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Game News Wasteland 3 Fig Update #10: On Combat & Encounter Design

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Tags: Chris Keenan; InXile Entertainment; Wasteland 3

Today, Chris Keenan reveals that they are trying to make Wasteland 3's combat better than Wasteland 2's. The planned new features include input queuing and the ability for new enemies to join the battle in the middle of combat. It's a brave new world out there.

Chris here. We've had tons of requests from you asking for clarification on certain aspects of gameplay. What's new in Wasteland 3? What will change? How are various features going to work this time around? As we've discussed in the Fig campaign text, our goal is to take all the best things we loved about Wasteland 2 and improve on them, while rethinking systems that we felt were lacking.

We’re currently in the early pre-production period, and many of those answers are likely to change and evolve over time as we prototype, playtest, and iterate. So, it's a bit too early for us to launch into detailed breakdowns of everything we want to do on the game. However, what I'd like to do today is give you a sort of birds-eye look at what we're hoping to accomplish with the combat system in Wasteland 3.

Combat has always been a huge part of the Wasteland franchise, as it's where so many of your important character-building decisions get realized. With Wasteland 2, we had a wide variety of enemy types and encounter areas to play with. In the Director's Cut, we expanded combat to include extra strategic options like Precision Strikes, which gave you more options to affect the battlefield. On a high level, Wasteland 3's combat will be created in the same vein; it will be turn-based, party-based, and will offer a wide range of tactical choices, like cover and verticality.

However, the keen-eyed among you likely saw that we mentioned a "revamped, more fluid action system". “So…what the hell is that all about?”, you ask. Well, let me tell you.

In a turn-based combat system, sometimes you can get bogged down waiting. You as a player might have an understanding of what you want to do before the system allows you to do it. This can lead to the game feeling a bit sluggish or slow. Furthermore, Wasteland 3 will offer a multiplayer mode, and if you have ever played turn-based games in multiplayer, such as Civilization, you likely know that adding a buddy can add more downtime.

Consequently, a focal point of the combat design team is to find the unnecessary wait times and see what we can do to reduce them. Why be forced to wait for my ranger to reach their final destination (which then unlocks the input) before I can move my next ranger in the turn order? Input queuing, where your control inputs aren't locked out while animations are playing, is one solution we are exploring that will allow the dance of combat to play out more on your time, rather than making you wait for our system to catch up.

This focus on a revamped action system also applies to the types of tactical options you will have in the game. Cover-based shooting is still going to be a component, but we want to expand your available options for problem-solving. Going back to the Precision Strike system from Wasteland 2: Director's Cut, we're looking at expanding and tweaking some of that functionality into more special attack types and abilities that will let you have more control over the combat zone.

One other aspect of combat we want to amp up is encounter design. While Wasteland 2 had a large number of critters and creatures for you to fight in addition to human enemies and synths, we saw the feedback that combat could feel a little stale, especially in some of our larger and more combat-heavy scenes. We're going to be looking at ways to engineer more varied, unique, interesting, and hand-crafted encounters in Wasteland 3 that have more variety or elements that change throughout - such as an enemy vehicle entering the fray in the middle of the battle.

Speaking of, vehicles will be another layer that makes combat more interesting. While vehicles may not be available in every single encounter, when they are present, they will be a significant factor. We hinted at some of these in our initial Frosty Reception video, where we showed the vehicle's turret being used to attack enemies, or using the doors as cover, but we're hoping to do even more beyond that as well, and there is no lack of creative design ideas already put forth.

Last, we're hoping that environmental interactions in general will be a bigger deal in Wasteland 3. For instance, Colorado’s harsh conditions mean you may not always get the clear line of sight offered in the Arizona deserts. Snowfall or even blizzards are one way your visibility may be affected, and we might even give you some options to manipulate things directly in your favor.

For example: Your enemies are in an entrenched position, and a snowstorm is preventing you from efficiently picking them off at range. A protracted gun battle will spend a lot of ammo, but it is a valid option. If your group is decked out for it, you could also storm their position with melee fighters, overrunning their defenses and taking advantage of the low visibility. Or, if you have a vehicle available, you could keep them pinned with some long-ranged fighters while moving part of your squad quickly behind their line, flanking their positions.​

Of course, after combat comes the loot. Never fear, we’ve read your feedback on that as well. In Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut, we went through our loot tables and completely redid the distribution through the game to cut down on the randomness and to have more hand-placed loot drops with unique weapons. In Wasteland 3, we’ll keep moving in that direction, with more deterministic loot drops where you’ll be finding more unique gear that will be more satisfying to either uncover, or claim from the bodies of your foes.

Overall, I hope this has given you a better idea of what we're looking to achieve with Wasteland 3's combat. By building on the possibilities offered in Wasteland 2’s combat system, keeping the pacing fluid, and expanding the potential tactical options, we're hoping to take the great foundation we built and evolve it in ways you haven't seen before in other RPGs. Until next time!​

The hype has become unbearably strong.
 
