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Game News Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Update #52: Progress Report - Good News & Bad News

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Tags: Chris Keenan; InXile Entertainment; Wasteland 2

The Wasteland 2 Early Access version may not be receiving any more updates, but inXile's internal build continues to receive significant improvements. The game's latest Kickstarter update by Project Lead Chris Keenan is a hefty progress report detailing them. I quote:

Quite a few things have been improved since the last beta build went out. We've done a huge pass overhauling the game's balance and loot drops. You’ll encounter a greater variance in loot drops now along with many new weapons being added, but we also made loot tables more set and less random. To aid that, we've added foot lockers in the Ranger Citadel in Arizona and Santa Fe Springs (Ranger HQ) in Los Angeles so you can store some of that precious loot.

Along with specific dropsets you'll now actually get items from repairing toasters. Many of these items are unique and can potentially be turned in to different NPCs throughout the world for even greater rewards. Additionally we're upgrading the usage of containers, with safes now having better loot than normal crates, while normal crates are now split into specific types: ammo, weapon, medic, general crates, or smaller junk crates. Many of these will be visually distinct which means that if you're scouting it out and see the crate behind some enemies or traps you can figure out if it's worth it for you to get to it.

Combat is also going through multiple balance passes, for example fixing the currently broken way jamming works. It will be much less frequent in the final game for general weapons. Some weapons will still have high jam rates, but these weapons tend to have a nice little bonus to offset the frustration of the jam (increased damage, reduced scrap cost…). Improving your training in weapon skills or creating some weapon mods can also reduce the jam rate so there are ways to get around high jam rates. Have we mentioned that we enjoy the idea of the trade-off?

We've also put in backer shrines, statues, locations, weapons, artifacts and NPCs. The statues are custom modelled and can appear on any gameplay map, while the shrines are in hard-to-reach world map areas and huge rewards (an attribute point per ranger) when discovered. Exploration is paid-off for those willing to veer off the main path.

Oh yeah, the citizens in the Wasteland have been busy putting up quite a few traps for your journey. Perception and Demolitions will definitely come in handy so train up! Opening a safe without getting hurt can sometimes require Perception to see the trap, Demolitions to disarm it and Safe Crack to open it. Alarm Disarm has similarly been getting more usage.



Energy weapons are back in as we finalize our particle and sound effect passes. Weaponsmithing has seen improvements, with new mods available. Silent Move has been out of the beta for a while, and it is in fact permanently cut. It became too easy to break game triggers, which would in turn-break the game. The plan we put together to find and fix all issues was already colossal with a game of this size and scope.

Traits/perks as well as aimed shots are two more features we have been strongly considering, but won't be in the final game. We love both systems and agree with the feedback that it would add a lot, however we also believe that badly balanced or overly simple versions would not be in the best interest of the game. Take aimed shots: to do it right means it would have a real tactical impact, AI reactions to its usage, and a carefully balanced pro-cons system, rather than just "decrease to-hit chance to increase critical chance".

A cool tweak has been made to Computer Science. This skill allows for the hacking of robots, turning them to your side. The difficulty of this depends not just on the robot's level but also on its remaining CON. The lower the remaining CON, the easier it is to hack. This creates an interesting trade-off where you can decide to bring down a robot's health to hack him but this leaves you with a less useful ally. It’s incredibly fun to beat a skill check and watch from the sidelines as your slicer dicer obliterates the remaining robots.

We've been upgrading UI art for things like the examine window, while also adding elements that improve the experience: for example the vendor side of the barter screen will now look like the player's side and allow for sorting. Additionally we added a Distribute button on looting, this button automatically gives weapons to the character with the highest skill for that weapon, ammo to characters with weapons of that type equipped, healing items to medics, and spreads junk over whoever has the most inventory space left. You can still loot all or manually move certain items to specific characters.

Optimization has been forging ahead by leaps and bounds: the install size on the disc has already been cut by at least 20%, we've done a texture pass that both improves the look and tones down unnecessarily large textures. And we’re significantly cutting into the game's memory usage. Good things across the board!
They're not all good, Chris! The full update has more information about the game's production status. Apparently, its final budget has turned out to be double the amount of money raised in the Kickstarter. Also, the game is officially "going gold" later this month, although work on it will continue afterwards to provide the now-standard Day One Patch. "Significant post-release support" is also planned, although there are no concrete plans for an expansion pack yet.
 
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We've been upgrading UI art for things like the examine window, while also adding elements that improve the experience: for example the vendor side of the barter screen will now look like the player's side and allow for sorting. Additionally we added a Distribute button on looting, this button automatically gives weapons to the character with the highest skill for that weapon, ammo to characters with weapons of that type equipped, healing items to medics, and spreads junk over whoever has the most inventory space left. You can still loot all or manually move certain items to specific characters.
:thumbsup:

They're not all good, Chris! The full update has more information about the game's production status. Apparently, its final budget has turned out to be double the amount of money raised in the Kickstarter.
Jesus, are they wiping with dollar bills? Good thing they made a shit ton of money on early access from the suckers who paid extra for the privilege of beta testing
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I can totally see Torment's budget also spiraling out of control.

