Fallout 4 - Todd Howard: The Survival Mode is Fun

Todd Howard told Gameinformer that he likes the new survival mode for Fallout 4:

Todd Howard Discusses Fallout 4 DLC, Mods, & Survival Mode

[…]

You said you are going to beta test Survival Mode. How is that going to unfold?
That’s going to be something different than we usually do. Survival mode has a lot of changes that can be pretty dramatic. Once we get it honed where it’s working well enough, we’re going to put it on Steam beta for a while. ‘Here it is. Start playing it. Give us feedback.’ It’s far easier to update and iterate on [PC]. Once we settle on it, then we’ll release it for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. We want to get it up soon on Steam beta. It’s not going to be months and months off. If it’s not really working, and we need to iterate on it, it may stay in beta for a month, depending on what we are changing. But we want to make it have the game feel different. The bits we’ve done, and me recently playing it, it’s absolutely some of the most fun I’ve had playing Fallout. I mean that honestly. It changes it in a good way for me, but it might not for everybody.

We’re doing things like you can’t save, it only saves your game when you sleep. You can’t fast travel. There’re all of these diseases. We’re trying it all. It’s a different experience. We’re not trying to make it a ton harder. It’s harder because you’re doing more things. We want the combat to feel different, as opposed to just being a bullet sponge.

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Thanks Couch!

More information.

We want the combat to feel different, as opposed to just being a bullet sponge.

Yes, please. Perhaps they can nail it this time.

There are always mods to fit your liking I suppose (I run a few). I found the more spawns mod the most entertaining, coupled with a mod that makes damage high for both the mobs and the player.

More Spawns
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4253/?

I found the medium file for more spawns worked best for my system. Anything over 3000 extra spawns caused cell load lag for my little old 4 banger.

I can't imagine why anyone would want more spawns, but that's just me.

The survival mode sounds good except for the part about disabling fast travel. I don't use fast travel very often, but I certainly want that option to be there.

More spawns with more intelligent AI could be fun. And no Borderlands Legendaries.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I can't imagine why anyone would want more spawns, but that's just me.

The survival mode sounds good except for the part about disabling fast travel. I don't use fast travel very often, but I certainly want that option to be there.

Yeah, different tastes. I found few enemies too easy on survival. Most engagements feel like they are over before they really start. One way of making the game more difficult/interesting was to add enemies combined with the higher damage for both sides. There are some amazing battles between different factions with that mod. Sometimes worth just sitting back and watching.

You realize that the 2000+ mobs are not in one location. The mod just adds 0 to X based on a number of properties and all locations are hand chosen by the mod maker. Some areas have no extra mobs, other areas have a couple, and some areas have quite a few extra.

This mode sounds like it could be more fun than the base game. I might even reinstall the game in few months to try it out if it does turn out good.

I'm sceptical Howard and his crew have enough of a grasp of design nuance to implement a truly satisfying challenge setting - but it sounds interesting.

That’s going to be something different than we usually do.

It sure has a Preston Garvey vibe about it. With "exactly the same" being the new "different".

It's nothing new really, I was able to make the game survival-like with mods in days after release, but even that couldn't save it from utter mediocrity of awful dialogue and boring quests.

Well the mod tools have a release date thankfully. Don't trust anything the Beth team can come up with in terms of any sort of gameplay I can like.

http://www.eteknix.com/fallout-4-off…-date-revealed

If the base combat is sloppy, and guns and movement don't have any weight, I don't imagine it can be improved all that much.

Originally Posted by screeg
If the base combat is sloppy, and guns and movement don't have any weight, I don't imagine it can be improved all that much.

Base gun play is actually improved substantially from FO3( probably the worst modern AAA shooter )…it handles now like solid shooter when it comes to bullet impact and sounds.
But AI, level design, lack of decent tactical options remains largely the same.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I'm sceptical Howard and his crew have enough of a grasp of design nuance to implement a truly satisfying challenge setting - but it sounds interesting.

Welcome back, DArt. You may have been back for a while, but this is the first post I've noticed. Hope you had some good downtime.

I think they should have named it "Josh Sawyer" mode

Dart!

Dart's back!

Was I asleep?

Welcome back!

Originally Posted by BoboTheMighty
But AI, level design, lack of decent tactical options remains largely the same.

The vertical level design was actually one of the game's few positives for me.

On the subject of hardcore mode, like anything to come out of Bethesda, it will need to be modded. But at least the base system will be implemented to work off of.

Originally Posted by DArtagnan
I'm sceptical Howard and his crew have enough of a grasp of design nuance to implement a truly satisfying challenge setting - but it sounds interesting.

Welcome back Dart, very much missed seeing your posts! Was nice to see your name show up in the feeds.

Luckily I can sit on the sidelines on this FO4 discussion since I seldom do survival mode games … being fairly incompetent in my gaming skills I find normal difficulty challenging enough

Still I am happy to see options in games - if it adds some things for others to enjoy I think that will be good. Of course it will be nice if they also do a good job on it (good being a bit relative to the player).

Thank you for the kind words all

As for Fallout 4 - I think it's a wonderful game, but in terms of tight mechanics and nuanced challenge design, we're probably barking up the wrong tree here.

Wolf and I are on the same page: I'm an easy mode or normal mode guy and rarely seek to "challenge" myself on the combat parts. I just want to adopt a role and wander around and do stuff.

I'm surprised how much I miss mining in oblivion. I wonder if someone modded that in…..

FWIW you can mine in ESO.

And, DArt, welcome back!

Look at that Reddit news:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/com…iew_extracted/

Bethesda confirmed the Survival mode changes to FO4.

Apparently it was data mined from the latest beta?

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Apparently it was data mined from the latest beta?

Yes Thrasher, it seems so.

Edit: There are many changes, some of them even make sense, can you believe that ?