Wasteland 2

[Enoch]

So there's a new patch. 

 

And I couldn't download it, because silly me put this game on his (sadly only 128GB) SSD, which has gotten full.  I tried to clean things up a bit, but finally decided that this game should run just fine on the spinning-disk HD, so I uninstalled it, planning to set the re-install to D: when I go to bed.  Turns out that Wasteland 2 was taking up almost 40GBs of disk space.  Which is absolutely ridiculous. 

[bobobo878]

Bummer, still didn't fix the bug stopping me from

outing McDade as the Broken Man.

 

[Darkpriest]

Still no balance changes....

[Cantousent]

Apparently, Supreme Jerk still lets you save, so I'll try to him out for you and see if the bug is fixed on a fresh run, 3xbo.

 

Also, I decided I simply *had* to go with the Odyssey for the first themed party.  I did Odysseus and Penelope for my skills monkeys.  I made them 41 and 35 respectively and used that as the reasoning behind their increased skills. I know, some youngsters are quite brilliant and youngsters learn quickly, but I'm trying to come up with an RP reason for things also.  Telemachus and Kalypso are my front liners.  Okay oaky, Kalypso is the oldest of the bunch, but she's impetuous and I made her age 16.  Telemachus is 18.  So, they're young and spry and jonsin' to fight.  I figured that Odysseus would be my talker, so I gave him a slightly higher CHA.  I have two 10 INT people and two 2 INT people.  Everyone else has 1 CHA and LUC.  Anyhow, this is my party now, but I kind of think I might be better off with one 10 INT and three 4 INT people like I had on my first run, although with a different skill spread.  I dunno, but this is a themed party and that's how I'm playing it.

 

Screenie:

[archangel979]

So there's a new patch. 

 

And I couldn't download it, because silly me put this game on his (sadly only 128GB) SSD, which has gotten full.  I tried to clean things up a bit, but finally decided that this game should run just fine on the spinning-disk HD, so I uninstalled it, planning to set the re-install to D: when I go to bed.  Turns out that Wasteland 2 was taking up almost 40GBs of disk space.  Which is absolutely ridiculous.

That is Steam problem, they need double space as they first backup everything before applying new patches and then later remove the backup.

[archangel979]

Bummer, still didn't fix the bug stopping me from

outing McDade as the Broken Man.

 

Bug fixes for quests for work backwards in WL2. Once quest triggers have misfired they cannot fix it. You need to load an earlier save (probably outside the current area).

 

As for balance fixes, they planned to make them in next patch but some critical problems arose and they wanted to fix that first.

We can expect balance changes for the next planned patch.

Edited November 19, 2014 by archangel979

[Endrosz]

That is Steam problem, they need double space as they first backup everything before applying new patches and then later remove the backup.

 

This is a mainly a Unity problem, Unity games have ridicolously large asset sizes. Borderlands 2 with all DLCs, 100+ hours of high-quality, varied 3D = 13 gigs. Wasteland 2 with much crappier quality, less variety = 22+ Gigs. Same with other Unity games, this is not WL2's fault.

 

However, patches can be incremental, which means you don't need a full copy of the files you modify, just the modified/expanded parts and offsets where you apply those. If Wasteland 2 DOESN'T do incremental patches, then my already low opinion of their programming team -- which was formed during the Kickstarter, when it turned out that their lead programmer, Alvarado, had no idea about how to do internationalization properly, via open source turnkey solutions, and didn't even know the term and its usual abbreviation 'i18n' -- will dive into a new low. This is WL2's fault, if it is indeed a full-size replacement patch they put out.

 

Note: it is ironic how PoE's size will not be as bloated as WL2's because they mainly use pre-rendered 2D art, which can be easily compressed with a high ratio non-realtime, before packaging. It will look better AND take up less space.

Edited November 19, 2014 by Endrosz

[archangel979]

No it is not WL2 fault. Same patches from GoG are much smaller.

Edited November 19, 2014 by archangel979

[AwesomeOcelot]

This is a mainly a Unity problem, Unity games have ridicolously large asset sizes. Borderlands 2 with all DLCs, 100+ hours of high-quality, varied 3D = 13 gigs. Wasteland 2 with much crappier quality, less variety = 22+ Gigs. Same with other Unity games, this is not WL2's fault.

Borderlands with its faux-cel shading textures and highly reused procedural assets. Wasteland 2 with higher quality textures and more variety. Unity engine with small games like Hearthstone, Shadowrun Returns, War for the Overworld, Dungeonland, and Rochard.

