Gotta be honest, that kinda sucks for a first impression, altho you can do the whole char creation anytime from the main menu...

I like to spend an hour or sometimes two in char creation depending on the options and taking too long in it has got me booted from one or the other MMO which was really crap

The folk here convinced me to give the game a try.

Spent an hour and a half meticulously creating my character, then the game crashed when I was taking a picture for an ID card? Log back in and I'm right back to the beginning of character creation, I do NOT feel like doing this over again.

While checking forums to see if this was common (it is) I see that your character name isn't even displayed?

Wow, we are striking out hard here and I haven't even started playing yet.

Edit: Now that I'm actually playing, my first impressions are quite good.

This comment was edited on May 15, 2020, 21:03.

Its Fallout, but with 1 (or both) arms tied behind its back.

- No theft system. Steal stuff right in front of any NPC
- Items are tied to a level system. No more being able to wear power armor at level 2 if you happen to find it
- Most of the game isnt quest or story driven (maybe a total of 20-25 levels), but rather just an explore, craft, and fight sandbox.
- No player mods on public servers to help fix/improve the vast assortment of bugs/issues/failures on bethesda's end.

In place of everything its lacking, you get the ability to play through the game with other people. Not sure if the trade off is worth it or not. There is no guild system that I could find either, which is just one more stumble on bethesda's part.

A normal fallout game, with 2-4 player co-op, would have been better IMO.

jacobvandy wrote on May 15, 2020, 01:57:

Medusa-NYC wrote on May 15, 2020, 00:03:
is anyone having a real slow download of this? it is crawling...

I downloaded it from Steam as fast as my pipe can handle, as always. Were you getting it straight from Bethesda? I wouldn't be surprised if their smaller operation is being overwhelmed right now.

Last night it was crawling from both. This morning getting 41MBps Go Figure

ventry wrote on May 14, 2020, 19:56:

Do you play alone or with others???
I prefer the solo Fallout experience and it's non negotiable.
Is this possible?
How many A-holes do you run into and how often? I completely stopped playing online games mainly because of cheats and annoying punks.
Can the game be played and enjoyed without a single purchase of "atoms"?

From a review on steam:

You truly can have a SOLO experience. The map is about 4 times larger than the map in Fallout 4, and there are only 24 players allowed per world. Some of those people are partnered up, some are just running vendor stores. It all adds up to the fact that I can go 30 minutes to an hour without encountering another player, and by "encounter' I mean I see them run by in the distance, or hear a gun fight in a building down the street.

https://www.gamesradar.com/can-you-play-fallout-76-single-player/
More details from this link. If you avoid public events, you can mostly avoid others.
If they shoot you, as long as you don't shoot back, it doesn't engage PVP combat. If you shoot back, the instigator gets a bounty.
There's a pacifist mode you can engage.
You can block individual people so you don't hear them.

So sounds like bethesda has done a lot of work to help people who want to be solo, play mostly alone and unbothered.
I suspect a lot of this has been added since the game's launch due to complaints of people who want to solo, which is part of the maturing process.

And apparently, if you REALLY want to be completely guaranteed solo, you could always subscribe for private servers.

I started playing this at release and am way past 1k hours on my first account and a few months ago made a second one, which meanwhile has another few hundred hours on it, since the accounts are cheap anyway. I got a Power Armor / Heavy Guns guy on the fist account and a Stealth / Sniper / Ninja girl on the other. (mostly bc account name = char name and i definitely didn't want a woman with a male name or the other way around)
The game was good to begin with, i tried most decent MMOs at launch and they had tons of issues as well, not sure why FO76 got turned into this Pinata for every idiot to bash on.
Anyway with Wastelanders and all the new content this is a very solid game now, in my ranking i'd even put it above other RPGs like The Outer Worlds. 99% of the content is soloable and you dont need to interact with anyone if you dont want to. You can even go as far as get the 15$ sub with unlimited material storage (similar to ESO Plus) and a world that is just for you, and some of your friends if you so chose.
IMO give it a try and dont listen to the hate press, a good chance to form your own opinion.
On a final note, there are some QoL mods you can get from Nexus Mods (Perk Loadout Manager especially, until something similar will officially be integrated into the game in some form by the end of the year.)

Just played a couple hours, and yeah, overall had a very similar experience to FO4. Saw one or two other players but didn't interact at all, just kept on with my exploring, looting (which seems to be instanced for each player), and questing. Maybe there's an influx of newbies who aren't bothering with PVP, but I could see on the map that there were quite a few high-level folks, as well, apparently minding their own business.

Only real differences I noticed compared to single-player RPG Fallout were a couple of mildly annoying prompts to visit the cash shop, pop-ups in the corner of the screen every few minutes saying I've completed a "Challenge" (i.e. X number of normal and practically unavoidable gameplay actions) and have been rewarded with a bit of premium currency, and that the perk system has changed to some kind of collectible card minigame. You choose an attribute to increase at each level-up along with one perk card, but there are booster packs of like 5 perks each that I was gaining somehow, maybe as a quest reward but I bet they sell those, too...

Anyway, it's the same general gameplay loop of wandering around and killing things and looting everything that you can find until your inventory is full and you have to dump it off back at your base. But hey, at least here you can magically relocate your base for a small fee of caps!

Medusa-NYC wrote on May 15, 2020, 00:03:
is anyone having a real slow download of this? it is crawling...

I downloaded it from Steam as fast as my pipe can handle, as always. Were you getting it straight from Bethesda? I wouldn't be surprised if their smaller operation is being overwhelmed right now.

is anyone having a real slow download of this? it is crawling...

