FALLOUT 76

[Jub]

This beta is still smoother than many games actual launches. We all remember Diablo 3 still right?

[TheFeniX]

It's a bit of a leap to expand a huge blowout where Blizzard didn't upgrade server capacity for a launch of one of their Big 3 (at the time) IPs into F76's beta being smoother than many releases. Launches can annihilate both login and instance servers. Blizzard (I would honestly say Activision) cheaped out since they hadn't done a major release in a few years and figured the extra capacity they had for Starcraft 2 could shoulder the load.

If anything, most Betas function and you're going to have issues in the game and/or (with the case of open betas) they are testing server performance under heavy load and looking for bugs people are going to run across when they dive into the content.

I honestly expect most betas to go smoother than launch since you can control who is in the Beta. But if you buy the game, you are likely to be hammering their servers at launch. You can look at Brink's Beta versus launch so see how something promising can be turned into a shitshow when the playerbase actually hits the servers.

GG matchmaking and official servers. Official servers are usually trash, no matter the game. Even valve's server tend to buck like crazy.

[Jub]

It's a bit of a leap to expand a huge blowout where Blizzard didn't upgrade server capacity for a launch of one of their Big 3 (at the time) IPs into F76's beta being smoother than many releases. Launches can annihilate both login and instance servers. Blizzard (I would honestly say Activision) cheaped out since they hadn't done a major release in a few years and figured the extra capacity they had for Starcraft 2 could shoulder the load.

If anything, most Betas function and you're going to have issues in the game and/or (with the case of open betas) they are testing server performance under heavy load and looking for bugs people are going to run across when they dive into the content.

I honestly expect most betas to go smoother than launch since you can control who is in the Beta. But if you buy the game, you are likely to be hammering their servers at launch. You can look at Brink's Beta versus launch so see how something promising can be turned into a shitshow when the playerbase actually hits the servers.

GG matchmaking and official servers. Official servers are usually trash, no matter the game. Even valve's server tend to buck like crazy.

And? Beth has been upfront about this beta being a major bug test and that they knew the game was still broken and in need of fixes. I don't get the wailing and gnashing of teeth here over something Beth has been very upfront about.

[TheFeniX]

And? Beth has been upfront about this beta being a major bug test and that they knew the game was still broken and in need of fixes. I don't get the wailing and gnashing of teeth here over something Beth has been very upfront about.

"Major Bug test" 2 weeks before release. With this result? I'd be ready for another Brink level launch disaster. Beth has always been upfront that their "everything" are bug ridden messes. But after their open letter to the fans stating this will essentially be an Early-Access title they want $60 for: The idea of gnashing teeth is funny, I'm just laughing.

That aside, this Beta was not smoother than many launches unless you are specifically pre-ordering nothing but overhyped shitheaps of code.

When/if private servers get added and modders add some content (like actual NPCs) it might be worth dropping $30 or so on "7 Days to Die: F4 reskin." But running around collecting junk and shooting radroaches with a buddy isn't exactly what I would call AAA tier gaming. Even Conan Exiles added in some neutral NPCs and a very basic bartering system with them. I would expect a monolith like Beth to enter this genre with a big splash, but instead we're just getting "same shit: BUT FALLOUT SKIN! Please dump your money in that hole over there."

The game is also somehow 45GBs with Fallout 4 (with DLCs I think) being like ~35GB. So, I'm betting there's just a shitload of dummied out F4 data to work with either way.

[bilateralrope]

Now for something that is always a bad idea. Physics tied to framerate.

So the faster your framerate, the faster you move. Which is fine, whatever in a singleplayer game like Bethesda are used to making, but not fine for a multiplayer-only release like Fallout 76, where changing a player’s framerate is as easy as entering a few lines of code.

By default, the Fallout 76 beta‘s framerate is locked down, and there’s no way in the settings to change that. But on the PC version, users have found that by simply changing a few lines in the game’s .ini file—just like you can in Bethesda’s other games like Skyrim—you can speed up the framerate, and at the same time speed up the rest of the physics in the game up as well.

In singleplayer games this is just a way to pass the time or make novelty vids, but in a multiplayer experience, having different players moving at different speeds is an absolute disaster.

Bethesda are aware of the issue, but told Polygon “a fix won’t be out until the game launches.”

Good luck until then, PC gamers.

Between this and the self-deleting, it’s no wonder Bethesda warned us “we’re opening everyone up to all new spectacular issues none of us have encountered” when this beta kicked off.

[Mr Bean]

The game is also somehow 45GBs with Fallout 4 (with DLCs I think) being like ~35GB. So, I'm betting there's just a shitload of dummied out F4 data to work with either way.

Nah, having played around with it most of today I can say the following.

One, for a game with no friendly NPC's there is a lot of voice acting on the holo tapes, like as in everything on the map has like two to ten minutes of audio with some places having 2-5 holo tapes in one location.

Two, the 45 gig size make sense since the player area is Fallout 4 +all it's DLC and then some in size, I was looking around the play area as I had spent some time in one of the cities which are about Lexington sized (From fallout 4) and contained 2-3 large areas equivalent to the Corvega Assembly Plan in complexity. Except there is ten more city size areas just as big or bigger scattered around and I'm not anywhere near exploring just the first area in the four+ hours I put in today.

Three, I think Fallout 76 can be an amazing game!
On a Private server
As a four man co-op multiplayer fallout game.

Unless Saturday session changes my mind I will be canceling my pre-order.

[tezunegari]

The game is also somehow 45GBs with Fallout 4 (with DLCs I think) being like ~35GB. So, I'm betting there's just a shitload of dummied out F4 data to work with either way.

I doubt that, beyond the copy pasted models they imported from Fallout 4 (at least that's what I would have done to save some time in dev)
21 GB of the whole game are Textures alone.
4 GB is sound & voices.
10 GB for Meshes/Models.
10 Gb for Light information, I think.

At least according to the file names.

The only way to reduce the size of the game would be to make the Texture Levels into (free) DLC so that you can tell the Bethesda Launcher to only install the low / middle / high or Ultra textures. It really is annoying that modern games always force you to install textures you will not use.

---

I have played it in both "beta" sessions.

Some quests are still buggy and some times my "You got killed"-loot was dropped below the surface and became unrecoverable.

PRO:

• the voice acting in the radios and holo-tapes (responder radio sounds like Jennifer Hale / Shepard from Mass Effect).
• the graphics. There might be some people who say they went overboard with the depth of field filter but I kinda like it.
• the world is huge.

CON:

• no NPCs make the world feel empty.
• no push-to-talk function (yet) If you have someone close who uses a mechanical keyboard or something that makes clicking noises, you'll hear them, or their belching, eating chips, yelling at their cats, or their vaccum...
• I didn't find the Pacifism mode (for soloplayers not wanting to get killed by other palyers) but so far I have only seen one instance of a player becoming a PK with a red marker on the world map
• I haven't found a way to increase my CAMPs storage capacity. Either a bug or you are supposed to scrap everything and create Bulk-versions to save space/capacity.

Of course the big bug that ate the whole beta before I could play it was annoying.

Storywise there's a lot but it's not easily accessible unless you like to read alot... and I am missing the feeling of interacting with real people (that are not other players) that NPCs give me.

So far I can live with all the lore-breaking changes... if I apply the "This is a test vault... like Vault 112." (the one with the Perfect life simulation that ended deadly)

I'll give the next session a try

[TheFeniX]

I doubt that, beyond the copy pasted models they imported from Fallout 4 (at least that's what I would have done to save some time in dev)
21 GB of the whole game are Textures alone.
4 GB is sound & voices.
10 GB for Meshes/Models.
10 Gb for Light information, I think.

I was going to ask the layout. F4 has 2.5Gbs of voice files alone. Have you attempted to hack at any of the archives with a BSA extractor?

21Gbs of texture doesn't surprise me. Beth textures are horribly optimized. You can downscale and compress the shit out of them with near no detail loss, especially considering how poorly the meshes are generally mapped.

This could cause issues with modding later on. Beth, while modding friendly in general, is hostile towards content from their other games being ported. But, unsurprisingly, not hostile toward the IP of other developers being stolen.

[Mr Bean]

21Gbs of texture doesn't surprise me. Beth textures are horribly optimized. You can downscale and compress the shit out of them with near no detail loss, especially considering how poorly the meshes are generally mapped.

You know I forgot about the texture issues, like faces Bethesda seems to just have terrible people in charges of textures since Morrowind (Found it Morrowind VS Modded) where mod teams made better (Or at least cleaner) looking faces using less texture sizes then Bethesda managed or the "lite" texture mod feature 2k quality textures that ended up be 60% the size of the default texture and looked better than the Skyrim HD texture mod Bethesda themselves put out.

