Wasteland 2 Post-funding Update #17: Vision Doc

With the exception of a few interviews we haven’t heard any news about Wasteland 2 for a while, but going from the latest post-funding Kickstarter update for the title I’d say the wait has been well worth it as the team can now offer not only a new piece of art from Andrée Wallin, a new rendition of the original cover that should hint at the artistic sensibilities of the sequel, but also the much-awaited vision doc for the title.

Brian Fargo will forgive me if I quote directly from it instead of the update:

Customization: The ability to customize, alter, and improve your characters is as important as changing the world. Like the original Wasteland, your choice of what statistics and skills you invest in gives your characters personality, gives you multiple quest solutions, and gives you the ability to role-play beyond simply Thief, Fighter, or Mage archetypes. A low Charisma, low Agility, and high Strength character who specializes in medical skills and brawling can flesh out your characters with a sense of personality that other RPGs don’t allow for. perhaps that of an injured pit fighter who learned to tend the wounds of others in arena brawls in Needles and Vegas. Or a down-on-their-luck boxing coach who signed up with the Rangers as an instructor then graduated to going on missions to watch his new students in action. An ex-soldier who has forsaken the use of firearms after she was shot in the leg.

The amount of customization you can assign to your skills and stats help paint a detailed, vibrant personality for your characters. and give you added options when exploring the wasteland. That same injured pit fighter who knows how to talk about hand to hand combat with brawlers may gain information others cannot. or be able to earn money or earn respect through fighting in the arena itself and with enough medical knowledge to keep them going in-between matches. An assassin that specializes in lockpicking may unlock the back entrance to a hideout of Leather Thugs, take out their leader while he’s sleeping, and then leave quietly before the other dozen gang members know he’s there. A laser-toting doctor may be able to gain access to a community with his medical know-how, and when they get within range of a target, use their laser weapon skills to surgically take out a town’s gun turrets and pave the way for other Rangers to storm the place.

Assigning points over the course of the game into your chosen skills and stats can allow you to decide how each character grows as an individual. Your wounded pit fighter might gain new strength in his arms and have his cartilage repaired at Ranger Center, gaining more Agility. Your boxing coach may develop into the most skilled doctor the Rangers have ever known, and your ex-soldier may discover that some recently discovered horrors requires she take up the Rifle again and become a sniper to help her comrades. and herself. survive.

Customization Plus: We don’t stop there. Customization extends beyond creating your characters’ stats and looks; it translates to the user interface, customizing and outfitting your own weapon from what you can scrounge from the environment, swaging your ammo and even what portraits you want to import in the game to represent your character (Why settle for what we give you? Choose whatever you want, draw your own, or find something better on line, or even round out your party with pictures of your family members and co-workers!). Make the world, the interface, the playstyle, and your character yours, and role-play the way you want to.

Interface that Caters to You: Wasteland 2 allows not only character and world customization, but interface layout and design customization as well. With the range of game mechanics permitted inside and outside of combat, we don’t want to limit you solely to customizing your character – we allow you to customize your interface to match your playstyle and choose the “language” and format with which you communicate with the game.

Band of Brothers: Like the original, Wasteland 2 is a party-based game – you and your Rangers are a team, a band of brothers. Creating a party of individuals with depth and freedom is something unique to Wasteland and reinforces the Rangers as an organization not only are you fighting to build communities, your Rangers are a community, too, and you can feel that in the gameplay mechanics and interactions.

NPC’s: In addition to your ranger party you will have NPCs join the group each with their own personalities, motivations, and agendas while they may excel in lockpicking, swinging a chainsaw through Leather Jerks, or sniping a War Droid and clipping its sensors at a block away, they have their own opinions they’ll act on over the course of the game. They don’t always blindly follow you into radiation-infested buildings, they may quietly hoard drugs and money that they find, or even possibly decide to borrow things from you as needed. They may have a childhood fear of rats that causes them to burn SMG clips in fury whenever those creatures appear. If they don’t like someone in the party, they won’t be shy about it or they may actively encourage you to send certain characters on solo missions provided they leave their canteen and supplies behind. The feeling is that you’ll be traveling with characters, not drones with certain skill sets, and knowing their personality strengths and motivations is one of the most important tools for survival.