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Game News Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #36: Stats, Skills and Screenshots

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: InXile Entertainment; Wasteland 2

In the run-up to the Wasteland 2 beta this month, the guys at inXile have decided to release a Kickstarter update with a full overview of the game's attributes and skills. I'll quote the general descriptions here, but you'll have to read the full update to see the detailed list of all attributes and skills.

Attributes

Attributes are the starting values that define your character. You allocate them at character creation and while they can be upgraded during the course of the game, opportunities to do so are sparse. Attributes are key in determining the core characteristics of your ranger. They affect things like how many action points you have, how much movement each action point allows, how many survival points you gain per level, your carry weight, and many other variables. We’ve always said choices and trade-offs are a main design focus and character creation certainly supports this. Attributes have a cap of 10 and you will start with a smaller attribute pool than you may be used to. Each attribute point has a dramatic effect on your ranger, which leads to some very different feeling rangers based on how you distribute them.

If a specific attribute is very low, that may cap the related skill or could mean the character is incapable of using some items with attribute requirements. Of course, we will be balancing attributes and skills throughout beta, so some of these might be modified further. Outside of the core uses, NPCs in the world will react to specific characters based on their attribute make-up.

[...] Also making a return from Wasteland 1, but still not exactly an attribute, is maximum constitution (MAXCON), or the maximum number of hit points. MAXCON is derived from strength and upgradeable when you level-up.

Skills

After selecting attributes, you will be able to place Survival Points (SPs) into your many skill options. Skills start off at a zero value, meaning they are unusable. After unlocking a skill with SPs, you can place additional SPs into the skill to increase its level and functionality. Skills have a maximum cap of 10 similar to attributes. Skills are upgraded in tiers, with a total of 10 skill levels. Roughly speaking, skill levels 1-3 mean novice, 4-6 mean competent, 7-9 mean proficient and 10 means expert. Each skill level allows you to take on more significant challenges, increasing your chance of success and level of rewards as you use the skill. Skills can also be increased from use. Some skills provide additional bonuses as you reach the various levels of competency.

Combat Skills
Increasing skills here will increase your chance to hit with that specific class of weapons. In addition, mastery of those weapons increases with your skill level, allowing you to manipulate and clear it quicker when jams happen.

Information / Knowledge Skills
Your chance of success with non-combat skills depends on the difference between the challenge and your skill level. For an expert at lock picking facing a door with a very simple lock, there is almost no chance to fail. A novice surgeon may find it very hard to remove the effects of a dangerous strain of toxin or a serious injury that renders your ranger in mortal condition. If the skill difference is too significant, especially for untrained rangers, it may simply not be possible to accomplish the task.

General Skills
General skills have a variety of uses. Some involve breaking down materials that you find in the Wasteland, while others provide much needed medical care. These tend to be support skills and help you manage and solve problems.

[...] What may stand out to you is the variation in the perceived level of usefulness of skills; animal whisperer is unlikely to be used as much as handguns. We purposefully designed skills that would not be used universally. Each skill has a variety of uses throughout the game and various levels of rewards. Lockpick might more often used, but you never know when something like Alarm Disarm will give you a huge advantage (or reward) that would be otherwise unobtainable. This level of granularity is an advantage of party-based systems and we fully intend to exploit it. We want you to build a varied, multi-skilled group of rangers who play off each other’s strength to become a kick-ass team.
The update also comes with two new screenshots, which are meant to demonstrate the diversity of Wasteland 2's environments:


Ooh, pretty. Do you hear that sound? That's right, it's the sweet sound of graphics whores finally not whining.
 

RainShaman

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I can't wait to put 10 points in Animal Whisperer and be the scourge of the wasteland with my following herd of screaming goats.
 

A user named cat

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BLASTOFF!

vnkw5c6.jpg
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Sorry bro, it doesn't look better anymore. That rusty brown just isn't very appealing.
 

Mantic

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Water treatment plant? So do we get to fight feces monsters?
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Sorry bro, it doesn't look better anymore. That rusty brown just isn't very appealing.
It will always look better than segmented shit with fax paper dialogue box.

In the screenshot you altered, the segmented bits are very close to each other, and the background behind them is a bit dark, so it all blends together and they don't look that segmented. Also, the fax paper has grown on me.

Your talents would have been better spent on the first screenshot, where the UI bits were downscaled and further apart.
 