Seems to me that they're totally in control. Out of control is when you have to make your game episodic and sell the Early Access as a released game.
 

a cut of domestic sheep prime

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Traits/perks as well as aimed shots [...] won't be in the final game.
Both are kind of big deals for me, but the lack of aimed shots is especially disappointing in a turn-based shooter, let alone a FO-ish game.
 

lurker3000

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I'm not overly worried about aimed shots but trait/Perks not being there does suck the big sweaty one.
 
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I hope putting points in EWs actually visually increases the listed weapon qualities this time.
They should work on explosives next, skills like heavy weapons and demolitions expert don't seem to have any effect on them.
 

crawlkill

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I'm pretty sure every single shot I've ever taken in a Fallout game past a certain weaponskill point has been aimed for the eyes, so I'm not sure they really ever had much meaning for me. It was funny to plasma someone's groin, but meh.

Shame about perks, but again. Always seemed like there were a couple stellar ones and a bunch of charming but ultimately pointless ones. Wait for the expansion pack, I guess.
 
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Excidium

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I'm pretty sure every single shot I've ever taken in a Fallout game past a certain weaponskill point has been aimed for the eyes, so I'm not sure they really ever had much meaning for me. It was funny to plasma someone's groin, but meh.
Obviously any implementation would be broken like Fallout

Everytime someone mentions it on this topic I feel like strangling someone
 

Arkadin

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I guess I can understand not taking the time to do the aimed shots, as nice as they would be properly implemented...but fuck, perks and quirks? Who cares if they're thrown together in a day and end up being unbalanced, they're fun and add a lot of replay value and color to character creation.
 
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Excidium

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I guess I can understand not taking the time to do the aimed shots, as nice as they would be properly implemented...but fuck, perks and quirks? Who cares if they're thrown together in a day and end up being unbalanced, they're fun and add a lot of replay value and color to character creation.
The problem isn't being unbalanced as much as being buggy as fuck, this game is coming out in two months
 

sea

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I hope putting points in EWs actually visually increases the listed weapon qualities this time.
They should work on explosives next, skills like heavy weapons and demolitions expert don't seem to have any effect on them.
Demolitions isn't a weapons skill; grenades etc. are managed by Heavy Weapons. Demolitions is for disarming traps and mines. Heavy Weapons and Energy Weapons skill use definitely makes an impact (Chris actually did a big balance pass recently and Energy Weapons, after being removed in the beta, are now in full working order). Overall skill use is very well balanced in the internal build I've been playing (those extra alarms, land mines, etc. make a big difference) and everything has a valid and valuable use.
 
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sea OH SORRY, I thought that the thrown and placed explosives referenced in the skill descriptions were referring to grenades, etc. Silly me.

So what kind of impact are we talking here? AOE radius? Range? Damage? In my current game Explosives always go exactly where you throw them and have serious range, heavy weapons only seems to affect LMGs and the like.
Sounds good though, can't wait to play the full build.
 

Ramireza

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the portraits are just not on.

they have no real artists onboard at all.

u do not make a massive high resolution portrait that a) takes up a huge amount of screen real-estate for no real reason at all when it's brought up and more importantly b) looks like shit when it's shrunk down into a little icon-sized box in the UI, which was to any sane developer the entire purpose of the thing in the first place.

every single game from baldurs gate to might and magic has done this correctly DECADES AGO and this talentless mob still hasn't figured it out after n months of development and criticism.

the lack of any artist talent is unreal and blame must be levied not only at the developer but the loud minority that frequent these boards and their non-stop ramblings of "who cares about graphics." fargo takes seriously this group and believes he can get away with this ugly looking game. it's really painful to look at. i'm sorry, but the graphics are putrid, it's not just the portraits but every visual aspect of the game as well. it ought to win some award for the ugliest game released.

i wont play this thing until all the portraits are redone properly for the purposes of easily identifying each ranger at a glance and in a visually pleasing manner taking into account the resolution and size constraints of the UI icon representing the ranger. i can crank out 50 decent looking portraits that fall into the aforementioned requirements in a fortnight. whats mind-bogglingly-stunning is that the developer hasn't even considered these elementary UI and art requirements.




mm9-6.png





wizardry8_790screen008.jpg


wizardry 8 does it the best


You are 100% right. W2 is one of the ugliest games i ever saw. Artistically it is a total mess. I mean look at Divinity : They didnt have a big Budget too and dilivered a gorgeous looking low cost 3D Game.

Money or Time cant be the isssue. Lets face it : Its a lack of talent, sadly.
 

Morkar Left

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I'm pretty sure every single shot I've ever taken in a Fallout game past a certain weaponskill point has been aimed for the eyes, so I'm not sure they really ever had much meaning for me. It was funny to plasma someone's groin, but meh.
Obviously any implementation would be broken like Fallout

Not really. It depends on what you want to use aimed shots. Some enemies could require aimed shots at weak spots to even do some damage (and maybe you have to learn the weak spots of that enemy through some lore skill / tech skill). It even doesn't need specific bodyparts to aim from a gaming point of view. A generic "aim at weak spot" would be enough. And aiming could just improve the chance to hit when not aiming at weak spots with the tradeoff of not being able to fire every turn.
 

MrBuzzKill

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I can't cross my fingers any harder on this. On the one hand... but on the other...
I just hope the game will be FUN. Because the original Wasteland was fun.
it doesn't help that I refrain from playing the game until it's 100% finished
 

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Oh, how sweet, the BG:EE fan and the DX:IW fan have found each other.
 

Cowboy Moment

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