‘In an effort to be more transparent’
You really can’t get anything past players these days: if there are undocumented portions of a patch, they will find them and call you out on it. It’s a reality that many, many developers have learned to cope with (Epic Games provides detailed breakdowns and mathematical equations on occasion): Bethesda is having growing pains of their own with Fallout 76.
Just last week Bethesda dropped a patch note blog that contained many alterations, but as it turned out there was a ton of stuff that wasn’t accounted for. Obviously there’s a limit. Not every developer is going to trumpet from the mountaintop that there was a major exploit that allowed players to duplicate items or otherwise break the economy. But several changes were important from a gameplay perspective, like a swift alteration of the efficacy of workshops, leading many people to believe that 76 had introduced new bugs (which would be a wise assumption).
Several days after the patch Bethesda caught wind that they had been found out and issued a statement. Here’s Bethesda’s full reply: “In an effort to be more transparent with our patch notes, below is a full list of changes included in Tuesday’s patch. For the upcoming patch – and all future patches – our goal is to deliver accurate, comprehensive notes. If we miss something, we’ll work to get it right and deliver the information to you as quickly as we can. We’re also looking to share a list of known issues to give you a better sense of what we’re working on.”
While vague patch notes in the grand scheme of things are one of the game’s smallest problems, this stuff adds up. It’ll be really interested in seeing how 76 looks in six months, though I’m still saddened that the (great) West Virginia setting was used so recklessly.
Upcoming Fallout 76 Patch Notes [Bethesda]