We’re celebrating inXile’s 20th year as a game studio with a look back through our history; where we came from, obstacles along the way, and our studio’s future. But it’s the challenges that made us who we are, and we’re sharing never before heard stories about our history, our games (including some that were never released), and how becoming an Xbox Game Studio has changed our trajectory forever.
As you’ll learn in the documentary, it’s really our fans and those that helped support us directly through crowdfunding that kept the studio going, and we’d like to once again thank anyone who backed a game, told a friend about us, or even just liked a post promoting a backer campaign. Even those small interactions absolutely made a difference in our lives, and we survived as a studio on the support of people who like to play the kinds of games we like making.
We hope you enjoy this look back at the last 20 years and continue to join us in our game worlds as we look toward the next 20. We can’t wait to show you more.
inXile entertainment
inXile 20th Anniversary Documentary
We’re celebrating inXile’s 20th year as a game studio with a look back through our history; where we came from, obstacles along the way, and our studio’s future. But it’s the challenges that made us who we are, and we’re sharing never before heard stories about our history, our games (including some that were never released), and how becoming an Xbox Game Studio has changed our trajectory forever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzAna_ovGfQ
As you’ll learn in the documentary, it’s really our fans and those that helped support us directly through crowdfunding that kept the studio going, and we’d like to once again thank anyone who backed a game, told a friend about us, or even just liked a post promoting a backer campaign. Even those small interactions absolutely made a difference in our lives, and we survived as a studio on the support of people who like to play the kinds of games we like making.
We hope you enjoy this look back at the last 20 years and continue to join us in our game worlds as we look toward the next 20. We can’t wait to show you more.
inXile entertainment
Patch 1.6.9.420 Now Live!
Cult of the Holy Detonation
Fixed an issue where the radio call to begin the expansion did not trigger if you had previously dismissed the Morning Star radio call. Morning Star will not be ignored.
Fixed an issue where the computer in the Holy Detonation chamber could turn hostile to the player, making it so you couldn't use it. Although I bet it wasn’t as hostile as my mother-in-law! Heyooo. You’re a great crowd, thank you so much.
Fixed an issue in which having a Ranger removed from your squad via a science experiment allowed you to get your squad into an invalid state (5 CNPCs and 1 Ranger), blocking progression. Invalid state? You know who I’d like to put into an invalid state? My mother-in-law! Heyooo! Thank you so much folks.
Fixed an issue where auto-saving, while the crane was lowering onto the pressure plate in the Loading Docks, caused a progression blocker. Progression blocker? You know who has been blocking my progression? My mother-in-law! You’re terrific, you’re terrific.
The VR Headset’s audio effects were persisting when selecting other characters, so we fixed that. It has also been moved to the Special section of the Crafting UI so it’s easier to find. VR? You know who lives in a Virtual Reality? My mother-in*cough**choke* …
thump**dragging sounds**woodchipper whirring**grinding noises* Sorry about that. Back to the notes.
The follower obtainable from the Security Level now runs faster during exploration, so they shouldn’t fall far behind you.
Fixed an issue that could cause the Bubble Shield status effect and VFX to persist after combat was over, even though the bubble itself was gone.
Fixed an issue that made it look like Purging Grenades could hit interactive objects (such as explosive barrels and doors) when aiming them.
[Controller] Made it easier to interact with tumor doors.
The Battle of Steeltown
Players should now get pulled into a conversation after saving Steeltown from the gang raid, giving them a reward.
Fixed several issues in the Steeltown Exterior where certain NPCs were being drawn into combat, causing combat to softlock.
A few other small fixes that took a lot of effort but that no one will probably notice.
Balance
Cult of the Holy Detonation
The Infused Diminuator weapon has had its stats improved: it now has higher Hit Chance, Mag Size, and AoE radius. It also applies stronger versions of its Shrinking and Embiggened effects, making it more effective for buffing and debuffing. We also fixed a number of minor bugs that could allow for these status effects from different sources (such as the Shrink Ray) to stack up on top of one another unintentionally. RIP in peace Sean Prime.
