Last year, Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic MMO Fallout 76 was supposed to have received a brand new expansion called Wastelanders. In October last year, however, the expansion was delayed. With it now slated to launch next month, we’ve learned of how extensive it might be in regards to the content.
Speaking to USgamer at Bethesda Game Days that took place at PAX East 2020, Pete Hines shares some information surrounding the progress of Wastelanders. The expansion itself is to introduce a brand new storyline, new dialogue options, and human NPCs.
“They went much beyond what they were budgeted to do because designers can’t help themselves. So they blew past their word count budgets,” Hines said.
It seems as if the designers exceeding these budgets have done so whilst focusing on replayability rather than numerous content. Hines explains that for the hardcore players, “it doesn’t matter how many quests you write,” he says that he doesn’t think, “content generation is the answer. There’s just no reasonable cadence that you can put out large volumes of quest content, that will keep up with the extent to which players burn through it, because it’s gonna take you six months, nine months, a year to make content that they’re gonna burn through in two weeks.”
Hines also states that PvP isn’t a focus for Wastelanders, but those that like PvP “won’t be forgotten”. He clarifies that “Right now, the biggest thing that we really felt like we had to solve was NPCs, dialogue choices, factions, quest-based stuff.”
“We are well and truly listening to you and doing our best to deliver the kind of experience that you want and expect.” Hines states regarding the community. Fallout 76 had an incredibly rocky launch and was faced with bugs and backlash for some choices months after its release.
However, Bethesda seems to be pulling back and implementing content players want with the Wastelanders expansion and has also been incredibly generous with compensation gifts for those who were victims of an inventory hack.
Fallout 76 is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The upcoming Wastelanders expansion will launch on April 7 as well as seeing the game launch on Steam.
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