Wasteland Wasteland 2 Thread - Director's Cut

[Abu Antar]

I didn't even know that was a thing.

 

[Infinitron]

UPDATE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/1282780

Wasteland 2 Director's Cut Media Update
The Director's Cut edition of Wasteland 2 is progressing well. We are running on all cylinders testing, polishing, and taking it through the required rigmarole for release. This includes the fun stuff – making sure the game is balanced and plays great – to the less exciting but still necessary, such as getting updated age ratings, re-doing the manual, creating new box art, and the big one, console certification.

We'll have more in-depth coverage as we get closer to release, but we wanted to share some brand-new screenshots and a few new clips from the trenches. Enjoy!

 

[mindx2]

Too fast for me this time Infinibro...

 

[Jimmious]

Too fast for me this time Infinibro...

He literally posted it real-time, I think I saw both posts come simultaneously.
Infinitron working for InXile confirmed.

 

[Excidium II]

UPDATE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/1282780

Wasteland 2 Director's Cut Media Update
The Director's Cut edition of Wasteland 2 is progressing well. We are running on all cylinders testing, polishing, and taking it through the required rigmarole for release. This includes the fun stuff – making sure the game is balanced and plays great – to the less exciting but still necessary, such as getting updated age ratings, re-doing the manual, creating new box art, and the big one, console certification.

We'll have more in-depth coverage as we get closer to release, but we wanted to share some brand-new screenshots and a few new clips from the trenches. Enjoy!

Graphical error on a featured screenshot (2nd one, the blood texture on the bottom right)

Good job, sea

 

[Grotesque]

This game needs to sell well on consoles.
It has to.
That is the whole deal.

 

[Grotesque]

It's done alright so far?

I wouldn't say that is sold too well. I bet Brian Fargo expected to sell as good as Original Sin or even surpass that sales number.

Gathering money via Kickstarter proves harder and harder that's why the console version of Wasteland 2 must be near perfect at launch so positive word of mouth among console enthusiasts and reviews would bring more sales/money for future projects like the new Bard's Tale and beyond that.

 

[Infinitron]

I wouldn't say that is sold too well. I bet Brian Fargo expected to sell as good as Original Sin or even surpass that sales number.

Nope

 

[prodigydancer]

Gathering money via Kickstarter proves harder and harder

In other news, Shenmue is at $4.35m.

 

[Infinitron]

Seriously though, that really doesn't make any sense if you think about it. Divinity: Original Sin made so much money it allowed Larian to massively expand, founding an entirely new studio on a different continent and committing to developing two games simultaneously and possibly three in the future(!). There's no way that's a minimum threshold for success. Not if you just want to stay one company that makes one game at a time.

 

[Grotesque]

I wouldn't say that is sold too well. I bet Brian Fargo expected to sell as good as Original Sin or even surpass that sales number.

Nope

"It's been rock solid. It's not as big as some of the multiplayer games. Those you see the biggest numbers from. We are a single-player, narrative experience, so you don't get the pass along of something like a Divinity: Original Sin or DayZ. It's not that kind of sales success. But it's certainly in the hundreds of thousands of units. Enough to pay our bills, pay our taxes and do some more." Brian Fargo on sales number

From this quote you deduced Fargo did not hoped to sell as well as Divinity? Or you have another quote from him?

 

[agris]

Seriously though, that really doesn't make any sense if you think about it. Divinity: Original Sin made so much money it allowed Larian to massively expand, founding an entirely new studio on a different continent and committing to developing two games simultaneously and possibly three in the future(!). There's no way that's a minimum threshold for success. Not if you just want to stay one company that makes one game at a time.

This is one reason why some of us are concerned that Larian are spreading themselves too thin.

Also, they could have gotten outside funding. Who knows what shape/form that takes. The new studios could be operated as franchises, funded by investors and co-managed by Sven. If the deal were struck so that there's a profit-sharing agreement for Sven, it incentivizes him working towards their success, but the investor(s) would net most of the profits. But this is the games industry and no one knows.

