Fallout 76 players bummed by bug fix that makes the game less friendly

Bethesda Game Studios rolled out a massive patch for Fallout 76 on Windows PC today — console players will get the update later this week — that tweaks progression, smooths base building, adds new UI features and, of course, fixes a bunch of bugs.

One of those bugs fixes, however, is seriously bumming out players who enjoyed what they thought was a generous quest that benefited the entire server.

Here’s the patch note in question, from today’s Fallout 76 update:

Feed the People: Fixed an issue in which completing the Feed the People Event Quest granted Canned Meat Stew to all players on the server, rather than only the quest’s participants.

“Feed the People” is a repeatable, multi-stage event quest in which players need to collect ingredients and defend a series of food processing machines from attackers while their canned stew is being manufactured. Until today, part of the payout was that everyone on the 24-player servers of Fallout 76 got some free grub each time that event was completed. Now, “Feed the People” is far less generous, and that change isn’t sitting well with the game’s altruistic players, many of whom thought the quest was a nice communitywide perk.

“[I] didn’t realize this was a bug, thought it was a fun community thing they added,” Reddit user jpeek said in a top comment on today’s patch note post.

“What the hell?! I thought it was a feature,” user ThisCocaineNinja responded. “It’s called ‘Feed the people,’ not ‘Feed three people.’ Whenever I was close to the airport and the event was there I stopped what I was doing to help everyone on the server with that sweet 5% exp, on top of actually ‘feeding’ players that might be starving. Damn, I wanted more multiplayer events like that. Never even thought it could be a bug, it felt like such a clever idea for an event.”

For a game that’s drawn headlines for noxious player behavior, “Feed the People” represented a moment of sharing and goodwill for players exploring post-nuclear West Virginia. And some of them want Bethesda to undo this particular fix, even if a serverwide bounty of magical canned stew doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

“It’s a shame it was actually a bug and is fixed,” Reddit user Napciyunka said. “We do this event every time it pops up with a friend to, you know, Feed the People. Because it felt nice having the random Canned Meat pop when I was on a lower level, we were doing it to pass on the good habit and help other dwellers out there. Sure, magically teleporting cans to other people isn’t immersive but eh, was a nice thing to do, made me feel better about myself knowing some people might enjoy free +5% xp food.”

While the bug fix may not be sitting well with the community, it has at least given closure to some Fallout 76 fans.

“Ohhhh,” Reddit user FILTHY_WHITE_MALE said, “so THATS why I keep getting canned food out of nowhere.”