Wasteland Wasteland 3 + Battle of Steeltown and Cult of the Holy Detonation Expansions Thread

[Tacgnol]

Most games could really do with professional UX designers working on the UI side.

A lot of the UI issues in most games are often really obvious things that should be picked up pretty quickly by UI professionals.

 

[passerby]

"UI professionals" is exactly how you get mobile app interface.

UI should be designed by an autistic programmer that actually still likes to play games unlike 95% of the team.

 

[Tacgnol]

"UI professionals" is exactly how you get mobile app interface.

UI should be designed by an autistic programmer that actually still likes to play games unlike 95% of the team.

Hire any full stack developer from the corporate world to help with the UI. They'll knock up a better UI than most game devs ever could.

You think gamers bitch and whine a lot? Angry end users are merciless.

 

[a Goat]

No.


Hire me. I'll design ui the programmers will implement it. I want 100k and work remotely.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Killed a synth instead of locking him up in my Ranger HQ. Did lock up Brian Fargo however, curious if he'll break out later in the game.

Shooting feels nice, hammy writing saved somewhat by decent voice acting, quite some skill checks although still a heavy emphasis on combat (which I like). Playing on Ranger difficulty, not too many difficult fights except for the one where I immediately went to the caravan and encountered mobs that were well above my paygrade. Fortunately your vehicle packs a punch and destroyed 90% by driving over them. 10/10 - always bring a car to a gunfight.

I did the exact same thing. Went to that synth fight before I realized the sheriff was right off of ranger HQ, so I didn't even have a full party when I went to the cyborgs. Passed skill checks to flank them though, so I took out the generator for their turrets and then did a bottle neck to mow them down while the truck slowly rolled up and picked off stragglers. Still have a few tense moments even in easy fights just because I went crazy taking Poindexter on too many people since I love skill points. Unfortunately the AI realizes I have weaklings and will ignore Machete Rapist charging straight at them in the open and go for my sniper in high cover because he's got 20HP.

Quick edit: Actually, screenshot reminded me of that area

Spoiler

anyone know how to turn the power on to the electronic safe there? Got back in that cubbyhole and it looked like there was a busted solar panel but I couldn't seem to power the safe and loot it. Then again maybe if I go back now that it's been cleared the scientist guy fixes it and I can get treasure.

 

[AndrewCC]

Welp. This is trash at the moment.
Tried the GOG version, and just the amount of bugs and poorly explained stuff is staggering.
Created my rangers: 1 sneaky melee guy, 1 sniper. Got to the last fight in tutorial area: it's 6 guys with guns, including 1 with rocket launcher vs 2. And the melee guy is useless, since the area is huge, enemies are spread out and all got guns, and even if you get close to them to melee they don't die in 1 hit anyway.
Ok, game you got me. Time to restart.
This time replaced melee guy with medic+assault rifle guy. Got to the 2st fight in the tutorial vs the 3 guys and suddenly became aware that the game hadn't given me any ammo for my sniper, other than the 5 bullets she started with loaded into the gun. Of course, weapons don't drop from enemies, so I was again stuck with just 1 combat-able character.
Uninstalled and waiting for the Enhanced Edition/Director's Cut.

 

[Urthor]

So what's the verdict, should I coop the inevitable Definitive Director's Edition Cut or not bother with this shit anymore?

The turn based combat is actually quite good and I'm sure it'll be pretty decent once the definitive arrives.

 

[jackofshadows]

Welp. This is trash at the moment.
Tried the GOG version, and just the amount of bugs and poorly explained stuff is staggering.
Created my rangers: 1 sneaky melee guy, 1 sniper. Got to the last fight in tutorial area: it's 6 guys with guns, including 1 with rocket launcher vs 2. And the melee guy is useless, since the area is huge, enemies are spread out and all got guns, and even if you get close to them to melee they don't die in 1 hit anyway.
Ok, game you got me. Time to restart.
This time replaced melee guy with medic+assault rifle guy. Got to the 2st fight in the tutorial vs the 3 guys and suddenly became aware that the game hadn't given me any ammo for my sniper, other than the 5 bullets she started with loaded into the gun. Of course, weapons don't drop from enemies, so I was again stuck with just 1 combat-able character.
Uninstalled and waiting for the Enhanced Edition/Director's Cut.

