Wasteland Wasteland 3 + Battle of Steeltown and Cult of the Holy Detonation Expansions Thread

[Grunker]

Guess folks who were determined to literally wait a year or two were actually right.

I haven't played a game on release date since the first Pillars of Eternity, and I'm fairly certain it's the best decision I've made in my gaming life. Even playing WL3 at this stage before all DLC is released feels early for me.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

but I'd put real money on the fact that we would have less midrange RPGs being developed - or at least their budget would be smaller - if Divinity: Original Sin hadn't happened

That's because Swen saved the cRPG genre.

 

[Grunker]

but I'd put real money on the fact that we would have less midrange RPGs being developed - or at least their budget would be smaller - if Divinity: Original Sin hadn't happened

That's because Swen saved the cRPG genre.

That's my point, at least to an extend. He made a mediocre game and followed it up with a worse version, everyone loved the fuck out of it and as a result I get more of the games that I like.

I AM VERY EMOTIONALLY CONFLICTED BY THIS

 

[DeepOcean]

Honestly, the only reason I pirated Wasteland 3 so early that I enjoyed the idea of mocking the fuck of another Ineptile disaster and I didnt want to miss the circle jerk and memes, I wasnt prepared that to my surprise and against all the odds, it turned out into an okay RPG and SHOCK!, a crowdfunded game that was actually more fun to play than doing edgy shitposts about it.

Wasteland 3 is on the same category of Dragonfall to me, appetizers for things that make RPGs enjoyable but that deliver too little to be a full meal and make my nerd soul truly fulfilled. Kinda sad, when you think: You see a pretty bombshell blond, get all fun with her, enjoy some alcohol together then when you are distracted, Fargo goes behind you with a club and hit you in the head taking your wallet with him. It is how I felt playing Ineptile games, this time, however, at least Fargo let me some extra time to have a fun time with the blond before the hit in the head. I actually got to know her enough to miss her somewhat, what a shock.

 

[Grunker]

I actually get to know her enough to miss her

the sad and lonely pain of playing games that have a hint of good but as is are just 'k

 

[MRY]

Funding + built-in marketing + distribution platform that recently dropped all admission restrictions (i.e. everything the publishers used to provide and control access to). Without Steam opening the doors none of it would have happened.

Disagree. If anything, if Steam maintained the Greenlight process the cartel would've benefited inXile, which could have cleared the Greenlight hurdle and would not have faced the same dilution of attention brought about by the huge number of additional games now on Steam. Just like I think WEG fared better in the Greenlight era than it does today.

 

[Vault Dweller]

Funding + built-in marketing + distribution platform that recently dropped all admission restrictions (i.e. everything the publishers used to provide and control access to). Without Steam opening the doors none of it would have happened.

Disagree. If anything, if Steam maintained the Greenlight process the cartel would've benefited inXile, which could have cleared the Greenlight hurdle and would not have faced the same dilution of attention brought about by the huge number of additional games now on Steam. Just like I think WEG fared better in the Greenlight era than it does today.

Obsidian, Larian, inXile? Sure, all their needed was some funding and attention, but the true indie renaissance came from the developers who needed the hassle-free distribution and marketing (front page exposure) that Steam offered more than they needed funding. Styg would have been dead in the water (same as us) without Steam. Same goes for Battle Brothers, the Expedition guys, even Disco Elysium.

 

[The_Mask]

Obsidian, Larian, inXile? Sure, all their needed was some funding and attention, but the true indie renaissance came from the developers who needed the hassle-free distribution and marketing (front page exposure) that Steam offered more than they needed funding. Styg would have been dead in the water (same as us) without Steam. Same goes for Battle Brothers, the Expedition guys, even Disco Elysium.

If it makes you feel any better, word of mouth also helps. For example, I recommend your work to any of my friends that I know can appreciate your games.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Funding + built-in marketing + distribution platform that recently dropped all admission restrictions (i.e. everything the publishers used to provide and control access to). Without Steam opening the doors none of it would have happened.

Disagree. If anything, if Steam maintained the Greenlight process the cartel would've benefited inXile, which could have cleared the Greenlight hurdle and would not have faced the same dilution of attention brought about by the huge number of additional games now on Steam. Just like I think WEG fared better in the Greenlight era than it does today.

