Fallout 76 Addendum

After several rounds of technicians coming to our place, I determined that much of the problem with connecting was due to shoddy internet. With that repaired, I have been able to put the game through its paces more easily. There are still disconnections, but they are much more infrequent. Given that, here are a bunch of random thoughts from my playtime, including advice for new players.

• Think of the difficulty of things radiating out in concentric circles from Vault 76. I bee-lined the main quest and so ended up way out of my depth pretty early on. It really does pay to exhaust the locations in one area before you move on.
• The lighting and environmental effects are so good.
• I don't like that they attached crafting to perks. While you can swap out your perk cards easily, it becomes annoying to create builds for crafting and builds for adventuring. I think crafting should have been moved to its own leveling up tree. 
• I'm sure implementation of this would be a pain, but they need an auction house. I was wrong previously about selling things. You can set your own price, it just seems like people are generally setting things too high. I did encounter a nice player who set all their plans to 10 caps. An auction house would at least provide a real economy to interact with and competition to drive down prices.
• The in-game vendors are just insane with their prices. I have earned maybe 3000 caps total and am nearly at level 40. Plans for things can run to 875 caps. Ridiculous.
• People have criticized the lack of NPCs, but I like that aspect. It feels like a detective story, piecing together what happened to people after the war. This year will bring NPCs in the Wastelanders update, but I fail to see what's so exciting. I want more quests.
• Dump everything that you aren't using into your stash, scrap everything you can. Even ammo has weight, so go through your inventory and slim way down. I was always near my weight limit before I committed to carrying the basics - two or three weapons, armor, necessary ammo, and a fair amount of food and water. The less equipment you have the more room for junk, and you need a lot of junk.
• Let people travel to other player camps for free. Sure it creates new fast travel points, but it would encourage players to use the whole map for their camps instead of clustering around familiar areas.
• Let players join Events for free. Right now it costs caps to join based on fast travel distance (at least from what I can tell). You want to do everything to get players playing together.
• The amount of content is pretty amazing. There are creatures I have yet to encounter. I haven't even tried to make my own suit of power armor. I've never been in a nuke zone. There are systems I haven't interacted with, like sharing perk cards.
• You really have to adjust your arsenal to fit your enemies. They all have different attack styles and weaknesses. Don't think that because something is your level or even below that you can solo it. Boss-type creatures will largely wreck you. Mirelurk kings, for example. Watch out for groups of enemies, even low-level ones. 
• This game's equivalent of dragons are called Scorchbeasts. They are dangerous. They will follow you across the landscape. I hate them.

Fallout 76

 

Having graduated and now currently in the process of job hunting, I have been spending quite a lot of time with Fallout 76.


This game is fantastic, and frustrating.

THE GOOD

When it fires at all, let alone on all cylinders, it provides a huge open, hostile world to tame. If you crave long walks through sun-dappled forests then this is your game. I don't know how the size compares to other open-world games, but the map feels expansive. The terrain is incredibly varied. There is so much to collect and so many unique assets.

The creation of this fictionalized West Virginia feels like a labor of love. Just look at @nuka_queen's #25DaysofAppalachia on Twitter and read about the real-world locations to get a glimpse of the level of detail poured into this game.

I like the politics of the game. When you delve into the regional lore you read about everything getting automated, from mining to resorts. You read about striking workers, people doing anything to keep their jobs. Then there is the mistrust from fears of Communist infiltration, everything foreign is suspect. It feels incredibly relevant.

I love the photomode. Finding and setting up good shots is great.

 

THE BAD

This game is janky. All of the strange little problems of previous Bethesda titles exist here and are compounded by the online functionality.  

IF you can stay connected, there is an amazing game to play. That IF means you will NOT stay connected. There are pauses when you load into new locations that leave you vulnerable to enemies. There is pop-in and fade-in. I have outrun the geometry before into invisible collision volumes. The interface, while much improved from previous iterations, still needs work.  Quick-swapping weapons causes a hitch. You can be hit-stunned.

The economy is garbage. Everything is too insanely expensive, and it doesn't look like player vendors can undercut the prices. In a way I'm complaining that they aren't nickel-and-diming enough. Instead, things in-game and in the game store cost way too much for what little you get.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. seems all over the place. I have a 7 Agility and am a sneak master, yet at a full 10 Strength I can carry all of 210 pounds.  

I have no idea how long it would take to unlock all the C.A.M.P. items but it is most likely an insane amount of time. I haven't found a new C.A.M.P. plan for at least 15 levels if not more. The ones at vendors typically cost 300-1000 caps. Caps are in short supply, and since they're used for Fast Travel, a necessity.  

For some reason you can't share your photomode shots directly to twitter. I'm guessing this is a Sony requirement or legal limitation but it is a minor annoyance.

And the disconnects. Oh the disconnects. Nearly finish a quest inside a dungeon and  you just have to make it to the exit? Hope you don't disconnect, because if you do you have to begin the quest all over again. I have spent several hours on a quest that's meant to take 20-30 minutes.

THE UGLY

Fallout 1st.

Private Servers that don't seem to be much more stable than the public ones. And you can't alter anything about the game. The two major benefits of a private server.

The other benefits are convenience items, including one that lets you hold unlimited scrap, which really should be base functionality.

The cosmetic items are apparently big "kill me" flags to online players without Fallout 1st.

It costs 13 dollars a month.

You also get Atoms for the store, which as noted previously, has its prices set too high.