Fallout 76

[kali o.]

My impression after 2ish hours (limited beta access):

Picture Fallout 4 as an MMO with shitty net code.

That's my impression. Not to say it's bad -- it has potential, I had fun and I look forward to playing more...but this one could go either way. I really didn't get a chance to test out much...basically just solo'd the first few quests and some exploration. The group PvE, PvP, Silos and base crafting could all greatly effect my opinion once I try them.

The perk system is interesting, but the pack aspect (in addition to Atom bucks) all reek of freemium bullshit that doesn't belong in a paid game. That's almost enough to make me quit, since I hate pay shit in non-free games. It could also be a big red flag that the devs expect the game will eventually be free.

Hopefully I get more time over the next week to play more. I really don't like the limited play times....

If you can't tell whether I like it or not based on the above...me neither.

[Shrinweck]

I agree with your entire post except I'm feeling a little more positive coming out of last nights beta. My expectations were rock bottom so I found myself relatively surprised how much of a game was even there. I was very against this game until I read someone saying that the empty game exploration is always what bethesda did best so the lack of roleplaying/NPCs is actually a boon... and I found myself agreeing with them lol

[kali o.]

Apparently they extended beta time tomorrow, due to a bug forcing re-downloading of the client for some PC people. Gonna try to put aside work tomorrow and play for as much of those ~8 hours as I can.

[Shrinweck]

I didn't realize progress (probably) wasn't getting wiped I probably would have played a bit more in the last beta window lol

[Shrinweck]

I got much more into this beta day. Last beta day I found this veil in a random ass corpse in a random ass spot in a random ass town. Today I ended up following up on what I expected to be a nothing of a quest but it ended up being a quest chain for a secret society. It's pretty awesome. The first couple quests got me a level twenty(five?) armor piece and a quest line that gives me a pistol, sword, and some kind of stealth item. Given the first quest gave me armor I can't use at twelve I'm probably not going to prioritize these quests but it's nice to know there's cool shit hidden if you look closely.

I got a schematic for the combat rifle but I need another 8 levels or so to craft it lol

The only really god awful thing that I've seen so far is the town I was in got attacked by brotherhood of steel aircraft robots. They alerted every enemy in the town to my presence and once the aircraft left the enemies wouldn't stop tracking me so I had to quit out of the game in order to survive.

[kali o.]

I didnt get nearly as far as I thought I would (level 10 or 11). I screwed around with ranged more (hardened sniper rifle, which was a lucky find). VATs is pretty buggy. Ranged is probably useful later in game, but melee seems king early game. I could game the AI and stomp things lvl 25+ with melee.

Built up my camp to a little shack with armor/wep benches. Discovered I could fast travel for caps (thank god). All in all, had fun.

[Shrinweck]

Still digging it but I wasn't home for most of todays beta event. I was kind of surprised by the complete lack of events next week and I'm probably going to be pretty bored waiting to play again. I didn't have time to do anything but get a couple levels with some fairly standard questing. I've found melee much less effective against enemies that are 14+... at least when I'm lower level than them. You found an actual sniper rifle? That's pretty bad ass. I attached a suppressor to a pipe rifle and that's my favorite gun to roam with. I found a legendary revolver that I use when I need to drop the most DPS. I also found a nice marksman hunting rifle that I use when I'm in a situation where making noise doesn't matter and I want to score a headshot.

The one new thing I found today was a laser rifle. It was pretty satisfying to use against two lowbie ghouls but I was down to the last two minutes of the event so I didn't get to use it against anything else. I found a couple half-dead fusion cores for if I ever find power armor.

[kali o.]

Yeah, an actual sniper rifle. Surprised it was lvl 10. I have a powerframe too, but all the parts are level 20+. Still, running in the frame was cool.

As far as melee goes, I guess it depends what you are fighting. Things that want to range you are easier than say, a Yao Guai. Speaking of which, a Yao guai killed me and the server shut down 10 seconds before I could hit my corpse...lost a lot of junk. That sucked.

I didnt like the voice proximity chat, so I turned it off. Ill give it a chance when the beta ends.

