Fallout 76 is a great game if you like the Bethesda Softworks style of gameplay, and I do. I understand that there are others who don’t. For example, I’d love to play Apex Legends or any of the Assassins Creed games, but I just can’t get with the gameplay. And I’m uninterested in Fortnight or Minecraft, but like the Lara Croft Tomb Raider games. It’s a question of personal tastes. I mention this because some of the people who dislike Fallout 76 obviously don’t like the gameplay, and a few of them with good video following seem to think they speak for the known universe when they trash everything that Bethesda does.

By the way, I thank those guys for keeping me out of Fallout 76 early because I listened and what they said made sense, and hey, Bethesda pushed this game out for $60 when it was infested with bugs and had several gameplay issues. I heard the Bethesda’s CEO respond to early criticism with a somewhat arrogant attitude, and I came to think of him as a bit of a jerk. So I get that a lot of people don’t like him and there’s that. However, the CEO has persisted and got many of those early bugs fixed and continues to add outstanding gameplay features. So I’m willing to forget his defensiveness and give a tip-o-the-hat to him. Nuff said on that.

New Feature – Private Servers

Last week, private servers, Fallout 1st, were introduced into the game. I purchased a year subscription at once. It was a bit of a whim, but if you purchase Atoms (store currency), the deal is like with Second Life: you buy a year subscription and they return as much in inworld currency. However, that isn’t what sold me, it was the fact that I could get out of the main population. Let me explain.

In the early going of this game, I found most of the inworld players I encounter to be friendly and even generous with help. It is great. For many months I had only an occasional encounter with griefers and other assholes. But now that I’m approaching Level 90, I find myself “matched” with more and more high level griefers. And they have so many tricks, maybe I’ll explain in an upcoming blog post. For now, just trust me, you have to be on your guard and I usually handle the complex griefing incidents by simply logging off. I don’t have a lot of friend yet and even friends can be griefers in disguise; I had one recently. Needless to say, private servers are a place to dump the griefers. But be warned, if you have a griefer as a friend, they can “join” you on your server; this happened to me on day one. So you can just dump them as friends. What I do is just put my Xbox Live status at Do Not Disturb.

There are so many other reasons for getting a private server. For example, the Scrap Box that let’s you take all the scrap and weight out of your Stash Box and drop it into a box with unlimited capacity. THIS is a game changer in itself and relieves much of the constant inworld activity involved in managing your weight limit. I even created a new character from my novel, Zahava, and she will enjoy the game changing effects. SO, for me, this is a homerun for my style of play. Oh yeah, another great feature is the secondary camp feature, a portable tent with a bed, Stash Box, Scrap Box, stove and even a banjo to play.

That’s me in my skanky Pioneer Scout outfit,
playing the banjo in my relocatable mini-CAMP.

There are other important aspects of private servers, but you have to pay for them and this is obviously a problem for people who don’t have the money or still cling to that early Internet psyche that resents people from charging for software, etc.

The Biggest Battle of All Time!

I recently joined a Scorched Earth battle that is now my epic of all times. As soon as the nuke launch warning was announced, I strapped myself into my Ultracite Power Armor and joined in. I believe everyone, EVERYONE, on the server (over twenty people) joined the battle and as more people joined it, it gave the Scorched Queen greater and greater power. The battle lasted over twenty minutes and I was instantly killed a couple times but  respawned and rejoined the battle, and when it was all said and done I’d burned 5,000 rounds of 50 cal. ammo (a huge amount!), over 15 Stimpaks and other vital resources, but I got a huge chunk of the Queen’s loot. Several of the big players (level 200 to 400 plus) were using voice and talking everyone through the battle. I revived two players during the battle but I don’t think anyone could revive me because I died instantly in the fissure (note to self!). Sometime I’ll try to describe the excitement of such an event. It is definitely the penultimate event in Fallout 76, Adventure mode.

BTW, I believe the enemy encounters in private server are more intense, the higher your level goes (I’m Level 87 now). I was just wandering around, exploring, when I got jumped by three Legendary Scorch Beasts! Yeah. I got killed twice but eventually killed all three of them! They were only one-star Legendary but they pushed my kills above 50. Near term goal is 76 kills.

One last thing: Keep delivering the great stuff, Bethesda!