(Obviously this is one player's impression, and player opinions differ. That's fine. But I can't be alone in what I say below, right?)
TL;DR: Starfield is solid at giving players agency of what they want to do (unless you piss off SysDef, that's a one-way door). Watchtower, not so much, and it would be cool if that could be improved.
Essentially, for players that don't have a solid ship, aren't ready to fight Watchtower ships or crew, and whose character roleplay notably avoid fleets for safety, Watchtower (on normal) can block literally all in-orbit quest lines, Almost everywhere I go in orbit outside of hub systems, Watchtower appears. Sure, I know that they're going release me in that first encounter, but my character doesn't know that, and evasion is obviously the right choice (and you can evade if you bring up the navmap fast enough - at least on PC). Which means I can't do quests in orbit, because Watchtower encounters are far too invasive, interfering with quests and violating its own lore (see below).
This is a fresh, never-seen-the-Unity character, with six powers (not used all the much yet). The lore says that special individuals are generally only observed at a distance until they interfere with something important, which is decidedly both not what I'm doing, and far from being followed by the actual game encounter frequency. I've been avoiding the Watchtower fleet for a while, starting a while ago (lower level) and before actually having any powers (IIRC). Which means that apparently they went mad to capture me for the simple act of touching the Artifacts, which just doesn't fit what you're told in the game. I've mentioned elsewhere that there should be some mention of a danger of attracting attention, but currently the mod doesn't do that, going for that initial shock-and-awe thing first, all to get stunned in the only encounter where the Watchtower ships actually use stun. It is nonsensical that Watchtower arrives in virtually every orbit I reach. I'm forced to assume that KC didn't realize a quick player can jump away, and was intending to force that first encounter, defying the mod's own lore at the same time. Grr.
The problem here is one other players have posted about: Watchtower ignores its own lore and massively derails the game, arrogating to itself the core mission for everything (because it's impact is fricken' everywhere), and frequently blocking normal play. Now, I like the Watchtower mod quite a bit, but it grabby nature and commandeering of gameplay feels rather intrusive (Watchtower fleets and landing ships are everywhere, consumnately defying the idea of being some secret force).
One solution should be to provide an in-game way for players to know enough to stay under the radar until they're interested in engaging with Watchtower. Ideally there'd even be a way to know their current level of interest. Rather than having to unload the mod entirely, which would be a shame. Like any one of these: (1) Don't use powers where Watchtower might see, (2) Don't use power too often, (3) Don't get caught by polic for killing someone with powers, (4) Don't use powers other people can see until you kill them, i.e. Sense Star Stuff, fine; Supernova in New Atlantis, bad, or (5) Don't use powers in front of Watchtower agents - and your scanner has info on who they are (which might have gameplay around capturing the informant list). Using powers might have some kind of halflife for Watchtower interest. Who knows? But it would allow for more ways to interact with Watchtower, and remove the galaxy-spanning staff of millions of Watchtower minions attacking you in every single damn non-core system orbit, planet, and moon, especially since it spawns so many ship landings that normal ground capture opportunities for other ships nearly disappear.
Another would be to have Watchtower not jump in when the orbit contains only a non-Watchtower quest target. That would solve so much all by itself.
Another would be if the fleet left that system for a while after being evaded (although I suspect said evasion wasn't thought to be possible by KC to begin with).
Another might be if there's an SSNN story running about some crazy person with mysterious powers, Watchtower is going to jump you. After the story passes (a day?) your watch level drops.
My favorite way to avoid getting captured would be to defeat the guys that board your ship, which I've done a couple of times, but apparently killing one invokes the you-are-captured scene. It seems like the fleet should hesitate before using the beam on your ship while their boarding party is inside, you being conscious should surprise them, and kililng them should give you a change to undock and grav jump (until next time). But noooo.... And why is it I can't capture a ship with this weapon on it, hmm?
- - -
P.S. Additional context for my current run which makes Watchtower even more problematic than normal:
(I've played several characters through Watchtower in more normal games than this current one which is...)
My (newest) character is pre-NG (currently level 22), on a Nude Unity run at XP+73% (to allow env damage recovery in Vectera), avoiding all of { healing kits, ammo, vendors other than my outpost landing pad and LIST and Vlad }, which leaves me with blades/cutter/powers/fists/grenades/mines only, healing only by levelling and abusing malnutrition (gets you to about 40% or so), and no mods that make gameplay easier - other than Sit to Add Ship because the vanilla version, while playable, is nuts (why would my own ship undock at the wrong time? stupid...). This amounts to the Survivalist Nude Ninja (Hippie) Swordmage build, and what with a bunch of quests involving running around starkers in vacuum, freezing and sunburning while asphyxiating, it's a rough gig, and pretty much demands getting Rejuvenation early at the cost of a bunch of other things, which guts ship readiness, credits (can't sell anything but ships), and long-range combat skills. My character would definitely want to avoid fighting fleets of unknown ships, and while I can bring up the navmap before Watchtower fleet arrival blocks Fast Travel over 95% of the time, something should have given the player some agency in how to stay out of Watchtower's high interest category. Given how much difficulty I've already given myself as The Plan, if the mod has managed to be more annoying that all the other crazy stuff I'm dealing with, that's saying something.
Clearly, I'm going to be forced to let my character get captured. As the player I know that's fine. But why would my character make that choice? Why would Watchtower even be chasing me so soon. It's just madness. Poor Zenith, I'll at least have to get her stoned out of her mind first or something.