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They should have started like that. They lost many potential backers by their lackluster communication.
Citation needed.

brain.png
 

agris

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interplay went down the Lionheart/Brotherhood of Steel/console/cancelled Torn & Jefferson road because it was "where the market was going".

The question remains: is Frian Bargo a bad enough dude to resist the pressure this time?
 
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interplay went down the Lionheart/Brotherhood of Steel/console/cancelled Torn & Jefferson road because it was "where the market was going".

I don't think consoles were the problem, at least according to a man who would know:

B9k2XBD.png
 

agris

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interplay went down the Lionheart/Brotherhood of Steel/console/cancelled Torn & Jefferson road because it was "where the market was going".

I don't think consoles were the problem, at least according to a man who would know:

B9k2XBD.png
Interesting find!

Xion Beeker's (ami doing it rite?) wasn't there. If he's going on personal interactions with Fargo, "focusing on PC gaming too long" is equivalent to "didn't switch to console development fast enough", i.e. the development of FO:BoS, BG:DA and the cancelling of Torn & Jefferson.

Gotta love the new cinematic dialogue system in WL3 tho!
 

Fairfax

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interplay went down the Lionheart/Brotherhood of Steel/console/cancelled Torn & Jefferson road because it was "where the market was going".

I don't think consoles were the problem, at least according to a man who would know:

B9k2XBD.png
Interesting find!

Xion Beeker's (ami doing it rite?) wasn't there. If he's going on personal interactions with Fargo, "focusing on PC gaming too long" is equivalent to "didn't switch to console development fast enough", i.e. the development of FO:BoS, BG:DA and the cancelling of Torn & Jefferson.
The PC thing was Fargo's view at the time as well, and it was as stupid then as it is now. One can't blame "PC focus" for Interplay Films, VR Sports, failing to pay Hasbro their D&D royalties, mismanaged projects, etc. Also, the "obsession with cinematic gaming" meant making console games, so Brother Nazi contradicts himself there.
Fargo and the french did manage to turn things around enough to see if their next releases would pay off, but they relied on the wrong horses. They cancelled TORN and handed NWN to Atari, while keeping game like Run Like Hell, FO:BOS and Lionheat going.
 

Fairfax

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Fairfax were you on the old BIS forums too?
No, just find Interplay's demise one of the most interesting stories in the industry.
The sad part is that we'll never know why and how some decisions were made. Even if the people involved decided to write a book about it, the amount of blame to go around would make it so biased that no version would be reliable. Not that a tell-all by Fargo wouldn't be an interesting read, of course.
 

Volourn

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" They cancelled TORN and handed NWN to Atari,"

According to Sawyer, giving up NWN was a BRILLIANT decision because in the agreement BIO gave the go ahead to BIS/INTERPLAY to use the IE to make IWD2 in exchange for their freedom. Plus, you know, NWN 9depsite people's irrational bashing of it) was such a huge financial failure. LMFAO.
 

Morkar Left

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I still don't know how big your party is going to be and and if you can create your own party. Nor do I really know how overland traveling, ressource management and the like will be handled.

But with vehicles and the stuff presented and said I suspect there will be no more than 4 rangers plus one additional temporary guest star and no party creation at start. Furthermore I suspect the water mechanic will be replaced with a 1 to 1 gas mechanic for the car. And I don't like that mp focus at all.

Will wait till next week if there is something substantial to come or will cancel my pledge, forget about a physical copy and wait till it's released in 4 years.
 
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Lurker King

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The PC thing was Fargo's view at the time as well, and it was as stupid then as it is now. One can't blame "PC focus" for Interplay Films, VR Sports, failing to pay Hasbro their D&D royalties, mismanaged projects, etc.

Brian Fargo is the main responsible for the end of Interplay. You just need to consider the way he handled Tim Cain’s dissatisfaction with FO2 development to realize that he was completely clueless. Praising this person as an honorable veteran of the industry is like praising an ex-CEO from Enron as a Wall Street wizard.
 
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Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Also, the "obsession with cinematic gaming" meant making console games

Nah. In the context of the period we're talking about (the 90s), "cinematic games" were "multimedia" PC games that took advantage of the CD-ROM format to stuff in tons of useless cutscenes, often live action. It's a different thing than the modern concept of a cinematic console action game, which didn't really fully exist yet back then.
 

Infinitron

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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Xion Beeker's (ami doing it rite?) wasn't there. If he's going on personal interactions with Fargo, "focusing on PC gaming too long" is equivalent to "didn't switch to console development fast enough", i.e. the development of FO:BoS, BG:DA and the cancelling of Torn & Jefferson.

That's kind of a silly way of thinking about it. "Switching to console development fast enough" means that Torn and Jefferson wouldn't have existed as PC-exclusive games in the first place. Is that bad? I guess so, but do you really think a second/third-tier publisher like Interplay was going to reverse the industry's consolization trend all on its own? It was going to happen one way or another, it was only a matter of time.

I believe it went something like this. Because Interplay were late to the console market, rather than try to create real multiplatform RPGs along the lines of KOTOR, which would have required serious time and investment that they didn't have, they took the cheaper "action spinoff" route, creating games that didn't appeal to their earlier fanbase and were doomed to limited popularity and commercial success.

