My Fallout 76 Concerns

Unlike the majority of Fallout fans, I've always liked the idea of a Fallout MMO. As I wander alone through the wasteland I've always wondered what it would feel like to have other real people running around, people that may offer me trading possibilities, or others who pose a risk to my life, adding an extra sense of fear to my explorations. My relentless hoarding tendencies would actually be useful in an MMO because my piles of scrap would be worth something to other players and wouldn't sit unused forever. My thirst for a challenging fight could be met by other players instead of having to rely on boring AI.

The other group of Fallout fans who don't like the idea of an online Fallout game are still willing to give it a chance but they care more about the story and they demand that the PvP aspect of the game isn't a burden on them making progress through the quest lines. The crucial problem I see with the approach that Fallout 76 is taking is that they aren't really fulfilling the desires of the survivalist fans like more or the other group who wants a more traditional Fallout experience, they're trying to find a middle ground but I fear it will only cause great dissatisfaction among a wide range of gamers.

For example they have stated there are no normal human NPC's, only robots if I recall correctly. Most or all quests will be given by robots and the main quest will be exploration based, narrated through recordings and environmental story telling. They were clearly trying to make a social online game where other players take the place of NPC's and we're able to role-play as what ever we want. So the people wanting a deep story are not going to be satisfied and will probably stop playing after a relatively short period of time once they discover it's the type of story they're used to from a Fallout game.

The people who do enjoy the survival aspects and role-playing aspects of the game will also be rather disappointed when they learn that there are many things preventing them from role playing as an evil character and that dying has no real consequences besides losing your scrap items, you keep everything else like your guns and armor. So even if you wanted to be an evil raider who makes a living off looting others, it's not really worth it. But lets say you did it anyway, by shooting someone you issue a PvP challenge, if they reject it and you kill them anyway you become a wanted murderer.

Ok maybe that makes some sense... but then you find out that being wanted means every other player can see exactly where you are on the map and they get a bounty for killing you which comes out of your own caps. So in essence they made an online survival game set in a harsh wasteland which is known to be full of raiders, but there's no real PvP aspect to the game because the penalties for killing other players is so extreme. Basically what it means is that walking around the wasteland I'll have no real fear of being killed by other players, and even if I was I wouldn't lose anything important.

A much better approach, and I suspect this is what they will do in the future, is to have "safe zones" which are protected by robot guards or what ever and then everywhere else on the map is considered "wilderness" where PvP fights can take place without requiring consent from the person you are trying to kill. Perhaps the bounty system could still work but it would only make sense if someone witnessed you kill another player without reason, and it certainly shouldn't make you a visible target that everyone can magically see so they can all troll you for playing a survival game in a perfectly legitimate way.

Basically my main concern is that while trying to achieve a balance between what people want, they wont really meet the expectations of anyone. I certainly don't intend to play Fallout 76 for the story-line because I don't expect it to have very much depth, but if there's also no depth to the PvP or survival aspects of the game then I've lost my other motivation to play the game for long periods of time. I don't expect many people to agree with my point of view but I just don't see how they can achieve the balance they're going for without degrading the aspects of the game which make it enjoyable.

Nice post, but I have to disagree.

I am extremely disappointed that they are going down the multiplayer route with this next game. I won't be buying it as I have done with every other Fallout game so far.

You see, it takes me about 12 months to finish a game each time, as I like to take full advantage of exploring the full map in my own time, gaining XP to upgrade my skills, and creating my story, taking time to make decisions that have real impact and enjoying the scenery and effort that obviously goes into Bethesda's best game series.

I have only just finished Fallout 4 after playing through for the third time, and I have taken a different journey and sided with different factions each time - that is what I've always loved about Fallout and I am upset that they have taken this route with the new game.

I am a sucker for the story (as I believe all true Fallout fans are!) and I am bored with the multiplayer direction every other game seems to be going in these days. The single player open world story driven game where your choices actually matter and influence outcomes was exactly what always set Fallout apart.

