Fallout: 76 - Take Me Home, Country Roads

All those boarded up houses always seemed hilarious to me. Like, who was going around after the apocalypse boarding up all those buildings?

Optimism is a duty.

Someone with that weird mentality of "Well, I know that we're all homeless, but you shouldn't trespass!"

Also, the people who live in houses, but haven't cleared the damn skeletons or random paper debris off the floor?

New Vegas had it more right than most of the new games. You don't need to unite the country to resettle and fix things. Just have multiple big-ish nations rebuild and reach a similar power level. I started to say tech level but the Legion doesn't have the NCR's tech level. At that point even if everything is rebuilt, you still have a major difference between the Old World and the New, plus you have borderlands and warzones to place the games in.

> . Like, who was going around after the apocalypse boarding up all those buildings?

They were boarded up before the war I imagine

New theme music also a box

It'll be us in 76, boarding up the entirety of the American wasteland. Why? The Vault came stocked with too much wood, and we've gotta do something with it, right?

I'm comfortable with the idea Fallout's environment, society, and situation is so utterly fucked by Magic Radiation it'll require a 1000 years to be able to rebuild.

Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.

There's like only 200 NPC going around the map, you expect them to change things much?

Secret Signature

Yeah, I don't get why most seem set to blame Betheseda for not rebuilding society. This is a post-apocalyptic setting and the fact that mankind has managed to build giant robots is pretty nuts.

It's not going to do very well for the franchise if we start pushing towards "mankind is actively rebuilding and is making a lot of progress." Can you imagine some kind of rebuilt New York in Fallout without skeletons and debris and irradiated water and general signs of decay? That'd be boring.

Yes, it's okay to go for an optimistic "man has learned from their mistakes and is trudging forward" but at the same time most of the games begin with "war never changes" and part of that is just mankind following the same cycle of conflict that plunged the world into darkness. Despite saving everyone in FO 1 you become an outcast. FO 2 despite your actions there are still branches of the Enclave around the time of FO 3. Despite what you did in FO 3 people fight over clean water in FO NV. New empires rise and fall.

It took us hundreds/thousands of year to get to the tech level/society we're at today. Why would society recover to an even greater level after a nuclear apocalypse with mutated wildlife getting in the way in a measely 200 years?

Re-nuking the world might not be the best idea, but the process of recovery should still be glacial.

I'M MR. MEESEEKS, LOOK AT ME!

That is a good point. I think the other side is that there's still hope. My point is more that the settlements that do exist should be, well... a bit better maintained. Especially if they're VERY secure areas. Places like Rivet City are excusable - it's just an aircraft carrier - but why haven't they scavanged the metal from those planes more?

Megaton again slightly excusable - it's a shanty town and we have plenty of real world examples where shitty places stay shitty due to ongoing environmental and people-based pressures.

But some of the areas you explore seem to be in stasis - New Vegas is pretty good at showing reclaimed bits, but Fallout 3 and 4 have weird moments when you're looking at boathouses or settlements that are occupied that have skeletons in bathtubs, or seem to be weirdly unoccupied despite the 5 NP Cs milling about.

You can have small bits of progress, but you can tell a good story about the desperation of that progress if you surround it with horrors. It makes it more precious and precarious.

I'm okay with things still being bad because it's sorta the central theme of the series. The reasons, the how and the why might change but war, war never changes.

It's the main gripe I had with 4. The main story pulls you towards an inevitable conflict between at least 3 parties but the gameplay is all about building and cooperation. You can technically get thru like 99% of the game without touching the crafting or settlement system but they were The Big New Thing.

Jason Schreier did a podcast recently which covered a bit about this game and the issues with leaking and such. To cut the doubters down real quick: Remember the fallout 4 script leak? Jason. Destiny taken king name and detail leak? Jason. No mass effect andromeda DLC? Jason. Dude's got one of the best records in the industry. Full podcast here

and some choice quotes

"Exact quote about game is: "It's actually going to be a survival online RPG, so it's not a Fallout game in the traditional sense, it's not the traditional single player open world RPG that you would expect from a Fallout game, although it sounds from what I've heard, like, it'll have quests and a story and it will feel very Fallout - it's not like they're just sticking this name on a Rust game or something like that, but it is very inspired by survival games and has the base building from Fallout 4 and, uh, I think will feel very different than, uh, you're traditional Fallout RPG.""

Thinks it is "safe to assume" it will come out later this year "based on their previous marketing release timelines" (so he's not saying he has inside info on this).

Jason says (from what he's heard) that Bethesda Maryland have "all hands on deck" on this project (though he's sure they've got some people on pre-production on some other things). "This is their big focus for this year."

Decided to report after seeing that Bethesda didn't articulate what the game was but were taking preorders: would feel "negligent" if he didn't report in that situation. Asked around a bit more to get more sources before reporting. Jason hasn't gotten into survival games before, but is looking forward to this one (not being done by small studio as an early access product!). Then discuss setting the game much closer to the war. Jason at 18:30: "I know it's not, like, exactly what Fallout fans want or(?) what, like, (?) people who love massive RP Gs want, but I will totally give it a chance."

Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?

I think it's a shame to have half-revealed info running around without being given a proper demonstration, but I do have my own concerns over the pre-orders. Games probably shouldn't be going up for sale until people actually know what kind of game it is, although I am aware that people can generally cancel pre-orders down the line.

"Jason Schreier did a podcast recently which covered a bit about this game and the issues with leaking and such. To cut the doubters down real quick: Remember the fallout 4 script leak? Jason. Destiny taken king name and detail leak? Jason. No mass effect andromeda DLC? Jason. Dude's got one of the best records in the industry. Full podcast here"

To be fair, if you read some of those doubting posts you'd know the guy's track record is exactly WHY we doubt him. Dude's leaked stuff that companies didn't want leaked. You want to cut him down a notch? Enlist your people in a misinformation campaign where all his sources in the company sell him entirely on what the game ISN'T. (I know, that isn't actually all that likely) That being said, I'm not standing hard on the doubter side, I'm just stating that his past successes aren't necessarily a guarantee that he's got this one right. We'll wait another couple weeks, and we'll have our answers straight from the horse's mouth. I, for one, am cautiously optimistic that this'll be a good game.

I can't wait for some actual gameplay footage

New theme music also a box

Saw someone on reddit float the theory that the Country Roads cover was done by Josh Sawyer. I'm actually buying it for three reasons:

1) He did several songs for the NV soundtrack that had the same general sound, and I swear the more I listen to it the more I hear the Lonesome Drifter.

2) He left Obsidian a while back along with most of the OG Fallout crew (never mind, I'm misinformed), and for all the talk of multiplayer some of the alleged leakers have been saying that NV fans will be pleasantly surprised. I mean, Chris Avellone collaborated with Bethesda on Prey (2017), so...

3) Pete Hines posted a tweet (which I unfortunately can't find the link to) responding to someone asking who did the cover, where he said that they're not going to be talking about it until after the E3 debut. Why keep that a secret if it isn't someone significant?

edited 1st Jun '18 3:19:30 PM by Dirtyblue929

Josh Sawyer is still at Obsidian, and he has not much composer credit...

edited 1st Jun '18 3:14:27 PM by UltraWanker

Really? Coulda sworn he was among the ones that left. Well, there's my theory in the toilet.

It happens, whenever a Bethesda game is near reveal people make wild theories.

I hope this game has a robust single player experience. While I like multiplayer survival games, they're not exactly known for having any sort of overarching plot or interesting quests.

That's just part of the fun.

I missed the part where that's my problem.

JS could've collabed. Michael Kirkbride did work on oblivion plus he's still doing a lot of the deep lore stuff for skyrim so JS doing some side stuff with beth isn't impossible. Honestly if beth has realized they should just leave the story/lore bits to someone else I'm happy.

Having a bit of time to think it over I've moved from generally annoyed to cautiously optimistic. People hear survival and think rust but subnatica was one of the best games last year and I absolutely loved the foraging/building/expanding your circle of influence loop in that game. If it's more subnatica with friends then rust I might really dig this.

Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?

I tweeted him on a whim and he shot it down. Darn.

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edited 2nd Jun '18 4:04:23 AM by amitakartok

It's been a while since I played FO 1, but IIRC vault 13 did operate as planned, but the people inside decided not to leave their vault when the all-clear signal went out; the MC has to leave to look for parts when it starts breaking down. Also, FO 2 had Vault City (8 I think) which opened at the time it planned, just turned out to be too early and the survivors took some radiation damage. There's a small number of online games I've enjoyed^note Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, Neverwinter MMO, and I enjoyed Diablo 2 back when but online survival? Yeah, I'm out - I have a job, I don't want a Fallout game to be my second one. You can preorder the Final Fantasy 7 remake on Amazon, and there hasn't even been a trailer for that. It might have been a different team doing the trailer than doing the main game; I could see them wanting to keep things hidden on the game engine front because fanboys. That's not a bonus, that's another reason for me not to play. I loathe pay-to-win gameplay. Unless I'm in NV Hardcore mode where my ammo takes up weight, it's never an issue past about two hours of gameplay. I'll be ... more interested; FO 4 was disappointment enough that I won't feel "ecstatic." I'm not anti-multiplayer, I'm anti-Rust/DayZ rip-off multiplayer. I didn't think Bethesda was at fault for Fallout Tactics or Brotherhood of Steel. Yes, or, "what do you mean raiders are a problem, you have 20 laser turrets and everyone here is wearing armor and souped-up weapons."

edited 4th Jun '18 7:09:03 AM by BlueNinja0

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

Honestly, at this point all I really want is Fallout 4 but with a settlement system that is actually intelligent and well-integrated into the world with real consequences. Not just "you built fifty water purifiers and now have all the money you could ever need." Obviously I want a better story and whatnot too, but I will accept almost anything as long as the settlement system is better.

Actually being able to build a settlement that isn't "kooky" but could reasonably grow into a Shady Sands, with characters, motivations and political drama.

So, basically, a 4x game combined with an RPG would be great.