» Thu Jan 14, 2016 2:00 pm At this point I’m afraid to play the game.
Background: I’m running a system with up to date software. I’ve fully reinstalled the game files and reloaded the patch. I don’t have too many save files and there is plenty of memory on the system. I save often and strategically. I’ve read the bug articles and the forum posts and done the normal troubleshooting.
My first few weeks playing Fallout 4 on PS4 were incredibly enjoyable.
I love the settlement building system, and that is where I have spent most of my game time. After playing through maybe 20% of the main story and getting a feel for the different factions I started a new game to focus on crafting. I’m through most of the Minutemen quests and I’ve left the bulk of the main storyline unplayed while I build, tinker, rebuild and otherwise geek out on this incredibly cool aspect of the game. Its hitting the same sort of reward center in my brain that Minecraft does, only its awesome post apocalyptic architecture instead of awesome pixely blocks.
And that’s the problem.
After I downloaded the software patch it seemed like I began to encounter more bugs than ever before, and my settlements, the part of the game I was enjoying the most, are being hard hit. I have no way of knowing if the patch is the cause, or if its just a coincidence.
I’ll be off gathering resources on a side quest. “Yes yes its great that I’m helping this dude get his shadow costume out of the comic book shop, but dammit all I really want to do is scrap these brooms into upper shack floors. Give me all your brooms!” And then I’ll receive a message that I have failed to defend X settlement. “Huh” I think, “Did I miss a popup notification that a settlement was under attack? Perhaps when I grabbed that bagel from the kitchen? I knew I shouldn’t have taken that 30 second break to cram food down my gullet so I can keep playing.” So I reload an earlier save and check the miscellaneous quest log, and there is no notice that a settlement is under attack. I wait. Nothing happens. I sleep. Nothing happens. I fast travel and boom “you have failed to defend…”. I travel to the settlement and everything is destroyed and my settlers dead or deserted. Yes I can repair stuff and the bones of the settlement (buildings) are not destroyed, but I want to put my time and importantly my limited in-game resources into new play, into fun and rewarding tinkering, and not into undoing the damage wrought by bugs.
This. Keeps. Happening.
It kills the fun.
I go a week without playing, after previously putting in hours most days.
Then I fire up the disc thinking “OK maybe I’ll outsmart this settlement bug”. I start to play the game. And sure enough a settlement gets wiped out unbeknownst to me. That’s fine, because I came equipped with a plan. I reload an earlier save and fast travel to the settlement (Warwick Homestead) in anticipation of the attack. Sure enough there’s a huge group of synths attacking (although still with no mission queue). I watch proudly while my automated defenses wipe them out. Synth VS missile launcher = more plastic for me! I scour the area to make sure there are no surviving enemies. I wait, I stick around to make sure. I go to sleep. Nothing happens. I still receive no notice that they were under attack, nor a notice of successful defense. Ok cool, so I fast travel away. Then I open my pip boy and check out the workshop listing. I notice that Warwick Homestead says basically that everything has been destroyed. “NOOOOOOOO!” I fast travel back and yet all appears normal, nothing is destroyed, generators are humming, settlers lovingly tending dem tatos destined for adhesive, heavy laser turrets stand at the ready. Then a few moments pass when before my eyes crops begin vanishing, one by one, just blinking out into a damaged crop that must be repaired. Then the water pumps blip into destroyed water pumps. Then the generators stop running and begin to smoke. And then the turrets go down. And the settlers? They’re gone. I’ve watched the numbers count down, one by one for crops, ten by ten for generators, in my settlement workshop menu.
So not only does my favorite part of the game not really work anymore, but the bugs, like a great and terrible Nothing, are actually consuming the hard work that I’ve put into this imaginary world.
It makes me afraid to turn on the game. “What am I going to lose this time?”
On top of the destruction, the workshop listing in my pip boy has begun displaying fluctuating resource info. “Oh no for some reason the population at Settlement X has gone to zero! What happened?!?” Then I fast travel there and all is well, no one's missing. Its like watching a slot machine, the numbers keep changing.
To add to this what I at first believed to be minor quest bugs scattered throughout the game have only seemed to grow as I make my way further into the main story. Not people-stuck-in-walls-easily-fixed-by-a-save-revert kind of bugs, but quest breaking, game busting bugs.
You can’t always rely on save files to make everything OK (setting aside that fact that you shouldn’t have to). The really damning thing is that you don’t necessarily know that you’ve encountered a quest bug right away. I’ve had hours of play go by and then I realize, “Oh that thing is broken”, so after doing wiki research while trying to avoid spoilers I discover that my choices are to reload a save from 3 hours ago or just miss that part of the game. A lot can happen in 3 hours: I've assigned perks, built favorite new weapons, founded settlements, spent far too long getting that foundation lined up just right. It is to the point where I feel like I need to have the wiki open on a separate screen as I play though a quest, carefully trying not to read too far ahead for spoilers as I make my way through them step by step. That is silly and just not fun.
I feel fooled, and kind of cheated out of what could have been an amazing game, and also this odd mix of stupid and embarrassed for caring about it at all. Feelings like that generally do not build brand loyalty. You win, you got me, I’m out.