It is one of those Bethesda mysterious on how it happens on every single game, faces look terrible or inhuman and textures and three times the size they need to be.

[Mr Bean]

Thank you Angry Joe for the following "PVP" Footage
PVP in action
This is 3 on 1 vs someone who's afk, WHO WILL WIN?

The AFK guy does, he comes back after they try murdering him for 3-4 minute he comes back to his keyboard stimpack once and ignores them.

[Jub]

Thank you Angry Joe for the following "PVP" Footage
PVP in action
This is 3 on 1 vs someone who's afk, WHO WILL WIN?

The AFK guy does, he comes back after they try murdering him for 3-4 minute he comes back to his keyboard stimpack once and ignores them.

It's bease that player wasn't PvP flagged. They take like no damage unless they fire back at the attacker if they aren't flagged. I don't know if it's a low level only thing or just the anti griefing system working exactly as intended.

[Mr Bean]

Thank you Angry Joe for the following "PVP" Footage
PVP in action
This is 3 on 1 vs someone who's afk, WHO WILL WIN?

The AFK guy does, he comes back after they try murdering him for 3-4 minute he comes back to his keyboard stimpack once and ignores them.

It's bease that player wasn't PvP flagged. They take like no damage unless they fire back at the attacker if they aren't flagged. I don't know if it's a low level only thing or just the anti griefing system working exactly as intended.

It's the anti-griefing system in action however while you take you damage you stuff does, so it's quite possible to watch a group smash your base up and if you shoot them your PVP flagged again it's reduced damage but it's not no damage.

Which basically means it's less PVP and more school-yard bully system with the enemy hoping you'll pay attention to them so they can kill you.
It's about the worst of all words, not area PVP or instanced PVP or perma flagged PVP it's this horrible compromise.

[Jub]

Fast travel and then call your base to your new location?

[Mr Bean]

Fast travel and then call your base to your new location?

You can't deploy near existing structures (The thing you can fast travel to) +base placement can be finicky as heck + you have to pay for the fast travel and the base redeployment in caps. The cheaper way would be logging off as your base instant vanishes but again it's still not proper pvp or really PVP as an option between pvp players it's just trying to annoy someone enough they fight back.

[Jub]

Fast travel and then call your base to your new location?

You can't deploy near existing structures (The thing you can fast travel to) +base placement can be finicky as heck + you have to pay for the fast travel and the base redeployment in caps. The cheaper way would be logging off as your base instant vanishes but again it's still not proper pvp or really PVP as an option between pvp players it's just trying to annoy someone enough they fight back.

I still don't see the issue seeing as the majority of players don't want this to be a Day Z/Rust clone with all the griefing that entails. A dedicated set of PvP servers or just a PVP area or two in each zone would be cool, but I don't think this was ever supposed to be a PvP focused game. This is co-op Fallout 4 with a little extra spice and less NPC models and I don't think that's a bad thing.

[Mr Bean]

I still don't see the issue seeing as the majority of players don't want this to be a Day Z/Rust clone with all the griefing that entails. A dedicated set of PvP servers or just a PVP area or two in each zone would be cool, but I don't think this was ever supposed to be a PvP focused game. This is co-op Fallout 4 with a little extra spice and less NPC models and I don't think that's a bad thing.

That's my point this half and half business just makes the PVE's have to deal with the equivalent of an annoying kid brother screaming fight me. Meanwhile the PVPer lacks the Day Z/Rust/7 Days feel of exploring a wide open world knowing that at any minute they might guess star in a remake of the most dangerous game.

As a PVEr I have to worry that while I'm off exploring this cave or this military base back at my home CAMP some griefers are going to smash up my walls and defenses, destroying my crafting benches and costing me a ton of scrap to repair everything. If I fight back I'll win and gain a few caps or lose and lose my scrap.

As a PVPr I can't get the drop on anyone, I can't lay an ambush, or feign weakness to lead my enemy into environmental dangers. If my enemy wanted they can ignore me, walk home, make some buff food, get the super sledge out of storage, eat the food, get high as a kite on drugs then 1-shot me and ignore me.

Neither side is happy is my point.

