Fallout 76

[fragger]

Thanks for the report, D_B It's good to have an OWG agent on the inside We can finally get the lowdown from a good friend and a reliable source.

The keymapping for build mode - or lack of it - has always been one of my gripes with FO4 given my quirky control preferences, although I've managed to w0#k around it. But like you Dweller, the only workaround I can do leaves me unable to strafe or move backwards in Build mode. I've also always wanted to remap the scrapping keys so that I don't have to keep moving my hand between "R" and ENTER for scrapping every single piece of junk, but that doesn't appear to be changeable (if it's doable via modding, I'm out - I don't know anything about how to do that. Years ago I used to code for a living so I'm sure I could learn to mod, but I simply can't be arsed ). I've got two whole extra buttons on my gaming mouse not doing anything, would have been nice if I could've remapped the scrapping function to those. But I've learned to live with things the way they are.

And yeah, I would really miss settlement building/management. If it hadn't been for that aspect of FO4, I would have gotten tired of the game long ago. That is my favourite part of the game and I spend more time on that than anything else. After six playthroughs, my MO has become: unlock all settlement sites, build them up over time until I've done as much as I can for them (while exploring the map to "discover" locations and taking on the many side quests along the way for XPs/money and character building), then essentially tackle the bulk of the remaining story once I've done everything else. So without settlements, I don't think 76 would grab me.

And the bartering, that has always been a fun aspect of 4 for me. Being able to buy/sell practically anything in the game made it a fun wheeling and dealing exercise. It's hard to engage in trade when there's next to nobody to trade with...

I wasn't aware that you were forced to eat and drink in 76, so that is definitely a turn-off for me. It's the main reason I never went in for "Survival" difficulty in 4 - that and the fact that the developer console is disabled on that mode.

I understand that VATS doesn't w0#k the same way in 76 as it does in 4, since you're online in MP and thus your subjective time can't be slowed while in VATS., nor does it allow you to target specific body parts. Is that the case? Because if so, it seems to me that VATS simply becomes a glorified aiming assist.

But anyway, I'm glad you're enjoying it. You'll pardon me if I don't join you Looking forward to your further impressions.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Glad to help, I didn't figure anyone here would be interested in playing, and if anyone was on the fence, this would help.

As for building, here's what a higher level player can accomplish, and this seems about maxed out for build area, he might have some space left but has gone in for the esthetics.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


The inside is really nice though I didn't get a shot of that.

... and here's what I've been able to accomplish so far:

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Yep a wood box. It has what you need though, the w0#k benches, some power, a couple turrets for defense (a few ghouls wander by now and then, maybe some scorched) but you don't get targeted attacks like in FO4, it just happens if something wanders close enough. I don't know if they can break down doors or not, they haven't gotten that close yet. The turrets usually take care of them.

VATS is essentially a glorified aim assist, if the target is in your field of view, you hit VATS and then fire and you pretty much are guaranteed to get a hit.

I checked out another player's vendor to see if they had the ammo I need and they didn't so I moved on. That's one thing about your base, apparently anyone else can access anything in it, except your stash box, those are personalized and if I access the box in another player's base, I just see the stuff I have stored, not theirs. But I could use any of the w0#k stations they had set up, access terminals, etc. I don't know what would happen if I tried to go into build mode there, if I could build or move stuff, I kind of hope not, that would be just dumb.

I did a side quest which was typical Fallout stuff, go into a place, clear out enemies and reboot the computer type deal.  Not much different than something like the federal ration stockpile (think that's the name) in FO4. At the end you get  a bonus for completion. I'm starting to get some better armor and weapons, so the fights are a little easier, though still short on ammo a lot of the time. Well, short as far as I'm concerned, I don't like to be below 100 rounds for any of the guns I have, hehe.

For the $30 I paid for it, worth it for me, but definitely not the $60 they wanted originally.

[fragger]

I have to say the game-world looks more lush than FO4's. I guess this is before radstorms wreaked havoc on the flora

Nice house that guy has. I wouldn't mind living there myself if it was real, as long as no ghouls came a-calling... I hope other players can't start building their own stuff in your camp. If I'd built a nice house like that bloke, I wouldn't want someone to come along and plonk an ugly wooden box down in my yard. But you can build your camp anywhere, can't you? The map should be big enough for players to find their own spots, I would think.

Seems like ammo is more of a concern in 76. That's sort of good in a way as it might compel you to take more care about engaging enemies. Let's face it, paucity of ammo in 4 was never an issue

Can you build more than one stash box, and different types of containers? I'm a bit of an obsessive for organising my stuff in 4 - ammo, clothes, food, drugs, and so on (my weapons all go on display racks). I don't like the idea of chucking everything into a single container. But then you probably have less stuff to concern yourself with in this game, by the sound of it.

What about cooking and drugs? I assume temporary slo-mo type drugs like Jet are out, for the same reason they had to change VATS.

Sorry for all the questions, mate. It's only because I'm interested

[LowPolyOWG]

They added a season pass too

[Art Blade]

I don't even want to read that.

