Game News Wasteland 2 Project Update: Vision Document

[Grim Monk]

Original Wasteland Intro:

INTRODUCTION


The following is an excerpt from The History of the Desert Rangers,
The Early Years, by Karl Allard, 2087, Allard Press, Ranger Center
Hardbound pp. 293, $20 gold.

Tensions grew with the coming of 1998. The United States' Citadel
Starstation was slated to be fully operational by March, Soviet
charges that the space station was merely a military launching
platform alarmed a number of nonaligned nations. The right wing
governments in the South and Central Americas, many of them set up by
the U.S. during the Drug Wars (1987-1993), pledged their support to
the U.S. The NATO nations, including the new African members also
declared their alliance with the U.S. That move forced most of the
remaining neutral powers to join the Soviet protest. In six short
weeks, only Switzerland, Sweden, and Ireland continued to declare
themselves neutral nations.

Two weeks before Citadel was due for full operation, the station
transmitted a distress signal. Immediately after the message was
sent, most of the satellites orbiting the planet were swept clean from
the sky, leaving the great powers blind. In military panic, each sent
90 percent of their nuclear arsenals skyward. Although the
destruction was tremendous, it was not complete. Pockets of
civilization remained, some even oblivi- ous to the military exchange.

On the same day that the U.S. and Soviet Union were attempting to
extinguish each other, a company of U.S. Army Engineers were in the
southwestern deserts building transportation bridges over dry
riverbeds. They worked deep in the inhospitable desert valleys,
surrounded by a number of survivalist communities. Located directly
south of their position on that day was a newly-constructed federal
prison. In addition to housing the nation's criminals condemned to
death, the prison contained light industrial manufacturing
facilities.

Shortly after the nuclear attack began, the Engineers, seeking
shelter, took over the federal prison and expelled the prisoners into
the desolate desert to complete their sentences. As the weeks passed,
they invited the nearby survivalist communities to join them and to
help them build a new society. Because of each communities'
suspicions towards one another, times were difficult at first. But as
time nurtured trust, this settlement -- which came to be known as
Ranger Center -- grew to be one of the strongest outposts. Ranger
Center even proved powerful enough to repel the hands of rancorous
criminals who repeatedly attached in attempts to reclaim what was once
``rightfully theirs.''

The citizens of Ranger Center, after first believing that they were
the only ones who survived the nuclear malestrom, soon realized that
communities beyond the desert's grip had also survived, Because they
had such success in constructing a new community, they felt compelled
to help other survivors rebuild and live in peace.

Toward this end, the Desert Rangers, in the great tradition of the
Texas and Arizona Rangers a century before, were born.

Nope, nothing about meteors destroying satellites.
Who/what did was left unexplained.

There was a bunch of fan speculation that Base Cochise AI was responsible, but it was never confirmed.

This recon seems rather lame, the element of mystery/not knowing is a powerful narrative hook.

To flat out tell us in the intro that it was all an accident, seems like a cop-out move.
If you could not think of a way to integrate it into the story, its best to just let it stay a mystery...

 

[Spectacle]

Overall, I’m at inXile about 1.5-2 days during the week, either in design meetings, checking out Unity, or typing away on my headphones, and I love it.

 

[General Maxson]

Original Wasteland Intro:

INTRODUCTION


The following is an excerpt from The History of the Desert Rangers,
The Early Years, by Karl Allard, 2087, Allard Press, Ranger Center
Hardbound pp. 293, $20 gold.

Tensions grew with the coming of 1998. The United States' Citadel
Starstation was slated to be fully operational by March, Soviet
charges that the space station was merely a military launching
platform alarmed a number of nonaligned nations. The right wing
governments in the South and Central Americas, many of them set up by
the U.S. during the Drug Wars (1987-1993), pledged their support to
the U.S. The NATO nations, including the new African members also
declared their alliance with the U.S. That move forced most of the
remaining neutral powers to join the Soviet protest. In six short
weeks, only Switzerland, Sweden, and Ireland continued to declare
themselves neutral nations.

Two weeks before Citadel was due for full operation, the station
transmitted a distress signal. Immediately after the message was
sent, most of the satellites orbiting the planet were swept clean from
the sky, leaving the great powers blind. In military panic, each sent
90 percent of their nuclear arsenals skyward. Although the
destruction was tremendous, it was not complete. Pockets of
civilization remained, some even oblivi- ous to the military exchange.

On the same day that the U.S. and Soviet Union were attempting to
extinguish each other, a company of U.S. Army Engineers were in the
southwestern deserts building transportation bridges over dry
riverbeds. They worked deep in the inhospitable desert valleys,
surrounded by a number of survivalist communities. Located directly
south of their position on that day was a newly-constructed federal
prison. In addition to housing the nation's criminals condemned to
death, the prison contained light industrial manufacturing
facilities.

