I understand that when making AWESOME games that are open for exploration that sadly there must be a restriction on size (Budget, System requirements, etc...). I LOVE ALL FALLOUT & ES GAMES! Okay now that I've got that out let me say this, "I loathe and always will dread hitting an invisible wall"!

Bethesda, please STOP making invisible walls in your games. I despise them and it always feels like an intrusion into immersion, roleplaying, and FUN. I hit more invisible walls with FO4 then I did with FO3, FNV, & Skyrim combined. Easiest solutions to these is put heavy radiation fields on the borders of the wastes and ravenous sharks in the ocean edges (or for that matter any other sea creature). Again, can't stress enough how much I love Beth games and in fact, I admit, I am that gamer that actually only plays Beth games. That's right, sometimes I may dabble in another game from time to time but time is precious and Bethesda has earned that honor of gaming exclusivity in my life.

With that said, are there other ideas out there, be it from another game or your own idea that you would love to share with the developers on an alternate solution to the annoying invisible walls design element?

All constructive ideas welcome.

it's simpler and gives more time to the actual content, keep them

I hate invisible walls within a map, I don't mind them however as a map boarder - high mountains or something like this would not be plausible for that region AFAIK

Wow! Really?

yeah why waste resources?

I dont really see the problem with invisible walls along the map boundary.

Why waste resources? We are talking about a BILLION dollar gaming GIANT. Sorry, enough said.

Looks like I'll have to svck this one up if there is any indication from this poll so early here. WOW!!!!

Tis a sad state of affairs, but they're unavoidable. You can't have every game set on an island. You can't have impassable mountain range or radiation surrounding every area (how would people travel around?).

I'd sooner they spend that time/money on what is inside the map borders lol

A secret magical barrier?

Forcefield of doom

I guess I'll have to "pretend" that I don't want to go that way. Or this way. Or here. Or over there...etc, etc...

I don't know how else you would handle map borders. Obviously, the game map has to end somewhere, but I don't think they should just create impassable mountains around map borders, which is basically the same thing as an invisible wall. The mountain borders work well for Skyrim because of the environment, but there are no mountains in the Boston area.

I always enjoyed games that would bring a warning then certain death if you ventured too far. Again, this may seem very "nitpicky" I just can't stand it in all my otherwise wonderful gaming experiences.

It's currently valued at 1.2, but that's all it's assets of all it's subsidiaries and multiples of all it's revenue. It doesn't mean they've got 1.2 B in the bank just waiting to be spent on FO. Games still have very finite budgets.


As for invisible walls, there's only so much world you can build. The bigger you make it, the larger the border you need to contend with. Artistic license always has to be taken SOMEWHERE, and that will always break someone's "immersion". I'm happy with that being at the borders, where most people will be spending an absolute minimum amount of time.

So you're saying you don't want 20 Alpha Deathclaws grouped in the outer rims? Oh come on!

My only issue is where there are instances (like the Southwest of the Commonwealth) where you can go beyond the displayed boundaries of the map. It was kind of cool to begin with, but knowing where you can or cannot go is important.

In FO4, the only two ways you'll know are if you use a guide or actually trace the full map edge by following the whole boundary around the world. Little hidden away things are great, but for the most part, they're very difficult to discover, especially unmarked locations, and they're counter-intuitive.

The invisible map boundaries are fine, but yeah, unmarked locations that break the basic rule of "This is the edge of the map and you cannot proceed beyond it!" are somewhat frustrating.

I'm shocked that people do not like the DEATH idea for borders. Then again, I'm a Survival mode purist and would never venture into anything less. Not boasting, just saying maybe this is the reason I prefer borders by death instead of an annoying invisible wall captioning "You cannot go that way".

I'm not sure how Fallout 4 having invisible walls around the map border means it has more than New Vegas, which seemed to have them all over the place. Seriously, you go to climb a small hill in NV and you can't because of an invisible wall and this is in the middle of the map!

I am ok with them on the far edges of the map. But not anywhere else.

LOL! Agreed and I may have embellished a little when bringing NV into the comparison.

I remember climbing over that little mountain with the Cazador shack (after about 1000 jumps) to get to one of the Radio Towers for a mission. Once I got over I could not take a couple steps because I found myself in the middle of an invisible wall. Reload. Lol!

Every way to avoid invisible walls becones a headache from Lore standpoint, or indices clear instances of imnersion-breaking.


The geogrophy of Boston doesn't support impassible mountains.


People will complain about killer monsters at the edge if the map, that they should have moved into Boston by then.


People will question how people enter/exit Boston from elsewhere if the surrounding areas are irradiated to beyond lethal levels.


People will compain that the map simply drops off and the gameworld ends.


People will complain that it's unrealidtic for you to suddenly die X length from the borders.


People complain that a sudden game over screen is unrealistic, as it automatically assumes you'll never return in any timely fashion.


Invisible walls demarcing the border is the simplest solution that raises the least amount of complaints.

That's one way to do it, but it makes the world... illogical? How is it that when you're nearing map border, you're attacked by packs of Deathclaws, swarms of Radscorpions or robots calling orbital deathbeams on you, but some people still managed to travel to the Commonwealth from DC or West Coast?


EDIT: Ninjaaaa'd.

So what about magic borders?