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Codex Interview RPG Codex Wasteland 2 Interview - Part 3: Brian Fargo on Community Feedback

Crooked Bee

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Tags: Brian Fargo; Kickstarter; Wasteland 2

Since the official Wasteland 2 forums went up, a lot of people have been wondering just how seriously the good folks at InXile are going to take community feedback. So we've asked Brian Fargo about it, and here's what he says.

How do you strike a balance between a professional design vision and the desires of a diverse audience? Do you believe that the nature of this project will have a significant impact on the game's development process?

BF: Every project that I have managed has started with a vision document that calls out the important things we must deliver on. In conjunction with those call outs I make the team deliver examples of such things. If we say great characters with interesting dialogue then I want to see a sample. If we think gorgeous character portraits are important then I want an artist to show me one. It is one thing to promise a feature, but another to deliver. So instead of my relying on my instincts or team meetings I am able to solicit the feedback from the fans to make sure we nail what is important. The process now is very similar but actually better than ever since I don't have to be flying in the dark. We are not going to try and satisfy EVERY desire of EVERY fan, or it would be a mess. My instincts for this game have been pretty much in line with what I have seen, but there have been new ideas or priorities that were not intuitive to me and I was thankful for having the input that has been supplied. And there will be an extra step soon where I post the vision document based on all these things, but I have not had a second to type something up that communicates well. I don't think there will be any big surprises on it... we all know what we want to see here.

Wasteland enforced a distinction between the core group of player created characters and the companions that could tag along. The companions would largely control themselves and helped to integrate the player's party with the game's setting and quests. Is the autonomy and personality of these companions something you would like to expand upon in Wasteland 2? In what ways?

BF: I absolutely want to expand on the NPCs' self directed nature. I do want control to tell them to move, fire, evade, etc., and probably most the time they will obey. Some NPCs will waste ammo like in the first game, but I want to take it further. Some will steal from you, which will be funny to notice your canteen is missing. Maybe he will return it and maybe he won't. And you may have another powerful NPC in the group, but he just hates bikers. Walk into a biker bar and he starts attacking without regard for consequences. Those are fun moments for me.

Most cRPGs today seem to feature voice acting in some capacity and it has been hinted at that Wasteland 2 will be no different. Many believe that the financial burden and inflexibility of voice acting will have an impact on the dialogue and quest design. Do you share this belief? To what extent would you like to use voice acting in Wasteland 2?

BF: I don't want to give away all my surprises, but people have made an assumption that voice acting is just talking heads or a narrator. There is some very interesting audio bits I have been wanting to try for years that will really up the drama but without the design or cost impacts. The classic RPGs like a Fallout or a Torment had a heavy literary vibe with all the great prose and descriptions, and that is a large element that people liked. I'm not talking about stepping on every square and getting a paragraph, but there is definitely a place for good writing. Also keep in mind that we will design the game as if there was no conversation audio, so we won't even consider that as a limitation.​

Be sure to read the full interview here.

We are grateful to Brian Fargo for taking the time to answer our questions!
 

Infinitron

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Good answers. He does seem to be trending towards a "Wasteland 2 as True Fallout 3" direction, though...
 

ghostdog

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He does seem to be trending towards a "Wasteland 2 as True Fallout 3" direction, though...

Well, it will certainly be much more true than the actual Fallout 3. Not to mention that Fallout is basically a Wasteland sequel.
 

Bulba

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As long as there won't be mass gay gangbang in the game, his answers look great. Through I do hope that there will be no compass of any sort.
 

hiver

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I like the idea of self directed NPCs as addition to the core controllable rangers team. That could liven things up a bit.

Ive read the rest now - good stuff. The only thing i would add is that i would actually want them to enhance Wasteland over Fallout in design, if not in combat mechanics then in the rest. And maybe it cannot be done but i was wandering could an original Wasteland combat system be used as some kind of "faster combat" addition? To have that as an option... or something.

Great interview Bee. All important questions asked. :bro:
 
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As long as there won't be mass gay gangbang in the game, his answers look great. Through I do hope that there will be no compass of any sort.

:bro:

Yeah, what exactly do we need quest compas for? Or anyone not retarded for that matter? Fallouts had none, and they are very easy to get into and I never had any trouble locating something... It would be a ruinous waste of kickstarter money to implement something like quest compas. This game should be anti-decline game.
 

Dexter

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An overwhelming number of fans seem to want a more tactical combat system where the positioning of individual characters is paramount. This is in stark contrast to the Bard's Tale inspired combat in Wasteland. Sir-Tech's Jagged Alliance 2 seems to be a common reference point and is widely considered to have the best tactical combat system. What are your current thoughts on the combat and is there a fear that expectations may be too high considering the original Wasteland's broader scope?

Wait what, an "overwhelming number"? I've only ever heard a few people say it and I love JA2 like the next guy, but the battle system simply isn't fit for an RPG, some of those battles could drag on a lot... Leave that system to Tactical Strategy games.
 
