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Eurogamer: Why I'm tired of Fallout 4 encumbrance

Berrigal

Neo Member
Never really played Fallout that much myself, but that reminds me exactly of Demon's Souls. yes, I'm sure these upgrade materials WOULD way a fuckton because they're rocks, but every time it happens you just get annoyed and end up leaving the materials there. Thankfully they got rid of it for the later games, but I can definitely see how it would be an issue. Is there any way to upgrade your weight load in Fallout? Or rather, how much of an issue is it?
 

BokehKing

Banned
Why not just dump all your equipment to your partner in the wastelands???? Damn I hate when people who write articles don't even know the mechanics of the game they are playing

Granted fallout4 can be more vague than a from software title at times but your companion is a walking chest for you to dump weighty objects into
 

Krakn3Dfx

Member
Hoarders are the worst.
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Ruruja

Member
The guy's stripping every Raider he finds down to their undies, I'd say this isn't a Fallout problem, it's a Wesley Yin-Poole problem. You don't even need multiples of any weapon or apparel because there's no repairing in Fallout 4.
 

Quonny

Member
What are these people picking up? After 10 hours I find myself pretty much only picking up 4-5 items and leaving the rest behind. I don't have to "offload" my stuff for like 3+ hours.
 

Haunted

Member
Literally the first thing I did in the console was get rid of that shit. :D Did the same in Witcher 3, no regrets. Superior experiences for me.

The way I see it, it's not about hoarding or abusing the economy without penalty, it's about cutting down on tedium, repetition, backtracking and inventory management, which means freeing up more of my time to focus on the important bits.
 

Crzy1

Member
At least they added a perk that allows you to fast travel while you have too much stuff and run if you have the AP. Think you have to invest 5 in strength, but so worth it when you just need materials. If you want to be a pack rat, better plan accordingly.

Never really bothered me, most of what I picked up was shit anyway, so it was just going to get disassembled or sold for a couple caps. When I had too much, I just went through the weapon and armor list and tossed whatever I wasn't planning to use. Didn't mess with the base building much, but playing with my power armor is addicting so I collect all kinds of random junk. Bought Home Plate in Diamond City and fast travel directly there to store shit whenever I have too much. Just a small step to five vendors and a power armor station from there.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
I'm for the first time okay with encumbrance because the entire focus of this game is picking up shit. Literally just you are a shit collector and you collect the fuck out of shit. That's all fallout 4 is. There's a quest, but it just takes you to buildings to pick up shit. And there's a story, but really it's not as important as the plot of Joe the Shit Picker Upper.

BUT

who thought it was okay to NOT LINK THE WORKBENCHES BY DEFAULT

The fact that's a perk is bullshit. Now I have to fast travel back to sanctuary constantly which is just annoying and stupid.

Shit picking up shitty shit game.
 
One is actually difficult and requires skill, the other just require time and effort. Constantly going into one's inventory to sort them is not fun, it's just busy work.
Enjoyment.

That's my point.

I play Fallout: New Vegas on hardcore mode with Jsawyer mod. Carry weight is lowered drastically, ammo has weight, stimpacks have weight, and you can only carry so much food at a time, with water being particularly heavy. I typically can only haul around 3 or so weapons. This makes picking up new objects and hauling them around very big decisions. I don't want to be an all powerful walking armory, i want to be vulnerable, challenged, and occasionally punished, because of the agency i have and decisions that i have made as a player.

Carry weight is not tedium. Bethesda's interpretation of carry weight in relation to the rest of the mechanics of the game (collecting shit to go into settlements being a big contradiction) is what creates tedium.
 

Sullichin

Member
I would feel like i'm cheating way too much if I raised my encumberance on PC. A huge part of the loop of the game is looting an area, and then warping back to my settlement to drop off my junk. Considering I've spent points to carry more (high STR+ lone wanderer), it's as part of my character build as anything else. I guess I like this loop. It's such a big part of the game for me I'm not going to mod it away.
 

Sou Da

Member
I find it funny that of all the RPG mechanics Bethesda removed from Fallout 4, encumbrance wasn't one of them.

People like skills, perks managing, deep dialogue system? Fuck that! They hate encumbrance? Keep it in!

I find it funny that they even bothered removing any of them all, I'm pretty sure all they had to do was make a new game world and update the fps mechanics to satisfy their audience.
 

Shrennin

Didn't get the memo regarding the 14th Amendment
I think there could be improvements made to encumbrance. Perhaps weapons/armor/aid don't affect it but junk does (and make junk weigh more to offset armor/weapons)?

Or make an extra category - "crafting materials" - and allow everything to be disassembled into those materials on the spot (with crafting materials not having any weight cost). That way there's still limits on weapons/armor/aid/junk but there's a way to fight the weight limit when exploring as opposed to being forced to drop it or give it to a companion. Junk could even give more crafting materials over weapons/armor/aid so there's a reason to want to grab those items too.
 

SpecX

Member
This has always been an annoyance for me since I'm a pack rat in these games. i find myself picking up anything that looks of interest and want to keep weapons on me "just in case" when I really don't need them.
 
