Who is FO76's Target Audience?

[Undeadbob666]

I actually thought to instruments were cool lol. However I look at Fallout 76 this way: Fallout 4 was a massive dumpster fire as far as story and some gameplay elements, but modders are really good firefighters in this regard. Through mods I've made FO4 quite enjoyable for myself, and this will be true of 76. They are not changing to engine, so given time allot of our favorite mods will work for 76. Just don't die of old age yet, and you should be fine.

 

And if it sucks, I'll still play FO4 - been playing it this long despite all these flash news games that have come out, I still come back.

[zanity]

I see that Beth keeps a REALLY close eye on this thread. Meanwhile undylying how free modding will NEVER come to Fallout:rust is the latest legal victory by a publisher over modders - namely GTA V vs mod tools that are very useful in single player but CAN impact multi-player as well. Fallout:rust was designed from the ground up to make non-Beth hosted mods ILLEGAL.

 

Yet we have supposed 'modders' in this thread heaping praise on Fallout:rust. And the 'modders' currently working for Beth are the LOWEST paid coders and graphic artists in the pro computer game biz.

 

Anyway another 'wonderful' feature of Fallout:rust - always on FAST-TRAVEL. Before Todd announced this latest disaster, the one feature I knew could not be in Fallout:rust was fast-travel. Why? Because it negates the entire point of a multi-player world.

 

Does Fortnite have FT? Does PUBG? Ask for this 'feature' in any forum pertaining to these games, and everyone would agree you were the world's biggest idiot. But the insane poverty of the 'design' process in Fallout:rust has utter conveniences like this banged into the game regardless.

 

So answer me. What exactly are the so-called 'optimists' optimistic about?

 

This is a 'game' where the co-ordinated toxic fanbase screams about how critics are "no friends losers" (literally- go look at any youtube comment thread), because "every true fan wants to play Fallout with their mates". Yet you CANNOT play with your friends, for the current game is lobby free, and joining a game instance involves being automatically placed with 23 or 31 other randos.

 

Mysteriously, the defenders of Fallout:rust here never have an answer for this PARADOX. The no.1 'feature' promoted in forum discussions elsewhere does NOT actually exist.

 

And when Todd Howard gives a FACT about the game (not a 'we hope' or 'we intend'- those are PR lies- but "we HAVE" is always a factual statement), that fact is a rock solid definition of Fallout:76. Here are Todd's FACTS about Fallout:76.

 

1) No external mods

2) Lobby free system that throws the player into a RANDOM instance with other RANDOM players.

3) Fast-travel

4) EA loot box identical systems that Todd has NOT said will not be monetised (nothing Hines states after Todd interviews are 'facts'- Hines is literally employed as a 'spin doctor')

5) no game MODES (the original designers of Fallout:rust stated their best idea for the game was 12 vs 12 deathmatch- but Todd over-ruled the game-mode concept). Todd has repeated that instea of game-modes, gameplay must be ermergent from the 'drama' of gamers choices.

6) no settlement system like Fallout 4. 'Camps' are just literal camps that bind to one of the players (and are actually a permanent inventory possesion of that player capable of being respawned in any game instance)/

7) no real penalty for death whatsoever- even the so-called 'loot drop' is mitigated by loot save points all across the map.

:cool: endless progression for characters stats etc- meaning that YOUR game time will be shared with uber-powerful randos

 

Anyone who has ever worked on or happily played an open-ended RUST-LIKE will see that the game design choices in Fallout:76 are mind-bogglingly awful.

 

Take point 8- the latest FACTUAL reveal from Todd (that we got in place of any new gameplay at Quakecon- an event where every naive fan told us people would actually be able to play the game beforehand). Your character can progress for ever (and if you do not think this will be assisted with paid lootboxes shortly after release you are the most naive person on the planet). But what use is your character progression?

