‘Fallout 4’ 1.5 Update Hits Steam Beta, Heralding Survival Mode Release
The Fallout 4 revamped Survival Mode has been running its own special beta the last few weeks as Bethesda Game Studios gives the game’s most difficult mode an overhaul. It is now one step closer to official release as the 1.5 update to the post-apocalyptic survival game entered beta for the PC players on Steam with some important caveats.
As previously covered, Survival Mode started out in Fallout 4 as just the base game with tougher enemies. Designers Josh Hamrick and Jon Paul Duvall used an internal Game Jam session to change the mode up by forcing Fallout 4 players to make choices they wouldn’t normally make in the game.
Bethesda has made combat more brutal to make players think more about when to get into battle and when to avoid it. The pace of the game has also been slowed down somewhat to encourage players to explore more of the game world. Meanwhile, items have been re-balanced to prevent players from hoarding items and force them to consider their armor and weapons more carefully.
It’s important to note that the Survival difficulty characters are not backwards compatible with the 1.5 version of Fallout 4. Bethesda suggests that players not use their Survival characters if they opt out of the beta.
Aside from the addition of Survival Mode, the 1.5 update to Fallout 4 includes a handful of fixes to the game. Some of these are correct issues with various quests in the game, while others fix problems experienced in Workshop mode.
The Fallout 4 1.5 update is currently only available for Steam users who have opted into beta. Those that haven’t done this yet can do so by going into the game properties from the Steam library and choosing the 1.5 beta update in the drop-down on the “Betas” tab.
If the timeline of the 1.5 update is similar to previous updates, then the official release of the patch should arrive on the PC approximately two to three weeks from today. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will then receive the patch approximately a week after that.
You can find the list of fixes in the Fallout 4 1.5 update that are in addition to Survival Mode changes below:
- General stability and performance improvements
- Fixed rare crash related to reloading a save that relies on Automatron
- Fixed issue with the robot workbench camera not moving properly immediately after canceling out of the menu
- Fixed issue with perks being repeatedly added when reloading a saved game while in robot workbench
- Fixed issue with Ada not properly traveling to an assigned settlementv
- Robots can now be assigned as settlement vendors
- Fixed issue with “Appropriation” where blueprints would not appear properly if the container had already been looted prior to getting the quest
- In “The Nuclear Option,” entering the Institute using the targeting helmet on Power Armor no longer inadvertently causes the player to go into combat, and become stuck in the Institute
- Fixed distance check with Robotics Expert perk
- While in Workshop mode, if the Jump button is remapped, the Y or Triangle button can still be used to jump
- Ability to delete downloadable content via the Add-Ons menu (PS4)
- Fixed issue with “Defend the Castle” where speaking to Ronnie Shaw would not properly complete the quest
- During “The Nuclear Option,” fast traveling away from the Institute immediately after inserting the relay targeting sequence holotape will no longer block progression
- Fixed issue where Workshop placed light bulbs would occasionally not light properly
[Image via Bethesda Softworks]
