Exclusive: How the Fallout 76 community helped shaped the game and Atlantic City update

Fallout 76 has had a tumultuous journey over the past 5 years since it launched. However, game devs Joshua Moretto and Jonathan Rush credited their fans as being a driving force in the evolution in the game and the new Atlantic City DLC in an exclusive interview with Dexerto.

Fallout 76 is Bethesda’s multiplayer take on their beloved IP. When it comes to dedicated fan bases, those who have been a part of the Fallout Universe from the New Vegas days have a deep attachment to the games.

When Fallout 76 first launched back in October 2018, it was met with criticism from fans. The game was undercooked, filled with bugs, and missing much of the content that fans were expecting.

However, the years have seen the game evolve, with new content and more paving the way for an experience that fans have now invested in. 

During an exclusive interview with Dexerto, two of Fallout 76’s developers, Jonathan Rush and Joshua Moretto, reflected on how important their community has been in helping shape the current look of Fallout 76 and the future to come with the new Atlantic City DLC, set to launch on December 5, 2023.

Fallout 76 community feedback was instrumental early on in the game

Art Director Jonathan Rush, who has been working on Fallout 76 for several years now, was quick to point out how immediate player feedback had a massive impact on the game early on. Shifting the focus from just multiplayer mayhem to still having a streamlined Fallout feel.

“After the game had been out for a bit, we were sort of taking note of player actions and what they were most interested in,” Rush explained. “We came to realize, it’s the story’s content. It’s the human aspect of all this that the players are missing.” 

“So with the Wastelanders update, we brought human NPCS back into the game which gave us a chance to really make a large owner shift, right? It gave us a lot of different colored crayons to sort of create different stories with,” he said.

Rush then followed on, exclaiming that he believes that Fallout 76 has “the best community of any online game that I’ve ever seen” praising their fans and stating that their feedback is “invaluable to us as developers.”

Adding that the many lines of communication across social media platforms play a big role and that they do listen and take on suggestions made to them online.

“Players have many avenues of communication,” Rush reiterated. “The fans have us right over Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Reddit and we’re able to get feedback from all directions about anything we do. Anything we propose, any suggestions.”

“That’s so invaluable and it really lets us feel and be in touch with our players.  Whereas, live service games I’ve worked on in the past many, many years ago, we didn’t really have that luxury.”

Fan feedback was key in evolving the way Expeditions operate in Fallout 76

And while Bethesda and the Fallout 76 team were open to community response early on, they still remain committed to ensuring that their fans are enjoying their experiences. And, where they can, they’re evolving the game to keep up with their community.

“We’re listening to the feedback and really using that to drive some of our designs and our decisions are actually with expeditions we looked at and we put in The Pit”, began Moretto.

“We got a lot of great feedback from our players who are engaging with the Pit expeditions and we noticed a couple of things that we wanted to address right away based on that feedback.”

One aspect to the game that had Fallout 76 fans begging for change online was the way in which expeditions operated. However, Josh, John, and the rest of the game devs were quick to take action on this issue

“We removed the sort of cost of doing an expedition. Previously when they were released you had to get Ultra sight battery cells to power up the vertebrate before you could launch the next position. We took that out. We want to remove the barriers to entry and make it a smoother experience and let players do it more often.”

How the Fallout 76 community helped shape the Atlantic City DLC

The Senior Quest Designer delves deep into the changes they have already made to the game from community feedback as well as what alterations players can expect when diving into Atlantic City for the first time this December.

“With this update, one of the other things we noticed was that expeditions, while they were a daily activity for players, took longer than other daily activities by a fair margin,” he said.

“When released, the Pit expeditions took around 20 to 30 minutes for most players. A good bit longer than other daily content like daily OPS or daily quests or even like public events. So we wanted to try to bring the expedition experience more in line with those other repeatable content types.”

“And so we’ve streamlined the Atlantic City missions. Oo changes have been made to the Pit missions but for the Atlantic City missions, we’ve streamlined them and made them faster overall. Our target time that we were hitting is more in the 10 to 15-minute range. Which is much more comparable to doing a daily OPS.”

Moretto wrapping up by summarising, “Players are going to be able to come in, do an expedition in Atlantic City, and move on. Get all the rewards without having to say, oh well, I’m not really doing anything for the next half hour. It’s just to remove that commitment and make it just far more accessible.”

Fallout 76: Atlantic City is set to drop on December 5, 2023.

For all the latest Fallout news, updates and guides, be sure to check out Dexerto’s full content here.

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