The Fallout 76 panel at QuakeCon 2018 was a treasure trove of news, with details for the game’s PvP systems being detailed at length. Development Director Chris Mayer, Project Lead Jeff Gardiner, and Game Director Todd Howard detailed how players will be able to fight against each other in a system that allows for “danger” but not anything that could lead to griefing.
In short, PvP will be an opt-in system for players. The panel discussed how to initiate PvP with another player in the game, vault dwellers will need to shoot at the player they want to fight, which will only do a small amount of damage, which Todd Howard amusingly said was akin to “slapping someone at the bar”. PvP will only properly begin, with full damage from weapons, when the player who is being attacked, shoots back.
PvP will also only be unlocked and available to players above level 5, so higher level players cannot pick on lower level ones. Additionally, if a lower level player attacks a higher level player or vice-versa, to give a fighting chance to the weaker character, stats on equipment and weapons will be evened out to a level playing field. However, mechanically they will be no different. So a lower-level player with a knife is going to have a hard time fighting someone with power armor and a machine gun, but still have a slim chance to win. But why would you attack someone stronger? Because you will get more caps then if you attacked someone of a similar level to you.
When a player dies, all they will lose is “Junk”, will not lose any of their equipment, and can pick up the “Junk” they left behind at the site of their death. “Junk” will be Fallout 76’s crafting materials, which work in a very similar way to the crafting mechanic found in Fallout 4.
During PvP this means that whoever leaves the fight the victor will be able to take the “Junk” left behind by the loser. But if you hunt down your killer, you will get double the caps than usual. As for respawning, you can do that anywhere you have discovered so far. However, if it is not either the closest location to your death or Vault 76, it will cost you a fine that increases with distance.
There’s also a system in place for those who engage and attack others once too often: The attacker will become a “Wanted Murderer”. The panelists detailed the system as when some ostensibly griefs another player until their death, they will not get any rewards for the kill. They will be marked on the map with a big red star and will have a bounty on their heads. Other players in the session will be able to see them on their maps and can kill the “Wanted Murderer” without engaging them in PvP. The players who kill the “Wanted Murderers” will get the bounty of the caps, which will come out of the original killer’s pocket. If someone is indeed being too much grief for a player, they can block or ignore the griefer so as to continue playing the game peacefully.
All in all, Fallout 76 has a very fascinating sounding PvP system that really takes every kind of player into account and will hopefully be a blast to play.
