Fallout 76’s next patch is coming tomorrow

Fallout 76’s next post-release patch is due on Monday, five days after launch, bringing with it several fixes and upgrades spotlighted during the game’s two-week beta.

Many of the big changes address quality-of-life features PC users expected and asked for — among them a push-to-talk chat feature, whose absence was really disincentivizing social play on that platform. PC users will have to wait a little longer for a field-of-vision slider, but that is coming “soon,” along with ultrawide 21:9 monitor support.

For all platforms, users will find their stash box capacity will increase — but not right yet. That’s happening “in the coming weeks,” Bethesda Game Studios said on Friday. Currently it’s limited to 400 weight. Even Fallout 76 players who are scrupulous about breaking down all their junk to bulk components are butting up against the limit as they build up their arsenal of weapons and wardrobe of armor. Players’ stashes are accessible at every stash box location in the world, but that means building another at a CAMP site doesn’t add storage space.

As for why this isn’t immediately fixable, “The current limit is there for technical reasons, to cap the number of items the game is tracking in the world, including every container and stash,” Bethesda said. “We believe we have some ideas in both the short- and long-term that will address the size without risking stability, but this is one we need to take our time on to make sure it is done right.”

The newest patch will address fixes to quests, the user interface and CAMPs, Bethesda said. In a Reddit thread about two weeks ago, Bethesda acknowledged that “exploits of various types” and “issues with the social menu,” were either due to be corrected in the launch-day patch or by this update. A big bug bothering some was that the hunger meter wouldn’t refill no matter how much food they ate; that should also be taken care of, along with some of the random ambient noise that doesn’t seem connected to anything.

Despite my initial disappointments I’ve still sunk a ton of time into Fallout 76. I was up to 4 a.m. with it last night. You can check out my broad impressions (based on gameplay before that) here. I’m warming up to the slow-burn/long play appeal of the game even if some of the more immediate issues, particularly surprise enemies popping out of nowhere, drive me nuts.

The game’s makers seem to be aware of this. They have a long plan for post-release support, which sounds MMO-like even if developers were deliberately not trying to make a Fallout MMO. “We’ll see new Vaults opening, new ways to easily improve your C.A.M.P.s, ways to create, team-up, and faction-based PvP, and many more free add-ons we haven’t talked about yet,” they write. “We look forward to growing Fallout 76 with you.” I look forward to that, too.