Community:Galaxy News Network/The Galaxy Tribune 006

August 1st, 2023

THE GALAXY TRIBUNE
EDITION #006

New PTS Update for Patch 46 & Dev comment Eases the Community
July 21st, 2023 by CookOLo

It hasn't even been a week since the last Fallout 76 PTS update on July 14, 2023, and there's already another one. On July 20, 2023, another update was pushed onto the PTS. The primary concern for this update is to test the bug concerning Legendary Drops/Rolls, so they specifically increased the Legendary drop rates for this iteration of the PTS to truly test the bug fix.

In addition to this PTS update, the Developer hydraskillz was also fairly active in the #pts-general-discussion channel in the Official Bethesda Game Studios Discord Server. In this activity, they answered many questions that would ease the Fallout 76 community, so here are some of them.

Player (Super Enclave Space Marine): "Do you guys know Tesla lobber can destroy player camps"

Developer (hydraskillz): "Yes, and we are looking into it"

Player (jack): "Sorry for the ping but I just had a quick question about the durability issues still present in the game. Are the durability issues with certain weapons like the broadsider going to be fixed with this update? Since October certain weapons have had an incredibly low durability. Like the broadsider which is only able to fire 50 shots before breaking"

Developer (hydraskillz): "I know there was an issue related to energy weapon durability, but I'm not aware of weapons like that being affected. We'll take a look into it”

Player (onny): "@hydraskillz Is the enemy's powerful energy damage a bug? Many people wonder."

Developer (hydraskillz): "NPC energy damage was significantly underperforming and we're aware it is too strong in a lot of cases after the last adjustment. We are continuing to look at dialing it in to a better place."

Player (kai.ribik [Enclave Megasloth]): "and reroll thorn and scout?"

Developer (hydraskillz): "Yeah, that's a change we plan to make"

Player (AurumDragoon): "speaking of mods, any chance we can learn to make Enclave Plasma Gun and Scout Armor mods?"

Developer (hydraskillz): "We are looking at doing something with the availability of those mods, but nothing to share at this time"

If you want to test it out the PTS and give feedback, check out the Official Bethesda Game Studios Discord.

The Mod Project that Aims to Recreate Past Fallout Weapons - Project: Bygone Weapons
July 7th, 2023 by CookOLo

Starting in Nov 2022, Lead Developer Alexerator released a 'standalone weapon mod The Plasma Pistol for Fallout 4. That right there would start Project: Bygone Weapons. It's a project that aims to recreate all of Fallout 3 and New Vegas's weapons in addition to some Fallout 1/2/Tactics/Van Buren weapons.' (Full list of Weapons being Created)

Now why? Well, we asked them, and this is Alexerator's response:

"There were a lot of weapons from the classic Fallout games that I had gripes with or just haven't been made, I had always had this idea in the back of my head. But when [Project: Bygone Weapons] PBW really began it was when Project Mojave released by the Capital Wasteland team. I had made this mod called "Booms from the Mojave" which implemented all the Project Mojave weapons into the Commonwealth and gave them attachment setups and stuff, and I had noticed the weapons were set up quite weirdly, so I had been kinda disappointed with this supposed return of countless classics. Through this mod I realized how much I really wanted the classic weapons done fully. So I started PBW with the idea of cohesive looks and systems. Full attachment setups, LL integration, vanilla balancing. The whole point was to make a way for people to have all these classic weapons and they all work together and coexist easily."

"...I tend to do these mostly myself when it comes to all the assets an CK work. Though Munitions does have a pretty big connection to PBW through the .40 Caliber and 7.92mm boxes I believe. They have the Palmetto Ballistics & Weaponry logo on them (the post-war manufacturer responsible for all the weapon imports in PBW's lore). So that's the closest to a PBW collab so far. There's also a few of Dak's assets used in most of the weapons, specifically the optics and gubbins pack stuff."

And that lore mention is important for the future of this project as eventually the project would lead to a All-In-One Mod that aims to implement all the weapons into the game with a questline to go along with it!

But that's a way off, as of July 7, 2023, because there a lot of weapons that are planned to be recreated, and when asked about which is his most excited to recreate.

"I can't say if there's a weapon I'm most excited about. Next PBW weapons are usually the ones I'm in the mood to make. So it jumps around a lot."

Of course, there are quite a few weapons that have already been recreated, and we asked him about his favorite:

"My favorite would have to be the Plasma Pistol so far as I'm extremely proud of how it turned out especially with how weird the F3 Plasma Pistol is in terms of shapes and stuff. It's also the weapon that actually kicked off PBW. The Plasma Defender and Tesla Cannon [which were created before the Plasma Pistol and have the PBW Logo on their mod pages] were actually meant for an Institute Arsenal Overhaul Redux, but the IAO Redux has since been cancelled in favor of full focus on PBW and Mica filling that gap with the [Institute Technology Overhaul] ITO mod."

Alexerator does have Discord as a centralized place to follow their work-in-progress screenshots, releases, and etc. and to simply hang out. If you want to learn more about Project: Bygone Weapons, and even ask some questions about it, join the Project: Bygone Weapons Discord!



A Galaxy Conference (003) - Eckserah, Founder of the FO76 Datamining Discord
July 27th, 2023 by Jah (@di0xazine_)

As you know at GNN, we always take time to find amazing people throughout the Fallout Community to interview and talk. In 003, we go into the 76 datamining scene and talked to Eckserah, the Founder and Server Owner of the Fallout 76 Datamining Discord server.

