Update #85: Hunkerin' Down and Hey, Wasteland 2 is Out!

Discussion in 'News Comments' started by Dark Elf, Sep 22, 2014.

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  1. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    Update by Darren Monahan, Fulfillment Fellow and Obsidian Co-founder

    Hi everyone,

    With the backer beta out now, and the *con season (Gamescom, PAX, Gen Con, et al.) coming to a close for the year, we wanted to give you an update on what we've been up to. We’re busy working on three big things: 1) getting everything on the fulfillment side ready to go, 2) working through many changes and improvements based on feedback from folks playing the backer beta, and 3) wrapping up the game proper.

    Fulfillment
    As of this week, we’re busy finishing and/or approving all of the final designs for nearly all of the physical rewards so production can begin. It’s very exciting to see this all coming together and often isn't part of the process we get to be involved in at such a deep level on our other projects. It’s one thing to have a playable game here in the studio that we continually maintain – it’s another to be able to really help design the look, feel, and content of every little bit of what comprises a game that ultimately will ship out to you.

    Here’s a sample of what the collector’s edition box is going to look like for backers:


    [​IMG]

    In future updates we’ll show some of the other goodies.

    We’ve been working really closely with the great folks at Dark Horse who are putting together the finishing touches on the amazing Collector’s Book for the game, and the equally great folks at Prima are busy working on the strategy guide. We’re working with the same author from the Fallout: New Vegas strategy guide, which we’re very excited about!

    Backer Beta Feedback
    A very big THANK YOU to all of those playing the backer beta and providing feedback on our forums! We’re focusing on a lot of changes right now based on your feedback – big improvements to pathfinding and combat, some significant changes to scouting and stealth and how they work, and we’re doing a lot of reviews on the game’s UI and overall presentation to improve the experience. Expect to see a lot of changes coming in on the beta over the coming weeks. Again, thank you to all of you providing feedback – we really appreciate it. We have folks internally who are scouring every single post and thread daily to move bugs and other feedback into our bug tracking system internally.

    Wrapping the Game Up
    Over the next several weeks, the team is focusing on a couple key things: area and quest finalization and plowing through the many final tasks and bugs. To keep things “old school”, we’re even employing the Quest Whiteboard of Baldur’s Gate 2 and Icewind Dale fame, where all of the quests in the game are posted on a very visible whiteboard in the office, and designers and QA fight (to the death?!) to certify that quests are 100% done and clean, by removing the evil X’s in their respective department columns. In this case, two X’s enter, ZERO X’s leave. That’s the goal anyway. Here it is as it was finished being set up - note, each item on this board can have many steps and states that all have to be checked before the X can come off for the entire thing.
     
    [​IMG]

    We’ll be back in a couple weeks with some more pics of other physical rewards and an update on how we’re doing. Have a great weekend!


    Wasteland 2 is Out!
    [​IMG]

    By the way, since today is Friday, September 19th – Wasteland 2 is now shipping!

    Congratulations to our good friends and fellow ex-Interplay/Black Islanders over at inXile Entertainment on their release today of Wasteland 2! I know what I’ll be doing this weekend – hopefully you’ll be doing the same!

    If you’re not familiar with Wasteland 2, it’s the modern follow up to the granddaddy of post-apocalyptic RPG’s, Wasteland; it’s actually one of the games that heavily inspired me to first apply at Interplay back in 1994. It’s exciting to see it come out and that so many backers, like many of you, were a big part of it being made in the first place.

    Head over to the Wasteland 2 Steam page to check it out.

    If you’re one of the folks who gets a copy of the game as a reward for one of your Pillars of Eternity tiers, the Steam version is available immediately, and for those of you who prefer to get the game on GOG, we’ll have an announcement shortly once we have those keys ready for distribution.

    Again, congrats to the team at inXile!
     
