‘Fallout 4’ 1.3 Beta Patch Has Tons Of Fixes, New Settlement Features

Fallout 4 received a small patch focused on performance issues prior to the start of the New Year. Bethesda Softworks just dropped the first huge patch post-apocalyptic role-playing game Friday in the form of a beta update for PC users on Steam. It brings a ton of fixes to gameplay and quests along with some welcome new Settlement features.

The Fallout 4 1.3 update is currently only available for Steam users who have opted into beta. Those that haven’t done this yet can do so by going into the game properties from the Steam library and choosing the 1.3 beta update in the drop-down on the “Betas” tab.

If the timeline of the 1.3 update is similar to the 1.2 update, then the official release of the patch should arrive on the PC approximately two to three weeks from today. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will then receive the patch approximately a week after that.

So what does the 1.3 update add? A nice quality of life feature is the addition of a status menu for settlers in settlements. Players will now be able to tell what task or area of the settlement a settler is assigned by going into the Workshop mode and highlighting them. This is a fantastic addition for large settlements as it is currently difficult to figure out who was assigned to security, crops, stores, etc or not assigned to anything at all.

Building settlements received a few fixes as well. Objects can be rotated using the left and right triggers on a controller and users can change the axis of rotation by clicking on the left thumbstick. Bethesda has also made improvements to the building snap system. Snapping and aligning objects has been something Fallout 4 players have struggled with since launch.

In another nice surprise, copper is no longer consumed when building power lines in Settlement. That will save Fallout 4 settlement builders a huge amount of time scrounging for resources.

A number of questlines were fixed, including everyone’s favorite Minuteman quests given by Preston. The NPC will now send players to the correct dungeon instead of to a settlement among other things.

Bethesda always includes at least one funny update in their patch notes. Dismemberment gets the humorous focal point this time around with one fix for Vault 81 residents that “would not dismember correctly” and also an issue with a player staying alive after being dismembered. The latter led to one of the more hilarious YouTube glitch videos for Fallout 4 via postbroadcast.

You can check out highlights of the new features and workshop fixes in the Fallout 4 update 1.3 notes below. Head over to the Bethesda forums for the full details.

New Features

• New ambient occlusion setting, HBAO+
• New weapon debris effects (NVIDIA cards only)
• Added status menu for settlers in your settlements
• Added ability to rotate an object you are holding with left/right triggers and pressing down on left thumbstick lets you switch the rotating axis
• Improved “ESDF” keys remapping support while in Workshop mode

Workshop Fixes

• Fixed a bug that would cause settler counts to appear incorrectly
• Fixed an issue that could prevent the player from setting up a supply line in settlements with a high population
• Improvements to snapping pieces together while in Workshop mode
• Fixed an issue that caused powered items to stop functioning permanently if its power source was ever removed
• Player can now build workbenches in their Diamond City house
• Building wires no longer uses up copper
• Fixed issue with certain settlement attacks not generating properly
• Fixed an issue with settlement happiness calculations
• Settlers assigned to weapons stand will now stand next to it
• Diamond City house now shows provided power
• Repairing items will now correctly consume resources
• Fixed an issue where companion would ignore commands at workshop locations
• Fixed an issue with crops appearing destroyed after saving and reloading

[Image via Fallout 4]