[Bethesda] Fallout 76

[Blackhawk]

They should have gotten Walton Goggins for the pre-war portion of that. It would have been expensive, but if there's a time for them to invest in that particular marketing angle, it's now.

[Max Peck]

Maybe, but I'd think a better time to pull out all the guns and pony up to go with everyone's favorite ghoul would be next year, especially if they can time the playable ghoul launch with season 2 of the show.

[Isgrimnur]

They should have gotten Walton Goggins for the pre-war portion of that. It would have been expensive, but if there's a time for them to invest in that particular marketing angle, it's now.

Worked so well for Ghost Recon: Wildlands

[Blackhawk]

Maybe, but I'd think a better time to pull out all the guns and pony up to go with everyone's favorite ghoul would be next year, especially if they can time the playable ghoul launch with season 2 of the show.

I was thinking more of the pre-war version. He'd absolutely be running telethons for VaultTec.

They should have gotten Walton Goggins for the pre-war portion of that. It would have been expensive, but if there's a time for them to invest in that particular marketing angle, it's now.

Worked so well for Ghost Recon: Wildlands

Punisher wasn't nearly as popular as Fallout, and Punisher didn't bring hordes of people looking to try out Ghost Recon. Fallout resulted in a big spikes in sales and player counts in the various Fallout games, even without direct marketing.

[Max Peck]

Maybe, but I'd think a better time to pull out all the guns and pony up to go with everyone's favorite ghoul would be next year, especially if they can time the playable ghoul launch with season 2 of the show.

I was thinking more of the pre-war version. He'd absolutely be running telethons for VaultTec.

Yeah, I understood that is what you meant.

[Max Peck]

And I just found out that they're starting the new season when they launch the expansion on Wednesday, which is just the perfect timing to screw me out of unlocking the final bonus level despite starting a month and a half late. If I'd had even a couple of days more notice I might have been able to pull it off, but they timed it perfectly so that it's impossible, but they didn't announce it until today.

[Max Peck]

This is how close I came to unlocking the rank 150 reward tier for Season 16, which we suddenly learned was ending today (probably because someone decided they needed some sort of exciting surprise news for the XBox Showcase, so there was no advance notice to the players, who were mostly expecting it to run until the last week of June). I was so looking forward to the huge stack of Perk Coins waiting for me there, too...



Ah, well, tomorrow is a whole new day with a whole new chunk of map to explore and pillage.

[Max Peck]

Here's a preview of some of the new Season 17 rewards:



Onwards and upwards, Pioneer Scouts!

[Daehawk]

I never did the original scout quests. They are still sitting in my journal. There was just so many of them and the rewards didn't seem worth it. I do have the scout backpack.

[Max Peck]

I did enough Tadpole badges to unlock the standard backpack, and a couple of Possum badges that were easy to knock out, but other than that I've left them on the backburner until I'm completely out of ideas for things to do but, for some reason, still want to play the game.

[Max Peck]

Skyline Valley Release Notes

Update Highlights

• Map Expansion — Venture south into Skyline Valley, in the heart of Shenandoah National Park, and solve the mysteries behind the ever-raging storm shadowing the region.
• New Questline — Uncover the true location of Vault 63 to meet its residents while you discover the secrets of the storm and the Lost.
• New Public Event — Help the thrill-seeking storm chasers get the best picture of the Storm by protecting them from the elements, The Lost, and nearby electro-charged creatures.
• New Region Boss — Face off against a new, massive threat that only the combined power of the Wastelanders can overcome.
• New Ghoul Type — Meet the Lost. Those who dwell in Skyline Valley. Electrically supercharged ghouls that have been driven mad. Find out why.

[Daehawk]

I logged in and started all this Skyline stuff. Started with a new quest and a radio signal. I wont spoil it but I have already now encountered the Lost and they are cool. Im headed back to base to stock up on supplies and guns and ammo and headed further south. I wonder if guns that do extra damage to ghouls also works on Lost? Plan to find out as Ill grab either my minigun or gatlin laser

EDIT: Damn somewhere along the way Ive lost or sold all my ghoul slaying weapons. I got some robot slaying ones but that aint gonna help me. I grabbed my 3 star legendary flaming chainsaw and my core using 3 star furious beta laser minigun. It stacks damage on target as I keep hitting that target.

Those 2 weps will go along with my Burning Love bow that sets stuff on fire and 1 hits ghouls and my super modded extra ammo hard hitting gatlin gun. 13,000 round for it.

BTW on those Lost and their lvl

Spoiler:

They are level 100.

[Daehawk]

Man this new area is lousy with handmades...normal and shorts. All over place on the ground and as loot. I was grabbin them up but then I got way overweighted and just dropped them. Lol. Figure if theres that many near the beginning there will be plenty more later.

Im really enjoying this new area and Im glad to have it..finally! Welp off to the manor now at the heart of the storm. Theres some others down here. Ive not ran into them but they are about on my map doing these quest like me I guess. I swear I saw a level 5000 guy. Thats crazy.

EDIT: OH! I do have a pic of one of the new Lost guys.Theres different types and they talk and jabber a lot too. This is from the very first area in the normal map where the vault opened up.

