I'm not a fan of games where the fun comes from running around shooting guns with other players, and from the looks of this game, there's little that I'd enjoy inside here.
Baww! You should watch some streams, because it can still be just like you described:
But seriously, I'm thinking if I eventually want a Fallout 76 experience I'd probably follow a Let's Play video and save myself the cost of admission. I'm a big fan of Bethesda titles, buggy messes that they are, simply for their epic size and wonderful hidden stories within their worlds.
IMO, that's still there, but with a different approach. It still is like that when I'm soloing.
Since gf had to focus on university assignments, I've been playing solo and will for a couple of weeks. The biggest problem and difference with exploration and solo vs previous games, IMO, is that it's not as rewarding or exciting as Skyrim or Fallout 4. In honesty, I waste too much time in the same areas in FO76 until I get bored of them, but it seems the game is designed into being much more rewarding and fun when you are following the main-, side-, events- and daily-quest paths, whereas if you "pick a direction and go" in previous games, you could see some serious shit. Multiple times.
Of course, Fallout 4 mods ruined a lot of things for me, since some of them add a unique items like miniatures, weapons, etc - it really felt like I was scavenging and finding some precious gems that others scavengers didn't care for. FO76 needs a lot more of that, because sometimes you can visit 5 locations, in sequence, that are intended for some quest or event and have no unique "souvenirs" on them.
Crafting and building plans mitigate this a bit, but..you explore a Nuka Cola factory, you'd expect to find something in there to take home with the brand name on it. At least that's what Fallout 4 and its mods got me used to.
When it comes to hidden stories, there are plenty of these to follow, and things to track down and bump into. This guy that owned a Burger store in the pre-war era discovered that the burgers of his successful rival had a funny taste. In his diary logs, he says he followed a truck and discovered the rival was using irradiated components brought from a dump. The logs stop there, what happened to him?
Other guy was contracted to develop a homemade automated mining solution, but couldn't deliver. His failure cost all his life savings, and in the final log he clearly blamed the rich elderly lady across the street. What did he do?
In this sense, it's still Fallout. It reminds me of exploring certain parts of the map in Fo4 that were overtaken with Super Mutants, Raiders and Ferals - everything that possibly tried to settle there, you only get to know and track via logs and environmental storytelling.
So for you I'd say, definitely watch some videos, and maybe see if the sale makes it worth it.
Yeah, I've gotten a few friend random friend requests and it's a system that really needs work on since the message doesn't tell you from who and when you pull up the social menu it seems to list everyone who is or was on the server you were playing on within your time online.
It's super annoying, but I noticed a lot is fixable by closing and reopening the game. Stupid, though.
At least that huge 15GB patch and the last server maintenance they did made my game a lot better and more stable. If they keep like that it's gonna be really good.
Again, you people should post your usernames.
I've been using one of the Fallout Discord to find people to group up with me just to share perk cards and keep the Charisma perks active [15% exp bonus!!]. I bump into them sometimes and fast travel to each other, but since I haven't finished the main quest (or any questline for that matter), I prefer to run alone so I can read and listen to lore at leisure, and I realize most people hate voice chat.