Ghost camps, ghost content, and ghost loot: Fallout 76's Milepost Zero update is off to a bad start

This week, Fallout 76 released its latest update, Milepost Zero: except it doesn't feature the titular Milepost Zero area. Nearly the entirety of the new quest content was cut from the update for an indefinite postponement into 'later this month.' Moreover, what's included is giving players a tough time, thanks to day-one bugs and developer oversight.

Under Bethesda Softworks' banner, the buggy launch is part of the package deal. However, with the botched execution of otherwise good ideas, Milepost Zero has started off on the wrong foot.

Disclaimer: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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Fallout 76 Milepost Zero's Best builds feature is not very builder-friendly

Accounting for the cut content, Milepost Zero has two components: Legendary Crafting changes and Best Builds. The latter feature is theoretically a great idea to flesh out the sometimes barren wastes of Appalachia with unique content: player CAMPs from another server.

These are 'featured' player camps funneled through a system where players can submit their settlement builds for a spot on the pageant. Only, these CAMPs are now hogging popular base-building spots. Across the nuclear apocalypse, the housing crisis has finally reached Fallout 76's Appalachia.

Reportedly, the invasive ghost camps are even buying off the land in private servers — which is certainly a bug.

Worse yet, these are actually 'ghost camps' where nothing inside is usable, as the original settlement is only located in the original player's server. What remains is a rather invasive phantom that can block off legitimate settlements in the current server you're in.

The 'Best' camp builds are also vetoed in a very laissez-faire way. This is a system of self-nomination, which lets through super-minimalistic camps with one concrete floor, a water purifier, and a couple of turrets.

Your one floor, some turrets and two water purifiers is not a best build camp. byu/Maccreadysbae info76

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Loot piles are no longer piling: Loot is just despawning now

There's a lot of looting and shooting in Fallout 76's events. A number of bodies hit the floor in the aftermath of this gunfight, and if you know anything about the Creation Engine, you'll know that it does not handle a high body count well.

To minimize server instability problems in case the Fallout 76 population goes back to the post-Amazon show hype month (wishful thinking), the game turns an excess supply of enemy corpses into meat piles and goo. The actual bodies despawn, but these piles persist for a while for your loot-scavenging perusal later.

Except there's a common bug right now where bodies aren't converting to loot piles at all. Instead, a good majority of them will despawn after a few minutes, and you'll lose the loot.

Fallout 76 Milepost Zero has destabilized the looting experience (Image via Bethesda Softworks|| YT: JuiceHead)

This bug could not have come at a worse time, as one needs those Legendaries now more than ever. A new Legendary Crafting system, the only other crutch the deflated Milepost Zero release could walk on, is quite grindy.

The possibility of getting box mods is low, and the possibility of getting a plan to build those Legendary mods is even lower. It will take weeks (if not months) of dedicated grinding before you can slap together the supercharged build you may have envisioned. Hopefully, the Milepost Zero update and its ghost dreg-heaps will be in a more salvageable state then.