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(electronic whirring)
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(gentle ominous music)
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- Hello friends, and welcome to the woods of West Virginia.
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Perhaps not the most traditional location
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for a Fallout game,
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but then 76 isn't exactly a traditional Fallout game,
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now is it?
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Is it?
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Is it, Larry?
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I'm so lonely.
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We've been making game design documentaries for a while now,
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but this was the first time we had the experience
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of being embedded in a studio
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before a game had even been announced.
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If you've watched our doc
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on the history of Bethesda Game Studios,
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you know that this part of the design window,
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the final nine months or so,
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is when the entire team is playing the game,
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tinkering with mechanics,
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and putting in those final details.
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By this stage, nobody on the team
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had ever said the words Fallout 76 in front of camera.
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Our time in the studio began around six weeks
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before the reveal of the game at E3.
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So a lot of what you're about to watch
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was recorded while fundamental decisions about the game
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were still being made.
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So we came prepared,
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and had three fundamental questions
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that we wanted to have answered
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by the time we left the studio.
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Number one,
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we wanted to know the story behind its development.
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Number two, we wanted to explore the world of West Virginia.
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And number three,
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we wanted to dive as deep into the gameplay
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as we possibly could,
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and find out what exactly you'll be doing
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while playing Fallout 76.
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Oh, and we really wanted to know
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what was going on with Starfield and the Elder Scrolls VI.
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But we'll probably wait until the end
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before we drop those questions on Todd.
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So first things first,
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where did the idea for this multiplayer Fallout
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even come from?
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And how did the team at Bethesda Game Studios
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land on West Virginia?
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- Since debuting Vault 76 last year,
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in honor of America's tercentenary,
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Vault-Tec continues to expand with plans
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for well over 100 vaults around the country.
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(dissonant electronic music)
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- [Danny] In our previous documentary,
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we covered the development of Fallout 4.
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But what we didn't mention then
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was that during this period,
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the team was also designing 76.
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- 76 is the multiplayer design from Fallout 4.
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- [Danny] Oh, is it really?
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- Yeah. - Oh, my goodness.
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- No one said that? - No.
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- It is.
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"Hey, should we do multiplayer?"
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"Probably not."
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"What would it be?"
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"Okay, it would be this.
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"Let's talk it through."
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"That's pretty awesome."
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And then you kind of, you put it away.
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"Alright, let's...
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"Let's do our thing."
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And then every once in a while,
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you keep talking about like,
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"Hey, you know, we should...
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"We should've done that."
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Or, "We should do it."
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And then as Fallout 4 is going on,
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it becomes a, "No, we should really do it."
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Like, as its own thing.
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- [Danny] As far back as 2013,
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the team was conceptualizing
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what a Fallout multiplayer mode might look like.
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But the idea was too big at the time,
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and so it was put to one side
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so the studio could focus on the single-player game.
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At this stage, the team at Bethesda Game Studios
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in Maryland was over a hundred people strong.
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But they didn't have much experience in making online games,
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neither in terms of their design
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or in terms of their technology.
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But it was around this time
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that parent company ZeniMax
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opened a new studio in Austin, Texas,
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a studio that might just be able to help them out.
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- ZeniMax had opened BattleCry Studios,
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which was made up of a lot of like,
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MMO experts in the Austin area.
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People like, you know,
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Chris and Doug go way back to Ultima Online
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and Star Wars Galaxies and Star Wars The Old Republic.
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Like, this is an amazing staff of people.
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And they were, they were building a really cool game.
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But the lead programmer on 76, Jason,
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had been the client lead on Star Wars.
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He knew them all.
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We were talking about it, and he's like,
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"Hey, you know, those are the guys to do it."
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And I'll admit I was like,
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"Hey, you know, we could hire."
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I'd gotten approval to hire, you know,
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server backend people and all of that.
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But I had been through that.
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And hey, if you have a team that works really well together,
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that is interested in working with you on it,
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like, hey, let's try to do that.
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So they started it before we shipped Fallout 4.
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- [Danny] A month before Fallout 4 was released,
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BattleCry Studios
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went through a significant round of layoffs,
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as their free-to-play action title BattleCry
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was indefinitely put on hold.
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During all of this,
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the team in Maryland was transitioning onto Fallout 4 DLC
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and spinning up Starfield.
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So BGS asked the folks in Austin
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if they'd take a swing
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at retrofitting multiplayer capabilities
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into the Fallout 4 engine.
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Using tech from another sister studio
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in Richardson, Texas,
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BattleCry started trying to implement the Quake netcode
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into the Fallout engine,
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a massive undertaking that posed significant challenges,
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even for some of the most experienced network engineers
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in the business.
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(gentle dramatic music)
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- This engine has been around since Morrowind, at least.
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Some of the cool things, like when you dig through the code,
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is like, you get to see,
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oh my god, this was used back in this game
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that I used to play when I was barely out of college, right?
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Like nothing was developed with multiple players in mind.
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So all over the code there's, you know,
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what is the player doing?
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I want you to give a quest to the player.
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It's like, well, that has to go.
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I guess one way to look at it
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is the entire engine was based around a world with a player.
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Now that has to sort of change
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to you need to base it around the player
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who could be in any world.
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So just that statement alone
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implies many, many, many changes.
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Like, the game doesn't load except around one player.
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- There's this thing we refer to as Atlas.
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And Atlas is, because there was one guy in the game
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we called him Atlas, because he held up the world.
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Because the world that you have
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only had to be accessed by one player.
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So they were tightly intertwined.
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So what we had to do
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is essentially decouple Atlas from the world,
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so there could be multiple people.
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- Wherever Atlas went,
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that's where was loaded.
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So for many months,
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it's like you couldn't go away from Atlas as another player.
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If you did, you'd crash
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because you're outside the realm
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of what was actually loaded.
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So a big effort was just changing that aspect as well.
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But then it sort of spreads out.
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So all of the quests that you get in a Skyrim or a Fallout,
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they're all based around the quest itself,
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because the quest is its own entity.
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You need to re-architect that,
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because multiple people could all be on the same quest
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and they could all be in different stages.
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So really, the quest data needs to live on the character,
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no longer on the quest itself.
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So that was very challenging as well,
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not only just in retooling the way
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the scripting stuff works,
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just getting the design team
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to start thinking about it from that perspective.
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- The first thing is it's a mindset change.
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You have folks who have been making single-player quests
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here for so long.
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And what does it mean
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to be able to support more than one player?
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So there's a lot of things that go into that.
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Oh, how many people read a note at once?
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Or who gets this bit of the story?
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And those are things we've never had to think about before.
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Is this stored on the server?
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Like, those crazy, like those.
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What does that?
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Things that, there are reasons
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why we've never gone into multiplayer before.
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- [Danny] BattleCry had figured out
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how to modify the engine to work with multiplayer,
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even if quite how many people the world could support
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remained to be seen.
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Meanwhile back in Maryland,
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a small group of leads were tasked
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with brainstorming this multiplayer Fallout project.
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They realized that just sticking multiplayer
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into an old Fallout map wouldn't cut it.
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To retain the same sense of scale with multiple people,
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the world would need to be big, really big.
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Plus by this stage,
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they'd been building cities for two Fallout games.
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What if they did something more rural, less desolate?
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The team had looked locally for the location of Fallout 3,
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and so they did the same here.
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Except this time instead of looking south,
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they glanced west
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towards the vast wilderness of West Virginia.
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- [Man] One, two, three, four.
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(twangy guitar music)
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- Actually, every, every game starts with the map.
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Fallout 76, we decided, you know,
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it's gonna be set in West Virginia.
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And the first thing we did is we made the map.
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I believe it's always been four times the size of Fallout 4.
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It was pretty big.
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Todd sits with designers
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to figure out what story points we're gonna have.
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- There was just the small handful of us leads
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deciding what to do,
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and starting to lay out the map of the world,
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figuring out how to take an entire state and shrink it down.
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Because before, we did, you know,
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like a city and then the area around it.
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But we decided to do all of West Virginia.
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- I mean, I think we picked West Virginia
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because it was still East Coast.
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And it was a place that isn't really touched.
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Like, if there ever were a nuclear war,
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none of us would be here.
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DC's done.
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We're first.
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So I'm perfectly content to know
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that I will not have to deal with with any of that stuff.
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But West Virginia, no one's gonna nuke West Virginia.
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So we were thinking that we would be able
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to do more of like, we would be able to do trees.
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We'd be able to do an interesting visual look.
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The leads went out to West Virginia and started the project,
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to look for landmarks and places to go.
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- So we find out, what are our landmarks that we want?
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We know we want Morgantown and the Summersville Lake.
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And we take the real map and start to like,
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redraw it and remix it a little bit,
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to find out how we want things to flow.
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Because West Virginia also isn't a square.
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But we kind of had to take...
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Like Harpers Ferry is so cool,
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but it's way out here poking over Maryland.
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Let's just kind of shove it back in.
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- The state of West Virginia
264
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didn't only provide the team
265
00:10:04,309 --> 00:10:06,500
with a massive landmass to play with.
