Interview Wasteland 2 interview with InXile's Chris Keenan

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Tags: Chris Keenan; Fallout; InXile Entertainment; Wasteland; Wasteland 2

Nukapedia (also known as the Fallout Wiki - previously The Vault) have an interview up with InXile's producer Chris Keenan. It's mostly about Wasteland 2.

AC: Both Fallout and Wasteland have stood out from other Role Playing Game series by avoiding the "Light vs Dark" clique and instead presenting grey moral dilemmas - shooting the rabid pet dog "Rex" in Highpool perhaps the most famous (in Wasteland). Can we expect more of these, and what challenges do you face in writing these encounters?

CK: Absolutely. Many current RPGs are about your overall standing in the world. Are you good or evil? That isn’t granular enough for the play experience we want to get out of this. Every area you visit is about presenting moral dilemmas for the player to figure out on their own. It’s not a black and white decision. Sometimes, you’ll feel like you’re making the right move and it will turn out completely different than you thought. Every NPC has their own personality, including your companions and they don’t always listen to you. One companion NPC is a bit of a kleptomaniac. When shit hits the fan during combat, he might “accidentally” take an item from your inventory. If you notice it, you can ask for it back, kill him or even politely ask him to leave. He might not want to give it back. What do you do if he is an assassin in combat? Deal with it for the advantage or kill him?

AC: Moving under the hood, Unity have been talking up the Unity 4 Engine this week, particularly trumpeting features like Linux support. Are we right in thinking from the feature list and Brian Fargo's previous announcements Unity have provided that it is Unity 4 that Wateland will use, and is there any particular stand out feature in Unity that you're looking forward to experimenting with?

CK: We are using Unity for Wasteland 2. After evaluating all of our options, it was the perfect choice for our team. So far, my favorite feature has been the Unity Store. We’ve been able to save a ton of time on the front end by purchasing items and scripts for prototyping. While this can take months to get to a point where you have the base assets to even start creating test levels, we are there already. Brian has always said the focus of this game is the gameplay and it will allow us to get more iterations on that aspect than we could have with any other engine.

Click here for the full interview.
Found this over at NMA.

Why do these interviewers keep asking inXile about making the game accessible?

Well, duh, because you don't want to go trough troubles when building up your homosex romance.

Btw, I haven't read the whole interview, wasn't he asked about romances as well? It would surprise me if not.

Thankfully no, mainstream (non-LoversLab) Bethestards aren't much into romance either.

One thing: Chris Keenan says he's a big X-COM fan, and that he is eagerly awaiting the new X-COM Enemy Unknown.

That doesn't bode well for those who are afraid that the new X-COM's system of TB combat will influence Wasteland 2's system.

Some people like to pretend they are the marketing guys. A game that can be bought enjoyed by everyone and their tetraplegic grandmother is automatically a profitable better game. Preferences just stay in the way of big sales fun.

Nope, no romances and shit. Everything is still on track.

Me like. mucho.

because we want to hear this again, and again, and again: "Our goal is not to cater to a mass market with this project but nail many of the hard core elements of older RPGs that have been lost over the years. It’s all about customization, choices, and strategy of the situations."

So...because a guy says he'd like to play a particular game that hasn't been released yet, it somehow bodes ill for Wasteland 2's combat system? Makes sense...

It will be released before Wasteland 2.

I am also looking forward to X-Com. I am not sure about the new TB combat, but there is only one way to know: try it. Case in point: I am playing UFO extraterrestrial and I found it so... slow (even if I like TB, actually I enjoy it more than any other system, including RTP). I recently tried Valkyria Chronicles (I know, anime shit and jRPG influence, but try it before you say anything, you won't be sorry) and I realize that actually TB combat can be IMPROVED and MODERNIZED. The combat in VC is so diverse than at times it feels like RT, but it is actually not. Just saying...

Is it my imagination, or do they mention the Unity Store, in every interview? I wasn't sure if they got it for free before, but the product plugs have got me wondering.

"Unity Store"? Even game engines have DLC, apparently.

I haven't noticed it. In fact there haven't even been very many interviews since they picked Unity.

