Game News Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #37: On Wasteland Survival and Wasteland

[keppj0nes]

I came

 

[Darth Roxor]

Hello!

Whoa, blast from the past

 

[Crooked Bee]

The upscaled image looks like crap. It looks like they simply applied the hq2x/hq3x filter (the worst kind of filter for pixel art) and were done with it -- same thing you can easily do with DosBox. The in-game graphics and font look like the same filter too. Ugh, bleh.

Judging from the update, all bugs are also there to stay in the re-release.

Whatever though, as long as it allows more people to play W1.

 

[Infinitron]

The upscaled image looks like crap. It looks like they simply applied the hq2x/hq3x filter (the worst kind of filter for pixel art) and were done with it -- same thing you can easily do with DosBox. The in-game graphics and font look like the same filter too. Ugh, bleh.

Judging from the update, all bugs are also there to stay in the re-release.

Whatever though, as long as it allows more people to play W1.

What bugs? Make a list, perhaps they can be fixed.

 

[Crooked Bee]

The upscaled image looks like crap. It looks like they simply applied the hq2x/hq3x filter (the worst kind of filter for pixel art) and were done with it -- same thing you can easily do with DosBox. The in-game graphics and font look like the same filter too. Ugh, bleh.

Judging from the update, all bugs are also there to stay in the re-release.

Whatever though, as long as it allows more people to play W1.

What bugs? Make a list, perhaps they can be fixed.

They're well documented; lots of examples can be found in this guide for example: http://user.tninet.se/~jyg699a/wasteland.html (just Ctrl+F "bug")

EDIT: Also some examples in this thread: http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=90

 

[Kem0sabe]

That upscaled soldier image looks like they just put the original art through vector magic and called it a day, horrible piece of art that should have never seen the light of day on the interweb. Otherwise, i enjoyed the update details about WL2.

 

[Zed]

The original portraits are tr00 art. Anyone wishing to play with new ones are harbingers of the decline, regardless of how they look.

 

[Oesophagus]

Mount and Blade style world map is incline, and I guess the radiation clouds will be thereto make sure you can't just directly go to endgame. Sort of like invisible walls in other games

 

[Surf Solar]

3d worldmap looks hilariously bad. 2d worldmap all the way.

 

[Roguey]

I guess when WL2 comes out, we'll see if the terrible stability of the worldmap from Conquistador was due to Unity or just shitty programming.

Looking great so far, and I love all the details about exploration, and resource management.

I'll be thrilled if this too ends up frying peoples' video cards.

 

[hiver]

I have to say... this all looks .. alright.
maybe some "getting use to" will be needed for this kind of map but, .. should be interesting.

There is a bit of a sense of conservative design of the skills that influence the traveling and exploration of same map, but its still decent enough.
Good move to keep it all dependent on several skills instead of one anyway.

- As always, who would want to avoid random encounters anyway? Those just bring you loot and XP.
(that effect may be only useful later on, when you dont want to bother with encounters that fall far below your level to be useful anymore)

MLMarkland
A question: will the frequency or the type of encounters be connected to what we do, C&C of the quests resolutions?
For example, if we clear out some bigger Raider location - is that going to change random encounters in that whole area?

also,

The regional map has been handed down from ranger to ranger over the previous century, each adding their own details to what was originally an old-fashioned roadmap from the 1990s.

if that is so then... why are we having a fog of war over it?


Additionally, are we going to be able to grind random encounters for Skill Points (or XP) indefinitely or is there some mechanic of diminishing returns as we level up?


--------

Great to hear there will be very deadly encounters - that specific areas will be very dangerous to get into - no level scaling.

 

[Brother None]

The 3D map runs just fine.

The 2D overland map itself actually looks good in my opinion, I would've liked to show the whole thing but we decided not to because of spoilers, hence the heavy fog of war. The entire thing looks pretty cool, though no doubt some things like icons can still be tweaked as needed.

 

[Grotesque]

- As always, who would want to avoid random encounters anyway? Those just bring you loot and XP.

If your team crawls their way to a nearby friendly settlement because men are injured, their stats are down because dehydration (or exposure to radiation) and they're low on ammo (we were promised ammo scarcity), you better try to avoid an encounter.
When this thing happens regularly, you know you have a genuine Wasteland experience and the game is tuned up properly.

 

[Seerix]

After reading the whole thing, I'm pretty excited. Wasteland 1 gets not only proper rerelease but also options to not use any of the new additions, which is fucking awesome and not something that can be said about some other rereleases that happened in the past. And of course, like always, more info about stuff in W2 and even more hype just from the dry information they've given. all the way.

 

[hiver]

That depends on how hard those hard encounters really are.

No way to avoid this small issue in such a design. Its not some big problem or a fault. Its just how those things work. Hopefully they will do it right, not just because of that angle but because of the possible influence on random encounter grinding.

My questions are interlinked. Which means answering just one as if it exists in vacuum doesnt do much good.

 

[valcik]

That Geiger-Muller counter looks perfect. Simply perfect!

