The Wastes
The Wastes 1.3 Feature Overview & Beta Invitation
Hello everyone.
We really wanted to ship the update today and things are very close to releasing here shortly. Unfortunately some unexpected events in life happened at around the time of our scheduled release. This largely affected testing as the core game is done.
What we need is a little more time to fix some very important technical and implementation issues affecting the two platforms we support to make sure things will go smooth on launch.
Here's what we'll do to make sure this happens as soon as possible: Over the course of this week we'll be making a beta version of this update available to ensure everything works as expected.
The build will most likely not have all the audio features (EAX/OpenAL EFX) available at launch. This is one of the many technical issues affecting the release.
Testing with such a small team is a difficult and daunting task, but some of you have already offered help with testing on our IRC channel. Thank you!
We cannot wait to give you all access to what we've been building later this week.
In the meantime, the video above should give you a good showcase of what you can look forward to.
Now it's time for us to get back to work. Please stay healthy and safe.
If you want to ask any more questions, and get to know us, we're available around the IRC channel #wastes on irc.frag-net.com.
Stick around if we don't respond immediately!
Thank you for your patience,
Marco and Gethyn of Vera Visions
New Year Status Update
It's been a long time since we've put out an official update in written form, so we'll start off
strong by giving you a hard-date of when The Wastes 1.3 will ship:
April 12th, the 4th anniversary of our game.
What's been going on?
The personal bits:
The pandemic brought a lot of challenges. Since the beginning we haven't been able to work together in person. Only in November 2021 were foreigners admitted back into the United States.
So we've been together again since December.
This had mental consequences as well for most of us on the team.
Things surrounding the game:
One of the other severe truths that had to do with our game, was the realization of how desperately we needed to improve the net-code. Since we've published The Wastes we've learned a lot for sure - but if you're separated by the Atlantic Ocean it forces you to deal with high pings and other realities of Online-Play. Redoing a lot of this took some time; on top developing new AI and path-finding systems that deal with the Mission and Invasion game-modes.
Throughout this post we will emphasize our current focus with some new screenshots. Some of you may already know what our focus has been over the past year, but it doesn't hurt to reiterate.
As always, more balancing and gameplay changes were done to the maps to reflect both internal and external feedback. Snowbound's bunker/vault door can now be closed, which will also nuke all outside players similar to HLDM's map 'Crossfire'. Vats has more visual variety for example. Most maps have been retouched and polished to add more model-based props over primitive brush-based ones - increasing the visual quality.
In The Wastes 1.2 and earlier, vehicle code was not predicted. Weapons were also not predicted.
This meant that you had to wait for the server to confirm you had fired a shot, or worse - you had to wait
until you realized you were still turning the wheel of your vehicle.
All of these issues have been addressed. Vehicles are now predicted and feel a lot better to drive as a result when playing over the network.
In the new map Silo, you'll be fighting more vertically for sure. You can even attempt to fire the dislodged missile... which will only result in the flaming death of everyone in that room.
In the spring of 2020, we had shelved the then current code-base of The Wastes to re-base it on top of Nuclide - which was our research codebase at the time.
This has been a slow process, as we're basically working on more than one game. We're constantly adding back features that have to play nice with everything else. Each game had their own conventions - this was the major setback:
Basically re-implementing The Wastes. We were essentially rewriting the whole game-logic by doing this.
In the new codebase we have new special effects, like water leaking from pipes when shot, or even steam.
Where are we at:
Progress has been going strong. We're still not done with all of the components, but we've been play-testing a lot of Single-player missions. That's for sure. The vehicle specific modes and entities need more polish, but they're all working and predicted. This is giving us confidence that the update will go Gold before April.
The Mission-Editor is the showpiece for this update, alongside the Invasion mode. This will for the first time enable non-linear single-player and cooperative content. All the bundled missions will be made using this built-in editor.
Some missions can be very basic. Find a set of specific items; escape; defeat them all; capture buildings that prevent reinforcements from spawning; and more. Enemies may be found lurking behind every corner.
We are very confident in this update. A multiplayer-only game relies solely on there being an active playerbase. Since we've shifted to developing content that can be played by yourself, as well as allowing players to host MP/COOP games without annoyances like port-forwarding, we'll be making the game infinitely more accessible.
Where you can learn more:
Most progress can be tracked over at Nuclide's GitHub repository: https://github.com/veravisions/nuclide
The components specific to The Wastes are not public (yet), but it gives you a good idea of what we're working on and that we've been always working in the background.
