Wasteland Wasteland 3 Pre-Release Thread [GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Wasteland 3 Hands-On: Better Than Fallout?
I can appreciate that the combat mechanics have clearly been very finely honed. In fact, this is where Wasteland really differentiates itself from the likes of Fallout. In Fallout, the stories, cast and locales are the hook, but I don’t think anyone could reasonably argue that it plays well as a first-person shooter.

Jesus fucking christ.

That was quite the twist at the end.

 

[Infinitron]

I'm baffled by so many people voting for only having pre-made characters. Why would anyone want that? The only reasons I can think of is no interest in character creation or an unreasonable fear of messing it up. And if either is true for someone, why would they be interested in this at all?

Hoping they stuck with create four characters but only start with two instead of having the party consist mostly of pre-mades.

I think you misunderstood the survey. It's asking what people actually did in the game when they played, not what they want it to support.

 

[Saduj]

I think you misunderstood the survey. It's asking what people actually did in the game when they played, not what they want it to support.

Bit of a relief but the question still remains: Why do so many people prefer pre-made characters?

 

[Infinitron]

I think you misunderstood the survey. It's asking what people actually did in the game when they played, not what they want it to support.

Bit of a relief but the question still remains: Why do so many people prefer pre-made characters?

Well in this case the dual premade characters concept is kind of unique so I could see more people trying it out compared to other RPGs.

 

[Zombra]

Did they do the same butthole move they did in BT4? Where they force you to use a premade character for 6 hours then let you make your own instead if you really want to? Because I can see getting attached to a premade if you're forced to use it for a while.

 

[eric__s]

Did they do the same butthole move they did in BT4? Where they force you to use a premade character for 6 hours then let you make your own instead if you really want to? Because I can see getting attached to a premade if you're forced to use it for a while.

At least in the beta, you can make your first two characters at the very beginning, and then once you make it to the Colorado base you can make as many additional rangers as you want.

 

[Roguey]

disgusting, filthy casuals

Default difficulty is the way to play for me unless there are compelling transparent reasons to go higher.

 

[Infinitron]

Faran Brygo lives!

 

[Quillon]

They must have hired asscreed unity's gfx programmer

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Faran Brygo lives!

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Infinitron]

For some reason Microsoft posted about this last week: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-...es-a-post-apocalyptic-beast-with-wasteland-3/

inXile wrangles a post-apocalyptic beast with Wasteland 3

Wasteland 3's crowdfunding campaign raised three-million dollars in one month. It's safe to say inXile felt the weight of player expectation when prepping to develop their latest entry. No sweat—they had been through the apocalypse twice before. David Rogers, Lead Designer at inXile, summed it up: "It's not like we were building a new genre … We're not making Katamari Damacy ... We were building a turn-based strategy game … We know that can be fun, it's just a matter of execution." Before they dared freeze hell, the team needed to refine their game.

Punching up the apocalypse
Wasteland 3's meticulous tweaking came courtesy of iteration. Getting the core gameplay out quickly meant inXile could distill the good parts through QA testing and feedback from alphas released to backers. Rogers even recorded some play sessions like a stream, calling out design notes like, "Holy crap +70% evasion?! That's nonsense!" as he played through levels. The team picked over the skeleton of Wasteland 3, scrutinizing every morsel: music queues, combat stats, dialogue, player choices, and more. They made the changes that felt appropriate and then did it all over again.

inXile knew they had to innovate while remaining true to Wasteland 3's heritage. Tone, mood, player choice, and reactive gameplay are core to the series. They're why fans have been drawn back for 30 years and counting. After nailing these "non-negotiables" to a metaphorical post, the team went scavenging for innovation opportunities. They overhauled the graphics. They modernized the combat system. Now players could complete multiple actions in one turn rather than "ping-ponging" with the AI. The game was balanced so that every weapon had its place in the right situation.

"You need to consolidate and condense and potentially lose features that weren't adding value … It's kind of like it's a sauce you reduce it down to its finest elements." - Dave Rogers, Lead Designer, inXile Entertainment

More importantly, inXile questioned every decision they made In Wasteland 2. The team recognized the superlative features present in games today. Do players really need to customize their pet? Is it necessary to have 75 options for shoes?

Don't miss the desolate forest for the flaming trees
Data and playtesting were the twin Geiger counters that allowed inXile to sidestep rads upon rads of analysis paralysis. "We definitely try to not overdesign on paper. You really have to fight that urge and get people just worrying about the user experience," Rogers explained. If you focus too hard on one corner of the world, overall player experience can suffer. Tim Campbell, Game Director on Wasteland 3, loves data. "We are hungry for information, for data, for insights, for anything that we can get our hands on that helps us understand how players play this game." To get that data, the game first had to exist in some basic form.

inXile knows their game carries a lot of expectations, but they're also confident it's the best it can be. Because they've played it—over and over and over again. Their rusted highway marker reads "Fun times ahead." That's the power of iteration, baby!

Playtesting and iteration let you mine for joy anywhere—even in post-apocalyptic Colorado. Want to work rapid prototyping into your own dev plan? You can get builds out faster and iterate quicker using Azure's scalable infrastructure.

Check out the full Microsoft Game Stack for additional game dev solutions.

 

[cvv]

Is the "my squad turn - enemy squad turn - my squad turn" system really more appealing for normies than "ping-ponging with the AI", i.e. an individualized initiative-based system? I honestly can't see why would normies consider the latter less fun or less engaging.

 

[orcinator]

I think you misunderstood the survey. It's asking what people actually did in the game when they played, not what they want it to support.

Bit of a relief but the question still remains: Why do so many people prefer pre-made characters?

I mean in this game's case, maybe because WL2's character creation was shit and filled with trap options.

 

[xuerebx]

Bit of a relief but the question still remains: Why do so many people prefer pre-made characters?

Generally I only like to focus on developing my own character, which is why I prefer single player (no squad) games rather than squad-based games. I usually prefer if the game automatically levels up the other characters, given the option. If I have to choose where to spend skill/stat points on the other characters it's not really a problem either way.

 

[Saduj]

Is the "my squad turn - enemy squad turn - my squad turn" system really more appealing for normies than "ping-ponging with the AI", i.e. an individualized initiative-based system? I honestly can't see why would normies consider the latter less fun or less engaging.

I prefer individual turn based but I thought giving high initiative characters extra turns in Wasteland 2 was overpowered.

Edit: Not sure if they fixed that in Director's Cut, I finished the game before it came out.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Agame]

Wasteland 3 Hands-On: Better Than Fallout?
I can appreciate that the combat mechanics have clearly been very finely honed. In fact, this is where Wasteland really differentiates itself from the likes of Fallout. In Fallout, the stories, cast and locales are the hook, but I don’t think anyone could reasonably argue that it plays well as a first-person shooter.

Jesus fucking christ.

That was quite the twist at the end.

We need a stronger Coof, to rid the world of stupidity, can someone tell the guys in the labs to mix up a new one?

 

[kalganoat]

Just finished Wasteland 2 today after abandoning it shortly after initial release. Great game. Can't wait what the team can do with a bigger budget.

 

[vortex]

 

[Background Character]

My choice is to punch Fargo in the face

 

[Infinitron]

Oh nice.

 

[Infinitron]

Nice look at some of the game's new combat mechanics here.

Haven't followed this since announcement. Will it have more fun/diverse character customization and combat than its predecessor, or is it carbon-copying those systems?

I believe this video answers your question.

 

[mindx2]

That little snippet at the end... I hope it's true that you can screw yourself over by your choices (and character builds) making the game harder (or more interesting). The illusion of choice is no choice at all.