‘Fallout 4’ Will Learn From The Mistakes Of ‘Skyrim,’ Bethesda Discusses Map Size And Loads

Bethesda is taking the lessons that they learned while developing some of their recent titles and applying that knowledge to Fallout 4 to ensure that the game runs as smoothly as possible. Speaking to Game Informer, game director Todd Howard revealed that the Fallout 4 development team is looking to avoid some of the mistakes that the studio faced shortly after the release of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.”

Howard pointed out that, similar to how Bethesda was able to iron out many of Skyrim’s bugs and technical issues after launch, the studio is now better at addressing these problems and anticipates a much more reliable user experience with Fallout 4.

“I think we’ve gotten way better there. For us, [the player’s] saved game is the number one thing. If the game crashes that’s bad, but it is nowhere near as bad as someone’s saved game being hosed. That’s our scenario that we will do anything and everything to avoid. We made a lot of progress given how Skyrim went, but we did it during Skyrim. This just builds on that.”

With each new update and DLC released for Skyrim, the team became better equipped to deal with bugs and the like. Howard and the Fallout 4 team are now able to put that experience to work while developing their next game.

Shedding more light onto what fans can expect with this year’s release of Fallout 4, Howard also recently shared some thoughts on the world and map size of the upcoming post-apocalyptic title. During an interview with Digital Spy, the Fallout 4 director stated that the game will be approximately the same size as Skyrim. Howard explained that he doesn’t really like discussing physical map size because there are many factors that come into play.

“I avoid answering that, and I’ll tell you why. If you look at our previous stuff, it’s kind of like that. We don’t actually measure it like that. Because Skyrim is one size, but the mountains take up a lot of space. That’s not really a game place, it’s in your way, you have to go around it, so we’re not really doing that.”

On top of that, Fallout 4 will also have ruined buildings for players to explore. These structures sometimes encompass several stories, so there is a vertical element to map design that further compounds measuring the game. However, it was confirmed that there won’t be any load screens for transitions to different city sections in Fallout 4.

“In the city, it’s very dense, but there is no load — like in Fallout 3, there’s a load — for areas of the city, we don’t do that. So it’s very dense, the buildings are tall, and a lot of them are open, so you can just walk in and around, so… it’s big. I wouldn’t say, you know, if you played Skyrim, I couldn’t tell you it’s X bigger, so we’re just saying it’s about the same size.”

Bethesda is making sure they look at all aspects of the game to deliver the best experience as possible with Fallout 4. Willing to try everything they can to improve the game, the developer even designed a multiplayer mode for Fallout 4 at one point. However, it was eventually removed from the game in favor of focusing entirely on the single-player experience.

Are you more forgiving of seeing game bugs in large, open-world games like Skyrim and Fallout 4?

[Images via the Bethesda Blog]