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Game News Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #41: Upcoming Updates

Infinitron

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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: Brian Fargo; Chris Avellone; InXile Entertainment; Michael A. Stackpole; Nathan Long; Wasteland 2

The Christmas holidays are over, and the Wasteland 2 development team has gone back to work. In the game's latest Kickstarter update, Brian Fargo himself has written a bit about what they have planned for the game now.

As I said blocker bugs are our first priority but we have a long list of various smaller and larger changes we want to make, many of which were on our lists and were reaffirmed by our community and directly inspired by backer feedback. For example, we’re working on significant improvements to combat. Destructible cover was part of this last update as a first pass with more fine-tuning to come; we will likely add a crouching stance with a variety of tactical applications; we’re going over a lot of the encounter design to more carefully detail tactics-changing factors like ladders or destructible cover; and we’re in the first testing stages to explore adding a special attack system that’ll allow you to invest AP to make specific kinds of attacks based on your weapon types and the skill levels you’ve achieved in those weapons…things like spread shots or steady shots. Keep in mind the combat you see in the beta is only the earliest levels in the game, where enemies are more straightforward and do not have the wide variety of special moves, AoE attacks and more advanced AI of later-game enemies. The enemy AI is quite varied as you get into the later stages, once you’ve sufficiently learned the base controls and rules of the experience.

Additionally, let me give you a peek at some of the things we’ll focus on as we continue production: improving the messaging of the game’s interface and systems significantly; doing several balance passes on everything in the world from economy to combat to the whole character system; overhauling the minimap; fixing font issues; working on the field stripping and weapon modding functionalities; tweaking shotguns so they properly provide spread shots rather than work just as rifles; improving the barter, inventory and character system UIs; fixing pathing; improving the balance and functionality of energy weapons; adding additional satisfying death animations; implementing outfit functionality; adding touches and small scenes to make towns and the world feel more alive and much more. That is just a short list of what is in reality a much longer to-do list, so don’t worry if you don’t see your own suggestion in there: everything our backers put into CenterCode is read by multiple developers so nothing is lost.

One last major thing I wanted to talk about has to do with reactivity and town connectivity. Let me reiterate from our last update, this is our greatest area of focus when we look at videos of people playing the game or read their game impressions on forums or CenterCode. We are constantly adding smaller touches in map passes but also have plans for significant increases in reactivity, both for our existing maps and for the rest of the game. This is another place where backer feedback shines, as we get feedback from people playing through the game and wondering why this one event isn’t a more complex mission or why we don’t add more choices to another. With your help, the game is constantly improving in this field.

As this process goes forward, we are constantly tweaking features, or adding and removing them, but that does not necessarily mean any of those changes are permanent. The “healing over time” mechanic is a good example of this: We initially put it in primarily as a counter-balance to a lack of reliability of healing items from the random loot tables and an unbalanced economy meaning not enough merchants to buy those items from, and it would have caused an unnecessary delay to implement this before beta release. When we put out our first major update the loot system became more balanced, and we pulled healing over time to see how that impacted the experience of our backers. That is the quintessential beta iteration experience, you never quite know how a feature change works out until you have people playing it. Many like the extra challenge it added and the thoughtful use of healing items it now necessitates, but others were unhappy with the way this impacted game balance or felt healing over time was needed because it is a Wasteland 1 feature. We’ll be curious to see how this is impacted by the upcoming overhaul on field medic and surgeon (yes, we know surgeon is confusing as hell) as well as putting in more friendly doctors and merchants for healing supplies. The game is one of scarcity and the mechanics should support that. We will continue to monitor the discussions on these elements and course correct along the way as necessary.

[...] Expect an update to the early beta code in the not too distant future with an additional area and many reactivity changes. This version will NOT be compatible with current save games, so we’ll give due warning when it’s coming. However, there will be plenty of reasons to play the game from the start, as there will be significant changes to existing areas, and tie-ins between all the beta areas that are worth exploring. New content is not just a matter of pasting a new area to the end of the beta, when we unlock that area we also unlock the tie-ins and NPCs and locations it is tied to.
The update is quite long, and it contains various other news in addition to the above. First, for a limited period of time at the end of the month, the beta will be available as a $10 add-on for existing backers of both Wasteland 2 and Torment. That'll either shut up the "what do you mean I don't get early access?!" $50 backer crowd, or make them complain even more. Second, the novellas are finally on their way! Unfortunately, it seems Michael Stackpole's two novellas may end up being cancelled. However, Nathan Long and one Stephen Blackmoore have been contracted to replace him. Stephen's novella, which is about the "Pistol Packing Priests" faction, will be the first to be released. Apparently, it's actually quite good. Meanwhile, Chris Avellone's novella is going to be delayed because he's expanding it into a full-blown novel. Oh, MCA...
 

TwinkieGorilla

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sser

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Can't wait to write some pistol packing priests fan fiction, if you know what I mean.
 
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:thumbsup:Love it when things you've suggested make it in, I mean, sure, other people probably suggested the same things, but that's not what I tell myself.

Hope it delivers, sounds promising, I know even those cunts who act like they want it to fail are all secretly hoping to be proven wrong. I wish I knew what the hell outfit functionality was, but if they're doing outfits I wouldn't mind they fix the untextured mesh that's available as one of the female lower bodies.
 
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Is it just me or does every update on all these Kickstarters start reading the exact same? "You guys are awesome, we couldn't have made it without you! We're edging closer to a preliminary alpha, stay tuned! Here's how you can donate us even more money!" It's starting to make me practically sick. We know you're removing bugs and completing development of the game, if you don't have anything special to say but more self-congratulation, refrain already.
 

