Quakecon had a lot of information for fans. Fallout 76 was on the radar and part of their panel talked a lot about the PvP system. This is an immensely important part of the game because Fallout in all of its glory had never really gone multi-player, let alone host PvP. With the market dominated by competitive games right now, Fallout known for its solo adventures and strong narratives, will finally take the leap. Here are five take-ways from Todd Howard’s comments.
Ignoring
So you can engage in PvP out there in the wasteland. You can also die in the process. However, one of the points that Todd made was you can ignore your opponent if you choose. PvP can be initiated by one side or the other, but you must choose to take part. The first shots fired only do small damage to start up a fight. There is an option to completely ignore your aggressor. Once you select this, you will no longer see them on your map. This feature may seem great in theory, but it also can be counterproductive to the whole PvP ecosystem. It really comes down to the time you are allowed to finally ignore someone after a fight has been initiated. The main reason is this works against their idea of a bounty system for murderers or player killers. If people just ignore aggressors it will cut down on the number of bounties that will be created in the game. We have to see this worked out in game play. The idea of ignore people is fantastic, but how it balances in the system is what will make this feature so important.
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Low Damage on First Shots
We mentioned this above. Todd Howard explained that initial shots or attacks in PvP will do low damage to begin the fight. That way if you want to take part, this is your chance to do so. You can actually kill a person by continuing to attack them and have them do nothing to stop you, more on that later. The idea of low damage attacks to start a fight is solid and may actually prove a great way to engage in PvP. We like the design behind it and combined with the ignore feature above, it makes for fights to begin in a safe way that avoids trouble. If you are really bent on ending someone’s fun, well then you’ll become branded.
Wanted Murderer
Taking a feather from Ultima Online’s cap, becoming a branded murderer or player killer in the game makes for a great experience. You can try to kill someone in the game with peppered shots as they try to get away or choose not to shoot back. If they don’t ignore you, and you can successfully bring them down, well, congrats you now have a bounty on your head. Ultima had a full driven community based on killing other players. Entire wars were fought in the early days of MMOs which had good players fighting against the bad. Almost everyone had a separate character who was a player killer. They even had their own outlaw economy, because they were band from cities. Fallout 76 dug deep into MMO history to bring about one of the most fun aspects of Ultima which has gone away in more recent MMOs. We cannot wait to have murderers in the game.
Bounties
There is a trend here are you catching on? Bounties come when players can successfully hunt down a wanted murderer. The bounty comes out of the murderer’s money. This is where the real battles will take place in Fallout. It will be brutal and amazingly fun. You will have bounty hunters and murderers and they war will rage on for years. Most players will have two characters, one for each. This system brings a lot of fun to the game.
We Finally have a PvP system in Fallout
Known for so many amazing game systems over the years Fallout has been a template for other amazing games as well. With all of its popularity, we still have not went toe to toe against others in the world. Now, we will finally get to see the full speed of players facing off in the wasteland. It will be glorious and the entire PvP experience will be one of 76’s premiere selling points when it launches!
