New Inside the Vault outlines Patch 5 issues for Fallout 76

Been a busy few days for the folks at Bethesda, with having a major Fallout 76 release earlier this week and then having to scramble to correct a host of bugs introduced via that release and then scheduling a hotfix to correct the issues.  Although the official release notes haven't dropped yet on the hotfix, the Inside the Vault was just released and it has plenty of details on what went haywire.  Below is the entire Inside the Vault thread, but you can also read it at the official site.  We will also update the hot fix new post with any additional details once they come out.

Fallout 76: Inside the Vault – January 31, 2019

This week we’re providing new insights into some of our decisions with patch 5, including info on weapons balancing, vendor pricing and more.

Hot Topics About Patch 5

Patch 5 released on Tuesday with many fixes and adjustments to balance. Amongst the feedback, we saw some questions about a few of the updates and some concerns about problems coming out of the patch including bobby pin weight reverting back to 0.10 lb, problems with Bulk Junk auto-scrapping, and others. Below we’ll shed light on some of the decisions we made and what we’re doing to resolve any new issues.

• Patch 5 reverted Bobby Pin weight. In Patch 4, we had reduced Bobby Pin weight from 0.10 lb to 0.001 lb each, and this was mistakenly undone in patch 5. We are addressing this in a hotfix going live later today. This issue occurred when a merge of our development builds failed to execute properly prior to releasing patch 5. We are working on ways to prevent this from happening again in the future.
• Bulk Scrap can no longer be auto-scrapped. This was an unintended side-effect of our change to stop loose mods from being auto-scrapped when you didn’t have enough materials while trying to craft. We’ve identified the cause of the issue and are currently planning to address it with our upcoming hotfix so that you can get back to crafting without having to manually scrap your bulk items.
• Plans and Recipes appearing as (Known) across all characters. This is a UI issue introduced with Patch 5 that caused all plans and recipes a player had learned on one character to appear as “(Known)” across all their characters in trade and inventory menus. Known plans and recipes are intended to be tracked separately for each character on an account, and we’re currently planning to address this in the upcoming hotfix.
• Ultracite Power Armor plans being available at Taggerdy’s Terminal negates the need to fight the Scorchbeast Queen. One of the key rewards for Belly of the Beast is a full set of Ultracite Power Armor. Some players accidentally deleted this reward and were understandably upset. We made this fix to ensure everyone that completed Belly of the Beast could remake this power armor even if they accidentally dropped or deleted it. These recipes can also drop from the Scorchbeast Queen, but this wasn’t meant to be one of her primary rewards, since everyone in the Scorched Earth event already should have access to the Ultracite Power Armor.
• Energy and Heavy Weapons Improvements. We've heard and share your feedback that energy weapons need to be brought inline with other weapon types. We're also looking to adjust laser weapon durability in a future update. Additionally, after recent balance changes related to Perks and Legendary Mods, players have expressed that explosive non-legendary weapons are now less powerful. We agree there are improvements we can make. We’re doing an audit of heavy weapons damage and their ammo weights. We plan to increase damage in light of the perk and mod reductions, and plan to reduce ammo weight to make heavy weapons generally more viable. These adjustments will roll those out in a future update.
• Perk balance adjustments. Demolition Expert was reduced to match related damage perks. The damage bonus it previously provided was very high and was causing balance problems, especially when combined with the Explosive Rounds Legendary mod. We also reduced the condition loss and repair bonuses offered by the White Knight and Licensed Plumber perks to help them better match perks like Power Patcher. We know the balance changes we made to these cards have caused some frustrations. We make these decisions to encourage more balanced pick rates across all perk cards, and even out perks that can start to feel mandatory when they’re overperforming compared to other cards. We’re hearing your feedback about repair costs and we’re currently looking into reducing them in general with future updates.
• Vendor plans now cost more Caps. Vendor prices were originally based on rarity. Guaranteeing their appearance in a Vendor’s inventory significantly increased the availability of most plans and recipes, and we’ve increased their cap prices as a result. Cap prices have been set relatively high to allow for a market to still exist where players can mod others’ equipment for a cheaper price.

Known Issues and Feedback

In a previous “Inside the Vault” we promised to publish a Known Issues list. We had hoped to have this list ready by now. We are currently putting together a list that features not only the top issues we see players referencing, but also some of the top feedback and requests. This list will not be exhaustive and contain every issue or request we’ve seen you share, but we will work to keep it updated consistently to add and provide insight on the biggest things you want to know about.

You will be able to find the Known Issue List once available on our official forums or on Reddit. We are aiming to get it out later today. As new fixes are implemented and new top issues and concerns surface, this Known Issues list will grow (and shrink) over time. Stay tuned for more!

We hope that you continue to provide us feedback on Fallout 76 and all that’s involved including these articles and things like the list.