Contraptions- how did Beth go so wrong

[noahdvs]

 

 

I love physics based puzzle games, and still fondly recall that 'armadillo' one that was a youtube sensation when games discovered 'exploits' that made for the most astonished user crafted levels.

 

But what the heck has that got to do with Fallout? The combat in FO4, for a game with little else, is- in a word- rubbish. The combat AI is completely atrocious- possibly the worst that's ever been seen in a game of this form. The faction storylines and quests (especially the bad-guy factions) are just terrible.

 

It is of no surprise that most gamers hoped Beth would attempt to inject some life back into the game via STORY DLC, as seen with FO3 and NV. But story DLC costs money to make. On the other hand, settlement DLC can be churned out at a HUNDREDTH of the dev cost.

 

FO4 already has 'contraption' mods- but you'd hardly know it given how little downloaded they are. This shows the true demand for this type of content in FO4.

 

And what FO4 needed most of all, via mods OR updates, was a massive improvement in NPC AI and animation/physics functionality that would add native functions available to users of the CK- so future mods could put back into the game what Beth so clearly left out. In its current (and FINAL) state, FO4 has so much broken functionality baked in at a native code level, almost all the anticipated AMBITIOUS mods people dreamt of when the game was released are IMPOSSIBLE.

 

The sad thing is this- even with Beth's dreadful attitude and technical incompetence, their games remain the open-world modders ONLY option. CDPR, to no informed person's surprise, dropped the EXPECTED bombshell that they LIED when they promised to release the editing tools for Witcher 3 (W3- for all its excellence- is so hard-coded, it could NEVER have been edited/modded to any real extent).

 

We so badly need another option for open-world modding - and this can only be the dream of an open-world game that is an open-source project itself. The interests of corporations always run against the interests of sophisticated modders.

 

 

Just uninstall the game if it bothers you so much. If you're looking for refined combat and quality AI, then I'll tell you right now you should never buy another Bethesda Games Studios title again because they'll likely never make you happy. It seems you can find no redeeming qualities for this game, so why do you bother with it anymore? You're just trolling at this point.

 

 

I've gone from finding Zanity's posts baffling to kind of enjoying them at this point.

 

Just let it happen.

 

They still manage to get to me. Maybe because they're so frequent.

 

Nah, I think it's because the way he writes sounds kind of intelligent and yet it's somehow bullshit.

 

[sirjohn45]

I just wish Beth would of had a little more story dlc to game fo3 had some why not FO4....i guess it will be left to the modders to fix Beth lack ot things.. Shame too.

[iXenite]

I just wish Beth would have had a little more story dlc to game fo3 had some why not FO4....i guess it will be left to the modders to fix Beth lack ot things.. Shame too.

 

My personal opinions on Fallout 3's DLC. I figure it would be relevant since everyone is praising them so much lately.

 

Operation Anchorage = Okay-ish. I like Pre-War stuff, but it is a bit of a chore to replay. Does not contribute anything meaningful though.

 

Mothership Zeta = Bad. I hated navigating the spaceship. The only DLC I will never replay for this game.

 

Point Lookout = Okay. It gets boring after a while though. Like really boring.

 

The Pitt = Good. The moral choice in the end makes it worth it to me. I like that it wasn't as black and white as the base game.

 

Broken Steel = Should have already been in the game from the start. It's sinful they made people pay for this one.

[Boombro]

I just wish Beth would have had a little more story dlc to game fo3 had some why not FO4....i guess it will be left to the modders to fix Beth lack ot things.. Shame too.

I prefer auto than almost half of Fo3 dlc since they were that meh and overrated.

 

 

I get why people would want quest dlcs, but tbh, any quest DLC is a not good thing to hear right off that bat. The question, is it good? Since it beth, it may be bad-meh more than good. A dlc that lasts 20 hours but bad as zeta is trash.

 

If it was written by same peeps and vampire bloodlines, i would s*** my pant though.

 

The real question is how good, not how long/much.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Boombro

[Fatalmasterpiece]

 

And what FO4 needed most of all, via mods OR updates, was a massive improvement in NPC AI and animation/physics functionality that would add native functions available to users of the CK- so future mods could put back into the game what Beth so clearly left out. In its current (and FINAL) state, FO4 has so much broken functionality baked in at a native code level, almost all the anticipated AMBITIOUS mods people dreamt of when the game was released are IMPOSSIBLE.

 

I disagree with much of your post but this one statement is pretty spot on. The fact that the animation toolkit has remained elusive to modders is extremely frustrating.

[Deleted3507349User]

I still can't believe Bethesda didn't include a soft-shoe dance routine for deathclaws.

[Puddycat]

 

I really enjoy the settlement and workshop stuff too. I've spent a lot of time on my main settlements already and still have plans for them. I just have two gripes with it:

 

 

2) I get the feeling that they got a bit lazy and decided to do away with small communities and such that you can randomly come across and find some interesting NPCs in and just expect you as the player to build most small settlements yourself now. We got way too many settlement locations. Even I, who really enjoys building, haven't done anything with the vast majority of settlements. We could have done with like 5 really great locations and the 20 others being premade locations to explore.

 

I completely agree! Yes, we got settlements...which i do love...but at what cost? They've not been a bit lazy, they've been utterly lazy!

They left it up to players to populate the world, but the best we can do is generic 'settlers'.

It was the first thing that hit me about the game, how empty and lifeless it felt.

[Boombro]

True, it would have been cool to have some kind of a raider stronghold/city. The raider theme beth came up with from FO4 looks freaking cool (if silly) and some quests. Maybe a deck town.

[cossayos]

I just wish Beth would have had a little more story dlc to game fo3 had some why not FO4....i guess it will be left to the modders to fix Beth lack ot things.. Shame too.

 

 

With FO3 it was Zeta, Broken Steel, Point Lookout and the Pitt. Anchorage was a pure shooting gallery and Broken Steel didn't offer much in terms of story either. So I wouldn't say that FO4 is that much worse when it comes to additional story.

[snapper69]

I'm quite enjoying playing Far Harbour, I play games for enjoyment and sometimes I get immersed in them. I downloaded a mod, War of the Commonwealth, that expands the spawns for enemies amd Minutemen patrols and I was wondering around when I spotted a Minutemen patrol being attacked by gunners, One of the Minutemen was being attacked by three gunners, with iron bars, I nailed two of them with a sniper rifle but the third killed the Minuteman before I killed him. I was surprised how gutted I was that I'd failed to save him.

 

I also get satisfaction from building settlements, giving them defences and arming my settlers with decent weapons. I'm enjoying FO4 at least as much as I did FO3 and FO NV.