266
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But as it happens, the lore of West Virginia
267
00:10:09,070 --> 00:10:10,947
was full of myth and conspiracies
268
00:10:10,947 --> 00:10:14,259
that fit perfectly into the Fallout universe.
269
00:10:14,259 --> 00:10:15,610
West Virginian myths
270
00:10:15,610 --> 00:10:18,919
are among the creepiest in American folklore.
271
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Isolated villages trapped in vast, unforgiving wilderness
272
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has fueled terrifying stories
273
00:10:24,577 --> 00:10:28,209
of creatures that prey on unfortunate souls.
274
00:10:28,210 --> 00:10:29,910
There is the Grafton Monster,
275
00:10:29,909 --> 00:10:32,088
a giant, pale-skinned, headless horror
276
00:10:32,089 --> 00:10:35,070
that prowls the woods outside of Grafton.
277
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There's the Flatwoods Monster
278
00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:39,410
with its terrifying cowl and beady eyes.
279
00:10:39,409 --> 00:10:41,829
The Snallygaster, a dragon-like demon
280
00:10:41,830 --> 00:10:44,629
that haunts an area outside of neighboring DC.
281
00:10:44,629 --> 00:10:46,330
And of course the Mothman,
282
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a winged beast with piercing red eyes
283
00:10:48,659 --> 00:10:51,709
that prey on those in the Point Pleasant area.
284
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Like wandering the real woods of West Virginia,
285
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the world of Fallout 76
286
00:10:55,572 --> 00:10:59,700
is full of monsters to hunt or be hunted by.
287
00:10:59,700 --> 00:11:02,140
There are far more creatures in 76, too,
288
00:11:02,139 --> 00:11:04,620
more varied types of enlarged insects,
289
00:11:04,620 --> 00:11:06,389
and everything from two-headed possums
290
00:11:06,389 --> 00:11:10,149
to giant sloths and even intelligent plants.
291
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- Yeah, the Mothman's incredible.
292
00:11:11,409 --> 00:11:12,839
Because again, it's a different thing.
293
00:11:12,840 --> 00:11:14,210
We've never done it before,
294
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where we're hoping to do stages to him.
295
00:11:16,179 --> 00:11:18,583
You know, early on in the game maybe he's just stalking you.
296
00:11:18,583 --> 00:11:19,929
Like you know, you just see
297
00:11:19,929 --> 00:11:21,809
these creepy little eyes in the dark.
298
00:11:21,809 --> 00:11:24,579
- Because it's closer to when the bombs actually detonated.
299
00:11:24,580 --> 00:11:25,701
So there's more radiation,
300
00:11:25,701 --> 00:11:28,572
so you can get crazier mutants and giant plants
301
00:11:28,572 --> 00:11:31,279
because it's more radiated at that time.
302
00:11:31,279 --> 00:11:32,112
It's half-life.
303
00:11:32,113 --> 00:11:33,870
It's gonna decrease over time.
304
00:11:33,870 --> 00:11:34,940
So that's our justification.
305
00:11:34,940 --> 00:11:36,770
Like, "well, I haven't seen that in future Fallouts."
306
00:11:36,769 --> 00:11:38,927
Maybe that was like, such a bad mutation
307
00:11:38,927 --> 00:11:40,365
that they died out.
308
00:11:40,365 --> 00:11:44,289
But here, it still exists and it's in full swing.
309
00:11:44,289 --> 00:11:45,122
- [Danny] While the team
310
00:11:45,123 --> 00:11:46,900
had been adding plenty more new creatures to battle,
311
00:11:46,899 --> 00:11:50,379
they hemmed and hawed over the inclusion of other AI humans.
312
00:11:50,379 --> 00:11:51,700
They wanted to make sure the feeling
313
00:11:51,700 --> 00:11:53,990
of running into other humans was special.
314
00:11:53,990 --> 00:11:55,669
And if the world was full of raiders,
315
00:11:55,669 --> 00:11:57,584
then instead of hearing distant gunfire
316
00:11:57,585 --> 00:11:59,750
and knowing it was another player,
317
00:11:59,750 --> 00:12:01,379
they'd spend large parts of the game
318
00:12:01,379 --> 00:12:05,169
trying to discern if somebody was human or an AI.
319
00:12:05,169 --> 00:12:07,099
On top of that, the lore of the game
320
00:12:07,100 --> 00:12:09,639
couldn't really support the idea of raiders.
321
00:12:09,639 --> 00:12:11,389
Fallout 76 takes place 25 years
322
00:12:11,389 --> 00:12:13,539
after the bombs were dropped.
323
00:12:13,539 --> 00:12:16,158
Vault 76 is one of a number of control vaults,
324
00:12:16,158 --> 00:12:18,730
meaning that instead of doing weird experiments
325
00:12:18,730 --> 00:12:19,940
on those inside,
326
00:12:19,940 --> 00:12:21,610
this vault was genuinely used
327
00:12:21,610 --> 00:12:23,500
to house people for a generation
328
00:12:23,500 --> 00:12:26,409
before leading them out to rebuild society again.
329
00:12:26,409 --> 00:12:28,839
So this world has yet to be reclaimed
330
00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:30,600
by one faction or another.
331
00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:31,806
And so the decision was made
332
00:12:31,806 --> 00:12:35,400
to leave West Virgina bereft of other humans.
333
00:12:35,399 --> 00:12:37,120
But this caused a problem.
334
00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:38,419
Gun combat with AI
335
00:12:38,419 --> 00:12:41,229
is a central pillar of the Fallout experience.
336
00:12:41,230 --> 00:12:43,009
So they leaned into the lore
337
00:12:43,009 --> 00:12:45,319
and created a new faction of intelligent ghouls
338
00:12:45,320 --> 00:12:47,670
called the Scorched.
339
00:12:47,669 --> 00:12:50,589
- Where they're kind of like feral ghouls
340
00:12:50,590 --> 00:12:52,200
that are not quite so far gone.
341
00:12:52,200 --> 00:12:53,610
They still know how to use guns.
342
00:12:53,610 --> 00:12:55,940
So essentially our raiders are the Scorched.
343
00:12:55,940 --> 00:12:57,160
But yeah, then most of the other things
344
00:12:57,159 --> 00:12:58,750
are just all the creatures and things like that.
345
00:12:58,750 --> 00:13:02,090
I think it's like 63 things that we have now,
346
00:13:02,090 --> 00:13:03,729
because we had all the ones that we had before.
347
00:13:03,729 --> 00:13:05,320
Updated and fixed those,
348
00:13:05,320 --> 00:13:08,440
and then add all these new ones too.
349
00:13:08,440 --> 00:13:10,150
- [Danny] The map of 76 is large,
350
00:13:10,149 --> 00:13:12,419
but it's been divided into a half-dozen areas
351
00:13:12,419 --> 00:13:14,490
with their own flavor and difficulty.
352
00:13:14,490 --> 00:13:16,519
While you may emerge into the relative beauty
353
00:13:16,519 --> 00:13:17,730
of a green forest,
354
00:13:17,730 --> 00:13:19,840
there are much less forgiving areas of the map
355
00:13:19,840 --> 00:13:21,200
for you to explore.
356
00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:22,890
A hollowed-out mountaintop,
357
00:13:22,889 --> 00:13:24,069
soggy flood lands,
358
00:13:24,070 --> 00:13:26,050
festering toxic wastelands,
359
00:13:26,049 --> 00:13:27,250
swampy woods,
360
00:13:27,250 --> 00:13:28,980
and a colossal mountain range
361
00:13:28,980 --> 00:13:30,950
that bisects the entire map.
362
00:13:30,950 --> 00:13:32,440
The new dynamic weather system
363
00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:34,330
can also have an impact on the player,
364
00:13:34,330 --> 00:13:37,720
with distant rad storms warding off expedition parties.
365
00:13:37,720 --> 00:13:40,240
There's a lot of space between things in this map,
366
00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:41,960
meaning coming across new locations
367
00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:44,110
should feel like uncovering something
368
00:13:44,110 --> 00:13:45,529
that's been hidden forever.
369
00:13:45,529 --> 00:13:48,360
Quiet cabins, abandoned wood mills,
370
00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:51,276
tall treetops watchtowers, flooded mines,
371
00:13:51,275 --> 00:13:53,399
and abandoned barbecue joints.
372
00:13:53,399 --> 00:13:55,149
All of these littering a landscape
373
00:13:55,149 --> 00:13:57,959
alongside cities and towns of all sizes,
374
00:13:57,960 --> 00:14:01,310
nuclear missile silos, and even a crashed space Station.
375
00:14:01,309 --> 00:14:03,169
The world of 76 is large,
376
00:14:03,169 --> 00:14:05,919
larger and more detailed than their previous games,
377
00:14:05,919 --> 00:14:07,536
and featuring a bunch of new technology
378
00:14:07,537 --> 00:14:11,076
that the team may just be testing out for future games.
