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[PC] [MAC] Wasteland 2

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[PC] [MAC] Wasteland 2

Unread postby Pegote » 18 Oct 2012 22:55

Official website: http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/

The Kickstarter campaign ended in April but the developers started accepting donations again through their "Late Backer Store" at http://wasteland.inxile-entertainment.com/store. At 20 dollars for the cheapest donation option (it was 15 while the Kickstarter campaign was open), it's still a good time to pre-order.

I'm excited about this one.
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Unread postby dinopoke » 02 Feb 2013 10:22

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasteland_2

Wasteland 2 will be a turn-based and party-based role-playing game with tactical combat and an isometric view. The player's party will feature seven characters, split up into four player characters (Rangers) and three non-player characters. The Rangers will be highly customizable and the player's choice of statistics, skills and appearance will give the Rangers an individualized personality. The party will also include non-player characters, each with their own personality, motivations, opinions and agendas.


The game is set in an alternate history timeline, in which a nuclear holocaust took place in 1998 in relation to an impact event involving a cluster of meteors that sparked a global nuclear war. On the day of the cataclysm, a company of U.S. Army Engineers were in the desolate southwestern desert constructing bridges in an area with a number of small survivalist communities and a newly-constructed federal death row prison with light industrial facilities. The soldiers sought shelter in the prison, expelled the inmates and invited nearby survivalists to join them shortly thereafter. Years later, together they formed "the Desert Rangers, in the great tradition of the Texas and Arizona Rangers", to help other survivors in the desert and beyond it.


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inxile/wasteland-2

Wasteland 2 is the direct sequel to the first ever post-apocalyptic computer RPG. The original Wasteland was the inspiration for the FALLOUT series of games, and the first RPG to allow players to split parties for tactical considerations, to face players with moral choices, and to make them deal with the consequences of their actions. It was the first to provide far more than the one-key-for-one-lock style of puzzle solving. It was groundbreaking, which is why IGN named it one of the top 25 PC games of all time, Computer Gaming World named it the Adventure Game of the year in 1988, and it was short-listed for inclusion in the Smithsonian Institution’s current “Art of the Computer Game” exhibition.

Wasteland was set in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world in the American Southwest. Over the course of adventures rangers would receive promotions, acquire new skills and equipment, then face new challenges with outcomes that changed depending on the strategy used to defeat them. The game featured a strong storyline which required painful decisions by players; and a storyline that allowed for maximum re-playability. Wasteland 2, with your participation and insights, will recapture all that and provide more. It'll finally be the game worthy to be a Wasteland sequel, as challenging and rewarding as the original, with all added capacity and dazzle of games today.

For Wasteland 2, we’re getting the band back together again!. Brian Fargo who Executive Produced both Wasteland and Fallout will be heading the team. Alan Pavlish and Mike Stackpole—the original game’s primary designers—are coming back to put the project together, and we’re rounding up as many of the other designers, like Ken St. Andre, as we can. On top of that, we’ll have music by Mark Morgan of Fallout 1 and 2 fame. The storyline for Wasteland 2 was written by Jason Anderson who was the co-creator of Fallout. We have also enlisted the help of the amazing concept artist, Andree Wallin to help craft the Wasteland 2 world.


Estimated delivery: Oct 2013


Vision Document: http://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxMevjNS ... &sle=true#

Kickstarter Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGv-bFXkqJo
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Unread postby Steven Berg » 09 Feb 2013 15:15

The first demo video has been released: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/401940

http://vimeo.com/59292662

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We are very proud to provide the first gameplay video of Wasteland 2, which will allow our backers to see how far we've come and how everything is coming together. The usual way of doing things in this industry would see us create a demo specifically for displaying to the press or at game shows, but we're very glad to have been allowed the freedom to create a demo video from an actually playable area, which ensures there's no wasted code. This is a straight video capture of Development Director Chris Keenan playing the game. The only element that is not running in code is the sound effects, as it was faster to do in post, but as you will hear, there is nothing being done audio wise that isn't easily replicated in engine. In fact, we plan to have many more sound effects in the final game than what is heard here.

Wasteland 2 - Early Gameplay Footage

This represents not just the strong synergy of the inXile team but the effects of your continued input via the forums. The game has continued to improve thanks to this communication, and Wasteland 2 will be better for it. The benefits have ranged from changes to the combat mechanics to finalizing the name of our attribute system.