Shortly after the nuclear attack began, the Engineers, seeking
shelter, took over the federal prison and expelled the prisoners into
the desolate desert to complete their sentences. As the weeks passed,
they invited the nearby survivalist communities to join them and to
help them build a new society. Because of each communities'
suspicions towards one another, times were difficult at first. But as
time nurtured trust, this settlement -- which came to be known as
Ranger Center -- grew to be one of the strongest outposts. Ranger
Center even proved powerful enough to repel the hands of rancorous
criminals who repeatedly attached in attempts to reclaim what was once
``rightfully theirs.''

The citizens of Ranger Center, after first believing that they were
the only ones who survived the nuclear malestrom, soon realized that
communities beyond the desert's grip had also survived, Because they
had such success in constructing a new community, they felt compelled
to help other survivors rebuild and live in peace.

Toward this end, the Desert Rangers, in the great tradition of the
Texas and Arizona Rangers a century before, were born.

Nope, nothing about meteors destroying satellites.
Who/what did was left unexplained.

There was a bunch of fan speculation that Base Cochise AI was responsible, but it was never confirmed.

This recon seems rather lame, the element of mystery/not knowing is a powerful narrative hook.

To flat out tell us in the intro that it was all an accident, seems like a cop-out move.
If you could not think of a way to integrate it into the story, its best to just let it stay a mystery...

Hm I could swear it did mention meteors and satellites... Guess I mixed it up...

 

[UnknownBro]

I think that the meteor shower explanation is pretty cool.
Hey maybe in W3 we can see why there was a meteor shower in the first place... oh the possibilities!

 

[General Maxson]

Aliens! Obviously.

That's a serious answer. There was originally going to be martians in Wasteland 1.

Yeah, that "easter egg" about red planet Mars or something like that...

 

[FeelTheRads]

There was a martian invasion in the paragraph book, but that was fake in case you read the paragraphs without the game asking you for it.
I don't know anything about it being planned for the game.

 

[OSK]

Clowns aren't funny. They're scary as fuck.

 

[General Maxson]

There was a martian invasion in the paragraph book, but that was fake in case you read the paragraphs without the game asking you for it.
I don't know anything about it being planned for the game.

I think I read somewhere they thought about implementing the idea (whether in a sequel or somewhere else I don't know), after seeing players react positively on it.

 

[Grotesque]

the meteor shower explanation does not make sense, its illogical.

a meteor shower of that magnitude would be visible in the atmosphere and the motive of satellite failure would be obvious
a better explanation would be a super solar flare, but than again, a such phenomenon would be detected days before the solar flare hits the Earth

 

[hiver]

And brian fargo posted a...tweet, i think... asking how would that feel.
But there wasnt much answers to it... although i tried to get it going. Because i would like it.

 

[Country_Gravy]

the meteor shower explanation does not make sense, its illogical.

a meteor shower of that magnitude would be visible in the atmosphere and the motive of satellite failure would be obvious
a better explanation would be a super solar flare, but than again, a such phenomenon would be detected days before the solar flare hits the Earth

With every other aspect of Wasteland being so logical and believable, this comes as a major disappointment.

 

[Stabwound]

I keep getting more and more hyped up for this. I'm only worried that this can only lead to disappointment in the end but I hope they can follow through with how awesome this sounds in the vision document.

 

[General Maxson]

I keep getting more and more hyped up for this. I'm only worried that this can only lead to disappointment in the end but I hope they can follow through with how awesome this sounds in the vision document.

Yeah man. And it's still a long way to go. Few years probably. But I'm sure it'll be worth it, because I practically only replay old games and have nothing to look forward to, except few kickstarter projects.

We should be able to get first screenshots soon, and I hope I won't be disappointed - note that I'm not a graphicswhore, but what I mean is that the style doesn't sit well with me. I want more on the realistic side, and don't like overly stylized or worse cartoony...

Hope I won't be dissapointed.

 

[mindx2]

or worse cartoony...

Oh man, please not that!! I'm also hoping for a more realistic look and would make a fairly safe bet that it will just based on the two concept art pieces of the rangers and the Scorpitron.

 

[General Maxson]

or worse cartoony...

Oh man, please not that!! I'm also hoping for a more realistic look and would make a fairly safe bet that it will just based on the two concept art pieces of the rangers and the Scorpitron.

Yeah, isn't it weird and sad, that today, isometric games with "realistic" graphics are almost nonexistent? Like it's a plague or something, everybody must make it "stylized" and by that, most make it cartoony... Guess because the target audience now are 12 year olds. Fuck, I was a 12 year old, even younger, and I always preferred more realistic graphical approach. Guess the kids are dumbing down too.

 

[PorkaMorka]

or worse cartoony...

Oh man, please not that!! I'm also hoping for a more realistic look and would make a fairly safe bet that it will just based on the two concept art pieces of the rangers and the Scorpitron.

