Bethesda have piggybacked their way to this year's QuakeCon, where they once again discussed anti-griefing measures and unveiled the game's card-based perk system, which will grant Fallout 76 players anything from stats boosts to mutations.
As the video states, Fallout
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76's troublesome environment will throw a bunch of obstacles before players but Bethesda will be giving us a hand with the perk system. We'll be seeing cards like Night Person, which grants +1 intelligence and +1 perception between 6pm and 6am, Grease Monkey, which makes repairing workshop items 30 per cent cheaper and a bunch more.
Perhaps even more interesting are mutations, which will bring their own perks and weaknesses, leaving it to players to balance the risk and reward. Fallout 76's new trailer gives an example of gaining "unique abilities of a marsupial", at the expense of a "mild neurological impairment".
As you'd expect, we're talking a bunch of available loadouts, which can easily be refreshed should Bethesda decide to shake things up later. Cards will be given out at specific intervals so you'll basically never run out of combination, which should lend Fallout 76 additional longevity and playtime.
Interestingly, it seems like all the griefing concerns have finally gotten to Bethesda, although I can't say I'm a huge fan of what they'll be doing for Fallout 76. Namely, you won't be able to deal much damage to players until they respond, which is when the actual fighting starts. There are no rewards for killing non-responsive player.
In fact, you'll be getting a bounty placed on your head, alerting world and dog to your position on the map. Additional incentive is that players who are killed lose bounty money from their own checkbooks, with Todd Howard claiming that they've "turned assholes into interesting content".
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Unfortunately for Howard and Toddout 76, the game's multiplayer is fast turning into an occasional occurrence that I can only liken to modern play-dates - too tedious to pursue yet impossible to ignore. Interestingly, the man said that when it comes to how "Fallout-y" is Fallout 76, he said that 80 per cent is the game everyone is used to, while the remaining 20 per cent are new things.
So basically, 80 per cent of Fallout 4, with the forced play-dates thing. Somebody take me home please.
Bethesda's Fallout 76 releasing on 14 November 2018
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