  2. Ruda

    Ruda Active Member

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    So I'm confused. I started trying Wasteland 2 and as far as I understand there is absolutely no connection between attributes and skills. It seems that you can max out your Brute Force skill regardless of your Strength and level up Smart Ass, Kiss Ass and Leadership no matter your Intelligence or even Charisma. Is this correct? It would certainly simplify the character creation to the point of, err, simplicity. There seems little reason not to max out Intelligence (just as in FO 1&2) since an extra skill point spent on Assault Rifles does more for your combat abilities than high coordination. Even your team brawler has better use for IN than ST since he can level up his Brute Force and Brawling faster. Can someone shed some light on this?

     
  3. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

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    I can't speak for Wasteland 2, but in the World of Darkness roleplaying system they're also separate and this is justified; imagine the guy who's great at martial art techniques but who is a complete weed or someone who knows how to diffuse a heated social situation - not because they're particularly innately charismatic - but because they've learnt how to manage those situations. It may be that they wanted this kind of dynamic, but implemented it poorly if - like in the original Fallouts - skill points from intelligence dwarf much of the usefulness of many of the other attributes.

    I'm just guessing though, maybe someone else kept a better eye on the development process and would know for sure.
     
  4. Philes

    Philes Well-Known Member

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    Re:

    I'm playing the game and have the same question actually.

    If it's true I'm tempted to remake all my characters because not making INT is basically VASTLY suboptimal to the tune of 50% (or more) less skill points across a character.
     
  5. Jungle Japes

    Jungle Japes Well-Known Member

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    Re: Re:

    What else is new?
     
  6. wobbler

    wobbler Well-Known Member

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    I've fiugured that maxxing out int is bad. 4 is the number.

    4 inte gives you 3 skill points/ level
    you need 8 inte to get 4 sp/level.

    But yes, that is the xase.
     
  7. Philes

    Philes Well-Known Member

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    Re: Re:

    Man, I didn't even realize it as I was typing it..... I have a real problem guys.
     
  8. Jungle Japes

    Jungle Japes Well-Known Member

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    I've completed a play-through of the game and I thought I'd share some power-gaming thoughts:

    On Attributes
    I went with the max-intelligence build for all four rangers. By the end of the game, I was dumping points into leadership. 8 intelligence (4 SP per level) is probably adequate to max all the skills you really need. 4 INT should be fine if you're okay with missing out on some loot/quest path options in favor of better combat stats. Whatever combo you decide on, you'll want to make sure your (STR+SPD+INT) total is a multiple of 4, because that is one of two factors that decide your Action Point total. The other is Coordination (1 AP per 2 points of Coordination). I would STRONGLY advise that you settle on a build that gives you 10 AP; the difference between 10 AP and anything less is basically a half-attack per turn. My rangers all had 10, and their combat effectiveness was much greater than the recruitable NPC's I picked up who had 8 or 9. Equally important to maximizing effectiveness is Combat Initiative, which determines how often you sequence in combat. Shoot for 10 or 11 at character gen. You'll earn an additional attribute point every ten levels; plan on putting them in Awareness to maximize your CI. Failure to do so could result in enemies sequencing earlier and oftener than your rangers, which is no bueno. Luck and Charisma are your dump stats; dump the shit out of them.

    On Combat Skills
    7 levels in a weapon skill is adequate, 8 is optimal, 9 or 10 is wasteful. Enemies don't get any harder to hit with improved armor, so once your skill is in a range where you're hitting almost every shot, there's no need to improve it further.

    Melee skills are useful early on when ammo is scarce, but once you clear that hump, their usefulness drops off big time. Still good late-game for flushing an enemy out from cover, but you'll get a lot more use out of your ranged weapons. Especially since the just-released patch fixed a bug where enemies could move an unlimited distance and close to within melee range in a single turn every time.

    Assault rifles are the workhorses. They have consistently good damage output, they can burst fire, their range rivals that of sniper rifles, and they support a full range of upgrades (barrel, under-barrel, scope, magazine). Ammo isn't cheap, but it's pretty easy to come by.