 

[Grotesque]

Gathering money via Kickstarter proves harder and harder

In other news, Shenmue is at $4.35m.

"What has become increasingly difficult for all companies that crowdfund is getting press coverage. Being out of sight means you are out of mind.
One big shift worth mentioning is how the Shenmue Kickstarter was announced. Having a company of that size announce via a live event with hundreds of thousands of people watching is a big deal. It's a great reminder of who the big guys are." - Brian Fargo

 

[prodigydancer]

What has become increasingly difficult for all companies that crowdfund is getting press coverage.

I respect Fargo but I don't necessarily share his sentiment here.

It's true that the novelty effect has worn off. But that's what you, as a sensible businessman, should plan for and adapt to. Let's face it, most KS VG projects aren't quite as exciting as their creators probably think they are. And that's why they fail. Or just barely succeed. When you're targeting non-mainstream gamers you have several options:
a) Offer something completely new or at least an implementation full of wildly experimental tech. Most likely this approach will yield $0 but if you'll strike the right chord, you'll become the next Star Citizen.
b) Namedrop something that people remember very fondly. Huge bonus if you can say you have some key figures from the original team.
c) Opt for something small initially and build your legacy step-by-step like Harebrained Schemes.
d) Focus on a niche market and hope that your vision matches what people want precisely.

Usually it's some combination of the above but one of the components has to be dominant and in the case of BT4 it was "d" - catering to the expectations of blobber fans. And it went all wrong. I mean Unreal Engine is nice but nowadays anyone can use it for free so it's not a big deal. And eye candy isn't what you buy a non-mainstream audience with anyway. And it was more or less their trump card - how sad is that? It appears that inXile either doesn't have a clear vision at all or they don't want to talk about it (because they know it'll alienate their core TA). To this day it's not clear whether the combat will be first- or third-person. They pulled a similar stunt stunt once with TToN and it was pretty clever but with BT4 it backfired because now people want to know what they're backing. Same deal with saves. Same story about the max party size. Originally it was 4+ (aka "need to go console someday") but after a huge outcry they changed their mind so now it's 6+.

They had a strong enough first day but couldn't offer anything that would reinforce that initial success and thus has been trailing (relatively) miserably ever since.

 

[Infinitron]

What blobber fans? The <50,000 people who bothered to buy Grimrock 2 when it was new? If BT4's backers are "blobber fans" then I'd say its managed to gain an insanely high percentage of them. This isn't a niche you can bank on. (in reality, of course, most of BT4's backers are inXile fans and general oldschool RPG enthusaists)

Presenting more EXCITING stuff in general may have gained the BT4 Kickstarter more money. Catering to specific blobber niche tastes wouldn't have.

 

[prodigydancer]

If BT4's backers are "blobber fans" then I'd say its managed to gain an insanely high percentage of them.

Blobber fans were supposed to be the core audience but it didn't happen for various reasons. Mostly because, like I already said, to this day no-one knows exactly what kind of game BT4 is going to be. Too many undefined variables.

Presenting more EXCITING stuff in general may have gained the BT4 Kickstarter more money.

Or maybe not. It's a matter of trust and people still consider WL2 a disappointment. I'm among the fans but it'd be p. stupid to deny that on average WL2 reception was lukewarm. Or that the release was buggy. Or LA was rushed bordering on unfinished. That negativity is now spilling over and poisoning inXile's image in general (and their BT4 campaign to some extent).

 

[Infinitron]

Lots of projection here

 

[Bigg Boss]

If BT4's backers are "blobber fans" then I'd say its managed to gain an insanely high percentage of them.

snip

Presenting more EXCITING stuff in general may have gained the BT4 Kickstarter more money.

