A gamer has used Kerbal Space Program’s physics engine to show that the first ship Starfield players get wouldn’t actually function as designed.
After a long, long wait, Starfield is finally launching in a matter of weeks.
Ahead of launch, fans are already thinking about how they want to explore the game’s vast universe and the ships they will use to explore it.
One fan has even recreated Frontiers, the first ship Spacefarers will acquire, in the space flight simulation game Kerbal Space Program – and the results are hilarious.
Starfield’s Frontier ship is a cool but incredibly impractical design
YouTuber SWDennis tested out Frontier in KSP in a video that essentially amounts to four minutes of the ship attempting to fly and crashing in various settings.
The issues with the ship come down to design flaws rather than the user simply failing to keep it stable. The creator, who goes by Space_Scumbag on Reddit, explained in the comments why Frontier can’t really fly, also joking that it explains the lack of seamless planetary landings in Starfield.
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As they explain, the main thrusters don’t align with the center of mass, causing the ship to pitch down and crash.
On top of that, the exhaust pipes for a ship like this would have to be “like 20m long plasma blades cutting everything under it to shreds,” meaning the design would cause lots of destruction every time it took off or landed.
While it may work in the space travel fantasy that is Starfield, the Frontier would have no realistic chance of actually making it into space and safely getting its passengers from planet to planet. As SWDennis says, design is “nonsense” and while it looks good, “[the ship] would instantly spin and crash.”
There is some good news here for players, though. Given Frontier’s design defying the laws of aerodynamics and Starfield’s ship customization options, it looks like players will be able to explore the galaxy in the space-faring vessels of their dreams without having to worry too much about how the actual physics of such a thing would work.