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I think the UI looks much better this time around. I'd still like to see the notepad replaced though.
 

Surf Solar

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Interiors are getting better, still with that retarded fov though. Phantasmals stuff obviously looks better.
 

A user named cat

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Your talents would have been better spent on the first screenshot, where the UI bits were downscaled and farther apart.
I was going to but the dialogue paper is sticking up too high and no amount of clone tool will remove it properly, so it'd look funny. As for the rustic color though, that's just a tweaked overlay texture that could be removed/replaced.
 

Mantic

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What Remains, Tangut Prophecy and Underrail still look better :)
2D and 3D graphics both have their pros and cons. In WL2 you will be able to place your rangers on top of objects so they shoot down on enemies below (with a bonus), which isn't possible in 2D.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
BTW, looks like I was wrong about Strength having a significant effect on your initial Brute Force skill. It really is a pure skill that you have to upgrade from zero, although Strength probably caps it.
Ditto Perception with regard to Awareness. Bring on the outrage from the usual suspects. +M
 

Roguey

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Graphics and UI looking better.

The attributes are (with some but not all uses listed):
:hmmm:

Charisma, and Speed to a lesser extent, seem like the obvious dump stats. Movement's just not that important to ranged attackers and being able to leap long distances in a single bound probably won't be worth the penalty to other stats to a melee person. I see evasion's been removed as a skill and added to Awareness to make it not-almost-completely-worthless as an attribute, even though it still existed back in August (see: RPS article). And since attribute upgrades are rare, it appears as though your chance to dodge is likely going to remain the same throughout the game (unless armor both reduces damage and makes you harder to hit which would be awful).
 
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BTW, looks like I was wrong about Strength having a significant effect on your initial Brute Force skill. It really is a pure skill that you have to upgrade from zero, although Strength probably caps it.
Ditto Perception with regard to Awareness. Bring on the outrage from the usual suspects. +M

You forgot the funniest one, which is that a character with maxed out Charisma (CHR): Charm, personality and swagger. How NPCs perceive your likeability or persuasiveness.

has 0 points in Smart Ass: Dialogue skill involving persuasion.

But there's no use discussing these things because you always have perfect response, namely that unlike books or movies, videogames shouldn't make sense.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Charisma, and Speed to a lesser extent, seem like the obvious dump stats. Movement's just not that important to ranged attackers and being able to leap long distances in a single bound probably won't be worth the penalty to other stats to a melee person.

You're forgetting that this isn't Fallout. Cover mechanics. Moving from cover to cover is important.
 

Roguey

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You're forgetting that this isn't Fallout. Cover mechanics. Moving from cover to cover is important.
I'm sure most characters can make do just fine with modest investment in speed which is why I said it was a dump stat to a lesser-extent.

Unnecessarily artificial.
It's actually very necessary for the sake of balance. 0 means you would fail it every time so why bother?
 

Surf Solar

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What Remains, Tangut Prophecy and Underrail still look better :)
2D and 3D graphics both have their pros and cons. In WL2 you will be able to place your rangers on top of objects so they shoot down on enemies below (with a bonus), which isn't possible in 2D.

It is very much possible in 2D, put this in long ago.

Btw I'd take Underrails style always over wastelands looks. It looks cool, everything is clear and visiblr at one glance, a coherent art style. Awesome work by styg.
 

MrBuzzKill

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I actually enjoy the way the GUI looks now. It's neat, tidy and thematic. Oh, and I think the fax is a pretty clever idea and fits the theme.
 

Vault Dweller

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Charisma, and Speed to a lesser extent, seem like the obvious dump stats. Movement's just not that important to ranged attackers and being able to leap long distances in a single bound probably won't be worth the penalty to other stats to a melee person.

You're forgetting that this isn't Fallout. Cover mechanics. Moving from cover to cover is important.
In theory, so far. Combat would have to be deadly and unforgiving for cover to play an important role.
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Charisma, and Speed to a lesser extent, seem like the obvious dump stats. Movement's just not that important to ranged attackers and being able to leap long distances in a single bound probably won't be worth the penalty to other stats to a melee person.

You're forgetting that this isn't Fallout. Cover mechanics. Moving from cover to cover is important.
In theory, so far. Combat would have to be deadly and unforgiving for cover to play an important role.

Well, I assume you noticed that in the most recent demo one of the rangers got killed. And he was in cover at the time.
 

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