As Fallout 76’s November 14th release date draws ever closer, more and more details on the multiplayer spin off are beginning to surface. This week, Bethesda has shown off some new footage that sheds light on the mechanics behind the base building mechanics that will be key to survival in the desolate wastes.
From a glance, these mechanics look very similar to the base building and construction elements already present in Fallout 4, which makes sense considering that game originally featured a multiplayer component that was canceled prior to release. Players will take advantage of a device called the Construction and Assembly Mobile Platform – the C.A.M.P. for short – to place and build a variety of objects in the wasteland. Devices like these are no stranger to the Fallout mythos, as learned community members might already know of a similar but far more powerful construction device known as the Garden of Eden Creation Kit – the G.E.C.K. – which has the power to transform large expanses of desolate land into fertile soil ripe for farming. While the C.A.M.P. does allow users to build homes and place objects, all the construction devices we saw in the trailer were quite small, which leads us to believe that a user’s effective area to build on might be quite small, at least to start.
Looking more closely at the video provides more details. The player first obtains the device from what looks to be a display setup, then sets it up later. Placing it down and activating it costs 40 caps and launches into the base-building system.
From here, the building interface looks nearly identical to that of Fallout 4. Items feature crafting requirements such as wool and steel, are separated into different categories, restricted by an overall “workshop budget”, can be freely rotated, snap-lock into place near similar objects (i.e. when placing multiple wall pieces next to each other) and more. The video also shows a new catagory called “vendors”, and the user hovers over a vending machine-esque stand subtitled “Medical Supplies”. It is possible that users will be able to stock such machines with goods and collect profits from other users who purchase their supplies.
The user is later seen placing turrets on a flat foundation block. Not only do these turrets come with a plethora of different requirements, they also require “Home Defense Level 3,” suggesting that Fallout 76 will include some manner of character progression or skill tree advancement.
The next segment of the trailer flies through several player-created settlements and outposts, which are pretty tiny compared to the sizes of the towns players could build in Fallout 4. However, they do seem to blend very well with the environment, which is a nice touch. This probably won’t happen in the game, though; These are settlements made by Bethesda to show off the building system, and players will probably take shortcuts with the system that nessesitate function over style, at least at first. Still, it’s nice to see that the engine will allow for players to pretty up their home base to their heart’s content.
That is, so long as it’s not destroyed.
Not by other players, specifically; Bethesda has stated that users will have the ability to disable their ability to damage or be damaged by enemy players if they’re not one for PvP. The real threat here is the monsters of the wasteland. The trailer very deliberatley shows off some NPCs assaulting player structures.
A band of tiny “Liberator MKII” robots assault a base. A massive, hulking grey thing crushes an unfortunate player. A group of bandits barrage a settlement with lasers, and a massive level 50 winged “Scorchbeast” fires a sonic energy blast out of its mouth, blowing away a nearby fuel structure.
The message is clear: If you want to post up without getting effed up, you’d better buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.
That is, until the whole place gets nuked to oblivion, which it does in the last few seconds of the video. Looks like your little survival shack won’t protect you from everything.
We’ll be covering more information on Fallout 76 as details emerge prior to its release date on November 14th, 2018.
