Wasteland Wasteland 2 Thread - Director's Cut

[undecaf]

What else's under work other than combat, graphics and perks?

 

[GloomFrost]

BTW inXile said that they are not 100% sure if backers would automatically get a GOTY edition for free. Just saying.

Regarding the GOTY Edition and whether backers will be able to claim a copy of it, honestly, we just haven't decided yet. We'll have more news in the future should we decide to do anything like that.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Help fund the game -> get just the beta. A next-gen deal.

 

[GloomFrost]

Help fund the game -> get just the beta. A next-gen deal.

Fargo is making EA look more and more like a very generous and honest company.
Red boots DLC indeed.

 

[Athelas]

Help fund the game -> get just the beta. A next-gen deal.

Well, if you buy the WL2 GOTY edition, you'll be funding their next RPG.

 

[Morkar Left]

That would be a dick move.

 

[Zombra]

They're not going to commit that kind of PR suicide.

 

[Roguey]

My free DRM-free physical copy better be goty-flavored.

 

[Infinitron]

BTW inXile said that they are not 100% sure if backers would automatically get a GOTY edition for free. Just saying.

I call bullshit, source?

If they said that they probably meant Kickstarter backers getting a copy of the console version or something. There's no confirmation yet that the patched PC version is actually going to be called "GOTY Edition". Only the console versions are confirmed to be called that.

 

[LESS T_T]

How about a little sneak peek at some of the upcoming Quirks for #wasteland2 GOTY edition.

https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/status/577624629843378176

 

[Diablo169]

Quirk. I like it.

 

[Infinitron]

Looks like creepy dolls have become Wasteland 2's equivalent of the Vault Boy?

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Going against Vault Boy may seem as begging for spectacular failure, but those pictures hold against it better than expected. I mean the first and the second one, the third is ugly as hell

 

[Grim Monk]

Going against Vault Boy may seem as begging for spectacular failure, but those pictures hold against it better than expected. I mean the first and the second one, the third is ugly as hell

I kinda feel sorry for the Teddy Bear in the third pic...

 

[Jackalope]

Going against Vault Boy may seem as begging for spectacular failure, but those pictures hold against it better than expected. I mean the first and the second one, the third is ugly as hell

I kinda feel sorry for the Teddy Bear in the third pic...

He had it coming. Never mess with creepy dolls. Or redheads. Or both.

 

[Whiran]

Looks like creepy dolls have become Wasteland 2's equivalent of the Vault Boy?

I'm okay with that.

 

[Grotesque]

I think it's better to just have just only one doll design and let it be iconic for the game traits/perks.
It gives the game another layer of identity seeing the same doll-character in different situations and is more efficient in conveying ideas and humor.

In Fallout for example if we would've had different character art drawings for each trait/perk/skill, the iconic household name Vault Boy would've never been born.

 

[Zombra]

Eh. It's okay for there to not be a "Doll Boy" that's exactly like Vault Boy. Anyway, ship sailed.

 

[Morkar Left]

I already liked the dolls from the manual. Weird and creepy. Great stuff.

 

[Wizfall]

Like some others, i barely played W2 and i'm waiting for the balance patch.
I don't mind at all to wait (even one more whole year), however i would appreciate an update and a gross estimation of the release date.
As it is, i find InXile teasing displeasing and frustrating.

 

[Infinitron]

The Codex's favorite former staff member interviews Brian Fargo: http://www.gameranx.com/features/id...torment-tides-of-numenera-and-bard-s-tale-iv/

InXile hasn't been resting on the laurels of Wasteland 2's apparent success. What drove you to decide to bring the game to the console?

The best and most important reason was that we had a pretty steady stream of requests asking us to bring it to console. We didn't want to spend time thinking about it during production but there was a lot of synergy in bringing it over. We had wanted to move the game to Unity 5 to improve our graphics and support controller play on PC, two components that pushed us further along for creating a console version of the game.

Dialog-heavy turn-based RPGs that are heavy in strategy have been traditionally PC-focused affairs. How do you think the console crowd is going to treat Wasteland 2?

