Wasteland 3 Beta Survey Results

Last month, inXile Entertainment launched a backer-exclusive beta for their upcoming post-apocalyptic RPG Wasteland 3. They followed it up with a survey, and now, we can check out this Fig update to learn the results. In short, most people played on the easier difficulties, found the challenge level to be just right, and preferred pistols and sniper rifles to all the other weapons. The update itself has a detailed breakdown of all the answers, and here are just the highlights:

Before we jump into this update, we wanted to thank you. A few weeks ago, we announced that Wasteland 3’s release date would be moved to August 28, and we were sincerely humbled by your incredibly kind and supportive responses.

Since that announcement we’ve been hard at work iterating on the specific feedback we received from the Wasteland 3 Beta. We’re going to be sharing specifics before too long, but the primary areas we’re focusing on are tactical combat improvements, game performance, UI, and controls. That’s not an exhaustive list but were the primary areas of feedback we received.

One of the ways we got your feedback was through a survey, and we thought it’d be illuminating to share a few of the stats we saw. Keep in mind that the following information includes just a few of the highlights and isn’t a summary of all the feedback received.

Backer Beta Survey Highlights

We estimated the Beta to be the first 2-3 hours of the full game, but we can see that we were wrong and are bad at estimating play time. Ultimately, we think this data is a good indicator though toward the game’s replayability.

Almost half of you finished the Beta and completed it in one playthrough. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the other half of surveyed participants indicated that they elected to not play too far into it. Beta participation often reveals rough edges and story elements that some would prefer saved for the full playthrough.

A quarter of you who were surveyed were ready for a fight, and you started from the get-go at the more difficult Ranger or Supreme Jerk settings. Most responders, just about 2/3 of those surveyed, indicated they played at the default Wastelander setting.

A summary of all difficulties shows that almost all of you thought the difficulty was about right, with a slight tilt towards being a bit too easy. This was especially true for Supreme Jerk where about a 1/3 of you said it was too easy. This is one thing we have our eye on for further tuning passes.

When starting the game, you can begin with a premade duo or customize your own. As could maybe be expected, a majority of you chose to make your own characters.

The Sniper Rifle and the Pistol were the most used weapons, with the Flamethrower and brawl/blunt weapons being the least used. To some degree this is about weapon type availability in the beginning, but also about what kinds of weapons players gravitate toward when creating new characters (and this is also not an exhaustive list of weapon types). We’ll continue our process of iteration using the survey data we collected from you, as well as our own tuning passes.

We saw that most of you thought tactical positioning felt rewarding, but that it was difficult to pull off. That was based on several reasons given by respondents such as enemy sight and being spotted, where a Ranger will snap to on the grid, crouch/sneak concerns, and group selection struggles, to name a few. This is one of the more complex areas we’re wading into and will provide more specific changes we’re making soon.

The Strike system (the ability that charges up through basic attacks) is an area we’re taking a look at as many of you found it confusing, and/or felt that they charged too slowly and therefore were too valuable to waste. We have some tuning to do there.

Back to Work

Overall, what you liked about the Beta, what you loved, and what you didn’t, rang clear to us, and it was great to see that much of the public feedback from the Wasteland 3 Beta was in alignment with areas we’re already focusing on. We’ll be sharing more specific updates about the improvements and iterations you can expect in the retail version of Wasteland 3 when it arrives on August 28. We’re extremely excited to reveal what’s to come and have a strong feeling you’ll agree that the wait was worth it.

Again, we want to thank you for your excitement and passion, we couldn’t do this without your support. Until the next update Rangers, stay safe and healthy. We’ll talk to you again soon! The Wasteland 3 Team