Or maybe not. It's a matter of trust and people still consider WL2 a disappointment. I'm among the fans but it'd be p. stupid to deny that on average WL2 reception was lukewarm. Or that the release was buggy. Or LA was rushed bordering on unfinished. That negativity is now spilling over and poisoning inXile's image in general (and their BT4 campaign to some extent).

My hope is the Directors Cut will fix a lot of the problems I had with it. I enjoyed my first time through, but I couldn't force myself to play it again after a few hours. The combat wasn't as engaging as I would have liked for a game that focused on it so much.

 

[Infinitron]

UPDATE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/1290484

A Precise Look at Precision Strikes
One of the main features we have been working on for the last little while has been Precision Strikes, our called shots-type system that many fans of post-apocalyptic games will be familiar with. This is actually one of the earliest features we designed and prototyped for the Director's Cut, but it also went through a lot of subtle changes and iteration along the way. And now we can finally show it off to you!

First, what exactly are Precision Strikes? Put simply, they a new shot type we have added to combat. Precision Strikes will let you aim at specific enemy body parts, and depending on the body part you fire on, you will be able to inflict debilitating status effects.


The UI shown here is from controller mode. When playing with mouse and keyboard we'll have a different UI for Precision Strikes.
When we approached Precision Strikes, we had a few goals in mind. First, we didn't want Precision Strikes to feel like they were always the superior option. We wanted Precision Strikes to live up to their name – to be used tactically and situationally – rather than being used each and every time.

On that note, we also wanted Precision Strikes to all be useful in their own ways. We made sure each type of Precision Strike had its own unique qualities. Different enemies have different strengths and weaknesses (something we had to further refine and accentuate thanks to our rebalancing and new additions like Precision Strikes and Perks), and with Precision Strikes you will have ways to counter them effectively.

When attacking enemies, you have up to four Precision Strike options. We are still tweaking the numbers a bit, but their effects are:

• Head: 1.35x damage, +25% crit bonus, chance of rendering the enemy confused or psychotic, causing them to attack their friends or behave erratically. Significant Chance to Hit penalty.
• Torso: 0.8x damage, reduces the enemy's Armor. Small Chance to Hit penalty.
• Arms: 0.7x damage, reduces the enemy's Chance to Hit, chance of destroying their weapon and causing it to explode in a shower of shrapnel. Moderate Chance to Hit penalty.
• Legs: 0.7x damage, reduces the enemy's Combat Speed, chance of knocking them down and reducing their Action Points. Moderate Chance to Hit penalty.

We wanted Precision Strikes to be fairly reliable so that you'd want to use them often, but to also capture a degree of randomness, allowing you to cause cool and unique effects. Sure, you might be able to reduce an enemy's Chance to Hit by aiming at their arms, but rarely, you'll actually destroy their weapon entirely, causing it to explode in their face for some extra damage. Little random elements like this let us make the system feel exciting and unpredictable.

We even have some extra bits of polish in there as well. These body parts will vary in their naming a bit depending on the enemy type. For example, if you go up against a robot, you might find that instead of a head, it has a CPU, and instead of a torso, a chassis. We also have some new sounds, particle effects and even animations on certain enemies that also tie into the new system.

Overall it's a ton of fun to play with. It really does add a degree of depth to the combat, and we can't wait for you to enjoy it yourselves.

 

[Excidium II]

UPDATE: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2/posts/1290484

• Head: 1.35x damage, +25% crit bonus, chance of rendering the enemy confused or psychotic, causing them to attack their friends or behave erratically. Significant Chance to Hit penalty.

w0t

 

[agris]

more importantly, how is that an icon that represents legs?

 

[Excidium II]

more importantly, how is that an icon that represents legs?

They're baby legs

 

[agris]

more importantly, how is that an icon that represents legs?

They're baby legs

it looks like a doll being exploded from the inside-out to me, but whatever.

 

[Excidium II]

Hmm are we looking at the same icon?

 

[Athelas]

chance of destroying their weapon and causing it to explode in a shower of shrapnel

Should have described it as 'chance to miss out on loot'.