Just wanted to throw in my experience with the game here. I've been playing on an Xbox, and so far I have had a good time. I have never had any issues with other players. I occasionally come across other people and have done a few of the random public events with them, which was actually pretty fun. Still, I have spent most of my time exploring on my own, hunting for better items and crafting plans, while taking the occasional quest. I bounced hard off of Fallout 4, but I really like the West Virginia setting better, and there is an interesting backstory with the Scorched faction that is scattered throughout the world.

I've never used atoms. They are definitely not necessary. You can buy plans and cosmetics from in-game vendors, player-owned or otherwise. Caps are harder to come across than in the strictly single-player games, but if you sell the guns you find, you'll start making money fast.

I am enjoying this game. You can get it from Steam or the Bethesda.net launcher. You do have to make a username/pw like any other mmo type game.

The purpose of the camps (housing that can be moved) is to have your storage, crafting machines and vending machines where you want them to be. You don't have to sleep, but if you do lay down in a bed for like 60 seconds you will get a nice little two hour buff.

Most people play this alone, but it also works ok in small groups. I have been playing for a few months now and haven't spent a single atom yet. It is mainly cosmetic items in the store.

Darks wrote on May 14, 2020, 15:32:

JohnBirshire wrote on May 14, 2020, 15:04:
I'm not a huge fan of downloading 100 gigs (if you include the patch) and having to sign up for 3rd party services to play a game for a couple days.

However, after 2,000 hours of PUBG followed-up by 750 of CoD/Warzone I need a change of scenery.

Worth trying?

I can give you my perspective, I have been playing this game non stop for weeks now since the new Wastelands patch that added the NPC's.

Myself, The Half Elf and Cutter have been playing the game a lot. and I honestly love the game now.

Yes, still has issues, and can run into some bugs now and then, but for the most part the game has been very playable. Just hit level 86 today. I know Elf and Cutter both like the game too. I'm sure they will chime in soon enough.

But for free, its well worth checking out.

Well over 250 hours into the game and I still have not seen everything or done all of the quest. So that should give you an idea of just how big this game is.

I will give you a hint, as soon as you get the quest to explore the Whispering springs, go and do it. the rewards are so worth it.

Do you play alone or with others???
I prefer the solo Fallout experience and it's non negotiable.
Is this possible?
How many A-holes do you run into and how often? I completely stopped playing online games mainly because of cheats and annoying punks.
Can the game be played and enjoyed without a single purchase of "atoms"?

Why do you need camp or base, are you required to sleep? I've got over 1000 hours in FO4 (modded to hell and back ) and don't sleep.
Even more worrisome, they don't have some bank system like a normal mmog? Well at least all of them I've played afaik, since EQ back in 99.
Thirdly, what 3rd party services does JohnBirshire mean? I don't want some crap like denuvo on my system.

This comment was edited on May 14, 2020, 19:17.

wrlwnd wrote on May 14, 2020, 18:49:
LOL

So I downloaded it and can't even login to create an account. Just says "error during login" or whatever. And it doesn't have a way to let me exit from that. Have to bring up task manager and kill it.

Brilliant.

I think you have to create an account on Bethesda's web site.

LOL

So I downloaded it and can't even login to create an account. Just says "error during login" or whatever. And it doesn't have a way to let me exit from that. Have to bring up task manager and kill it.

Brilliant.

Cutter wrote on May 14, 2020, 15:44:
People make some amazing residences and stuff.

Here I sit in my box of a house. I'm only level 20 with around 36 hours played, all since it came to Steam. Very much enjoying it, bugs and all. I play completely solo and have pacifist mode turned on. Communism Bot keeps me company at least.

Yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

JohnBirshire wrote on May 14, 2020, 15:04:
I'm not a huge fan of downloading 100 gigs (if you include the patch) and having to sign up for 3rd party services to play a game for a couple days.

However, after 2,000 hours of PUBG followed-up by 750 of CoD/Warzone I need a change of scenery.

Worth trying?

Something to consider, FO76 now has about 80% review rating on steam, which I consider it's overall matured current rating (since it just came out on steam) as compared to initial reviews. So it may have sucked much more on launch, but now it's probably a decent game to get into, especially if you are a fallout fan. I've been thinking about it myself now. I had a preorder that I never played lol.

Yeah, everything Darks said. There's still issues with lag, no text chat - that's my biggest peeve, and build limits. Aside from that it scratches that Fallout itch. One thing Bethsoft does do well is world building. It's a huge game world with plenty of interesting places. People make some amazing residences and stuff. If you're into FO it's worth trying at least. If you're into it look for a cheap key on a resale site. I picked mine up last year on CDKEYS for like $10 or $15 bux US I think.

JohnBirshire wrote on May 14, 2020, 15:04:
I'm not a huge fan of downloading 100 gigs (if you include the patch) and having to sign up for 3rd party services to play a game for a couple days.

However, after 2,000 hours of PUBG followed-up by 750 of CoD/Warzone I need a change of scenery.

Worth trying?

I can give you my perspective, I have been playing this game non stop for weeks now since the new Wastelands patch that added the NPC's.

Myself, The Half Elf and Cutter have been playing the game a lot. and I honestly love the game now.

Yes, still has issues, and can run into some bugs now and then, but for the most part the game has been very playable. Just hit level 86 today. I know Elf and Cutter both like the game too. I'm sure they will chime in soon enough.

But for free, its well worth checking out.

Well over 250 hours into the game and I still have not seen everything or done all of the quest. So that should give you an idea of just how big this game is.

I will give you a hint, as soon as you get the quest to explore the Whispering springs, go and do it. the rewards are so worth it.

I'm not a huge fan of downloading 100 gigs (if you include the patch) and having to sign up for 3rd party services to play a game for a couple days.

However, after 2,000 hours of PUBG followed-up by 750 of CoD/Warzone I need a change of scenery.

Worth trying?