Wasteland 3 - On Combat & Encounter Design

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Spaceman
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Wasteland 3s combat and encounter design is explained in the latest update. In addition loot will be more hand placed.

We're currently in the early pre-production period, and many of those answers are likely to change and evolve over time as we prototype, playtest, and iterate. So, it's a bit too early for us to launch into detailed breakdowns of everything we want to do on the game. However, what I'd like to do today is give you a sort of birds-eye look at what we're hoping to accomplish with the combat system in Wasteland 3.

Combat has always been a huge part of the Wasteland franchise, as it's where so many of your important character-building decisions get realized. With Wasteland 2, we had a wide variety of enemy types and encounter areas to play with. In the Director's Cut, we expanded combat to include extra strategic options like Precision Strikes, which gave you more options to affect the battlefield. On a high level, Wasteland 3's combat will be created in the same vein; it will be turn-based, party-based, and will offer a wide range of tactical choices, like cover and verticality.

However, the keen-eyed among you likely saw that we mentioned a "revamped, more fluid action system". "So...what the hell is that all about?", you ask. Well, let me tell you.

In a turn-based combat system, sometimes you can get bogged down waiting. You as a player might have an understanding of what you want to do before the system allows you to do it. This can lead to the game feeling a bit sluggish or slow. Furthermore, Wasteland 3 will offer a multiplayer mode, and if you have ever played turn-based games in multiplayer, such as Civilization, you likely know that adding a buddy can add more downtime.

Consequently, a focal point of the combat design team is to find the unnecessary wait times and see what we can do to reduce them. Why be forced to wait for my ranger to reach their final destination (which then unlocks the input) before I can move my next ranger in the turn order? Input queuing, where your control inputs aren't locked out while animations are playing, is one solution we are exploring that will allow the dance of combat to play out more on your time, rather than making you wait for our system to catch up.

This focus on a revamped action system also applies to the types of tactical options you will have in the game. Cover-based shooting is still going to be a component, but we want to expand your available options for problem-solving. Going back to the Precision Strike system from Wasteland 2: Director's Cut, we're looking at expanding and tweaking some of that functionality into more special attack types and abilities that will let you have more control over the combat zone.

One other aspect of combat we want to amp up is encounter design. While Wasteland 2 had a large number of critters and creatures for you to fight in addition to human enemies and synths, we saw the feedback that combat could feel a little stale, especially in some of our larger and more combat-heavy scenes. We're going to be looking at ways to engineer more varied, unique, interesting, and hand-crafted encounters in Wasteland 3 that have more variety or elements that change throughout - such as an enemy vehicle entering the fray in the middle of the battle.

Speaking of, vehicles will be another layer that makes combat more interesting. While vehicles may not be available in every single encounter, when they are present, they will be a significant factor. We hinted at some of these in our initial Frosty Reception video, where we showed the vehicle's turret being used to attack enemies, or using the doors as cover, but we're hoping to do even more beyond that as well, and there is no lack of creative design ideas already put forth.

Last, we're hoping that environmental interactions in general will be a bigger deal in Wasteland 3. For instance, Colorado's harsh conditions mean you may not always get the clear line of sight offered in the Arizona deserts. Snowfall or even blizzards are one way your visibility may be affected, and we might even give you some options to manipulate things directly in your favor.
More information.
 
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I don't know what to think about scripted encounters.
Sure they are more challenging - not to know what is about to happen is a challenge.
But if you are only able to make it through the encounter with knowing what will happen - then the system failed imo. It was OK (but not good!) e.g. in Avadon 3 - but there where always encounters where I thought, that I could use less or none single use items if I had known, that more enemies will appear through the fight.
If you need to save/load often to get to know encounters and master them, then the game is more a combat simulator than an RPG.
 
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I hate random loot, in every game i played.
 
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I don't know what to think about scripted encounters.

A "scripted" encounter to me simply means it's a "hand-crafted" encounter. It lets the developers make uniquer situations and encounters throughout the game.

As for knowing when/how to use items, etc., I think that is part of the fun of an RPG. I would encourage more developers to have players make tougher decisions as to when to use powerful items, and in general make powerful one-use items rarer than they currently are in most RPGs.
 
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The bad part about finding special loot is when you already have better weapons. Here's this nice, custom weapon that would have been great... ten levels ago.

I'd like to see a way to use special items like that to boost the effectiveness of your base. I.e. donate it to the Base's special weapons armory; get a boost to the base defenses and mission capability.
 
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A good example of interesting weapons and armor in my mind is Morrowind or Baldur's Gate. Both have primarily hand-placed loot, it's harder to find a "clear" upgrade for long lengths of time and the loot overall is interesting.

In BG you have smaller numbers that have more impact and "feel good" when you get that one or two extra THAC0, or see that AC drop from 8 to 6. I also like loot from these games that has quirky and/or unique features besides upgraded damage. The best loot is often a piece that has you think differently about the game and combat strategy and how you are going to use it, etc.

These 2 games also do a similar thing with the vast magic system that lets you approach things differently or in a unique way if you choose to.
 
Interesting loot is directly connected with interesting character mechanics of the game. For example loot had little chance to be interesting in Pillars of Eternity when the system behind the game was not that interesting and varied.
There are also much worse examples, like most of the modern Bethesda games.
 
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Interesting loot is directly connected with interesting character mechanics of the game. For example loot had little chance to be interesting in Pillars of Eternity when the system behind the game was not that interesting and varied.
There are also much worse examples, like most of the modern Bethesda games.

I'll just go ahead and agree with you here. I liked PoE well enough, but enjoyed it for other reasons than loot or mechanics which were so-so. Worst loot for me recently is D:OS. Still awesome game, but random loot sucks...
 
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I also hate random loot in rpg games. There should be no random loot, and all treasure items should be both hand crafted and hand placed. Perhaps the only acceptable exception would be the Diablo type games, the pure action rpg. Then, I can understand the need for such a system.

Even worse, are procedural random levels thought up by the game....If I see a game says that their levels are not hand crafted by human level designers, but instead, are randomized and designed by the game AI, then I will write that game off nine times out of ten, and no longer be interested in it.
 
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Morrowind's hand-placed stuff was epic-ly hand-placed. The Legendary Items, for example, added a very interesting mystique to the game. Not only could you find them at any point in the game (granted, you had to defeat the "gatekeepers" to reach most of them), but they had the backstory and lore that made them even more interesting, IMO.

Gothic 1 & 2, Risen, Morrowind (to an extent), Baldur's Gate, etc. Make the loot hand-crafted/hand-placed, remove level-scaling, etc.
 
Worst loot for me recently is D:OS. Still awesome game, but random loot sucks…

It was a problem in all of the Divinity games.
 
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To be honest I thought it was worse in the D:OS. With the original DD game there were many items with based stats + random stats in fixed location. With DKS I thought the loot progression was quite decent thought I can't remember if any of the items (like DD) were in fixed location - i'm pretty sure that some items were since I remember a faq that gave the location for some set items. For D:OS (even enhanced edition) many times epic fights ended up with crappy loot and wimpy fights with great loot. Not sure how they managed to take such a steep step backwards.
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D:OS-2 seems to do a better job with epic fights guaranteeing better loot but it is too early (not enough of the game available) to tell for sure.

It was a problem in all of the Divinity games.
 
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I'm not too keen on speeding a turn-based RPG like Wasterland 2/3 up, really, so I hope there are options to just play it like "normal".
 
Only three days left? Where did the time go? Will they even reach the last two stretch goals?
 
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