[Dweller_Benthos]

It's not a season pass type thing, it's free, they just call it seasons as in the seasons of the year and different things will happen each season with different objectives.

https://bethesda.net/en/article/fPSas0ftnlgD0FcZNnMoL/fallout-76-inside-the-vault-introducing-the-2020-roadmap-and-76-seasons

"We'd like to clarify that participation in Fallout Seasons will be free for all of our players, and we apologize for any confusion."

It's a type of progression system that apparently makes it more even between low and high level players. Of course, if you want to use Atoms to progress, you can, IOW, buy your way in. And of course, it's optional, you can ignore it if you aren't interested. Seems though that just playing the game normally will progress you through the system, so why not? The rewards are the usual cosmetic stuff, skins, objects to build in camp, that sort of thing.

To answer Fragger's questions, as far as I know, you can build anywhere. Turns out the place I built must be popular, a few times I've had to reload the world to join a different instance so my camp could be spawned. I just picked it mostly at random. If you choose to stay in that world, you can place your camp in a new spot, at no cost. Usually to move your camp, it costs a few caps, the more complex your build, the more it costs, I think.

I've seen other camps with different storage items, not sure how they made them, I don't have anything but the basic stash box unlocked. It looks like you have only the one storage and can access your stuff from any box anywhere. I don't think there's options to have different ones for different materials. It's also weight limited, so you can only store so much before it's full, so no more hoarding everything like in FO4.

There are a few weapon display options but I've not seen how they w0#k as I don't have them unlocked either, but it looks like that's what they are for.

Cooking and drugs are the same pretty much, I doubt the time slow ones are in there either, and usually I don't even pick them up as I never use them. I haven't even built a chem station yet, though to think on it I don't think I unlocked that yet either.

[fragger]

Thanks D_B

[Dweller_Benthos]

No problem!

I walked out of my camp yesterday and there was a new neighbor across the road, quite an extensive camp building, utilizing a nuka cola billboard as part of the building. Anyway, I took a screenshot of the inside which was pretty nice, a lot of vendor machines to sell stuff, where I bought some recipes for food and stuff. But you can see the display case in the middle and the display stands for weapons on the left. They also had a decontamination arch that I took the liberty to use to get rid of the rads I was carrying around, twice actually, heh. But I tried and I couldn't activate build mode in their camp so no chance of other players messing up your stuff. They also had several different stash containers, but they all just showed my regular inventory, so no matter what type of container it is, it will still just access your normal list of stuff, there's no separating different types into different containers unfortunately.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


Then when I was back at my camp scrapping and repairing some stuff, another player dropped by, used my stash to access their stuff, then dropped off a couple blueprints for some camp stuff that I didn't have, so that was nice.

[Art Blade]

indeed, I'm surprised to read that

Maybe, if the other guy with the nice home had several stash containers, he had an upgrade for them so he probably was able to sort stuff?

Only thing that doesn't add up is someone using your only crate to grab their gear. Either there's one "shared" stash container you can access from just about anywhere while others are "hoarder's prize" type of upgrades, or that guy really had a ton of cloned crates.

[LowPolyOWG]

It's Bethesda we're talking about As you said, the stash container is "shared". It pulls out inventory data from a server and it will only give the player who's use it, their items . Some games allows you to limit access by setting a pass code on them or, the player who originally placed it have full access only.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I don't think there's any special stash containers, it looks like the exterior is just cosmetic, they all access your personal inventory, no matter where or what container you access. So, good in a way, you can get to your stuff anywhere there's a crate, and no one else can get to your stuff unless you give it to them, but bad in you can't organize and store stuff in different containers. I think even the display cases still just access your main inventory, as I built a magazine rack to hold the one magazine I've found so far and it appeared to be connected to the main inventory, it was just limited to storing magazines.

[Art Blade]

kinda lame.

[Dweller_Benthos]

eh, it's not that bad, and the whole thing about being able to store infinite amounts of anything in any container was a bit weird in the previous Fallout games if you think about it. But it's most likely a performance issue, it being online, letting players have a huge inventory just isn't feasible.

I know I keep posting pictures of other player's camps, but this one is really intricate. Built on a cliff edge looking over the valley, they had a ton of stuff for sale in three vendor machines. Lots of ammo of which I bought as much as I could afford, which wasn't much, but more than I had before. So, from the upper side looking down:

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


The lower level is accessible to anyone and has w0#k stations, decontamination arch, vendors, etc. There's an upper floor that I couldn't figure how to get up into, and is where the owner was, at least their player marker was up there the whole time I was there.

From the overlook side, where there's a great view from the patio:

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


The photomode in the game didn't let me get any further back, and that's the widest angle lens too, the place is a bit large.

From the cliff edge along the side, you can see the view it has and some of how it was built.

Guests are not allowed to view images in posts, please Register or Login


You can see another player camp down in the valley. So there's quite a lot you can do with a camp if you have the talent for it, and the materials, heh.

I still haven't gotten very far in the quests or even very far from the starting area. I keep getting distracted with stuff and the events that happen every hour that give you XP and loot.

[Art Blade]

not too shabby, that shack

[Dweller_Benthos]

I don't know if all that metal siding requires aluminum or not, but if it does, then that's quite impressive. I'm always chronically short on aluminum and lead, and some copper. Aluminum for repairing weapons, lead for making bullets and copper for electronics.