Wasteland The Wasteland 2 Beta Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Infinitron]

Special upgrade price ?

http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=9307 Last paragraph.

 

[Excidium]

$10 add-on for existing backers of both Wasteland 2 and Torment.

lol product tying

 

[MLMarkland]

$10 add-on for existing backers of both Wasteland 2 and Torment.

lol product tying

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tying_(commerce)

Vs.

If you backed Wasteland 2 in any form, you are eligible for the special upgrade price.

 

[Excidium]

Oh I read it wrong. That's better.

 

[Dokkalfar]

I hope Darwin Village/Project appears in WL2, it was a great location from Wasteland and there's a few hints in the beta that it'll be in the game at some stage.

 

[AstroZombie]

Never why this either.... I thought everybody had 64 core CPU's now a days.. unless u are a broke nigger.

I don't know anyone that has a 64 core CPU.

 

[Bubbles]

Never why this either.... I thought everybody had 64 core CPU's now a days.. unless u are a broke nigger.

I don't know anyone that has a 64 core CPU.

Hey Rip van Winkle, it ain't 2006 anymore:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TILE64

 

[Ferrous85]

New interview with Fargo on the sales of early access W2.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-17-its-kind-of-funny-to-be-competing-with-my-own-franchise

 

[Infinitron]

The new work is feeding into a major update that is due out soon. Fargo promises a "tremendous amount of change", pointing to improved AI behaviour (currently the AI is rudimentary in combat). When players first enter the Highpool area, it triggers a mundane combat encounter. Enemies, as they do throughout the alpha, appear content to run toward you as quickly as possible, eating bullets to the face in the process. The update will give enemies the ability to climb ladders to assume sniper positions, among other, smarter, plays. We'll also see the addition of destructible objects and crouch positions, adding an additional layer of strategy to combat. "One of the biggest demands," Fargo teases, "they loved in Fallout that you could take targeted shots. Well, you know what? We might be able to do that. We're taking a look at that."

Elsewhere, the inventory user interface has received a makeover. There's more on this on the Kickstarter page, but as Fargo admits, "it could use a little bit of refinement". That's an understatement. Wasteland 2's inventory is currently a clunky, befuddling mess. Using it is like frantically fishing around your bag for your keys. In the dark. And, it turns out, your keys aren't even there. "There will be big changes there," Fargo promises.

All welcome, but I'm most looking forward into the improvements inXile says are being made to Wasteland 2's narrative. This seems odd to me, and when Fargo first mentions it, I'm sceptical. This is an RPG after all. I'm invested because of the promise of choice and consequence, the video game version of a choose your own adventure. If I say this, here, then this, here, is affected. My decisions make my playthrough unique. My decisions determine my fate. Now the game is nearing release, how much of the narrative, the lifeblood of the game, can change?

"The initial response was that stuff's locked and loaded," Fargo says. "They assumed we were going to adjust combat and balance, but they didn't really believe we were going to make these wholesale changes and additions to the existing content.

"I don't mean just dropping in an area, but things that ripple through the entire world. That to me is the biggest focus."

Fargo uses the Rail Nomad area as an example. He wants it to feel more like a HUB, with hustle and bustle, missions to accept and many more NPCs to chat to. Right now it's a somewhat sparse expanse, with the odd interesting conversation dotted around the map. That's going to change when the update is pushed live.

Good.

"I don't think we'll be talking with Bethesda," Fargo counters, his voice for the first time losing that enthusiastic kick I've been enjoying for the past half hour.

Why not?

"We had a tough relationship with them.

"It's kind of funny to be competing with my own franchise."

I press.

"They're very successful and they do some very high quality products. They have a very different attitude towards development than what I'm used to. I'm sort of more... if you think of a film, every director has his or her own way of doing things, no matter what. There's no cookie cutter for their approach. And that's what makes films so great: you have these wildly different approaches. I had my own approach and they have a structured way of doing it that's just different than mine."

This past bad experience of course has to do with Hunted, a game that promised much but failed to deliver both critically and, crucially for Bethesda, commercially.

"That was the only time I did business with them, yeah," Fargo says. Don't hold your breath for a sequel.

