Wasteland 2 on Steam

[Nefaro]

What the hell is it with that character at the valve in AG Centre? How come they get like 5 or 6 actions?? Killed my entire team!

Panzy!  :P

I had two go down but killed him & revived them shortly afterward.  Only one had a lingering injury penalty for about 5 minutes after and then we were gtg.

[JudgeDredd]

What the hell is it with that character at the valve in AG Centre? How come they get like 5 or 6 actions?? Killed my entire team!

Panzy!  :P

I had two go down but killed him & revived them shortly afterward.  Only one had a lingering injury penalty for about 5 minutes after and then we were gtg.

Wouldn't be so bad if I had any freakin bullets. They've all got some sort of knife or cleaver and they have each a 15% chance to do damage. Plus, he gets off somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 shots PLUS clears his jam! If one of my guys has a jam, that's ALL their AP used.

I'm starting again and this time I'm off to bloody Highpool!  ;D

[Nefaro]

This has always been one of the things I hate the most about CRPGs, the actual lack of choice and freedom of action.  >:( >:( >:(

The only RPGs that give you complete freedom in whatever you want to do are Roguelikes, in my experience.  They don't have any story or plot to follow, though, and that's why.  The complete randomization helps too.  They're more like strategy RPGs. 

All the traditional RPGs, with some kind of plot to play through, must lead you in that direction eventually.  So you're still gonna be shoved down the main path to varying degrees.  The only way to get away from that is to have no quests or one "I Win" objective, along with a completely open and procedurally generated world.  That essentially turns an RPG into a Roguelike, which isn't quite the same.

[SirAndrewD]

What the hell is it with that character at the valve in AG Centre? How come they get like 5 or 6 actions?? Killed my entire team!

Panzy!  :P

I had two go down but killed him & revived them shortly afterward.  Only one had a lingering injury penalty for about 5 minutes after and then we were gtg.

Wouldn't be so bad if I had any freakin bullets. They've all got some sort of knife or cleaver and they have each a 15% chance to do damage. Plus, he gets off somewhere in the region of 5 or 6 shots PLUS clears his jam! If one of my guys has a jam, that's ALL their AP used.

I'm starting again and this time I'm off to bloody Highpool!  ;D

I'm tempted to do the same.  The Ag Center is actually just frustrating.  Bloody Giant Rabbits are a real problem without ammo.

[Bletchley_Geek]

This has always been one of the things I hate the most about CRPGs, the actual lack of choice and freedom of action.  >:( >:( >:(

Actually, addressing the Topekans and Atchinsons feud requires entering manually a keyword during dialogue at the right time and said to the right person. Or so it was during the Beta - I'm getting close to that point of the quest on the release version.

[Nefaro]

This has always been one of the things I hate the most about CRPGs, the actual lack of choice and freedom of action.  >:( >:( >:(

Actually, addressing the Topekans and Atchinsons feud requires entering manually a keyword during dialogue at the right time and said to the right person. Or so it was during the Beta - I'm getting close to that point of the quest on the release version.

That's more like an overly vague puzzle mechanic than open gameplay. 

[Apocalypse 31]

I killed all the Atchinsons, then I killed all the Topekans while I used Ralphie - yes I'm demented. During my genocide I got a call from Ranger Citadel asking if I was killing people. I said I wasn't.

Then I uninstalled the game, because I think it's a poor game. I don't like the lack of direction and overall vague guidance.I enjoy games for their fun and I think Wastelands 2 is a lot of uneccesary work with little fun.

[Bletchley_Geek]

That's more like an overly vague puzzle mechanic than open gameplay.

Since the game needs to be programmed beforehand in order to recognize player input, "true open gameplay" is more of a chimera than anything else until someone turns up with a way to generate procedurally interesting story lines. And indeed, it is a bit of a "puzzle" in that the number of possible candidates as the "right option" to consider is huge, so "figuring out the solution" isn't a matter of ploughing through a limited number of options via intensely straining the game Load Game feature. To me, personally, it does convey better the "illusion" of open gameplay than other much trumpeted around and recent games.

Playing Wasteland 2 makes me realize that I have "grown soft around the belly" when it comes to "figure out things". It used to be the case, 20 years ago, that the choices one had in games weren't spelt out for you in big icons. And yes, some quests can fail if you don't react quickly enough. The starting Ralphy quest in the Rail Nomads Camp is another example of "choices being there, but nobody is pointing you towards them".

