The Pending Death of Fallout 4 - Murder by Mod System

[montybu]

I have enjoyed Fallout 4 immensely, especially with the application of Mods that I have been able to install to customize the game to my liking and to fix many issues Bethesda should have fixed.

 

Unfortunately, as time passes and mod authors stop updating their mods as the game is updated, many of the mods that have fixed, overridden, or hidden issues of Fallout 4 that irritate us, will become invalid thereby returning the things that irritate us to the game. Spending hours working on a settlement only to have it all undone with a game update is very infuriating and deters me from wanting to invest further time into something that will be undone again with the next patch.

 

This will cause many of us to stop playing the game which in turn will cause Bethesda to eventually stop updating the game. As a result, I think this game may experience a premature death.

 

While I really like the concept of the game and it's features, the crafting system, especially as it relates to settlement construction was very incomplete. For example, the vanilla construction of buildings and other items such as fences did not allow the elements to follow the terrain - especially fencing. Another irritating aspect of the settlement construction was the inability to fine tune the placement of items - that is, the snap feature was very limiting.

 

It also seems to me that there is a demand in the gaming world for such features as decorating. It would have been nice to have base features in the game that allowed for placement of items such as OC Decorator (by McFace) allowed.

 

I could go on but I think you get the point and many of you probably agree. I hope Bethesda considers this in the future for any games that work similar to Fallout 4. What could have been a very long running game could end up experiencing a premature death. While playing the game without mods has some level of satisfaction as far as the 1st person exploration and fighting, the vanilla crafting/settlement system is clearly under-developed.

 

Future games must figure out a way to be more friendly with the Mod System!

 

 

 

 

[iXenite]

This is why you should always wait for a games support to stop before throwing tons of mods at it. Just saying.

[Ethreon]

Eeeh.. Can we let the doom scenarios die please? Nothing dies here, and definitely it's not Bethesda's fault some mods do changes that they shouldn't (like menu or any other sensitive parts of the system).

 

Also, a quick glance on the release/update history of previous games would show you they spent no more than a year and a half (skyrim) updating a sole title ,with the Fallout ones receiving somewhere above 7 months. There's nothing dying here.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Ethreon

[DoctorKaizeld]

Im with Ethreon. None of this is new. It was the same for the fallouts and Skyrim before it.

[0piuM]

What I'm hearing you say is, "Settlement building is the entirety of Fallout 4". That's wrong.

[zanity]

Everything you say is correct- but is a direct consequence of the disasterous dev history of Fallout 4. Beth management, not exactly being the sharpest knifes in the drawer, determined that FO4 should be a PS3 (yes THREE) game, like GTA 4. And we all know the horrible limitations of that console. So the game was dumbed down right from the start. A little later, even the dimbulbs at Beth noticed that the slow progress of development, combined with ever stronger rumbles of new consoles from Sony and MS, meant that FO4 was heading for a hopeless gameplay ambition against market expectations at time of release.

 

The 'answer' was obvious- now FO4 could expect decent CPU and GPU performance on the new platforms, and lots more RAM, Beth would 'borrow' the ideas in the most successful mods for FO3, NV and Skyrim- thus the (very) half-baked settlement building concept was forced into the game long after all major story elements (and voice acting) had been finished.

 

The result- settlements that directly condradict and inhibit expected Fallout story and gameplay. Settler AI that makes the NPCs from Skyrim seem ten years more advanced. An in-game construction system that drives settlement builders crazy with its vanilla restrictions. Worthless DLC targeting those that think Fallout should be 'The Sims'.

 

Rest-assured- this is a ONE-TIME game 'design' choice by Beth, resulting purely from massive failures by the Fallout 4 project managers. FO4 will be forgotten in record time, and abandoned by almost all modders. Skyrim will live on, and then will come the new generation of iDTech based, DRM riddled open-world games from Beth- which will be more stream-lined- have better story worlds- but will be locked down so tight dreams of old-school modding will be dead.

Edited July 9, 2016 by zanity

[Reneer]

*Sigh* This idea that mods stop working every time Bethesda releases a patch is completely wrong. My Radio Mod for Fallout 4 was released back in January and has never "broken" because of a Fallout 4 patch. Furthermore, mods don't just "die" or become "invalid" after some indeterminate period. My Knock Out Arrows mod for Oblivion still works just fine, despite it being about 10 years old. Might there be newer, better mods that do the same thing? Sure. But that's just how it happens - new mods (sometimes) replace older mods and the cycle continues.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Reneer

[Fonger]

What I'm hearing you say is, "Settlement building is the entirety of Fallout 4". That's wrong.

don't you mean

 

settlement decorating?

[cossayos]

All the mods I have currently installed kept on working. But I've got nothing installed that fiddles with the UI, which seem to be one of the major problems right now.

[Jannifer]

"Also, a quick glance on the release/update history of previous games would show you they spent no more than a year and a half (skyrim) updating a sole title ,with the Fallout ones receiving somewhere above 7 months. There's nothing dying here."

 

I agree with Etheron. There's nothing happening with FO4 that hasn't happened with earlier Beth titles. I remember jumping on the bandwagon of bashing Bethesda when Oblivion came out. I hadn't gotten Morrowind until the GotY edition came out, by which time all the official patches were out, so I didn't know how a game matured from release to the final official patch. Modding for Morrowind, Oblivion, FO3 and FNV are still active, although at a much slower pace than we originally saw, and I don't expect anything different for FO4. All will be well, so just be patient. :)