The release date for this new game is a sad sad day for Fallout if it is truly as bad as people are saying. Hopefully they come to their senses after it gets slated and return to what makes this game magic for the next release.

Thanks

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

Personally I think they should strike a balance between PvP and PvE, maybe even have dedicated servers/rooms for either. Safe zones could work I guess I just imagine it'll be hard to implement.

I'd honestly like to see communities forged from the chaotic nature of massive multiplayer survival games, trolls and all. Let the communities evolve to be the worst or best they can be, pointless throttling such things because parts of the community can't hack it or whatever... It's survival.

I dunno, I have mixed feelings about this game and it's not due to it being multiplayer, it's how it'll be designed. I'm an old school dweller, FO2 was my favourite and NV blew my mind, genuinely hoping for a more reinforced lore in this game... Meeting Marcus on New Vegas I could've laughed, cried and jumped up and down like a hyperactive kangaroo and probably did, but I digress.

A multiplayer fallout was always the dream I just hope it doesn't go the route of elder scrolls online. Genuinely hope I'm surprised by this game. I hope they get it right.

I have played every single Fallout game since the father of Fallouts - Wasteland
This one- absolutely not.
No Bethesda game series was ever meant for multi-player. Ever.
The time they spent should have been dedicated to Starfield

New Vegas or bust

But yes, I to have grave concerns...
I felt fallout 4 already went in the wrong direction.

Oblivion was the best single-player RPG ever.
Fallout 3 was good
Fallout NV was mind-blowing.

I’ve always wanted a fallout or elderscrolls where you can co-op.
If I wanna be taken hostage I play DayZ.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

When I watched the announcement that Fallout 76 was going to be a MMO, I was not happy.

This is the 2nd time Bethesda has taken a game series that I fell in love with, and tried to make it a online game. The first being The Elder Scrolls of course.

When I first saw the teaser, I thought: "Oh, cool. So they are putting out another Fallout, like they did with New Vegas, which turned out to be pretty darn good! Can't wait!"

Then the announcement that it was going to be a MMO, where you are forced pretty much to deal with other people.

No thanks. I already do that with Eve Online. Several other people that I know who also love Fallout felt the same way.

I wouldn't mind stuff like this so much, except that it seems that while the rest of us that tend to like solo play more, end up waiting a very long time or taking a back seat for other stuff to come out.

Skyrim came bout back in 2011.......and it's going to be how long before we see another PVE Elder Scrolls game?

Fallout 4 came out in 2015, so it's only been about 3 years, but to have your hopes raised thinking they were about to put out a "in between" game, like they did with New Vegas, only to find out it's going to be a MMO that's pretty much PvP paradise.......blah.

Still no announcement about the space based game they have been working on as far as possible release goes: 2019? 2020?.....2021???

I'm a firm believer in the old saying of: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." and that's exactly what Bethesda has done. Most stuff they make ends up being gold. In a world where you already have a lot of people who just want to log on and kill each other, Bethesda catered to those who would rather PvE, with beautiful environments, rich story lines and indepth NPC characters.

Now it seems they are trying too hard to cash in on the MMO world for the sake of $$$, and to hell with their loyal fan base of solo players.

I think I will give it a go when its out. It sounds like it will be fun and should have a in-depth storyline.
Could it be just loads of trash players nuking you as you try to do the quests, yes...….
Will this cause rage quitting the game most defiantly...….
Is this immersive no....
Will I nuke my friends settlements just for fun...….yes...
Could they have just done what they did with Skyrim and Elders Scroll online yes but who knows.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

Pretty much agree with everything.. Seems this is going to be half-baked, good for nothing cashgrab.

As for the "safe-zones" and "wilderness" - there is a pretty good system that works in EVE, as eriktheawful will attest. There's HighSec, LowSec and NullSec. I don't have much time to explain, but just look it up.

a reply to: NibiruWarrior

I can see all sides but have to agree with you, the fallout game's were always single player story and exploration based game's where you were basically alone perhaps with a trusty dog or other companion's against the world and would find quests as you made your way through the game, the AI sucked let's be fair to be the ideal model we always wanted would have required some serious AI coding and an upgrade to the game engine to allow a persistent living and breathing world which is what we really wanted.