Daedalos

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LOVELY update... Fargo puttin' dem naysayers to the ground 1 by 1... do people finally believe that this REALLY is a very early beta.. and much more dev and improvements are to come?

This is far from over boys... Wasteland 2 might be fucking great just yet! wait and see :P
 

Daedalos

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Is it just me or does every update on all these Kickstarters start reading the exact same? "You guys are awesome, we couldn't have made it without you! We're edging closer to a preliminary alpha, stay tuned! Here's how you can donate us even more money!" It's starting to make me practically sick. We know you're removing bugs and completing development of the game, if you don't have anything special to say but more self-congratulation, refrain already.

It's just you. I think you need to start working on your reading comprehension.
 

skuphundaku

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If you read the entire update (or at least the entire dev-related part of it), it looks like they are addressing most if not all of the problems and feature requests people have been bitching aboutreporting, so now I am confident that they're on the right track if they keep it up like this.:greatjob:
 

VioletShadow

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Is it just me or does every update on all these Kickstarters start reading the exact same? "You guys are awesome, we couldn't have made it without you! We're edging closer to a preliminary alpha, stay tuned! Here's how you can donate us even more money!" It's starting to make me practically sick. We know you're removing bugs and completing development of the game, if you don't have anything special to say but more self-congratulation, refrain already.
Might be just you. Did you actually read the update? :lol:
 

Koschey

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Nothing new. Look at the reward tiers on Kickstarter, for example 50$ physical (only part 1) and 55$ digital (both parts 1 and 2).
 

Infinitron

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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
Nothing new. Look at the reward tiers on Kickstarter, for example 50$ physical (only part 1) and 55$ digital (both parts 1 and 2).

You missed the point.

This update said:
We do need to make a change to our novella roll out plan as it relates to Michael Stackpole as we have not been able to finalize his story. We will continue to work with Michael to deliver his novellas, but we can’t promise if that will happen.

What was wrong with his novella?
 

Roguey

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It was full of nothing but "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

LOVELY update... Fargo puttin' dem naysayers to the ground 1 by 1... do people finally believe that this REALLY is a very early beta.. and much more dev and improvements are to come?

This is far from over boys... Wasteland 2 might be fucking great just yet! wait and see :P
That they're adding in stances in now (requiring a lot of additional animation, AI, and rebalancing work) is proof that this is actually an alpha.
 

Daedalos

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It was full of nothing but "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

LOVELY update... Fargo puttin' dem naysayers to the ground 1 by 1... do people finally believe that this REALLY is a very early beta.. and much more dev and improvements are to come?

This is far from over boys... Wasteland 2 might be fucking great just yet! wait and see :P
That they're adding in stances in now (requiring a lot of additional animation, AI, and rebalancing work) is proof that this is actually an alpha.

Whatever. Alpha, pre-alpha, beta, zeta, omegatron build.. I don't give two fucking shits at this point.

Point is, they are actively working on making the game the best it can be with the money and time they got, of which is still mostly unknown to us.

Don't give a shit if the game comes out 2015, as long as it's fucking good. Which I'm sure it will be.

And if people are butthurt about the fact that the "beta/alpha" isn't more fleshed out and developed at this point than it is.. they can:

1. Go fuck themselves with their sense of entitlement

2. Get a life and go do something else than sit and moan and wait about a computer game being finished.
 

Roguey

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I imagine if the "easy access (to Steam users' bank accounts)" sales weren't as good as they were then crouching would be off the table. :)
 

tuluse

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It was full of nothing but "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."


That they're adding in stances in now (requiring a lot of additional animation, AI, and rebalancing work) is proof that this is actually an alpha.
I think they have the crouching animations done already. Characters crouch when they're in cover.
 

Roguey

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It was full of nothing but "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."


That they're adding in stances in now (requiring a lot of additional animation, AI, and rebalancing work) is proof that this is actually an alpha.
I think they have the crouching animations done already. Characters crouch when they're in cover.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/597376
September 13 2013 said:
Another pattern we saw discussed had to do with stances as a tactical choice in combat. Stances may not seem like a big deal to implement, but it is a deceivingly large amount of work to do correctly in our game. There are a few issues to consider when evaluating this as a feature. First, is the amount of work necessary to get it done vs. how much it will add to the game as a whole. It involves additional code to simply implement the base feature, UI work to get the HUD elements, a large amount of AI to have enemies react to it differently (assuming we don’t just have the rangers use it…which would be lame), design work to fit it on to all applicable humanoid enemy NPCs, gameplay balancing, bug testing and the finally largest risk comes from animation. Our animation system is pretty robust. We’d essentially be adding 2 additional states (crouching and prone), which need to have our full suite of animations related to all weapon skills. 9 skills (or 7 without melee skills) doesn’t seem like a lot but when you break them down, it gets unwieldy quick. Each weapon has firing, jamming, equip/unequip, reloading, aim up/down, multiple player damages from that pose (i.e light, medium, heavy, crits) plus all of the blends in and out that make them smooth from different player states. In all it turns into around 15-20 animations per skill, per stance. Finally, there would be visual issues from our 6 foot tall rangers with a 3 foot long sniper rifle lying prone. Weapons would clip through the world props all over the place. As we continue iterating and polishing, we will evaluate all options as they are available, but as you can see, this is not a particularly easy decision to make.
 

Athelas

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I guess you could say their stance on the issue has changed.
:yeah:
 

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