In a blog post on the company’s website, Bethesda states that it is “hard at work” on a game mode that will allow fans to play “without PvP restrictions.” While the post does not confirm many details, it does indicate that players can choose to “work together” in this mode, which suggests that it may simply be the current Fallout 76 experience with the ability for players to freely engage in PvP.
Additionally, the post points to the first quarter of 2019 for the mode’s release. Bethesda also plans to launch a fix for lever action rifles and certain bugged perk cards during this time frame.
Any attempt at encouraging players to actively engage in player versus player combat would be a significant change from what Fallout 76 currently has to offer. Under the established system, the game essentially requires that players directly consent to PvP before any can occur, and there is very little incentive for doing so.
This makes it exceedingly difficult for those that want to fight other players to find an appropriate venue, and that is not sitting well for a vocal portion of the player base. Indeed many may consider not offering a rich PvP experience to be a major misstep for a game that is exclusively multiplayer.
That said, Bethesda certainly has its reasons for Fallout 76’s current implementation of PvP. That is, the system essentially eliminates the ability for players to grief others, though a recent glitch that is allowing players to steal items seems like a much more problematic form of griefing.
While completely open PvP can lead to issues for those that are simply trying to explore or finish quests, as some Red Dead Online players can confirm, Fallout 76’s approach may be overly cautious. Perhaps this new mode will not offer exactly what the most ravenous player killers desire, but the announcement does suggest that there is hope for those that are unhappy with the game’s current PvP experience.
The official announcement of the new mode can be found on Bethesda’s website.
