Interview Brian Fargo and MCA doing AMA on Reddit

[Morkar Left]

Nice questions and great answers. So far everything seems to turn out exactly how I want it. It's a bit frightening...
My only concern is the tight release schedule. Everything else:

Kickass image.

Something wonderful is happening...

RAGING BONER IS WHAT'S HAPPENING.

I don't approve the artwork. Because now instead of shooting scorpitrons down I want to sit in a scorpitron shooting other things down!!!

The concept looks nice but what's the point of a tank having a tail? I mean six legs make sense in a wasteland, but the tail looks stupid.

Psychological warfare; having the biggest tail to intimidate the enemies. On a more serious note; 360° shooting range plus seamlessly going up and down, good for air defense, too.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Psychological warfare; having the biggest tail to intimidate the enemies. On a more serious note; 360° shooting range plus seamlessly going up and down, good for air defense, too.

Psychological warfare is a valid point. It would make sense to have a tank look like a frightening insect, expecially against primitive enemies.

But the movement can be achieved with a turret, much cheaper, without offsetting the center of gravity.
One could also go with the tail, but it should at least be mounted at the center.

The way it is now, it just looks like a ridiculously expensive machine that is built to resemble a scorpion just for the sake of it.

 

[SoupNazi]

That concept art makes it look like Crysis.

 

[Achilles]

I still can't believe this is happening. Out of the blue, when everything seemed to be lost, huge incline was achieved. It is true what they say then, the night is darkest just before the dawn.

 

[Aeschylus]

Ok, so, maybe I'm a little bit insane, but I went and compiled pretty much all of MCA's responses to the AMA. I very slightly edited some of the questions for fluff, but none of the responses. I skipped his various "Thanks" messages, but I think I included everything else. Warning: it is fucking long.

http://pastebin.com/Gb6dshwx

Anyone who feels the need can feel free to extract the more relevant tidbits for articles/newsposts or what have you. Enjoy.

 

[hiver]

That concept art makes it look like Crysis.

And your posts make you look like a moron!
As always!

 

[Burning Bridges]

I still can't believe this is happening. Out of the blue, when everything seemed to be lost, huge incline was achieved. It is true what they say then, the night is darkest just before the dawn.

2011: "the decline will be standing in 50 and even in a 100 years ..

March / April 2012: jubilant scenes as millions worldwide celebrate the return of old school rpgs.





If I had more skill I would make Fall of the Decline 2012 video out of this, and send it to Brian Fargo.

 

[commie]

Psychological warfare; having the biggest tail to intimidate the enemies. On a more serious note; 360° shooting range plus seamlessly going up and down, good for air defense, too.

Psychological warfare is a valid point. It would make sense to have a tank look like a frightening insect, expecially against primitive enemies.

But the movement can be achieved with a turret, much cheaper, without offsetting the center of gravity.
One could also go with the tail, but it should at least be mounted at the center.

The way it is now, it just looks like a ridiculously expensive machine that is built to resemble a scorpion just for the sake of it.

I think you're overanalysing a bit This is Wasteland, not Twilight 2000.

 

[hiver]

Have you corresponded (either officially or unofficially) with any employees of either Interplay or Bethesda concerning the buzz around your Kickstarter project? Has their comments been positive or negative? Obviously, details can be omitted to preserve anonymity. Thanks in advance.

- I have not heard word boo from either. I am sure they are ecstatic about the wonderful buzz circling around this game.

oh... this one really cracked me up ahaha...

ecstatic eh
i bet...

 

[mindx2]

Well, it turned out better than how it started. Brian and MCA certainly stayed on a lot longer than I thought they would so to them for that. Still hate reddit though! They seemed pretty open with their answers accept MCA still veiled his distaste for publishers *cough*Bethesda*cough* as I would have expected. Brian on the other hand better hope this thing works out because he is very open in his criticism even though he has not directly named names. Still it feels weird to hear them talking in the Codexian language and not publisher approved double-speak when it comes to the type of game they are making. They keep saying the right things and keep promising a cRPG that we have long thought impossible in today's world. I guess the thing that would really totally freak me out now is if Brian and MCA starting posting here as well!! Then I will know for sure that I'm in bizarro world!

 

[Infinitron]

I guess the thing that would really totally freak me out now is if Brian and MCA starting posting here as well!! Then I will know for sure that I'm in bizarro world!

Nah, they won't post here. And why should they? It's preaching to the choir.

But we definitely know that they're lurking. (Hi guys!)

 

[mindx2]

I guess the thing that would really totally freak me out now is if Brian and MCA starting posting here as well!! Then I will know for sure that I'm in bizarro world!

Nah, they won't post here. And why should they? It's preaching to the choir.

But we definitely know that they're lurking. (Hi guys!)

Well, you know a shout-out to us here would be pretty cool... don't you think? Imagine the chaos as thousands of Codexers swarmed the board just to have Brian and especially MCA say "Hi" to them!!!

