the encumbrance system in this game is flat out possibly one of the worst I've had to deal with. basically
- everything but ammo has mass
- things seem generally more heavy than in other bethesda games
- there also seems to be more loot than in other bethesda games
- resources are extremely important to have in large quantities
- resources are extremely heavy
now, those are just the contributing factors of why this shit sucks, because let's get into what happens when you're over encumbered
- you can not fast travel when over encumbered
- personal storage space is at a premium unless using a companion as a pack mule
- when over encumbered, your O2 levels start to drop
- when your O2 levels drop to 0, your CO2 levels start to rise
- when your CO2 levels reach max, you start taking damage
- the scale at which these things happen increases the more over encumbered you are
it is exhausting, pun maybe just a little intended. a fun solution to this would be to have land vehicles when doing exploration and stuff. just a little buggy! a rover with some boost packs on it so you can jump over obstacles! given how bethesda hasn't even implemented mounts in post-daggerfall elder scrolls games outside of skyrim and outright never implemented vehicles in fallout, I get the feeling this is less about "oh, there's a fixed map size for landing sites" and more about "this would be a technical nightmare"
but like, it sucks! and outposts kinda solve this, but it feels like 5 hours in to playing it, I'm constantly running into encumbrance issues! and it's a fucking slog!! and this game isn't very good in general!!! I'm really glad I'm not paying for this!!!!