Wasteland 2 is looking more awesome by the update

[Jumpem]

I got an email back from Deep Silver: "The Ranger Edition is specific to Europe."

A later reply: "In short - It has to do with the licensing and rights to the game, in addition to other business decisions from HQ. If you plan to purchase the Ranger edition from Europe, keep in mind that the activation/registration key for the game will not work in US, but you would have the physical items. "

 

[DigDog]

you can get the manual in PDF form from google. It doesn't really have much more info than the game does;

I imagine things will change dramatically with patch 2, since i'm reading a lot of "what does luck do" and "why are these stats incorrect" posts around the web.

 

[DigDog]

so, i just cleared the outside part of Prison, and i'm getting whopped by slicer-dicers in teh abandoned railway, and tips on how to buy better guns?

 

[Coalfax]

You can come back later to that are if you wish. There isnt much to be gained except experience in how to deal with robots there...

If you have a good comp Sci char, they can hack em you know...

 

[bguile]

Well, I finally managed to finish it (on seasoned). Not as good as I was hoping, but for the most part it felt like a decent sequel. Very grindy. Bugs, unfinished areas, and endless amounts of locked and trapped boxes were downers, but really weird design descions is what bothered me the most. Why is bashing even a skill, and why doesn't strength have any thing to do with it? Why can I not modify heavy weapons, but I can modify blunt weapons? Stuff like that is what bothered me the most. Maybe after a few patches and if they release mod tools I might come back and try it again.

Glad I got to see the sequel though.

 

[exar333]

Well, I finally managed to finish it (on seasoned). Not as good as I was hoping, but for the most part it felt like a decent sequel. Very grindy. Bugs, unfinished areas, and endless amounts of locked and trapped boxes were downers, but really weird design descions is what bothered me the most. Why is bashing even a skill, and why doesn't strength have any thing to do with it? Why can I not modify heavy weapons, but I can modify blunt weapons? Stuff like that is what bothered me the most. Maybe after a few patches and if they release mod tools I might come back and try it again.

Glad I got to see the sequel though.

I am about 15 hours in and feel the same way. I was eager to play it, but felt like I would enjoy it more if I played it in ~year. In some ways, a lot like when I played FO3. It was a lot of fun, but was a lot more polished after a year later with most bugs resolved.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I am about 15 hours in and feel the same way. I was eager to play it, but felt like I would enjoy it more if I played it in ~year. In some ways, a lot like when I played FO3. It was a lot of fun, bug was a lot more polished after a good amount of time later.

Once again it is better to just wait and buy the game for a few dollars on a steam sell a year later. I wonder how long the 'release and patch' can continue before we all learn to never buy a new game?

 

[exar333]

Once again it is better to just wait and buy the game for a few dollars on a steam sell a year later. I wonder how long the 'release and patch' can continue before we all learn to never buy a new game?

Very true...

I find myself wanting to wait more and more, especially because I prefer more complex, SP, RPG type games that often are buggy at launch. That's the price we pay these days I guess.

It is hard to wait though, with some releases, because you want to play it so much.

 

[Slappy00]

so, i just cleared the outside part of Prison, and i'm getting whopped by slicer-dicers in teh abandoned railway, and tips on how to buy better guns?

You slowly start getting better guns by the end of the first part of the game (not giving it awy but you know when it comes). That particular area was hard because the slicers have armor and they get some gnarly AOE attacks. You are gonna need good guns (energy weapons, rocket launchers, heavy weapons) and good armor (I had 4-5 at the time).

THe payoff isn't all that, but I cleared it outta principle.

 

[clok1966]

I have to agree with the Negative people, so much love for this and so far I find it lacking. I played with a balanced set of characters (beta I will admit) and had it on the normal setting and felt it was awful hard. tactics didn't seem to be rewarded very well and I simply didn't enjoy it. Now that's it officially out I loaded it again, i read a comment on charisma being worthless as well as luck so I dumped both stats and pumped up Int. On normal this time the game is a cake walk, either changed from beta or those stat changes made all the difference in the world. I still see "luck" pop up when shooting so even with 1 luck it seems to fire off quite a bit (whatever its doing?) I know the int and extra points is HUGE. See some complaints on ammo, I agree, i had ammo problems in Beta, now, none, again I use less as I kill sooner.