379
00:14:11,076 --> 00:14:13,679
They have a new system to propagate woods,
380
00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:15,819
a vastly-improved dynamic lighting model,
381
00:14:15,820 --> 00:14:17,220
subsurface scattering,
382
00:14:17,220 --> 00:14:19,950
and far more complex animations for creatures
383
00:14:19,950 --> 00:14:22,263
who are going to be attacked by multiple players
384
00:14:22,263 --> 00:14:24,399
for the very first time.
385
00:14:24,399 --> 00:14:25,539
- So we do get sort of like,
386
00:14:25,539 --> 00:14:29,269
the typical Fallout areas in certain spots.
387
00:14:29,269 --> 00:14:30,980
Like when you first start up the game,
388
00:14:30,980 --> 00:14:32,680
it's kind of nice and welcoming.
389
00:14:32,679 --> 00:14:34,989
But then you get to the crappier, dangerous parts,
390
00:14:34,990 --> 00:14:36,729
and get the more traditional feel.
391
00:14:36,729 --> 00:14:38,061
Because this area is...
392
00:14:38,061 --> 00:14:40,650
It was like, factories and things like that.
393
00:14:41,716 --> 00:14:44,559
And our justification for why it's all caked in white powder
394
00:14:44,559 --> 00:14:48,489
is that those factories were like, full of chemicals
395
00:14:48,490 --> 00:14:51,090
and everything spilled out.
396
00:14:51,090 --> 00:14:54,320
With all the hills and the topography of the area,
397
00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:55,760
it's really beneficial for that,
398
00:14:55,759 --> 00:14:57,950
because Fallout 4 was actually a really flat game.
399
00:14:57,950 --> 00:14:59,810
So it's hard to get those landmarks.
400
00:14:59,809 --> 00:15:02,409
Thankfully there's like, skyscrapers and Diamond City,
401
00:15:02,409 --> 00:15:03,879
that giant glow.
402
00:15:03,879 --> 00:15:06,289
But in this case, we have an entire mountain range
403
00:15:06,289 --> 00:15:07,799
that bisects the map.
404
00:15:07,799 --> 00:15:08,689
So we can take that
405
00:15:08,690 --> 00:15:10,160
and put all these different landmarks on that.
406
00:15:10,159 --> 00:15:12,646
Like, we made this ski resort called the Top of the World,
407
00:15:12,647 --> 00:15:15,017
which basically looks like a giant red UFO.
408
00:15:15,017 --> 00:15:17,070
And that's like a thumbtack in the middle of the map
409
00:15:17,070 --> 00:15:18,800
that you can orient yourself around.
410
00:15:18,799 --> 00:15:20,517
And then we have the giant bucket-wheel excavator
411
00:15:20,518 --> 00:15:21,829
on another side.
412
00:15:21,828 --> 00:15:23,449
But it's also designed in that way
413
00:15:23,450 --> 00:15:25,850
where you're supposed to sort of lose where you're at
414
00:15:25,850 --> 00:15:27,460
once you go down in those hills.
415
00:15:27,460 --> 00:15:28,994
So you're deep in the valley.
416
00:15:28,994 --> 00:15:30,820
You're like, where am I at?
417
00:15:30,820 --> 00:15:33,320
And so you're encouraged to actually then go up the hill.
418
00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:35,560
And then we put all these watchtowers and stuff.
419
00:15:35,559 --> 00:15:37,479
So then you're like, aha, that's where I am.
420
00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:39,879
Pull out the binoculars and look around.
421
00:15:39,879 --> 00:15:42,610
- [Danny] Fallout 76 features a number of different biomes
422
00:15:42,610 --> 00:15:45,269
inspired by real world locations.
423
00:15:45,269 --> 00:15:47,350
The team is attempting to replicate that feeling
424
00:15:47,350 --> 00:15:50,120
of stumbling upon new areas from their previous games.
425
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:51,570
And just like their other maps,
426
00:15:51,570 --> 00:15:54,379
West Virginia has become a template for storytelling.
427
00:15:54,379 --> 00:15:57,139
The state's cranberry bogs with their carnivorous plants
428
00:15:57,139 --> 00:16:01,029
seem like the perfect spot to introduce some wild mutations.
429
00:16:01,029 --> 00:16:02,879
So too does the mountaintop removal
430
00:16:02,879 --> 00:16:04,570
mining region of the state,
431
00:16:04,570 --> 00:16:07,810
which evokes a post-apocalyptic feeling all on its own.
432
00:16:07,809 --> 00:16:11,029
But West Virginia also taps into the Cold War conspiracies
433
00:16:11,029 --> 00:16:13,029
evoked in the Fallout games.
434
00:16:13,029 --> 00:16:14,689
West Virginia is the location
435
00:16:14,690 --> 00:16:17,420
of the United States Radio Quiet Zone,
436
00:16:17,419 --> 00:16:19,299
a 13,000 square mile region
437
00:16:19,299 --> 00:16:22,699
used for research and military intelligence.
438
00:16:22,700 --> 00:16:24,290
And West Virginia is also the home
439
00:16:24,289 --> 00:16:28,089
to the original location of the presidential nuclear bunker,
440
00:16:28,090 --> 00:16:31,430
located underneath the Greenbrier Hotel.
441
00:16:31,429 --> 00:16:34,079
Riffing off of all these real world locations
442
00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:35,980
is something the team has enjoyed.
443
00:16:35,980 --> 00:16:37,120
They have a hotel too,
444
00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:39,460
but their hotel and its adjoining golf course
445
00:16:39,460 --> 00:16:41,139
have something else going on.
446
00:16:41,139 --> 00:16:44,809
They're, well, we sort of don't want to spoil it.
447
00:16:44,809 --> 00:16:47,309
In fact, it seems like much of the joy of this game
448
00:16:47,309 --> 00:16:48,449
comes from stumbling
449
00:16:48,450 --> 00:16:50,850
upon interesting elements of world building
450
00:16:50,850 --> 00:16:52,740
that the team has been working on,
451
00:16:52,740 --> 00:16:55,149
and toying with the increased array of clothing
452
00:16:55,149 --> 00:16:57,590
to be discovered on your journey.
453
00:16:57,590 --> 00:16:58,897
- So there's this town, Helvetia,
454
00:16:58,897 --> 00:17:01,879
that's in the absolute middle of nowhere.
455
00:17:01,879 --> 00:17:03,659
And it's a Swiss-German village,
456
00:17:03,659 --> 00:17:04,839
and they love making cheese.
457
00:17:04,839 --> 00:17:05,929
But they also have this festival
458
00:17:05,930 --> 00:17:07,860
where they build these paper mache masks.
459
00:17:07,859 --> 00:17:10,267
And so we built 10 of them.
460
00:17:10,268 --> 00:17:11,839
There's all different kinds.
461
00:17:11,839 --> 00:17:14,589
And the owl one in particular is pretty popular.
462
00:17:14,589 --> 00:17:17,099
And there's like crazy jesters and skulls.
463
00:17:17,099 --> 00:17:19,230
They're all kind of handmade-looking.
464
00:17:19,230 --> 00:17:21,970
Those are a big hit when it comes to photo mode.
465
00:17:21,970 --> 00:17:24,039
- What is my favorite area in the game right now?
466
00:17:24,039 --> 00:17:25,750
I have to say Charleston is.
467
00:17:25,750 --> 00:17:28,160
It's where the the first responders are.
468
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:29,500
So it's like an old fire department
469
00:17:29,500 --> 00:17:31,722
where you can find firemen's uniforms
470
00:17:31,722 --> 00:17:32,799
and that kind of stuff.
471
00:17:32,799 --> 00:17:34,180
And there's a terminal
472
00:17:34,180 --> 00:17:35,799
where you can take the training course.
473
00:17:35,799 --> 00:17:36,633
And it's like, what do you do
474
00:17:36,633 --> 00:17:39,100
when you're seeing gas come in from the vents?
475
00:17:39,099 --> 00:17:40,769
Do you put your arm over your nose?
476
00:17:40,769 --> 00:17:41,603
Do you run out of screaming?
477
00:17:41,603 --> 00:17:42,436
Or do you light a match?
478
00:17:42,435 --> 00:17:45,869
You know, that kind of stuff's great Fallout humor.
479
00:17:45,869 --> 00:17:46,849
- I'm playing the game,
480
00:17:46,849 --> 00:17:49,876
and I come across this lighthouse in the middle of nowhere.
481
00:17:49,876 --> 00:17:54,500
And I was like, why the hell is there a lighthouse
482
00:17:54,500 --> 00:17:55,333
in the middle of nowhere?
483
00:17:55,333 --> 00:17:56,570
Like oh, that's that's a real thing.
484
00:17:56,569 --> 00:17:57,960
That's in West Virginia.
485
00:17:57,960 --> 00:17:59,660
West Virginia has stuff like that.
486
00:18:01,862 --> 00:18:04,612
(dramatic music)
487
00:18:07,470 --> 00:18:09,440
- [Danny] We've learned how this game came together,
488
00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:11,860
and we've explored the world of West Virginia.
489
00:18:11,859 --> 00:18:14,079
So it's time to answer our next question.