Yeah, isn't it weird and sad, that today, isometric games with "realistic" graphics are almost nonexistent? Like it's a plague or something, everybody must make it "stylized" and by that, most make it cartoony... Guess because the target audience now are 12 year olds. Fuck, I was a 12 year old, even younger, and I always preferred more realistic graphical approach. Guess the kids are dumbing down too.

Weird and sad indeed. I don't understand it fully. I don't think it would be to appeal to kids. I remember when I was 12, I didn't want stupid cartoony looking graphics, I wanted everything to be "bad ass" and "cool" looking. I was older than 12 when Fallout 1 came out, but I'm sure that my 12 year old self would have loved the critical death animations.

My guess is that they realize that they can't really do the AAA level of realism/detail in a zoomed out isometric perspective. You can't include every eye lash and skin pore on a character that is only 2 inches high. But they probably feel like modern gamers would be turned off by less detailed graphics and that the reviewers would consider them unprofessional and knock off points.

So they reason that if they adopt a cartoony art style then can claim that the low detail of the graphics is intentional and people will be more forgiving. Personally, I'm perfectly happy with low detail isometrics, like in JA2, but I find that non-serious cartoony graphics are extremely harmful to the game's atmosphere/my immershun. Especially the low effort, completely non serious, intentionally incorrect proportions, caricature style of western cartoon art that is so popular in games now. Even anime is better than that.

 

[General Maxson]

or worse cartoony...

Oh man, please not that!! I'm also hoping for a more realistic look and would make a fairly safe bet that it will just based on the two concept art pieces of the rangers and the Scorpitron.

Yeah, isn't it weird and sad, that today, isometric games with "realistic" graphics are almost nonexistent? Like it's a plague or something, everybody must make it "stylized" and by that, most make it cartoony... Guess because the target audience now are 12 year olds. Fuck, I was a 12 year old, even younger, and I always preferred more realistic graphical approach. Guess the kids are dumbing down too.

Weird and sad indeed. I don't understand it fully. I don't think it would be to appeal to kids. I remember when I was 12, I didn't want stupid cartoony looking graphics, I wanted everything to be "bad ass" and "cool" looking. I was older than 12 when Fallout 1 came out, but I'm sure that my 12 year old self would have loved the critical death animations.

My guess is that they realize that they can't really do the AAA level of realism/detail in a zoomed out isometric perspective. You can't include every eye lash and skin pore on a character that is only 2 inches high. But they probably feel like modern gamers would be turned off by less detailed graphics and that the reviewers would consider them unprofessional and knock off points.

So they reason that if they adopt a cartoony art style then can claim that the low detail of the graphics is intentional and people will be more forgiving. Personally, I'm perfectly happy with low detail isometrics, like in JA2, but I find that non-serious cartoony graphics are extremely harmful to the game's atmosphere/my immershun. Especially the low effort, completely non serious, intentionally incorrect proportions, caricature style of western cartoon art that is so popular in games now. Even anime is better than that.

You should probably post this in W2 forums, in case they are considering "stylized" graphics. God I hope not... Now THIS is the style of graphics I would like to see:
http://www.stasisgame.com/screenshots/
http://www.stasisgame.com/screenshots/

adjusted for W2 needs...

 

[UnknownBro]

Nice realistic graphics in isometric perspective would be nice for a change but what I really crave for is a nice smooth UI, decent gameplay and the greatest turn based combat ever!!

And modding... lots and lots of modding friendliness.

 

[Grim Monk]

You should probably post this in W2 forums, in case they are considering "stylized" graphics. God I hope not... Now THIS is the style of graphics I would like to see:
http://www.stasisgame.com/screenshots/

adjusted for W2 needs...

Actually, that guy did some mock-ups of how he'd do Wasteland 2:
http://www.stasisgame.com/wasteland-ideas/

They were posted a while back.

 

[majestik12]

"Import your own character portraits" is a shitty poor man's replacement for actual ingame portrait customization. Their attept to pass it off as some kind of neat roleplaying feature is total bullshit.

 

[Alex_Steel]

"Import your own character portraits" is a shitty poor man's replacement for actual ingame portrait customization. Their attept to pass it off as some kind of neat roleplaying feature is total bullshit.

And you know there will be no in-game portraits because...?

 

[visions]

Eh, portraits, who gives a shit. Useful for telling party members apart but could be replaced with separate numbers for different party members for all I care.

 

[majestik12]

It's not about the portraits. There's nothing bad about letting people add content that you have no budget to produce, it is called "modders will fix it". Bullshitting people is wrong, though.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

it is called "modders will fix it".

I guess you hated dawn of war for letting people import their own custom badges and banners then

if the game was released and the portraits were taken from the avernum games you would have a strong point, but as it is you are doing as much interpretation here as you're accusing mr fargo of

 

[majestik12]

sgc_meltdown, the point is that one should not market useless non-features as valuable features. Whether the stock portraits will be good or whether there will be any at all is totally irrelevant to that point.