Interplay's lateness in making it onto the new platform was an important factor in their console games' lack of quality - it's not something you can easily separate out. An Interplay that made it onto console earlier would have still been making multiplatform games, but they could have been decent enough full-scale RPGs, not shovelware.
 
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
The PC thing was Fargo's view at the time as well, and it was as stupid then as it is now. One can't blame "PC focus" for Interplay Films, VR Sports, failing to pay Hasbro their D&D royalties, mismanaged projects, etc.

Brian Fargo is the main responsible for the end of Interplay. You just need to consider the way he handled Tim Cain’s dissatisfaction with FO2 developer to realize that he was completely clueless. Praising this person as an honorable veteran of the industry is like praising an ex-CEO from Enron as a Wall Street wizard.

In fairness, he did let Tim Cain develop Fallout the way he wanted for basically no reason.

Also Tim Cain is a great auteur of PC RPGs but I'm not sure retaining him as an asset would have positively influenced Interplay's fate in any significant way.
 
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Roguey

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Also, the "obsession with cinematic gaming" meant making console games, so Brother Nazi contradicts himself there.

This article seems to have been deleted entirely from NMA (hmm I wonder why) but it's worth preserving :M https://archive.is/zU1bo

Long before I ever heard the term “Jump the Shark”, I began to see some warning signs of Interplay’s continued success. I sensed a change in the management. There was a shift from a passion for game making, to a desire to make Hollywood-style cinema. We changed from the old adage of “Shoot for the moon. Here’s a nickel.” to “How can we make this experience more like watching a movie.” It began with Stonekeep (which started as a throwback to the old Bard’s Tale, but became a nightmare of “cinematic experience”), and exploded with the Sim-CD series (Interplay’s remakes of SimCity, SimAnt, and SimEarth in CD-ROM format with lots of movies) and the horror show that was “Cyberhood” (an interactive movie that became a black hole of funds.)

I remember one producer summit when we first saw the film footage shot for Sim City CD. The idea was that you could click on buildings and see a movie of the people inside living their lives. They were 30 second clips of people watching TV, or sleeping in bed, or doing aerobics, or eating cereal. And there were dozens of these clips; the most boring and mundane things you can imagine. Immediately after seeing this footage, we learned that it cost over a million dollars to film… and there was more filming to do. Considering that most of the games in production had a sub 100K budget, I (and many of the producers there) about had aneurisms. All it took was for this one game to be a train wreck, and the whole company suffers, or even dies.

During this time, I inherited SimEarth CD-ROM. I was my favorite of the sim games, and I immediately wanted to add features that would enhance the gameplay. For instance, I always wondered what my creatures looked like when they evolved into sapient beings. What would a sapient arthropod look like? What kind of cities would an iron age civilization of sapient amphibians build? I wanted to create small movies that were rewards for evolving your planet. There was a new artist at Interplay who was quite good at 3DStudio, and he did an amazing 3D movie test. (This was before Toy Story, so a movie with high-quality animated 3D characters was bleeding edge.) As the artist built and rendered these movies in his spare time, the programmer, coded furiously to convert the old Sim Earth into a modern vibrant VGA game. When the incredible movies went into the beautiful game, it began to really shine.

Then, the pain. I was told that I was going over budget. Confusing, because I had spent less-than $100k. But my predecessor spent over $200K on other cinematic footage.
Footage that we had no gameplay use for.

No problem, I’ll make it work.

Then, after showing the incredible movies to Steven Spielberg, the artist was pulled from my project to work on “better things”. (Spielberg was in the process of founding Dreamworks, and soon after hired that artist to work on Shrek.) Then another artist was also pulled off. Finally, after months of insane hours to meet the schedule the project was canceled. (Since SimCity was having such budget overruns, our product lineup needed trimming.) After all the time and effort we had spent getting the game ready to ship, this was kick-to-the-bits number two.

In another company wide meeting, we learned that Universal Pictures had purchased a portion of the company. The company was treated to a day at Universal Studios, and we were promised several amazing upcoming movie licenses. My fear of the company ditching games and becoming a movie house was getting stronger.

The first movie license arrived in-house, Flipper, a remake of the 70s TV show. (I recall the designer of that project saying that we should buy the rights to ECO the Dolphin and simply rename it.) The second movie license was Casper the Friendly Ghost. When the first design was shot down by Harvey Comics because “Casper should be able to walk through walls” – we realized that trying to create a game with no way to contain the player’s movement was, in fact, rather impossible.

The third movie license? Oh, it was the granddaddy of them all: Waterworld. After flying the designers out to Hawaii to see one of the multi-million dollar atoll sets (which would later sink), all they were provided with was the original script to create a game (which surprisingly wasn’t bad – the game I mean). However, most of their ideas got thrown out as the movie filming was changing the script on a day to day basis. The game did ship, but it became a Real-Time Strategy game, based in the world, but having nothing to do with the actual movie.
 

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