 

At one point, when Todd started talking about MUTATION powers, I actually thought he was solving the lack of vehicles by giving players the power of FLIGHT or similar. Silly me. No- it was an attempt to incentivise indefinite leveling through ADDICTION GAMING psychology. In other words addiction psychologists employed by Beth constantly invent new level up "collectibles" (powers, transformations, etc). These are like the costumes in Fortnite that you can purchase in an otherwise free game.

 

Sane people here will say "wait a moment- this character progression EITHER impacts gameplay or it does NOT". We call that thought LOGIC. If it impacts gameplay, being on a server with much higher leveled randos will be no fun whatsoever. If it does not impact gameplay, what is the point of the PERSISTANT leveling systems? You cannot have it both ways, yet Todd implies you can.

 

And what about PvE (players against computer controlled enemies) in a game that can have a level 1 noob, and a level 1000 uber gamer in the same battle scenario? Hate to break it to you guys, but this makes ZERO sense.

 

Oh, a game like Dark Souls found a way to make this concept work- but in a highly considered scenario- ie., your ability to call for Human Heroes to temporarily join your essentially single player experience when it comes to bashing down a tough boss. But Fallout:rust has no such clever thinking.

 

Todd makes it clear that in HIS game all the Randos represent the same potential in a Fallout:76 instance.

 

Why would a level 1000 even want to play with a level 5? Because a level 5 could assist a level 1000 get level 1000 loot or experience? That mechanism would obviously be a self-defeating nonsense.

 

But any non-fool gets why Todd was so emphatic about why his new game has no level cap. Addiction gaming needs an ADDICTION incentive. Your 'level' in Fallout:rust ***IS*** your 'achievement'.

 

More Todd facts...

 

9) currently a levelled up player can TEMPORARILY share his 'resources' (including his leveled stats) with other members of his 'team'. This implies a team becomes the best stats of its members. Of course this is a highly faulty attempt to 'solve' the problem of a game where randos will have very different level stats.

 

10) players can PERMANENTLY swap their unique stat/level 'cards' with other players (ask anyone familiar with the trading/gambling marketplaces associated with Steam items exactly what this means).

 

Note how NONE of the Tood facts pertain to elements of the traditional Fallout/Skyrim game design. It is as if Fallout:76 has no CONCEPTUAL relationship to Skyrim of Fallout 3/NV/4. Oh wait, that's the whole point. A very different type of game genre disguised in the dead skin of Fallout in the hope of sucking in a large part of the traditional Fallout base.

 

PS in the non-gameplay footage from Quakecon, Todd once again had in-game images showing really cool megastructures in the background. The masses of actual gameplay footage from the new Doom game and the repurposed Mad Max 2 from Avalanche (now Rage 2 after WB declined to allow its game division to publish Mad Max 2) prove that Beth is not against showing actual gameplay as early as possible.

 

If Fallout:76 really does have explorable mega-structures, simple footage of a player experiencing one would really help to sell the game to people who currently still hope that 'solo' play is a worthwhile thing. Yet no such footage has been released.

 

A LOT of new game engines are very poor at interiors, since their render focus is on 24-hour day/night cycle exteriors. And in truth, Fallout 4 had a lot of buildings you could not enter, since their interiors were not in 'world space' and therefore needed crafted 'dungeons' which Beth declined to pay for.

 

We do not know if the 'new' engine used for Fallout:76 does away with most in-game loading screens, and therefore places most interiors 'in-world', but judging from the handful of 'gameplay' seconds released so far showing insanely primitive interiors (outside of the starting vault) I think this is likely. It is a goal of all new engines to eliminate loading screens between new locations.

 

All this leads me to the depressing conclusion that the mega-structures are for visual impact only. I'm sure simple building interiors are common- probably cheap corridor systems are in use. I would love to believe that the world of Fallout:76 would at least be fun to explore - yet if this were so why does not a single released promotional work from Beth seek to show this?

 

I am reminded of Assassin's Creed:Origins. A massive world recreation of Julius Caesar era Egypt. On paper that sounds brilliant - especially when one knows how good the new engine is. In reality the game was a massive dissapointment with hideously boring cut-n-paste interiors, and dull cities despite their enormous scale. Yet it was hard to fault the engine per se, since it did land, vegetation etc really quite well.