[Mr Bean]

Another example of the terrible PVP
At one the airports run across a level 9 player I'm 10 (This happened about ten minutes ago now) scorched are attacking both of us so I kill the one attacking me, turn to other player see them fighting three I try to be helpful help him kill one except somehow I hit him as well (lag whatever). The little message pops up he looks at me, I look at him we go our separate ways.

Hard cut to two minutes later I eat a bullet to the back of the head as he waits for me to be distracted and shoots and tries to kill me. Thankfully my armor stops most of it (Because despite wearing full armor because I'm wearing clothes on top they just see the clothes) and I turn around and two knife him with the very overpowered throwing knives he goes down on the ground I finish him off he dies.

Minute later he re-spawns again once trying to kill me, he's not just red marked to me so I put a knife in him knock him down to dying and walk off. Five minutes later he's backed no longer flagged so his shots do next to no damage so I ignore him and the player starts throwing himself in front of enemy mobs since I'm melee as he tries to get me to hit him, cut to me logging off in disgust and writing this up.

[Mr Bean]

So ends Saturday play session, one note Photo mode very usable for screenshot purposes, every other game out there please steal/borrow Bethesda idea.

On the other note, throwing knives (5x for 14 scrap steel) are seriously overpowered sub 10 no idea if they scale at higher levels but I can kill things faster with throwing knives than shotguns or 10mms which need 3-4 hits per enemy but even level 10 dogs, scorched or super mutants go down in one little throw. If I bother to log in on Sunday I'm tempted to throw today an old fashion 360 no scope dumb montage but I have plans for tomorrow. So I officially canceled my Amazon pre-order I'll check this game out in a year.

[TheFeniX]

It's funny in their attempt at a "new twist" on PvP they managed to copy the most broken mechanics from MMORPG PvE servers where assholes would stand around the mobs other characters are fighting, praying for you to AOE them.

If they just HAD to have PvP bullshit, they should have designated an area with decent rewards that flagged anyone entering it (after a warning). The only issue would be handling the flagging because it would be worthwhile to camp just outside the area, thus "immune," and snipe people just as they enter.

This is if you HAD to have PvP. What I really just want(ed) (as I'm sure most people interested in the F-verse do) is to shoot raiders, supermutants, Enclave, Synths, ghouls,etc in the face with my buddies. Just goddamn F3/NV/4 Co-op.

[Mr Bean]

This is if you HAD to have PvP. What I really just want(ed) (as I'm sure most people interested in the F-verse do) is to shoot raiders, supermutants, Enclave, Synths, ghouls,etc in the face with my buddies. Just goddamn F3/NV/4 Co-op.

Which is where I stand, once private servers are in I think this game will be a ton of fun to hop in 1-3 friends and explore post end of the world West Virginia.

[TheFeniX]

Which is where I stand, once private servers are in I think this game will be a ton of fun to hop in 1-3 friends and explore post end of the world West Virginia.

One bit of possible good news: the assets might be gone from the BSAs, but Beth is bad about leaving... pretty much everything in the ESMs. Skyrim has a dummied out VATS system, for just one example. However (since I never thought to care about VATS in Skyrim) it's complety non-functional except IIRC they use it for the slow-mo kill cams.

And they are also prone to leaving 90% done content they cut from the same game (The Combat Zone is a good example for F4 > F4).

The hard part to make something like Conan Exiles NPCs be more than walk a route and open a Barter menu is the AI packages and scripting. It would be nice if the accelerated development of 76 means they just left all the packages intact in the GECK since if they aren't in use they use about 0 storage space and (this is the part they could easily just cut out) the package scripts.

Still.... I'm laughing at the idea of discussing that modders would have to "fix" a $60 title for me to want to buy it.

[Lonestar]

Played a few hours on Sunday, much to my irritation modifying your PCs appearance to anything other than a pre-set instantly crashed the program after entering the PC name. I ended up moving through presets until I found one I liked, but I was annoyed that I wasn't able to make the Fattest Vaultdweller like I did with FO4

Got to lvl7 and, so far, havn't had anyone take a shot at me or nuthin'. I did turn off voice chat except for team. I'm interested in these random events; they remind me vaguely of the old DayZ/Wasteland mods that had events happen.

[LadyTevar]

Another DL that's gonna take all day on my shitty connection.

At least it's not affecting play.

[LadyTevar]

So now that the BETA is over... what are we supposed to do now?

[Mr Bean]

So now that the BETA is over... what are we supposed to do now?

Nothing till official release date on the 14th plus download the 51 gig patch