Starfield will let me pursue my space trucking dreams, but there's a massive caveat

As an enthusiast of both science fiction and driving long distances through empty spaces, I've been hoping that Starfield would let me achieve my dreams of becoming a space trucker. The recent Starfield dev Q&A brought equal parts good and bad news on that front.

As with any Bethesda game, maintaining a headcanon is essential to how you tackle roleplaying, and the devs know that. "My latest character is a working shlub named Mitch Dombrowski," lead designer Emil Pagliarulo said. "He's a husky, good-natured space trucker, and while he'll do whatever he needs to defend himself, he'll never shoot first. He's like Han Solo's sweeter older brother. And yes, there are Traits and Backgrounds that support that kind of thing."

So yes, the game's system will have some kind of support if you want to play as a sort of regular Joe space trucker. We've previously seen that the Starfield backgrounds include an option called "long hauler," though exactly what gameplay benefit that carries has not been revealed.

But here's the disappointing part for budding space truckers: "The economy is fixed, but prices of bought and sold goods can change based on the Skills you choose," Pagliarulo said. A fixed economy effectively means that the buying and selling price of items does not change between different locations or over time. It sounds like, say, medical supplies will sell for the same price on a war-torn battlefront that they would at a well-stocked population center.

That's how Bethesda games have always worked in the past, so this isn't really a surprise - unless, of course, you're one of those sickos (like me) who was hoping that Starfield would really cater to the space trucking fantasy. Games like Elite Dangerous or Rebel Galaxy offer constantly changing economies where you can buy goods cheaply at one location and offload them on another planet where they're in high demand, and that demand will shift over time partly in response to your actions.

But hey, it's okay, Bethesda doesn't have to cater to the exact, extremely niche way I want to play Starfield. That's what mods are for.

The recent Q&A also had good and bad news for pacifist players, as well as info on the game's jail system and its more than 20 recruitable named companions.