This game is pretty harsh if you try to "Jack of all, master of none" on stats. And you cant on skills. But I find the , park all but one (with sniper) move in and shoot and fall back makes almost all encounters trivial. Pure numbers can get ugly (prison for example where 4 or 5 party members take on approx 12-16 all who can attack each round. But the extra stats kept um all over half health through whole fight. Even taking on the large round black robots way to early was no problem.. (sorry trying not to get to specific and ruin game).

I like it but its flawed in many ways, early stats make it to easy. yes i can ramp it up, and have, it does get much harder.

my advice, dump charisma and luck, pump Int. DO NOT use edged weapons (yes im running a character that is a meat shield and does no damage, blunt is much better)

and thanks, I wondered why my followers where dumb azz, I have nobody with leadership.. I may have to change that. Guess the user was the Dumbazz here.

 

[DigDog]

i didnt clear it

it hurts me to leave an area w/o clearing it first, i don't think iv'e done that in years, but i can see from the very first encounter i wasn't ready for it.

i went through the canyon, took me forever since my monk died. but i appreciate the writing and scripting wasn't as bad as i thought it would be, so although it took me forever to get all six of "you know what", i managed to make it on the other side.

i found some 7.62mm guns, but i'm not really ready to move on to those since i dont have enough ammo.

i'm not stripping guns anymore, i'm getting comfortable with my $5k. got some good drops, managed to upgrade some combat skills, and i have a melee-only follower which dishes out 100+ damage per round, all tnx to blades+knife+griptape.

so pissed off that my main NPC had to be called back for a mission, hope to get it back asap.


all in all, it's an ok game. it's slow both in combat and exploration, and although it has some nice touches, i would give it a 6/10.

 

[fixbsod]

Anyone else find this game lacking ?? Dumped about 12-14 hours in it this weekend and while I will likely muck thru it I've found it not as enjoyable as I had expected. (Believe me if I had something more enjoyable to play I would, got any recommendations?? =P) I cut my teeth on these types of games back in the 90s with Jagged Alliance and still feel like Jagged Alliance 2 blows doors off this game ALL DAY LONG.

My biggest gripe is the lack of any personalities by your mercs -- when I first started there were no pre-set mercs, no problem, but as such they give them no personality or traits. My group feels hollow and empty, I used a Mangler (RPG) early on and wiped out 3 or 4 baddies at once -- no reaction from the group, not even a "wicked" or "whoa." There is no group interaction, no traits, no nada. The loot, turn based combat and micro managing feel fairly fleshed out and are enjoyable, but it feels like Half Life as an RPG - no voice, no personality no nothing just running around killing stuff with melee.

 

[Ganeedi]

I respect all the opinions, but i am still enjoying it, flaws and all.

Patch incoming end of this week (no notes up yet).

 

[exar333]

How do you guys compare this game with Shadowrun: Returns? I enjoy both titles, but I think I enjoyed SR:R more myself. It had more 'style' and polish vs. WL2. I will give WL2 points for having a LOT more content though...

I am not usually a huge fan of 'episodic' content, but in the case of SR:R, it has worked well. I prefer a smaller, more polished game that continues to expand vs. a buggy game. That said, if you play the game 1-2 years later, the tables may be turned.

 

[Worthington]

I would have said the opposite.. I got bored of ShadowRun well before Wasteland 2.

 

[Phynaz]

Waiting for the patch before playing myself.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I would have said the opposite.. I got bored of ShadowRun well before Wasteland 2.

The two are very different types of games.

Shadowrun Returns is a RPG trimmed down to it's minimum essentials, almost a point and click adventure with some turn based combat tossed in. Straightforward conversations, fairly simply combat mechanics, almost non-existent equipment and loot system, and an interesting but short story.

