Thoughts on Fallout 4's DLC ending in August?

[wavion2]

There is an upside, though. They can now get serious about developing TES VI.

[Wunderbot]

I bought the Season Pass at its initial price after the first three DLCs were announced. I don't regret buying it, because I definitely got my money's worth, but I do admit I'm also a bit disappointed that there won't be more. I even find it weird. They have two franchises that have proven time and time again that they have a community that'll continue playing for years after the release, but both Skyrim and Fallout 4 only received two real expansions and some housing stuff. I wonder if the sales of the Fallout 3 and New Vegas expansions were disappointing, because otherwise I don't really get why they don't aim for more large expansions. I'm not exactly a businessman, but it feels like free money.

 

My one hope, and I really hope it's the case, is that it means they don't want Fallout 4 to last too long because they're having Obsidian develop another gapcloser like New Vegas between Fallout 4 and 5. Obsidian has shown interest in doing another Fallout game, the fans obviously want it. Bethesda pls.

[NorthWolf]

 

 

* Wasteland Workshop was not what I would / could call a DLC. It was more an "expansion pack" - so I'm not even counting that as a DLC.

 

That's interesting that you would classify it that way. I always considered "expansions" or "expansion packs" to be the major content addons, while "DLC" would be all of the other smaller things.

 

I find it funny as well because I feel similarly. I remember expansion packs used to be absolutely massive things back in the 90's and early 00's where they would literally offer as much (or more) gameplay as some modern games do out of the box. I never really liked the shift to "DLC," which was always a lot smaller in comparison.

 

I still don't.

 

Because I guess I'm getting old.

 

Anyway, having mostly enjoyed most of the expansion content released for Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas I'm sad that I've had absolutely no desire to purchase the Fallout 4 season pass. I probably won't purchase it until I can get it for $5 or maybe $10 on sale, which will take a long time. The only reason I could see to break that rule is because some modder creates something amazing that requires one of the DLC packs. Not sure Bethesda should be relying on a modder creating something I absolutely can't live without that relies on one of their DLC packs in order to sell me content.

 

That said, I can't judge the DLC because I haven't played it but absolutely none of the content has been inspiring for me on paper. I'm particularly frustrated by the workshop expansions because I felt the whole settlement building mechanic was something with a massive potential to be an actual gameplay mechanic with some management/city builder aspects but instead turned out to be more-or-less a sandbox to build pretty things in. Plus I kind of expected that on top of the gimmick Wasteland Workshop offered there would be a bunch of new build objects, not a tiny amount of content that a modder could make in a few days.

 

I'm kind of bitter about the settlement building. Wonder if that shows. Maybe the Vault-Tec Workshop will fix that and I'll feel some reason to buy it at that point.

[bobofudd]

I'm not really sure what to think about the whole thing. I bought the season pass early and I feel like I've gotten my money's worth. However, some of the workshop stuff seems like it should have been in the base game and not something extra. I'm over 850 hrs into the game and lvl 123 with my character. I'm so overpowered it's ridiculous. Trying to find enemies that are challenging is getting harder to come by and I keep hoping the dlcs will help with that, but they aren't. They're just adding more sand into a sandbox that I'm running out of reasons to play in. A good example is Red Death at the end of Far Harbor. I think we all know how that could have been a lot better.

 

I think the overall game design should have been structured a little differently. We should of had all of the base mechanics like the Automatron robot building and concrete structures etc... from the beginning and the dlc should have changed or freshened what we do with them. That's where the stories and good writing comes into play. But it didn't happen like that. I feel as if they developed a lot of good mechanics but lacked enough story so they just divided it up into chunks to trickle to us for content. I've built 30+ large settlements and I'm running out of reasons to try and keep them afloat. Looks like I won't be able to hope for any dlc to help with that. Here's looking at you mods.

 

So, while I've really enjoyed the game so far, I think it could have been so much better with the way it was presented to us.

[CyrusAmell]

I kinda wish these DLC had come before I had decked out most of the settlements in the Commonweatlh, but at least I get to make Homeplate one heck of a pad now.