I still remember playing Star Control 2 for the very first time - with a much shakier command of English than I have now - and man, some of the "quests" there were a head-scratcher for me during the best part of a decade (I've refused to read any walkthrough for that game for 20 years now). There's stuff in that game I hadn't discovered until I looked into the source code (check out the free software remake, The Ur-Quan Masters, for a trip down Memory Lane).

More examples could be the "rubber chicken with pulley in the middle" from Monkey Island, its uses and the possibility of reaching a dead-end if you didn't pick it up, or the chest riddles in Betrayal At Krondor like

A barrel of rainwater
weighs twenty pounds.
What must you add
to make it weigh fifteen?

We might have simply forgotten about those very notable and memorable features of "Old School" games with adventure aspects.

I don't want to excuse bugs - I think there are some mildly bugged quests in Wasteland 2 - but in this particular case I think inXile is being very true to the promise of delivering "old school" gameplay.

[JudgeDredd]

I killed all the Atchinsons, then I killed all the Topekans while I used Ralphie - yes I'm demented. During my genocide I got a call from Ranger Citadel asking if I was killing people. I said I wasn't.

Then I uninstalled the game, because I think it's a poor game. I don't like the lack of direction and overall vague guidance.I enjoy games for their fun and I think Wastelands 2 is a lot of uneccesary work with little fun.

lol - I'll struggle to find a funnier post today I think  ;D

[Tpek]

This has always been one of the things I hate the most about CRPGs, the actual lack of choice and freedom of action.  >:( >:( >:(

Actually, addressing the Topekans and Atchinsons feud requires entering manually a keyword during dialogue at the right time and said to the right person. Or so it was during the Beta - I'm getting close to that point of the quest on the release version.

I tried telling Kebab-Chief or whatever his name is the both word and also peace but he ignores it.

[Bletchley_Geek]

This has always been one of the things I hate the most about CRPGs, the actual lack of choice and freedom of action.  >:( >:( >:(

Actually, addressing the Topekans and Atchinsons feud requires entering manually a keyword during dialogue at the right time and said to the right person. Or so it was during the Beta - I'm getting close to that point of the quest on the release version.

I tried telling Kebab-Chief or whatever his name is the both word and also peace but he ignores it

Some hints - I just finished the Topeka v. Atchinson quest with the Peace option. Here goes a list of stuff that needs to happen

1) Ralphy needs to be alive
2) Jessie needs to die
3) Schmooze Kebab Chief doing two quests, one in the middle of your way, the other is not
4) The word in italics needs to be said to the person who says it, as an answer

There are still other ways the peace outcome can go awry, but that should pretty much put you in the right railroads track  :)

[Tpek]

^I've saved Ralphy and Jessie.
I destroyed the Rail Thieves and have the Golden Spike.
I returned the stolen shipments to Mr Holiday.
I've fixed the well in the Atchison village.

Still no go though.
According to the forums this game has, I had to ask Casey to come up with terms for peace instead of asking for the Golden Spike.
Kebab won't offer me the chance for peace unless I first convince Casey.

But if you know of any more quests/stuff I have to do before that, I'd be glad to hear!

[mikeck]

Is there a quest guide?

[BanzaiCat]

So...okay, is Wasteland 2 a remake of Wasteland, or taking place after Wasteland?

I thought it took place afterwards, but after you guys discussing the killer bunnies at the Ag Center...well that was from the first game I believe. I had a hard time with those bastards and whatever their weird Hodor-like leader, IIRC.

[SirAndrewD]

So...okay, is Wasteland 2 a remake of Wasteland, or taking place after Wasteland?

I thought it took place afterwards, but after you guys discussing the killer bunnies at the Ag Center...well that was from the first game I believe. I had a hard time with those bastards and whatever their weird Hodor-like leader, IIRC.

It takes place after Wasteland 1.  The Ag Center is very different from the Wasteland 1 Ag Center, killer bunnies notwithstanding. 

And yeah, the boss with 100hp and the pistol was a real problem.  I managed to kill him without casualties, but I mostly got lucky with a really solid crit. 

His pistol only costs 2AP, and you can't really get into any useful cover with him since he always starts the fight.  My trick was to keep everyone in crouch, that gave him some key misses that kept my people alive.