I shall Not be buying Fallout 76 either, maybe if it is really cheap or something and then only out of curiosity but I have no intention of buying it and don't really want it.

To try to assuage our fears that they are going down the MMO route Bethesda did release a teaser trailor of the skyrim follow up and let's be fair franchise name aside all the Bethesda fallout games have really been is Morrowind with gun's.

No what I personally want is a bigger world single player game with improved AI, improved Graphics especially those crap lod's they have - though I have heard a rumor that there is a working version of Dyndolod that can generate fallout 4 lod's which if true will be a massive improvement over Bethesda's standard lod format - and a proper persistent living and breathing world with player independent AI driven faction interactions and REAL structured and more challenging and rewarding quests rather than go and save this settlement, kill those mole rats and build a few shack's over there then run around doing yet more errands for your supposed second in command, a proper NV style Karma system would be great too.

Fallout 4 has a massive world space far larger than the tiny map you get to play on but once you toggle world borders most of that is empty and of course not nav meshed, like always before release Bethesda scrubbed some of the game's most promising features like the underwater vault quest with it's giant squid boss which would have been reminiscent of a battle with Cthulhu (And was probably inspired by the character) and underwater combat not to mention the many other scrubbed quests on the land.

So after NV fallout 4 was an almost complete disappointment and the idea of a fallout 4 multiplayer in the form of 76 is quite simply not appetizing at all to long term fallout fan's whom savor the single player format of the game's but we do have some light on the horizon, it may be years away and most probably is but some modders are of course remaking Obsidians delightful fallout new vegas in the fallout 4 engine and not only that they are also restoring cut content from that unfinished masterpiece of a game.

And one way of looking at it is that there was always going to be a multiplayer fallout game no matter which studio had the franchise, so let's hope it does not make all the following fallout development into simply addon DLC's for 76 which is I have to say far more than likely since it will despite our reservation's very likely to be the biggest hit that Bethesda have ever produced and a big money spinner for the company, in fact given that fallout 4 was there first hit in Japan and also made inroads into other Asian markets it is definitely going to be.

Hopefully though they won't abandon the single player brand of fallout 4.

a reply to: LABTECH767

Hopefully though they won't abandon the single player brand of fallout 4.

nah,

Elder scrolls 6 and Star Field are single player games


Bethesda chiefs have said they are still very focused on making single player games like they have in past,


Just having an addition or attempting online is something they have to try business wise but I think the fan base will guide Bethesda if they choose to make more online games.

So I guess It depends on how well 76 does, however I feel its not a worry gamers who love Bethesda games should have as the next 2 major titles starfield and elder scrolls are single player games

a reply to: eriktheawful

Morrowind was the game that got me away from RTS and into RPG, I still rate it as the best Bethesda game in the TES franchise though I never played the older one's so can not compare, I also remember how many of us complained about oblivion's short falling's compared to the older game, morrowind had more quests, more places to explore and felt far larger especially since it was a huge world and it was so easy to mod your own island's into it but of course it suffered from awful graphics, no actual physic's, no AI to speak of and lod's were yet to be invented as far as that game was concerned.

I am still waiting for them to marry rage with fallout though so we once again have derivable vehicles to fulfill our mad max desires, give those red rocket workshop's and hot rod paint's something proper to do and map's that don't freeze every two second's to load assets and then fail to load them so you fall through the terrain anyway or find your destination does not get there for half an hour after you reach it while the rendering catches up.

a reply to: InhaleExhale

I am intrigued by star field, I love the idea of a fallout type game with mobile star ship's instead of static vault's and many worlds to explore, I wonder if it could become the NEW - Elite in time if they do it right.

Fallout 76 a survival game?
First time i heard that.

