The B.E.T.A. sessions are now firmly behind us, but some Fallout 76 basics still feel creaky and half-baked, and that's with a mere few days left before its multi-platform release. That doesn't mean that what we've seen so far lacks for entertainment or intriguing ideas, and there are numerous envelope-pushing concepts that Bethesda’s latest is bringing to the forefront, but quality-of-life issues, UI disasters, and the lack of some essential multiplayer expectations sets up Fallout 76 for one of the strangest big-budget game launches in recent memory.
Fallout 76 takes place in a region called Appalachia in 2076, and brings along many of the familiar gameplay tropes and mechanics from previous entries in the RPG franchise, but completely dispenses with human NPCs. Instead, instanced servers will allow up to 24 players to (sort of) hinder or hurt one another throughout a massive map, with a variety of quests and timed events in a kind of mutant amalgamation of MMORPG, battle royale, base-building, RPG, and open-world sandbox games.
Related: Fallout 76 B.E.T.A. Impressions - The Shakiest Vault-Tec Experiment Yet
Problems persist, though, and while the entire game can be considered highly experimental, the impending release of Fallout 76 isn’t of the Early Access variety. The concluded B.E.T.A. sessions were apparently meant to test server capacity, but excited beta testers have been treated to numerous design problems, glitches, and clunky systems in the live game. Beyond the bugs, fans are trying to figure out what Fallout 76’s central gameplay loop is, intentions which are impeded by a slate of issues that will invariably end up in the launch version.
- This Page: Fallout 76's Party XP and Interface Problems
- Page 2: Fallout 76's Chat Problems, PvP Limitations, and Our Final Thoughts
Hopefully, Bethesda will be quick to respond to some of these problems, and their continued community presence on the subreddit is solid proof that they’re listening closely. For now, let’s to take a look at some significant pain-points that should be addressed soon after Fallout 76 releases next week on November 14.
Fallout 76's XP Needs to be Shared Across Party for Kills
The “role-play” portion of RPGs is often ignored in other games, but the Fallout series has always singled out the idea of adapting whatever preferences and style a player chooses. Since there are no NPCs in Fallout 76, flesh-and-blood player personalities are brought to the forefront, up to and including combat preferences. Currently, four players can join as a team, sharing looted corpses and containers as well as quest rewards, but combat neglects a standardized XP share in favor of a strange “one-hit” or "ding" system.
Essentially, this means that for players to share combat XP, they need to inflict at least one point of damage on a target. This is actually the exact same way that non-team members share XP as well, and a dozen players can all damage a single boss mob and reap the XP pool, even when traveling solo. For teams, though, this is problematic for two main reasons: one, if a teammate is too under-leveled, they may find trouble risking death just to hit an enemy once, and higher-level teammates might mistakenly insta-kill enemy mobs before they even get their chance. Secondly, if a teammate wants to prioritize the Strength attribute and go all-in on melee combat, they’ll have even more trouble dinging enemies in long-range skirmishes.
There’s logical expectation that teams who work together frequently will want to fill out specific roles. Maybe a player wants to go the pacifist route, dropping helpful stimpaks during heated battles before escaping, or working on the sidelines repairing active turrets and building barriers. These teammates should garner the same XP share as their combat-oriented companions, and anything shy of that standard will transform most battles into clumsy affairs, with teammates yelling at each other to confirm that everyone has successfully hit as many enemies as possible before finishing a fight.
It’s a time-worn tradition in online games that XP should be shared among teammates across the board, and Bethesda needs to weigh this system in the game’s first patch, at the least.
Fallout 76's Clumsy Menus and Pip-Boy Interface Hinder Need A Re-Design
We’ve previously discussed Fallout 76’s inventory management woes, but the game’s enigmatic UI needs a serious update. During the last B.E.T.A. session, I was playing along with a newcomer teammate, and he could barely understand how to find certain options. “How do I change between base structures?” he asked. When I explained that, for some reason, you need to use the directional keys on the keyboard for that, he laughed.
Even on PC, Fallout 76’s UI is nebulous, with a dizzying range of options that all map to specific keys, seemingly at random. The A and D key often navigate left and right through menus, except when C and Z need to be used, or the aforementioned arrow keys. The mouse can helpfully select specific menu options, except those times when it can’t, and tussling with the menu during shouldn't be a factor during dangerous encounters.
