I loved Fallout 4 but one of my least favorite aspects of it was how it forced me into base building when I pretty much wasn’t interested in that aspect of the game. I get Bethesda was doing something new and wanted to show it off, but it was so annoying being so prevalent in a lot of the main missions of that game. I’m really hoping they don’t make the same mistake with Starfield. I know a lot of people are hyped about the settlement building and the micro managing just as they were in Fallout 4, but personally I’m not super interested in that. I’m more interested in the RPG stuff.
I feel like in Fallout 4, even though you were forced to interact with the settlement system in the early game, helping gain new settlements, add some things to Sanctuary etc., it didn’t feel like I was missing out on things or being punished for largely ignoring the settlement system after those tutorial missions ended. There are things you have to build through the system for major quests later, but it wasn’t much more than ‘place these items and connect them’.
The bigger issue for me was how janky the settlement system was to get the pieces to fit together and look cohesive. Building a perimeter wall around the Red Rocket Truck Stop for example was nearly impossible because the wall pieces wouldn’t align so they would clip, and be shorter or taller than the piece next to it, rather than fitting to the terrain.
If Bethesda fixed the clipping/alignment issues in Startfield it should at least be easier to use so you can finish any mandatory settlement quests faster!