We certainly hope the console crowd is interested in this type of game. A game likeXcom: Enemy Unknown had a great deal of success on consoles. Our combat is very similar in style to theirs. There really isn’t much else currently on Xbox or Playstation that is similar to Wasteland 2. We think the crowd will enjoy this type of game as long as we hit all the notes on the controls.

What are some of the challenges in adapting the PC version of the game to a controller-based console?

Outside of simply porting the game from a more open PC architecture, the toughest challenges are making sure the controls feel great and updating or modifying the UI systems to support a controller based input as opposed to mouse and keyboard. While making Wasteland 2, we weren’t even considering how each new feature we designed would work on console. We had promised to deliver a great PC experience and we had to nail that first.

Given that the game is being ported to the console, will we see controller support for the PC version?

Yes. We’re going to add an option that will allow our PC fans to play with a controller. Since the UI will be modified for console, we are planning on having it change to use the controller based UI instead of being forced to attempt to navigate the PC UI with a controller.

How easy (or difficult) is it to upgrade the game's engine from Unity 4.5 to Unity 5? Tell us a bit about the process and the challenges that involves.

We spent a month testing the waters to get a sense of how much would change from Unity 4.5 to 5. In general, the upgrade was quite smooth. Depending on how many of the new features you want to use, that’s where most of your upgrade time will go. We decided that the game would benefit greatly from us revisiting all scenes and improving the art to take advantage of the physically based rendering pipeline. This adds a good amount of time and work as we are touching almost all assets, but it’s been well worth it.

Are there any plans to expand upon Wasteland 2 with future content?

The GOTY version will have some additional features as well as the visual upgrade. We’re adding in a Quirks and Perks system to give the player more opportunities to customize their characters growth. Quirks as similar to traits in the Fallout games. They are personality elements that have a positive and a negative tied to them so they do a great job at modifying the experience. Players will earn points to spend on their unlocked perks as they level up. Perks are all positive and can give you unique ways to approach combat or other skills

 

[Infinitron]

Eurogamer article on Wasteland 2 GOTY, Torment, BT4: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-03-27-channeling-xcom-porting-wasteland-2-to-ps4-and-xbox-one

 

[Bubbles]

Paid for a beta.

 

[Athelas]

How come the new one looks worse?

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

On graphic:

Unity 5 introduced a physically-based rendering system that simulates the way the light bounces off of materials in a more realistic way. We're getting a little technical here, but, basically, Unity 5 spreads out specular maps so glass, for example, feels different because light bounces off of it in a different way to, say, stone or brick.

InXile is going through all of its Wasteland 2 assets and modifying them to make use of this new system. "Being a top-down game you see a lot of the terrain," Keenan says. "So we're focusing on making the terrain and the ground plane and the tops of buildings and all that stuff as great as it can be.

"Every single scene is getting basically a complete treatment," Keenan says. "We're not starting from scratch, certainly, because we have a pretty good foundation to everything. But we're just going through and putting a little extra love into every scene.

New character models

InXile is also creating brand new character models, which is welcome because, well, let's just say it: they were pretty crude. The new models include new clothing options, some of which you'll see in character creation, where you can now tweak your characters' hat, face and face accessories. You might want your character to wear a gas mask, or a beard. Beards are on trend, so best get those growing.

On combat improvements

"Combat is more deadly, but it's more deadly if you play the way you played before," Keenan says.

"It was a little bit easier to stand out away from cover. Some areas didn't have a huge amount of cover. We have been adding more. Even with melee enemies, the more we added cover and made them move around and have some choke points, the more interesting the combat was. It's much more about trying to get your way in, find good tactical spots around enemies. If you just do straight bum rush now, you'll get pretty beat up.

"It was something we weren't super happy with. It was a little bit easy in some areas to just stand out in cover. When it worked, it worked well. When we had the tough enemies, the ranged guys who used cover, and pushed the melee guys in between that, it felt pretty good. We've been taking that approach and amplifying it."

New doll images, it looks we will get it also for attributes and skills:

Spoiler