This week in our preparation for Fallout 76 we are going to take a look at the CAMP system. Fallout 4 introduced a great new system to the game in building up your resources and protecting a specific area on the map. The game even programmed attacks against your outpost and also connected with various factions or traders that would visit your area. With Fallout 76 going online, these ideas will become more popular than ever and in Fallout 76 you will take your CAMP with you.
“Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform” as it is kindly named gives you the ability to move your base of operations around with you. It also stores all your buildings and workshops in a blueprint form so you can rebuild. In any Fallout, crafting and working on your gear is a large part of the fun in building up your character and now this will become a cooperative effort. CAMP also give you something similar to an MMO bank. These can be accessed in the game as well, but having one in your base makes it easy to store all your equipment.
Why do I want to move my base? Well, this is Fallout after all. There are ways for players to nuke an area. Yes, in case you forgot, one of the big features of FO76 is total destruction by others. There will be players who enter the game and immediately try to build up the resources and materials to blast a part of the map out of existence. Let’s say your CAMP is in that area…well, you can wave a fond bye, bye. But at least now you can take your CAMP with you as you hunt for a new home.
The other two major threats to your happy home are monster invasion, which we saw in Fallout 4, and being attacked by other players, a much more dangerous outcome. There are ways to defend your camp: Turrets and traps. However, it remains to be seen how well your NPC forces can hold out against a group of thinking players. This was a big deal in ARK, as players would take camps all the time. We will see a definitely learning curve as to how Fallout’s systems and attacks hold with PvP in the game for the first time ever.
Casting aside fear for a moment, the benefits to CAMPs are great for both solo and group players. You can host a public workstation where other players can come in and craft with you. These areas can become hubs for knowledge very quickly as the collective efforts will create a more robust game economy, not to mention much better gear. As in many MMOs you may see crafter characters pop up just to make gear for someone’s main or their guild.
CAMPs and other layered crafting and community systems will play a huge part in Fallout 76. A lot of how things will change within the meta comes down to the cooperative experience. For years we have all played Fallout as single player. Now that you’ll have friends in the wasteland, there is a huge change to the systems and design of crafting and base building from the solo game.
One thing that Bethesda has made clear is that there will not be a lot of people in each instance of the game. It is the wasteland after all so populations will be sparse. The word is about 24 players per server or game. If this is true then you may only have a handful of small groups at any time. This makes PvP more risky and more damaging if a nuke goes off. For now, we will just have to wait and see. Thankfully, there are only a few weeks until beta.
