Development Info Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #20: Attributes and Skills

[Irxy]

Toaster Repair...
I kinda remember a Horse Riding skill in Realms of Arkania 3, a game which had a total of zero horses in it. I still put points into it for rp purposes. )

 

[Grunker]

Predicting that Demolitions, Outdoorsman and Animal Whisperer (especially this last one) will be nearly completely useless except for the solution of a few non-essential quests.

But you'll be able to use Toaster Repair all the time with major gameplay consequences.

I was arguing from the angle that Toaster Repair might be their snazzy wording for the skill that deals with mechanics stuff.

 

[skuphundaku]

I was arguing from the angle that Toaster Repair might be their snazzy wording for the skill that deals with mechanics stuff.

Then why don't you argue from the angle that Animal Whisperer might be their snazzy wording for the skill that deals with everything related to animals? Being able to deal with animals in an effective manner seems to me at least as important as being a good mechanic, if not even more, in a post-apocalyptic setting. The same goes for Outdoorsman.

 

[Emily]

In these cases you usually end up using just weapon skills and fluf skills for roleplay more then anything else i fear.

 

[Surf Solar]

What is a "backer skill" ?

lol @ "Animal Whisperer"

 

[golgepapaz]

I think it is the skill reserved for kickstarter backers. Maybe a placeholder as such one can be devised.

 

[Infinitron]

"A quirky skill that won't affect game balance."

 

[Roguey]

Eleven combat skills is fail. A lot of those are going to be superfluous. Assuming it means what I think it does, why should I put points in doctor if I have sufficient field medic?

Predicting that Demolitions, Outdoorsman and Animal Whisperer (especially this last one) will be nearly completely useless except for the solution of a few non-essential quests.

Demolitions in Wasteland determined how well you could throw grenades. Useful if that's what you want to do, right? You could also add coin crafting to that as well.

 

[Grunker]

I was arguing from the angle that Toaster Repair might be their snazzy wording for the skill that deals with mechanics stuff.

Then why don't you argue from the angle that Animal Whisperer might be their snazzy wording for the skill that deals with everything related to animals? Being able to deal with animals in an effective manner seems to me at least as important as being a good mechanic, if not even more, in a post-apocalyptic setting. The same goes for Outdoorsman.

Chill bro. I'm just pulling shit out of my ass here. We all are. Why the passive-aggressiveness?

 

[TwinkieGorilla]

In these cases you usually end up using just weapon skills and fluf skills for roleplay more then anything else i fear.

Which doesn't really bother me when constructing a four person party.

Eleven combat skills is fail. A lot of those are going to be superfluous. Assuming it means what I think it does, why should I put points in doctor if I have sufficient field medic?

Because it's probably similar to FO where Field Medic is like First Aid but Doctor is needed in order to repair broken limbs, etc. Just a guess.

 

[General Maxson]

And wasteland has more elaborate conditions requiring doctor. At least the original had something like that, and if they do it right it could be goood.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Shitty shit! Too many weapon skills! Even more than in W1 - WTF? And some cool skills 've disappeared... e.g. swim, climb, electronics, gamble.

 

[Excidium]

Attributes are all passive, meaning that they won't be actively used in the world to solve issues.

This is kinda limiting and doesn't make much sense to me.

Also having separated rifle and sniper rifle skills seems stupid. Same for blunt and bladed weapons.

 

[General Maxson]

Shitty shit! Too many weapon skills! Even more than in W1 - WTF? And some cool skills 've disappeared... e.g. swim, climb, electronics, gamble.

Yeah, I guess I understand why swim and climb disappeared. They won't put swimming and climbing in the game. Joking aside, they probably won't as perhaps it would have been too much of a bother to make all the animations and shit required for an 3D iso game with rotatable camera for climbing and swimming. It was easy in W1 as it was a top down "symbolic" perspective with text descriptions. But then again, hasn't Fargo mentioned as a C&C example salvation of boy from drowning?

True, I don't see the need for so many weapon skills. And maybe some other like you said are missing.

 

[Micmu]

Looking forward playing a brute force toaster repairman!

 

[Excidium]

Shitty shit! Too many weapon skills! Even more than in W1 - WTF? And some cool skills 've disappeared... e.g. swim, climb, electronics, gamble.

Yeah, I guess I understand why swim and climb disappeared. They won't put swimming and climbing in the game. Joking aside, they probably won't as perhaps it would have been too much of a bother to make all the animations and shit required for an 3D iso game with rotatable camera for climbing and swimming. It was easy in W1 as it was a top down "symbolic" perspective with text descriptions. But then again, hasn't Fargo mentioned as a C&C example salvation of boy from drowning?

True, I don't see the need for so many weapon skills. And maybe some other like you said are missing.

Maybe they simply use Strength for swim/climb checks - oh wait.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Which doesn't really bother me when constructing a four person party.

Pretty much. Derpers think in terms on single character RPGs again.
A large variety of skills will hopefully mean that you can't master them all with every character and you won't end up with a part of clones which is likely to happen in an overbalanced "I WANT EVERY CHARACTER TO HAVE EXACTLY THE SAME USEFULNESS" Sawyer-like system.

 

[Excidium]

Enforcing variety by having a bunch of superfluous skills is some great design.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I was actually referring strictly to the fighting skills, which I don't see how they could be superfluous.

 

[Emily]

It is obvious every character will have one weapon skill and 2-3 utility skills. Usually ending up with couple skills(most useless ones) not covered.

 

[villain of the story]

I will call this game utter shit if you can't find at least 10 distinct and relatively important uses for any given skill or if the skills don't have any potential for general utilisation in the system without over-reliance on one-trick-pony scripted sequences.

 

[MicoSelva]

Rather than seeing the skill list bloated, I would prefer they employed a skill-specialization system (examples: Melee skill with specializations in Blunt Weapons or Sharp Weapons, Rifle skill with specializations in Assault Rifle or Sniper Rifle, Medicine with Field Medic and Doctor ). On each level up, You could improve the main skill (each skill point would increase Your proficiency in both sub-skills a little) or the particular specialization (greater improvement per SP, but with diminishing returns if the level is increased proportionally too much over the main skill).

Still hoping for a good character system, though.

 

[l3loodAngel]

Predicting that Demolitions, Outdoorsman and Animal Whisperer (especially this last one) will be nearly completely useless except for the solution of a few non-essential quests.

You forgot coin crafting, brute force, blunt weapons, bladed weapons, bartering and silent move.

 

[Kahlis]

Toaster Repair...
I kinda remember a Horse Riding skill in Realms of Arkania 3, a game which had a total of zero horses in it. I still put points into it for rp purposes. )

How do any of the travel/survival skills work in RoA3? Do you just randomly encounter herbs when walking around outside? (Only have played BoD + Star Trail)

Too early to say with toaster repair, but since it's such a meme now apparently maybe Fargo will completely overexploit the skill and have WL2's plot be about an uprising of evil toaster and other appliance-themed robots.

 

[ColCol]

I thought toaster repair was just a joke name for a standard repair/mechanic skill. That, or it deals with fixing plasma or laser weapons.