 

The point is that game STORY design matters most of all. Fallout:76, by intent, removes the story concept wholesale. AC:O was also a world without a story (yeah that game has a 'story' but the 'story' really only exists in the cut-scenes). Once the story is 'gone', the open world is reduced to a meaningless shell, and this issue infects the artistic process.

 

I honestly think the lack of GAMEPLAY videos from Fallout:76 reflects Todd's horror of how clearly empty of real gameplay their attempts at videos have been so far. And these videos would have been highly curated content anyway- so even Beth's internal attempts to fake interesting gameplay in vids has failed to date. If Todd cannot make his own game look good in curated video content, just how bad do you think the real thing must be?

 

Again Todd's Toxic Army's no.1 'fact' for looking forward to Fallout:76 is the ability to "play with your friends"- a FALSE FACT since Todd has spelled out in painful detail the lobby free system that always puts a player in a random game instance with 31 (23?) other RANDOM players. The critics of the game are ruthlessly attacked by supporters of the game with a FAKE NEWS statement about a feature Fallout:76 does not have.

 

I KNOW that Todd KNOWS the unstoppable level of griefing and bullying that would follow if a bunch of high level friends could work together on a single server is impossible to accept. Which gives Todd the perfect internal excuse to over-rule Fallout:76 devs who KNOW people expect to play with their friends.

 

This one issue alone- that you CANNOT play with your friends- is going to raise a massive controversy once the game goes into Early Access (the FAKE Beta) a few weeks before the game goes on general sale. Buyers will literally not believe this feature is missing, even tho Todd has always stated that you play with randos.

 

The ONLY reason Todd has talked about 'private' servers is because this concept will be the only option to play with friends. Private servers have NOT been promised (they fall under 'hope'), and do not count as a CONTRACTUAL 'coming feature'. Fallout:76 is not and never has been about "playing with your friends" or "co-op" or any other multi-player feature fans of Skyrim and Fallout 3/4 had specifically requested.

 

All the talk about 'private servers' is throwing a bone to trad players (and even internal trad devs) who still do not understand the actual game philosophy of Fallout:76- and how it 100% refers to addiction gaming with continuous micro-transaction paid addiction content. Playing with your friends would BREAK the essential leveling interaction mechanisms between randos- and playing with your friends on a 'private' server would render redundant the required Beth control mechanisms for the addiction gaming content.

 

Independent 'modding' (even on a 'private' server) would be like Las Vegas allowing gamblers to hack into fruit machines before pulling the handle- ain't gonna happen.

 

Fallout:76 either succeeds in the way Todd hopes, or it will totally fail and Todd will move on (or be required to fall on his sword by Zenimax bosses). What will not happen is a fail at launch Fallout:76 is then later transformed into the multi-player Fallout most people here would desire.

Edited August 19, 2018 by zanity

[sopmac45]

One day my son asked to play Call of Duty online so I did to please him. I did not like it at all. No matter how I tried to like it, I could not.

 

I do not see myself playing FO76 not matter how good this game is, how excellent its graphic are, how many friends I have will play it, etc, etc, .... simply, I do not like online games so Bethesda, if you are listening or reading, go ahead with your game and please those who love online games so there are hundred of thousands that would stick to offline games.

[Soloquendi]

If there's a market for this game and people who like the style, let them play it. There are millions of people who like playing tennis. I don't like it, but I don't go on the Internet posting a rant about it. Go do something you do like.

 

Too many people these days looking to get outraged about something. Drama queens.

[blitzen]

How is it that so many people have already decided that they like or dislike a game that hasn't been released yet? It all comes down to implementation. All that has been discussed are game design concepts and features. I can imagine a game conforming to all of the publicly available information for FO76 that could be great. I can also imagine one that could suck. I don't know which of those two it will be closest to. I don't currently plan to buy it. So what.

Edited August 22, 2018 by blitzen