Wasteland 3 Fig Update #6, $2,996,878 and Counting

Now that the project is getting very, very close to its $3 million stretch goal, the folks at inXile have published a new update to the Fig campaign for Wasteland 3. This time, they focus on the Ranger HQ in Colorado, and how they intend to expand it from the design in Wasteland 2. Expect it to be more of a developing quest hub throughout the game this time around:

In Wasteland 1, Ranger Center was the place where you would start the game and create new recruits. In Wasteland 2, Ranger Citadel had a similar function in that it let you drop off your companion NPCs and recruit new ones if any of your original squad-mates had died in the Wasteland. We also expanded it to include more shops, quest content, lore, and some story elements as well. However, it was mostly a starting point, and your reasons for returning were still a little limited.

With Wasteland 3, it’s our aim to expand the HQ concept further and make it feel like a more meaningful part of the game. Early in the story, you will take command of a new Ranger Base in Colorado. Unlike Ranger Citadel in Wasteland 2, it won’t start out fully staffed and equipped. Instead, you’ll be the sole survivor of Team November, establishing a new foothold in hostile, harsh, and unforgiving territory. It will be up to you to recruit promising new Rangers from the local population and decide how to deal with the crises and challenges that are brought to your door.

In Wasteland 3, the Ranger Base is not something we want you to be constantly micromanaging. This isn’t going to be a real-time strategy game; you won’t be sending peasants to go chop wood or mine coal, or building settlements. How your base changes will be tightly tied in with the game’s narrative and will be uniquely Wasteland.

Instead, we are envisioning the Ranger Base as more of a quest hub that you can return to throughout the game, where interesting events and incidents will arise for you to resolve. You can think of our goals as something along the lines of de’Arnise Hold from Baldur’s Gate 2. Far from being a game system where you need to look at graphs, charts, and numbers to balance your budget, the HQ in Wasteland 3 will present you with events, ethical dilemmas, and quests based on your choices, and those choices can have world-spanning consequences.