Eckserah, for a bit of background information is a Programmer and Reverse Engineer and again, Founder of the FO76 Datamining Discord. They described that he uses “xEdit” for 76 and for others, the creation or gamebryo engines.

They originally did not even want to be in or want to do anything with Fallout 76 due to at the time, the bad press about it. They did later get into it because their girlfriend at the time wanted to play “something other than overwatch with you” and so they started playing 76, according to Eckserah. While playing the game, they slowly but surely found a bit of bugs in the game at the time, stating that “but also noticed all the bugs and was like, there's gotta be some way to help fix this stuff”. Later on from that experience, finding xEdit, they started looking into the games files. They were able to do this a bit easier than other people starting out usually have to deal with since Eckserah said that they “used to do reverse engineering while working on a WoW private server core Trinitycore and through that experience I started reverse engineering 76 in order to get xEdit working better since there was so many unknowns”.



The pushing force of joining the 76 Discord Communtity was joining the Fallout Network server as they were super hooked on the game. With joining, they were able to share the things they found in the game and later on getting invited to many other communities within the community. But due to the amount of servers they were getting invited too, “it became too much to try to tell all of them what I found so I made my own and invited a bunch of people who I trusted and who would tell all those servers for me”. That caused them to make the FO76 Datamining Discord server.



With the creation of the server, they described the server and its services as a “'fallout 76 datamining and it specializes mostly in 76 info and bug reporting. When new updates come out we mine the files to find out all the info on what's been added. It's also where I host my version of xedit (EcksEdit cuz punny)'”. Going on further by saying “as a lot of info and people who do modding for 76 and other kindsof 76 tool communities”.

But with doing Fallout, Eckserah has another thing cooking up for the future of their work as a modder and reverse engineer! They described the new journey while still doing Fallout as being “'working on xEdit for Starfield when I finally get access to the game. Other than that I haven't been super interested in a lot of things.” They also stated that they “got a few things for older games on the back burner like an asset extractor for fallout: Brotherhood of Steel'”.

At the end of the interview, we asked about any advice or words they wanted to share to anyone wanting to do Datamining in Fallout and or just Fallout 76 or even any form of game datamining. They stated the following “'For anyone wanting to get into datamining games like fallout 76, find something in the game that interests you that you want to know more about and use that as a starting point. It's possible someone else has already found it, but asking how and learning through that has been one of the best ways I've experienced and seen on it. And just don't be afraid to ask questions. People want the correct info out there and will gladly talk about it'.”

We are excited for what Eckserah has in store for the future of their career and that we wish them the best with their production of a Starfield xEdit for Datamining. We will see you in the next conference, where we interview a rising “machinia network” for Fallout. Stay Tuned!

Appalachian Digest: BoS Warborn Interview
July 17th, 2023 by

I recently interviewed the leaders of Brotherhood of Steel: Warborn Chapter about their efforts in Appalachia. They are Elder Black, Elder Blade, General Lazer, and Paladin Commander Jestor. Elder Black represented them in the interview. What follows is an account of their progress.

"As the Senior-most Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel: Warborn Chapter, I want to make it clear that the people of Appalachia hold great importance to us. However, it is a difficult pill to swallow when we find ourselves having to turn our weapons against those we aim to protect.

The emergence of biohazards in the wasteland, whether through ill-fated experiments or unforeseen accidents, has pushed our humanity to the edge. It is our duty, as sworn members of the Brotherhood, to uphold our values. This includes not only the preservation of technology but also the preservation of humanity itself. We now face the grim reality of three known viruses: the hallucinogenic Blue Rain Virus, the toxic Heaven Virus, and the soul-crushing Darken Virus. These viruses serve as a stark reminder of the consequences of mankind's reckless pursuit of technological power."

Elder Black went on to discuss an operation in which the Warborn Chapter's virtues were tested in the face of one of these deadly viruses.

'''Patrol: Bathed In Fire.  Special Operations Squad: Alamo-One '''



I don't recall to much after the beast knocked me off the scout tower. I just kind of... Blanked. But from what I can remember, the mission started just the same as any other mission against the Darken Virus. PPE? Check. Suppressors? Check. Pulse grenades? You got it. The outbreaks of the Darken virus have become a growing concern for the

Brotherhood of Steel. We initially suspected the Enclave to be responsible, but recent intelligence from our Recon Squads suggests that the Mothman Cultists may have a hand in the rapid spread of this virus. Regardless, we have prepared ourselves for the worst, awaiting word from Atlas on the carrier of the virus. From high-ranking Blood Eagle Commanders to the lowliest rad roach, no one is safe.

However, this time was different. Many soldiers chose to abandon their rifles and walk away, recognizing the severity of the mission at hand. We were faced with a formidable adversary, as the Scorchbeast Queen was revealed to be the carrier of the virus. Despite the challenges, our silo run went as expected, with minimal injuries and a high scrap rate.

But when we reached forward station delta, chaos ensued. Our team swiftly utilized C.A.M.P. technology to establish a base of operations, but it proved insufficient. The atom bomb struck, followed by the horrors of science, only to be drowned out by the piercing screams of the Scorchbeast Queen, elusive and beyond the reach of our missile turrets. She descended upon us, claiming two out of eight lives in an instant. And then, three more fell. The last image etched in my mind was that of the Knight Commander and Field Scribe fighting back-to-back against the relentless horde.

But here I am, at Atlas, awakened from the darkness. As I stand here, two of my comrades have been lost, and the rest bear the burden of severe ultracite burns. Retaliation is now my plan, for the Scorchbeast Queen shall not escape justice. I swear upon the name of Roger Maxson that we will bring her down, no matter the cost."