Spoiler:

[Daehawk]

Ok done all the new Skyline quest up to the manor and the first stuff there. Im going to take a break now and play something else for a bit before I talk to Hugo or security for \hose new quests.

This is way cool and fun stuff guys. Im having a blast again. Hope they put some time into it and made it a big long quest / area to play in and explore for a while.

[Daehawk]

I just made this. Im not sure if Ill keep it or not . What do you guys think about it? Im pretty proud of it myself.

[TheMix]

As I haven't played the game, I can't speak to everything. However, I would never put that second bonus on a gun with a large clip. It's meant for things like revolvers or sniper rifles. With an assault rifle things should either be dead before you reach the last bullet, or you'll likely be reloading prior to reaching the last bullet. Seems like there may be more useful bonuses for an assault rifle.

Although, if the 100% bonus is multiplicative with the 45% bonus, and you are a good shot, and you can hold off until the last shot, I suppose it could be good against things with a lot of health because that last bullet could deliver a big bunch. Maybe.

I'd still probably find something else.

And I'm not sure about the attribute bonus. Is that a thing that folks do in this game? Normally I'd shy aware from attribute bonuses. Especially on a weapon. On armor, maybe. But I wouldn't want to be unable to use a skill because of an attribute requirement because I changed my weapon... (no, I have no idea if that is even a thing that is possible; it's just an illustration).

[Blackhawk]

It's been a long time, but I agree with Mix about the magazine. There are, i believe, builds that use that by letting you fire the 'last' shot multiple times, but even then it's used for high power, small mag weapons.

[Daehawk]

Its pretty much up to random chance when you apply the legendary to it. Isn't it?

[TheMix]

That I can't answer. I haven't played the game. In Fallout 4, the legendary mods were always the same. The effects were never random. So I assumed that it's the same way. Are you saying that all of those effects came from applying the same legendary mod? If so, while it's nice to get so many effects, it apparently is blind luck to get a good setup. If that's the case, then I guess it'll do, donkey, it'll do.

[Blackhawk]

I just made this. Im not sure if Ill keep it or not . What do you guys think about it? Im pretty proud of it myself.

Sorry, quoting you so that I can see the image full size - I still can't click through the images in any of your posts.

It's been over a year. I do seem to remember that crafting Legendary items was all RNG, though - you craft repeatedly until you get something that is what you need. It's part of the MMO grind they built in.

Quick math: That trait, right now, gives you +39 damage once every 100 rounds on average. That's about one third of an extra point of damage as the bonus. So... less than +1% (doubt my math - I'm tired.)

Now, put that same trait on a double barrel shotgun. It is going to do +115 damage (base) every eighth shots. That's meaningful (although still mediocre.)

Some quick research shows that Last Shot is one of the weakest Legendary effects in the game. The +1 Agility is in the same camp. The +5% per hit on target is potentially really powerful, although it requires that you not miss at all. All in all (and I'm sorry to be a party pooper), that's a pretty blech Legendary. Scrap it and go again.

Again, it's been quite a while, so someone with more recent experience - feel free to correct me.

[Daehawk]

Ya I dont know all the adds that come with legendary crafting. No big deal either. Ive always been on the lookout for a nice handmade. Ill keep it for now while I get more. That whole new Skyline area is filled with handmades.

[TheMix]

Sorry, quoting you so that I can see the image full size - I still can't click through the images in any of your posts.

Thanks!!!!

I didn't follow your math, but it could be specific to the game, so I'm not going to worry about it. I think the important takeaway is "Some quick research shows that Last Shot is one of the weakest Legendary effects in the game. The +1 Agility is in the same camp."

[Blackhawk]

The math was just a 25% chance for the bonus on the last round from a 25-round mag. On the average, you're going to get one proc every four magazines, so once every 100 shots. +100% damage on a 39 damage weapon is 39 damage (other modifiers aside.)

So +39 damage for every 100 shots. Actually, 100% damage once per 100 shots would make it exactly 1% extra damage overall. That's an awful bonus.

And again, I'm tired and suck at math, so my numbers may be off, but not by enough to make it a good bonus.

[Blackhawk]

Sorry, quoting you so that I can see the image full size - I still can't click through the images in any of your posts.

Thanks!!!!

Apparently I'm not the only one!

Daehawk, suggestion - instead of using bigimg (which locks it small if you can't click through), post images like that full size, then put them in spoiler tags.

Oh, and post a 56k warning!

[Max Peck]

Yeah, the legendary mods are random. You don't get to pick them, just choose whether to keep the ones you have or reroll them by using legendary cores/modules.

I would probably reroll those legendaries to try to get something more to my liking, but if they work for you then that's fine.

