The launch of Fallout 76 has not gone according to Bethesda’s plans. At least, I hope it hasn’t. The game has been hammered by harsh reviews, many fans are demanding refunds, and a class-action lawsuit is in the works. Yikes. Amidst this storm of controversy, Bethesda has mostly remained silent. No apology, no statement about how they plan to fix the game, nothing.
Thankfully, that’s finally changed. Well, sort of. While Bethesda’s bigwigs remain silent, the company’s community team has released a statement on Reddit, in which they apologize for the lack of communication, and urge patience as they continue to gather feedback (you’d think they’d have all the “feedback” they could handle already).
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“We know you’re frustrated and angry at the state of things right now, whether it’s the issues you’re running into in the game, or the lack of communication about fixes, updates, or news. […] Yesterday we posted to let you know that we’re still here gathering your feedback and, more importantly, working to get info from the team we can share. We didn’t want you to think the silence meant nothing was happening. We’re sorry and understand this was not the right approach, and we’ll work to make a better bridge between you and the dev team at BGS.”
Well, it’s something! The Reddit post also laid out what Fallout 76 players can expect from the next two weeks of updates. In addition to much-needed bug fixes and stability improvements, some more significant changes like a stash limit increase, SPECIAL respecs, and a bulldozer you can use to clear room for your camp are coming. Check out the full rundown below:
December 4 Update
- Stash Limit Increased: We know many of you have been asking for an adjustment to the Stash storage limit, and we’re happy to share that we’re increasing it from 400 to 600. While this is somewhat conservative, we plan to increase the storage cap further once we verify that this change will not negatively impact the stability of the game.
- Boss Loot: Players should correctly receive two to three items after taking down a boss, depending on the creature’s difficulty and level.
- Cryolator Effects: Players hit with the Cryolator are now Chilled, Frosted, or Frozen depending on how many times they are hit. The duration of movement speed reductions applied by these effects have also been decreased from 2 hours to 30 seconds.
- Respawning When Overencumbered: We’ve resolved an issue affecting players who die while overencumbered that only allowed them to Respawn at Vault 76. Now, overencumbered players will be able to respawn at the nearest discovered Map Marker.
- Stuck in Power Armor: We’ve addressed an issue in this patch that could cause players to become stuck inside Power Armor. We’re also aware that there are some additional cases where this can occur, and we are actively investigating them.
December 11 Update
- PC Additions: A Push-to-Talk setting for Voice Chat, 21:9 resolution support, and a Field of View setting are all being implemented on PC with this update.
- SPECIAL Respec: After level 50, you’ll be able to choose between a new Perk Card, or moving a SPECIAL point you had previously allocated.
- C.A.M.P. Placement on Login: Your C.A.M.P. will no longer be automatically blueprinted and stored if someone is occupying your location when you log into a server. Instead, you’ll receive a notification that your space is occupied. If you decide to find a new home for your C.A.M.P. on that server, it will be free to do so. However, if you don’t attempt to place down your C.A.M.P., you will be able to switch to a new server where that spot is vacant and your C.A.M.P. will be fully assembled and waiting for you.
- Bulldozer: This is a new C.A.M.P. feature that will allow you to remove small trees, rocks, and other obstructions so it’s easier to create and place your C.A.M.P. when and where you want it. You can also use the Bulldozer to clear these items from the surrounding area to make your C.A.M.P. feel more like home!
An update on the Fallout website provides a few more scraps of info. Most notably, Bethesda is promising to reduce the monstrous size of its patches…
“We know the size of our previous patch on November 19 was very large, and downloading it was a frustrating experience for many of you—especially those who primarily play Fallout 76 on consoles. We hear you, and we’re working to reduce our patch sizes going forward so that you can get back into game as soon as possible on patch days.”
What do you think of this latest response from Bethesda? It’s certainly better than the…nothing we were getting before, but the company really needs to release some sort of “State of Fallout 76” address. This launch has been bad enough that Bethesda just clamming up, putting their heads down and releasing updates isn’t going to cut it.
Fallout 76 is available now on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.