You've always been able to talk to us all personally about our game, suggestions or general video-game talk over at:
irc.frag-net.com
Join either #wastes or #lobby depending on if you want to talk the game or Off-Topic stuff!
If you're planning on buying the game, we want to suggest you hold off on that until the release of our next update. We'll organize a discount upon release.
Happy New Year,
Vera Visions
Road to The Wastes 1.3 - New Beginnings...
Greetings, Wastelander...
As the year comes to a close, you may be wondering where The Wastes 1.3 is and well, much like it was in March, we currently still do not have an estimate for when The Wastes 1.3 will be released to the masses.
But not to fret, we are still actively working on the project and we're going to start actively updating with new media and information up until the release of The Wastes 1.3!
The Wastes is currently in the midst of a code refactor, with many major parts rewritten to take advantage of net play optimizations such as full client-side weapon prediction. It will also carry over a lot of the technology we've been working on and sharing as part of the Nuclide project. In the future, the whole game-logic will be bundled as part of that SDK. Any improvements made there will benefit The Wastes in the long run and updates will be released more frequently as result.
But despite all of that, we still have new maps that will be entering the wasteland...
New Map: The Pit
An old abandoned mining town, lost to time due to its own natural resources.
New Map: Silo
Being showcased on our social media back in March, we have never actually talked about Silo.
Silo is based upon the classic map originally by Edward 'Aufo' Fuller, but is drastically different. The layout has been streamlined for better gameplay having the Silo be the center piece for the layout. All the points of interest are still there, but finding targets to shoot around this large facility is now easier than ever. The map layout winds around the center-piece of the map, the large missile silo.
Remember... Everything above is subject to change.
We are listening! Please voice your feedback!
You can reach us at:
The Wastes' IRC:
Server: [noparse]irc.frag-net.com:6667[/noparse]
Channel: #wastes
Steam Discussions
We want to thank everyone who's supported us in the past and all the people patiently waiting for 1.3!
This year has been rough for everybody, please stay safe and take care of each other.
We hope to see you soon on the wasteland, but until then...
Keep on fragging!
~ Vera Visions & Cobalt-57
Update 1.3 - Here's what we've been up to!
Greetings, Wastelander.
You may be wondering where's the new 1.3 update for The Wastes and well... We have to come clean.
The Wastes 1.3 is still coming, but it will not be coming at the end of last year.
Yeah... better late than never...
Due to technical issues, 1.3 had to be delayed, but this does mean you can expect more to come with this latest update.
However, we are not comfortable with announcing a new release date at this current time.
But...
That's not stopping us from telling you guys some more juicy details about what to come in the wasteland.
New Feature: Mission Editor
Build single player & cooperative scenarios to battle on the wasteland.
While this is our current offerings for single player content, we're still open to future possibilities.
New Map: Oil Rig
These fossil fuels have long since dried up...
Revamped Map: Ramshackle
Ramshackle has seen many facelifts throughout its life and we feel we've greatly improved the map with this new version!
Various visual overhauls and a few layout changes have been done to the map since the version in 1.2.
New Gamemode: Team Anarchy
You asked for it and we delivered it. Classic free-for-all team based combat.
But more importantly...
New Feature: ICE support powered by Frag-Net
With ICE (Interactive Connectivity Establishment) it is now possible to connect to other players' lobbies without the need to port forward your router.
But there's still more to come in The Wastes 1.3...
Remember... Everything above is subject to change.
We are listening! Please voice your feedback!
You can reach us at:
The Wastes' IRC:
Server: [noparse]irc.frag-net.com:6667[/noparse]
Channel: #wastes
Steam Discussions
We hope to see you soon on the wasteland, but until then...
Keep on fragging!
~ Vera Visions & Cobalt-57
What to expect from The Wastes 1.3
Hello Wastelanders,
it's been some time since the last major update.
Here's some work in progress info about the upcoming, free update.
Screenshots not final!
Let me go over the things you can definitely expect:
New map: Junkyard
New map: Plagued Hospital
- Slight improvements to the visual fidelity, thanks to more advanced shaders, normal-mapping and specular highlighting. This was done to address the criticisms that we didn't push the tech we had far enough. You can turn any of these effects off as you please, though.
- Gone over and made improvements to the level design. Vats of Goo for example has some drastic layout changes that improve the flow a lot. Some are cosmetic improvements, polish.
- Tweaked feel, balance and more of the gun-play/weapons.
- You can now change your weapon load-out mid-game by using ammo boxes.
- Added a new item that will replace the explosives slot: Armor.
