Wasteland 3 - The return of beloved Scotchmo and release 2020

[The_Proletarian]

InXile is out with a new update for Wasteland 3. The main takeaway is that the game will not be released this year as earlier intended but spring 2020. The reason given is that InXile would like to use the new resources from Microsoft to further enhance the game.

Backer alpha will begin August 2019 and beta during fall.

The update also contains some sort of trailer:


As you probably spotted in the end of the trailer Scotchmo, the hilarious hobo companion from Wasteland 2, will make his return. This is an alpha version of how a cinematic conversation with him would play out:


You can read the full update here. I'll end the update with some screenshots from the official site:

 

[Mr Fish]

Conversation trailer looks awkward. I don't understand why they can't just go with a textbox and at best have a voice over for the lines. Usually in RPG's the dialogue, no matter how cutscene-esque they try to make it, looks awkward and uninteresting. So if I can read the line faster than the character can say it then after I'm done reading it I will click the skip option. So this literally does nothing for me. It does make me wonder what else they're doing to cater to a more mainstream audience.

Is there any details as to specifically how stats, skills, traits, perks and whatever else works and what they are in WL3?
Cause I'd say those details are a bit more important than "lulz, scotchmo is such a character!"

 

[Octavian]

Conversation trailer looks awkward. I don't understand why they can't just go with a textbox and at best have a voice over for the lines. Usually in RPG's the dialogue, no matter how cutscene-esque they try to make it, looks awkward and uninteresting. So if I can read the line faster than the character can say it then after I'm done reading it I will click the skip option. So this literally does nothing for me. It does make me wonder what else they're doing to cater to a more mainstream audience.

Is there any details as to specifically how stats, skills, traits, perks and whatever else works and what they are in WL3?
Cause I'd say those details are a bit more important than "lulz, scotchmo is such a character!"

I feel like the intent is to have it mimic a real conversation, with no subtitles (the only text being your dialogue choices, not their responses). However, the words have to be there just in case you mishear something, and to design around people who play deaf or without volume.

 

[Mr Fish]

I think the intent is "people don't like reading and we could appeal to more people if they didn't have to read wikipedia paragraphs". But then again, I'm a cynic.

It's supposed to be a cRPG and to me this is just in the way.

Imagine, for example, if InXile wanted to do a correction in the dialogue after the game has been released. That means they have to reanimate that part, lipsync it and hope that the voice actor is available so that they can get him back behind the mic, as well as pay him for his troubles. You can't do a simple edit in the text if you needed to correct a contradiction or an oversight or if you wanted to add something, like if there's DLC and there's choice and consequence there, it'd be far easier to have base game NPC's react to it when it is just text than when it is like this. There's also the question of how much money, resources and time was spent on hiring the voice actors and animating the dialogue part.

This dialogue system does not belong in a cRPG in my opinion.

For example, I messed around with RPGMaker once and tried to create an RPG with choice and consequence and whenever I playtested it and I noticed something was wrong in the dialogue or something hadn't been brought up or that there needed to be another NPC to help bring context to the situation then I could easily change that. I imagine this engine is a bit more complicated than RPGMaker but the point still stands that if you want to flesh things out at any point during the development or even after the development it is one hell of a lot easier when there's no voice actors you have to take into account. (Oh and the project was awful and I digitally purged it from existence )

To be fair though, I would love it if I could have the best of both worlds. But even if the rest of the game is amazing and the dialogue text and choices is great and never needs any kind of post-launch edit, the dialogue system just looks... Stiff and awkward, it does not feel like a conversation is being held, it feels like an animatronic puppet, a very well detailed and animated animatronic puppet, stiffly expunge the lines it has prerecorded as you press the appropriate buttons.

ARPG's are more fitting for "real conversations" so now that they got Microsoft funding maybe they ought to move over to that because to me it just seems like they are desperately trying to make cRPG's mainstream. And I just don't think that'll work. And if it doesn't, then what are we left with?

Hopefully something good but I haven't heard any details as to the skills/traits/stats/perks that make up a roleplaying game so it leaves me worried that this is the thing they want to showcase.

 

[Jabberwok]

I think the intent is "people don't like reading and we could appeal to more people if they didn't have to read wikipedia paragraphs". But then again, I'm a cynic.

It's supposed to be a cRPG and to me this is just in the way.

Imagine, for example, if InXile wanted to do a correction in the dialogue after the game has been released. That means they have to reanimate that part, lipsync it and hope that the voice actor is available so that they can get him back behind the mic, as well as pay him for his troubles. You can't do a simple edit in the text if you needed to correct a contradiction or an oversight or if you wanted to add something, like if there's DLC and there's choice and consequence there, it'd be far easier to have base game NPC's react to it when it is just text than when it is like this. There's also the question of how much money, resources and time was spent on hiring the voice actors and animating the dialogue part.

This dialogue system does not belong in a cRPG in my opinion.

For example, I messed around with RPGMaker once and tried to create an RPG with choice and consequence and whenever I playtested it and I noticed something was wrong in the dialogue or something hadn't been brought up or that there needed to be another NPC to help bring context to the situation then I could easily change that. I imagine this engine is a bit more complicated than RPGMaker but the point still stands that if you want to flesh things out at any point during the development or even after the development it is one hell of a lot easier when there's no voice actors you have to take into account. (Oh and the project was awful and I digitally purged it from existence )

To be fair though, I would love it if I could have the best of both worlds. But even if the rest of the game is amazing and the dialogue text and choices is great and never needs any kind of post-launch edit, the dialogue system just looks... Stiff and awkward, it does not feel like a conversation is being held, it feels like an animatronic puppet, a very well detailed and animated animatronic puppet, stiffly expunge the lines it has prerecorded as you press the appropriate buttons.

