Fallout 76’s waterways have typically never been places you want to spend any time in because you know they’re mostly irradiated and all, but this looks set to change when fishing comes to Bethesda’s online Fallout game in a future update.
Tonight’s Fallout Day broadcast only included the briefest of teasers that fishing would be coming to Fallout 76, but I spoke with lead producer Bill LaCoste earlier this week to try and find out more about it. He says it will likely be “closer to the end of the year” before the team details how fishing will fully work, but he revealed that you’ll be able to fish “anywhere, where there’s a body of water you can drink from” – and that includes indoor and outdoor locations.
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While it’s currently unclear whether you’ll be able to fish out some of Fallout 76’s more aggressive water monsters – I’m not sure I’d fancy my chances if I hooked one of its huge, four-legged angler creatures, for example — LaCoste says it’s “pretty much guaranteed we’ll have common types of fish” to find, and that your catches will “feed into new recipes” you can cook to keep your hunger at bay in check.
He also teased that the team plans to use the fishery “in other ways,” but that the details of that were under wraps until that announcement at the end of the year.
Sticking with the animal theme from the Fallout Day broadcast, however, another big reveal came in the form of Camp Pets, arriving in December. There will only be two types to start with in the game’s store — the classic cat and dog (meat) combo — but more will be added later, including “some that aren’t so furry,” creative director Jonathan Rush teased in the broadcast .
When I ask LaCoste about adding pets to Fallout 76, he says they’ve been one of the “most requested” features from fans, and not just because of the success of the Fallout TV show. “Players have wanted pets in their camps for a very, very long time,” he says, and it’s “been on our design roadmap for quite a while, even before we knew about the show and when the show was even going to drop. I think the show itself just helps in a way that’s more important to players now, especially now that the show is out.”
This will be good news for those who want their very own Dogmeat to welcome them home after a hard day’s quest, and I ask LaCoste if the dog in Fallout 76 is the same Dogmeat model we may have traveled with in Fallout 4. He says there’s “a little bit” of crossover in terms of the assets used to create Fallout 76’s dog, but “we still have to go through the proper channels, like making sure it’s rigged properly for , and that it animates properly, and also fits into the world that we want them to fit in. There’s a lot of new animation that had to be done to make these [dogs] work in the camps,” but having Dogmeat as a starting point “definitely saves us time,” he adds.
Cat lovers will also be pleased to hear that Bethesda has also taken great care to make its felines as accurate as possible. While the studio already had “some cats” in the game to work from, LaCoste says, “there were a lot of logistical and technical hurdles that we had to overcome” to make sure they would also pass muster for existing cat owners.
“Even when they’re just rolling out and doing stretches and stuff, certain bones and certain elements stretch and look weird, so we have to address that,” he says. “You want to try to capture all the nuances and the whole personality of a cat, and that can sometimes be a little more difficult than a dog.”
Fortunately, Bethesda had a ready bank of pet-minded playtesters and developers to check that all the individual behaviors and animations for dogs and cats were up to snuff, and LaCoste assures me that they’re both “looking really, really good” right now . Plus, if players want to get an early look for themselves, they can check them out on Fallout 76’s public test server, where they’re already available. Just don’t expect the cats to always follow you around your camp like the dogs might.
“It’s actually on purpose,” laughs LaCoste. “It’s being a cat. It has its own little elements there, which is fun, especially for the people who have cats and understand that sometimes having cats is difficult.”