When Fallout 4 released, one of the omissions was the lack of a 'Hardcore Mode' like the one seen in Fallout: New Vegas. This mode made it so you had manage things like hunger and thirst, while making small adjustments to make the game a bit tougher. For example, it made ammo have weight. Bethesda mentioned working on a mode like this for Fallout 4 a couple of weeks ago on Twitter, and now a Reddit user named /u/ShaneD53 has unearthed some details of how it will work. The info below is from that thread. Bethesda have confirmed that this info is legit and pointed to it in a tweet of their own. The release date of the update is unknown at the moment.
So without further to do, here is a wall of text with those details:
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Is the struggle of this world merely a pleasant game for you? Do you long for a more brutal take on a life lived post apocalypse?
If you answered "Yes and yes!", then Survival difficulty is for you!
Survival upends many of the rules of life in the Commonwealth for maximum challenge. For a full list of these changes, see below.
To enable Survival, press [Pause], select "Settings," then "Gameplay" and choose "Survival" from the "Difficulty" options.
Saving: Manual and quicksaving are disabled. To save your game, you'll need to find a bed and sleep for at least an hour.
Combat: Combat is more lethal for everyone. You now deal, but also take, more damage. You can increase the damage you deal even further with "Adrenaline" (see below).
Fast Travel: Fast Travel is disabled. If you wish to be somewhere, you'll have to physically travel there.
Weighted Ammo: Bullets and shells now all have a small amount of weight, which varies by caliber. Heavier items such as fusion cores, rockets, and mini-nukes can really drag you down.
Compass: Be sure to keep your eyes peeled, as enemies will no longer appear on your compass. As well, the distance at which locations of interest will appear has been significantly shortened.
Adrenaline: Survival automatically grants the Adrenaline perk, which provides a bonus to your damage output. Unlike other perks, the only way to increase your rank of the Adrenaline perk is by getting kills (hostile or otherwise). The higher your Adrenaline rank, the higher the damage bonus. Sleeping for more than an hour, however, will cause your Adrenaline rank to lower. You can check your current Adrenaline rank at any time in the Perks section on the Stat tab in your Pip-Boy.
Wellness: You'll find it difficult to survive without taking proper care of yourself. You must stay hydrated, fed, and rested to remain combat-ready. Going for extended periods of time without food, water, or sleep will begin to adversely affect your health, hurting your SPECIAL stats, adding to your Fatigue (see "Fatigue" below), lowering your immunity (see "Sickness" below), and eventually even dealing physical damage to you.
Fatigue: Fatigue works like radiation but affects your Action Points (AP) rather than your Hit Points (HP). The more Fatigue you've built up, the less AP you'll have for other actions. The amount of Fatigue you've accumulated is displayed in red on your AP bar.
Sickness: A comprised immune system and a few questionable decisions can end up getting you killed. Eating uncooked meat, drinking unpurified water, taking damage from disease-ridden sources, such as ghouls and bugs, or using harmful Chems all put your body at increased risk for various ill effects. When you are afflicted with an illness, a message will appear onscreen. You can view specifics about your current illnesses by navigating to the Status section on your Pip-Boy's Data tab and pressing [RShoulder] to view your active effects.
Antibiotics :Antibiotics, which can be crafted at Chem Stations or purchased from doctors, heal the various effects of sickness.
Bed Types: The type of bed you're sleeping in determines the length of time you are able to stay asleep. A sleeping bag will save your game and may help save your life when you're desperate, but it will never allow for a full night's rest and the benefits that come with it.
Crippled Limbs: Crippled limbs will no longer auto-heal after combat and will remain crippled until healed by a Stimpak.
Carry Weight: Exceeding your carry weight reduces your Endurance and Agility stats and periodically damages your legs and health. Think of your back!
Companions: Companions will no longer automatically get back up if downed during combat and will return home if abandoned without being healed.
Enemy and Loot Repopulation: Locations you've cleared will now repopulate enemies and loot at a significantly slower rate.
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So there we go. They have said they plan to have a lengthy beta for this mode so this is not final. I think it's still a couple of months away.
My first thought was that it will make settlements much more meaningful. As a safe spot, as a place to generate guaranteed food and water, as a place to sleep. Food production at the moment is mainly a box to tick for settlement happiness. Now all those melon plants will be crucial!
I also quite like the idea of fatigue capping your AP. I wonder if hunger/thirst have separate bars or if both roll into fatigue. I imagine it's the former.
The main takeaway with the idea of limited saving is that it makes me think about the challenge of Bethesda games in general. And wondering what playing one with actual challenge would be like. At the moment you can just save/quickload your way in and out of any situation. The only time there is challenge is if you are stuck in a save where you need to escape, but even then you can reload one from a few minutes before if you really can't get out. Stopping fighting a dragon to eat 6 wheels of cheese like nothing happened is probably the best example of this.
I am interested in this new mode because it sounds like it could be a genuinely different way to play the game, even more-so than in New Vegas.
Any Giantbomb duders thinking about playing with this setting?
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