I think the build I will eventually go for is heavy INT and Luck (crafting), with a STR (melee) secondary. I should be able to work a group heal role into that. Havent figured out all the details, but beta planner is here:

https://nukesdragons.com

Edit: Thinking something like this:

https://nukesdragons.com/fallout76/perk ... 1sf0cq0&n=

I really, really dont like this beta schedule. Just open beta it.

[Shrinweck]

This is what I'm running now from memory I'm probably forgetting stuff since I'm 14 and this doesn't add up to 14 https://nukesdragons.com/fallout76/perk ... 1l60sa0&n=

I haven't planned ahead but I can't imagine not building around semi-auto guns, crafting firearms/normal guns, sneaking, and lockpicking.

The first thing I did during the first beta (even before character creation) was turn off voice chat and I doubt I'll ever turn it on unless given a big reason lol. If I ever play with people it'll probably be over Discord.

I've died twice so far. Once to a surprise group of five supermutants next to the first town where you become a responder. The other time I'm not sure how. I heard some radiation and my health basically evaporated in seconds. No visible enemies. I was able to recover my shit and still couldn't figure out what killed me.

[Shrinweck]

I got to 18 yesterday despite hitting two broken quests in the same area. They put out a 30-38gb patch depending on your platform today so hopefully that fixed them. There are also two more beta events on Tuesday and Thursday.

I really need to put some points into strength for carry weight. I haven't decided if I should put points into shotguns or two handed weapons. Shotguns just eat through so much ammo.

[kali o.]

I've played enough of the game to know that, in the larger sense, this is unlikely to be a popular or well reviewed game (for a Fallout entry).

I am hesitant to recommend this game to anyone else, no matter what they are looking for (as a Fallout single player game, its not very good; as an MMO, it lacks the player numbers per map and variety in gameplay).

Now, that said, I like games like 7 Days to Die (on the PS4 mind you, not the superior PC version) -- so I won't cancel my FO76 pre-order and will probably get more than my monies worth playing it.

I looked briefly at the next two beta events. One is like 2 hours long? That's obnoxious -- I'll skip that one. I think I am level 18 too. I tried going the crafting route -- but I have found like zero melee schematics; so far it's a total waste of perks.

Oh, and I died something fierce last beta event. Once to a lowbie group (PvP, had a 10c bounty). Twice I got nonstop killed (dozens+), trying to reach my corpse (both times snallygasters or whatever -- god damn I hate those things).

[Shrinweck]

I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone who didn't have a boner for the modern fallout series, exploring in bethesda games, and/or someone who just likes survival games.

I'm low on weapon crafting schematics, as well, but I do have the level 20 combat rifle schematic. I'm getting perks so that at the very least I can craft and mod for guns as I come across them.

I only died once on Sunday and it was to frag mines. I haven't seen snallygasters yet, but I did run into a level fifty scorchbeast during my time on the south end of the map. Luckily my sneaking got me by it. I watched a streamer die to it though and it was pretty great to watch lol.

I sneak my way through the game the majority of the time so I think I avoid most pvping since it removes you from the map. PVP seems pretty rare although I do tend to try to avoid groups of players traveling together because nothing stops them from destroying me. From what I hear a group of extremely low level people can usually take someone on even if the solo player has like 20 levels on them.

[Shrinweck]

Despite it releasing yesterday I haven't been able to play yet. I ordered a physical copy off Amazon instead of a digital one on accident lol

I completed the secret society quest line during the final beta event. It was surprisingly good how it ended. The gear seems okay but it's all level 25 so I need a couple more hours in the game to use it.

Looking forward to the physical copy arriving today. The only bright side is that with gigabit internet the game will take like twenty minutes to download and install. The funny thing is that the last physical PC game that I bought was Fallout 3... so good job Bethesda lol

[kali o.]

Close to level 40. Still kinda meh.

But what really needs to be fixed is stash size / junk weight. I dont care how they do it -- if they dont fix it people will stop playing. And soon.

Its no fun stressing over weight 24/7 in a game that heavily relies on crafting.

[Shrinweck]

I agree the stash size is probably the number one problem with this game. I'm still having fun (trudging around at 32) but if the next Path of Exile league started tomorrow I wouldn't have too many issues with putting down this game until it saw some patches.