Obsidian, Larian, inXile? Sure, all their needed was some funding and attention, but the true indie renaissance came from the developers who needed the hassle-free distribution and marketing (front page exposure) that Steam offered more than they needed funding. Styg would have been dead in the water (same as us) without Steam. Same goes for Battle Brothers, the Expedition guys, even Disco Elysium.

Love your games. I've bought them for friends.

 

[Roguey]

Kickstarter wasn't a rebellion, it was a source of quick and easy money, if the media was on your side. Many developers used it to get the project off the ground, then sell it to a publisher. The smarter ones used it to sell the IPs (Expedition) or even entire studios to publishers (inXile and Obsidian).

Even so, no one was more anti-publisher in their kickstarter marketing than Fargo. He burned bridges with Bethesda by blaming them for Hunted: The Demon's Forge poor quality and New Vegas's buggy release, griped about how Hei$t was only cancelled because the publisher insisted on an unfeasible ps3 release even though it was allegedly working just fine on the 360 and pc, had that child-actor-as-shallow-trend-chasing-publisher in all the videos, and that red boots dlc jokey reference.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Kickstarter wasn't a rebellion, it was a source of quick and easy money, if the media was on your side. Many developers used it to get the project off the ground, then sell it to a publisher. The smarter ones used it to sell the IPs (Expedition) or even entire studios to publishers (inXile and Obsidian).

Even so, no one was more anti-publisher in their kickstarter marketing than Fargo. He burned bridges with Bethesda by blaming them for Hunted: The Demon's Forge poor quality and New Vegas's buggy release, griped about how Hei$t was only cancelled because the publisher insisted on an unfeasible ps3 release even though it was allegedly working just fine on the 360 and pc, had that child-actor-as-shallow-trend-chasing-publisher in all the videos, and that red boots dlc jokey reference.

That's nothing, one of Double Fine Kickstarter videos had a corporate devil in a suit vomiting in Tim Schafers face during pitch meeting.



























































They got acquired by Microsoft 5 years later.

 

[Grunker]

One thing I really like about this game which I'm instantly missing now that I've started another turn-based game is the very simple addition of draw-lines to opponents you can target when you hover the cursor over a tile on the battle map. Every turn-based game should have this.

 

[DeepOcean]

The kickstarter bullshit is the main reason every time I see "Oh, poor developers." articles on gaming media about medium and big size developers, I roll my eyes. Basically the publisher developer relationships isnt an opressor/opressed relationship like those faggots claim but more like a swindler trying to swindle another swindler, on this fight, I cheer for the fight now.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Yeah I've come to realize it's a completely different vibe from say music industry where record labels often don't do any worthwhile work at all, while skinning bands alive out of every dollar. Here it often varies who is doing the skinning, sometimes Bethesda screws Obsidian out of a bonus, but sometimes Hardsuit Labs swindles millions out of Paradox who have nothing to show for it except empty coffers.

Although in fairness in the early Kickstarter era the video game market was in a weird place. Everything was either AAA blockbuster with voiceover by Anthony Hopkins or a pixelated shovelware made by 1 dude in a basement with voiceover by his dad. There was very few midrange products that take some risks but still retain reasonable production values. Things are much healthier now.

 

[Grunker]

gamers have a thing for making everything scams and swindles. you know most often it's just gross incompentence

Although in fairness in the early Kickstarter era the video game market was in a weird place. Everything was either AAA blockbuster with voiceover by Anthony Hopkins or a pixelated shovelware made by 1 dude in a basement with voiceover by his dad. There was very few midrange products that take some risks but still retain reasonable production values. Things are much healthier now.

exactly

 

[Roguey]

I think one aspect contributing to this was that in the late 00s/early 10s the difference between a big budget team and a mid-budget team was a team of about a hundred or low hundreds versus dozens. Now a big budget team is high hundreds/a thousand or more and the publishers who can only afford to have dozens of people working on any one game can't stay competitive by making the same shallow action games-but-looking-noticeably-worse like they could back then.

gamers have a thing for making everything scams and swindles. you know most often it's just gross incompentence

Things Obsidian and Hardsuit have in common: they took money meant for one project (Tyranny, Bloodlines) and spent it on other projects (Pillars of Eternity, whatever project they hired Samantha Wallschlaeger to be narrative lead on that happened to be cancelled shortly after Bloodlines was officially cancelled), and they promised Chris Avellone writing to help get the project signed/get more money only to pull a bait and switch (Avellone saying he got yelled at when he told mindx2 Tyranny wasn't his project in that interview, and that recent blog post where he said nothing he ever submitted to Bloodlines 2 was ever implemented in the two years they were paying him to write for it).

