Wasteland Update #6, $1.5M passed

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
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The Kickstarter page of Wasteland 2 has another update in which InXile confirms Mac and Linux are on, and talks about new goals, as well as a new video.<blockquote>We just made our next major milestone, thanks to you all, which means more content plus a Mac and Linux version. And the number continues to grow, and that means a better product for all as we can hire more writers and scripters to add even more depth of consequence to the world, add more music and sound to set the atmosphere, and make the world larger to explore. Let's keep the number increasing and really knock it out of the ballpark. I have been having a blast reading the messages of excitement from the RPG players who feel neglected over the years.

The most common question now is what happens when we hit 2 million and above. First and foremost we hang our hat on the density of the experience the gamers get with a great RPG, and these monies continue to insure that happens. At 2 million we will increase the staff to make the game more social so that it can become a more shared experience. We like the concepts of dropping notes into the world for your friends who are playing the game, or perhaps we may allow you to send an item their way from Ranger center to help them out. We are fleshing out the ideas but intend to increase the social aspects of the game without diverting it from being an old school RPG and without hurting the balance.

We have received many questions about multi-player, and my feeling is that we do not think it would be the right decision for such a heavy narrative RPG. Even in an open sandbox world there are sequences and clues that need to happen in order for things to flow and make sense. This is not an MMO where we create instances of one-off events and scenarios, but it is a deep fluid world in which your actions do matter later. I don't want a game where my buddy triggered an event I didn't know and causes a repercussion for me, and at the same time I don't want to see every little event that my buddy sees to insure I didn't miss it. Multi-player is a design issue and not a technical one in this case. However, we will introduce social elements like I hinted at above so there can be a communal type experience.

More important than multi-player I would prefer to have a robust set of tools so the community can create mods and make the Wasteland world bigger than any one company ever could. Rest assured we are spending our efforts to determine at what tier we can have a team work on this. But keep in mind that making Wasteland 2 a deep RPG experience is mission critical, so even if we make the mod tools they are likely to come out after our ship date.</blockquote><center><object width="560" height="315"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hk-baSDDJ14?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hk-baSDDJ14?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" height="315" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object></center>
Edit: an update from InXile:<blockquote>Everyone remain calm....

There has been a lot of panic that any kind of element of sharing will ruin the classic old school RPG. I think some people are overreacting to the word "social" which I can kind of understand. But here is the bottom line. We will post a description of our thoughts in the forums and if YOU the fans still don't want it then we will not fight the majority. We can now get back to our normal shouting.</blockquote>
 
Video was a bit cheesier than the last one but still entertaining. They're doing a great job providing those incentives to keep the tally going up, and I think it's making a big difference.

I hope they focus more on those mod tools rather than the "social" features with extra money, but it all sounds interesting.
 
Really not into the multiplayer thing. At $2m I want the single player to be enhanced. i really don't care about multiplayer and don't feel dev time and resources should be spent on it.

Others might disagree but this is the first major thing I'm not into with Wasteland 2. If this is an old school single player RPG, a sequel to Wasteland and spiritual successor to FO1 and 2... why are funds being spent on multiplayer... this has me concerned, to be honest. Sending items? That's so easy to break the balance, making the game harder for people who don't want to play online or with others. The balance will either favour people who play online, or offline -.Look at Dark Souls etc. I just don't want this shit in a single player RPG, particularly one I'm funding. Am considering dropping my pledge down to the minimum because of this. This has no place in a single player, old school RPG in the vein of FO and Wasteland, no place at all. If they HAVE to have multiplayer, don't force it into the single player experience. Make it a completely seperate mode.

Multiplayer forced into the singleplayer mode in the sequel to Wasteland. Sounds like the sort of thing a publisher would demand of a developer - exactly the sort of thing that I thought kickstarter was supposed to avoid.

Similarly, mod tools. Don't care for them. I want the best Single Player RPG experience - and only when that has been made as good as possible, should things like mod tools be looked at.
 
SimpleMinded said:
Video was a bit cheesier than the last one but still entertaining. They're doing a great job providing those incentives to keep the tally going up, and I think it's making a big difference.

I hope they focus more on those mod tools rather than the "social" features with extra money, but it all sounds interesting.
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Yeah - maybe a bit cheesier - but I enjoyed it, too. I like that he is expressing some of his experiences with the industry.

And: hooray for linux support! :)
 
God is Dog backwards said:
Really not into the multiplayer thing. At $2m I want the single player to be enhanced. i really don't care about multiplayer and don't feel dev time and resources should be spent on it.
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It's likely that we'll see large community backlash on this. And it's to be expected. But it's also largely overblown & misinterpreted.

God is Dog backwards said:
Similarly, mod tools. Don't care for them. I want the best Single Player RPG experience - and only when that has been made as good as possible, should things like mod tools be looked at.
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Mod tools allow genius nutcases like Killap to bring you endless tweaks and fixes, even if the original devs no longer can do it for us.
It also ensures that the community can thrive and go its own way.

I think it's certainly worth the investment.
 
yeah not to mention that throwing out some mod tools is really not THAAAAAt difficult after all.
 
Fine, mod tools are cool but only after they've made the best single player RPG they can. And I feel every dollar of such a limited budget could be used to enhance the SP game - mod tools could be developed by using the profits of the final release, or something.

