Fallout London's project lead is not taking the surprise drop of Fallout 4's update well: 'That has, for a lack of a better term, screwed us over'

Bethesda was under no obligation to talk to these mod devs beforehand. But it sure makes them look bad. As a recent comparable, Concerned Ape was open and communicative with all the mod devs before releasing his latest patch for Stardew Valley, a game that is just about as old as Fallout 4.

Bethesda has become a literal laughingstock at this point in time and it's just funny to point at them every time they rack up another L.

Fallout London is whinging but the real loser is the Fallout 4 Script Extender mod, upon which so many other mods relied.

Fallout London release or no, this has broken a massive number of mods for Fallout 4 that relied on the Script Extender.

That's actually the bigger story here, that Bethesda declined to communicate with the modders who made the backbone of a lot of other mods.

From the Fallout 4 Script Extender home page:

https://f4se.silverlock.org/

The 2024-04-25 Fallout 4 update (1.10.980 and later) has broken F4SE and the rest of the native code modding scene similarly to Skyrim's "Anniversary Edition" patch. I am working on an update and cannot currently offer a timeline for its availability, nor whether there will be any critical technical issues that would block an update. Do not email with questions.

Every single time this happens, people act like its the first time. Game updates -> Script Extender breaks -> Mods reliant on it break too. Every. Single. Time.

For a company that relies 100% on modders for their games, you'd think they'd have an actual modding API built into their games by now.

"This thing they announced for last year, then pushed back to this year and released to coincide with a massively hyped TV show was a complete surprise to us." Is that really FO:London's stance? I mean, I feel for them that it sucks, but to call it a surprise feels straight up disingenuous.

I'll have to watch the BBC interview. The way the article is worded makes it sounds like they've been in communication with Bethesda while creating Fallout London.

I remember hearing about the current-gen upgrade a long time ago. Why is this a surprise?

Why do they need to release for the newest version? If they were going to release soon anyways, just release for the old version of Fallout.

I made sure to download my copy of FO4 from GOG since it hasnt updated yet. Shame London won't release on GOG (who will be hosting it) still while they work on fixing it for the new version.

I'm disappointed in myself for buying FO4 recently.

Am I the only person who never installed a single mod for any Bethesda game?

Pretty sure this was fully intended. You're getting a bunch of band new buyers from the TV show. This can be a way to direct them towards their CC and away from free mods.

Can't help but feel for the developers here. I get that Bethesda has no responsibility to keep 3rd party Devs updated, but surely someone on the team would have noticed the potential for community engagement and worked with those putting the time and effort into the IP.

BGS: because fuck you, that's why.

I get this project is a big deal for some folks but having a hard time accepting the argument that I shouldn’t get a better visual experience because of a mod I’ll never play and their apparent lack of communication with Bethesda. They just expected to be that high of priority? Am I reading this wrong?

Have they never had to deal with a Bethesda patch before!?

I get this project is a big deal for some folks but having a hard time accepting the argument that I shouldn’t get a better visual/overall game experience because of a mod I’ll never play and their apparent lack of communication with Bethesda. They just expected to be that high of priority? Am I reading this wrong?

Edit: reading through comments I’m a little more sympathetic to modders writ large than I am this team specifically but I get the frustration. Bethesda could’ve done everyone a solid and given a little heads up. Still, it sounds like this project has been massive in scope and basically any changes were going to cause them issues so that’s worth considering here too.

It sucks that this was the outcome as it's going to require a ton of work from the modders, but to expect that a major publisher would involve the unofficial modding community in the release of official patches feels insane, even if they do have a sizable following.

In fact, I prefer it this way. I want the publisher to keep their fingers out of what the modders do as much as possible. Things are their best when the publisher is ignorant of their work. Less chance that the Eye of Sauron that is their legal department starts checking over mods for potential copyright lawsuits

I just received the update and the graphics are much better in the XBox. Everything is much more smooth.

"The new book has, for lack of a better term, completely screwed over my fanfiction"

"These books live and die by their fanfiction. For the authors not to coordinate with the fanfic writers is a disgrace"

Never heard of this project. I mean sounds like a cool mod, but why is this news, and why does a mod need to care about a release date? They're not selling a product, they can release whenever lol.