Wasteland 2 is a medium RPG, it has a fairly complex conversation system, a medium complex combat system, a medium complex equipment and loot system, and a long and complex story (from what I've seen so far).

I would like to add XCOM: Enemy Unknown to this. It is a RPG with most of the RP elements stripped out. It's story is simple and straightforward, but it has a complex combat and a nearly ridiculously complex equipment and loot system (when you stop and consider that the base is just one complex equipment system).

Each of these are fun if you take it for what it is. You don't play XCOM expecting to see a great story, you don't expect a highly tactical and strategic combat out of Wasteland 2, and you don't expect a long complex campaign out of Shadowrun.

 

[Worthington]

I can agree with all that

 

[Mopetar]

They do need to balance the attributes.

Having 8 points into Intelligence seems practically mandatory and only one character really needs a good Charisma score for the Leadership bonuses. Beyond that Awareness is the only really necessary stat for the increased turn rate in combat and having enough Strength to wear certain types of armor. Luck doesn't seem particularly useful, and neither is Speed if you have mostly ranged characters that are staying behind cover and waiting for enemies to come to them.

Luck should offer small improvements to practically everything, including skill checks.
Speed should have some other benefits, possibly reduced AP cost for reloading among others.
Intelligence could use some minor tweaking as well, but I think that the reason it is so good is that many of the other attributes can be ignored without much worry.
Strength is moderately useful and you certainly want at least enough to wear some of the heavier armor, but I'm not so far that I know if it's useful beyond a certain point.
Charisma doesn't provide anything essential for more than 1 party member and even with the bonus, the person I gave almost max Charisma to and all of the characters who have only a single point have little difference in levels and I suspect that over the course of the game it will only amount to about 2 levels in total which isn't terribly useful.

I suppose you could make a character that has minimal intelligence and accept that they won't have much in the way of skills and stick everything into Coordination, Speed, and Awareness to give them a lot of action points and combat initiative, but they would probably only be good with a single weapon and not be terribly useful outside of that.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I think the game seems to get better the more you play it. I'm 40 hours in now and the weapons are really starting to pack some punch.

I've mentioned this before, but the balance for the weapons is just horrible. At least it is after 40 hours. Case in point is my sniper and assault rifle guys.

With mods the sniper rifle actually has 1m LESS range than the Ak-97 and does similar damage, and has a much lower chance of crit hits. On top of that it can't do a burst shot for closer range death blows. To me, snipers seem pointless.

And heavy weapons is a total waste of time. Forget about it, just chews way too much ammo and with the cost of ammo it's not worth the expense

 

[DigDog]

i'm in california now, and i'm overpowered - i have takayuki and lexarcanum, two melee doing 150+ damage per round each. and my 4 guys are starting to hit 95% of their shots. got a new recruit tonight just before work, "pistol pete", haven't decide yet what to make of him.

i'm not really late game yet, since i haven't fired a single shot of energy weapons. i also don't use heavy weapons or explosives, heavy weapons because i do nearly the same damage with my M16s, and explosives because of the ridiculous cost.

anyway, i've begun running into bugs.

a glitch in the party locker gave *all* my AKs the same mods as the famas i gopt from angela deth - extended mag, large scope and long barrel - so lol, i'm butchering everything in a round or two.
and tonight i just hit the new shop in santa fe, so i got new toys to play with.

another bug (or a feature?) i've had in the "mr manners" map, i got attacked by some guards w/o warning (i just wandered in the sewers) and now the whole town is aggressive.

also, sometimes the encounter map borks out and doesn't let me move, and the graphics get screwed up, and i can't scroll anymore.

and also what pinky said, plus i don't understand how the damage model works.. besides criticals, sometimes you get weird damages, like a few points above the max for your gun. maybe the skill rating has something to do with it.

had some more camera issues.

i noticed how you have two commands - M for map and J for journal - that both bring you to the same screen. you can also pick up some items twice.