TL;DR: Starfield is solid at giving players agency of what they want to do (unless you piss off SysDef, that's a one-way door). Watchtower, not so much, and it would be cool if that could be improved.
Essentially, for players that don't have a solid ship, aren't ready to fight Watchtower ships or crew, and whose character roleplay notably avoid fleets for safety, Watchtower (on normal) can block literally all in-orbit quest lines, Almost everywhere I go in orbit outside of hub systems, Watchtower appears. Sure, I know that they're going release me in that first encounter, but my character doesn't know that, and evasion is obviously the right choice (and you can evade if you bring up the navmap fast enough - at least on PC). Which means I can't do quests in orbit, because Watchtower encounters are far too invasive, interfering with quests and violating its own lore (see below).
This is a fresh, never-seen-the-Unity character, with six powers (not used all the much yet). The lore says that special individuals are generally only observed at a distance until they interfere with something important, which is decidedly both not what I'm doing, and far from being followed by the actual game encounter frequency. I've been avoiding the Watchtower fleet for a while, starting a while ago (lower level) and before actually having any powers (IIRC). Which means that apparently they went mad to capture me for the simple act of touching the Artifacts, which just doesn't fit what you're told in the game. I've mentioned elsewhere that there should be some mention of a danger of attracting attention, but currently the mod doesn't do that, going for that initial shock-and-awe thing first, all to get stunned in the only encounter where the Watchtower ships actually use stun. It is nonsensical that Watchtower arrives in virtually every orbit I reach. I'm forced to assume that KC didn't realize a quick player can jump away, and was intending to force that first encounter, defying the mod's own lore at the same time. Grr.
The problem here is one other players have posted about: Watchtower ignores its own lore and massively derails the game, arrogating to itself the core mission for everything (because it's impact is fricken' everywhere), and frequently blocking normal play. Now, I like the Watchtower mod quite a bit, but it grabby nature and commandeering of gameplay feels rather intrusive (Watchtower fleets and landing ships are everywhere, consumnately defying the idea of being some secret force).
One solution should be to provide an in-game way for players to know enough to stay under the radar until they're interested in engaging with Watchtower. Ideally there'd even be a way to know their current level of interest. Rather than having to unload the mod entirely, which would be a shame. Like any one of these: (1) Don't use powers where Watchtower might see, (2) Don't use power too often, (3) Don't get caught by polic for killing someone with powers, (4) Don't use powers other people can see until you kill them, i.e. Sense Star Stuff, fine; Supernova in New Atlantis, bad, or (5) Don't use powers in front of Watchtower agents - and your scanner has info on who they are (which might have gameplay around capturing the informant list). Using powers might have some kind of halflife for Watchtower interest. Who knows? But it would allow for more ways to interact with Watchtower, and remove the galaxy-spanning staff of millions of Watchtower minions attacking you in every single damn non-core system orbit, planet, and moon, especially since it spawns so many ship landings that normal ground capture opportunities for other ships nearly disappear.
Another would be to have Watchtower not jump in when the orbit contains only a non-Watchtower quest target. That would solve so much all by itself.
Another would be if the fleet left that system for a while after being evaded (although I suspect said evasion wasn't thought to be possible by KC to begin with).
Another might be if there's an SSNN story running about some crazy person with mysterious powers, Watchtower is going to jump you. After the story passes (a day?) your watch level drops.
My favorite way to avoid getting captured would be to defeat the guys that board your ship, which I've done a couple of times, but apparently killing one invokes the you-are-captured scene. It seems like the fleet should hesitate before using the beam on your ship while their boarding party is inside, you being conscious should surprise them, and kililng them should give you a change to undock and grav jump (until next time). But noooo.... And why is it I can't capture a ship with this weapon on it, hmm?
- - -
P.S. Additional context for my current run which makes Watchtower even more problematic than normal:
(I've played several characters through Watchtower in more normal games than this current one which is...)
My (newest) character is pre-NG (currently level 22), on a Nude Unity run at XP+73% (to allow env damage recovery in Vectera), avoiding all of { healing kits, ammo, vendors other than my outpost landing pad and LIST and Vlad }, which leaves me with blades/cutter/powers/fists/grenades/mines only, healing only by levelling and abusing malnutrition (gets you to about 40% or so), and no mods that make gameplay easier - other than Sit to Add Ship because the vanilla version, while playable, is nuts (why would my own ship undock at the wrong time? stupid...). This amounts to the Survivalist Nude Ninja (Hippie) Swordmage build, and what with a bunch of quests involving running around starkers in vacuum, freezing and sunburning while asphyxiating, it's a rough gig, and pretty much demands getting Rejuvenation early at the cost of a bunch of other things, which guts ship readiness, credits (can't sell anything but ships), and long-range combat skills. My character would definitely want to avoid fighting fleets of unknown ships, and while I can bring up the navmap before Watchtower fleet arrival blocks Fast Travel over 95% of the time, something should have given the player some agency in how to stay out of Watchtower's high interest category. Given how much difficulty I've already given myself as The Plan, if the mod has managed to be more annoying that all the other crazy stuff I'm dealing with, that's saying something.
Clearly, I'm going to be forced to let my character get captured. As the player I know that's fine. But why would my character make that choice? Why would Watchtower even be chasing me so soon. It's just madness. Poor Zenith, I'll at least have to get her stoned out of her mind first or something.
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