 

[Grunker]

I think one aspect contributing to this was that in the late 00s/early 10s the difference between a big budget team and a mid-budget team was a team of about a hundred or low hundreds versus dozens. Now a big budget team is high hundreds/a thousand or more and the publishers who can only afford to have dozens of people working on any one game can't stay competitive by making the same shallow action games-but-looking-noticeably-worse like they could back then.

gamers have a thing for making everything scams and swindles. you know most often it's just gross incompentence

Things Obsidian and Hardsuit have in common: they took money meant for one project (Tyranny, Bloodlines) and spent it on other projects (Pillars of Eternity, whatever project they hired Samantha Wallschlaeger to be narrative lead on that happened to be cancelled shortly after Bloodlines was officially cancelled), and they promised Chris Avellone writing to help get the project signed/get more money only to pull a bait and switch (Avellone saying he got yelled at when he told mindx2 Tyranny wasn't his project in that interview, and that recent blog post where he said nothing he ever submitted to Bloodlines 2 was ever implemented in the two years they were paying him to write for it).

Not sure how any of that indicates a swindle, it just indicates stupidity, lack of control and lack of foresight. I work at the Danish parliament as the advisor to a party leader and I find it very sobering to work in politics. A lot of people think that some masterminded House of Cards-plan or at least a malicious intend is at work when some undesirable political outcome occurs. Seeing it up close I can attest to the fact that it is almost always the interplay between hypercomplex situations and the vast stupidity (or sometimes immense overconfidence) of actors with limited access to information.

Maybe video game development is more simple, but I also have less faith in the people who made it their career.

 

[Infinitron]

Co-op and post-campaign DLC access patch: https://www.inxile-entertainment.com/post/state-of-the-frozen-union-july-2021

State of the Frozen Union – July 2021

Rangers, grab your flask and your Hobo Dog, and set yourselves around the irradiated campfire. So far this year we’ve covered a lot of ground, but we’ve still got a ways to go before this leg of the adventure is done. As a brief recap of 2021 to date, we opened the gates to the Patriarch’s production factories at Steeltown, leveled up the game with crafting and an animal companion kennel, shared a slew of behind-the-scenes videos, dropped the soundtrack on Spotify, launched our initial merch offering, and even set our mouths on fire with some hot wings, just for you.

But we’re not quite done yet. Before the summer is out, we’ll be announcing our second and final DLC for Wasteland 3, and we’re excited to share those details soon. First, we have some important updates to detail.

Hotfix 1.4.6 & Patch 1.5.0

With a recent update a particularly sticky dialog issue was introduced, where players are unable to select any dialog options at key points in Little Vegas and Steeltown. Thanks to some eagle-eyed redditors, a workaround involving having Kwon and/or Lucia hang back at HQ during those conversations reportedly helped in those situations. All the same, we’ve got the fix for these which will be hitting the various platforms as soon as next week.

After 1.4.6, a larger forthcoming update (Patch 1.5.0) will be taking square aim at continuing to improve and refine the co-op experience in Wasteland 3. We know that for many of you co-op is your preferred way to deal with dispensing justice and we want to deliver the experience you’re looking for. We’re aware that since launch there’s been a number of issues reported with co-op, so we’ll be doing our best here to knock as many of these out as we can with a single blow. We’re expecting 1.5.0 to be ready in a few weeks.

Improving Co-op

One of the primary challenges with co-op in our game is that we're peer-to-peer, and that puts all the strain of communicating the game state on the players’ machines and network connection, rather than on a server. We’ve found troubleshooting firewalls, routers, and host network resolves a decent amount of these.

