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Game News Wasteland 3 Fig Update #6: The Ranger Base

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
Tags: Eric Schwarz; InXile Entertainment; Wasteland 3

After taking the better part of the week off, inXile have published a new Wasteland 3 Fig update. The topic this time is the Ranger Base, which will have a more important role than the Ranger Citadel did in Wasteland 2. Eric Schwarz explains:

Eric here. In this update I'll be talking to you about one of the more interesting additions we are making to Wasteland 3 – the Ranger Base. You might remember Ranger Citadel from Wasteland 2 or Ranger Center in Wasteland 1. The Ranger HQ has been a recurring idea in the series, and we want to maintain that tradition Wasteland 3.

In Wasteland 1, Ranger Center was the place where you would start the game and create new recruits. In Wasteland 2, Ranger Citadel had a similar function in that it let you drop off your companion NPCs and recruit new ones if any of your original squad-mates had died in the Wasteland. We also expanded it to include more shops, quest content, lore, and some story elements as well. However, it was mostly a starting point, and your reasons for returning were still a little limited.

With Wasteland 3, it's our aim to expand the HQ concept further and make it feel like a more meaningful part of the game. Early in the story, you will take command of a new Ranger Base in Colorado. Unlike Ranger Citadel in Wasteland 2, it won't start out fully staffed and equipped. Instead, you'll be the sole survivor of Team November, establishing a new foothold in hostile, harsh, and unforgiving territory. It will be up to you to recruit promising new Rangers from the local population and decide how to deal with the crises and challenges that are brought to your door.

In Wasteland 3, the Ranger Base is not something we want you to be constantly micromanaging. This isn't going to be a real-time strategy game; you won't be sending peasants to go chop wood or mine coal, or building settlements. How your base changes will be tightly tied in with the game's narrative and will be uniquely Wasteland.

Instead, we are envisioning the Ranger Base as more of a quest hub that you can return to throughout the game, where interesting events and incidents will arise for you to resolve. You can think of our goals as something along the lines of de'Arnise Hold from Baldur's Gate 2. Far from being a game system where you need to look at graphs, charts, and numbers to balance your budget, the HQ in Wasteland 3 will present you with events, ethical dilemmas, and quests based on your choices, and those choices can have world-spanning consequences.

For example...

During the game, you might return to the Ranger Base after a long trek, only to find representatives from two different factions - the Servants of the Mushroom Cloud and the Gippers. Both have recently discovered a disused oil refinery which dates from before the apocalypse, and blood has already been shed over control of it. The Servants want to make use of the space to start developing explosives, hoping to entrench themselves in the area, but their fanaticism means they are eager to keep the area free from nonbelievers. The Gippers, on the other hand, are interested in taking over the plant to refine their oil reserves, convinced it will help them provide power and fuel to the people in the area.

In both cases, there might be some common benefits (such as access to an additional source of income or a new ally for the Rangers), but your decision will ultimately depend upon what you value as a leader. Do you want to better keep the people in the area secure by granting control to a heavily armed faction, knowing that it also comes with the risk of the Servants introducing the populace to the Great Glow? Or do you value the improvements to quality of life and trade the Gippers might provide, at the risk of making the refinery a tempting target for savage warlords from the Plains?​

You'll have to make decisions and deal with the consequences arising from such situations. These consequences will affect the story, but there may also be considerations that are more material. For example, putting the Servants in charge of the refinery might grant you easier access to explosive weaponry, while the Gippers might give you a discount towards fuel and services for your vehicles. And given the tensions between the two groups, you can safely guess that there might be more violence later - with the Rangers now caught in the crossfire.

The Ranger Base is also a core part of our multiplayer gameplay loop. It will be your common hub for you and your buddy to refill your supplies, and it will also be where companions are managed... but we'll save that topic for another day.
The campaign is currently in its mid-period doldrums, but it has racked up enough social media achievements to unlock the Spitfire flame weapon described last week. The next reward is another weapon - the Emancipator, a powerful pistol that fires shotgun slugs.
 
Self-Ejected

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Instead, you'll be the sole survivor of Team November

Interesting change. Was the full party creation in WL2 too taxing for console players? Will they use this opportunity to make the player character fully voice acted? So many questions.
 

Infinitron

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As I noted previously, if the player was voice acted they probably would have put that in the "gameplay prototype".
 

Volourn

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They better still have a create your party thing or I am gonna be pissed. That is one of the big things that make WL different than its counterpart FO. Fo is about being the Chosen One with companions. WL is about a group of rangers. This shouldn't even be discussed.
 

4too

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FASHION FASCISTS

Will WL3 be a ‘one true RPG’ … or a commity conceptualized construct 4 mass consoling consumption?

We shall ALL cry a crocodile tear as we sojourn to THE BANK … (“”take me 2 the river and wash me down””) ...


Brother from another planet a.k.a. Volourn, Y my brofist?, your opinions are respected @ my drive way … preach on … :D


4too
 

Tigranes

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Ah, 4too. Like a crazy old coot turned ghoul, kept alive in a dank cave corner just to tell the PC his story, he must not die so long as Fallout is remembered.
 
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Instead, you'll be the sole survivor of Team November

Interesting change. Was the full party creation in WL2 too taxing for console players? Will they use this opportunity to make the player character fully voice acted? So many questions.

Sound very Dragon Age: Inquisition to me.

You're the chosen one.
You've got a keep where you make all your decisions.
And you build it all from ground.

On the other hand.. I really liked DA:I.
So... I think it's a good change.
 

acer palmatum

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Well, personally I don't care if I create one char in an RPG or 4 or 6 at start. If a member of my party dies I reload, wheter it is recruited or self made.
But what I will never understand: why change something that was good in the predecessor(s) and was one of it's specialties? 4+3 was pretty unique.

