Bethesda Releases Patch 5 for Fallout 76

AlphaAtlas

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Patch 5 for Fallout 76 just went live, Bethesda detailed the changes they made on their website. In fact, the developers note that they've added "Dev Notes" under some of the larger changes like they did with Patch 4, in an effort to "provide [players] with more context behind things like balance and design changes." Among other things, carry weight is hard capped at "1,500 pounds over the character's current maximum carry weight," meaning that characters can't just keep stuffing items into their pockets when over-encumbered. Bethesda notes that "These limits exist primarily to keep servers from performing poorly, which can happen when we have too many items in the game world," which I find particularly interesting, as bloated inventories and an excessive number of active effects used to cause issues in some of Bethesda's single player RPGs. But the devs know that players love horde items, so they're working on a "variety of solutions, including increasing the stash size." The patch also mentions that Fallout 76 will "now better autodetect AMD 7900/8900 series and AMD Radeon R9 200 Series graphics cards," and that it will default to using the dedicated graphics cards in laptops instead of the IGP.

We will also tackle additional questions as they come in and we’ll update this article as needed. Additionally, we've been working on a known issues post that we plan to keep updated as we fix existing bugs, acknowledge and address any new issues that arise, and roll out changes to the game based on you feedback... Download sizes for today's patch will be approximately 3.5 GB for consoles, and around 500 MB for PC.

I, for one, hope they bring those "dev notes" to Skyrim, Fallout 4 and the future SP RPGs. Bethesda is notorious for making random undocumented changes in unannounced patches, which wreaks havoc on the modding ecosystem.
 
When I was playing this a lot I was over-encumbered almost permanently. Once you hit that limit, there's no real reason not to grab literally everything since there's no difference in being 1 lb. over vs. 5000 lbs. over.
Much of this likely relates to people who are exploit duping thousands of items, though. That's known to cause server instability, especially when a bunch of people are doing it.
I'm mostly done with this game, but will be watching the patches carefully. I'm hoping at some point they'll start adding additional content and motivation to keep playing.
 
this is this years no man sky it will take two years for them to get it right when they release the "forgive us" content patch

The only patch that will get me back into Fallout 76 would be an offline-only mode.

Otherwise, all of the old bugs still exist:
1. Mobs not responding to damage
2. Mobs popping in right before my eyes
3. Mobs standing still letting me slaughter them one-by-one
4. Mobs disappearing right before my eyes
5. Inventory circles on mobs, then nothing to see here!
6. Quests broken because of other players in the area griefing quest targets or just doing the quest ahead of me.
7. Events broken because other players started them and then just left
8. Hits from my weapons (even at very close range) not registering at all
9. Hits from my weapons registering well after they should have (sometimes my .308 pipe pistol reloads before the prior hit registers)
10. etc. etc. etc.

I'm not on a bad connection, my pings are good and I can play any other online FPS with no problems. This is an inherent flaw of taking the Creation Engine online.

Unfortunately, I probably won't ever get my wish. My best bet is for sometime to mod F76's world into Fallout 4...
 
My best bet is for sometime to mod F76's world into Fallout 4...

That's actually an interesting idea, but they'd probably have to recreate all the assets from scratch to avoid legal issues.
 
How in gods name does a character having an inventory with any amount of items cause server instability. With a programming background it makes no sense that a list (all they need to really have is a list of binary numbers indicating the item and properties) takes up any real space these days. If they are instanciating every item in your inventory as an object...omg is this 2000?
 
How in gods name does a character having an inventory with any amount of items cause server instability. With a programming background it makes no sense that a list (all they need to really have is a list of binary numbers indicating the item and properties) takes up any real space these days. If they are instanciating every item in your inventory as an object...omg is this 2000?

I would imagine at some point it could become a little taxing, I am thinking something like warcraft where you may have 12-15million accounts with a limit of 50 characters per account. But I don't think fo76 is even remotely close to that level yet.

I seriously wanted to like this game but just can't bring myself to try it yet. Maybe anthem or division will be a good one to pick up next.
 
How in gods name does a character having an inventory with any amount of items cause server instability. With a programming background it makes no sense that a list (all they need to really have is a list of binary numbers indicating the item and properties) takes up any real space these days. If they are instanciating every item in your inventory as an object...omg is this 2000?

COUGH Besthesda COUGH
 
The only patch that will get me back into Fallout 76 would be an offline-only mode.

Otherwise, all of the old bugs still exist:
1. Mobs not responding to damage
2. Mobs popping in right before my eyes
3. Mobs standing still letting me slaughter them one-by-one
4. Mobs disappearing right before my eyes
5. Inventory circles on mobs, then nothing to see here!
6. Quests broken because of other players in the area griefing quest targets or just doing the quest ahead of me.
7. Events broken because other players started them and then just left
8. Hits from my weapons (even at very close range) not registering at all
9. Hits from my weapons registering well after they should have (sometimes my .308 pipe pistol reloads before the prior hit registers)
10. etc. etc. etc.

