Fallout 4 Update Arrives August 18 With Creations Improvements and Mod Compatibility Concerns

The upcoming Fallout 4 update appears relatively small, focusing primarily on Creations improvements rather than major new content.

Bethesda has announced another Fallout 4 update, which will be released Tuesday, August 18. While much of the update will focus on overall improvements to the Creations system, Bethesda has not released too many details on what players may expect. The announcement has raised worry in the Fallout 4 modding community, especially on PC.

The biggest concern is that Bethesda is notorious for releasing patches that cause unforeseen issues. DLL-based mods using the Fallout 4 script The extender will likely break with the next patch, but things like this have been fixed quickly before. Console mods should be fine, but past patches have made players justifiably wary.

There have been Fallout 4 patches before that have broken considerably more than just certain mods. Updates caused stuttering, broke DLC for a bit, and broke content and saves that needed that DLC. The new Creations menu has also brought some bugs with it, with some players reporting issues restoring saved load orders.

Bethesda recommends loading up your game saves before the update and manually saving your load orders if you haven’t played in a while. This will make it easier for players to redownload their Creations lists once the fix is out. It might be especially useful to backup everything first if some users have encountered trouble with load-order restoration.

Fallout 4 players are scared another update may mess up their carefully mapped-out mod installations.

As far as actual content goes, Bethesda has just laid out the Fallout 4 update as basic Creation improvements. That’s probably going to be backend enhancements, retail improvements, and maybe some bug patches rather than a significant gameplay feature. Players should not anticipate a large content drop from this release.

There’s still more Fallout 4 innovation to come, including Kangath’s upcoming Creation of Fever Dreams. The project will feature new dialog from the original Fallout 4 protagonist voice actors, although there’s no word at this time if it will ever ship with the update.

Fallout 4 also has another big problem: the 255 plugin restriction. The issue was exacerbated once Bethesda upped mod storage to 100GB on platforms. Players can install a lot more material now, but the plugin restriction still exists; thus, heavily modded installs may eventually crash while starting the game.

Expect Script Extender mods to stop working after launch for PC players.

Unfortunately, there is no easy way for console users to know how many plugins are active. This constraint may grow more bothersome when more players start to use the extra storage space. The next new update is not expected to resolve the problem.

If you’re a PC player who relies on Script Extender add-ons, your safest bet is to turn off automatic Fallout 4 updates. The required changes could occur rather quickly, but some modders have moved on from the decade-old game and may not be able to update their Creations immediately at once.

Bethesda’s latest patch may be a small maintenance update, but the reaction shows just how much trust the studio still needs to rebuild with the Fallout 4 modding community. Players are hoping this update will improve Creations without creating another wave of unintended problems.