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An overwhelming number of fans seem to want a more tactical combat system where the positioning of individual characters is paramount. This is in stark contrast to the Bard's Tale inspired combat in Wasteland. Sir-Tech's Jagged Alliance 2 seems to be a common reference point and is widely considered to have the best tactical combat system. What are your current thoughts on the combat and is there a fear that expectations may be too high considering the original Wasteland's broader scope?

Wait what, an "overwhelming number"? I've only ever heard a few people say it and I love JA2 like the next guy, but the battle system simply isn't fit for an RPG, some of those battles could drag on a lot... Leave that system to Tactical Strategy games.

Don't fret, we won't get combat like in JA2... :roll: And I agree it would drag on for an RPG game. But some improvements form Fallout 1,2 and Tactics ARE in order.

The most important thing is that combat should be fun. I hope for bloody death animations like in Fallouts. :D
 

Morkar Left

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Great interview with great answers. Dessert Ranger reporting for duty :salute:
 

hiver

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Guise...

One of the many hot topics on the forum right now is that of quest compasses. Many games that adopt this practice neglect alternative methods of informing the player where to go. If you were to include navigational aids as an option, would you ensure that adequate directions are provided by other means to make it feasible to play without them?
BF: I guess my take on this is that we should design the game 100% in a way that no compass would be needed. It seems cheap to rely on a compass because we forgot to give enough clues. Now MAYBE at the end we throw out the concept of allowing it as an option for players who are a little lazy...MAYBE. This is the kind of broad stroke idea that I would want to throw out to the players I care most about to solicit feedback from.​
 

TwinkieGorilla

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Now MAYBE at the end we throw out the concept of allowing it as an option for players who are a little lazy...MAYBE. This is the kind of broad stroke idea that I would want to throw out to the players I care most about to solicit feedback from.

This shall be something we must vote down with fury.
 

quasimodo

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An overwhelming number of fans seem to want a more tactical combat system where the positioning of individual characters is paramount. This is in stark contrast to the Bard's Tale inspired combat in Wasteland. Sir-Tech's Jagged Alliance 2 seems to be a common reference point and is widely considered to have the best tactical combat system. What are your current thoughts on the combat and is there a fear that expectations may be too high considering the original Wasteland's broader scope?

Wait what, an "overwhelming number"? I've only ever heard a few people say it and I love JA2 like the next guy, but the battle system simply isn't fit for an RPG, some of those battles could drag on a lot... Leave that system to Tactical Strategy games.


If he promised JA2 combat and I believed him Iwould give him $1000 more.
 

hiver

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Now MAYBE at the end we throw out the concept of allowing it as an option for players who are a little lazy...MAYBE. This is the kind of broad stroke idea that I would want to throw out to the players I care most about to solicit feedback from.

This shall be something we must vote down with fury.
Well... not necessarily. If they do design the game like he says then compass would not really be used by most of the players at all. Because it wont be needed. So as just an additional option i dont have a big problem with it.
Of course if its needed we must be really clear that it must not devalue the design in any way and only added later. Maybe in a patch or something.

-edit- Even better! In a fucking DLC that has to be bought! muahahahahahahaa

Also, there wont be full JA combat but some mechanics and inspiration can certainly be taken from it and integrated for greater incline.
 

hiver

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Why the fuck not? The target market for that kind of helping mechanics is certainly used to being extra charged for shit. And it would remove the compass from production and design of the game itself and make it an addition.
Who wants it - buys it.
 

MMXI

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An overwhelming number of fans seem to want a more tactical combat system where the positioning of individual characters is paramount. This is in stark contrast to the Bard's Tale inspired combat in Wasteland. Sir-Tech's Jagged Alliance 2 seems to be a common reference point and is widely considered to have the best tactical combat system. What are your current thoughts on the combat and is there a fear that expectations may be too high considering the original Wasteland's broader scope?

Wait what, an "overwhelming number"? I've only ever heard a few people say it and I love JA2 like the next guy, but the battle system simply isn't fit for an RPG, some of those battles could drag on a lot... Leave that system to Tactical Strategy games.
Read the question. It says an overwhelming number of fans want to see a combat system where you can move units individually. Like a multi-character Fallout. This is true as no one seems to want blob combat. The question doesn't say that an overwhelming number of fans want Jagged Alliance 2.
 

Lexx

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Now MAYBE at the end we throw out the concept of allowing it as an option for players who are a little lazy...MAYBE. This is the kind of broad stroke idea that I would want to throw out to the players I care most about to solicit feedback from.

This shall be something we must vote down with fury.

Not if the target to walk to is shitty described, which is what you see in most games nowadays: You need the quest compass, cause otherwise you have no clue where to go.
 

Castanova

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Making stupid people pay $$ for quest compass DLC would be the best thing ever. Then again, Bethesda already did it with their horse armor but I don't think they were trying to make a statement with it.
 

TwinkieGorilla

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Not if the target to walk to is shitty described, which is what you see in most games nowadays: You need the quest compass, cause otherwise you have no clue where to go.

Errr, right. Which is why you vote down "quest compass" and vote up "good descriptions". I kinda thought this was inherently implied when I made that post.
 

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