You should be permanently stuck as a junior just for this stupid comment. The writer is not wrong...I understand some people want the ability to have to determine what to bring with them and leave but at least give the more casual gamers the option when playing the game for there not to be a limit on how much you can carry.

Or, alternatively, you play by the rules the game has afforded you.
 

Sheroking

Member
In this game, it's really not a big issue. You're kinda meant to store almost everything in the workstation anyway, so when you're full up and your companion is full up, do a quick fast travel.

It even gives you the option to "store all junk".
 

amnesiac

Member
If it is super easy to fast travel back to your base and unload it really is just an annoyance. The encumbrance isn't forcing you to make hard choices about your priorities while wandering the wasteland, it is just adding a mandatory "travel back to base, empty your inventory" step to the game.
Exactly. This would be way different if the amount you could have in your workbench was limited or if there was no fast travel, but the way it's implemented right now is redundant.
 

Mesoian

Member
If it is super easy to fast travel back to your base and unload it really is just an annoyance. The encumbrance isn't forcing you to make hard choices about your priorities while wandering the wasteland, it is just adding a mandatory "travel back to base, empty your inventory" step to the game.

Supply lines ease this discomfort and give you another reason to complete all the farm missions, but it's still an issue of "well, I'm pretty close, I guess I'll stop doing what's entertaining me in order to empty and adjust the layouts of myself and my follower. I hope it won't take too long".

Or, alternatively, you play by the rules the game has afforded you.

This attitude is why we don't have cheats in games anymore

That and monetization, I know I'm being a little pedantic here
 

E-flux

Member
I think that the problem is the looting, not how much shit you can carry.
I don't know if it's just me or if anybody else felt like looting in Fo4 feels pointless thanks to how abundant the loot is. I don't know how i would fix it since you would need to rework how loot works but i tune down the amount of shit that you can pick up in the world.

Demon's Souls had a good encumbrance system in my opinion, the world had just enough loot for you to think about inventory management. and not feel like a chore.
I can't really think of other games that have a good encumbrance systems, but i think that fallout just dropped the ball on that one.
 

Tagyhag

Member
It really depends on the game.

It hasn't been fun in a Fallout game since 2.

I mean, you could always just leave, go back to a place, and then go back to get some more stuff, but that's just padding, and it's not fun.

Why not just cut out the middle man and have fun and not waste your time?
 

Fuchsdh

Member
I agree that encumbrance I don't think is a necessity, and probably depending on your game it either should be more restrictive than it currently is (in Skyrim I'm still running around with 300 lbs of random crap in my pack) or just go hog-crazy with it.
 
Despite the great reviews, the more in depth impressions tell me the formula needs a change up before I buy another elder scrolls or fallout game again.
 

Blizzard

Banned
In Skyrim I trudged back and forth between a dungeon and town, putting up with the slow walking, in an attempt to sell items without modding it.

In Fallout 4, I think I got fully encumbered and unable to run the very first time I cleared a dungeon, before I found a single merchant. I'm assuming that was only a sign of things to come, so I promptly used the console command to increase the weight limit.

As others have pointed out, having a weight limit doesn't add much challenge, it just adds more trips back and forth (or makes the same trips longer). It adds frustration and time for no good reason, particularly when the game has mechanics designed around recycling the junk you find.
 

Fracas

#fuckonami
I think it worked pretty well in 3/New Vegas, when you could repair weapons and armor. Now it's just kind of annoying. I raised the cap on launch day.
 

mollipen

Member
If I'm out in the "action" or "adventure" part of a game, and I'm constantly having to go through my inventory to manage it, then I think the game has failed in that regard.

Developers love giving us loot, but hate giving us proper ways to deal with it. As much as I adore Dragon Age Inquisition, god was it terrible about item management. When I'm out exploring the world and killing monsters and doing quests, the absolute last thing I want to worry about is if I've got enough room in my pack to carry the stuff I'm finding. Especially in games where crafting materials are important to have.

And LOL at the "but realism!" people when you've got characters carrying more than two guns or two swords or more than one shield or other things like that. That already has completely broken the reality of a character carrying equipment.
 

dity

Member
I'm for the first time okay with encumbrance because the entire focus of this game is picking up shit. Literally just you are a shit collector and you collect the fuck out of shit. That's all fallout 4 is. There's a quest, but it just takes you to buildings to pick up shit. And there's a story, but really it's not as important as the plot of Joe the Shit Picker Upper.

BUT

who thought it was okay to NOT LINK THE WORKBENCHES BY DEFAULT

The fact that's a perk is bullshit. Now I have to fast travel back to sanctuary constantly which is just annoying and stupid.

Shit picking up shitty shit game.