It also represents the success of working with Unity and the asset creation experiment we did to increase the variety and density of the world look. We were pleasantly surprised at the talent that submitted art content, and we look forward to continuing to work with them.

I’d also like to thank the military personnel who joined our Yammer group to help us develop the slang and communicate more real world experiences for us to draw on. We love to learn little things like how much they hate it when movies say “Over and out!”… There is no “out” after “over” dammit!

This first level you will see is one of the first areas you will encounter in the game. The agricultural center was also a part of Wasteland 1. It was an area that Chris Avellone had some affinity for and he did the design for the level. Also thanks goes out to Nathan Long, who provided this area’s clever writing. We had a chance to show Chris the level last week, and when we commented that it was coming together he said “not coming together … it has COME together.”

Our objective was to show off some of the HUD and how both the combat and skill systems work. There are many elements not represented here but to name a few:

* Minimal particle effects
* Minimal sound
* Mini-map not working
* Inventory, logbook and other character screens not shown
* Not all skills (in and out of combat) being represented
* No world map movement
* It needs more messaging in the UI
* And not a comprehensive list of all the combat variables

Sorry if we're over communicating, but it's just a reminder: we're just past the halfway mark, so don't expect to see everything that you can expect from the final game just quite yet.

You will get to listen to the latest track from Mark Morgan (at the bottom of this update) that sets the haunting and often desolate tone of the Wasteland. And you will hear our first pass at the radio broadcasting which plays a vital role in communication, reactivity and mood setting. There will be a host of cults who are broadcasting their propaganda while other calls will be the locals who seek the help of our rangers. We have many interesting ideas on how to use the radio in novel ways.

Our vision for this game remains intact and you will see a number of examples that illustrate this. The customization can be seen in the examples of bringing in your own portraits and by the ability to set the user interface in a style that works for you.

You wanted a party and turn based RPG with tactical combat, and we are delivering that. The demo helps to show off action points, use of cover, enemy view cones, distance/height/enemy size/enemy speed affecting the chance to hit, ammo configurations, attributes changing the characters strengths and role, simultaneous party firing and more. And we are not done adding elements to make sure you are fully engaged in an interesting combat system. There is still plenty of time for you to comment on the combat system and to help us hone it in. Our goal is to build a very deep combat system, with the potential to dive in and fine-tune your damage-output and tactics, while not absolutely requiring that level of micro-management from all players.

If you played Wasteland 1, you will enjoy the many callbacks to the original, but at the same time there is no need of that knowledge. While certainly not a comedy you will get a healthy dose of the humor that gave Wasteland its charm.
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Unread postby icycalm » 09 Feb 2013 16:20

That is some seriously good concept art. I'll watch the video later, but going from this thread at least, it looks like this game will deliver.
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Unread postby dinopoke » 11 Feb 2013 11:08

The demo video on Vimeo has been taken down. It has been uploaded to YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvNbuOenVPw
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Unread postby Steven Berg » 23 Feb 2013 15:29

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/412225

Game Camera

One aspect that seemed to get a lot of comments was the camera system. When you are watching a video it is hard to get a feel for how it works, because there is no way to know what the player is doing with the camera controls and what the game is handling automatically. We know that without a doubt, a bad camera system can ruin a game.

There are three main camera elements that we should explain. The first is the camera zoom level. There has been a lot of talk since the start of the project about top down versus isometric. By using the mouse wheel, the player can smoothly zoom from a tight isometric camera back to a wider isometric shot. By further zooming out, the camera moves from the wide isometric to an old school top-down shot. If you are the type of player that doesn’t want the camera angle to change, just leave it alone. If you like to see things from different heights, or from the top down, you have the option of rolling the mouse wheel at any point, in or out of combat, and see the world from the perspective you want.

The second camera function that was unclear in the video is the camera tracking system. The camera defaults to ‘follow mode’, which like many systems in Wasteland 2 can be turned off or on by the player at any time through the settings menu. In follow mode, the camera moves around the world with the party – there is no need to pan the camera to keep your character on screen. If your party is not all together, clicking the portrait of any character not on screen will either pan or jump to them, depending on how far away they are, then lock onto their movements as you walk or run them around the map. You can also override the “auto-follow” by using the arrow or WASD keys to pan the camera around the map. If you don’t like using keys to move the camera, then don’t worry about it – you will have an option to pan across the map by moving the mouse cursor to the edge of the screen. In all of these modes, even the pan speed is adjustable. If you don’t like any of these camera options, simply turn them off.

