Wasteland 2 Post-funding Update #36: Honing Our Skills

The steady stream of news from inXile for their upcoming title Wasteland 2 continues onward. This week’s Kickstarter update is very substantial, and goes into extreme detail about the attributes and skills that players can expect to use in building their characters. We definitely like the extent of the character system, and it seems few corners have been cut in creating a system that’s got depth to spare.

Additionally, there’s another update for backers suggesting that the beta for the game will begin within the next few weeks, though no firm date has been given just yet.

Attributes

Attributes are the starting values that define your character. You allocate them at character creation and while they can be upgraded during the course of the game, opportunities to do so are sparse. Attributes are key in determining the core characteristics of your ranger. They affect things like how many action points you have, how much movement each action point allows, how many survival points you gain per level, your carry weight, and many other variables. We’ve always said choices and trade-offs are a main design focus and character creation certainly supports this. Attributes have a cap of 10 and you will start with a smaller attribute pool than you may be used to. Each attribute point has a dramatic effect on your ranger, which leads to some very different feeling rangers based on how you distribute them.

If a specific attribute is very low, that may cap the related skill or could mean the character is incapable of using some items with attribute requirements. Of course, we will be balancing attributes and skills throughout beta, so some of these might be modified further. Outside of the core uses, NPCs in the world will react to specific characters based on their attribute make-up.

The attributes are (with some but not all uses listed):

• Coordination (CO): General coordination and ability to operate firearms. Determines action points (AP) and increases your critical hit chance at range.
• Luck (LK): Luck of the roll. Improves crits with weapons, gives you a chance to get an additional AP during your turn and affects many other interactions throughout the wasteland.
• Awareness (AW): Ability to notice events happening around you. Increases initiative in combat (turn order), increases evasion rate.
• Strength (ST): Pure physical strength. Increases your maximum constitution earned per level, increases close combat damage, increases carry weight.
• Speed (SP): Physical speed and movement rate. Increases movement per AP in combat, reduces length of skill usage progress meters.
• Intelligence (IQ): Knowledge, wisdom and general problem-solving. Increases skill points gained per level.
• Charisma (CHR): Charm, personality and swagger. How NPCs perceive your likeability or persuasiveness.

Also making a return from Wasteland 1, but still not exactly an attribute, is maximum constitution (MAXCON), or the maximum number of hit points. MAXCON is derived from strength and upgradeable when you level-up.