490
00:18:14,079 --> 00:18:17,669
What exactly are you going to be doing in Fallout 76?
491
00:18:17,670 --> 00:18:19,810
There's been a lot of rumor over the past few weeks
492
00:18:19,809 --> 00:18:22,562
as to how much like a regular numbered Fallout game
493
00:18:22,563 --> 00:18:24,680
76 really is.
494
00:18:24,680 --> 00:18:25,900
And it seems to be the question
495
00:18:25,900 --> 00:18:27,977
that the team has also been struggling with.
496
00:18:27,977 --> 00:18:30,235
How do you retain the elements of those games that work
497
00:18:30,234 --> 00:18:32,500
while doing something interesting?
498
00:18:32,500 --> 00:18:33,789
And how do you do something interesting
499
00:18:33,789 --> 00:18:36,599
without just cribbing off of other survival games?
500
00:18:36,599 --> 00:18:38,619
The version of 76 we look at today
501
00:18:38,619 --> 00:18:41,799
is the end result of months of play testing and discussions.
502
00:18:41,799 --> 00:18:44,000
So before we dive into the specifics,
503
00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:45,680
let's start with the basics.
504
00:18:45,680 --> 00:18:47,700
Fallout 76 is online.
505
00:18:47,700 --> 00:18:50,350
You can play as a lone wanderer if you so choose,
506
00:18:50,349 --> 00:18:53,429
but there are no private maps or offline mode to speak of.
507
00:18:53,430 --> 00:18:55,500
There is a story and there are quests,
508
00:18:55,500 --> 00:18:56,680
but the focus of this game
509
00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:59,860
is on the player dictating what they want to do that day.
510
00:18:59,859 --> 00:19:02,079
Perhaps you want to discover a new part of the map,
511
00:19:02,079 --> 00:19:04,609
or find parts to craft a specific weapon.
512
00:19:04,609 --> 00:19:07,000
Maybe you wanna kill a monster to get a high quality drop.
513
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:08,539
Maybe you want to build a camp,
514
00:19:08,539 --> 00:19:10,460
claim one of the map's public workshops,
515
00:19:10,460 --> 00:19:13,259
or team up with others to take on events.
516
00:19:13,259 --> 00:19:16,670
- Super mutants are attacking, you know, Aunt Mabel's farm.
517
00:19:16,670 --> 00:19:18,820
So you'll go over to protect from super mutants,
518
00:19:18,819 --> 00:19:20,069
and you don't know like,
519
00:19:20,069 --> 00:19:24,240
will 10 other Yaoguai come running in at the same time
520
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:26,299
because someone trained them in from across the mountain?
521
00:19:26,299 --> 00:19:27,379
There's a public workshop,
522
00:19:27,380 --> 00:19:29,480
so you can go in and claim them.
523
00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:30,966
You have to kill the monsters in there.
524
00:19:30,965 --> 00:19:34,289
There might be events spawning once you take them,
525
00:19:34,289 --> 00:19:36,649
depends on the situation, the timing, and the area.
526
00:19:36,650 --> 00:19:38,910
And when you take them and you fortify them,
527
00:19:38,910 --> 00:19:40,640
you actually have access to resources
528
00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:42,630
that are super valuable for crafting.
529
00:19:42,630 --> 00:19:46,660
So you'll get access to ore, some kind of ore.
530
00:19:46,660 --> 00:19:47,493
Lead.
531
00:19:47,492 --> 00:19:49,039
And then lead's used for make bullets.
532
00:19:49,039 --> 00:19:50,269
And then you can make bullets,
533
00:19:50,269 --> 00:19:53,210
which in any of these games is super helpful, right?
534
00:19:53,210 --> 00:19:54,500
So you take that for a reason.
535
00:19:54,500 --> 00:19:56,039
Then like I said, you have your camp,
536
00:19:56,039 --> 00:19:58,369
which are mini-workshops you can place almost anywhere.
537
00:19:58,369 --> 00:19:59,649
There's certain restrictions on that
538
00:19:59,650 --> 00:20:01,290
because we don't want you like,
539
00:20:01,289 --> 00:20:02,849
griefing outside the exit of the vault.
540
00:20:02,849 --> 00:20:04,740
But you can place them all over.
541
00:20:04,740 --> 00:20:06,370
They go, when you move servers
542
00:20:06,369 --> 00:20:07,519
if that space is available,
543
00:20:07,519 --> 00:20:08,559
your camp will just be there.
544
00:20:08,559 --> 00:20:09,559
For some reason, again,
545
00:20:09,559 --> 00:20:11,298
this is a big game with a low number of people,
546
00:20:11,298 --> 00:20:14,190
it's overlapping and we can't place it there,
547
00:20:14,190 --> 00:20:15,559
it will be packed up and blueprinted.
548
00:20:15,559 --> 00:20:16,970
You can place it somewhere else, boom.
549
00:20:16,970 --> 00:20:18,950
And then the crafting is a huge part of the game,
550
00:20:18,950 --> 00:20:20,069
because again you're gonna want to find
551
00:20:20,069 --> 00:20:24,217
very specific creatures or flora to combine for recipes.
552
00:20:24,218 --> 00:20:28,226
We're allowing crafting mods, crafting guns, crafting ammo.
553
00:20:28,226 --> 00:20:32,580
Food, water, armor, power armor pieces,
554
00:20:32,579 --> 00:20:34,262
like the stuff that was there before and more.
555
00:20:34,262 --> 00:20:37,299
- [Danny] Fallout 76 involves survival elements,
556
00:20:37,299 --> 00:20:40,250
but survival can so easily become a hindrance to fun.
557
00:20:40,250 --> 00:20:41,410
The work to find a balance
558
00:20:41,410 --> 00:20:44,120
between giving the player tasks they have to complete,
559
00:20:44,119 --> 00:20:46,128
and not just overburdening them with chores,
560
00:20:46,128 --> 00:20:49,109
has been a key focus over the past few months.
561
00:20:49,109 --> 00:20:50,549
- Here's an example I like to give.
562
00:20:50,549 --> 00:20:51,990
I have to brush my teeth every day
563
00:20:51,990 --> 00:20:54,089
or they'll rot and fall out of my head.
564
00:20:54,089 --> 00:20:55,429
I don't wanna do that in a video game.
565
00:20:55,430 --> 00:20:57,190
I just don't care, you know what I'm saying?
566
00:20:57,190 --> 00:20:59,320
Like, what is fun in the parts of survival
567
00:20:59,319 --> 00:21:01,210
and what is not fun in the parts of survival?
568
00:21:01,210 --> 00:21:03,529
So you have to eat and drink to stay alive.
569
00:21:03,529 --> 00:21:05,190
I hear a funny anecdote the other night.
570
00:21:05,190 --> 00:21:07,336
Someone was playing the game and they were starving,
571
00:21:07,336 --> 00:21:09,910
and they wandered into a herd of cats.
572
00:21:09,910 --> 00:21:11,310
And they're like, I've never been happier
573
00:21:11,309 --> 00:21:13,491
to see a herd of cats, because then I got to eat.
574
00:21:13,491 --> 00:21:15,680
So terrible.
575
00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:17,220
And then you can build a cooking stove
576
00:21:17,220 --> 00:21:18,240
like most survival games,
577
00:21:18,240 --> 00:21:19,943
make the food more efficient.
578
00:21:19,943 --> 00:21:22,038
You know, we put diseases in.
579
00:21:22,038 --> 00:21:23,809
We have something called mutations.
580
00:21:23,809 --> 00:21:27,490
So Fallout 4, we had that inverse meter
581
00:21:27,490 --> 00:21:28,670
for your health and your rads.
582
00:21:28,670 --> 00:21:30,596
And what rads you had, the less your health was,
583
00:21:30,596 --> 00:21:32,289
and you're able to cure that.
584
00:21:32,289 --> 00:21:34,029
So in this game, the more rads you have,
585
00:21:34,029 --> 00:21:35,670
the more chances you get mutated.
586
00:21:35,670 --> 00:21:37,596
And they have all sorts of neat like,
587
00:21:37,596 --> 00:21:40,250
they're almost like traits from Fallout 1 and 2,
588
00:21:40,250 --> 00:21:42,230
where they have a plus and a minus.
589
00:21:42,230 --> 00:21:43,789
You can cure them if you don't like them,
590
00:21:43,789 --> 00:21:46,470
or there's ways to permanently get them
591
00:21:46,470 --> 00:21:47,902
if there's ones you really like.
592
00:21:47,902 --> 00:21:49,990
Way late-game stuff.
593
00:21:49,990 --> 00:21:52,190
But yeah, you'll get these mutations.
594
00:21:52,190 --> 00:21:54,390
And they're mostly gameplay, they're not,
595
00:21:54,390 --> 00:21:55,280
some of them are visual.
596
00:21:55,279 --> 00:21:56,670
But they're mostly gameplay side stuff
597
00:21:56,670 --> 00:21:58,500
that like, tweak your character a little.
598
00:21:58,500 --> 00:22:00,914
- [Danny] Fallout 76 also involves crafting elements.