    Sniper rifles vary in effectiveness at different points in the game, depending on what tier of weaponry you're packing, but are generally quite effective. Stick with the ones with an AP cost of 5, so you can get off two shots per turn. Or, if your sniper has less than 10 AP, go with whatever has the highest damage/armor penetration.

    Shotguns are ideal for crowd control early on against lightly armored opponents, though it can be difficult to get your shotgunner into a good firing position that won't risk friendly fire.

    SMGs are similar to shotguns, but with less FF risk and less crowd control. Their poor range and armor pen will leave you craving an assault rifle.

    Energy weapons are mostly useless early on, and indispensable late-game. Each has an 'armor threshold' value, and generally shouldn't be used against enemies whose armor is equal to or less than the threshold. Against enemies with armor higher than the threshold, they deal 2.2-2.4x dmg. That being said, if you know you're about to fight enemies who are packing energy weapons, take your armor off! By the end of the game, all of my rangers were carrying energy weapons as their secondary, except for my sniper/heavy gunner.

    I didn't bother with Heavy Weapons till late-game, and didn't get a whole lot of use out of them even then, but they do have their uses.

    On Non-combat Skills
    Perception and Demolitions will be your most frequently used skills. It's convenient if you have them on the same person, but not strictly necessary.

    Safecrack also gets a ton of use; there's lots of safes in the wasteland, though few of them contain quest items or anything of surpassing value. Most of them just contain a handful of scrap and bullets.

    Weaponsmithing is indispensable. Get it. Max it.

    Lockpicking is pretty useful, though I'm not sure I would call it critical. Its usefulness increases throughout the game as locks become more common and more difficult.

    Alarm disarming is rarely used, since alarm systems are rare. If you feel you must disarm them, take it. If not, leave it.

    Computer science is fairly handy. It can crack safes with electronic locks, and plays a role in some quests. There is a short window in the game where it is VERY useful for hacking enemy robots; prior to the window there aren't many enemy robots, and after it the robots are difficult or impossible to hack, even with max skill.

    Toaster repair is surprisingly useful, but not a necessity.

    You'll want a good field medic. Surgeon is necessary, but you can skate by with one or two levels; just stock up on basic trauma packs to keep fallen comrades from bleeding out. It's also not a bad idea to have two surgeons; if your only surgeon is the one bleeding out, it's the end of the line for him. And anyone else who went down in the fight.

    Outdoorsman gives you a chance to flee from random encounters. If you must have it, some recruited NPCs have points in it.

    If you don't mind your recruited NPCs doing their own thing in combat from time to time, don't bother with leadership.

    If you simply must have every dialogue option available, you're going to spend 132 skill points maxing all three -ass skills, and they won't see a ton of use.

    Barter, animal whisperer, mechanical repair and brute force are all skills you'll be fine without. If you encounter a barrier that can be forced, shoot it or hit it with a melee weapon. If that doesn't work, use a grenade. Just know that whatever lies on the other side is probably worth less than the grenade you used to get to it.
     
  9. Philes

    Philes Well-Known Member

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    Real life has been a bitch lately so I haven't had as much time for WL2, but I plan on getting back in soon.

    Thanks for the info Japes, much appreciated.
     
  10. Jungle Japes

    Jungle Japes Well-Known Member

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    Re:

    No problem. Just don't think I'm condoning your restarting behavior.
     
  11. Philes

    Philes Well-Known Member

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    The real question is: when I start playing again this weekend will I continue with my party of all 10 INT dudes, or start a new one with 8 and 4 splits?

    HRM?

    HRMMMMMMMMMMMM
     
  12. Jungle Japes

    Jungle Japes Well-Known Member

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    Stick with 10. That way you can max pretty much everything and have access to all quest/loot options for that first playthrough, while enjoying slightly more challenging combat. If you go with optimal attribute point distribution, you would just put those last two points into speed instead of intelligence, giving you +1 combat initiative and some extra combat speed. So your combat life would be slightly easier at the cost of approximately one maxed skill per ranger by endgame, and a game restart. So press on!
     
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