Just cheese the shit out of that last tutorial fight. Throw grenade or two and pull back a little for major wyman to tank and to deal substantial amount of damage.

As for sniper rifle ammo - it suppose to be scarce, otherwise everyone would be carrying thouse - sniper rifles are extremely powerful here.

 

[Haplo]

Well, haven't seen much, just cleared the ranger base, but so far seems like a massive improvement over W2.
Skill redunduncy seems mostly eliminated. Skills unlock special perks/moves, which further differentiate the weapon categories.

I love that skill checks are now deterministic rather then LOL save-scum random.

Cover mechanics seem improved and, more importantly, cover seems to make a little more sense this time.

One concern is that the prologue felt awfully claustrophobic and you are basically funneled along one winding corridor (with some forks that don't really matter). Perhaps that is an unnecessary concern, as this WAS the prologue.

 

[Jrpgfan]

It looks like they developed the UI thinking 100% about the console version. Rolling the tooltips with the mouse is a pain in the ass and you don't even have a kb shortcut to select all party members at once(need to select a leader and click with shift on each one).

I tested the xone controller just ouf of curiosity and it's a much smoother experience overall. Not gonna play with it because only the notion of playing a classic isometric crpg with a controller is weird to me, but this might be the first one where the controller is superior.

 

[you know what time it is]

First impressions a couple of hours in:

- Combat is alright
- Writing is very Bethesdian. Quite bland, yet still trying really hard to be "zany" or whatever.
- Visually, it's arguably even worse than WL2. At least the second installment looked like a bad PC game, this one looks like a mediocre mobile game. UI and icons are atrocious.

In terms of moment-to-moment gameplay it just feels so janky.

- The control scheme reminds of the whole Blender thing (they changed it since, but still). Take the shit with movement/interaction for example, like, why would you do that? Do the context-based interaction instead, like every other similar game in existence (when you M1 click on the ground it moves the characters, when you M1 click on interactable object/enemy it does the appropriate thing). I get that you can remap the controls, but it sets the tone from the get-go.
- Then you put some points in stealth, only to realize that there's no real stealth in this game, it's just a detection circle that allows you to shoot first, you can't do anything else with it.
- Then you get to the fighting part of the game, which is fine for the most part, but you quickly realize that melee is useless and the game has only just begun. I suppose things could change as you level, but that would be a little counter-intuitive, with all the robots, ranged weapons and shit.
- Then you get to looting shit after combat and it opens up a string of bodybags, which is fine on paper, but there's no indication of what the radius is, yet there's one and it's not screen-wide, because you often miss some of the loot if one of the body happens to be lying somewhere on the side
- Lacking tooltips and a lot of info is obscured for no particular reason
- Etc.

I might play some more down the line, it could very well be an enjoyable jank, but it's just so rough around the edges it becomes annoying to play really quickly.

 

[Brickfrog]

My brawler had no problem surviving prologue. Give 'em smoke and frags and don't run him up the middle. If your other dude has a gun have him blast the explosive barrels. It doesn't matter if your guys go down cuz no perma death or injury anyway. Also make sure you drink the weed soda for +25% melee damage. Probably good to just keep your melee guy stoned in every fight all game.

Melee is definitely not useless. My brawler hits hard and is is very tough to bring down with max strength and 14 armor.

 

[StrongBelwas]

I swear they get a little bigger every time I go to a new merchant

Spoiler

It looks like they developed the UI thinking 100% about the console version. Rolling the tooltips with the mouse is a pain in the ass and you don't even have a kb shortcut to select all party members at once(need to select a leader and click with shift on each one).