Plus, aren't we a Prestigious cRPG site now?

 

[Shannow]

That concept art is amazing.

That's the kind of post-apocalyptic area I want to explore. Why does it always have to be a barren wasteland in most post-apocalpytic games/movies/books? There was a recent documentary thing about what cities would look like in a true post-apocalyptic setting (IE, no humans) and it looked much like that: trees/greenery overgrowing the buildings and cities and all that.

I love this shit.

What? What documentary was that? My friend LOVES the "abandoned city overgrown with trees and greenery" idea, do you know where you saw it and what it was called?

Der Mist läuft mindestens einmal pro Woche auf N24 oder n-tv.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Stimmt! Der Scheiss kam mir irgendwie bekannt vor, jetzt hast du mich wieder drauf gebracht

 

[Morkar Left]

But the movement can be achieved with a turret, much cheaper, without offsetting the center of gravity. One could also go with the tail, but it should at least be mounted at the center. The way it is now, it just looks like a ridiculously expensive machine that is built to resemble a scorpion just for the sake of it.

I don't know. In a different reality where tech is improved enough I could see such a gun tail working when it allows as smooth movements as with human bodylimbs. A turret might be cheaper but if you see a scorpitron as an superior asset to pawn other vehicles (similar to mechs) costs shouldn't matter. At least in an alternate reality. And such a tail would probably a better defense against antitank-tactics then the usual turret which you can circumvent/outmove with soldiers in closecombatrange.

 

[Burning Bridges]

It depends how this fits in with the rest of technology. You would need pretty advanced computers / cybernetics for this scorpion to work.

But as commie said, this should not be a concern. I am sure there are already discussions of this type in the Wasteland 2 forum.

 

[General Maxson]

Does anyone know will scorpitron get released as a wallpaper like rangers were? I'd very much like a 1680 * 1050....

 

[curry]

I guess the thing that would really totally freak me out now is if Brian and MCA starting posting here as well!! Then I will know for sure that I'm in bizarro world!

Nah, they won't post here.

They do post here.

 

[Infinitron]

I guess the thing that would really totally freak me out now is if Brian and MCA starting posting here as well!! Then I will know for sure that I'm in bizarro world!

Nah, they won't post here.

They do post here.

Hmmm...
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?search/712838/
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?search/712819/

 

[Brother None]

The M stands for Mister. I don't know how it came about, but we on the Codex call him MCA. The people over at NMA call him CFA, I think the F stands for Fucking.

We've always called him MCA too. He calls himself CFA :p

The concept looks nice but what's the point of a tank having a tail?

Psychological warfare aside (and that is a factor, simple intimidation), it's a more flexible, mobile mount than a turret. Considering it seems to be specialized for urban and difficult terrain combat, a tail you can stick around a corner and then just spray the room with bullets seems pretty useful.

 

[Jasede]

The M stands for Mister. I don't know how it came about, but we on the Codex call him MCA. The people over at NMA call him CFA, I think the F stands for Fucking.

We've always called him MCA too. He calls himself CFA :p

The concept looks nice but what's the point of a tank having a tail?

Psychological warfare aside (and that is a factor, simple intimidation), it's a more flexible, mobile mount than a turret. Considering it seems to be specialized for urban and difficult terrain combat, a tail you can stick around a corner and then just spray the room with bullets seems pretty useful.

It looks fucking sweet.

 

[Spectacle]

One only needs to replace clima, plants, animals, and objects with the ones from the US.

But what stays the same is that cities generally turn into forests.

Depends on the climate and biome. Las Vegas for example would revert to desert if it was abandoned. Climate also affects how long human structures will remain once they're no longer maintained, there's a lot less erosion in arid than wet climates.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Yes.

 

[Burning Bridges]

There's a whole site about abandoned architecture:

http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/category/abandoned/

 

[Azrael the cat]

Psychological warfare; having the biggest tail to intimidate the enemies. On a more serious note; 360° shooting range plus seamlessly going up and down, good for air defense, too.

Psychological warfare is a valid point. It would make sense to have a tank look like a frightening insect, expecially against primitive enemies.

But the movement can be achieved with a turret, much cheaper, without offsetting the center of gravity.
One could also go with the tail, but it should at least be mounted at the center.

The way it is now, it just looks like a ridiculously expensive machine that is built to resemble a scorpion just for the sake of it.

My thought was always that the tail was a plausible extension of the current tank turret, except now given full 360 movement and extension so that the robot can operate as an anti-humanoid weapon that doesn't need infantry support. If it's supposed to be taking on other heavy weaponry, then a turret would make more sense as it could hold a heavier canon. If it's supposed to be cruising through the wastes exterminating survivors, then the tail makes sense, as without that mobility you could just take up cover and be confident that it can't reach you - with the tail, the idea would be that it just sticks that in through the window and blasts away.