599
00:22:00,914 --> 00:22:02,299
Another balancing act
600
00:22:02,299 --> 00:22:04,519
was making sure that this stuff was compelling
601
00:22:04,519 --> 00:22:05,930
and not just a chore.
602
00:22:05,930 --> 00:22:07,190
- Are you gonna get the perk cards
603
00:22:07,190 --> 00:22:09,593
that allow you to craft more things more efficiently?
604
00:22:09,593 --> 00:22:12,560
And we added from Fallout 3, we added back in.
605
00:22:12,559 --> 00:22:15,329
Items degrade now, food rots.
606
00:22:15,329 --> 00:22:17,579
So you're never quite comfortable.
607
00:22:17,579 --> 00:22:19,710
But as you get some power, you can decide like,
608
00:22:19,710 --> 00:22:21,259
I'm gonna focus on cooking.
609
00:22:21,259 --> 00:22:22,640
And then you might wanna vend,
610
00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:24,570
and you can sell these things to other people in the game.
611
00:22:24,569 --> 00:22:27,129
So you're like, I make the best ribeye steak in the game.
612
00:22:27,130 --> 00:22:30,165
It'll overfill you and give you a health bonus.
613
00:22:30,164 --> 00:22:32,430
Here you go, 40 caps.
614
00:22:32,430 --> 00:22:33,263
You know?
615
00:22:33,262 --> 00:22:35,349
- [Danny] Each time you level up in Fallout 76,
616
00:22:35,349 --> 00:22:37,250
you get to take a new perk card.
617
00:22:37,250 --> 00:22:39,740
There's a limited amount you can have active at one time,
618
00:22:39,740 --> 00:22:42,319
meaning that if you want to re-roll your character's perks
619
00:22:42,319 --> 00:22:44,519
you simply swap out your perk cards.
620
00:22:44,519 --> 00:22:46,670
You can also share park cards within a party,
621
00:22:46,670 --> 00:22:48,060
meaning that teams of players
622
00:22:48,059 --> 00:22:51,109
can specialize to work together more efficiently.
623
00:22:51,109 --> 00:22:53,859
- Tool their characters such that they are better
624
00:22:53,859 --> 00:22:55,240
at survival elements of the game.
625
00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:56,599
You might be combat-y.
626
00:22:56,599 --> 00:22:58,109
Another person might be more for a medic.
627
00:22:58,109 --> 00:23:02,289
One person might be more workshop, like defenses and repair.
628
00:23:02,289 --> 00:23:04,359
So you decide you wanna focus in on crafting.
629
00:23:04,359 --> 00:23:05,969
You have to find the recipes in the world.
630
00:23:05,970 --> 00:23:07,410
You get recipes all sorts of places,
631
00:23:07,410 --> 00:23:09,620
quests and random drops, loot.
632
00:23:09,619 --> 00:23:10,736
And there's a lot.
633
00:23:12,287 --> 00:23:13,240
Like compared to Fallout 4,
634
00:23:13,240 --> 00:23:15,400
there are orders of magnitude more.
635
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:17,110
And so you'll find the ones that are more sufficient.
636
00:23:17,109 --> 00:23:18,439
A lot of them have pluses and minuses.
637
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:19,789
I think that's more fun.
638
00:23:19,789 --> 00:23:21,360
It allows the player to make decisions.
639
00:23:21,361 --> 00:23:23,836
Someone might make you more like,
640
00:23:23,836 --> 00:23:27,450
susceptible to disease but give you a huge health buff.
641
00:23:27,450 --> 00:23:29,202
Anyway, you'll be able to focus on that,
642
00:23:29,202 --> 00:23:30,979
either trade them with your friends.
643
00:23:30,979 --> 00:23:32,680
We're exploring the possibility
644
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:35,910
of allowing you to set up a robot vendor in a hub area.
645
00:23:35,910 --> 00:23:38,090
So you have a robot vendor and that's your vendor,
646
00:23:38,089 --> 00:23:40,129
and you go up and you know.
647
00:23:40,130 --> 00:23:41,484
Again, we're exploring things.
648
00:23:41,483 --> 00:23:43,730
But again, live game.
649
00:23:43,730 --> 00:23:45,269
Long term, there's all sorts of,
650
00:23:45,269 --> 00:23:46,559
the possibilities are endless.
651
00:23:46,559 --> 00:23:49,047
- [Danny] There are a lot of systems working in Fallout 76.
652
00:23:49,047 --> 00:23:50,279
And BGS's hope
653
00:23:50,279 --> 00:23:52,519
is that by introducing all these ways to play,
654
00:23:52,519 --> 00:23:53,353
they have a game world
655
00:23:53,353 --> 00:23:55,894
that is capable of creating emergent moments.
656
00:23:55,894 --> 00:23:58,329
They have to do some work to make sure it's not total chaos.
657
00:23:58,329 --> 00:24:01,359
For instance, giving wanted levels to aggressive players,
658
00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:03,009
and having it so that the death penalty
659
00:24:03,009 --> 00:24:06,279
is as light as making you respawn at a nearby location.
660
00:24:06,279 --> 00:24:08,809
The game allows for several types of player communication,
661
00:24:08,809 --> 00:24:11,190
everything from voice chat to an emote wheel,
662
00:24:11,190 --> 00:24:12,210
and even a photo mode
663
00:24:12,210 --> 00:24:14,509
that came out of one of the studio's game jams.
664
00:24:14,509 --> 00:24:15,549
But according to Todd,
665
00:24:15,549 --> 00:24:17,589
the design of this multiplayer Fallout
666
00:24:17,589 --> 00:24:19,669
is an exercise in not just knowing
667
00:24:19,670 --> 00:24:21,186
when to control the player,
668
00:24:21,185 --> 00:24:23,925
but crucially when not to.
669
00:24:23,925 --> 00:24:26,131
- Once we were really playing together
670
00:24:26,132 --> 00:24:29,740
and saw that collision of people and systems,
671
00:24:29,740 --> 00:24:30,573
that's when you say like,
672
00:24:30,573 --> 00:24:31,600
"Oh, this is...
673
00:24:32,446 --> 00:24:33,529
"This is still Fallout."
674
00:24:33,529 --> 00:24:37,053
Like if you sit down and play it, it feels like Fallout,
675
00:24:37,054 --> 00:24:42,054
but its loop and mood are very different.
676
00:24:42,289 --> 00:24:45,149
The other players are a system that we don't control,
677
00:24:45,150 --> 00:24:46,400
in a great way.
678
00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:47,710
Let's not shy away from it.
679
00:24:47,710 --> 00:24:48,640
Let's kind of solve it.
680
00:24:48,640 --> 00:24:50,180
Let them collide.
681
00:24:50,180 --> 00:24:53,264
And where there's extra bad griefing or systems,
682
00:24:53,263 --> 00:24:55,619
we have a number of levers in place.
683
00:24:55,619 --> 00:24:58,609
But that for me is where a lot of the drama is.
684
00:24:58,609 --> 00:25:01,009
Like, let's let them all collide.
685
00:25:01,009 --> 00:25:02,379
And it'll be messy for a little bit,
686
00:25:02,380 --> 00:25:03,710
but we can solve it.
687
00:25:03,710 --> 00:25:06,400
I'd rather do that than like, play it safe.
688
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:07,410
Boring.
689
00:25:07,410 --> 00:25:09,432
You can sit, though, in any design meeting
690
00:25:09,432 --> 00:25:12,954
and come up with a list of reasons not to do something.
691
00:25:12,954 --> 00:25:14,206
It's pretty easy.
692
00:25:14,207 --> 00:25:15,167
"Well, I'm worried about this
693
00:25:15,166 --> 00:25:17,039
"and I'm worried about this and I'm worried about this."
694
00:25:17,039 --> 00:25:19,109
And I'm worried it's gonna be boring.
695
00:25:19,109 --> 00:25:20,009
Let's at least try it.
696
00:25:20,009 --> 00:25:21,670
Like, this is what we do.
697
00:25:21,670 --> 00:25:23,529
Like, let's at least...
698
00:25:23,529 --> 00:25:26,960
If this is a vibe we want, let's go at it.
699
00:25:26,960 --> 00:25:28,829
- One of the elements the team struggled with
700
00:25:28,829 --> 00:25:30,399
was figuring out how many players
701
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:32,269
should be able to play together at once.
702
00:25:32,269 --> 00:25:34,420
It's a decision that involved both engineering
703
00:25:34,420 --> 00:25:35,610
and game design.
704
00:25:35,609 --> 00:25:37,409
On one hand, you have to look at the servers
705
00:25:37,410 --> 00:25:39,570
and see how many players they can support
706
00:25:39,569 --> 00:25:41,369
and keep that same level of fidelity
707
00:25:41,369 --> 00:25:43,699
we're used to in games like Fallout 4.
708
00:25:43,700 --> 00:25:44,680
And on the other hand,
709
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:46,230
the game designers wanna know
710
00:25:46,230 --> 00:25:48,730
how often players should run into each other
711
00:25:48,730 --> 00:25:51,130
to try and keep that moment special.