The last camera feature we want to explain is the ability to rotate the camera to view the scene from any direction. First, you can simply disable camera rotation – the levels have been designed so that you can play the entire game without having to change the camera’s orientation. For those that want to look around more, but don’t want to be burdened by a freely rotating camera, we have a mode that rotates the camera in 90 degree increments. This allows you to very quickly move between the West, North, East, and South views of the scene. If you want more freedom than that, you can unlock the rotation of the camera, which is what we used when creating the game-play video.

Heads Up Display

The second system that seemed to get a lot of comments was the HUD. Our HUD is made up of five elements: Character Portraits, Mini-Map, Action Bar, Hot Key Selector, and Description Text window. You can customize the HUD to create the setup most to your liking. Because we already need to make the HUD work for many different aspect ratios and display resolutions and because even we internally at inXile have different opinions as to how big or small certain elements should be, we are building each element in different sizes and shapes. You can select any of these for your default setup. It doesn’t matter if you want the minimalist version, the long skinny version, the short and wide version, or anything in between. We have it for you. On top of that, the Character Portraits, Mini-Map, and Hot Key Selector also have an Auto-Hide function that slides them on and off the screen as needed.

Keyword Dialog System

The last thing we want to talk about is the keyword dialog system. Many of our systems are designed to be a modern take on systems from the original Wasteland. We started with the Wasteland keyword system and updated it, adding layers of complexity that enable us to increase conversational reactivity.

The foundation of the keyword system is the player building up a keyword library through interaction with NPCs and the world. The keyword list starts out empty, and as you speak with NPCs they will reveal new keywords to you. If the revealed keyword is only of interest to that NPC, it will go into a local list. You can click on words in the keyword list to navigate through the conversation. If the revealed keyword has importance beyond that particular conversation, it is put into the regional keyword list. These keywords are of interest to most of the NPCs you encounter that region. A third option, which is never required, is to type something in – a nod to Wasteland 1’s system.

Keywords are also added to the keyword list through perception skill use and environmental description text. For example, if you use perception to examine an object in the world, your observations might reveal a new keyword. Or, if you explored the level and triggered the descriptor text of some object or feature, it too might unlock a keyword.

The NPC’s reaction to any given keyword can be affected by a number of factors including: the party composition, previous gameplay choices, previously used keywords, previous player responses to NPC questions, character skills, character attributes, item inventory, equipped weapons and armor, prior party actions, and CNPCs in the party. In other words, there isn't a one-to-one correlation between keywords and the NPC’s response.

It is important that the player listens to (reads) what the NPCs are saying, because often you can judge by their tone the right way to approach the conversation. For instance, in some cases using a keyword at a particular point of the conversation changes the NPC’s answer to other keywords, or even ends the conversation all together.

One of the suggestions from the fans was that the Ranger party should deliver a line of dialog instead of just barking a keyword. We really love this idea. Having full sentences creates a natural conversation flow. Additionally, this approach allows us to remove the ambiguity of keywords – holding your mouse over a keyword will show you a preview of the sentence your Rangers will say.

A working example:

NPC Bob, who is guarding some guns, has intro text that reveals two keywords he has more to say about. Clicking on Bob starts the dialog:

>NPC Bob – “Hey strangers, we don’t normally see people out so far into the wasteland. Be careful, it is really dangerous out here unless you are heavily armed.”

This introduces two keywords to the player that they can use to converse with NPC Bob, dangerous and armed. Using the keyword dangerous will prompt NPC Bob give you more information about what is up ahead.

>Ranger Party (keyword = dangerous) –“What is so dangerous about these canyons?”

>NPC Bob – “These canyons are crawling with the outcasts of every crappy society in the wasteland. You had better watch your step.”

Using the armed keyword will have NPC Bob tell you about a possible mission.

>Ranger Party (keyword = armed) –“How do you think we should be armed?”

>NPC Bob – “It is best to have a lot of hollow point ammo out here for all the mutant creatures wandering around. I just came from a cave at the end of that canyon where I found a half destroyed case of ammo. You are welcome to help yourself if you find them. You are going to need all the help you can get out here.”

It sounds promising enough, but if the party heads for that cave they will find themselves in an ambush from the Red Skorpion Militia.