the game seems enthusiastic about locking you out of content; even the speech options from hard/smart/wise ass can only be accessed once, if you want to drop out, equip a booster and come back, you can't.

and man, every lock ever seems to be skill rating 10 ... i have 8 lockpicking and 7 safecracking and i have to scum save every single skill check .. makes the whole thing pointless.

the lack of a party formation command is a sever oversight in this kind of game.

combat initiative seems to often work against me, as my melee guys are all being blocked by their comrades;the ambush option often doesn't work .. idk, just many little annoyances. so much for "its ready when its ready".


the game's playable .. it's just not really that great.

 

[Dahak]

i'm in california now, and i'm overpowered

I got my butt whopped the first time I got to Cali, ran into some nuns in a random encounter.
But once I upgraded a bit I was ok

i'm not really late game yet, since i haven't fired a single shot of energy weapons. i also don't use heavy weapons or explosives, heavy weapons because i do nearly the same damage with my M16s, and explosives because of the ridiculous cost.

I have used energy weapons as I have been running into the robots, and have used the greneade/pipe bomb/tnt more than in AZ

another bug (or a feature?) i've had in the "mr manners" map, i got attacked by some guards w/o warning (i just wandered in the sewers) and now the whole town is aggressive.

That might be intentional, but cant say for sure as I had only gone into there after I completed his quest.

the game seems enthusiastic about locking you out of content; even the speech options from hard/smart/wise ass can only be accessed once, if you want to drop out, equip a booster and come back, you can't.
*snip*
the lack of a party formation command is a sever oversight in this kind of game.

Yes that is annoying, but I wonder if you could just type the response for it as you can for other keywords.

Yes to the party formation too, did not bug me as much in AZ but now in Cali yes.

 

[DigDog]

i have tried typing in the response, and no luck. it's just a matter of reloading, but imho its a bit too extreme.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I find lock picking and safe cracking really annoying in this game. My guy has a skill of 8 in lock picking and it seems still half the locks he comes across have 35% or less chance of success. Not quite show how that is even possible.

 

[Silverforce11]

I think the game seems to get better the more you play it. I'm 40 hours in now and the weapons are really starting to pack some punch.

I've mentioned this before, but the balance for the weapons is just horrible. At least it is after 40 hours. Case in point is my sniper and assault rifle guys.

With mods the sniper rifle actually has 1m LESS range than the Ak-97 and does similar damage, and has a much lower chance of crit hits. On top of that it can't do a burst shot for closer range death blows. To me, snipers seem pointless.

And heavy weapons is a total waste of time. Forget about it, just chews way too much ammo and with the cost of ammo it's not worth the expense

Weapon balance is the worse thing about this game. If you're not running a lot of AR, you are gimping your group, particular on harder modes.

SMGs are weaker than AR for damage and with crap range, as well as firing much more bullets (expensive).

MGs are weaker than AR for damage (all except Minigun), with worse range, firing more bullets, NO MODs so they jam and have worse accuracy for Headshots.

Pistols are okay for the early game and become completely useless midgame+ because their damage is way too low and the good pistols need 5/6 AP to fire a single shot that does less damage than... AR single shot for 4/5 AP.

Energy Weapons are also mostly useless, all except for 1, the Gamma Ray Burst you get for retrieving depleted uranium from the toaster in Titan Temple. The rest have high armor threshold so they dont work on most enemies. Even when they hit high armor enemies, they do weak damage because they cannot crit nor go for aimed headshots.

Melee weapons quickly lose out on Damage per AP, especially worse since you have to waste AP to move. Brawling is good since its damage goes up as you level, and the high crit % with crit dmg bonus of 3x or more, means its quite deadly when you do get into melee range. Sadly, the other melee weapon types are quite weak, run all that way to do less damage than ranged weapons. :/

I fail to get how so many smart people working on it could mess up balance so badly. It's almost as if a bunch of idiots sat around the table randomly coming up with stats and called it a day, going for beer.