And - perhaps unsurprisingly - don't hold your breath for an inXile-developed Fallout, either.

"Yep. Very unlikely."

Heh.

 

[Duraframe300]

What is unlikely is that inXile will get involved in publisher-funded console development again, after what sounds like a disturbing experience making Hunted for Bethesda. This, I think, is a shame, because if the Fallout rights owner ever decided to greenlight a game in the series created in the old-school style, or perhaps gave the thumbs up to a remake of Fallout 1 or 2, I can't think of a better developer than inXile for the job. Fargo, after all, founded Interplay and co-created the series.

"It's kind of funny to be competing with my own franchise."

 

[Infinitron]

What is unlikely is that inXile will get involved in publisher-funded console development again, after what sounds like a disturbing experience making Hunted for Bethesda. This, I think, is a shame, because if the Fallout rights owner ever decided to greenlight a game in the series created in the old-school style, or perhaps gave the thumbs up to a remake of Fallout 1 or 2, I can't think of a better developer than inXile for the job. Fargo, after all, founded Interplay and co-created the series.

"It's kind of funny to be competing with my own franchise."

Well, it does say "Brian Fargo Presents" in the intro.

 

[Athelas]

It should have said 'Tim Cain presents'.

I can't say I'm a big fan of the continued false tooting of his own horn either. You'd think Fargo single-handedly created Fallout 1 and 2 and Planescape: Torment from reading these interviews (did he even do any design work on these games?).

 

[Daedalos]

Why isn't it Fargo's franchise he helped create?

He was the man resposible for fallout making it therough. Yeah he might not have made the CONTENT himself, but he was the motor behind the machinery making the development possible and getting the guys to do it.

I would say Fallout is very much fargo's.

 

[Duraframe300]

It should have said 'Tim Cain presents'.

I can't say I'm a big fan of the continued false tooting of his own horn. You'd think Fargo single-handedly created Fallout 1 and 2 and Planescape: Torment from reading these interviews (did he even do any design work on these games?).

That's what makes Fargo not too sympathetic for me. He's still very much a publisher/pr person, starting from milking the *publishersareevil* thing in the W2 kickstarter, hiring a lot of external people mainly for the name and designing by bulletpoints to appeal to our niche.

It's gotten better, I have a lot of hope for PS:T and W2 ended up better than I expected, but yeah.

That's the main reason I can't trust InXile just yet.

 

[Duraframe300]

Why isn't it Fargo's franchise he helped create?

He was the man resposible for fallout making it therough. Yeah he might not have made the CONTENT himself, but he was the motor behind the machinery making the development possible and getting the guys to do it.

I would say Fallout is very much fargo's.

So you're saying Fallout: New Vegas is Bethesda's?

 

[Daedalos]

It should have said 'Tim Cain presents'.

I can't say I'm a big fan of the continued false tooting of his own horn. You'd think Fargo single-handedly created Fallout 1 and 2 and Planescape: Torment from reading these interviews (did he even do any design work on these games?).

That's what makes Fargo not too sympathetic for me. He's still very much a publisher/pr person, starting from milking the *publishersareevil* thing in the W2 kickstarter, hiring a lot of external people mainly for the name and designing by bulletpoints to appeal to our niche.

It's gotten better, I have a lot of hope for PS:T and W2 ended up better than I expected, but yeah.

That's the main reason I can't trust InXile just yet.

He was the CEO of a 600+ employee company, responsible for overseeing classic games. Fargo never stated he did actual work on any of the games.. and so what? You can be a creative producer and project lead or CEO and still have stuff to contribute on games development. Without Fargo, it's not sure the fallout games what have been made at all.

He's NOT just a "publisher/PR" person ... that's incredible redundant I can't even begin to explain. jesus.

Just because the guys behind the project, didn't do the ACTUAL fucking work, doesn't mean their contribution was any less valuable to make the project a success.... do you know anything about project management etc at all? Leaders, project leads, production managers, creative writing management.. etc... you know controlling and putting the right troops together... any good leader knows that.. and from what I can tell.. Fargo is and was a pretty good leader. So yea, he doesn't do grunt work.. he makes strategic decisions at the top level.

 

[Duraframe300]

It should have said 'Tim Cain presents'.