712
00:25:51,130 --> 00:25:52,280
- So yeah, that's been a challenge.
713
00:25:52,279 --> 00:25:55,122
It's like, how do we keep the feel of these games,
714
00:25:55,122 --> 00:25:57,278
where it's a world where you can interact with everything?
715
00:25:57,278 --> 00:26:00,680
Because that's part of the appeal of a Skyrim, right?
716
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:02,500
It's like you see a jar on a table,
717
00:26:02,500 --> 00:26:03,650
you can pick up and mess with the jar.
718
00:26:03,650 --> 00:26:06,036
You can knock it off and you can do whatever you want.
719
00:26:06,036 --> 00:26:07,738
Get AI to do crazy things.
720
00:26:07,738 --> 00:26:10,710
Yeah, that is, it's a continual balancing act.
721
00:26:10,710 --> 00:26:11,829
That's part of the art, right?
722
00:26:11,829 --> 00:26:13,579
It's like, do you cut content
723
00:26:13,579 --> 00:26:16,549
or do you do more technical work
724
00:26:16,549 --> 00:26:18,369
to try to make the content work?
725
00:26:18,369 --> 00:26:20,269
And it's like, it's a call.
726
00:26:20,269 --> 00:26:22,119
- We had some very grand plans for this game,
727
00:26:22,119 --> 00:26:24,059
which I think, you know,
728
00:26:24,059 --> 00:26:25,760
once we talk about more later
729
00:26:25,760 --> 00:26:27,759
will actually come to fruition.
730
00:26:27,759 --> 00:26:29,779
But the game we're very proud of right now
731
00:26:29,779 --> 00:26:30,613
that we're gonna ship
732
00:26:30,613 --> 00:26:33,122
is about 24 people on a server, 24 to 30.
733
00:26:33,122 --> 00:26:35,759
One of the things that Todd pushed for the whole time,
734
00:26:35,759 --> 00:26:36,980
which we were all scared about a little,
735
00:26:36,980 --> 00:26:38,720
was you're gonna open up the paper map
736
00:26:38,720 --> 00:26:39,553
and see this huge area.
737
00:26:39,553 --> 00:26:41,360
And you're gonna see where the other people are,
738
00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:42,889
for good or ill, right?
739
00:26:42,890 --> 00:26:44,259
So do you want to go help them?
740
00:26:44,259 --> 00:26:45,093
Do you see them?
741
00:26:45,093 --> 00:26:46,850
They're doing this huge event that you can join in
742
00:26:46,849 --> 00:26:48,149
and get the big reward.
743
00:26:48,150 --> 00:26:49,710
Do you wanna try to shoot them,
744
00:26:49,710 --> 00:26:52,325
however our PvP system ends up working out?
745
00:26:52,325 --> 00:26:54,692
You know, do you wanna trade with them?
746
00:26:54,692 --> 00:26:55,960
They could become friends
747
00:26:55,960 --> 00:26:57,663
that you follow across all the servers.
748
00:26:57,663 --> 00:27:00,450
So all the servers are, you know, a 24-person instance.
749
00:27:00,450 --> 00:27:02,715
You load in, you go in, it'll be full of people.
750
00:27:02,714 --> 00:27:04,679
You'll be able to play with them,
751
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:05,740
quest with them, or ignore them.
752
00:27:05,740 --> 00:27:06,660
Have your teams and buddies.
753
00:27:06,660 --> 00:27:09,060
Like if you're my buddy and you load in the game,
754
00:27:09,059 --> 00:27:11,460
I can just jump and immediately join you in your world.
755
00:27:11,460 --> 00:27:12,293
And it's seamless.
756
00:27:12,292 --> 00:27:14,399
It's basically a load screen and you're in.
757
00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:16,367
We wanted to make it fun for a single player, right?
758
00:27:16,366 --> 00:27:18,379
We wanted to make it fun for teams.
759
00:27:18,380 --> 00:27:20,050
Our team limit right now is four.
760
00:27:20,049 --> 00:27:22,609
It's all adjustable, but our team limit right now is four.
761
00:27:22,609 --> 00:27:24,469
So we wanted to make it fun for co-op,
762
00:27:24,470 --> 00:27:25,964
four-person level gameplay.
763
00:27:25,964 --> 00:27:28,389
And we wanted to make it fun for bigger like,
764
00:27:28,390 --> 00:27:30,835
12-on-12 death matches, right?
765
00:27:30,835 --> 00:27:34,100
Like we normally do, we're trying to jam it all in
766
00:27:34,099 --> 00:27:36,011
and hope it all works out.
767
00:27:36,011 --> 00:27:37,099
(chuckling)
768
00:27:37,099 --> 00:27:39,379
- [Danny] Fallout 76 is a live game,
769
00:27:39,380 --> 00:27:42,290
meaning that like games like Destiny or Warframe,
770
00:27:42,289 --> 00:27:44,440
eventually players are going to reach the point
771
00:27:44,440 --> 00:27:46,740
where they've done most of what there is to do.
772
00:27:46,740 --> 00:27:49,120
The studio has been working on a team death match mode,
773
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:50,169
which should help.
774
00:27:50,170 --> 00:27:51,623
But one of the challenges they've had
775
00:27:51,623 --> 00:27:53,350
was to introduce an end game
776
00:27:53,349 --> 00:27:55,959
that was hard enough to challenge high-level players,
777
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:57,960
while also somewhat repeatable.
778
00:27:57,960 --> 00:28:01,160
What they landed on was a cyclical nuclear war.
779
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:04,011
The map of 76 has a number of nuclear bunkers.
780
00:28:04,010 --> 00:28:06,049
Teams of players will have to work together
781
00:28:06,049 --> 00:28:07,746
not only to find the nuclear codes,
782
00:28:07,747 --> 00:28:09,826
but to solve puzzles to reveal them
783
00:28:09,826 --> 00:28:12,630
and to push the button to launch the nukes.
784
00:28:12,630 --> 00:28:13,630
- The end goal in this game
785
00:28:13,630 --> 00:28:16,200
is it's a cyclical story with the nukes.
786
00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:19,130
And these huge winged, batlike creatures
787
00:28:19,130 --> 00:28:21,340
crawl up out of the world called Scorch Beasts.
788
00:28:21,339 --> 00:28:23,879
You're supposed to find the nuke codes to kill them,
789
00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:25,350
to seal their fissures.
790
00:28:25,349 --> 00:28:28,449
That also, again, irradiates the world.
791
00:28:28,450 --> 00:28:31,059
It'll put a big, you know, the nuclear weather there.
792
00:28:31,059 --> 00:28:33,500
And all the flora and fauna will then change
793
00:28:33,500 --> 00:28:36,297
to be higher level and have rarer drops.
794
00:28:36,297 --> 00:28:40,712
You know, rare crafting materials and certain sought after,
795
00:28:41,570 --> 00:28:42,403
basically items and materials.
796
00:28:42,403 --> 00:28:44,160
We're going back to the legendary system.
797
00:28:44,160 --> 00:28:46,259
We added more tiers to the legendary system
798
00:28:46,259 --> 00:28:47,195
for weapons and armor.
799
00:28:47,195 --> 00:28:49,194
So you'll find those things there.
800
00:28:49,194 --> 00:28:51,599
And then that area will fade down
801
00:28:51,599 --> 00:28:52,689
over a certain period of time,
802
00:28:52,690 --> 00:28:54,420
and players will have to find the nukes again.
803
00:28:54,420 --> 00:28:55,600
And depending on where you nuked,
804
00:28:55,599 --> 00:28:56,759
different things will appear
805
00:28:56,759 --> 00:28:58,960
because it'll be different flora and fauna there.
806
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:00,059
- How are they deciding?
807
00:29:00,059 --> 00:29:02,079
Are they working together against the world?
808
00:29:02,079 --> 00:29:04,220
Or are they working together against themselves?
809
00:29:04,220 --> 00:29:06,250
And then what happens when you get a group of people
810
00:29:06,250 --> 00:29:08,690
that wanna work against other players,
811
00:29:08,690 --> 00:29:11,890
versus a group of players who wanna work against the world?
812
00:29:11,890 --> 00:29:13,470
And then they get nukes.
813
00:29:13,470 --> 00:29:14,903
Do they create an online cold war?
814
00:29:14,903 --> 00:29:18,519
Do they all decide to just blow up everything?
815
00:29:18,519 --> 00:29:19,970
So I think the nuke part
816
00:29:19,970 --> 00:29:22,160
is probably the one I'm most interested
817
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:23,519
in seeing what they do.
818
00:29:23,519 --> 00:29:25,039
And we're trying to make it fun,
819
00:29:25,039 --> 00:29:27,190
where it's fun to just launch them.
820
00:29:27,190 --> 00:29:28,729
Because it's very hard to like, alright,
821
00:29:28,729 --> 00:29:30,030
you have the codes to nuclear missilery.
822
00:29:30,030 --> 00:29:31,029
You know what?
