Revolutionary Starfield Mod Reimagines Humanity's Return to Earth

Highlights

Starfield modder wSkeever created a mod called Human Activity on Earth, which adds humans and human settlements to Earth in the game.

The modder's belief is that depicting Earth as desolate in the game is unrealistic, given the game's tendency to generate human settlements in harsh environments. This mod is designed to work within the game's established rules for point of interest (POI) generation and requires the additional mod, Plugins.txt Enabler, for seamless functionality.

One modder of Starfield has successfully brought humans back to Earth in Bethesda's interstellar RPG. This accomplishment adds to the already impressive collection of Starfield mods created by content creators since the game's highly praised launch.

Despite Bethesda's claims that Starfield would be a paradise for modders, the company has yet to fulfill this promise, as the official modding tools for the game are still awaiting release. Nevertheless, this has not deterred dedicated fans from utilizing basic methods like hex editors to modify the game almost immediately after its release in early September.

The most recent customized content is presented by Nexus Mods user wSkeever. With their mod called Human Activity on Earth, Bethesda's latest title brings humans back to their home planet. This mod, merely 27KB in size, accomplishes its intended purpose by integrating Earth into the pool of planets and celestial bodies that have dynamically generated points of interest (POIs). Consequently, this modification allows for the random appearance of all Starfield POIs featuring humans and human settlements across Earth.

Reflecting on their achievement, wSkeever expressed their initial disagreement with how Bethesda portrayed Earth as a desolate planet in Starfield. They found it unbelievable and immersion-breaking, considering that the game readily creates human settlements in even the most inhospitable regions of The Settled Systems. wSkeever further argued that it would have been more plausible for humans to construct habitable facilities on their home planet rather than venturing into the final frontier. In addition, considering the 130-year timeframe leading up to the events of the game, it seemed highly likely that someone would have returned to Earth.

In response to this perceived inconsistency in the game's lore, wSkeever decided to reintroduce humans to Earth through their newly released mod. This not only enhances the RPG's immersion according to their perspective but also ensures adherence to the game's established rules for Point of Interest (POI) generation. It should be noted that the mod prevents human settlements from spawning near the existing Earth landmarks, of which there are a total of 10.

The modification was created as a "master" file similar to the ESM mods used in Skyrim. However, as Starfield does not officially allow the loading of plugins and master files, the Human Activity on Earth mod necessitates the use of the Plugins.txt Enabler. This additional mod incorporates the necessary functionality into Bethesda's space-themed RPG. Starfield can currently be accessed on PC and Xbox Series X/S platforms.