So you have to search for water, food, start fires, craft tools and build shelters from materials nature gives you, have to take care of the weather, temperature, what you eat, deseases and stuff like that? Could you just go to a hidden spot in the wild, living from hunting and gathering, without the need to interact with other people? Because that would be survival.

But i remember Fallout as something different. One reason i played only one part of Fallout(guess it was 4) for only a few hours. Because i almost only want to play survival games meanwhile. And not surviving any enemies games anymore. Tired from decades of just killing pixels.

I am just asking because if Fallout76 will become a survival game, i maybe would give it a try on a Steam sale as GOTY in a couple of years, for 15 or 20 euros. But couldn´t really find anything that would make me believe that it will become a survival game. It say´s sometimes something about surviving but not survival, on their homepage. For me that is a difference, surviving enemies in the first line or playing a survival game.

And i guess it`s with all the other MMO games, play on your own server with only your friends if possible, or you will only have trouble with terror kids, hackers, cheaters, griefers, exploiters and chinese gangs which are online 24/7 because they even play in shifts, to destroy other peoples fun and everything else that comes in their way. They all just want one thing. Kill and destroy everything they see, even if it doesn´t make any sense. Don´t know if these people feel good then, feel like the greatest or whatever.

For such a stuff i am too old meanwhile. my nerves and time is too valuable to waste it with something like this.
Multiplayer games on a closed, password protected server with only friends and people you can trust, that´s fine!

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

My only concern is the creation club. I haven't been happy with Bethesda ever since the paid mod fiasco, and I'm worried this game will only allow mods via creation club. As long as we can still attain our mods via Nexus or other means, then I'll be happy. If we're only allowed creation club, then I'll just save my money.

Yes it does seem remotely interesting from this recent update (Saturday):

Link

However, and this is a big HOWEVER, I will still be waiting to see how large the story is from other people's views and reviews of the game, after it comes out, and will make a decision based off that on whether to buy it or not.

I'll most likely activate the Pacifist option which ignores other players, and get on with the story like in the other games, if it allows that. We shall have to see.

I very much doubt that the story will be as good as in NV or 4 anyway though, simply because they just haven't been making it long enough for it to have that truly astounding level of enrichment usually found between the games in the series.

a reply to: DerBeobachter

If you already have fallout 4 and don't mind learning a little about installing mod's for it try fallout 4 frost survival simulator.
www.nexusmods.com...
It sound's far more like what you want to play than the base game is but of course there are still enemy's in it.

a reply to: LABTECH767
Oh, thx for that tip!

But i don´t own it. I tried it at a time when i was first "lending" me a version of a game i maybe would buy, to check first if it isn´t wasted money for me. And i was not a game for me... xD

So i "gave back the lended version to the web".

But i will watch some videos now of that survival simulator. Because i am interested in everything that is survival like i understand survival!


Edit: Tried the first one i found, 23 minutes(fast forwarded, for sure xD) of people hitting each others head with wood and stuff...
Link Second part is the same, some less killings because he met less people.

Still a game that is nothing for me, even with that mod. I murdered too much pixels in my life, guess i am going to digital hell because of that. And that endless kill and getting killed madness needs to stop, otherwise didgtal "god" even creates a new, even more hellish digital hell for me...

a reply to: DerBeobachter

I think that is just the territory with PC game's these day's, survival usually mean's survival horror.
Usually they throw in monsters of some kind, cannibal's, zombies or some other thing you have to bludgeon or bash into oblivion.
But you make a very good point, kid's are playing these thing's and how does that really affect there mind's over time.

a reply to: RAY1990

Personally I think they should strike a balance between PvP and PvE, maybe even have dedicated servers/rooms for either.

They have this "really neat" feature where you never see a server list so I don't think we will be able to choose which server we join.

a reply to: InhaleExhale

Elder scrolls 6 and Star Field are single player games

And we'll get a single player Fallout 6 eventually. I'm just happy to see another Fallout game so soon because we would have been waiting several more years for Fallout 6 otherwise. I don't mind them experimenting with online games, especially if it helps fill the gap until their next single player game.