Until this afternoon my go-to arsenal was:

• Fixer (Armor Piercing/Explosive/50% Slower Breaking)
• Handmade (Vampire/Explosive/+15 Critical Charge)
• Handmade (Reduce target's damage output by 25% for 5s/+50% chance to hit in VATS/-25% AP cost in VATS)

None of those are god rolls, but each of them has a pair of legendaries that are pretty good (AP/Exp, Vamp/Exp, VATS accuracy/AP cost reduction) and worth keeping until I luck into something better. I rejiggered my build today to go with a higher intelligence, so I switched to automatic energy weapons and slotted all the science perks since they stack with the commando perks when using automatic energy rifles. I built two plasma rifles, one with a flamer barrel that behaves like a flamer but is treated as an automatic rifle, so it synergizes with the commando and scientist perks. The other is a straight up automatic rifle, but I got lucky with the legendaries and got vampire on it. It doesn't make me as tanky as the handmade vamp, but it still seems to provide decent self-healing.

The thing that jumped out at me for that rifle is that some of the parts are defaults instead of more advanced/specialized mods. If you're getting a lot of handmades dropping, you should be scrapping them in order to unlock mods to improve the weapon's stats. I'm particularly fond of using VATS with automatic rifles, so my low AP cost Handmade is hella fun because each shot only consumes 3 AP, plus it has an accuracy bonus. It's like sustained sniping on full auto.

[Daehawk]

Wasn't in 5 min this morning before game lost connection to servers. Not a promising start to the day.

I rerolled the gun a couple times until I get damage to humans and some other stats. Ill sell the junk starred items on me later when the game runs and buy more modules

[Max Peck]

If you want to chase after a very popular gimmick build, you should keep an eye out for a bloodied weapon and unyielding armour. Both of those are hugely buffed if you have low health. Then you add in perks like Nerd Rage that also synergize with low health. You can generally spot the bloodied/unyielding players in your group because they run around sustaining a ton of rads to suppress their health. It took me an embarrassingly long time to finally understand why so many players never cleared their rads.

[Daehawk]

No not interested in builds..just want a neat gun.

I got disconnected again. This time I was able to catch it was me not the game. For some reason my PC loses its net link randomly all during the day. Battlenet and other stuff that require a connection all drop and have to reacquire. Im not sure whats causing it in this decrepit old machine. It doesn't appear to be losing the modem connection fully...just enough of a drop to lose anything online then it goes all back again.

[Daehawk]

I just ran another Lost public event. I got two weps. One is a normal minigun Ill post, But this Red Terror Ive never seen before. Maybe its just new to me and others know of it. Bits its pretty cool

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

EDIT: I just got another new weapons as a quest reward.

Spoiler:

Also.....I do not trust Hugo so much. Got a niggling feeling

[Blackhawk]

Daehawk, suggestion - instead of using bigimg (which locks it small if you can't click through), post images like that full size, then put them in spoiler tags.

Nobody can see what you're posting.

[Daehawk]

Damn that railroad rifle fires rail spikes like a minigun. Its super fast. Dang thing only has a 20 capacity too. It needs at least 50 or 100.

Also kicks up to the sky unless you use VATS

All players hear is *ZIIiiip* and 20 rail ties are stuck in things. Then you hear the little steam train whistle reload sound haha toot! toot!

And the whole thing only weighs 1 lb.

[Max Peck]

Damn that railroad rifle fires rail spikes like a minigun. Its super fast. Dang thing only has a 20 capacity too. It needs at least 50 or 100.

I have an automatic railroad rifle with the Quad legendary (+300% magazine size). Quads are great for any automatic weapon, for obvious reasons.

[Max Peck]

This is my current go-to weapon of mass destruction:

[Daehawk]

Very nice.

[Daehawk]

It took me 4 tries but I got this...

Spoiler:

[Daehawk]

Ive got a bunch of treasure maps and Im gonna go get'm. Ive done it before. Fun and tough back then. Should be ok now.

Oh also I found a player vendor selling a tin foil hat. Ive never seen anyone with one and Ive never looted one either. So figure they must be pretty rare. I paid $1500 caps for it.

I think its worth it.

Spoiler:

[Daehawk]

These treasure maps are semi fun. Its a nice break from the other stuff. But man finding those mounds are F'n on my one nerve sometimes .

Ive never found anything really rare or good, IS there any? A reason to do these treasure maps?

[Max Peck]

It took me 4 tries but I got this...

Spoiler:

That's a sweet set of legendaries. Too bad the weapon itself is only level 25.

[Daehawk]

I found this oddity in my last treasure mound for now. Gor many more to do but Im burnt out on them for now.

Spoiler:

[Max Peck]

These treasure maps are semi fun. Its a nice break from the other stuff. But man finding those mounds are F'n on my one nerve sometimes .

Ive never found anything really rare or good, IS there any? A reason to do these treasure maps?

I've only bothered to do a couple of them and don't recall getting anything special, but this guy documented what he got from 300 maps. For science! From his results, the main reason to do the maps seems to be acquiring plans and possibly loose mods. Normally I'm not that interested in loose mods, however I just learned that it isn't possible to learn most of the mods for the Enclave plasma weapons, so the only way to mod one is to find loose Enclave mods (or get lucky and find a weapon that is modded exactly how you want it).

The one thing I do remember about treasure maps is that if I had a stack of a particular map, I could use all of them when I found the corresponding mound by digging repeatedly until I ran out of maps, so running down a mound when you've got a big stack of maps for it might be worthwhile.