[Cantousent]

Sorry for the thread necromancy.  I'm almost done with Damonta, which means that I'm almost done with AZ.  This time, I saved the back end of the Prison for when I get back to Ranger territory.  I will observe that on Supreme Jerk, I would rather not have crafted my party the way I did.  My high skill/high CHA guy is the highest level, but only by three levels over my lowest level person.  In my core party, however, he's only two levels higher.  If I had arranged the skills to more aggressively pursue leveling, I could maybe have made that three, but the fact is that my original assessment has turned out to be entirely true.  Willingness to take on random encounters increasingly minimizes skill/CHA based advantages.  He was by and large useless for much of the combat, but has come into his own so far.  I have a second high skill character with low CHA.  She has been more useful in combat, but that has by and large been due to medic and surgery.  I don't think the build is bad because I regret two skills characters of 10 INT.  I would probably not make two 10 INT characters again, but that hasn't turned out so badly.  However, my other two core characters have 2 INT each.  I would make them 4 INT in the future.  Yeah, it means skimping elsewhere, but not by much and skills, along with core attributes, make you better at combat.  Sure, in the late game you could use the attributes more, but it's not like the extra skill points hurt you.

 

The end result, however, is that it's all moot.  If you've finished the game at least once, you have the understanding of at least a mediocre party and that's all the game demands.  I've enjoyed my second run, even despite the excruciatingly slow skill progress of my two moronic core party members.  Other than attributes, I would do everything the same with a couple of minor changes.  First off, Ralphy's stats aren't as dismal as I remembered them.  I think I would probably not have him go unarmed even though that wastes a couple of skill ranks.   Also, I think the skill points I've put into hard ass have been a waste.  Unless I wanted to do it for RP reasons, I would probably not even bother with it next time.  Still, I'm not unhappy with the skills I've chosen for my people so far.  I took umbrage at the DBM killing my monk escort, so I decided to rid the desert of their outfit.  That was a tough battle.  Frankly, other than that battle, which was hard by and large for endurance reasons, I still think the hardest battle I've had in two runs is the one with the doc at the ag center.  Probably talking to myself here, but I figured I'd post my observations.

[Humanoid]

Necromancy? It's not even CPR. It's more like a gentle tap on the shoulder to someone who's nodding off.

[Gromnir]

 

 

 

hopefully the last images we ever post in a wasteland 2 thread... is our final examples o' why charisma sux.  five extra points in charisma resulted in a grand total o' a single level gained after +45 levels o' gameplay. as can be seen, the more efficient use o' skills is not to be dumping them on a single high intelligence and high charisma character, but rather to spread out the xp generating skills so as to be benefiting multiple characters, 'cause the charisma boost alone is of negligible value. 

 

and yes, we did have a suicide squad team... though am given to understand that the planned suicide squad movie will be having deadshot, rick flag, harley quinn and the joker, yes? no joker in our group as plastique were an ideal demolitions expert for our team.   we were conflicted about harley quinn being a brawler instead o' a blunt weapons expert ( harley quinn with a cartoony giant hammer/mallet just seems right) but we is kinda a big fan o'  brawling from 'bout level 20. that being said, we did experiment with blunt weapons, and they are devastating by the end of the game. 

 

maybe play 1 more time... got no other games on our to-do list until we finally decide to purchase dragon age: inquisition, and that won't occur for a few months.  maybe a mass effect team with femshep, ashley williams, urdnot wrex and garrus vakarian?  maybe make vulture's cry an assault rifle specialist in spite o' her starting sniper build?  however, we might wait until the balance patch is finally released. assault rifle burst headshots is kinda over-the-top... along with the gamma ray blaster.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

ps our harley quin coulda' eclipsed rick flag for xp if we had used computer science to reprogram as many bots as possible, but doing so does rob the team o' valuable combat xp, so we did sparingly. 

 

 

[kgambit]

Free Christmas gift for Wasteland 2 backers:

 

 

Log in to the Ranger Center, go to Rewards and download it.  (It's the full book)

 

(Sorry the image is so big - if a mod wants to thumbnail it, go ahead)

Edited December 25, 2014 by kgambit

[Tigranes]

Done. My first playthrough stalled when stuck in Europe with a laptop for two months, but turns out Hollywood wasn't so far from the ending. Freud, de Beauvoir, Heidegger and Arendt smash some robots and save the day, Ranger difficulty, no NPCs.

 

In the end it's a decent game, not as fun as D:OS' combat system but enough to keep you going. It's nice that they've made some money from it and have produced a game that doesn't leave most of the backers seething. 

