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Update 2: And They're Off!</center>
We're beginning our adventure in Wasteland with a party of four characters, suggested by our posters (with one change - I switched Snake Vargas for a female, codename Czaress, to avoid this becoming a Ranger sausage fest, plus, there's one or two opportunities strictly for female characters). Our team (Ranger Advance Team 5) is effectively the Bad Company of the Ranger Center, relegated to investigating an unspecified series of disturbances in the desert:
Optimalus - Ranger descended from Russian invaders. Team leader, specializing in combat, opening doors and disarming bombs. Known for liberal use of alien languages. Assigned to RAT5 due to a clerical error.
"For some odd reason, I believe that someone up there hates my guts. "
Bolts - resident techie, knowledgeable in medicine, all manner of technological matters and toasters. Degraded and assigned to RAT5 for pulling a nasty prank in the machine shop that nearly set the entire place on fire. And for incredibly lame puns.
"Just because I'm Bolts doesn't mean I'm nuts."
Bison - Native American Ranger, proficient in all combat disciplines. Eschewed training in swimming in favour of punching people in the face. Including the drill sergeant.
"I mean, wasteland is a desert, right? What do I need swimming for in
a desert? Right, Moxie?"
Moxie is Bison's pet iguana.
Czaress - assigned to RAT5 as backup, this Russian female soldier has a reputation for being unkillable. Think a female Rasputin. Degraded to private following an incident with the Chief Ranger.
"He should be glad I didn't take his fingers."
The character system in the game is based on a modified MS&PE (Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes) system penned by one of Wasteland's lead developers. It includes primary statistics, a wide array of skills and a simple, yet elegant combat module, basing on d6 (six-sided dice). There are seven primary statistics: Strength, Intelligence, Luck, Speed, Agility, Dexterity and Charisma, which govern several of the skills available in Wasteland.
Apart from these there are two other, secondary statistics: Skill Points and Max Constitution. The former are used to learn and increase skills, while the latter represent the maximum number of hit points a character has. SP are gained by increasing Intelligence, while MaxCon is increased directly.
Skills are the focus of the system and the game. As one lizard put it, good skills mean everything: as long as you have a high skill level, you can finish the game with lousy stats (barring, of course, Intelligence; a high IQ is necessary to learn advanced skills necessary in the endgame).
Each skill starts at level one and costs a varying amount of skill points to learn. Basic ones only need one skill point, while more advanced ones require two or three. They develop throughout the game and increase with use, which means that while it is possible to raise them in libraries, it's superfluous, as they can be increased just as well in the course of the game.
Apart from increasing skills by practicing them, characters also earn experience that counts towards character levels. Experience is gained both in combat (double if kills are made with melee weapons, which is why our Rats may run around bashing rodent skulls in with crowbars and assorted equipment) and through using skills. This system is exploitable, though balanced somewhat by level requirements that increase linearly.
Now that we have our characters all decked out and ready to take on the Wasteland (Optimalus has a low MaxCon, though it can be remedied with armor), time to leave Ranger Center and take on the world!
"We are sending you out to investigate a series of disturbances in the desert, Private."
"Yes sir. Uh, what are we supposed to be investigating, again?"
"I said, a series of disturbances."
"Ok, but
what kind of disturbances?"
"
Disturbing ones."
: "Uh... ok."
"Check in with the quartermaster for your gear."
"AK-97s for everyone?"
"No."
"But-"
<glares>
Every character starts with a basic weapon (M1911 .45 pistol or a VP91Z 9mm pistol), a crowbar, a knife and some random assorted items.
The world is presented from bird's eye perspective. Player characters move on a square grid with varying amounts of time per step. The main map has one, single encounter table, so we're not going to encounter enemies relevant to the nearby location.
Steeping out of the center, we happen upon the first enemy in our endeavour to save the Wasteland: a Wasteland Warrior.
Bison: "I'm gonna feed you to my pet iguana!"
Combat in Wasteland is a peculiar type of turn based combat: characters act in turns, with sequence determined by the Speed stat. However, it seems that actions are calculated simultaneously and even if you manage to kill something in the beginning of the turn, they often manage to peel off a final shot before expiring. This isn't a problem in the beginning, but becomes a definite issue late game with Xenon cannons and the like.
The player gives orders to characters in his party: designating targets, fire modes (the only difference between a recruited NPC and a Ranger is that you don't get to choose the firemode for the former), switching weapons, running etc. Looks like I forgot to equip everyone with their weapons, so they're going at him with Fists. Time to fix that.
In the time it took us to switch weapons, Bolts got clobbered. No biggie. Now we're armed and...
"Dinner time, Moxie!"
Thank you Bison. Killing enemies in melee yields double the experience.
With that problem out of the way, time to head on.
"Where to?"
"Highpool. It's a small settlement to the west, in the mountains. Can't say much about it, even the Ranger manuals ignore it.