ARPG's are more fitting for "real conversations" so now that they got Microsoft funding maybe they ought to move over to that because to me it just seems like they are desperately trying to make cRPG's mainstream. And I just don't think that'll work. And if it doesn't, then what are we left with?

Hopefully something good but I haven't heard any details as to the skills/traits/stats/perks that make up a roleplaying game so it leaves me worried that this is the thing they want to showcase.

Pretty much all of this. Also, good voice acting is not easy to come by. Even slightly less than excellent voice acting can ruin good writing for me. Obsidian and InXile have both had that problem, imo. I've enjoyed the Bard's Tale 4 VA, but that's a much smaller script. The voice gets in the way more often than not in something like Wasteland or Pillars.

Just the fact that it's called 'cinematic' conversation gets right to the root of the problem. I want to play an isometric rpg, not watch a movie.

 

[monsharen]

I do like cinematic conversations as they can give you a sense of progression. Reaching a new talking head in Fallout was exciting and you instantly knew this was an important event. It was a reward, not because it was video but because it was different from the other dialogue. So it would need to be sparse and dedicated to key characters.

 

[Mr Fish]

Ayeah, I liked the Talking Heads in Fallout.
So why am I so against this?
Either I'm biased or the Fallout games simply managed to pull it off better.
I feel like Scotchmo is "over-acting", maybe that's why.

I still feel like I'd rather just have text than... 'This'.
Like I said, It'd be neat to have the best out of both worlds but it just makes me worried that they're going for style over substance.

Fallout proved it could work, I guess I won't condemn it to the fiery pits of hell. Yet.
But I can't shake this cynical skepticism I have towards it.

 

[monsharen]

I still feel like I'd rather just have text than... 'This'.
Like I said, It'd be neat to have the best out of both worlds but it just makes me worried that they're going for style over substance.

Agree but this Scotchmo demo is possibly not the most exciting dialogue you can have.

Having said that I would have preferred a simpler face-only animation as I am not overly keen on the "style" anyway. It's a little bit too much for my taste.

 

[Jabberwok]

I do like cinematic conversations as they can give you a sense of progression. Reaching a new talking head in Fallout was exciting and you instantly knew this was an important event. It was a reward, not because it was video but because it was different from the other dialogue. So it would need to be sparse and dedicated to key characters.

That's true. But yeah, they would need to be sparse to have that significance. And even without animations, if Fallout had voiced every character in the game, it not only would have limited the quality and quantity of the writing, it would have reduced the weight of the lines that were voiced.

It's actually kind of annoying to me when these companies release an Enhanced Edition that adds voice for everything. Divinity: OS is another example. The original release had a small number of funny, sometimes memorable voiced lines, and it added flavor. The enhanced version has full VA, and I just don't need or want it.

 

[Gonzalez]

Actually Brian Fargo just announced this kind of dialogue is rather rare in the game, only for a few conversarions will the camera zoom in to show the face of the speaker. Kind like the talking heads in Fallout. It is fully voiced but only for some special characters you will have the full face to face talk.

 

[CarryTrainer.Editor]

Wasteland 3 looks good to me. I'll be watching for it's release

 

[Lexx]

I dunno man, I don't like the whole environment and theme that's going on. Also this lolfunny-thing doesn't work on me. So far the game fails to get to me.

 

[Jabberwok]

Actually Brian Fargo just announced this kind of dialogue is rather rare in the game, only for a few conversarions will the camera zoom in to show the face of the speaker. Kind like the talking heads in Fallout. It is fully voiced but only for some special characters you will have the full face to face talk.

So regular NPCs aren't voiced at all? That's good news. I kind of assumed they would be, just cause that seems to be the trend even in the kickstarter RPG studios. I have no problem with a convo like this as long as it's rare. Then it's essentially just an interactive cutscene.

 

[Gonzalez]

So regular NPCs aren't voiced at all?

Nope, I didn't explained myself correctly I guess. All NPC's are fully voiced, but only a few will you get to see their faces up close.

If they need to correct something it will be harder to do, but not impossible. And they can always change the text and leave the voice uncorrected.

 

[Jabberwok]

Nope, I didn't explained myself correctly I guess. All NPC's are fully voiced, but only a few will you get to see their faces up close.

If they need to correct something it will be harder to do, but not impossible. And they can always change the text and leave the voice uncorrected.

Yeahhh, that's what I was afraid of. Don't get me wrong, it's still better than going full Mass Effect, but it's definitely not what I would prefer. Even at its best, I find it distracting and somehow less immersive to constantly hear the dialogue while I'm trying to read it.

 

[Alphons]

Yeahhh, that's what I was afraid of. Don't get me wrong, it's still better than going full Mass Effect, but it's definitely not what I would prefer. Even at its best, I find it distracting and somehow less immersive to constantly hear the dialogue while I'm trying to read it.

Turn off the dialogues?

 

[Jabberwok]

Turn off the dialogues?

If it's possible that would be great, but turning down or muting the voice often removes ALL of the voice from the game, including barks. That's not really what I want. Divinity: OS had the right amount of voice acting for me, adding character without being tedious to listen to. Then the Enhanced Edition went full VO, and if I turn down the volume to avoid it, I lose all of that. But yes, if they happen to have a toggle that limits vocalizations, that would solve the problem.

Rather, it would solve one problem. The development of the script would still be affected by the necessity of having voice actors record the whole thing:
Discussed at 4:04 in this video.

 

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

Wasteland 3 is pretty much the only title from everything 2019, and I mean even Cyberpunk, that I myself am excited about.

I am fairly open to them doing something new...ish.