Fallout 76 - Multiplayer, online, BGS Austin

KevinC – are you thinking that is worth it now? TheWombat I am about 12 seconds from succumbing.

But I resist.

2 Mutants take out an Alpha Deathclaw. I passed on tangling.
Photo_2018-11-16-232120 by Sam Posten III, on Flickr

I mean, it’s been worth it to me, but that’s subjective. If you want to explore more Fallout, it’s probably worth it. If you’re looking for something heavy on the narrative and story-driven, you may want to give it a pass.

Can you play this game solo or with a friend without going online multiplayer? Hell is other people.

“L’enfer, c’est les autres.” Yes, you can; there is a fabulous Charisma perk chain you can get that boosts your solo capability, and really, it’s much much more like Fallout 4.5 with (somewhat) optional multiplayer baked in. Optional in that you can pretty much go your own way and usually fast travel away from idiots (or flag yourself Pacifist which reduces even further the already reduced damaged non-consensual PvP inflicts). I am trying to get my wife to get on board, though, as she’s a lot better crafter than I am. I am more of a shotgun to the face player.

Thanks - that sounds like multiplayer still? I hate competing with people for resources and sites and I read further up that only player can “claim” a site. I imagine that all kinds of chicanery can happen even if they can’t directly kill you, they can make it very much less fun to play.

Those sites are intended to be short term bonuses you can compete over for fun. They’re set up as PVP motivation for people who like that sort of thing.

But no, you cannot play on a private server. I loathe playing with random idiots as well, but this hasn’t been bad. PKing is surprisingly de-emphasized, the rewards for it aren’t great (and your own losses very minor), and it’s easy to escape because an attacker does very little damage to you unless you fight back.

Mostly, though, Bethesda set it up so that encounters with other players are rare. You can also see where they are in the map, so you can head to unpopulated areas. The map is huge and the player count per server small, which I prefer. I have probably 8-10 hours now and haven’t had a PVP engagement yet. I’m sure that will change, but so far so good.

Sounds promising! My son and I are planning to play but we are somewhat apprehensive. I’ve played enough games to know that people can grief you without having to kill you. I’ll talk it over with him and figure out if we’ll give it a shot.

I hear you. My plan was to play the game until I couldn’t stand the assholes online anymore, but thankfully I haven’t had any issues yet.

There are only about 20-32 people per server so it feels pretty empty and at most I’ve run into 5-7 people in each of my playthroughs. Had a bit of PvP at one point but I pretty much ignored them.

If someone harasses you - just fast travel to another part of the map and you’ll be fine. It’s trivial to avoid.

I also had a fun time running with some crazy kid in a dress and a beer hat. He was funny and helpful on two separate events and it really felt very fallout-y by happenstance.

Overall I’d say - if you’re looking for a super deep story with a big MacGuffin like New Vegas or FO4 then this doesn’t fit. But if you enjoy exploring the wasteland and can handle a few other people around then you may find it more fun than the gamer rantings may suggest. There are a good amount of quests and you can ignore them as well just like a regular Fallout.

So I always seem to be lacking adhesive, which is a rather important component for weapon and armor mods and repairs but today I discovered that feral ghouls love Duct Tape (which provides adhesive when scrapped). I got at least 10 duct tape just passing through downtown Morgantown on my way to Vault-Tec University from the airport. It seemed like maybe half the ghouls carried it.

How does the selling of stuff work? Do you set up a ‘stall’ and hope someone stops by and buys your stuff?

Sounds like this will turn into a niche game once the haters leave

@KristiGaines did your resolve weaken and you buy this yet? :p

This game is getting hate because this whole project is an obvious cash grab by bethesda with minimum effort put into it and I hate, hate, HATE the fact that people once again choose to go along with it.
I am somewhat used to the usual problems Bethesda games have but it’s just not acceptable to release Fallout 4.5 and STILL have so many, many problems and such a lack of polish while also being a fully priced game.
The depth of this whole thing is laughable, there is not a single new system in this that wasn’t in FO4 and really NOTHING build on top of the whole multiplayer aspect outside of lackluster “events”.
They actually managed to make something like base building WORSE due to the limitations of MP. How am I supposed to take Bethesda serious when modders are able to create something amazing like SimSettlements.
Why is there no attempt to actually give players the ability to effect their surroundings? Why don’t we have servers with different game modes/rule sets in the year 2018?
Why hasn’t the UI improved a single bit (in some cases it has gotten worse, what is it with the stupid mission spam in the player view?), why are so many FO4 bugs still in the game, why haven’t the combat mechanics not improved, why did they get rid off human NPCs and so on.
FO76 would have been acceptable as DLC/expansion for FO4 but making it its own thing is just a slap in the face and I can only hope this game crashes and burns. Not because it doesn’t offer any fun (it can still be enjoyed and you can have some fun with it), it needs to fail because otherwise Bethesda will obviously never get the message that a release like this is not okay and people should expect more than a repaint with multiplayer from a company like Bethesda.

