Frequently Asked Questions
This is a living document designed to help players get some answers. Given that STARSIM : BEYOND SPACE is a massive simulation, this document may therefore be incomplete, incorrect or potentially obtuse.
We cannot scour all of the internet for questions from players (believe me, we try), therefore, if you have comments or add'l inquiries, PLEASE feel free to contact us at Quarter Onion Games Discord.
STARSIM : BEYOND SPACE – PLAYER FAQ
What is STARSIM : BEYOND SPACE?
A persistent space simulation for Starfield with physical, menu-less travel. Ships, stations, factions, freight, patrols, security, raids, battles, production and ship replacement continue whether you are there or not.
What does the player actually do?
You play Starfield through the Gate Network. You travel physically between connected orbits, follow routes, explore, encounter traffic and activity already in progress, investigate POIs and anomalies, fight, pirate, smuggle, board and capture ships, or ignore what is happening and keep moving.
What changes when I arrive at Jemison?
You are still in normal Jemison orbit, but it is now a node in the Gate Network. Jemison has three Gate connections: north to The Eye, east to Kurtz and south to Grissom. Fly into a Gate to travel to that connected orbit. No travel menu is required for Gate traversal.
How big is the Gate Network?
Nearly 300 handcrafted orbits connected through physical Gates. The network includes Starfield quest destinations, handcrafted locations, stations, POIs and added STARSIM content.
Why are there so many Gates inside a star system?
The Gates are infrastructure for the simulation, not only a player travel mechanic. Dense networks distribute stations, freight routes, patrols and security activity, create bottlenecks for pirates, and give faction traffic and battles predictable places to emerge. Frontier space generally simplifies toward fewer orbits and more direct system-to-system connections.
Is normal grav jumping removed?
No. In the default exploration mode, discovering any STARSIM network orbit in a star system opens that star system for normal grav jumping. You do not have to discover every orbit first. The map reveal options can also expose more systems immediately.
What is Plot Course?
Select an orbit on the network map and Plot Course calculates the Gate route. The completed route appears as a glowing orange path on the map, while the next Gate is marked directly in space with a quest-style target.
What are the map reveal options?
A one-time permanent choice: Full Fog of War, Settled Systems, or Full Map. Fog of War preserves the original exploration approach. Settled Systems reveals UC and Freestar space, including fast travel. Full Map reveals the entire network.
What does persistent simulation mean?
The player is not the trigger for every event. Freight can move, patrols can run assignments, stations can produce and consume, pirate raids can start, battles can begin or end, and ships can be destroyed and replaced while you are somewhere else.
Are thousands of ships physically loaded at once?
No. Loaded orbits use physical ships and normal AI behavior. Unloaded activity advances as simulation state using elapsed time. STARSIM transitions ships between simulated and physical states when needed.
Why does the economy matter if I am not managing it?
Because the economy creates gameplay. A freighter can dock at a station, load valuable cargo and depart. You can follow it, hail it, persuade or threaten it to jettison cargo, disable and board it, capture the ship, steal the cargo, or destroy it and recover what remains.
What does security scanning change?
Scanning is physical. A security ship must be present, approach within roughly 2 km and scan the target. Security scans NPC traffic too, so a busy orbit can give smugglers more ships to hide among. Docked ships are not scanned by this process.
What happens when faction ships are destroyed?
Losses create replacement requests. Replacement shipbuilding consumes resources and feeds back into the economy and logistics system.
Why was ship combat rebalanced?
Because the simulation puts very different ship roles into the same battles. A, B, C and Capital ships are made more mechanically distinct. Capital ships are massive, slow and heavily armed. Smaller ships can defeat them, but tactics, missiles, range, positioning and cover matter.
What can I discover?
Vanilla handcrafted space content, quest destinations, STARSIM stations, derelicts, claimable derelicts, POIs, anomalies, triggered encounters, containers, asteroid fields, resources, faction traffic, raids and battles. Anomaly scanning awards XP.
Does it work with Shattered Space and Unity?
Yes. Va'ruun'kai links into the Gate Network after The Oracle jumps. The Unity is integrated with the Gate Network when the Armillary is rebuilt.
Does it require a new game?
Yes. Due to an engine initialization issue, install near the bottom of the load order and begin a new game or NG+. Adding STARSIM : BEYOND SPACE to an existing save does not initialize correctly.
How long does first-run initialization take?
The larger simulation comes online in the background and may take up to about two hours. Normal gameplay is not blocked, but the full amount of traffic may not be visible immediately.
Where are updates released?
The free Patch Creation is the fast update channel while larger main-file updates move through Bethesda's publishing process: https://creations.bethesda.net/en/starfield/details/c713b7ae-14d3-44d5-a84e-1e6b9736d3f1/StarSim__Beyond_Space___The_Patch
Where can I get support or give feedback?
Discord: https://discord.gg/quarteronion. Specific reports are most useful when they include platform, load order, location, what happened, expected behavior, whether it is reproducible, and approximate playtime.