Fallout 76 had a rather rough year in 2019, despite initially looking promising. The game has potential and a big chance in 2020. Our author Benedict has ideas for content that, in his opinion, are necessary for success.
What are these things? The ideas I list here are all features that have not yet received any official information. They are things that I noticed were very useful but missing while playing.
Some of the ideas have also appeared in the community and have been requested by players on reddit, often multiple times. However, there has been no statement from Bethesda yet on whether they will be implemented.
Since Fallout 76 was released in November 2018, several innovations have been implemented in the game, such as:
- Nuclear Winter, a battle royale mode
- The Raids Vault 94 and Vault 63
- The dungeons Caves under Harpers Ferry and Arktos Pharma: Project Paradise
- The legendary vendor
- Player shops, new quests, and more
Nevertheless, some content is still missing that I believe would be important for gameplay or simply for the feel of the game.
1. A Text Chat
Why this feature is important: So far, players in Fallout 76 can only communicate via voice chat. Voice chats are important and a good solution, but not everyone wants to use them, and many people deliberately refrain from showing their voice. Additionally, women often refrain from speaking.
There are also people who are hearing impaired or simply cannot speak. For them, aside from emotes, there is no way to communicate or draw attention in Fallout 76.
The community of Fallout 76 is known to be friendly and supportive. A global chat would also help players to call for or offer help across the entire map.
Integrating this into the game would also be straightforward. Every player already has a Pip-Boy. For the story and role players, global chats would run through it since it can also receive a radio signal. Why not have a text chat?
A text chat would help both those who cannot or do not want to communicate any other way, as well as facilitate general coordination. I really don’t understand why this feature was not included in the game from the start.
2. Specializations and Professions
What is meant by this? Characters in Fallout 76 are built using the well-known S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system and are then equipped with special abilities and traits through perks. This allows for various builds for weapons and armor or for gathering and crafting.
What is currently lacking, however, is the ability to truly specialize in these aspects and utilize them. While one can fulfill a role in a group, for the game itself you need to be proficient in more or less everything to progress.
In a thread on reddit, user Yzalirk has even pondered what possible specializations, professions, or roles could look like:
- Caravan operator
- Mercenary
- Slave trader
- Bounty hunter
- Hunter
- Botanist
- Doctor – a role that players can already embody
Why this feature is important: With the opportunity to specialize in something, the various builds would gain even more depth. This would also complement the plan to bring legendary perks into the game as well as the perk loadouts that are already planned.
Especially with regard to the upcoming Wastelanders update and the NPCs that will come with it, players could earn a reputation or rewards with these specializations. Fallout 76 would then be a good step closer to being an RPG.
3. Better Dungeons and Raids
What is the current problem? Even though there are already numerous dungeons and raids, they are currently not well received. Several issues exist with them:
- The challenges are not appropriate and often too easy
- Dungeons are not instanced – other players can just show up
- The rewards are only somewhat useful
- Some bugs cause tasks not to always be completable
How this feature could be better: Similar to the current raids, dungeons should be generally instanced. This way, players would again have a real reason to team up with their friends and complete an instance.
Additionally, more sophisticated mechanics than “defeat X waves of Y enemies while collecting Z items” would help with replay value and challenge. At the moment, neither dungeons nor raids feel really unique.
This would work well with roles and specializations. Depending on team composition, different strategies would need to be chosen, possibly even with alternative paths through the instance.
If there were also special loot, similar to the “potted plants” in Vault 94, that could open up new builds, the entire feature would certainly be more popular.
4. More Cities or Building Areas
What is meant by this? The areas in Appalachia are largely populated by various monsters. This also affects the different cities and locations. Hardly any place is truly abandoned; everywhere have Burned, mutants, or creatures settled.
The places in the open landscape, on the other hand, are often so hilly or full of debris that little can be built there. There is a lack of opportunities for players to embark on larger C.A.M.P. projects alone or collaboratively.
Why this is important: Role-playing has become an important aspect of Fallout 76. Many players embody special characters and thereby enliven the game world. There are even some player groups, who play an entire police station.
For these players, it would be good and important if they had places where they could do what Vault 76 was intended for: rebuilding Appalachia.
Ghost towns with accessible and usable buildings would be one way to give players a role-playing city even without a C.A.M.P. Larger areas would enable players to collectively build cities – similarly to the already T.O.W.N. project conceived by fans in early 2019.
5. More Music!
Why more music? This is something that really has little impact on the game itself, but as a fan of the Fallout series, I’ve often noticed it while playing. The radio in Fallout 76 gets quite monotonous over time.
When I wander through the wasteland, I usually listen to Radio Appalachia because these oldies, along with the atmosphere, always delight me about Fallout. However, it gets repetitive quickly.
As someone who likes to wander around, intentionally get lost, and sometimes find particularly creepy or quirky places in Fallout 76, I need music for that.
The Fallout series has had wonderful radio stations with good music in previous installments. I don’t quite understand why these songs aren’t simply included in the playlist or even why the corresponding Fallout titles (“Radio New Vegas”) aren’t available as stations.
It would be a great expansion and would certainly sweeten the game for me. Surely a somewhat selfish wish, but one that has already been voiced several times by other players.
Fallout 76 is Getting Better
What Fallout 76 is already getting: Besides my wishes for 2020, Fallout 76 has already announced several things that are definitely coming. Among them are several features that are truly important – sometimes even more important than my ideas here. These include:
- The Wastelanders update and NPCs and factions
- Skill loadouts for quick switching of perks
- An improved social menu
- A test server so the community can test patches in advance
Whether that will really be enough to turn Fallout 76 into a good game remains to be seen. At least the changes promise a good future:
