Fallout 76

[maflynn]

The recent update also added in random encounters with different bosses after an event. This first week, at the top of the hour, Big Foot would appear after an event and drop a 4 star item.

Now that the week is over, the appearence of this and other similar after event bosses will be random, i.e., they may or may not show up. I think Bethesda is attempting to increase engagement in events.

Personally, there's too many events, and given that I've been playing since 2018, and I'm over level 1,500, I've long grown tired of the events. The newer ones do still interest me, but I by large ignore most of them. My point in mentioning my level, is that I have everything I want or need. There's no incentive for me to keep doing events, at least from a rewards perspective

 

[Plutonius]

The recent update also added in random encounters with different bosses after an event. This first week, at the top of the hour, Big Foot would appear after an event and drop a 4 star item.

Now that the week is over, the appearence of this and other similar after event bosses will be random, i.e., they may or may not show up. I think Bethesda is attempting to increase engagement in events.

Personally, there's too many events, and given that I've been playing since 2018, and I'm over level 1,500, I've long grown tired of the events. The newer ones do still interest me, but I by large ignore most of them. My point in mentioning my level, is that I have everything I want or need. There's no incentive for me to keep doing events, at least from a rewards perspective

The next thing they will probably do is try to normalize the power in the game by reducing character levels 🙂.

Similar to World of Warcraft reducing players levels.

Then higher level players will regain their incentive to play /S.

 

[maflynn]

Double XP weekend, it starts today after 12:00pm.
I used to look forward to this weekend, I have a special build that is high in Intelligence, and I grind through West-Tek.

I say used too, because I'm over level 1,500 and there's no incentive or reason. I may still go through West-Tek a few times, but overall there's no reason to spend hours grinding

 

[Huntn]

Double XP weekend, it starts today after 12:00pm.
I used to look forward to this weekend, I have a special build that is high in Intelligence, and I grind through West-Tek.

I say used too, because I'm over level 1,500 and there's no incentive or reason. I may still go through West-Tek a few times, but overall there's no reason to spend hours grinding

So does that level 1500 make you a super character or is it just a status thing?

 

[maflynn]

So does that level 1500 make you a super character or is it just a status thing?

There's something called Legendary perks, that you get up to level 600, after that, there's no in game advantage. Hitting level 1,000 tends to be viewed as an accomplishment in the fallout 76 community,

I'm at a point where the game doesn't have the same draw as it used too. I still do the season, but I stop at rank 100 (you can get to rank 150 for extra rewards).

I'm taking a break from the game, playing Starfield, and Fallout 4

 

[maflynn]

I've not been playing, but it seems after yesterday's update, players are angry.

I'm trying to figure out what's the problem, but it seems Bethesda has messed with weapon damage and some (many?) weapons were nerfed. The 76 sub on reddit has people pissed. I'll probably wait to see if Angry Turtle has a YT coming out on this.

I may fire up the game later today and see if anything changed with my weapons - I mostly play with Dom Pedro these days, though as I mentioned I'm largely spending my time in Starfield and FO4

 

[maflynn]

Bethesda is having its spooky scorched event this past week and next week

I'm not seeing much of a bump in players, this event is fairly popular where players go where the scorched congregate and some will be wearing a costume, offer legendary item and a spooky bag full of goodies.

Bethesda is funny with RNG, you either find zero spooky scoreched, or a given location is crawling with them - there's not really any inbetween. I typically play in a private world, so other players don't kill all of the scorched but even that has been hit or miss

 

[maflynn]

There seems to be growing dissatisfaction in the fallout 76 world. I'm not sure why but the engagement numbers are looking down - by a lot.

The last update brought in a lot of players in December but the trend is looking fairly bleak.
The issues is the game continues to have significant bugs, and they're largely not been addressed by Bethesda. The last couple of updates, where the map was expanded, was a bit underwhelming. I guess the consensus the burning sands update this past december feels unfinished and half baked. The Skylines map expansion was not well received given how little in lore, quests, and POIs were added but it was heavily promoted by Bethesda.

The latest update in the PTS being tested is called Infestations, its a new quest type that no one asked for and in all likelihood (in its current incarnation) no one will be playing

How infestations work, is that unlike a quest, that pops up on your map visible, you or a teammate needs to visit a random location on the map and this quest will randomly initiate for you and only you (and your team) other people on the map won't see it AFAIK. The enemies are super potent and the boss can one-shoot you.

Major downsides as the people in the PTS have stated - end game players largely don't explore the map, so its unlikely they'll suddenly fall into an infestation. New players will, but won't last long, i.e., they'll be killed pretty quickly. The rewards don't seem all that great,

Again this is on the PTS and it the game mechanics of infestations may change, but it highlights an important feature, instead of improving the existing game, like adding more quests to burning sands/skylanes, they're adding features that don't seem to benfit anyone, nor are they improving the game's stability.

They've also changed the atomic shop in a way where its pretty evident that they're splitting up bundles, i.e., themed items are being sold individually instead of the single themed bundle. That is bundles are smaller and less featured.

Overall, my playtime has largely fallen off the cliff as well. I may jump in the game once a week at this point, as the current game play doesn't hold me.

 

[maflynn]

The new season has landed, as well as the update adding a new game feature called infestations.

For infestations, you get a general location of where it is, and you have to fast travel from location to location within that large circle, to find it. Originally it was designed that only you and your team can do the event, but I think they changed it but I'm unsure. I tried joining one, but it was over when I arrived.

I tried one solo, in a private world, and I was one-shot so many times, that I gave up. The enemies are bullet sponges, and deal crazy damage. While it seems possible you can solo these, your character loadout, armor, and weapons have to be more intuned, where as mine is just for general wandering, i.e., no power armor.

Overall the reddit sentiment is negative, especially given a lot bugs were introduced with this latest patch, throw in lackluster season rewards I'm personally debating to take this season off. Lots of complaints in reddit regarding the new season.

The feeling towards fallout 76 has turned decidedly negative, I mentioned this above, and this update hasn't seemingly done much to stave off the negativity. If I don't do the season, then there's little to no reason for me to keep playing.

As a solo player, I largely feel the game as left me behind, as most of the offerings this past couple of years seems largely focused on team/group activities.

We'll see how the player counts look like after the initial newness of this update wears off. There was about 11k online yesterday, but we're hovering at 5k right now (at least what's report on steam)