It's mind blowing to me that the stash wasn't fixed at release.

[Shrinweck]

I've gotten up to 47 and this is approximately what my build is going to be https://nukesdragons.com/fallout76/perk ... 2pl2am1&n=

I really like the quests I've come upon. I hope they expand on the game.

Stash only gets more and more annoying and it will apparently take weeks to fix because of technical issues. At the very least it's nice that they're committed to an adjustment that doesn't involve reaching further into our pockets.

[kali o.]

Im at level 58 I believe (after 50, you can pick any perk card - its not just a random selection, so it is easy to fine tune your build). Also started a 2nd character - sneak sniper...scorchbeasts are annoying for a melee.

Killed some epic stuff -- even a level 80 legendary glowing scorchbeast (stealthboys are broken and worth their weight in gold).

Built a bigger base in the cranberry fields - excavating silver.

Make sure to friend me or whatever - at the very least we can trade off recipes.

[Eric]

I've heard nothing but bad things about it.

[Shrinweck]

This is the latest game that people who haven't played it are angry at for mostly stupid reasons. There are reasons that this game isn't great but they're seldom touched upon. I've seen a great deal of misinformation spread about this game.

This is just a buggier version of fallout 4 with a bigger, more interesting open world and better guns. This game definitely isn't super great but it definitely doesn't deserve the blow back it's getting. AAA gaming studios have done more money grubbing shit this year but because people expect more from the franchise/the studio people are getting their bitch on. To me, the Fallout world has basically been dead since Fallout 2. The idea that the transition from 4 to 76 is worse than 2 to 3 is a joke to me.

[Eric]

I mean it's just you and Kali on here I have to go by.

I've never been huge on Bethesda games, Skyrim was an anomaly to me that I'm not sure why I liked(I think I tried it and quit it 5 times before it stuck and I put in 140 hours).

I just don't wish ill on long running franchises since it's so easy to ruin them in the modern game market landscape.

[Shrinweck]

To me this franchise has basically been a garbage fire since 3 lol

Still kind of fun but a pale resemblance of its original games

[kali o.]

Bethsoft sure is getting raked over the coals on this one -- perhaps deservedly so.

I'm in no hurry to log in -- nothing much for me to do, besides go hunting / nuking for RNG legendararies (which isn't fun). I'll give them a month to see what new stuff they add, and try playing again.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah I made a second character and got them a little higher than my first one but I'm shelving this one for a bit. Too much other stuff to play. This week sees a lot of updates and DLC to stuff I want to play. Namely a new Path of Exile league and Stellaris DLC. Artifact is a bit of fun, too.

[Shellie]

Planning on playing the new PoE league? I've been playing a lot the last few leagues, and Sine joined me in Delve and plans on playing in Betrayal too. We should join up!

[Shrinweck]

Yeah I'll be playing day one barring anything crazy happening. I tend to play on the standalone client but that doesn't matter very much. I keep a character in game named shrinweck so people can add me without knowing one of the random names I actually use for characters. Feel free to add me

Also I forgot to mention in terms of Fallout 76 I watched a streamer go through launching a nuke and going through the silo looked HORRIBLE. After seeing that I will never do that unless they make major changes lol

[kali o.]

To me this franchise has basically been a garbage fire since 3 lol

Still kind of fun but a pale resemblance of its original games

Well, I imagine you must be pretty excited for Obsidians upcoming RPG then...

https://www.pcgamer.com/obsidians-the-o ... ci-fi-rpg/

I like Obsidian for story/choice, but they are really lacking in the technical skills to create big games. I hope it turns out as good as they are promising though.

[Shrinweck]

Yeah I watched those game awards out of boredom last night. Obsidian's announcement was probably the biggest for me.

[Eric]

Arc System Works did the same thing when Capcom shat the bed and released Marvel Infinite, they basically just made a 3 v 3 Marvel vs Capcom game with DBZ chars and assists and it became the best selling fighting game of the year and pretty much ate the Capcom's Marvel community.

People see blood in the water when you drop the ball.