Not yet. I reloaded Fallout 4 survival mode and am hoping it will give me a Fallout fix before I fall off the wagon. But word above that the solo experience is fun and that Fallout charm of wandering around gathering and shooting is a very alluring.

A little thing like the game not being on steam helps a bit! (helps me not buy it, that is)

Still open Qs from me:
Executive R. Vargas Key in Hornwright? Anyone know where I can find the key to this safe?

Playing on PC with xbox controller, it says Click to search names to add friends. You can’t click or tab. My workaround has been to swap to M&K then back after searching for friend tags, is there an easier way?

Anyone found a power armor repair plan?

My water purifier makes 70 pure water an hour but maxes at 5 in the slot. Do any of the upper level purifiers let you get more than that before shutting off?

Is there a machine that makes food similar to the water purifier? How about stimpacks or rad/disease cures?

Eh, while I agree this game is hardly innovative, and offers something less than “the new Fallout” one might desire, I don’t at all think it’s a cash grab. For one, none of the stuff they sell seems really interesting or worthwhile, beyond things you can get with Atom you earn in game. It’s a pay once and play til you tire of it price, at least so far. It isn’t deep, no, and because they have to accommodate multiplayer the story is less you-centric. Then again, most Fallout games have had quite questionable main storylines IMO, the worst maybe being F4.

The things that bug me are the useless and annoying eat and drink stuff, which is just unnecessary and dumb; the interface, which is still clunky and obtuse in places; and the “fun” of constantly running out of carrying capacity or storage space. Such fun! But other than that, I’ve found it really cool, as it provides the sort of experiences I spend most of my time seeking out in Fallout games (exploration, looting, fighting) with the added attraction of a little bit of looking over your shoulder for other players, which I don’t mind at this point.

And, um, if people keep buying the stuff they did, then manifestly it is ok for them to do it. This isn’t a moral crisis here. It’s business–Bethesda/Zenimax is in business to make money. They happen to do it making games. I might wish them to make a different game, certainly, but, um, I’m one sixty dollar customer. I rather think they want a little more ROI than that. And I trust their accountants to have figured out which type of game will keep the lights on better.

Them making money / good business decisions isn’t (necessarily) good for me as CUSTOMER.
FO76 will of course have a good ROI or else I wouldn’t call it a cashgrab. A crashgrab doesn’t need to launch with egregious monetization schemes to be considered one. It’s enough to ask for the full prize for something that has obviously not gotten the same amount of game dev investment like Skyrim or Fallout3/4.
They even openly said that MP was something they originally wanted to put into FO4.
I should also make it absolutely clear that I would have LOVED a good(!) Fallout coop experience (I love coop games). I’m not someone who thinks FO couldn’t work with MP, it’s quite the opposite, I always wished you could play the whole thing in a coop mode and play FO with a friend just like you’d do on your own.
The problem is that they gutted the “normal” FO experience to release some sort of FO mutant version. A world without factions, without human NPCs, without dialog, without interaction with the world or other NPCs (or even other players, there is nothing TO DO with other players except shoot stuff) and while doing this didn’t improve a single aspect of the previous games.
VATS is obviously a mess, the UI still doesn’t have BASIC functions that should be there (modders have been showing them for years how it can EASILY be improved, why is this ignored?), graphics and performance have barely improved, the NPC AI is often a mess and all the things you already mentioned.
I’m really not an “angry internet guy” who just hates on everything new, I liked FO4 for the most part (though I definitely enjoyed FO3 and FO:NV A LOT more) and even just a competent FO4 rework with additional MP/Coop sold as expansion/DLC would have pleased me but I don’t have patience for Bethesda’s attempt at absuing the goodwill of its playerbase.
You want to sell a full prized game as a new experience? Well, go ahead and do that and put some effort into it instead of doing THIS. Bethesda has made a lot of money with their Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises and I think their customers deserve a better product at this point in time.
Spent some of that money instead of just looking for another cheap way to extract even more money out of your fanbase.

Oh, ideally, sure, we’d have a world where what we think is optimal intersects with what the bean counters thing is optimal. But that’s not reality. I just can’t get upset over stuff like this. We aren’t owed any sort of Fallout experience. Sure, you can argue with some validity that once a company creates an IP with certain expectations, it’s an act of good faith to continue in that direction. But really, caveat emptor. These are entertainment products. If you don’t like one game, buy another, or none. There is no obligation on the part of a developer or publisher to do, well, anything, other than make sure the software more or less works.

I’m hesitant to say that Bethesda has become prescient, but I do think they know what they are doing with this game. I was prepared to be unimpressed, and shelve the game. Instead, I’m loving every minute of the FO76.