823
00:29:31,029 --> 00:29:32,036
I don't wanna launch it.
824
00:29:32,036 --> 00:29:32,870
If you can sort of incentivize them to, hey,
825
00:29:32,869 --> 00:29:34,019
it's gonna be really fun to launch it
826
00:29:34,019 --> 00:29:35,619
where people aren't,
827
00:29:35,619 --> 00:29:38,369
and make that part of the world this high-level zone.
828
00:29:38,369 --> 00:29:39,849
So that kind of design I like a lot.
829
00:29:39,849 --> 00:29:41,039
Okay, it's gonna be a high-level zone.
830
00:29:41,039 --> 00:29:42,299
You're gonna roll in in your power armor
831
00:29:42,299 --> 00:29:43,133
and you're gonna get...
832
00:29:43,133 --> 00:29:46,670
You're gonna make this really hard level for yourself.
833
00:29:46,670 --> 00:29:48,962
I'm really interested to see what people do there.
834
00:29:50,731 --> 00:29:54,279
(gentle dissonant music)
835
00:29:54,279 --> 00:29:55,859
- [Danny] The teams in Austin and Maryland
836
00:29:55,859 --> 00:29:58,829
are being supported by a third studio in Montreal.
837
00:29:58,829 --> 00:30:01,419
This studio, responsible for the mobile success story
838
00:30:01,420 --> 00:30:02,710
of Fallout Shelter,
839
00:30:02,710 --> 00:30:05,779
is also working on their next mobile title, Blades.
840
00:30:05,779 --> 00:30:07,170
We'll have a fascinating documentary
841
00:30:07,170 --> 00:30:08,993
on the development of Shelter and Blades
842
00:30:08,992 --> 00:30:10,599
in the coming weeks.
843
00:30:10,599 --> 00:30:13,449
Montreal has also been helping with the development of 76.
844
00:30:13,450 --> 00:30:14,860
But once the game is released,
845
00:30:14,859 --> 00:30:18,209
much of Maryland and Montreal will move onto Starfield.
846
00:30:18,210 --> 00:30:20,029
Maryland will continue to be in charge
847
00:30:20,029 --> 00:30:22,019
of the creative direction of 76,
848
00:30:22,019 --> 00:30:23,690
but the majority of live game support
849
00:30:23,690 --> 00:30:25,430
will be done in Austin.
850
00:30:25,430 --> 00:30:27,387
Fallout 76 is a full-priced game,
851
00:30:27,386 --> 00:30:29,569
but the team is planning to support the game
852
00:30:29,569 --> 00:30:31,819
with free updates for years to come.
853
00:30:31,819 --> 00:30:34,210
The game will feature microtransactions,
854
00:30:34,210 --> 00:30:36,470
but Bethesda told us that these would only come
855
00:30:36,470 --> 00:30:38,370
in the form of cosmetics.
856
00:30:38,369 --> 00:30:40,669
Bethesda said that this is a crucial element
857
00:30:40,670 --> 00:30:43,039
of allowing them to support dedicated servers
858
00:30:43,039 --> 00:30:44,540
and keep DLC free,
859
00:30:44,540 --> 00:30:47,539
and that any purchasable cosmetics available
860
00:30:47,539 --> 00:30:50,149
will also be available to earn through gameplay.
861
00:30:50,150 --> 00:30:52,070
Chris, who's worked on supporting online games
862
00:30:52,069 --> 00:30:53,669
since Ultima Online,
863
00:30:53,670 --> 00:30:55,440
gave us some insight into how they're planning
864
00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:58,269
to support Fallout 76 post-launch.
865
00:30:58,269 --> 00:31:00,230
- You know, the plans are still coming together.
866
00:31:00,230 --> 00:31:01,559
But we do have a plan.
867
00:31:01,559 --> 00:31:04,009
So the plan is to have part of the team
868
00:31:04,009 --> 00:31:05,174
sort of support the game,
869
00:31:05,174 --> 00:31:08,419
roll out as much content updates as possible
870
00:31:08,420 --> 00:31:09,310
to keep the game fresh.
871
00:31:09,309 --> 00:31:11,589
I think if you've been around live games,
872
00:31:11,589 --> 00:31:13,159
you know that they live or die
873
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:14,690
by how fast you can get updates out.
874
00:31:14,690 --> 00:31:17,549
So we need to be able to push decent updates out
875
00:31:17,549 --> 00:31:18,750
at a regular rate.
876
00:31:18,750 --> 00:31:19,583
At the same time,
877
00:31:19,583 --> 00:31:22,420
have some of the team working on big content beats, right?
878
00:31:22,420 --> 00:31:25,220
So we wanna have some people working on something
879
00:31:25,220 --> 00:31:27,210
a little bit larger for people to consume,
880
00:31:27,210 --> 00:31:30,279
and have those sort of hit at longer intervals.
881
00:31:30,279 --> 00:31:31,859
So if you can sort of imagine it, you know.
882
00:31:31,859 --> 00:31:33,159
You have one long beat,
883
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,040
which is the larger content updates
884
00:31:35,039 --> 00:31:35,899
that are hitting.
885
00:31:35,900 --> 00:31:37,970
And then in between that are lots of little beats,
886
00:31:37,970 --> 00:31:39,319
which are the the frequent updates
887
00:31:39,319 --> 00:31:40,819
that we're trying to push out.
888
00:31:40,819 --> 00:31:42,639
Whether that just be new events
889
00:31:42,640 --> 00:31:44,230
or just new free items that we give away,
890
00:31:44,230 --> 00:31:46,076
it will, you know,
891
00:31:46,076 --> 00:31:47,633
we'll just try to keep the game fresh.
892
00:31:47,633 --> 00:31:49,630
That's the plan, right?
893
00:31:49,630 --> 00:31:53,040
So I guess, what's that military adage?
894
00:31:53,039 --> 00:31:56,250
It's like, every plan is great until the first shot's fired?
895
00:31:56,250 --> 00:31:58,529
So I imagine we'll have to be doing a lot of adjustments
896
00:31:58,529 --> 00:32:00,950
to the plan as soon as it goes live.
897
00:32:00,950 --> 00:32:01,960
So I think part of that
898
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:03,829
is you can plan out all the content you want.
899
00:32:03,829 --> 00:32:05,679
But then once players start playing the game
900
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:07,490
and you can observe how they play the game,
901
00:32:07,490 --> 00:32:08,620
what they like and what they don't like,
902
00:32:08,619 --> 00:32:11,279
you need to change the plan based on that stuff.
903
00:32:11,279 --> 00:32:13,629
You need to give the players something
904
00:32:13,630 --> 00:32:14,890
that they're passionate about.
905
00:32:14,890 --> 00:32:16,180
As a designer, you might think
906
00:32:16,180 --> 00:32:17,720
that this feature you put into the game
907
00:32:17,720 --> 00:32:18,670
is really, really cool.
908
00:32:18,670 --> 00:32:19,810
And nobody plays it.
909
00:32:19,809 --> 00:32:20,929
Well, you probably shouldn't double down
910
00:32:20,930 --> 00:32:22,230
on the thing that nobody plays.
911
00:32:22,230 --> 00:32:23,063
You should probably double down
912
00:32:23,063 --> 00:32:25,400
on the features that the people actually play.
913
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:27,550
So we might have to change our plans
914
00:32:27,549 --> 00:32:29,869
based upon how we see players working with the game
915
00:32:29,869 --> 00:32:31,292
when they play it.
916
00:32:33,982 --> 00:32:35,849
(gentle dissonant music)
917
00:32:35,849 --> 00:32:37,240
- [Danny] If there's anything we've learned
918
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:40,480
about the evolution of games over the past few years,
919
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:42,759
it's that the success of Fallout 76
920
00:32:42,759 --> 00:32:45,319
will depend as much on the game they have built
921
00:32:45,319 --> 00:32:47,549
as how they support it going forward.
922
00:32:47,549 --> 00:32:49,865
And so to do so, this plucky little studio
923
00:32:49,865 --> 00:32:52,989
of 130 or so people who made Fallout 4
924
00:32:52,989 --> 00:32:55,500
is going to have to scale up.
925
00:32:55,500 --> 00:32:56,859
In our previous documentary,
926
00:32:56,859 --> 00:32:58,809
we showed how the development of Morrowind
927
00:32:58,809 --> 00:33:01,269
was the inflection point for the studio,
928
00:33:01,269 --> 00:33:03,710
the moment they began to figure out their process,
929
00:33:03,710 --> 00:33:05,910
a process they would develop and hone
930
00:33:05,910 --> 00:33:07,460
over the next four games.
931
00:33:07,460 --> 00:33:09,610
And in many ways, this moment now
932
00:33:09,609 --> 00:33:11,789
also feels like a turning point.
933
00:33:11,789 --> 00:33:13,720
With the teams in Austin and Montreal,
934
00:33:13,720 --> 00:33:16,339
Bethesda Game Studios in Rockville, Maryland
935
00:33:16,339 --> 00:33:17,869
finally have the people power
936
00:33:17,869 --> 00:33:20,469
to work on multiple projects at once,
937
00:33:20,470 --> 00:33:21,500
while members of the team
938
00:33:21,500 --> 00:33:23,410
who have been with the company for years
939
00:33:23,410 --> 00:33:26,310
are starting to take ownership of projects themselves.
