Had this written up months ago, they've announced some of them since then but anyway, some changes/additions I would like to see to Starfield.
Radio Stations - Would love for some sort of news/music radio station whilst exploring, lore-wise I know there's no FTL communications but they could make it work even within the canon, at minimum they could at least have an SSNN radio station in each major city (New Atlantis, Akila, Neon) and other locations with sizeable human populations. The stations could speak about general news but also recent developments as you progress through quests such as "local hero defeats the Crimson Raiders" news bulletins. Throw in some commercial breaks and songs to make it feel more real.
Limited implementation of this on planets outside of the major ones and on your ship could simply be a pre-recorded collection of songs that you can add to your ship and into your suit whilst exploring random planets. It could be further integrated into the gameplay such as when you enter a cave system, the connection would start cracking up, adding to the feeling of being alone. They could even add an entire questline where you're adding radio stations across the Settled Systems on behalf of the SSNN, setting up radio relay antenna's in other galaxies to spread their reach.
Expand it further by not only having SSNN but also faction specific stations, a radio station for the Freestar Collective for example could focus on country/western type music, likewise United Colonies and Crimson Raider could have their own subgenre of focus. Other radio stations could be "Classic Old Earth" "Space Truckers" etc. You could add quite a few like in Fallout.
Oh and have SSNN interviewing crackpots talking about seeing aliens, Lol.
Loading - It's a minor issue for me since it's fast loading and there are ways to decrease the amount of loading screens you encounter but it could be improved quite a bit. It's a bit odd to me that New Atlantis is broken into two parts via loading but it is technically one loaded city, of course it's a design choice to only reach the top via train but it adds an unnecessary loading screen which makes people think it needs one when it actually doesn't. I also don't think that once inside a city there should be loading screens for entering shops, a few shops you can just walk straight into but a few for some reason have loading. Neon as well is technically one loaded city (you can jet boost up to the top with no issue/loading) but because the normal method is only via elevator or doors it adds a loading screen.
Don't mind loading screens when landing on planets or jumping from planet to planet or system to system Tbh. They could disguise the loading in the same way which games disguise loading through taking a long elevator in game but the loading is so fast that I feel that might feel longer, Lol, Idk but they could do some sort of in-game wormhole, looking at the folding space animation in-game would be cool. It's more tolerable when you realise that you can simply use the scanner for most quick jumps instead of opening the menu. I almost always use the scanner now to aim and fast travel and it feels a lot smoother but I had to figure it out through the internet, Lol.
Like I said though, the loading in New Atlantis and Neon seem to be design rather than technical though as you can actually boost your way to the tops/bottoms without no loading at all and little technical issue, aside from in New Atlantis if you jump from the top to bottom the humans will pause for about a second or two, Lol. The funny thing is as well, it actually took me a while to realise that Mast/Commercial/Residential were all one district, Lmao.
They need to remove the shop loading screens and add stuff to disguise the rest, players will be easily fooled as every game uses tricks to disguise their loading and people are fooled into believing there's no loading but Bethesda didn't do any of that disguise stuff. Even the docking isn't a loading screen but it somehow looks like on, it's actually a in-game/real time transition as I saw someone post on Reddit, Lol. There are seemingly two types, one which is fade to black like the player being teleported, using elevators, etc. The other is full on loading with pictures displayed like transitioning between systems.
Mini Map - They're adding this so no point talking much about it. I didn't have much issue finding stuff after the first few runs through a city but I understand the criticism.
Planet Navigation - For all the complaints about boundaries pre-launch, I never once reached a boundary, however that leads to a different issue, the maps are if anything too big for on foot only. It's sometimes tedious to run around a planet searching for a specific scan or reaching a certain destination, especially in the starter stages of incumbency.
My suggestion is to add some sort of nimble and small vehicle, such as a moon buggy or small bike, it could even be an upgradeable component/purchasable component to the ship at later levels. I also think adding some sort of drone vehicle could be cool too, sit at your ship and pull out the drone to scan the planet or scout around it.
Galaxy Navigation - Copy The Elder Scrolls Online, I open a side panel of all the locations in the map in alphabetical order which allows me to find a location easily and travel to it quickly, instead of one by one hovering over each system to look at the name and find a specific one. Allow you to favourite certain systems and planets. Opening a system in the panel will then open a list of planets in that system in alphabetical order. There should also be an "Outpost" section which shows you a handy list of every planet you have an outpost on, upon clicking it should show you what resource they're producing.
Systems - This isn't a complaint of the systems themselves and not something I struggled much with but the game definitely needs more and better tutorials about the games systems. It's almost like Bethesda assumed everyone playing Starfield also worked on the game, Lol. It feels good when you know how but people shouldn't have to look up so much stuff, such as how the skills work for companions, how outpost building works, how ship building works, etc. Although having said that, I really didn't need tutorials for most of the stuff but it's a suggestion on behalf of others.
Misc - Auto loot ammo and credits from dead bodies as a skill unlock. Alien taming system, let us ride some aliens, Lol. Better XP rewards in later levels. Add more ship parts (I fucking loved ship building), add more customisation, more colours, add more of everything! Remove the level cap for ship parts and just make them more expensive. Let me save ship designs in progress rather than having to finish it there and then. More build limit to outposts. More unique space encounters (honestly loved exploring derelict ships).
Let us mine asteroids with lasers. Let some ships chase us even if we jump system. Add more stuff to do in the ship itself, I don't actually know what but let me do some cool stuff with my crew, I want more fun stuff in my ship, some leisure activities or even something dumb like a disco room, Lmao. A library for me to store my books. Allow the changing of traits. More romance options and more companions, I can't remember their name but there was a couple who I really wanted as a companion, Lol.
More unique POIs on non-golden path planets is needed and more unique layouts as a lot of bases on the same layout. Less outposts with factions and more with wild and dangerous alien creatures, had a few of those and they made for such good atmosphere moments. Make the rewards for POIs better depending on difficulty of POI. Add more derelict stations or stations in general.
