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

[Echo Mirage]

I 'm wondering. Is it possible to divide the party and save both Highpool and the AG center ?. I remember people asking this question a few months ago when more of the story was first revealed.

 

[bonescraper]

I hope not. It's a deliberate design choice.

 

[Excidium]

I hope not.

Faggot

 

[Zombra]

I 'm wondering. Is it possible to divide the party and save both Highpool and the AG center ?

Spoiler

There's a dialogue option for <Both> when your CO radios you to tell you to go save one. I didn't have a high enough skill (Smart Ass?) to use it. I'm pretty sure it won't let you save both, but it's there.

You can't split the party across multiple maps, sadly.

 

[bonescraper]

I hope not.

Faggot

Wat.

By the way, what the fuck is this?

Aimed shots were in, but they were removed? WTF?

EDIT:
Ah, he's talking about Fallout. Too bad it's bullshit.

 

[Excidium]

Yeah it was broken in Fallout so it would obviously be broken in Wasteland 2. I guess.

 

[skuphundaku]

By the way: did anybody had any problems loading saves? For me, after the fight at the mortar in Highpool, any save I make can't be loaded.

Yeah, this is apparently an issue for many. I had the same exact problem. At the same time, my custom character portraits became "whited out". Some people have drawn a link between custom portraits and the savegame problems ... were you using customs?

Nope, no customs.

 

[bonescraper]

JA2 also has aimed shots, just saying.

 

[Excidium]

Good games tend to have more than the basic systems implemented.

 

[Brother None]

Yeah, that whole area is a mess right now...

Is it too vague to have a huge building where it would be preferable if you go through the front door instead of one of the side-doors that is either locked or guarded? Also why wouldn't you think it may have negative consequences to mess around with a generator you have no idea what is for.

Guess we should've provided quest markers.

I think this is the difference between "reactivity", and what the Codex typically thinks of as "choice and consequence". Classic Codexian C&C = select dialogue choices in branching dialogues --> get consequences, with AoD as the supreme exemplar of this approach.

This is just a guess, but I suspect "reactivity" in Wasteland 2 expresses itself in more ways than that, ways that can be less obvious in a first playthrough; in the order that you do things, in the people that you choose to help or kill, things like that.

Bro, you really should play the game, there's nothing of that.

I'm not sure you've played the game enough times to know that. Have you tried, I dunno, helping the guys in Highpool in a different order? Certainly that couldn't change things, because the game has nothing of that. Nothing I tellsya!

I think some of y'all are overstating things badly. Yes, C&C needs to be better and yes, these starting areas and story sequence is very linear compared to the rest of the game (believe that or not, but for those that don't, I assume you're the same people who refused to believe me when I said not every map was similarly corridor-like as the Prison, lemme know how that held up), but to claim there's no C&C (or rather, no C&C except for the big starting choice and the Rail Nomad faction choice, aka "if we ignore these big instances of C&C, there's no C&C!") is just unfairly giving people here who don't have it the wrong impression.

Let's bring up an example, saving the drowning kid. Yes, I know the set-up of that mission is kind of funny and I too laugh heartily at the comic Roguey posted, but what about the mission structure?

Spoiler

1. Follow Jessie or not. If you leave the area instead of following here, Ralphy drowns, Jessie goes back to Atchinson camp, but the Rangers are never seen near Ralphy and Jessie is not part of the Topekan camp so no one blames you

2. When you've reached Ralphy, you can save him using brute force or a shovel around the totem. The wrong totem knocks him out and kills him.

3. The witness that spots you saving him or letting him die/killing him, you can shoot him before he runs back and the negative reaction of the town is not triggered.

4. If you do save Ralphy, Jessie and Ralphy run to the playground and discuss leaving the camp. If you go up there with high enough perception you can spot the bomb rigged to the bike, if Angela is with you she'll spot it and remark on it. You can defuse it before either kid gets close to it. If you don't, Jessie runs up to it and dies. If you do, she goes back to Atchinson camp.

5. If you let Ralphy die and let the witness live, his mother will attack you. If you let Ralphy die and killed the witness, she won't know what happened. If you saved Ralphy, she'll be grateful and he can become a follower.

6. If you go up to Atchinson, you can spot a coffee can bomb in the leader's hut similar to the one on the bike. If the bomb killed Jessie you can confront him about it. If you saved Jessie from the bomb, similar, but with a different reaction. If you let Ralphy drown so that sequence never happened, it doesn't come up here.

