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Wasteland 2 Update: new music sample and dialog info

Discussion in 'NMA News and Information' started by Brother None, Oct 9, 2012.

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  1. Brother None

    Brother None This ghoul has seen it all
     Staff Member Admin Orderite

    37,380
    Apr 3, 2003
    Update #19 for Wasteland 2 is a hefty one, including an all-new 5-minute track from Mark Morgan to typify the feel of the southwest, and a long writeup from technical director John Alvarado on the dialog system.<blockquote>Brian has emphasized that Wasteland 2 will put the player in the position of making tough choices that have deep affect on the unfolding story. Every decision comes with some tradeoff—some known, some only to be revealed later. There are so many paths through the adventure that it is likely no two players will have the same experience. This is an apt metaphor for the process of game development. In this update you’ll learn about some of the game systems the engineering team has been developing, and I’ll delve into detail on important decisions we’ve made around our story-scripting and localization systems.

    Every game system we build involves making decisions about how to solve a challenge. Thankfully, Unity gives us a big head-start by providing many built-in solutions, saving us the work and reducing the decisions we have to make (in a good way). Using Unity was one big decision we made early on that has paid dividends. But there are still challenges particular to Wasteland 2 that we must overcome, and that means making tough choices that will have consequences for the rest of development and the final product.

    As we weigh different approaches to a challenge, we attempt to gaze into the future and discern how the consequences of different decisions will play out with respect to design requirements (known and potential), content pipeline, run-time performance, and development time/cost. Fortunately, our engineering team has decades of experience over dozens of successful projects that help us make most of these decisions with confidence. So far we have made engineering strides on the following systems:

    · World Map System
    · Movement and Turn-Based Combat System
    · Saved Game System
    · Character Animation System
    · Inventory system
    · World State Tracking system
    · Story Scripting System
    · Localization System

    We now have a player-controlled Ranger character moving with animation in a game-level and interacting with NPCs, triggering conversations and changing world states that affect future interactions. This is where we wanted to be at this time and we are right on schedule. Brian stressed to the engineering team the importance of having this ready by the time the writers are finishing up their level designs and story so we can begin implementing, testing and iterating. That priority and the desired iteration process informed some important engineering decisions.</blockquote>
     
    Brother None, Oct 9, 2012
    #1
  2. Sub-Human

    Sub-Human -

    1,297
    May 31, 2011
    Excited. Excited! Daaauuuym!

    The music is great. It's dark and apocalyptic. Screams more Fallout than New Vegas, certainly, despite having the Southwestern tune (guitar?) to it.
     
    Sub-Human, Oct 9, 2012
    #2
  3. Guiltyofbeingtrite

    Guiltyofbeingtrite Vault Dweller

    751
    Oct 13, 2008
    I actually think the track has more of a Space Western feel blended with cyberpunk. It reminds me of something out of Firefly.
     
    Guiltyofbeingtrite, Oct 9, 2012
    #3
  4. egalor

    egalor Look, Ma! Two Heads!

    346
    Jun 20, 2007
    The soundtrack is much better than the screenshots we've seen last time.
     
    egalor, Oct 9, 2012
    #4
  5. Lexx

    Lexx Background Radiant
     Moderator Modder

    9,904
    Apr 24, 2005
    The dialog system sounds a lot like Fo1/2, where everything is basically put right into the npc scripts. Not sure if that's really good. Especially without a good dialog editor, this seems to me like a not so good choice.
     
    Lexx, Oct 9, 2012
    #5
  6. Starwars

    Starwars Mildly Dipped

    592
    Sep 17, 2006
    Must say that I'm not a particularly big fan of this track. Or rather, I would be if the slide guitar wasn't so up-front in the mix. Too much noise from the playing also, some of the licks sound... not good.

    The quiter bits towards the ending are really nice though.
     
    Starwars, Oct 9, 2012
    #6
  7. Sam Ecorners

    Sam Ecorners Vault Senior Citizen
     Orderite

    1,122
    Jan 23, 2007
    Parsing out dialog strings from scripts sounds very expensive. And as much as I love Ruby, performance speed isn't its strength.
     