- Added a new special weapon: The Flamethrower.
Something definitely happened to the vats full of goo while we were all gone!
...luckily. Someone closed the doors some places for layout improvements! And to avoid further spillage.
Although this one has taken the longest to work on thus far, because we had been trying to tackle the #1 concern people have with a multiplayer game like this: The lack of a steady player base.
A lot of multiplayer games are struggling with this, and smaller productions like these have it even harder. That's why we had implemented bots in the very first release.
It definitely entertains some players for some time, but others want more of a challenge and more of a goal to aim towards. So we experimented with different single player ideas.
A lot of them, frankly, just didn't work out in the game we had created. It was basically going to be a whole different production entirely - it just could not work out in time.
So we opted for some Player vs Enemy (PvE) elements instead.
The new INVASION mode has you fighting off a horde of pumped up Loonies. Those crazies have injected a whole lot of freaky stuff into their veins and explode quite easily. Some stab you with whatever they can find, some others throw explosives at you. They can't seem to hold a gun steady so they don't even try. However, they're absolute lunatics. Fend them off ALONE or with your buddies and see if you can survive!
We're still working on this update. There are loads and loads of other small improvements across the board. Lots of under-the-hood type stuff.
Subtle improvements to the popular map tw_dune, such as structural wires poking out of the debris, updated texture blending and texture updates are visible here. Just ignore those black buildings in the background - they'll get fixed.
We generally keep quiet until we're certain about how we go forward.
About half a year ago, it all looked quite different. You always come up with ideas, try them... tweak them and they just aren't any good.
There's even more coming in 1.3 that's not even announced yet. You'll hear more about it very soon.
The Wastes 1.3 will be out this year.
The Wastes update released
Client:
- Fix Akimbo-Sawedoff texture from not appearing properly
Server:
- Fix a crash in Capture The Flag where returning the flag might fail
- Clear explosives from the map upon the reset of a round in Team Chaos
- Reset the Mossberg and Winchester reload states when switching to them
Update 1.2 Released!
Introducing 2 NEW maps, Operation Snowbound and Bunker.
A changelog would be way too large to display. We've applied thousands of changes and fixes, it's safe to say that very few things have been untouched.
Happy fragging!
ALSO: Please delete your config files if you encounter any issues upgrading or have difficulty seeing servers!
Config data location on Microsoft Windows:
My Documents/My Games/The Wastes
Config data location on Linux/SteamOS:
~/.local/share/wastes
The Road To The Wastes 1.2
For the past few months we've been incorporating a ton of feedback into the largest update yet. This is a preview of what's to come for The Wastes 1.2.
First I'd like to address that it's taken quite a bit for this to come together because literally every aspect of the game as been touched. It's always sad to leave the community in the dark when it comes to updates - but very often we as developers find ourselves hyping eachother up internally about awesome gameplay opportunities only to realise that it's not as good as we thought. Making an announcement and not delivering on it can be soul-crushing and there's still TONS in the pipeline that we're working on, but it's too early to show.
In the future you'll be seeing smaller, more regular updates.
Keep in mind that 1.2 will release in the coming weeks and stuff here is still work-in-progress and does not represent the final update. But we'd like to give you a glimpse of it anyway just so you know that we're still alive, happy and working on our game that we're very proud of.
A rundown of some of the fixes you'll be getting:
- Crouching rewritten, fixes the jumping glitch as well as bound checking.
- Sprinting mutator is now on by default.
- Default ALT/SHIFT binds have been swapped.
- Recoil now bounces back, spring style.
- Skill Attributes will change upon respawn, not midgame anymore
- Explosives can now harm vehicles
- Vehicles can now flip over, as their centre-of-mass is now correct
- Vehicles have now a first-person-mode with fully modelled interior
- Vehicle physics now avoid corpses
- Team chat is no longer available in non-team gamemodes
- Re-rendered some weapon icons to match their new versions
- Materials/Shaders overhauled to support both GLSL and non-GLSL capable cards
- Performance improvements with partcle emitters
- Pistols now use their 'appropriate' draw animations
- ammo_container entities now give you extra ammo for your empty clip as well
- ammo_container entities now restock melee/explosive weapons that have been depleted
- New spectator overlay and respawn interface improvements
- Fixed Akimbos playing reload animations at times when they shouldn't
- Fixed chat going off-screen on looong chat strings
- Added view kick when taking damage
- Added damage indicators onto the heads-up-display
- Changed the zoom factor on most weapons that have one
- Countdown timer when timelimit is going close is now displayed on the bottom of the screen.