I'm not even sure I covered all the nodes and possibilities there. And this is just some random small mission to open a map. But yeah, it points to what Infy is saying; there is C&C in the sense of making choices and having consequences, but there's also a lot of reactivity; depending on the skills you have, the companions you have and the order in which you do things, this simple quests has very, very different ways of playing out. Looking at all the nodes, it looks like there's about 6 different ways it plays out depending your skills and choices, and that's not counting how it impacts the later quest.

 

[bonescraper]

And i don't remember it being overpowerd in JA. Everyone dismissed that idea on the Wasteland 2 forum though. Jesus.

 

[Roguey]

I 'm wondering. Is it possible to divide the party and save both Highpool and the AG center ?

Spoiler

There's a dialogue option for <Both> when your CO radios you to tell you to go save one. I didn't have a high enough skill (Smart Ass?) to use it. I'm pretty sure it won't let you save both, but it's there.

You can't split the party across multiple maps, sadly.

Uh huh, another one of Lyin' Fargo's "Designs change during development" issues.

 

[Elthosian]

Aimed shots ala JA2 would be nice but at this point in development I dunno if it can be implemented as well as they should, though at least they should put in a few special shooting skills like the kneecap shot in Underrail.

 

[Excidium]

Then again aimed shots without locational armor is like only half the implementation.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Thank You Brother None for bringing so detailed and vital feedback. I d brofist You if I could. In fact, when I have that possibility I will return to this post and brofist it!

 

[Excidium]

Thank You Brother None for bringing so detailed and vital feedback. I d brofist You if I could. In fact, when I have that possibility I will return to this post and brofist it!

You know BN is an InXile PR agent, right.

 

[bonescraper]

Yes, if they can't add aimed shots, they should add special skills. Right now the combat system is just like XCOM but without combat skills and grenades. It's really bare bones.

Then again aimed shots without locational armor is like only half the implementation.

Well, there are slots for head, torso and legs. But the only armor i found (a kevlar vest?) goes into :armor: slot. Don't tell me those other slots are just for clothes...

 

[Infinitron]

grenades

I thought there were grenades.

 

[Excidium]

There's RPGs but I didn't see anyone using grenades.

 

[set]

Don't let your rangers ger separated. If battle is initiated while they are, an invisible blue barrier is erected so that your other rangers cannot enter the battle and the game pretty much 'soft locks' if your separated ranger goes unconscious.

 

[Excidium]

Don't let your rangers ger separated. If battle is initiated while they are, an invisible blue barrier is erected so that your other rangers cannot enter the battle and the game pretty much 'soft locks' if your separated ranger goes unconscious.

Ahaha what

 

[sea]

You know BN is an InXile PR agent, right.

Yes, clearly he's lying about the number of quest nodes and options available in that sequence. Can't trust that worthless mouthpiece farther than you can throw 'im.

I think a big problem with perceived lack of C&C in Wasteland 2 comes from the fact that people pick one path or the most obvious path, play through just once, or on repeat plays do it the same way, or reload when they feel they've "failed" and then assume that there are no other options and the game doesn't diverge or branch at all simply because they never experienced it yet. Do the obvious thing, and get the same outcome every time? Well, duh, of course there's nothing else there!

The difference with Wasteland 2's C&C is that most of it is not obviously telegraphed. You don't get a big dialogue choice between A, B and C. You don't get a character telling you "well, good, but I wonder what would have happened if things were different!" You might get some extra dialogue or quest options but the game doesn't always make it super-obvious that was because of something else that could have happened differently. It responds largely to your actions through skill use and gameplay choices, and that can be less obvious if all you're doing is running through the game mashing all the dialogue buttons and shooting people when combat starts.

I do think more work needs to be done this way (I said it myself) but that comes down mostly to follow-up quests and interactions between different locations. There is actually a good degree of C&C but right (and I actually think that in terms of options available and reactivity, the individual quests are excellent), but right now that C&C is still too self-contained to individual quests and locations. But do you really think all that world-spanning stuff is going to be obviously visible early in the game, and during a beta which is not feature complete or when all the world map locations likely aren't even 100% finalized yet?

So... except for Sea angling for another line producer spot...

God dammit, you figured out my plan didn't you?

 

[Excidium]

I'm not saying he's lying just that it's not the most honest feedback around.

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

You know BN is an InXile PR agent, right.

Yes, of course. That's who he's ALWAYS been. Don't trust him!

BN - Joined: Jul 11, 2004
Excidium -Joined: Aug 13, 2009

 

[Zombra]

You can't split the party across multiple maps, sadly.

Uh huh, another one of Lyin' Fargo's "Designs change during development" issues.

Not really. As far back as May 2012, the devs said that party splitting across levels was probably not going to work. They never said that it would that I know of, and I've been paying attention.