I'm not on a bad connection, my pings are good and I can play any other online FPS with no problems. This is an inherent flaw of taking the Creation Engine online.

Unfortunately, I probably won't ever get my wish. My best bet is for sometime to mod F76's world into Fallout 4...

What about a private server option? My wife and I agreed that it is the only way we'd play Fallout 76. We love playing some co-op L4D or CSGO on private servers that I've built. More developers should copy Valve's model.
 
this is this years no man sky it will take two years for them to get it right when they release the "forgive us" content patch

This.

I expect them to get this game into shape by 2020 lol

(bought launch day, got burned. not buying anything Bethesda again until after reliably-sourced reviews pop-up)

EDIT: I honestly wish they'd issue a formal apology. Just say: "Look, we screwed up, we're working our asses off to fix this. Please bear with us. Here's our current 6 month road-map ---)
 
I'm not sure I'd play even if it became free-to-play (as rumored).
I'd need private servers + mods... at minimum, so at that point I just might as well replay F4 instead
 
This.

I expect them to get this game into shape by 2020 lol

(bought launch day, got burned. not buying anything Bethesda again until after reliably-sourced reviews pop-up)

EDIT: I honestly wish they'd issue a formal apology. Just say: "Look, we screwed up, we're working our asses off to fix this. Please bear with us. Here's our current 6 month road-map ---)

Are you selling your copy of the game?
 
I was going to ask if this game was still a buggy shitshow, but was already answered.

I like the No Man's Sky comparison, but that might not be fair to No Man's Sky. They are still patching and releasing new content to this day, those guys are devoted. The game is still boring, but they are devoted. I reinstall it every 6 months or so to see what's changed and if it's "fun" yet. (answer, no not really)
 
I have bought a lot of games over the decades (I'd hate to see a number), and honestly, this ranks among the worst purchases ever. It's on me - I love Fallout in general (played them all to death, even tactics), and just took a chance pre-reviews. Yes, That Which One Should Not Do. Lesson reminded!

I'm trying to think of similar disappointments, and what happened to the Alien series post #2 is kinda how this felt to me. In spite of really good background, trove of historical material, and a loving fan base... you somehow managed to screw it up beyond all reason.
 
How in gods name does a character having an inventory with any amount of items cause server instability. With a programming background it makes no sense that a list (all they need to really have is a list of binary numbers indicating the item and properties) takes up any real space these days. If they are instanciating every item in your inventory as an object...omg is this 2000?

Well, as a matter of fact .......

Look, Bethesda took their old model and did what they believed that had to do to make this multiplayer version work. Of course there are many definitions of "work".

My problem with the game was simple, I was fine with the idea of playing with friends, it's something I have always wanted to do in their titles, play with a couple of friends. But friends aren't just some smoes I run into in any old multiplayer game and that's what they built. I have no desire to play a Bethesda styled game with random peeps on the internet. Too bad that they just never got that. Of course maybe that's just me.

Now what made me quit 76 so fast was me running around trying to do quests always running into mobs spawned too high level for me to deal with. In simple terms, I got tired of having my ass kicked, burning through ammo and health faster than I can acquire it. It was a losing tally on the math board and not fun for me at all. Now I knew what the game wasn't going to be, but I had to try it to find out just what it actually was, and see for myself the bullshit implementation of solo play in the game.

So now I don't play it at all.
 
Well, as a matter of fact .......

Look, Bethesda took their old model and did what they believed that had to do to make this multiplayer version work. Of course there are many definitions of "work".

My problem with the game was simple, I was fine with the idea of playing with friends, it's something I have always wanted to do in their titles, play with a couple of friends. But friends aren't just some smoes I run into in any old multiplayer game and that's what they built. I have no desire to play a Bethesda styled game with random peeps on the internet. Too bad that they just never got that. Of course maybe that's just me.

Now what made me quit 76 so fast was me running around trying to do quests always running into mobs spawned too high level for me to deal with. In simple terms, I got tired of having my ass kicked, burning through ammo and health faster than I can acquire it. It was a losing tally on the math board and not fun for me at all. Now I knew what the game wasn't going to be, but I had to try it to find out just what it actually was, and see for myself the bullshit implementation of solo play in the game.

So now I don't play it at all.

It's not just you. Just running out of ammo, food, water so constantly just having to do non-fun things to replenish those things kinda sets the stage. Then you have irritating people online doing everything they can to just make your game less fun, and woo hoo is this a fun ride.

Now, if in-between that annoying tedium you had lots of fun - awesome. But no, it was a watered down FO4, which arguably already had far less fulfilling quests than other RPGs to begin with. Lowering that bar didn't result in a stellar experience.
 
