Wasteland 2 Forum Developer Q&A #2

We have rounded up some more developer replies from the Ask a Dev Wasteland 2 forums, which should clarify some of our doubts on the finer points of gameplay, design and story.

On combat:

Combat will be action point based. There are no defined rounds for “rangers turn” and “enemies turn”. Instead it is based on the speed attribute of each party member. Characters with higher speed attributes will get more turns than those with lower speed attributes. Put more points into speed if you’d like to attack more in any given combat encounter.

On healing and the health systems:

Still undecided on “instant heal” items. We’re hoping to err on the side of not having them, but if they’re needed for the type of combat experience we want, we are reserving the right to include them We have many combat mechanics coded at a base level, so we’re starting to get a feel for it.

I would like to balance the Field Medic and Surgeon skills to handle most healing on the battlefield. They don’t need items to help their basic form of healing, but for advanced types, they’ll use consumables. A skilled surgeon can heal increasingly negative status effects from UNC ->

On stealing:

The player characters won’t have a steal skill that they can use, but occasionally an CNPC that the players come across might have the ability to do this. It came down to a question of time and resources. Stealing is a cool skill in games, but any skills we added we want to have a good amount of reactivity. When we starting discussing a design for stealing, it turned into a major task. Ability to steal items, what kind of items can be stolen, what if you get caught, how does the NPC react in the future if you’re caught. It turned out to be something we didn’t think was core to the experience for the amount of time needed to add it correctly.

On drugs:

There will definitely be drugs in this game. They might even be helpful for a certain type of player.

On cover mechanics:

We do have cover in the game. It is similar to the way broken cover in the M.S.P.E. rule set works. There is a “block line of sight” system naturally in our game but we also have objects in the play space that the PCs and acceptable enemy AI can use as cover objects. The attackers chance to hit will be reduced when their target is in viable cover. Their animation state will change as well, visually showing them ducking into the cover.

On character customization and backgrounds/traits:

Somewhat, but not as deep as is discussed here. We wanted to leave the PC’s mostly free of having their own personalities, backgrounds and hobbies on purpose. In the original, the PC’s didn’t talk so they were essentially left to the imagination of the player. In WL2, we are attempting to do the same. There is some light background setup in character customization but that can be overridden with a “custom” setup easily.

On the planned novellas:

Now that the scripting is in the near complete state the novellas can begin. Chris and Mike are starting to pour through the the detail so they can formulate their clever take on the contents of the novella. If there are any particular subjects that people would like to see detailed I would be interested in your thoughts. The cults of LA…The history of the Synths…A story of adventure from Wasteland 1 etc….

On crafting:

We are currently thinking you will need to go to specific locations for most difficult crafting. For example, when using the weapon smithing skill, you will mostly need to be at a bench. There are elements of crafting that can be done on the road though. I’m being vague on purpose as there are some interesting elements to it that I don’t want to reveal right now.

Crafting recipes can be learned as well as available when you hit specific skill levels with that particular skill. There will be unique items that you can craft that aren’t available for purchase.