If you had used perception on Bob before talking to him, and you passed the perception skill check, the examine text would have revealed that Bob has the insignia of the Red Skorpion militia tattooed on his neck under his collar. This would put Red Skorpion into your local keywords for your conversation with NPC Bob. Holding your mouse over Red Skorpion, shows the sentence, “I see you are a member of the Red Skorpions.” The Rangers already know that the Red Skorpions are out to get them so calling out Bob as being one can have several effects on the conversation.

For example, if you start the conversation by using Red Skorpion, Bob’s response would be to admit to being a member. Now when you mention armed, which had Bob give you the Trap/Mission before, he no longer tries to bait you, but he doesn’t warn you about it either:

>Ranger Party (keyword = Red Skorpions) –“I see you are a member of the Red Skorpions.”

>NPC Bob – “So what if I am? What are you going to do, shoot me just for having a tattoo?

>Ranger Party (keyword = armed) – “How do you think we should be armed?”

>NPC Bob – “Now that I think about it, I could really care less. Leave me alone and go bother someone else.”

Knowing that the Red Skorpions are your enemy, you might cleverly choose to hold off revealing to Bob that you know he is one. If you wait to use the Red Skorpion keyword until after you had used armed (in which Bob tries to lure you into the trap), Bob would cave and tell you everything:

>Ranger Party (keyword = armed) – “How do you think we should be armed?”

>NPC Bob – “It is best to have a lot of hollow point ammo out here for all the mutant creatures wandering around. I just came from a cave at the end of that canyon where I found a half destroyed case of ammo. You are welcome to help yourself if you find them. You are going to need all the help you can get out here.”

>Ranger Party (keyword = Red Skorpions) –“I see you are a member of the Red Skorpions.”

>NPC Bob – “Okay, okay, you caught me. Listen, don’t kill me, I am only following orders. There is a patrol of Skorpions on the rim of the canyon ahead and I was supposed to send you down there. Meow that I warned you please let me live!”

If you had explored the entire canyon before you got to Bob and you had found some blood stains on the ground you could use "blood stains" as a keyword and get Bob to inadvertently tell you about the cave full of loot he was looking for at the end of the yellow canyon.

>Ranger Party (keyword = blood stains) – “What can you tell us about the blood stains on the trail?”

>NPC Bob – “Oh, that was me. I was looking for a weapons stash I had heard about in that canyon and I was jumped by a pissed-off Honey Badger.”

This essentially gives you a hint to find an inconspicuous cave that you wouldn’t get from just the Bob’s original keywords.

Extending the above example, if your party had Red Skorpion armor equipped when you started that same conversation, it would change Bob’s intro text, and instead of him offering you keywords about dangerous and armed, he would just give you a line about how you are late to the ambush and the rest of the Skorpions are up ahead in the canyon.

If you also had Rick Baychowski, who is on good terms with the Red Skorpions, in your party as a CNPC, Bob would greet Rick in his intro line. He would also reveal the ambush up ahead, and tell the party they can find some ammo in a shed down the path to the right.

Events outside of the conversation can also unlock local keywords. For example, another NPC, Jim, might ask you to let Bob know his sister Sarah had just died. When then talking with Bob, he still delivers his intro line offering up the dangerous and armed keywords, but you also see the keyword Sarah. Holding the mouse over Sarah, you see the sentence “Jim just told me your sister is dead.” Clicking Sarah puts Bob into a panic and he runs away leaving you access to the gun cache. This might have been the only way to get those guns without killing Bob, and you couldn’t have done it if you didn’t talk to Jim first.

Keep in mind that in this example, you still had the option of shooting Bob in the head before any of this dialog happened. This would have had its own level of reactivity. It would have given you access to the guns he was guarding but brought the ambush fight to this location. Meanwhile, using stealth to quietly kill Bob before talking to him gets you the guns without the fight – though you might stumble into the ambush later unless you learn about it another way.
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Unread postby Qpo » 01 Jun 2013 14:46

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Unread postby Tain » 11 Jul 2013 20:32

Deep Silver will be publishing a physical release: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... nd-2/posts

inXile partners with Deep Silver to distribute Wasteland 2

inXile Entertainment and Deep Silver today announced a distribution deal for inXile’s upcoming cRPG Wasteland 2. Deep Silver is a veteran publisher and already a long-standing partner for inXile.

inXile is currently working on Wasteland 2 and Torment: Tides of Numenera, both funded via the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.

