Surprise! Fallout 76's big new Steel Dawn update, bringing the Brotherhood of Steel back to Appalachia, is dropping a week early. That’s thanks in part to a patch that accidentally went out ahead of schedule for Xbox and Windows 10 players, which ended up locking them out of the game.
Earlier today, some players on Twitter and Reddit started reporting a mysterious 13.92GB update that, once downloaded, told them their game client was out of date and prevented them from re-launching Fallout 76. It turns out they were getting the Steel Dawn update early, but because it wasn’t set to go live until December 1, they were unable to play.
“We immediately began investigating ways we could get our Xbox players back in-game as soon as possible,” Bethesda announced this afternoon over on the game’s website. “However, in our discussions, all of us at Bethesda Game Studios felt the best way to resolve this was to release the update for everyone.”
As a result, servers for the game went offline for everyone for maintenance starting at 4:00 p.m. ET, with a downtime of around six hours expected. When the game comes back up later tonight (assuming nothing breaks), players will get to dip into Steel Dawn’s new questline and Shelter system ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday break.
“We’d like to apologize to our Xbox players for any confusion today’s issue caused, but we hope that everyone in the Fallout 76 community is as excited as we are to dive into Steel Dawn ahead of schedule,” Bethesda wrote.
This is one Fallout 76 bug that’s certainly worked out in players’ favor.
Update - 5:05 p.m. ET, 11/24/20: The patch notes for the Steel Dawn update just dropped as well and they include a dramatic change to the game’s hunger and thirst survival mechanics:
Hunger and Thirst Updates
- We agree with feedback from the community that our hunger and thirst mechanics could feel a little too punishing. We’ve decided to remove the negative effects when you’re hungry or thirsty, and buff up the bonuses you receive when you’re fed and hydrated.
- Going forward, your Action Points, Health, and Disease Resists will no longer be negatively affected when you haven’t had anything to eat or drink recently.
- Instead, you will receive buffs that increase depending on how full your hunger and thirst meters are:
- Hunger: Gain +15 Max HP when partially fed, up to +35 Max HP, +35% Disease Resist, and +1 Strength when fully fed.
- Thirst: Gain +15% AP Regeneration when partially hydrated, up to +35% AP Regeneration, +35% Disease Resist, and +1 Endurance when fully hydrated.
Finally, no more having to fast travel back to camp in the middle of adventuring because you got dysentery.