I enjoyed the early sections of the game. The developers actually spent some time with the atmosphere for the early sections. Lots of story missions, side missions, audio recordings, clever terminal messages, etc.
Then all of that dries up once you start heading further east. The few quests start getting more and more "point A to point B" or fetchy. That's also when you start noticing that enemy levels are dictated entirely by the level of other players in the area. It ranges from pointlessly easy to insufferable and you have no control over it. The MP element is actually a lot of fun when it works. That's mainly when you're simply exploring and seeing whatever you run into. Sadly, there's not much point to that after the early areas. Killing powerful foes offers no better reward than normal enemies. Legendary weapons and gear are basically never left laying around either. I really enjoyed playing with my wife, but there's a narrow window in the game where it's actually fun and beneficial.

The horror stories about the game are exaggerated, but it's still very uneven. It feels like a game that was pushed out too quickly more than the dumpster fire it's sometimes compared to. I honestly think it could be partially fixed by adding more story content. The game revolves around a single quest involving the Overseer. There are are spin-off quests, but only a few and they're all early in the game. They need more of those. Lots more. The map is huge, but it's mostly empty. They need to give people a reason to explore and and actually play together.
 
How in gods name does a character having an inventory with any amount of items cause server instability. With a programming background it makes no sense that a list (all they need to really have is a list of binary numbers indicating the item and properties) takes up any real space these days. If they are instanciating every item in your inventory as an object...omg is this 2000?


no. this is bethesda.
 
I enjoyed the early sections of the game. The developers actually spent some time with the atmosphere for the early sections. Lots of story missions, side missions, audio recordings, clever terminal messages, etc.
Then all of that dries up once you start heading further east. The few quests start getting more and more "point A to point B" or fetchy. That's also when you start noticing that enemy levels are dictated entirely by the level of other players in the area. It ranges from pointlessly easy to insufferable and you have no control over it. The MP element is actually a lot of fun when it works. That's mainly when you're simply exploring and seeing whatever you run into. Sadly, there's not much point to that after the early areas. Killing powerful foes offers no better reward than normal enemies. Legendary weapons and gear are basically never left laying around either. I really enjoyed playing with my wife, but there's a narrow window in the game where it's actually fun and beneficial.

The horror stories about the game are exaggerated, but it's still very uneven. It feels like a game that was pushed out too quickly more than the dumpster fire it's sometimes compared to. I honestly think it could be partially fixed by adding more story content. The game revolves around a single quest involving the Overseer. There are are spin-off quests, but only a few and they're all early in the game. They need more of those. Lots more. The map is huge, but it's mostly empty. They need to give people a reason to explore and and actually play together.


They need to give higher level players reason NOT to hang out where lower level players are doing their thing trying to get somewhere. Can't go near Top of the World to complete a simple quest because higher level guys are farming it and the mobs spawning there become just impossible for lower levels to deal with. I had the same trouble at that Golf Course where the first time I went to it it was great, I moved my camp, figured I'd work the area awhile. That went to shit when some higher leveled guys started spawning zombies that would just kick my ass.
 
They need to give higher level players reason NOT to hang out where lower level players are doing their thing trying to get somewhere. Can't go near Top of the World to complete a simple quest because higher level guys are farming it and the mobs spawning there become just impossible for lower levels to deal with. I had the same trouble at that Golf Course where the first time I went to it it was great, I moved my camp, figured I'd work the area awhile. That went to shit when some higher leveled guys started spawning zombies that would just kick my ass.

As or right now there are only a few spots for higher level players to do anything. I agree that 2 are oddly placed, though.
Whitesprings (the golf course) is the main one. Running through that area and killing everything in the bungalows + golf shop is just about guaranteed to net you 3-4 legendary weapons. There are lots of supplies that populate and you gain levels quickly, too. The Top of the World is another, mainly because it's loaded with enemies that drop supplies + aluminum. Beyond those two, it's basically just Watoga and the Scotchbeast Queen area SE of it.
If you're under level 15-20, I'd probably just stay out of those areas. Whitesprings only has a single low-level quest (Order of Mysteries), so the best approach is run in, grab the sword, and bail. The Top of the World quests aren't really tied that area so you can just run in and then run out. Watoga is supposed to be the "end game" area, so that's the one that's properly placed. A low level person is pretty unlikely to be down there.
 
As or right now there are only a few spots for higher level players to do anything. I agree that 2 are oddly placed, though.
Whitesprings (the golf course) is the main one. Running through that area and killing everything in the bungalows + golf shop is just about guaranteed to net you 3-4 legendary weapons. There are lots of supplies that populate and you gain levels quickly, too. The Top of the World is another, mainly because it's loaded with enemies that drop supplies + aluminum. Beyond those two, it's basically just Watoga and the Scotchbeast Queen area SE of it.
If you're under level 15-20, I'd probably just stay out of those areas. Whitesprings only has a single low-level quest (Order of Mysteries), so the best approach is run in, grab the sword, and bail. The Top of the World quests aren't really tied that area so you can just run in and then run out. Watoga is supposed to be the "end game" area, so that's the one that's properly placed. A low level person is pretty unlikely to be down there.


I stopped playing 76 months ago, I didn't last much more than a week.

I am back playing Skyrim
 
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