The deal allows inXile Entertainment to focus on all creative aspects of developing the game, while Deep Silver handles the retail release of the game and the physical good fulfillment for the Kickstarter backers.

“This is a perfect opportunity for inXile: it allows us to continue to focus all of our energy and money into the creative aspects of the game while letting Deep Silver take our game outside of the pure digital space. This has the added bonus of allowing us to spend more of the Kickstarter funds on development while continue to retain all ownership and control”, says Brian Fargo, CEO inXile Entertainment. “I’ve known the people at Deep Silver for many years and they have always been a first rate organization to deal with.”

Deep Silver will also assist inXile in the QA testing of the localized international versions of the game.

“The uber-successful crowdfunding of Wasteland 2 through Brian Fargo and his team has shown how much interest for an RPG with traditional values still exists on consumers’ side aside from what large publishers think the market needs. Deep Silver is very happy to support inXile Entertainment in bringing Wasteland 2 to the retail market”, comments Klemens Kundratitz, CEO of Koch Media.

Questions...

Can Deep Silver make any changes to the game?

No, we’re retaining creative control. Thanks to our backers, we’re fully funded and free to implement our own creative vision, and directly communicate with our backers and crowdsource ideas.

So this is good news?

Absolutely! For inXile, we always intended to use a third party to handle these matters, as we are simply too small a studio to be capable of handling all the award fulfillment details from a practical standpoint. By finding the right partner, we gain not just time: it also frees up financial resources for us as they are more efficient at handling physical fulfillment than we would be. All of that time and funding saved will go right back into the game. We’ll also benefit from additional support from Deep Silver on things like international version QA.

For our backers and fans, it assures you that distribution will be handled professionally and quickly, and will assure a smooth experience for getting the game and goodies into your hands. This deal also allows us to put a retail version on the shelves, so people who discover the game later can still get a physical copy. The digital distribution and sales are still being handled by inXile.

Does this change anything about inXile’s plans in DRM or DLC/expansions?

Not at all, that too remains in our control. Deep Silver is a perfect partner for this: they have no interest in interfering with our promises when it comes to DRM-free release or any future plans we may have for expansions, all our previous promises on these stand. So the only real impact for our backers is that the physical goods fulfillment is in good hands.
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Unread postby icycalm » 01 Aug 2013 01:04

http://www.vg247.com/2013/07/31/wastela ... ssibility/

Wasteland 2 duplicate playthroughs a “virtual impossibility”

It’s extremely unlikely that two players will have the same experience in Wasteland 2, inXile has claimed.

20121030_wasteland_2_art1.jpg


Speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, inXile founder Brian Fargo pomised that choices really matter in Wasteland 2. It’s not just cosmetic reactivity, he said; that’s a “magician’s trick” where you end up “getting the same thing” whatever you choose.

“It’s not that. It’s a virtual impossibility for two people to have the exact same experience of the game,” he said.

Project lead Chris Keenan said inXile isn’t “shy” about “shutting off entire levels of gameplay”. “We really wanted to make that happen,” he said.

InXile president Matt Findley said these potentially shut off sequences are quite a substantial portion of the game’s content.

“We have so many sequences. About half the game, most people will never see,” he said.

“We’re not afraid at all to create content that’s off the critical path or can be closed off permanently.”

“You can shoot or kill anybody in the whole game. That in itself [is huge],” Fargo added.

“If someone joins your party, you can kick them out, kill them, whatever you want. There’s whole sequences you’re not gonna see later because you offed the guy. We just deal with it. There’s no replacement – no NPC that joins you and acts just like him functionally. He’s out. You’re just not gonna see it.

“On the biggest level, there will be areas that will be completely different. Gone, destroyed. There’s not one just like it to make up for it. It’s just gone.”

Wasteland 2 was recently delayed; it will go into beta in October, after which inXile will be able to set a new release date.

Thanks, PCGamesN.


Awe.

Some.
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Unread postby Steven Berg » 28 Aug 2013 16:07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdmGthYqTbo

Chris Keenan here for another update. We promised you a new video, and here it is, a twenty minute video walking through the Prison area.

We know there are a few hitches in the video, unfortunately we weren't going to be able to get rid
of them without delaying the video, so we prioritized getting this video to you.