[Cantousent]

I haven't had time to play it lately.  I'll get back to it soon.  My least favorite part of the game is early California with all those back and forth quests, although I like the stuff in Angel Oracle by and large.  I doubt I'll do another run any time soon, but if I do I'll spread out the skills just a tad more.  Of course it depends on whether I go for another themed party again.  I enjoyed my Odyssey run, though, and I think it's hard to gimp your party too badly.  I haven't played D:OS.  I haven't played a Bioware game since DA:O and I never played any of the ME games at all.  I'm not a hater, though.  I just tend to buy most games in STEAM specials anyhow, and so I might look to see if I can find any of the Bioware games I've missed and try them.  I doubt that there's anyone in this thread who hasn't already played WL2, but if any of you are out there, I would suggest it.  Quirky, goofy game with a lot of heart and some real fun.  Any game that has a quip about a corpse having so many plants growing out of it that someone should roll it up and smoke it like a joint has transcended game development and gone smack dab into the middle of a Cheech and Chong movie.

[Althernai]

Finished it last night. The ending was not bad, although a tad predictable. It's too bad you can't tell the villain

 

"Downloading an AI into your head? Seriously? What in the world makes you think that this is a good idea?"

 

 

I liked the epilogues, even if they did get confused about one of the characters being alive whereas within the game he is pretty clearly dead. I do have one question:

 

Is there any way to save Rose if you bring her to the final battle? Her mind seems to be in there somewhere (she doesn't actually attack your party, saying things along the lines of "I won't hurt an innocent"), but I don't see how to do anything except kill her. I figured I could knock her unconscious and then we could fix her up after the fight was over, but she simply dies when her HP is reduced to 0. You can't use Computer Science on her at all and Surgery doesn't seem to work either (although it might be because my backup medic is not very skilled at it and I don't have the right items). It seems like a situation where in the real world you would be able to save her, but the game doesn't have the mechanics to express that.

 

[Cantousent]

This is my first run with that party composition.  One of my core characters has maxed surgery (with a trinket), so I'll see if there's anything to be done on that front, Alth.  I'm well into CA right now.

[CoM_Solaufein]

I haven't played this game since the last couple of patches. I may start a new game. Have to think of what type of party I want. I did the Battlestar Galactica and Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles party. Hmm have to think.

[CoM_Solaufein]

New game, new party. My post apocalypse party.

 

See there are no real mods out for this game. Most not be mod friendly.

[samm]

Nice party For a similar setup in my planned run I'd replace The Drifter with The Nomad 

[Cantousent]

Your pic didn't work, samm.    Anyhow, what is it you two are using for this party?  Some post apoc show?

[samm]

My pic showed the character "Nomad" from an 80s horror film called Hardware. Pretty good, atmospherically another link to try: https://fandangogroovers.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/nomad.jpg

 

The portraits in the CoM_Solaufein's collection you refer to were not from one post apocalyptic show, but from several different movies like Mad Max and The Book of Eli

 

 

However, having now finally started the game, I did not even use custom portraits I'm enjoying it immensely so far. Good setting and writing, good challenge, good gameplay - all in all a very good first impression

 

 

Before starting the game I read all the novels so far, including all the short stories from The End Is Nigh. There are some quite original ones in there, and they're well written too (in fact, I will actually purchase The End Is Here and The End Has Come when they become available). Which I cannot say for all the actual Wasteland 2 novels: While they do show the setting and different factions within it quite nicely, they fall so flat in comparison, because they are bound to the game. Mindless killing, puzzles etc. It's really a strong contrast to the more professional writing in The End Is Nigh, where there is some real character perspective on the events around them and their own thoughts and actions.

Edited February 15, 2015 by samm

[Keyrock]

My new all melee party for supreme jerk difficulty:

 

 

 

Obviously, Jack, Janet, and Chrissy, the OG 3rd roommate, had to be part of the team, but I was torn on whether to have Mr. Roper or Larry as the 4th member.  I think Mr. Roper was the right choice.  I tried to make them at least a little like they were on the show.  For example, Jack has low coordination because he's a klutz.  Janet has high intelligence.  Chrissy has low intelligence and high charisma.  Mr. Roper has hard ass and bargaining skills.  Not the best strategy for min maxing, but I'm not trying to do that, plus I've already beaten the game on ranger difficulty.  This is all about goofing around and making things very challenging for myself. 

Edited February 16, 2015 by Keyrock

[Majek]

I tried SJ difficulty and i don't like it. I'll stay on Ranger and experiment instead, on SJ you need clones, more than anything else, to get somewhere.

[LadyCrimson]

I miss John Ritter. *sniff*