Well at least the last update gave the funding sum another push.
 

Apexeon

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They better still have a create your party thing or I am gonna be pissed. That is one of the big things that make WL different than its counterpart FO. Fo is about being the Chosen One with companions. WL is about a group of rangers. This shouldn't even be discussed.

Team America !

**** yer.
 

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Looking at the Fig page it seems that actual pledges are stuck around the $750,000 mark and the overall total is about 2.9 million. I'm torn between wanting it to do well so we have a potentially good game and wanting to send a message to inXile that their fancy new ideas are pretty poor and their attitude is bad. I think we need an exclusive interview to get it all off our collective chests, followed potentially by a wrestling-style smackdown. The Codex seems to have plenty of muscle-bound high-T athletes, and inXile has... well, it's not pretty.
 

J_C

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Looking at the Fig page it seems that actual pledges are stuck around the $750,000 mark and the overall total is about 2.9 million. I'm torn between wanting it to do well so we have a potentially good game and wanting to send a message to inXile that their fancy new ideas are pretty poor and their attitude is bad.

This has nothing to do with Inxile's attitude and poor ideas. Their games and company has good rep among gamers. At the current state of crowdfunding, this is how much a sequel of a niche RPG can get.
 

J_C

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Their games and company has good rep among gamers.

You mean the people who didn't pledge for WL2?
You assume that if someone pledged for WL2, he/she is automatically obliged to pledge for WL3 and every other KS project of Inxile. It is not the case. WL2 happened during the first big rush of KS, gamers were taken away by the hype and nostalgia. Today it is different, usually only the most hardcore fans pledge for projects. Even on the Codex there are people who said that they liked WL2 but they won't pledge because they had enough of crowdfunding.
 

Aenra

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J_C has it right, we've talked about this before. You can not expect a fourth and fifth KS campaign (regardless of the success of the previous ones) to be as profitable as the first one. There no longer is a nostalgia train, customers have already been served. There is instead a higher standard the studios are judged by and a fatigue/loss of novelty that inevitably affects gains.

Back to topic, i see words and the room they leave for hype, but not substance :)

Assume faction 'x' being one whose progress or destruction affects the player headquarters. We know that teams can split ingame, real time; assume then that team A does the 'negative' outcome for faction 'x', logs out because mommy cries out that dinner is ready. Team B however stays logged in, moves in to do the 'positive' outcome for said same faction.
What happens to the base in the above scenario?
(ie, to what an extent will there be phasing/instancing?) (with what compromises will it come, as players -should- be able to interact with one another inside it?) (do they even know? Yet?)

edit: worse yet, if the above is not feasible (ergo if Team A does 'negative' outcome, Team B is insta-locked in to it and never mind where they were/what they were up to at that given time), how/why the fuck are we even talking about multiplayer?
This can cause plenty of butthurt to those looking forward to it (key terms and the expectations they bring to the table) and plenty of butthurt to the rest of us not having cared about it; as it means money gone to shit.
 
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My bet would be that it is easier to design maps and encounters when you know for sure that most of the party will be made up out of characters that you created than leaving entire thing to the player. For example in Shadowrun games companions cover pretty much all bases, you can create completely retarded character and you'll still be fine because all key abilities and skills are available via your companions. You don't have to think "well, how player will go thru this map if he doesn't have a decker?" because he will have a decker that you created for him.
 

Morkar Left

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I backed for the early bird collectors edition but I'm really torn to cancel it. The mp hook, probably no party creation and snowy region leaves me not very interested in the sequel.

I had hoped for some talk about refining gameplay mechanics (e.g. water, overland travel, ressources, skill checks, additional equipment like shovels, skills, attributes, armor penetration).
So far the only convincing part for me is vehicles and getting Underrail for free.

Since I backed Torment and BT4 as well and they are still in development the most sensible choice would be to wait. Plus I still have a big collection of games waiting for me to play.
 

Mark Richard

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Instead, you'll be the sole survivor of Team November

Interesting change. Was the full party creation in WL2 too taxing for console players?

Funny, Expeditions: Viking made this choice too. Both are sequels to a game where you created you full party, and you now only make one character.
It was not possible to create party members in Expeditions: Conquistador. Instead you were given a large roster to choose from with pre-set traits that would trigger certain character events.
 
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inXile learned the lessons from the reception to PoE's stronghold loud and clear.

Meh, the stronghold didn’t work because it was a bare bone system made in a hurry, not because it required rebuilding and micromanagement. Crossroad Keep in NWN2 was cool. cRPGs can include diferent types of minigames if they are done right.
 
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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign
Instead, you'll be the sole survivor of Team November

Interesting change. Was the full party creation in WL2 too taxing for console players?

Funny, Expeditions: Viking made this choice too. Both are sequels to a game where you created you full party, and you now only make one character.
It was not possible to create party members in Expeditions: Conquistador. Instead you were given a large roster to choose from with pre-set traits that would trigger certain character events.

Hah, you're right. I misremembered.
 

Roguey

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Meh, the stronghold didn’t work because it was a bare bone system made in a hurry, not because it required rebuilding and micromanagement. Crossroad Keep in NWN2 was cool. cRPGs can include diferent types of minigames if they are done right.

I was referring to how they emphasized that it's going to be more about handmade content than systemic.
 

ArchAngel

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Seems Inxile learned a good lesson from PoE Stronghold failure and will do it better :)

They say it is good to learn from mistakes, but it is even better to learn from someone else mistakes :)
 

Volourn

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This talk about supporters of inexile and that bullshitz. Can't speak for others, but as someone who DIDN'T back WL2 and got it for free through PE KS, I liked it so much I KS BT4 and now this polus I actually paid for a copy of WL2 on GOG (cause GOG > Sthitstream).
 

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