The Prison is the 4th or 5th area in the game depending on how you approach it. Wasteland 2 is an open game so potentially, you could travel straight to it if you want a real challenge... but it probably won’t go so well. This area was not built purely for demoing purposes and it is a straight video capture. While the level will be further polished and improved (we’re missing a bunch of sounds among other things), it gives you a sense of the final game flow. The level was the winner of an internal competition process (as mentioned last update). This is only a tiny fraction of the game which is very hard to show in a 20 minute update. It represents about 1/3rd of the prison map and isn’t even one of the larger levels, so you can imagine it can be tricky for us to share enough without too many spoilers or overwhelming you.

Another particular focus of the video is showing the game’s progression, which highlights the back-and-forth communication with you, our backers. From the renaming of the characteristics into the CLASSIC acronym to our multiple iterations on the UI based on very direct but very useful feedback from our fans (and it is still customizable to your tastes, for example you can configure the text window depending on how much you want it to show). It’s safe to say that even apart the crowdfunding that started all this, the game would not be in the state it’s in without your input!

But internal and external feedback aside, it is absolutely key to us to stay true to the game as described in the Vision Document we released early in this game’s development cycle. This video is only a short look at one area, but if you watch it with the Vision Document side-by-side, I think you’ll find we’re touching on every point we promised. We hope you’re as happy with our progress as we are.
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Unread postby Masahiro9891 » 20 Oct 2013 22:06

http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/19/wastela ... ys-to-die/

Wasteland 2 update reveals world map, various ways to die

Wasteland 2 producer Montgomery Markland has posted an update on the game’s Kickstarter page, showing the world map and discussing some the situations players will come across when venturing around on it.

wasteland-2-thug.png


According to Markland, travel on the world map is limited by both “physical geography and clouds of deadly radiation,” so with these constraints in mind, players will need to look for alternative means of exploration while in this game mode.

“Primary exploration occurs in a 3D map that shows your immediate surrounding environment with representative scale and geographic features of the region,” he said. “Significant locations, settlements and sites reveal themselves as you scout around. The 3D exploration is in the same style and pattern as Mount & Blade and Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir.

“While in the 3D world map, you can press “M” to bring up a 2D map displaying the entire region. This 2D regional map automatically updates with locations you have either explored yourself, or have been informed of by another Wastelander.

“As you discover radiation zones they are marked on your map In Arizona, locations generally match their canonical layout from Wasteland 1. The map is filled with key locations you will discover through regular playthroughs; but significant sections of the map are side exploration opportunities. There is plenty of space to wander around, discover hidden resources based on your character’s build, fight random encounters and discover minor sites that may be explored in normal game mode.”

Players will discover settlements, sites and resources on the map as they venture out, and with the Wasteland being such a dangerous place, they will also come across several threats such as dying of dehydration. Players will need to be well versed in water management as the water supply is based upon the number of rangers in their squad and the number of canteens among them.

Radiation poisoning is another way to kick the bucket, so players will need to pay close attention to their Geiger counter. There is also the possibility they will be murdered by the other inhabitants of the Wasteland, but that part is a bit of a given due to the random encounter system tossing all sorts of dangerous animals, mutants, raiders and robots at you.

If you head through to the Kickstarter page, you can read up on all the above as well as find out more information on skills and abilities, difficulty and more.

inXile Entertainment has distributed standalone copies of the Early Beta to a small group of external individuals as a test run, and once it’s found the early test works on a variety of machines, the Early Beta will be distributed through Steam.
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Unread postby icycalm » 13 Dec 2013 15:49

Brian Fargo wrote:Building a Better Beta - Right Now!

It’s hard to believe we're finally at a place where we're ready to put a playable version of Wasteland 2 into your hands, but today's the day. What a road it has been to get here.

It has been an enlightening experience learning what is entailed with this new transparent development process. I admit it isn’t easy to release code before it’s complete, as I have hundreds of issues on my list still to be addressed, but it’s time for the next phase. All backers eligible for the beta from your original pledge (that is, any tier of $55 or more except the $60 late backer box) or an add-on can now log in to your Ranger Center account and retrieve your Steam key for the Wasteland 2 beta. You’ll find it at the bottom of your Donations page. I should also note that we've had quite a few requests to offer the game on Steam Early Access, which we will do after our backers have had first crack at it.