 

[Jack Dandy]

The 3D map runs just fine.

That's good to know. Can't wait to play the game myself and see!

Also, I'll repeat my previous question- are there some optional dungeon-style maps in the game, which aren't really related to the story? Or were the mappers' efforts all on settlements and mission-related maps, and stuff like that?

 

[thesheeep]

The 3D map is okay. But I'd also prefer a 2D map. They are just more believable, as they are more abstract, thus leaving more to imagination. Maps simply are 2D. Always. Everything else is not a map, but a model. Like a globe with a certain height where mountains are.

3D overland maps always have that feel of "you're now playing a game with figurines", while 2D maps actually have that feel of "hey, I actually look at a map now". Just take a look at the SoZ map. I never once had the feeling that my party was roaming a vast landscape. And I fear that the same will be true here, though it at least looks better than SoZ map did.

 

[Severian Silk]

I have no complaints about anything mentioned in the update. The maps look OK. Adding the paragraph text to W1 is great.

 

[crawlkill]

whatevs. it's not too bad. personally, if I'm going to be playing something that looks like shit, though, I'd rather it looked like retro shit. I'm sure there's a handful of people who'll play it 'cause a bit of it Looks More Modern.

what Wasteland 1 most urgently needs is a UI upgrade overhaul =\

 

[LibertyRansom]

Wish everyone would stop giving InXile flak. Did anyone bother to read this:

We've spent a very limited amount of time on the WL1 portrait uprezzes and if possible we'd like to open up the ability to customize the WL1 portraits to the community themselves.

First, you can toggle the new portraits off. Second, they said they basically spent very little time updating the portraits but they'd like to see community involvement, so they might get better overtime. Overall, the effort they put into it reflects what is: a 25 year old game with little profit left to it. If the community wants to fix it up, go for it.

Imo, good work InXile.

 

[MLMarkland]

Looking great so far, and I love all the details about exploration, and resource management.

Awesome, thanks. Unity is a great engine. Like all engines, it’s better at some things and worse at others. I know I personally prefer Unity to Unreal at this point (though I like Crytek a lot too).

A question: will the frequency or the type of encounters be connected to what we do, C&C of the quests resolutions? For example, if we clear out some bigger Raider location - is that going to change random encounters in that whole area?

There is significant reactivity on the world map. This particular example has been discussed. We know it's something people would enjoy; we would enjoy it. It's going to come down to what we have time to both implement and balance.

if that is so then... why are we having a fog of war over it?

See Brother None comments about this in various places.

Additionally, are we going to be able to grind random encounters for Skill Points (or XP) indefinitely or is there some mechanic of diminishing returns as we level up?

Logically diminishing returns. If you're crushing Supaflies and Megamaggots, you're not going to learn a lot from the experience. You'll also be able to avoid these types of low-level encounters when you are sufficiently advanced. We've talked about a mechanic that allows you to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women. Implementing that mechanic is low priority because we've already got the Run button. That being said, we want to do it if there is time.

For people who enjoy the grind, there's some grind. For people who don't like it, it's avoidable. The diminishing returns keep it from becoming unbalanced.

 

[CyberWhale]

Adding something similar to Earthbound's encounter mechanics would be really great.
When initiated enemies can be crushed automatically at a certain point of progression but they have a rudimentary AI that tries to avoid that (they run and try to gang up on you).

 

[Wizfall]

I like better the old W1 portraits but it's already very nice Inxile graciously bother to update W1 to include the text.
The update is very good so i will only quote the only thing that i dislike :

"Random encounter zones will match the terrain type you are travelling through and each terrain type has several different encounter layouts. Encounters generally consist of between one to six enemies"
We will control a party of 4-7 characters and at the maximum we will fight 6 enemies in random encounter (so average 3,5).
Random encounters might be challenging and be resolved quickly but not tactical with so few enemies.
I hope "scripted" encounters have much more enemies, otherwise i fear it's going to be very boring.

 

[MLMarkland]

I like better the old W1 portraits but it's already very nice Inxile graciously bother to update W1 to include the text.
The update is very good so i will only quote the only thing that i dislike : "Random encounter zones will match the terrain type you are travelling through and each terrain type has several different encounter layouts. Encounters generally consist of between one to six enemies" We will control a party of 4-7 characters and at the maximum we will fight 6 enemies in random encounter (so average 3,5). Random encounters might be challenging and be resolved quickly but not tactical with so few enemies. I hope "scripted" encounters have much more enemies, otherwise i fear it's going to be very boring.

The random encounters on the world map comprise a small percentage of combat encounters in the game. There are scripted encounters both in small locations throughout the world map as well as minor and major scripted encounters inside areas such as Ag Center, Highpool, etc.

Adding something similar to Earthbound's encounter mechanics would be really great. When initiated enemies can be crushed automatically at a certain point of progression but they have a rudimentary AI that tries to avoid that (they run and try to gang up on you).

Definitely would be cool. It's all about development schedule and time management with these sorts of things.