- Various major map fixes and overhauls
There are loads more gameplay overhauls that we can't describe here. Major changes to how bots and their pathfinding work, a rewrite of the spectating system and better compatibility with Half-Life level files and their entities.
We cannot wait to hear your feedback!
We've also touched every map to add a wide variety of ambient sounds and DSP effects.
Yes, car interiors are finally here. Thanks to kruddman we've got some of the sickest looking car interiors!
New Map: Operation Snowbound
tw_snowbound, Operation Snowbound, is coming. It's one of the largest (if not largest) traditional maps. It's in the final stages of development and we'll all be able to go nuts on it very, very shortly.
New Map: Compromised Bunker
Load yourself up and explore the depths of an abandoned industrial bunker, full of destroyed machinery and countless spots to surprise enemies from.
More sprays! While we're working on ways to allow people to upload and use custom sprays (with fair limitations), it's always good to have some more pre-created ones... right?
We've also incorporated a chat system for the main game and mods. There is a lot of potential to make it do a bit more than just chat. ICE/NAT-punching is something that could be done to avoid port-forwarding and dedicated servers, for example.
So, what else is new?
Tons of netcode improvements, visual upgrades for anyone with a graphics card capable of basic GLSL so that we can do fancy things such as environment mapping (that's the shiny stuff you can see in some screenshots) as well as a more polished game experience overall.
I'd like to thank all the players around who've given feedback and helped to improve the game that way! You're the best.
What happened to you and the Discord Server?
I (eukara) personally don't use Discord anymore. If you'd like to get in touch please do join the Frag-Net IRC and join the #wastes channel there! I'd love to hang out on casual terms and talk about the game there like we used to. Just keep it nice, of course. :UT2004flak:
Join The Wastes' IRC:
Server: [noparse]irc.frag-net.com:6667[/noparse]
Channel: #wastes
Steam Discussions
Edited:
We now use IRC exclusively, sorry for anyone affected by this change. Thanks for your participation and we hope to see you in our IRC channel!
Summer Sale! 70% Off!
Don't forget that tomorrow (22nd of June 2018, 10 PM GMT+1) We'll have an event going on where we play on our new servers!
Hope you guys can all join us then.
It's been really awesome to meet so many players who love TW as much as we do. If you can spread that love further, organize matches or just report bugs to us - that'd be incredible. As a tiny team it's getting increasingly harder to find exposure in all that noise - we thank everyone who has helped us get this far.
Hope you all grab some great games at the Summer Sale! :UT2004flak:
Update 1.1 Released!
One of the things that we did for 1.1 is to go over all the maps, redo the lighting and make it all flow better.
The map ramshackle was completely overhauled to mirror the mod-version in layout and lighting.
Finale has seen a similar type of polish, with the vault-entrance area being redone in a head-turning fashion.
The Dunes has seen a drastic change of lighting, using the very same light values that were used by Postman in the mod-version.
Grime has seen a number of cosmetic changes and some slight alterations to the layout, to improve the flow and to make items more visible.
A new map has been added, too. That one is titled Recotta Alley and is not based on any map of the original mod.
I always wanted to work on an industrial park/backalley type map, so there I went and did it. It will definitely see a series of enhancements and updates in the future!
Updates to the vehicles are still coming, but we shifted their priority away from 1.1 as we wanted to get
all those changes and improvements out there as soon as possible. Working with new physics and mechanics requires
a longer time of development and testing.
As said before, we are going to separate the vehicle component a bit more. We will not give up on them entirely, however they'll find their place and I assure you we're going to make them a lot more fun (intentionally fun!).
Here is a changelog of all the major code-changes:
- Added bot skill system
- Added a warning to let you know if you're joining an out-of-date server
- Added violence settings into the customization menu
- Added caching for loadout and skill attributes
- Added icon on the HUD for when you're carrying a flag
- Added third-person death cam
- Added spectating of players
- Added new Sawed-off shotgun animations
- Added new Winston 1884 animations
- Added a mutator for turning sprinting on
- Added support for the cvar sv_gravity
- Moved routing engine for the bots into the engine for better CPU performance
- Rewrote bot AI from the ground up to take items, health and mission objectives into account
- Tweaked grenade throwing and fixed a bug in which cooked grenades don't make a sound
- Fixed the akimbo pistols not having a proper recoil upon firing both guns at the same time
- Fixed the double-shot muzzle flash issue with akimbo pistols
- All sorts of stability fixes across the board