So I finally got around to playing '76 after buying it on a deep sale.

The game as of this writing actually feels like a real Fallout game because of the DLCs (Wastelanders & Brotherhood); must have been awfully empty at launch.

The bad side is that the game engine is really designed for multi-player. The server connections are not good and the game has many many major bugs including main quest breaking.

The sad side is that aside from a few graphics replacers the game is unmodable so the community can't make even a UOP.

On Fri, 13 Jan 2023 10:47:15 -0800 (PST), T987654321
<qwrtz123@gmail.com> wrote:

> So I finally got around to playing '76 after buying it on a deep sale.
>
>The game as of this writing actually feels like a real Fallout game because
>of the DLCs (Wastelanders & Brotherhood); must have been awfully
>empty at launch.

AFAIK, the DLC added a lot of NPCs, which helped flesh out the world
and pushed the story forward a lot better than the text- or audio-only
quests. The conceit was that - as one of the first people to leave the
Vault after the apocalypse - of course the world would be devoid of
life (even though that was actually contrary to the franchise's canon)
but it destroyed the immersion and character that the series was known
for. On release, F76 felt a lot like an Indie 'survival game'; a huge
world filled with a lot of grind but not much identity of its own.

The DLC was a direct reaction to players' dissatisfaction with that
state of things.

>The bad side is that the game engine is really designed for multi-player.
>The server connections are not good and the game has many many
>major bugs including main quest breaking.

<snark>So... par for the course for a Bethesda game? </snark>

>The sad side is that aside from a few graphics replacers the game is
>unmodable so the community can't make even a UOP.

UOP? University of Paisley? Utilization Operations Panel? Unit of
Production? Unteroffizer Ohne Portepee?

But, yeah, that's another strike against "Fallout 76". The core game
is solid, but it was always the user-made content that transformed a
Bethesda game from something good into a something great. It's a shame
Bethesda didn't go the extra mile to figure out a way so user-created
content could be added. I get that would have created /a lot/ of
difficulties - how do you balance a multiplayer game if User X is
playing vanilla and User Y has a fan-made gun that shoots out a swarm
of deathclaws? - but, had they managed it, Bethesda would have
transformed the industry.

But they took the lazy way instead.

> But, yeah, that's another strike against "Fallout 76". The core game
> is solid, but it was always the user-made content that transformed a
> Bethesda game from something good into a something great. It's a shame
> Bethesda didn't go the extra mile to figure out a way so user-created
> content could be added. I get that would have created /a lot/ of
> difficulties - how do you balance a multiplayer game if User X is
> playing vanilla and User Y has a fan-made gun that shoots out a swarm
> of deathclaws? - but, had they managed it, Bethesda would have
> transformed the industry.
>
> But they took the lazy way instead.

If they had released the current game state as a single player and called it Fallout 5 most people would have been more than very happy, at least as soon as the Unofficial Patch released. Most of the games major problems seem to be server side.

On Fri, 20 Jan 2023 12:00:37 -0800 (PST), T987654321
<qwrtz123@gmail.com> wrote:

>If they had released the current game state as a single player and called
>it Fallout 5 most people would have been more than very happy, at
>least as soon as the Unofficial Patch released. Most of the games
>major problems seem to be server side.

Well, in my (admittedly limited) experience, I still think F76 feels a
bit shallow compared to the mainline Fallout games (because
multiplayer interactions are meant to fill in the deficit) but largely
I agree with you. The overall project would have turned out better if
they'd just made it a single player game from the start.

Well, better for the players, anyway. From a corporate standpoint,
it's hard to argue against the constant income trickling in from a
'live services' product, and the most profitable of those require a
strong multiplayer component (because how else can you show off your
newest hat that you just bought?).

Pretty much all of the DLC was shoving stuff back into the game to
make it more resemble the single-player games. Features which people
had to pay for again instead of getting them in the base game. Genius.
Sure it cost Bethesda some good will from its most ardent fans, but
what's that really worth anyway? Gamers are notoriously fickle and
will come crawling back again and again no matter how much you abuse
them.

On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:37:21 PM UTC-8, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Jan 2023 12:00:37 -0800 (PST), T987654321
> <qwrt...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> >If they had released the current game state as a single player and called
> >it Fallout 5 most people would have been more than very happy, at
> >least as soon as the Unofficial Patch released. Most of the games
> >major problems seem to be server side.
> Well, in my (admittedly limited) experience, I still think F76 feels a
> bit shallow compared to the mainline Fallout games (because
> multiplayer interactions are meant to fill in the deficit) but largely
> I agree with you. The overall project would have turned out better if
> they'd just made it a single player game from the start.
>
> Well, better for the players, anyway. From a corporate standpoint,
> it's hard to argue against the constant income trickling in from a
> 'live services' product, and the most profitable of those require a
> strong multiplayer component (because how else can you show off your
> newest hat that you just bought?).
>
> Pretty much all of the DLC was shoving stuff back into the game to
> make it more resemble the single-player games. Features which people
> had to pay for again instead of getting them in the base game. Genius.
> Sure it cost Bethesda some good will from its most ardent fans, but
> what's that really worth anyway? Gamers are notoriously fickle and
> will come crawling back again and again no matter how much you abuse
> them.

It's hard to understand anyone paying cash for Atoms. And I don't understand the point of the private server since there are no meaningful mods that I've seen.

On Friday, January 20, 2023 at 1:37:21 PM UTC-8, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Fri, 20 Jan 2023 12:00:37 -0800 (PST), T987654321
> <qwrt...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> >If they had released the current game state as a single player and called
> >it Fallout 5 most people would have been more than very happy, at
> >least as soon as the Unofficial Patch released. Most of the games
> >major problems seem to be server side.
> Well, in my (admittedly limited) experience, I still think F76 feels a
> bit shallow compared to the mainline Fallout games (because
> multiplayer interactions are meant to fill in the deficit) but largely
> I agree with you. The overall project would have turned out better if
> they'd just made it a single player game from the start.
>
> Well, better for the players, anyway. From a corporate standpoint,
> it's hard to argue against the constant income trickling in from a
> 'live services' product, and the most profitable of those require a
> strong multiplayer component (because how else can you show off your
> newest hat that you just bought?).
>
> Pretty much all of the DLC was shoving stuff back into the game to
> make it more resemble the single-player games. Features which people
> had to pay for again instead of getting them in the base game. Genius.
> Sure it cost Bethesda some good will from its most ardent fans, but
> what's that really worth anyway? Gamers are notoriously fickle and
> will come crawling back again and again no matter how much you abuse
> them.

Funny enough it felt more 'alive' when I last played it (with the NPCs)
and more memorable than Fallout 4.

I did look up my old posts on it, and I was pretty down on it though.
Mainly thought it might be better if you had money to burn on
subbing, which I wasn't about to drop on it.

https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action/c/WFDcDnu5-z4/m/25r0_sp3AwAJ

For the thread.

- Justisaur