Joe the Shit Picker Upper needs to be respected enough so that he can tell others to move the shit he picked up, duh. I mean, why else would anyone touch Joe's shit?
 

collige

Banned
nope, not when its something as ridiculous as encumbrance is in fallout. consistently having to drop gear/guns/junk to stay below encumbrance when those items could be sold/scrapped for more materials? or you could just fast travel back to sanctuary every 15 mins too. oh look, a deathclaw. better pull out my fatboy. nope. i left it in sanctuary in favor of being able to carry more materials that im looking for so i can upgrade my weapon/armor. companions also have a limit, and its also pretty low. at least for dogmeat. encumbrance is a nuisance that takes me out of the immersion of exploring. so therefore player.setav carryweight 9001

This is an argument in favor on weight limits. If you're purposefully going out of your way to travel light, then you have to accept that you won't be able to handle every situation. It's a tradeoff of preparedness vs. adaptability.
 

BokehKing

Banned
Despite the great reviews, the more in depth impressions tell me the formula needs a change up before I buy another elder scrolls or fallout game again.
Nah, the guy just doesn't know how to use companions to carry your shit

They are basically glorified caddies
 
Thank god for console commands. Modav saved my life, took me an hour before I decided to use it. Never looked back.

Oh, hey, now there's a bunch of shit you need to pick up all over the place. No, we won't adjust the carry weight mechanic to work well with this change. Fast travel 10 times to collect what you need. Enjoy!

Yeah, no. Not fun, not challenging, just tedious. The above comparison to RE4 is hilarious. It adds challenge and limits utility items in RE4, a game where a lack of healing and weapons can be deadly. In FO4, it means you can't grab the resource you want right then and have to travel to town to drop some worthless shit off. Utility items weigh little to nothing.
 

mindsale

Member
It's easily the least fun part of the game.

Not using a strength build? Then prepare to leave a dungeon 3 times to offload mats.
 

Tumle

Member
My only problem with it is that I can't seem to find a way list the things by anything but alphabetical order..
So that becomes cumbersome to have to scroll all the way throug the list of everything I have gathered.. Or maybe I iust missed the option to change the filter.. :)
 

kavanf1

Member
How is encumbrance an issue when the entire world, including animal corpses, is a cabinet?

Previous games were buggy like that and there was every chance you could lose everything you left in a random location. I only ever stored stuff in my homes in 3 and NV. Not sure if that quirk has carried over to 4, but I'm not going to risk it.
 
How can a dev legitimately handle something like this?

I get it. It doesn't bother me.

Am I wrong in thinking this complaint sounds like: Why have radiation or health and not infinite ammo?
 

dimb

Bjergsen is the greatest midlane in the world
What about managing your case in games like Resident Evil 4? Since there is a tetris-like puzzle element to arranging everything, is that okay to keep, or should that go away as well?
RE4 tightly controls resource drops and attempts to starve the player of resources, making inventory management an interesting aspect of the game where players are pushed into a situation where judgement comes into play on what items will be truly useful, or fit the player's style.

Fallout 4 encourages and pushes for players to pick up massive amounts of what the game itself even refers to as "junk". Ammo is massively plentiful, and carry weights can be overridden by hocking stuff off on a companion. The resource collection calls for the player to absorb everything, but then punishes them for exceeding a mostly arbitrary limit. Ultimately mechanics like fast travel and an unlimited space bank mean that players can easily work around the weight limits, but only by engaging in tedious menu management that sends them back and forth across the landscape. There is no real challenge posed by the weight limits in Fallout 4. Just unnecessary restrictions that up the time in inventory management to somewhat absurd levels.
 

pablito

Member
The guy's stripping every Raider he finds down to their undies, I'd say this isn't a Fallout problem, it's a Wesley Yin-Poole problem. You don't even need multiples of any weapon or apparel because there's no repairing in Fallout 4.

Idk man maybe it's how I play, but I like to have weapons of each ammo type in case I run out. And I like to have pistol and sniper variants. Pistols are my favorite, but sometimes I need to do damage before I get close.

However this game has been throwing all kinds of ammo at me, so I could get by with less of a gun roster.
 
I stopped liking encumberance after I became overencumbered on Skyrim at the end of the first cave/main mission before you get to the capital for the first time in Skyrim and I had to strong attack dash my way to there, then go to the castle and find enough gold to buy my house.
Also, Demon's Souls was the worst for it.

It's an interesting mechanic, but you should be able to fast travel/call for a mode of transport, and it should be at it's max limit by default; I stuck with the Steed (that was the carry limit increase one, right?) Standing stone on Skyrim, and I had the carry limit increase ability on Dragon's Dogma, and both seemed like a waste when the increased limit could have been the default.
 
So...use buffout and fast travel to sanctuary, use a companion for storage or get the perk that increases carry weight. Disabling encumbrance is babby mode.
 

a916

Member
While I don't think they should remove it completely... you SHOULD be able to at the very least ravage one building or area without that issue. I don't want to go through half a building, go back and dump my junk, then come back and wonder where I left off.

At the very least I don't want to have to keep going back when I'm tackling just one building or quest.

But I just drink alcohol and all is solved.
 

collige

Banned
My only problem with it is that I can't seem to find a way list the things by anything but alphabetical order..
So that becomes cumbersome to have to scroll all the way throug the list of everything I have gathered.. Or maybe I iust missed the option to change the filter.. :)

Click the left analog stick if you're on a controller.
 
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