Doesn't Spacebar work for that?

 

[Jrpgfan]

I swear they get a little bigger every time I go to a new merchant

Spoiler

It looks like they developed the UI thinking 100% about the console version. Rolling the tooltips with the mouse is a pain in the ass and you don't even have a kb shortcut to select all party members at once(need to select a leader and click with shift on each one).

Doesn't Spacebar work for that?

It's mapped to "end turn" on controls, but it seems it does select all party members outside combat. Thanks for the information.

Scrolling through tooltip descriptions is still bad though.

 

[Tacgnol]

Welp. This is trash at the moment.
Tried the GOG version, and just the amount of bugs and poorly explained stuff is staggering.
Created my rangers: 1 sneaky melee guy, 1 sniper. Got to the last fight in tutorial area: it's 6 guys with guns, including 1 with rocket launcher vs 2. And the melee guy is useless, since the area is huge, enemies are spread out and all got guns, and even if you get close to them to melee they don't die in 1 hit anyway.
Ok, game you got me. Time to restart.
This time replaced melee guy with medic+assault rifle guy. Got to the 2st fight in the tutorial vs the 3 guys and suddenly became aware that the game hadn't given me any ammo for my sniper, other than the 5 bullets she started with loaded into the gun. Of course, weapons don't drop from enemies, so I was again stuck with just 1 combat-able character.
Uninstalled and waiting for the Enhanced Edition/Director's Cut.

I made 1 melee and 1 sniper and it has been fine so far. If anything most fights have been way too easy.

 

[Theldaran]

The question: what is the Mat... no, wait. Is the game worth it? Even if you don't care for Fallouts etc?

 

[Tacgnol]

I swear they get a little bigger every time I go to a new merchant

Spoiler

Pillars had an almost identical bug back in the day. Icons in the stash would break and get bigger until you reloaded the game.

Must be another Unity thing.

 

[Brickfrog]

Combat speed is the most important stat for melee after strength. There's a pair of knuckles that grant +.5 CSpeed at the end of the prologue. Not sure if you get the bonus by leaving it in your offhand but either way it's a big deal.

Don't neglect speed at character creation and prioritise leggings and armor mods that grant CSpeed.

 

[Achiman]

It looks like they developed the UI thinking 100% about the console version. Rolling the tooltips with the mouse is a pain in the ass and you don't even have a kb shortcut to select all party members at once(need to select a leader and click with shift on each one).

I tested the xone controller just ouf of curiosity and it's a much smoother experience overall. Not gonna play with it because only the notion of playing a classic isometric crpg with a controller is weird to me, but this might be the first one where the controller is superior.

What? spacebar selects all squad? or you can draw a rectangle and select everyone.
They need hotkeys for shit like guard and crouch etc (which they might have, I haven't looked too hard yet).

It seems much more polished and wasteland 2 so far imo, but I do agree with your main point it's 'console friendly' from the ground up. That is usually a death sentence for this type of game.

 

[Jrpgfan]

They need hotkeys for shit like guard and crouch etc (which they might have, I haven't looked too hard yet).

B and Z, respectively. Read the controls menu.

 

[jungl]

tried it yesterday seems alright. The long load times and slow overland map travel is shit. I swear there hasn't been a single unity crpg that did not bore me with its load times, traveling padding, jankiness occasional bugs.

Instead I been playing dead in vinland yesterday mostly which is a addicting game and more interesting game then wasteland 3.

 

[Xeon]

I haven't tested that much yet but I think you can change your quick items for free in combat? not sure what is the point of it if its free and even have perks to increase it. shit kinda sucks since I had to fix up some sick people to get the doc and had to change my quick items multiple times. That's pretty backward design compared to WL2.

I really really hope they change the UI and everything for the PC later.

 

[Kruno]

Time for a J. E. Sawyer rebalance mod!

 

[Hellion]

I lol'ed.

 

[Alienman]

Does the game stutter for anyone else when you highlight objects?