Director's Cut Live Stream & Precision Strikes
Hello Exiles,
Things have been pretty hectic and crazy the last weeks around inXile HQ, especially as we rocket towards finishing Wasteland 2 Director's Cut. The good news is that things are shaping up awesomely on all fronts!
Director's Cut Live Stream with Quill18
During our Bard's Tale IV Kickstarter closing party, we will be live streaming from 4 PM to 6 PM PST with renowned Twitch and YouTube star Quill18. As a special treat, we will be demoing Wasteland 2 Director's Cut live for you during the stream. This is the first time we are publicly showing live gameplay.
The stream will be hosted on Quill18's Twitch channel, and we will try to get it archived for you afterwards, but join us live if you are able. You will not want to miss it!
A Precise Look at Precision Strikes
One of the main features we have been working on for the last little while has been Precision Strikes, our called shots-type system that many fans of post-apocalyptic games will be familiar with. This is actually one of the earliest features we designed and prototyped for the Director's Cut, but it also went through a lot of subtle changes and iteration along the way. And now we can finally show it off to you!
First, what exactly are Precision Strikes? Put simply, they a new shot type we have added to combat. Precision Strikes will let you aim at specific enemy body parts, and depending on the body part you fire on, you will be able to inflict debilitating status effects.
When we approached Precision Strikes, we had a few goals in mind. First, we didn't want Precision Strikes to feel like they were always the superior option. We wanted Precision Strikes to live up to their name – to be used tactically and situationally – rather than being used each and every time.
On that note, we also wanted Precision Strikes to all be useful in their own ways. We made sure each type of Precision Strike had its own unique qualities. Different enemies have different strengths and weaknesses (something we had to further refine and accentuate thanks to our rebalancing and new additions like Precision Strikes and Perks), and with Precision Strikes you will have ways to counter them effectively.
When attacking enemies, you have up to four Precision Strike options. We are still tweaking the numbers a bit, but their effects are:
- Head: 1.35x damage, +25% crit bonus, chance of rendering the enemy confused or psychotic, causing them to attack their friends or behave erratically. Significant Chance to Hit penalty.
- Torso: 0.8x damage, reduces the enemy's Armor. Small Chance to Hit penalty.
- Arms: 0.7x damage, reduces the enemy's Chance to Hit, chance of destroying their weapon and causing it to explode in a shower of shrapnel. Moderate Chance to Hit penalty.
- Legs: 0.7x damage, reduces the enemy's Combat Speed, chance of knocking them down and reducing their Action Points. Moderate Chance to Hit penalty.
We wanted Precision Strikes to be fairly reliable so that you'd want to use them often, but to also capture a degree of randomness, allowing you to cause cool and unique effects. Sure, you might be able to reduce an enemy's Chance to Hit by aiming at their arms, but rarely, you'll actually destroy their weapon entirely, causing it to explode in their face for some extra damage. Little random elements like this let us make the system feel exciting and unpredictable.
We even have some extra bits of polish in there as well. These body parts will vary in their naming a bit depending on the enemy type. For example, if you go up against a robot, you might find that instead of a head, it has a CPU, and instead of a torso, a chassis. We also have some new sounds, particle effects and even animations on certain enemies that also tie into the new system.
Overall it's a ton of fun to play with. It really does add a degree of depth to the combat, and we can't wait for you to enjoy it yourselves.
Wasteland 2 Playing Cards Funded!
Another successful Kickstarter you may have seen featured in our previous updates is Jackson Robinson's Wasteland 2 playing cards! His campaign funded in a little over 2 hours after launching, and he has so far raised a huge amount over his original goal. This has been an amazing collaboration, and we're very pleased with the results. Jackson recently shared a speed painting of someone you might recognize from Wasteland 2 – take a look below!
That's all for now, everyone! We'll have more coming for you in the next weeks. For now, we have a party to attend, a campaign to wrap up and a massive Wasteland 2 update to get polished and ready for you. Onwards!
Eric Schwarz
Line Producer/Wasteland 2 Designer
@searanox
Jabberwok on July 13, 2015
I really like the torso status effect, and the damage penalties. A couple questions:
1. Are all of these effects temporary, and how long do they last if so? Hitting the legs to knock someone down and reduce actions points sounds like possibly a one turn effect, on the other hand, it'd be cool if you could actually disable their leg. Others like the armor reduction sound like they should be permanent.
2. If the AI uses these, is there a chance they could destroy my weapon?
TheChosenOne on July 10, 2015
Hmmm introducing a new mechanic in an Directors Cut? I was hoping to have full focus on an optimised game without any new tinkering of core mechanics.
alcaray on July 10, 2015
In most games I've played, called shots aren't worth using because of all the extra damage you take from the enemies on rounds where the good guys miss all their (called) shots.
inXile entertainment Creator on July 10, 2015
@T.J. Brumfield - good question. The main point is game balancing - this is our primary mechanism for balancing out the benefits of Precision Strikes, along with damage reductions. So you'll only want to use one at most once or twice on each enemy, rather than spam the same one over and over (and headshots have enough of a penalty to make them non-viable for every shot).
For the in-universe reason, I'd justify it by saying you are precisely aiming for the weak points on their armor to damage it. Ultimately a small abstraction but worth it for the gameplay. :)
- Eric
T.J. Brumfield on July 10, 2015
Out of curiosity, why is a torso shot a penalty to hit? Aren't you pretty much always shooting center mass when you're not doing a called shot? If a torso shot does less damage, it should be a bonus to hit, even with the slight armor damage.
Skirge01 on July 10, 2015
What?! No groin shots? Even so, I really like the addition of precision shots. I also agree with Donnicton's comment about the loot changing if their weapon explodes. Conversely, does that mean you lose your own weapon if the enemy makes such a shot? That'd really suck on the rarer weapons, but it would be much more realistic.
Zombra on July 10, 2015
Precision Strikes look great.
What's with that font on the scrolling feed? Arial? I hope the player can change that back!
Donnicton on July 10, 2015
Arm shots sound tactically interesting and all, but would destroying their weapon also affect the loot they drop? i.e. they won't drop a weapon if you destroy the one in their hands?