or quest targets when tunneling
Scanner Anomalies can now be a landing target while piloting a ship in orbit

AUDIO:

Increased center channel audio usage for surround sound setups
Addressed an issue that could cause power allocation audio to play repeatedly while the engine system is damaged with one power allocated
Ecliptic Mercenary voices now use the same filtering in all languages