Related: Fallout 76 Has A Huge Problem With Its C.A.M.P. Base Building
It’s difficult to collect all the UI flubs to map out some sort of holistic ideal, but it needs significant attention. For example, it's surprisingly easy to scrap built objects or create duplicates from blueprints and resources instead of pulling out stored versions. Speaking of building, the bulk of Fallout 76’s UI problems originate in its ingrained base-building interface, seemingly designed from the ground up to better accommodate console players on controllers, but never seamlessly coming together in practice for either platform.
Whether a successful fix will result from offering different control schemes, creating individual presets for building and exploration modes, or just redesigning menu naviagtion from the ground up is unclear. With the current setup, however, it’s too easy to make destructive mistakes, and important information and items get lost in the fog.
Page 2 of 2: Fallout 76's Chat Problems, PvP Limitations, and Our Final Thoughts
Text Chat for PC Players and Other Communication Problems Plague Fallout 76
It’s possible that Fallout 76 poses the greatest need for functional, dynamic chat options over other online-based games. Bethesda has stated from the beginning that part of the game’s intention is to compel players to work with or against each other, and the game’s system presently defaults to an area-based open-mic preset, which can spur some unintentionally hilarious and immersion-breaking moments: many players report hearing parents yelling at children, dogs barking, couples arguing, or a loud TV blasting in the background from a nearby player’s mic feed.
While you can adjust your mic to mute, area, and team-only settings, there is yet no push-to-talk option available for players. For a modern multiplayer game, this seems outright primitive, and fan backlash has prompted Bethesda to report that PTT will be added in the “near future.”
Beyond that basic adjustment, though, the lack of text chat is egregious. Sure, this means that server chat spam can be kept to a minimum, but what about disabled gamers who have trouble with verbal communication? Why force them into complete silence in a game focused on players engaging each other with their personalities and role-playing motivations? It’s a bizarre and practically offensive design choice at this point, and it’s possibly costing Bethesda money, or angering some of these players who might have pre-purchased the game under the reasonable assumption that text chat would be a given.
None of the above issues will probably be addressed on day one, but they will be arguably crucial to the reception and longevity of Fallout 76.
Fallout 76 PvP Needs To Matter
By now, many players have been made aware of how random PvP encounters work in the game, but here’s a refresher: if a stranger attacks you, it’s considered a “slap,” and engaging them in proper PvP requires a counterattack in kind. The initial slap causes minimal HP loss, so agreeing to fight another player or group of players depends on a handshake of sorts, so targets can make a fairly easy escape if they're not in the mood for a duel.
It’s possible that this mechanic is in place for players who want to focus on Fallout 76’s extensive PvE content. In a game like Destiny 2, strangers can’t attack each other at all, and there’s a specific venue for PvP play as a menu/radio option so no confusing surprise assassinations are allowed to occur. Still, the wasteland of Appalachia is meant to be a dangerous environment, making it unusual that PvP can effectively be ignored as an annoyance rather than a game-defining threat.
There isn’t an immediate solution to this, beyond something like themed server instances (kill-or-be-killed servers, pacifist-only servers, etc), which doesn’t appear to be on the current waitlist of fixes. Players who kill each other in PvP can loot murdered corpses, and a weird revenge system exists in the game, pushing players into an endless dueling seesaw until one of them decides to end it. All the same, with a scant 24 player max per server, planning PvP requires considerable effort to begin with, chasing dots on the map and spending caps to fast-travel if needed.
It’s obvious that Bethesda wants to sideline potential griefing scenarios, and while that radio station exists to streamline PvP play, it’s been an unreliable or lesser-known option throughout the beta. It’s safe to say that Fallout 76 in its current state prioritizes a default PvE-oriented mode, which is a convenience that yet manages to contradict the post-apocalyptic genre. Time will tell if Bethesda shifts its focus on this essential aspect of play, but what’s available feels a little like a placeholder for a larger idea.
Final Thoughts on Fallout 76's Current State
These contentious aspects will probably not be addressed at time of launch, and there are countless other topics that require attention (optimization, mods not coming for a year, limited player counts, V.A.T.S issues, etc.). Enemy AI can be spotty and comparable bugs and glitches have been heavily reported during the beta period. For instance, in a recent session, a teammate who tried to spawn on my C.A.M.P. repeatedly clipped into base elements, making him unable to move without fast-traveling to another location and walking back.
There are a lot of plates spinning in Applachia's design, and while Fallout 76 seems somewhat stable in its current state, it’s also absent of any comprehensive end-game goals. Will the totality of the experience boil down to base-building, leveling up, reading terminal journals, and releasing a nuke? How will faction allegiance ultimately break down in the full game, and will later (free) DLC ever add human NPCs for greater narrative depth?
More: When Exactly Does Fallout 76 Come Out?
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