Why Does Bethesda Make Fallout Games So Buggy?

[Zerginfestor]

As a modder, I've come to the realization, if you put it online, little you can do about what people do with your stuff, so, only share specific things and go in expecting the worst.

Also, as someone who's trying their hands at animating in Fallout 4, I have to say what an unbearable hell it's been to take a whack at it. How the fuck can people do this shit? Going through so many fucking hoops just to do one little thing.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

Also, as someone who's trying their hands at animating in Fallout 4, I have to say what an unbearable hell it's been to take a whack at it. How the fuck can people do this shit? Going through so many fucking hoops just to do one little thing.

Relative to some other games (Cough, Silent Hunter 4), Bethesda's games are fucking piss easy to mod.

 

[Zerginfestor]

Relative to some other games (Cough, Silent Hunter 4), Bethesda's games are fucking piss easy to mod.

That depends on what the fuck you're even modding. Creating new animations is downright aggravating, especially when you're introduced to a 3D program you never used and the tutorials/instructions for using it for that specific mod/game is pretty much nonexistent save for one or two guides that don't really cover the steps well.

 

[Black Angel]

Relative to some other games (Cough, Silent Hunter 4), Bethesda's games are fucking piss easy to mod.

Well, from what I've heard many times Fallout 4 was made way harder to mod compared to previous games. You know, hardcoded dialogue and perk system, animation needing 3rd party animation and all that.

 

[R.Graves]

Fuck disks, what about the infinitely small price of digital goods?

I do and always will prefer having a physical collection of plastic media discs on a shelf than just scrolling through my steam library.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

I do and always will prefer having a physical collection of plastic media discs on a shelf than just scrolling through my steam library.

I don't mind disks, but they take up a lot of space if they're in their original boxes (literally DVD cases could be halved in size without issue...), and scratch.

 

[R.Graves]

I don't mind disks, but they take up a lot of space if they're in their original boxes (literally DVD cases could be halved in size without issue...), and scratch.

They don't scratch if you don't scratch em.

Also I find bluray discs to be super difficult to scratch on accident. Too bad I just buy dvds.

And taking up space? That's a good thing imo. It's like... Look at all my shit. In'it nice?

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

Bluerays are pretty tanky.

 

[Ben Soto]

I'm gonna play Asshole's Advocate here and try and get some of the blame off of BGS because it's not entirely their fault. See, the problem is that BGS is not self-publishing. They have to answer to Bethesda Softworks and Zenimax. BGS seems like they've got a "when it's done" philosophy to their games, but the realities of the AAA games industry mean that they're likely to have a schedule and need to follow it. Furthermore, since they have to answer to corporate bigwigs, more effort is placed on content creation and less on fleshing out said content or (more relevant to this thread) testing it for bugs. We saw this happen when BethSoft contracted Obsidian to make New Vegas. BethSoft strictly enforced their deadline and Obsidian was forced to rush the game out the door. BGS is given more leeway, but since they've also got a lot more programming work to do as opposed to design work, they're still forced to cut corners to make a deadline.

Let's also not forget that, despite how many bugs made it into the game, BGS actually does bugtest. There was something like 100 QA and bug testers working on Fallout 4, but BGS likely couldn't fix the bugs in time. Heck, it's possible some of these bugs can't be fixed without major rewrites of code and design work that could take weeks if not months to fix. Now, in a perfect world, BGS would wait until the game was finished and bugfree before releasing it, but it's really hard to delay a AAA release, since AAA releases are timed to avoid competition and take advantage of major purchase seasons. Since bugtesting doesn't typically snag you a significant number of extra sales, it's usually put on the backburner, to be fixed up after launch or perhaps after the DLC is released.

I remember the web series Extra Credits did a video about why developers release buggy games and I highly recommend checking it out.

(Sidenote: this post does not explain why the content seems sub-par, it's only meant to explain why it's buggy. It's quality is another matter and best handled by other people.)

 

[Black Angel]

Let's also not forget that, despite how many bugs made it into the game, BGS actually does bugtest. There was something like 100 QA and bug testers working on Fallout 4, but BGS likely couldn't fix the bugs in time. Heck, it's possible some of these bugs can't be fixed without major rewrites of code and design work that could take weeks if not months to fix. Now, in a perfect world, BGS would wait until the game was finished and bugfree before releasing it, but it's really hard to delay a AAA release, since AAA releases are timed to avoid competition and take advantage of major purchase seasons. Since bugtesting doesn't typically snag you a significant number of extra sales, it's usually put on the backburner, to be fixed up after launch or perhaps after the DLC is released.

And the game is 7 years in the making. Yeah, right.

 

[Ben Soto]

And the game is 7 years in the making. Yeah, right.

Furthermore, since they have to answer to corporate bigwigs, more effort is placed on content creation and less on fleshing out said content or (more relevant to this thread) testing it for bugs.

Also, let's say that you find a bug very late in development (say, a couple of weeks before you send off your game for certification) and it turns out this is caused by a fault in certain parts of the engine's base code (this is uncommon, but it still happens.)

You are not getting that bug fixed before the game goes gold. Furthermore, at a company like BGS, you're expected to immediately proceed to making the DLC, meaning bug fixing has to take a back seat again. It's bad for the consumer, yeah, but it's the reality of AAA development (and is one of the major problems of AAA development.)

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

What boggles my mind is how easy the bugs are found.

Okay, fine, you found a bug which happens in the corner of the map when a certain enemy is there and you hit him in a certain way, whatever.

But bugs which can break main questlines!? WHO BUGFIXED THIS!?

 

[Ben Soto]

What boggles my mind is how easy the bugs are found.

Okay, fine, you found a bug which happens in the corner of the map when a certain enemy is there and you hit him in a certain way, whatever.

But bugs which can break main questlines!? WHO BUGFIXED THIS!?

Depends on the nature of the bug. Could've been it wasn't discovered until late in development (many bugs like that are generally considered edge cases in development, with the true consequences staying unknown until after the game launched) or maybe it only came about late in development and got past the developers.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

Depends on the nature of the bug. Could've been it wasn't discovered until late in development (many bugs like that are generally considered edge cases in development, with the true consequences staying unknown until after the game launched) or maybe it only came about late in development and got past the developers.

Fallout 3.

Main questline.

Liberty prime just doesn't move.

At all.

He just stands there, forever.

HOW IS THIS STILL IN THE MOST RECENTLY UPDATED VERSION OF THE GAME!?

 

[Risewild]

What boggles my mind is how easy the bugs are found.

Okay, fine, you found a bug which happens in the corner of the map when a certain enemy is there and you hit him in a certain way, whatever.

But bugs which can break main questlines!? WHO BUGFIXED THIS!?

They are easy to find but Bethesda doesn't want to fix them, even when the QA testers find and report them.

Even after passing through QA, it's still commonplace for today's videogames to have bugs both small and game-breaking. Take the PlayStation 3 version of Bethesda's Skyrim. If QA testers work as fervently as they claim, how can such technical travesties slip through the cracks?

The truth, according to Phil, is that "many reported bugs don't get fixed." Furthermore, developers often ignore the advice of QA testers. Frank says, "They shot our opinions down without even a slight bit of consideration. They waste money and resources" before faulty projects are canned.