"It's a small settlement formed out of the pre-War Camp Highpool. It was pretty self sufficent then, so when the Big One came, the campers and adults simply stayed behind and built a community from scratch. It's pretty nice as far as settlements go. No one tries to kill you every five or six steps. They also have their own water supply and agriculture."
"I take it there are kids as well as adults there?"
"Obviously. Do you think kids alone would be able to keep the place alive if they were kicking out everyone over sixteen for no real reason other than rule of cool?"
"Point taken."
Highpool's pretty much the only place you can safely sleep out in the open. Given that Bison and Optimalus took a beating (two more Wasteland Warriors) it's a good idea to rest.
In Wasteland, the Esc key doubles as Cancel as well as Rest. Each keypress will pass time, making macros (a blessing of the PC version) a good way to quickly heal your party.
A lot of exposition in Wasteland is delivered via text cues, making exploration (in the manner of stepping on absolutely every square and smacking into every wall) a must.
"Recommend we visit the shop to offload the unnecessary."
This big building houses the first shop we ran across. Perfect to unload useless items we start with.
There are two basic types of shops: general stores that deal in non-combat items exclusively and weapons stores that buy and sell weapons. This one in Highpool is the former. We offload our hand mirrors and matches here, as they don't have any uses. Well, except for matches, these have an obscure, unique use.
"Hey, look at this door. Wonder if Mr Jumbo is in."
"Leave it alone, Bis--"
"Whoops."
"Why do I even bother..."
"Might as well check the room."
You see several handwritten notes on the desk. One note is cash accounts with the Rail Nomads. Another outlines sneak-attack plans against desert marauders. This last note seems odd since it clearly assumes only two attackers against many. One note is a reminder to put a trapdoor over the cave across the creek. Another is about hydrophobia.
"This is interesting. Something about a trapdoor over the cave across the lake... The rest is just general notes."
"Yeah, used to hear stories about the Camp before the War. Mind the bed, it's an, uh, scum pit."
Juvies don't take kindly to us barging in. They don't attack you, though. They can only be engaged if you initiate an encounter and deliberately attack them. Though it yields a mangler (a weird AT weapon), let's hold out on infanticide.
According to the decryptor, there should be an opportunity to look around Mr Jumbo's office by using a key hanging on the wall. No idea how to trigger it, though.
"There's a note here."
A note tacked to the wall says:
-- cave
-- adults: raid outlaws
-- Jackie
-- Bobby's dog?
-- fix water purifier
"Looks like we have found a... disturbance."
"Let's ask around, maybe we can find Bobby or Jackie."
Heading out, we look around southern Highpool.
First up is the Workshop.
"Let me ponder this for a moment..."
"Aha! We need a new engine here and I can use it to fit Highpool's purifier."
Bison: "Where do we find an engine? This
is a Wasteland, after all."
"The Rail Nomads might have them. Of course, they're... an odd bunch."
"We have our next destination then. Let's check out the rest of Highpool first, they aren't going to die of thirst if they wait another day or so."
Skill checks are divided into two: active ones, invoked by the player (for example, Bolts had to use his IQ on the purifier to figure out what's wrong) and passive ones, like this one here: the game checks the player character stats and skills to see, if they should be able to eg. find a cache.
Ah, loot. We find a spare VP91Z pistol, some 9mm clips and a leather jacket. Oh, and cash.
"Dibs on the jacket."
Bis: "But--"
"I have a feeling we'll all be wearing them by day's end."
The jacket gives Optimalus a whooping one point of AC. This is nice, as each point of AC shaves off a single dice from the damage calculation. This is quite useful and makes every point count.
Heading out, we visit what's probably the cheapest hospital in the game. Exams allow the player to identify what kind of disease the character has and cure it. Since diseases stop health from regenerating via rest, they're quite dangerous to a low and mid level party. Outside of that, they serve no practical purpose.
Hospitals also heal HP, but they're pretty useless - resting nets the same effects, for free. Unless you really want to role play.
"I see a kid over there. He seems kind of iffy."
"Can you tell me anything about Jackie?"
Kid: "I told Jackie to keep clear of that cave!"
"What cave?"
Kid: "The cave is over behind the bushes but we aren't supposed to go there. Don't kill my dog Rex, okay? Please?!"
And he runs off. It's impossible to ask him more than two or three questions, as he always seems to run away.
"Looks like we have a situation. Jackie is missing, probably in the cave, and there's some kind of dangerous canine on the loose."
"Dangerous?"
"Why else would we have a reason to kill it?"
Now's decision time.
Where should RAT5 go next? The obvious choice is to have them head over to the cave and look for Jackie. Alternatively, we may opt to fix the purifier. Or just push in Bison into the creek for laughs.
Note: I'll add detailed character sheets tomorrow.
)
