Can you believe it's been almost a year with Fallout 76? From bad reviews to nylon-gate, the game has had a rough ride. That ride is unfortunately still going, as apparently Fallout 76's new premium subscription private servers are not actually private, and are also deleting players' scrap.
Update: Bethesda has commented on the issues listed in this article. Their comments have been added below.
For context, Bethesda announced a premium subscription service for Fallout 76 yesterday called Fallout 1st. The perks for this $12/month subscription include the ability to host private servers, as well as a special Scrap Box that can be used to store an infinite amount of valuable scrap. What could possibly go wrong?
Quite a bit, apparently. According to a bug report roundup thread on the Fallout 76 subreddit, players are reporting that some of the new private worlds they start already contain dead NPCs, broken down barriers, looted junk, etc., implying that these are not actually new worlds but rather recycled ones that have been abandoned by others. It turns out that they are also not "private" servers, as anybody on the Fallout 1st subscriber's friend list can join. There is currently no way to prevent other people from joining the server short of removing them from your friend list, and this presents a problem when each server can only hold up to eight people anyway.
Update: In a statement to GameSpot, Bethesda stated that this is intentional, stating, "When a Fallout 1st member starts a Private World, a dedicated World is launched on an AWS server. Players who have seen looted containers upon login may be experiencing the expected behavior upon log out and log in. Loot is instanced for each player in containers. As Fallout 76 players know, if you loot a container on one server, and then log out and log back into another server, the container remains in a looted state for a period of time."
There's also bad news for players looking forward to safely stowing their scrap, as it is apparently not safe at all. Players have reported dumping hundreds of scrap into their Scrap Box only for that scrap to disappear. The catalyst may be switching from a private server to a public server after depositing the scrap, but that's not entirely certain yet.
Update: In the same statement to GameSpot, Bethesda clarified that "A small number of players with a large quantity of scrap are experiencing a display issue causing their Scrapbox to appear empty. At this time, we believe this is a User Interface issue and that players have not lost any scrap. Players should still be able to access the scrap for crafting from workbenches. We are actively working to address this issue, both internally and using the data and characters folks from the community have provided us."
Responses to Fallout 1st's problems have ranged from outraged to...unsympathetic, with some reddit users claiming its subscribers' own faults for signing up for the premium service to begin with. Either way, Fallout 1st's bugs are only exacerbating the community's frustration with Fallout 76, which continues to face debacle after debacle.
What do you think of these problems for Fallout 76's Fallout 1st? Are you surprised by them? Let us know in the comments below