As we noted above, there are definitely still co-op bugs we’ll be addressing in Patch 1.5.0 to reduce interactivity and display issues (the full change list will be available in the final patch notes), but we're also looking at adding some ways to help players better identify when their network connection could be contributing to the problems.

In cases where there’s a disconnection, we’ll be generating an autosave for both players to ensure you can jump back in right where you left off. And if one player decides to quit, we’ll have better messaging so you’ll know what happened, rather than just see a generic disconnection error. We’ll also be making the connection strength indicator in the lobby more reliable, which will show if a co-op session may be unreliable due to either player’s networks.

Co-op Quality of Life Features

Focusing our energy on fixing co-op bugs and helping players diagnose connection issues should go a long way to improving the co-op experience, but we're also looking to add quality-of-life features. When 1.5.0 drops, you’ll be able to see what your co-op partner is hovering over/selecting in combat, in the inventory, and when perusing merchant wares. Communication is key in co-op, but this helps take some of the guesswork out of what the other player is thinking.

Additionally, while checking the inventory, you’ll be able to see the gear details of your partner’s squad members. With 1.5.0, conversations with skill checks will also automatically update the moment your friend joins the conversation, allowing them to sweet talk you out of whatever sticky situation you got yourself into when you ran off solo.

End Game DLC Rewind

Patch 1.5.0 isn’t entirely focused on co-op; we have a bunch of other fixes and quality of life improvements, not the least of which is allowing players to access the DLC even after they’ve passed the point of no return.

We were caught a bit off guard with how many of you only keep a single save file, which meant that when you went to go play Steeltown your only option was to replay the game from the start. Now, we think it’s absolutely worth a replay (or five) but we understand not everyone is looking to take on the full burden of Colorado’s problems again.

We’re fixing that in 1.5.0 by letting those of you past the endgame point of no return to go back to the world map, manage your squad (including replacing lost Rangers), and restock before attempting the DLC content.

Other Cool Stuff

The patch is a big’un, with fixes and improvements across the board. We’ll have the full details in the patch notes (when the patch goes live), of course. In the meantime, if you have co-op bugs you’ve never reported or it just seems we must not know about, please sound off on the official forums as we’d like to make sure we’re getting as much into this future update as possible. Thanks for continuing this journey with us! We look forward to getting 1.5.0 in your hands and blowing your minds with the second and final DLC. - Wasteland 3 Team

 

[Roguey]

We were caught a bit off guard with how many of you only keep a single save file, which meant that when you went to go play Steeltown your only option was to replay the game from the start. Now, we think it’s absolutely worth a replay (or five) but we understand not everyone is looking to take on the full burden of Colorado’s problems again.

Were you. Were you really?

 

[ferratilis]

This guy Fargo knows we're all waiting for Complete Edition, he'll keep releasing these small shitty updates for years just to spite people who are waiting for definitive experience. And with all that Microsoft money, it's not like they're in a rush.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

final dlc

And so ends another chapter in the Wasteland.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.inxile-entertainment.com/post/the-wasteland-3-concept-art-of-dimitri-zaitsev

The Wasteland 3 Concept Art of Dimitri Zaitsev

Join Dimitri Zaitsev, artist, cosplayer, and force behind Nuclear Snail Studios, as he dives into the design fundamentals behind his in-game Wasteland 3 costumes. In the following video, Dimitri analyzes his work both from a practical standpoint as wearable costumes, and through the lens of how his designs would apply in an apocalyptic scenario. Creators of both digital and physical props are sure to be enticed by Dimitri’s experience as he explores how the ‘rule of cool’ should always win over realism, and how realism, in turn, balances the designs by making them more believable. Throughout the video, Dimitri also addresses the importance of adhering to a consistent theme in respect to the world in which the designs will live, an extremely important aspect towards investing in their authenticity, no matter how exotic or outlandish.

Additional work by Dimitri has previously been showcased by us in our fantastical costumes preview as well as in our Patch 1.3.3 article. You can also check out more of his work on his ArtStation and Nuclear Snail facebook page.

A big thanks to Dimitri from the Wasteland team!

 

[Fedora Master]

The designs weren't that good.

 

[Grunker]

They were mostly really good. One of the highlights of an otherwise mediocre game

 

[Infinitron]