 

What I am looking forward to is Nuka Cola World, which seems to be a Post-Apocalyptic Coca-Cola Disney Land. This actually makes a lot of sense for the franchise, because the idea of going to a former theme park inhabited by rough raider types perfectly meshes with the Fallout aesthetic. I loved the story depth of Far Harbor and I will be eager to see what they decide to create in the new area.

 

I don't know how to feel about Vaults. It was already a little logic bending that we could create large cement structures in the Wasteland, but the technology and infrastructure to make Vaults just should not exist outside industrious organizations like the BOS and the Institute and even then they should take a while to make. Although, the idea of building underground storage to complement my settlements does sound pretty cool.

Edited June 13, 2016 by CyrusAmell

[NorthWolf]

 

I don't know how to feel about Vaults. It was already a little logic bending that we could create large cement structures in the Wasteland, but the technology and infrastructure to make Vaults just should not exist outside industrious organizations like the BOS and the Institute and even then they should take a while to make. Although, the idea of building underground storage to complement my settlements does sound pretty cool.

 

To be fair, the Romans did some pretty cool things with concrete. I mean, they didn't have radiation and deathclaws to deal with. But they did have a lot of lead in their drinking water, so that's kind of similar, right?

 

Though to seriously discuss your point, I think you've made me realize another serious problem I have with a lot of what's getting released. A lot of it is just thematically inappropriate and I think it's another reason I haven't cared for it. Wasteland Workshop seemed like a gimmick to me, as does Contraptions Workshop. Vault-Tec is thematically inappropriate but at least it makes up for it with having some potential to be genuinely interesting. They don't really feel either feasible or like they would have a genuine role if you were trying to actually build a settlement in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

 

I mean, it would've been boring, yeah, but I would have more happily paid money for a pile of new settlement building objects if they took the time and energy to make them good quality.

[zanity]

??? wasn't the sad state of Vanilla FO4 enough of a clue in the first place. FO4 is such a backward step compared to Skyrim, it isn't real. Beth has better fish to fry than wasting time making 'good' DLC for FO4- I'll say one thing in their favour, and that's they've never been busier on so many promising new titles. For whatever reason, Beth assigned a THIRD-RATE team to FO4, and the game never recovered as a result. Beth will be happy to forget about it as soon as possible.

 

It should be MODS not DLC that we remaining users concern ourselves about. Beth would help the modding community with a final overhaul of functional behaviour (like MUCH better AI functions, and access to physics modelling) as a final giant update so future mods could use such functionality to fix the game.

 

When the special-ed version of Skyrim releases later this year (which we now know is NOT a remaster but a direct porting of the ORIGINAL assets of vanilla Skyrim to the latest version of the engine), all attention is likely to turn back to that vastly more interesting and completely realised game world.

[CyrusAmell]

Well, it appears that Todd Howard revealed in an interview that Nuka-Cola World will be the last DLC the team at Bethesda does for Fallout 4.

 

This is a shame to me because I wanted to go to the Canadian wilderness to intercede in a war between the Enclave and Zetans whilst fighting off mutant moose and using radioactive maple syrup to power a green flamethrower.

 

However, I will hold out hope that Nuka-Cola World will be a good final hurrah for the game rather than a sudden halt like we saw in Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. If, as it is claimed by the team, this DLC will be bigger and more ambitious than Far Harbor then perhaps it is likely my hopes will be fulfilled.

 

I think the best thing for the team to do to make Nuka-Cola World truly great is to jump over to Fallout: New Vegas (an Obsidian game) and take some notes about how to make a local both vibrant and interactive with player choice woven throughout.

Edited June 14, 2016 by CyrusAmell

[Lansat]

I too am somewhat disappointed, although i guess some of it is because of the various hype things that i thought would've been neat but will never come to be, such as a underwater dlc or a space dlc.

[xelntchance]

I am completely underwhelmed by the DLC for FO4. I had great interest in the upcoming titles from Bethesda, was even considering pre order. Now after seeing how Fallout and Bethesda.net has been handled I am going to wait for steam sales on all future Bethesda games.