940
00:33:26,309 --> 00:33:27,730
Perhaps this means that the days
941
00:33:27,730 --> 00:33:29,370
of skipping between franchises
942
00:33:29,369 --> 00:33:30,949
are finally behind them.
943
00:33:30,950 --> 00:33:33,492
Or maybe it means that they can be more daring
944
00:33:33,492 --> 00:33:35,799
in the games they develop.
945
00:33:35,799 --> 00:33:38,490
As work on Fallout 76 has been progressing,
946
00:33:38,490 --> 00:33:40,809
so too has it been on Starfield.
947
00:33:40,809 --> 00:33:43,289
From what we gathered during our time at the studio,
948
00:33:43,289 --> 00:33:46,839
Starfield sounds like a monumental undertaking,
949
00:33:46,839 --> 00:33:50,009
a game Todd has wanted to make for a long, long time.
950
00:33:50,009 --> 00:33:51,819
Perhaps a game they would've made,
951
00:33:51,819 --> 00:33:55,079
had they not successfully acquired the Fallout franchise.
952
00:33:55,079 --> 00:33:56,919
Perhaps now he feels like the team
953
00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:59,410
finally has the resources to pull it off.
954
00:33:59,410 --> 00:34:02,350
In any case, it's not the only project they're working on.
955
00:34:02,349 --> 00:34:05,919
Pre-production on The Elder Scrolls VI has also started.
956
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:07,860
Not the only thing that's getting announced at E3.
957
00:34:07,859 --> 00:34:09,429
You guys are coming out swinging
958
00:34:09,429 --> 00:34:11,909
with a bunch of stuff coming out for the future as well.
959
00:34:11,909 --> 00:34:13,920
Will it be weird to say the word Starfield
960
00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:15,240
in front of people?
961
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:16,940
- What'd you just say?
962
00:34:16,940 --> 00:34:18,799
You gotta watch that, man.
963
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:20,546
Someone'll hear you.
964
00:34:20,545 --> 00:34:22,687
(chuckling)
965
00:34:22,688 --> 00:34:26,135
Just even to hear you say it is weird.
966
00:34:26,135 --> 00:34:28,900
We've been working on it for...
967
00:34:28,900 --> 00:34:30,849
That's another one that's had a long go.
968
00:34:30,849 --> 00:34:34,389
I think the trademark got registered in 2013,
969
00:34:34,389 --> 00:34:37,089
which is what most people have glommed onto.
970
00:34:37,090 --> 00:34:38,700
So all of the internet rumors,
971
00:34:38,699 --> 00:34:39,859
we've never said a word.
972
00:34:39,860 --> 00:34:41,171
They just take that nugget
973
00:34:41,170 --> 00:34:43,889
and their mind goes to the right places.
974
00:34:43,889 --> 00:34:45,150
You know, the internet's smart.
975
00:34:45,150 --> 00:34:46,742
Our fans are really smart.
976
00:34:46,742 --> 00:34:49,640
And so you feel like it's good to acknowledge it.
977
00:34:49,639 --> 00:34:50,472
They're all saying it.
978
00:34:50,472 --> 00:34:52,688
Like, yes, that is what we're doing.
979
00:34:52,688 --> 00:34:57,688
But as far as announcing Starfield, very excited to do it.
980
00:34:57,860 --> 00:34:59,789
A little bit nervous, you know,
981
00:34:59,789 --> 00:35:03,099
because it is so new.
982
00:35:03,099 --> 00:35:04,819
And it will have so many questions
983
00:35:04,820 --> 00:35:06,930
that we're not answering intentionally.
984
00:35:06,929 --> 00:35:08,269
So that's kind of new for us.
985
00:35:08,269 --> 00:35:12,030
At the same time, we feel that, you know,
986
00:35:12,030 --> 00:35:13,260
that's the time to do it.
987
00:35:13,260 --> 00:35:15,440
Like, it's good to have that dialogue
988
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:16,987
with your fans and say,
989
00:35:16,987 --> 00:35:19,309
"We're doing this and then we're doing this."
990
00:35:19,309 --> 00:35:23,400
Because we know that they want them as much as we do.
991
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:24,990
Things take time.
992
00:35:24,989 --> 00:35:26,375
But I think it's good to give everybody
993
00:35:26,375 --> 00:35:28,710
a little bit of a roadmap.
994
00:35:28,710 --> 00:35:30,990
And so you feel like it's good to acknowledge it.
995
00:35:30,989 --> 00:35:31,822
They're all saying it.
996
00:35:31,822 --> 00:35:33,962
Like, yes, that is what we're doing.
997
00:35:34,900 --> 00:35:35,849
But that's another thing,
998
00:35:35,849 --> 00:35:38,672
where not just hey, we should announce it.
999
00:35:42,273 --> 00:35:45,239
But how much thought we've given it for a long time.
1000
00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:47,729
So on that original list, Fallout...
1001
00:35:49,380 --> 00:35:51,140
The biggest, most epic science fiction thing
1002
00:35:51,139 --> 00:35:52,489
you could possible imagine.
1003
00:35:53,929 --> 00:35:56,320
And that's something we've talked about for a long time
1004
00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:58,240
and kind of picked away at.
1005
00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:01,459
And now we feel we're kind of...
1006
00:36:01,460 --> 00:36:04,110
What's the right way to say it without spoiling anything?
1007
00:36:04,110 --> 00:36:07,490
We are uniquely positioned to pull this game off.
1008
00:36:07,489 --> 00:36:08,739
- [Danny] Expectation management
1009
00:36:08,739 --> 00:36:10,119
is important as well, right?
1010
00:36:10,119 --> 00:36:13,744
Like, not saying too much is as important as--
1011
00:36:13,744 --> 00:36:15,630
- That's the one that worries me,
1012
00:36:15,630 --> 00:36:18,110
is that we are we creating anxiety?
1013
00:36:18,110 --> 00:36:20,320
Where people have so many questions,
1014
00:36:20,320 --> 00:36:21,370
that we'll be like...
1015
00:36:22,969 --> 00:36:23,802
You know?
1016
00:36:23,802 --> 00:36:25,217
Whereas before, they'd be like,
1017
00:36:25,217 --> 00:36:26,269
"We don't know what you're making."
1018
00:36:26,269 --> 00:36:28,139
It's a little bit easier to go, yeah, you don't.
1019
00:36:28,139 --> 00:36:29,426
Now they say, "Hey, you're making Starfield.
1020
00:36:29,427 --> 00:36:30,951
"You're making The Elder Scrolls VI.
1021
00:36:30,951 --> 00:36:31,996
"Tell us all about them."
1022
00:36:31,996 --> 00:36:32,936
You're like, "I am not going to.
1023
00:36:32,936 --> 00:36:35,020
"There'll be a time for that."
1024
00:36:35,021 --> 00:36:40,021
But both of those, particularly Starfield,
1025
00:36:40,119 --> 00:36:42,113
that's another one we talk about tone.
1026
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:44,592
We just wanna say the name.
1027
00:36:45,661 --> 00:36:48,300
Like, being able to say this is the tone.
1028
00:36:48,300 --> 00:36:52,390
Just, this is what it feels a little bit like.
1029
00:36:52,389 --> 00:36:54,029
Same with Elder Scrolls VI.
1030
00:36:54,030 --> 00:36:56,070
But we have a little bit of a roadmap on our head.
1031
00:36:56,070 --> 00:36:58,080
Like, this is the one that,
1032
00:36:58,079 --> 00:37:01,360
as a base technology that this one adds.
1033
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:02,590
And they don't all...
1034
00:37:02,590 --> 00:37:04,510
You know, the ones we're doing are,
1035
00:37:04,510 --> 00:37:06,640
they're very, very different.
1036
00:37:06,639 --> 00:37:09,913
So Starfield is definitely a big single-player game,
1037
00:37:12,130 --> 00:37:14,150
and 76 is not.
1038
00:37:14,150 --> 00:37:16,630
So there's different techniques.
1039
00:37:16,630 --> 00:37:18,930
It's a very different style game, without...
1040
00:37:20,019 --> 00:37:20,929
There'll be a time for that.
1041
00:37:20,929 --> 00:37:24,309
But it's not, it does a lot of things very different
1042
00:37:24,309 --> 00:37:26,913
than we've done before as well.
1043
00:37:26,914 --> 00:37:30,890
(gentle dissonant music)
1044
00:37:30,889 --> 00:37:32,319
- Thank you so much for joining us
1045
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on this journey through the past, present,
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and future of Bethesda Game Studios.
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But we're not done yet.
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During our time embedded at BGS,
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we recorded over a dozen interviews.
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So if you wanna watch a bunch of shorter docs
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on games in The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchise,
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make sure you hit that subscribe button.
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See you then.
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(gentle dissonant music)
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