After two-and-a-half years, Starfield is getting a game-changing update in the form of its Free Lanes update. Allowing players to travel through its universe at faster-than-light speed with the game’s new Cruise Mode, there will also be a host of new quests that have been purpose built for the new mode of travel.
In the past, we’ve already reported on the sheer workload that went into designing Free Lanes as all existing content had to be reformatted to work with this now open environment. Designed alongside the Terran Armada DLC, lead producer Tim Lamb tells us that brand-new quests will also be found in the galaxy between planets.
“We have interdiction events that can happen and these are things that will pull you out of Cruise Mode.”
Starfield lead producer Tim Lamb
“[That’s a] tricky question,” Lamb explained in a roundtable Q&A. “I kinda wanna say yes, but I don’t wanna oversell it.” While there are some new quests that are purpose built for Free Lanes, there won’t be a host of new additions, although upcoming improvements to mod tools will allow modders to create anything they want throughout the star field.
“With the Starfield Free Lanes update, there’s Anchor Point, which is a new star station—I won’t give you the system, you’ll have to go find it, but the Terran Armada does point you to it so you won’t be struggling to find Anchor Point,” Lamb said.
The producer explained that there are “a number of quests” that you’ll encounter around this area that more freely takes advantage of the features the Free Lanes update brings. “There are some that can spin up while you’re out in the Free Lanes that appear as space encounters.”
Additionally, Bethesda has introduced new anomalies to the Free Lanes which will pull you out of Cruise Mode to engage with enemies, discover shipwrecks with new X-Tech, or even engage with brand-new Terran Armada incursions if you have the DLC.
“We have interdiction events that can happen and these are things that will pull you out of Cruise Mode,” Lamb said. “So, if you’re in the pilot seat, you’ll hear an alarm go off, it’ll be pretty clear that the ship is stopping because you’re under attack, you’ll hear that same sort of Klaxon audio if you’re walking around so you know that you have to get back. But there are some events that can pull you out of Cruise Mode”.
As we reported earlier, Terran Armada and Free Lanes were both designed in tandem, so the new DLC is more suited to the free universe than the bulk of Starfield’s launch content. As we mentioned earlier in the article, if you have the new DLC, you’ll be able to interact with new incursions which lock you into a system, unable to escape, as you deal with a fleet of Terran fighters.
A lot of work has been done over the last year to prepare Free Lanes, but the work is not done. Lamb has confirmed that years of additional support for Starfield is currently in the works, although they have not confirmed what that content will add to the game.