But social multiplayer shit? That's gotta go, or else I'm out, I'm afraid. Feel really strongly about this. It's not what I want in my RPGs, I can get that in the latest EA rubbish.
 
I understand that this isn't really what people want, but uh, EA shit? I don't think the features necessarily fit Wasteland, but Dark/Demon's Souls are the exact opposite of EA's "social experiences" and the way they implement their multiplayer is part of it.

EDIT: Yeah, avatar should be fairly clear about what I think of Dark Souls :P

Secondly, I fully believe that in max a couple of days we'll be posting about this idea being nixed or moved to an unreachable goalpost like $3M
 
I can't say i like that update at all.
A mod kit is not top priority for me but i recognize its utility. This social thing on the other hand i don't know where it comes from.
I guess nowadays even an "old school" SP game must have a social aspect, must it be MP or online :roll:
 
:shrug:

A simple-to-implement item/note exchange system doesn't worry me. Just like cheats: if you don't like it, don't use it. I'm just glad to hear they aren't thinking about fleshing out a multiplayer system - that would be a lot harder to implement.
Mod tools would be awesome, IMO, but secondary like he says. Everything of this update sounds good. Will view the video soon.
 
Mod tools can be as simple as a good file system that allows extending it and doesn't have anything hardcoded, and some not so hard to use file formats(xml or anything else text-based for example for NPC configurations, lua text scripts for world/npcs behavior, etc). And reverse-engineering a 2D tilemap shouldn't be that hard anyway. :P

My point is just good design on the engine from the start would be all the mod tools you need.
 
You know god is dog, he clearly says in this up date that there we be no mutilplayer...

So umm yeah, learn to read better I guess...

But anyway loving what I'm hearing, going to be a great game I still need to pledge...
 
Makagulfazael it's not a just a a simple-to-implement item/note exchange system :
At 2 million we will increase the staff to make the game more social so that it can become a more shared experience. We like the concepts of dropping notes into the world for your friends who are playing the game, or perhaps we may allow you to send an item their way from Ranger center to help them out. We are fleshing out the ideas but intend to increase the social aspects of the game
The item thing is just the first step, B.F wants it to be a more shared experience and spend more money into this.
Don't go well with SP and low budger feature, no ?
 
brian fargo said:
We have received many questions about multi-player, and my feeling is that we do not think it would be the right decision for such a heavy narrative RPG.
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I think some of you are overreacting a bit.

Both references Fargo has made to "social" aspects point towards only being influenced by your friends who are also playing the game, not random internoobs. Sounds like something you could entirely opt out of.

The concept of "passive" multiplayer features in single player games is almost entirely unexplored, and I think if the mere hint of such features is instantly repugnant to you then you arent being very imaginative.

I'd love simple fun little things like seeing a gravestone at the spot where your friend was just reduced to a thin red paste 20 minutes ago. There are a ton of entertaining things you could do along those lines, and again, sounds like something easily turned off.

Can't wait to head back to the Wasteland, deliciously ironic how a game about the apocalypse has a lot of us excited for the future.
 
Dario ff said:
Mod tools can be as simple as a good file system that allows extending it and doesn't have anything hardcoded, and some not so hard to use file formats(xml or anything else text-based for example for NPC configurations, lua text scripts for world/npcs behavior, etc). And reverse-engineering a 2D tilemap shouldn't be that hard anyway. :P

My point is just good design on the engine from the start would be all the mod tools you need.
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People sometimes forget that a few gamers managed to mod the hell out of games without any mod tools whatsoever. A few even made them by them self. That was before the Bethesdian-I-change-armor-in-to-pink modders. Not that I am complaining. But I prefer quality over quantity.
 
Crni Vuk said:
Dario ff said:
Mod tools can be as simple as a good file system that allows extending it and doesn't have anything hardcoded, and some not so hard to use file formats(xml or anything else text-based for example for NPC configurations, lua text scripts for world/npcs behavior, etc). And reverse-engineering a 2D tilemap shouldn't be that hard anyway. :P

My point is just good design on the engine from the start would be all the mod tools you need.
Click to expand...
People sometimes forget that a few gamers managed to mod the hell out of games without any mod tools whatsoever. A few even made them by them self. That was before the Bethesdian-I-change-armor-in-to-pink modders. Not that I am complaining. But I prefer quality over quantity.
Click to expand...

So you would want the games engine hardcoded/hard to access modding just because "quality over quantity" (wat) and some people may use easy mod tools to convert sprites into pink versions of the originals? Really?
 
InXile is going to explain their ideas and then look for feedback:

Everyone remain calm....

There has been a lot of panic that any kind of element of sharing will ruin the classic old school RPG. I think some people are overreacting to the word "social" which I can kind of understand. But here is the bottom line. We will post a description of our thoughts in the forums and if YOU the fans still don't want it then we will not fight the majority. We can now get back to our normal shouting.
Click to expand...
 
Nice that they got over 1.5M already. I have a windows and Linux box so if there is ever a problem with either of them I will always have a back up :D Now October 2013 can't come soon enough
 
I understand why some people are reacting this way, but I'm not really worried about it. Mod Tools will make the game better. No doubt about it. One Kilap-like-dude will go a long way with a modkit. The note sharing shit Fargo is talking about is not a big deal either. If the community doesn't want it, they will throw it out. Wait and see what they have to show us before freaking out.
 
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