Wasteland Wasteland mystery / Brian Fargo trolling thread (obvious spoilers)

[Azrael the cat]

Just wanted to start a thread for people to post info on things like hidden skill/stat checks, hidden dialogue words to enter using the text parser, and other mysteries like the provost, owl of minerva, etc.

The sheer amount of love in this game is incredible. This is seriously the 1st game I have played since the 80s where there's been a community genuinely trying to work stuff out (and not in a bad way, ok not JUST in a bad way) post-release instead of everything being up on gamefaqs within a week. In an era of early access that's fucking incredible.

Anyway, I'm sure that a lot of the 'mysteries' are just the developers trolling. E.g. Fargo has publically stated that the Provost is just there as a once-off headfuck with no real application.

...but then we get this last patch: 'Provost voice added to radio message'.

There's a bunch of items that seem to have a use, that either aren't usable yet or nobody has found and widely posted - and quite possibly there's a mixture of both. But more the point, the nature of Fargo's responses when asked about this stuff - and the fact that they seem to be being updated with each patch - indicates to me that they're trying to make a virtue out of a flaw (quests not 100% implemented at launch - shitty, but also the norm these days for games with 1/2 the scope).

I.e. there's some stuff which is just hard to find, and there's others which probably don't have solutions yet. Nonetheless, I haven't seen this kind of thing in decades - design that's clearly motivated by a love of what they're making, with no real 'sale' value. Puzzles, game 'mysteries' and hidden mechanics dissappeared even before the decline, because you can't sell a game on things that the players don't know about before they buy the game.

Anyway, commentary aside - just thought we should have a thread collating this stuff.

A lot of it seems to be in the Rail Nomad Camp (unsurprising, given how sprawling the map is compared to other locations):
- the engineer's note with what seems to be an order of events (swing, gun then dig - I found and broke the swing, got a reaction message from it, stole the nerd's gun and gave the lens back to him, think that's what the 1st 2 parts are about, no idea about the 'dig')
- various references to mystery uber armour (almost certainly trolling)
- peaceful solution to RNC requires you to pay attention and enter a word in the text parser

Of the folks who followed the games' development, anyone know who led the design for RNC? Because the map design is shit, too many fetch quests, but the amount of love put into it is incredible.

Edit:
- near where the Provost is, there's a sign on one of the buildings. The 1st 3 words are in pig latin, simply stating 'the sign says'. The rest seems to be in actual latin: '"corrvmpitvr cor tenebrarvm. id aspicere, semper id aspicere, est via svperandi. id aspice!"' I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that it's an injoke or a developer reference (can't imagine anyone setting up a questline that way).

- medallion of honour (found if you dig up one of the graves in the RNC graveyard) has the combo to a hard safe later on, but seems to have more to it as well. If you take it to Switchman's antiques, he'll be surprised and tell you he sold it to a guy in a hat 2 weeks ago, and that it originally comes from Darwin (town next along from RNC).

 

[Black]

- peaceful solution to RNC requires you to pay attention and enter a word in the text parser

What? No.

 

[Azrael the cat]

This seems to be in the game, but obviously hard to confirm the mechanics:

Luck as a dump stat? Perhaps but...the 2nd toaster (take to Ranger Citadel for blood staff, unique weapon) in the Ag Centre, that everyone thought was removed before release IS still in the game...sometimes. It seems like you need high party luck for it to appear (no idea if perception is also needed, or if it's just a combined % check where using one as a universal dump stat makes it unlikely to pass). It's in the central basement, behind the plants that you can clear after completing the Ag Centre questline.

But...while luck seems to affect whether it appears, going back with higher luck NPCs doesn't trigger it, and it doesn't seem to be guaranteed even with that - if it's a 'check' (most likely implementation, as the perception checks are done that way) you only get one chance at it - it won't appear later even if you've recruited a bunch of lucky NPCs. More plausible than it sounds, given the 'critical failure' mechanic. I.e. there could be a high critical failure stat for that check, stopping you from revisiting it.

One alternative might be that luck affects the random seeding of some items, including toasters.

 

[Azrael the cat]

- peaceful solution to RNC requires you to pay attention and enter a word in the text parser

What? No.

Probably another way of doing it, but worked for me.

 

[Rhalle]

: 'Provost voice added to radio message'.

: 'Provost voice added to radio message'.

If they mean by that latin in all caps on the Arizona radio, I actually saw that, but think it was after I mercilessly murdered him so he'd stop following me.

I wonder if the things said on the radio do something if you type them into the text bar with him or.....


And yeah, there's all sorts of of hidden mechanics in the game-- stats are pretty clearly doing funny things.