I can't say I'm a big fan of the continued false tooting of his own horn. You'd think Fargo single-handedly created Fallout 1 and 2 and Planescape: Torment from reading these interviews (did he even do any design work on these games?).

That's what makes Fargo not too sympathetic for me. He's still very much a publisher/pr person, starting from milking the *publishersareevil* thing in the W2 kickstarter, hiring a lot of external people mainly for the name and designing by bulletpoints to appeal to our niche.

It's gotten better, I have a lot of hope for PS:T and W2 ended up better than I expected, but yeah.

That's the main reason I can't trust InXile just yet.

He was the CEO of a 600+ employee company, responsible for overseeing classic games. Fargo never stated he did actual work on any of the games.. and so what? You can be a creative producer and project lead or CEO and still have stuff to contribute on games development. Without Fargo, it's not sure the fallout games what have been made at all.

He's NOT just a "publisher/PR" person ... that's incredible redundant I can't even begin to explain. jesus.

Without a publisher most rpg classics wouldn't have been made at all.

GoshDarnit that Troika. Taking credit for Robert Kotick's hard work. Clearly he was just as involved on it as anyone who worked on Bloodlines.

 

[Daedalos]

Just like you got soldiers to do the killing on the battlefield, and you got commanders and leaders to make the war be won with strategic and tactical insight and adapment.. same example. Fargo ain't a soldier, the programmers and artists are.

 

[Athelas]

Another thing that made me heavily side-eye Fargo:

Look at that date: May 4 2012. He patented the Torment trademark less than a month after the Wasteland 2 kickstarter.

 

[Roguey]

Wasteland 2 will launch in 2014. "Oh absolutely. No question of that."

Damn well have to since Torment can't be in pre-prod forever.

InXile is at the time of publication 27 employees. 24 of those are working on Wasteland 2.

See what I mean?

EA, Microsoft and more turned the game down, for a variety of reasons. We already have an RPG was a common response. We already have BioWare was EA's.

That's delightful. Like http://nedroid.com/2008/10/beartato-38/

 

[Infinitron]

Without a publisher most rpg classics wouldn't have been made at all.

GoshDarnit that Troika. Taking credit for Robert Kotick's hard work. Clearly he was just as involved on it as anyone who worked on Bloodlines.

That's not really an accurate comparison, I think.

Wasn't Fallout rescued from the chopping block more than once due to Fargo overruling Interplay's middle management at Tim Cain's request?

I think I also read that he came up with concept of perks and (I think) also the very name "Fallout", but I don't have a source for that.

Not to mention this: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...l-discussion-thread.84849/page-8#post-3069931 (probably the reason Roguey isn't joining you in this argument)

 

[Brother None]

Look at that date: May 4 2012. He patented the Torment trademark less than a month after the Wasteland 2 kickstarter.

Yes...and? He filed for the Torment trademark the moment it became free. I'm not sure what you think the problem is here?

InXile is at the time of publication 27 employees. 24 of those are working on Wasteland 2.

See what I mean?

Just for clarity, I think that number refers to in studio. There are much more than 3 people working on Torment at this time, some as contractors, some splitting time over our projects, me included. As Brian said, there's animators, artists, writers and programmers working on Torment, there appears to be an incorrect outside perspective that the project is just spinning its wheels/all on paper waiting for WL2.

That's not really an accurate comparison, I think.

Wasn't Fallout rescued from the chopping block more than once due to Fargo overruling Interplay's middle management at Tim Cain's request?

I think I also read that he came up with concept of perks and (I think) also the very name "Fallout", but I don't have a source for that.

You may be thinking of this interview?

 

[SwiftCrack]

Another thing that made me heavily side-eye Fargo:

Look at that date: May 4 2012. He patented the Torment trademark less than a month after the Wasteland 2 kickstarter.

This is a good thing you bumblefuck, did you think that patent was up for grabs for ten years or something?

 

[SwiftCrack]

On topic: is there a definitive release date yet?

 

[sea]

On topic: is there a definitive release date yet?

When it's done.

As Brother None has confirmed before, there is also an internal Torment prototype build that's playable. Its production is definitely going forward.