Vault Dweller (Fallout 76)

Had the idea a while ago, think we should still do it but I not good at edit :(

As part of the lead up to Wastelanders, one of the things that I had heard, was that some of the base game quests would be reworked, sometimes out of necessity, to take advantage of the changes coming with the new update. To any long time players who have made a new character, do you know to what extent the base game has been changed? Was this a marketing blurb of little substance or do you feel a significant amount of the entry level experience has changed as a result? Critical to this question would be quests such as the ones issued by Rose to activate her radio signal, since raiders would have already returned prior to new residents meeting her. The interaction here might be one of the more telling, so please let me know if you have had any experience with it.

I ask because there are some interesting implications for the story of the Residents. Rather than having new characters rolled after the update being introduced survivors migrating to Appalachia, similar to the NPCs, the characters continue to be vault dwellers.

On the one hand, we could say that the inclusion of new players in the base game was to prevent a new or returning audience from feeling alienated from the story of what happened to the region in a way that might have occurred had the base campaign been wiped. Thus, it holds true what was said on day one that the Vault did in fact seal shut shortly after Reclamation Day, and that any new arising inconsistencies from those same doors opening a year later should be ignored...

Except the game does not ignore it. The game actually makes note of the passage of time. If you create a new character right now, the Overseer's "I have left, today is Reclamation Day" messages plays on the Vault loud speaker, but malfunctions towards the end. Idle near the tutorial and early level gear Mr. Handys in the vault (I happened to be standing next to Cavendish) and he actually says, as close as I could transcribe it live "Aren't you as tired of that message as I am? It's been playing every morning for months." The "Mandatory Shutdown" notice is still in the Overseer's terminal, but considering the acknowledgement of the game that time has passed, the current state of being (i.e. residents choosing to leave in 2103 rather than 2102) did not result in some sort of terrible death, it appears to be lie, a bluff, or a sign that the "control" Vault still was not what it seemed. Other bots, such as Poole stated "Please, I cannot pretend it's Reclamation Day any longer. Even my programing has limits." After that, new characters are referenced as "late comers" as described Pennington, the Mr. Handy at the Vault exterior. After clearing the vault, I only played long enough to catch a few other, minor details which changed in the tutorial area, like the addition of wastelander in Responders garb in the tutorial church at Flatwoods.

So, why does it matter? Single largest impact is on our understanding of what the narrative of the game actually is for new players. Is their story concurrent, as new dialogue would suggest or do we now ignore new information for the sake of defending the old? If we assume only the information given during the base game is "true" then new players, and whatever end game quests they embark on, simply do not matter and are non-canonical. If, however, we treat the Wastelanders update as the newest iteration of canon, allowing new information to override old as is custom, then the acknowledgment of time passing would suggest the stories can run concurrently. Just as we cannot say what occurs during any team/solo instanced quests, can we say with confidence when or in what way certain quests were completed by the Residents? To what extent, if any, is it possible that we can also not say that Scorch threat was defeated by the earliest emerging dwellers? If the problem was dealt with, the Scorch would no longer be an issue, and yet the Scorch persist in game for old players as well as new. If the game made no mention of the passage of time and the Residents "exiting" in 2103 were given no different experience, picking up the pieces as if they were starting the same as anyone who played at launch, this would be a non-issue. But I believe the acknowledgement of time having passed by the game itself would dispute such a clear narrative.