Aspiring overseers, Fallout 76 is adding instanced base building
Someone's going to build a deadly vault, obviously
Begone the travails of fighting against terrain to build your shoddy Fallout 76 camp with wood you've scraped off fallen trees. Life is oh so much better below. Fallout 76 is adding underground vault instances for your base where you can build without the restrictions out in the fresh air. You can test out the Vault Shelters this weekend on the public test server before they're added to the game later this year.
Bethesda say that Shelters will come in three sizes: Vault Utility Room, Vault Lobby, and Vault Atrium. When they're fully released later this year, players will be able to unlock the first (presumably smallest) by completing a new quest called "Home Expansion". The two larger Shelters will be available to purchase with 76's premium currency Atoms.
The particularly freeing bit about Shelters is that they're personal instances where you're in control. After placing a door to the Shelter in your camp, the area is yours to build and decorate. Because it's instanced, you'll also have a building budget separate from the rest of your camp. Bethesda say you can build multiple entrances to the same shelter or even have one of each type in your camp if you choose.
Players in Fallout 76 already do quite creative things with their bases by creating killer maths tests and art galleries and oh so many other wild things. I may only be capable of a simple lakeside dock but I know others will come up with unimaginable uses for instanced base building. Oh, perhaps a horrible game show where visitors choose to enter one of three entrances. Two are horrible death gauntlets and the third wins you a prize. That's appropriately vault Tech-y innit? Well, that idea's free then.
Bethesda had planned to have the test server up and running yesterday, though it sounds like they've encountered some issues and are hoping to have it up this evening. You can keep an eye on its status in their forum thread. Once it is live, you'll be able to hop in via the Fallout 76 PTS in the Bethesda launcher. (Update: It's live now.)
Fallout 76 has other plans for the rest of the year including new story quests, armor, and weapons. Its One Wasteland update recently added level scaling and legendary perks to Appalachia as well. You can read more about Vault Shelters in Bethesda's post.