Now I could understand that when it comes to something like a 4X game or Arcanum (which has some skills and stats and derivative stats that are a bit like "what the hell does this do?") but Wasteland's only confusing part is the CLASSIC stat system and it is because the stats themselves are forced to form the acronym CLASSIC. Like, I understand what coordination is and all but when you say that it is a stat I have no idea what it will actually affect and same with Speed. Speed what? Running? Movement distance? Action point cost for various actions? Does it increase AP score? Still, it is pretty minor as anyone would understand the other stats just by looking at them. What does Strength do? Well... What do you think Strength would entail? Cause chances are that so long as you don't think too far outside the box you'll be on point.
Secondly we got skills. Which might be a bit much for a new player with so many of them but... I mean... Look it never changes regardless of the UI you use. It will always be overwhelming. I'd argue that for a new player having to scroll through a list of unknown skills is worse than having them all on screen at once. But ultimately it isn't all too confusing. Select the skills you want, they're fairly explanatory in their information box then just play the game and increase those skills.
Third is perks which is such a common form of leveling up nowadays that it wouldn't confuse anyone but newcomers to gaming and they'd be overwhelmed by anything.
And fourth is derivative stats. This is the only part that might be confusing and an information overload because you don't know the rules of the game so all of the sudden you will have to plan ahead with 4 characters and keep in mind little details outside of the prime stats and skills, details you might not have any idea how it works.
Initiative for example is something I know fully well what it is and what purpose it serves in any turn-based game.
I do not however know what the limit of Initiative is and so I have no idea if my initiative is ever really good or not as different enemies have their own initiative scores and I have to sort out when and why my different characters get their turn in combat and what that score means.
For a new gamer it could be extremely overwhelming depending on the derivative stats but Wasteland 2 didn't have an excessive amount nor do I expect WL3 to have it either.
And
if Tim said that then expect simplification. I said it in an InXile thread and I'll say it here, history will repeat itself. This is why I never wanted these new cRPG's to focus so much on being pretty and I never liked Wasteland
23's first person dialogue for that reason . I can't imagine how much of the budget is sunk into making these games desperately try to stand next to AAA games as equals but they're not. The genre isn't big enough. And as they found out that hey you could make these games work on Consoles too it is only a matter of time before the need to make more profit outweighs the principles of them being computerRPGs. Studio gets hit, makes lots of money, grows studio, next game needs to make more money, next game makes a lot of money, studio can grow, it needs next game to make more money, it makes more money but not as much anymore, question of whether this is sustainable with the current playerbase arises, need to make more money means making concessions to the gameplay to appeal to a wider audience and we get an equivalent of TES Oblivion. Hasn't steered too far off course yet but it is clearly designed for a controller support and parts of the "confusing aspects" has been eroding away to make it slightly simpler and streamlined. So when do we get the equivalent to TES Skyrim?
Maybe I'm too much of a cynic but I don't like where this is all heading. Isn't Brain Fargo retiring after WL3 too? Like, if the people in charge who kept the studio on track git gone then whoever replace them might not be as strict on being PC focused. Wasn't that what happened with Interplay?
Know your place, basically. They're all reaching for the moon, climbing up that hill not knowing at at the top is a fall off a cliff.
At least we'll get another Underrail and Age Of Decadence and possibly other smaller studio cRPG's like ATOM.