How Fallout 76 handles the Brotherhood of Steel

Arrival at the Atlas observatory at Fallout 76The public test server was strange. The Brotherhood of Steel, a highly militarized group, took up residence there… and moments after meeting them, it became clear that I was already on their shit list. The Fellowship members I initially spoke to were dismissive and rude. What’s worse is that they pissed everyone off other in the Appalachians, and they don’t really care. It’s a pickle, and the new Steel Dawn expansion aims to solve new problems in the desert and join the Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood has been in Fall 76 since launch; a small expedition went to the Appalachians. This expedition is dead and the expansion will show another group behind them to investigate what happened. “They assume that [the original group] died because they didn’t hear from them. So they want to know what happened to the people there, ”Design director Mark Tucker said during a call with Polygon. The Brotherhood soon found that the Appalachians were a stable region with a lot of resources, and they were taking root.

Meet the Brotherhood (again)

The Brotherhood of Steel is much older than Fallout 76; they were an important part of the franchise’s very first game in 1997. The Brotherhood has become iconic as a faction of the Fallout games. The franchise can never stray too far from them. The complication is that each time they show up they are treated in different ways by a different set of writers. Black Isle Studios, and later Obsidian, portrayed the California Brotherhood of Steel as elitist and lonely, doomed to be extinguished by its own arrogance. The Eastern Brotherhood of Steel, written by Bethesda, is described as much more noble and prosperous due to its own might.

But since Fallout 76 is a prequel, this Brotherhood of Steel is the proto-version of both orders. There are, of course, the iconic paladins in heavy armor and heavy armament. But many Brotherhood members around their base wear gear salvaged from American space facilities, like retro space suits. There is a neat atmosphere in the Fraternity at this time. They take inspiration from the iconic American sci-fi aesthetic and feel like a bridge between the “old world” and the inevitable future of the game.

In the Steel Dawn Campaign, the player character can influence the Brotherhood of Steel and choose the interpretation they prefer, as both paths must come from this current iteration of the Brotherhood. This is the first half of a two-part campaign, and the player’s top picks will come back later.

The Appalachians have evolved

“One of the things that we have to deal with is that even as the world moves on a timeline and we introduce new things, players may or may not have played through all of the previous content,” says Tucker. “So we have to make sure that everything we do works and fits into whatever state the player may be in.

Players may have completed Wastelanders, but not the main quest, or vice versa. They may have completed both or neither. Steel Dawn has a dialogue that takes into account all the possibilities. It exists in the present, and the game has to evolve and adapt to make the timeline work for all players.

The arrival of the Brotherhood marks another major development for the map. The Wastelanders have filled the Appalachians with NPCs and added two new major settlements: Foundation and Crater. Steel Dawn adds another layer of content, and the game’s settlers and raiders have the option of reacting to the Brotherhood. The next update, which also covers the Brotherhood, will expand on the seeds sown in Steel Dawn.

The team was forced to deal with not only the usual issues of developing an online title – timeline, regular updates, technical issues – but they also massively pivoted what Fallout 76 is. The game launched without an NPC and now hosts multiple factions. Adding new areas to the map is difficult due to technical limitations, but the team has been successful in integrating instances into the game for varied areas that are rich in stories but isolated. “It seems like a simple edge piece that people are used to now, but man, that was a big weight,” Gardiner says, but cites it as one of the team’s biggest hits for the year, with the public test server.

Find the future

Image: Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks

These successes were hard won, especially after the initial launch (and disastrous reception) of Fallout 76. But the developer has learned to take fan feedback into account and steer the product towards what they want. And when it comes to the harsher or more vitriolic reviews that thrive on YouTube or some fan forums, Bethesda has come to terms with that as well.

“It’s still a mixture. But it’s honestly not that bad. Even after launch, in what I call the dark times, it wasn’t that big of a deal, ”says Jeff Gardiner, project manager at Bethesda. “There were always people who enjoyed the game. And, you know, what I was saying all the time was at least they’re still talking about this game, and they want to its good.

Bethesda is also learning to work with the passionate community of game builders. At one point, the developer fixed a bug with two walls stacking next to each other that he “thought was very benign.” , according to Gardiner. “It turned out that people used this to build special things in CAMPs. It was an important task for us, because we were not aware of it, and the community love to make double-sided walls. “

Steel Dawn is an update that doesn’t need to catch up as much as previous iterations of the game. It builds on the successful expansion of Wastelanders, and the developers have a stronger hand on the wheel. For example, the addition of staggered CAMP basements that have a much bigger build budget and tons of customization, is a meaty bone that builders and role players in the game have to chew on. People can now theoretically build their own chests. Steel Dawn is touching familiar territory for the Fallout franchise, but it feels unique – a sign that Fallout 76 has found its marks as its own game and cohesive world.

Steel Dawn will be released on December 1 as a free update; a second part of the campaign will be released in the future. Both updates, along with Wastelanders, are free additions to the game.