    Sam Ecorners, Oct 9, 2012
    #7
  8. Diospyros

    Diospyros First time out of the vault

    88
    Jul 15, 2008
    I get nervous when I hear comparisons to Bard's Tale. The originals are among my favorite RPGs (particularly for the 1980s). I'd say they were THE games that made me an RPG fan. The 2000s version had little in common with them except for the name. The joking tone of the game was a big turn off. In a way it was like Fallout 3 in that the game would have seemed a lot better if they didn't insist on giving it that name which forces us to compare it to the originals.

    It sounds like Wasteland 2 won't have that problem, but invoking Bard's Tale is not a good thing as far as I'm concerned.
     
    Diospyros, Oct 9, 2012
    #8
  9. babadook

    babadook Lived Through the Heat Death
     Orderite

    8,729
    Apr 2, 2005
    babadook, Oct 9, 2012
    #9
  10. avaunt

    avaunt First time out of the vault

    18
    Nov 21, 2010
    Awesome track! The guitar samples made me think of Redding in F2. Overall, it was ominous and oppressing and that made me think of Sierra Army Depot and it's robots. Without careful tactics, they would decimate you at the drop of a hat.

    So far, I'm giddy. The last time I was this pumped was for Yakuza 4. I'm especially happy about notions of bleak, violent and unusual content. I'm all for more nuns, new wavers and pistol-packing babies!
     
    avaunt, Oct 9, 2012
    #10
  11. TorontoReign

    TorontoReign Level 27 Wizard Staff Member Moderator

    24,030
    Apr 1, 2005
    Perfect atmosphere man. I'm very much enjoying this. It reminds me of something, but I can't place it. I CAN'T TAKE THE WAIT! :aiee:
     
    TorontoReign, Oct 9, 2012
    #11
  12. Beelzebud

    Beelzebud A Smooth-Skin

    675
    Mar 6, 2008
    I've never gotten a clear answer on this, but from what i can gather Snuffy Waldon was credited as the composer for The Stand mini-series, and Morgan was working with him at the time, but wasn't credited on the show.

    The guitar in the new track is the same arrangement, but definitely either a different cut from the one in Stand/Fallout 2, or newly recorded material. I know some of Morgan's material in the Falout games 'borrowed' a bit too much from other sources, but in this case I'm guessing he either wrote that track, or Walden was okay with him using it.
     
    Beelzebud, Oct 9, 2012
    #12
  13. Bewitched

    Bewitched aka Vault_13

    459
    Jun 13, 2006
    All that technical data was not that interesting. The track is great though.
     
    Bewitched, Oct 9, 2012
    #13
  14. phtmyr

    phtmyr First time out of the vault

    2
    Sep 27, 2012
    phtmyr, Oct 9, 2012
    #14
  15. John Merrik

    John Merrik First time out of the vault

    29
    Dec 30, 2011
    Pretty good update...
    I did skim the bit about the string parsing system that they are using hahaha... but still great to have such an update...
    and the song is GREAT!

    I never noticed that guitar line from the stand, and Redding, and apparently this as well... Weird!

    Also... does that make anyone think of Otis Reddings, Stand by me?
    =)
     
    John Merrik, Oct 10, 2012
    #15
  16. Surf Solar

    Surf Solar So Old I'm Losing Radiation Signs

    2,882
    Aug 20, 2009
    I really like the track!

    But the guitar could be a bit toned down in the mix, it is put too much infront, the ambience/synths are too quiet as a result.

    The drums+delay reminds me of Diablo 2's monastery music, heh.
     
    Surf Solar, Oct 10, 2012
    #16
  17. Radman

    Radman It Wandered In From the Wastes

    192
    Jul 12, 2007
    I love it, sounds awesome in my opinion.
     
    Radman, Oct 10, 2012
    #17
  18. donperkan

    donperkan Vault Senior Citizen

    1,259
    Aug 4, 2011
    I know i heard it in borderlands.
     
    donperkan, Oct 10, 2012
    #18
  19. zegh8578

    zegh8578 Keeper of the trout Orderite

    5,320
    Mar 11, 2012
    zegh8578, Oct 10, 2012
    #19
  20. Tagaziel

    Tagaziel Panzerkatze Staff Member Admin Orderite

    7,279
    Dec 10, 2003
    It reminds me more of STALKER's file system.

    It all depends on the tool for the job, though. Editing scripts by hand does sound like torture. With a proper tool to streamline the process? Yes, please!
     
    Tagaziel, Oct 10, 2012
    #20
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