Brian has mentioned it a couple of times as well. I didn't pick up on it, until this guy did it just here.

If they did get it for free and mentioning Unity and their store, is all they have to do in return, then good for them. I'd rather my money went to the game, than to Unity. I hope they are getting a 50% discount at their store as well.

By using that store they will be able to spend more time on gameplay rather than reinventing the wheel, why do you have a problem with that

You are repeating their marketing speak and I've already read that and commented on it.

As for test levels, they do not have to look fancy, they just have to demonstrate functionality.

Edit
I will see if I can find that early test of Legend of Grimrock.

Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7eZ1VzEcKY

Apples and oranges.

Some of us would prefer that Wasteland 2 find its own voice, that's all.

Hard to say. At least Fallout belongs to the Interplay legacy.

All I'm saying is: What we have here is the first "AAA" squad-based, turn-based tactical combat game to be released in many, many years. And there is a chance that inXile will slavishly imitate it because it "sets the new standard" for turn-based gameplay.

if at times it feels like rt, that's because it actually is partially real time. you have a board game with pieces and a turn structure but individual turns are rt mixed with step-based. it's fun, but still a somewhat horrible frankenstein's monster of a system.[/quote]


I appreciate that you do not like it, which is just fine, but you are wrong in your description of VC (having played it for hundreds of hours I should know). Specifically, the real-time part is that some units (not all) have interruption fire played continuously. That means that in some circumstances you need to plan ahead and then act fast or you will be dead. I personally think that this is a stroke of genius, not a 'horrible Frankenstein system'. It solves in a brilliant way the need to alternate between shooting and find cover (and, by the way, when you shoot time is paused and you can take all the time you want to aim, no more interruption fire). Everything else is as classics as TB system as it can be. You have time units, you can order any unit in any order when it is your turn, and you can spend as much time as you want planning. It does not get any better than this. If the BLITZ system (this is what it is called) would be applied to western games (including X-Com or Wasteland or Fallout) it would be a great solution. Just to clarify my point, I don't like TB for the sake of it, I like TB because I want to have time to plan my moves and watch the results. RTP (Baldur's gate and such) does not work well for me since you can plan but now watch the results (not as thorough as I'd like). Combat Mission is another example of a fantastic way to make a TB system. You plan you moves, than let the action happens in real time, and go back to any units you want to see from that perspective as many times as you want. If anyone is interested in a revolutionary game (and you don't mind console and / or anime style), try VC for yourself and see. Before trying I was as skeptical as anybody, and did not even own a console system.

Your arguments are overpowering, I yield

ps would you prefer if I made something up about what they said?

Bulba
I know it is embarrassing to have it pointed out, you are just repeating marketing phrases, but you should not get angry, you should take it as an opportunity to learn something new.


As for Unity, they are getting far more out of Wasteland 2, than Wasteland 2 is getting out of Unity. Every time the Wasteland 2 designers repeat, "Unity shop saves you time", there are 61,000 impressionable people, hanging on their every word.

As Unity seem to have trouble getting people to buy Unity Pro, they want to get them into their store, to spend any amount, no matter how small. Once they get that initial sale, it is far easier to get the next sale and the next sale. To exploit addictive personality types, where the real profit margins are, they have regular sales with deep discounts - 50%-70% off, as pleasure centers in the brain are activated when you are given the perception, you are getting something valuable for low cost.

What Unity are doing is not original, I have experienced it first hand, with Daz3D. Daz3D customers refer to themselves as Daz Addicts, for the simple reason, their spending is out of control. Worse, Daz3D customers make nothing anyone cares about, because people are attracted to originality, not sameness. So buying things from a store that everyone else is buying from, does not save you time and it is money down the drain.

No developer ever hypes a game engine and its store, unless they are getting something out of it. So this "Unity shop saves you time" repeater, has nothing to do with Wasteland 2, it is all about Unity.

If your game does not play well with place holder art, that costs you nothing, its not going to play well, with Unity store bought stuff either. So I'm saying, don't fall for obvious marketing. Keep your money.