Continues here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/inx ... sts/691853
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Unread postby dinopoke » 16 Dec 2013 05:30

The beta is out on Steam Early Access as well.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/240760/

We’re starting out at $59.99 and you’re going to get a lot for your money over time, including a truckload of digital extras, including:

-- A free copy of Wasteland 1 - The Original Classic
-- Two digital novellas set in The Wasteland world
-- Mark Morgan's Wasteland 2 OST in digital format
-- A digital concept art book

* We expect the final release price will be lower, but the free copy of Wasteland 1 and the extra goodies are exclusive to Early Access
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Unread postby shubn » 25 May 2014 00:02

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Unread postby icycalm » 26 May 2014 00:39

In the NeoGAF thread about this video people are throwing out words like "parody", "goofy", "clowny" and "amateurish" about the narrator.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=824794

It just boggles my mind. The video and the narrator are obviously meant 100% seriously and are obviously 100% professional. If anything, the video's low budget clashes with the 100% professional and serious voice of the narrator. There has never been a more serious narrator in the history of narration!

None of those people seem to have the ability to appropriately interpret aesthetic signals. Animals would do a better job at it, I have no doubt.
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Unread postby Texas » 06 Aug 2014 19:19

How to be an Asshole in Wasteland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU1M50LlsUk

The video shows, among other things, how ordering a drink and complaining about it can open a new path in the story.
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Unread postby earthboundtrev » 19 Aug 2014 23:00

https://twitter.com/BrianFargo/status/5 ... 6226654210

Brian Fargo wrote:Official Wasteland 2 release date... September 19th! The 20+ year wait is soon over.
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Unread postby icycalm » 21 Sep 2014 15:29

Launch Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jn0B8fVfWFI

The Hanged Man was saying last night that the game looks crap, but after seeing that trailer full screen on a 15-inch laptop monitor, I'd go as far as to even say it looks great. Great when it's fully zoomed out, and pretty good too, all things considered, when it's zoomed in. Don't know how it would look on a larger screen, but if it indeed looks crap... well, play it on a smaller screen then.

It's number 2 on Steam's Top Sellers list, by the way, and it's 22 frigging gigabytes, which is why I haven't installed it already.
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Unread postby Qpo » 20 Nov 2014 06:30

http://culture.vg/reviews/in-depth/wasteland-2-2014-pc/

Kar-Chee wrote:You don't even have much of an avatar picture choice when creating your characters. And some of those pictures are later used in the game on other characters!


There are a few good female avatars, but I need to match my avatars to my models and ALL of the female faces you can choose are HORRIBLY ugly. You can use a snapshot of your model's head as avatar picture, but it's not an option since it looks like shit. The only female characters at all possible to use are ones wearing a gas mask. Luckily there are two types of gas masks to choose as face, so you can have up to two female characters, both with a pretty well matching avatar picture of a good face wearing a similar gas mask.

Of the male avatar pictures there wasn't a single I liked that I could make a matching model to, which is what drove me to find packs of avatar pictures online. After downloading them it was possible to make a pair of decent male characters.

So faces and avatar pictures are bad but workable (took me a lot of time though), but how picking hair works is terrible. You see, you don't get to pick hair type, then color, and then yes/no if you want a beard. Instead, every hair type comes with ONE color only, so if you want, say, blonde hair, that will also pick your hair style. Beards are baked into your choice of face, and there's no good face with a beard. Hats are baked into your choice of hair, so if you e.g. want a cowboy hat that will mean you'll have long black hair hanging down your neck. Matching hair, face and hat with a good avatar picture in this game isn't easy.

Making things worse is that there are goofy options. As male you can for pants choose to run around in purple pantyhose and garter belt. If that's not up your alley there are half a dozen pants that looks to be made out of a potato bag. Any upper body clothes that doesn't hide your scrawny, malnourished physique also goes out the window. Making one's model fit the setting is a good idea, can't have beefcakes running around a supposed wasteland, but their execution of it is bad, even depressing, going way too far. (We're still in America — post-nuclear wasteland or not — and not fucking Africa, right?) The one good thing is the Packs option, allowing you to pick from a couple of different backpacks and assorted smaller packs on your hips. It fits and looks cool on mechanic-type characters.

Splitting up hair style, color, facial hair, starting hat and face into different choices is obvious. There aren't many cool avatars, and the ones that exist are hard to match model-wise. Also, the window showing your model is poorly lit and you can't zoom in it. In sum the character creation sucks, feeling rushed and cheap, and demanding way too much time to get through. (And I haven't even got so far that other characters have the same avatar picture as me yet.)
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