The Detached Security Turret and its Infused variant have been improved in response to player feedback. Damage and Hit Chance have been increased slightly, while AP cost has been reduced. This makes it more efficient than most other HMGs in terms of AP cost vs. damage dealt, and much more effective as a turn-ending weapon.
The Ragnashock’s “Thunderstruck” ability now has a 1 turn cooldown.
It was too easy to get “clipped” by the Evangelist's Bless effect while running past it in combat, so we reduced the size of its area slightly.
The Optical Camo Shroud now boosts Sneaky Shit instead of Explosives as originally intended, in addition to its existing bonus to Detection Time. Important note: being invisible does not make you immune to frag mines.
Gorilla Pheromones now provide +1 Kiss Ass. Unleash your inner primate, you damned, dirty ape!
The Bomb Hopper Launcher no longer consumes all your AP when you use it.
Balance
Base Game
The Foam Finger's “Inspire” ability has been changed. This is partly because it was too similar to Rally in behavior, as well as due to an exploit that let players bypass its cooldown. Instead of an area-of-effect around the user, it now lets you target individual characters to buff, but at a reduced AP cost and with no cooldown. The Hit Chance increase has also gone up from +5% to +10%.
The Cardio Regulator, Vital Enhancer, and CRISPR Box have been adjusted. Due to the order in which character CON is calculated, the percentage-based CON bonuses weren’t providing as much benefit as the tooltips suggested. They now give flat max CON bonuses that are roughly equivalent to the amount of CON we intended them to provide. We also reduced the penalties on them to make them more appealing to use in general vs. other armor mods.
Gameplay
Kills by your own deployable turrets and robots now grant XP!
Made several improvements to mouse tooltips in combat. The game will now correctly display information about AP cost, whether the target is blocked or out of range, and other related feedback, when targeting abilities, or when using the Attack action directly from the quickbar.
The Toasty perk should no longer set animals on fire when attempting to use Tame Predator on them during combat. It kind of made sense, but also did it?
You can now double-click on the minimap to quickly move the camera to that spot.
We fixed a bug with the Opportunist perk that wasn’t causing it to provide the correct amount of bonus Strike Meter when making handgun attacks. Due to a calculation error it was providing much less than intended.
Enemies who are Engulfed will now properly combo with Bleeding Strike.
In response to fan feedback, characters who are using Ambush and gain AP will no longer have their Ambush canceled. This is now consistent with the other final actions (Defend and Prep).
Fixed an issue that caused the Chain Ambush perk to cause combat to lock up under certain circumstances.
Fixed an issue where the EMP Grenade would sometimes not detonate. In fixing this we revealed a previously unnoticed issue where it would only Glitch robots if your Nerd Stuff skill was high enough to hack them normally. This has been fixed to function as described in the item’s tooltip, with a 50/50 chance of Glitching robots caught in the blast.
Fixed brawling animations so that they look better while wearing large brawling gloves, such as the Power Gauntlet.
Fixed an issue where players using mouse & keyboard could not aim their Torrent Strike if it was activated via the Stormer perk.
Deployables and squad followers are no longer hit by Friendly Fire when disabled in the options menu. Bear in mind that allied or otherwise non-hostile NPCs can still be hit. Please use caution when skinning that smoke wagon.
The Discobot's Light Show status effect now works on robots, mutants, and synths correctly. Everybody happy!
Fixed an issue that would cause the Prisoner to re-appear in the prison in Ranger HQ endgame even if he was released.
Fixed a few random encounter maps where enemies were not starting combat when shot, like fish in a barrel.
Fixed an issue in Old Survivalist Bunker where squads with low Perception could not pass through a specific alarmed door.
Fixed an issue where the player couldn’t hit the Manifest Destiny tank with circular area of effect attacks.
Fixed a money-making exploit. Which one? We’re not telling.
Fixed an issue where a few players got their Big Trouble in Little Vegas quest into an un-progressable state, having arrested Brygo but not choosing which prison he should be sent to. Any games in this state should now be progressable.
We fixed a crash that was caused by some aggressive driving on the part of the Scar Collectors crushing their allies through the map, their bodies hurtling endlessly and painfully through the infinite void which shall one day consume us all, the echoes of their screams swallowed by the inky blackness of the nothing. This has been resolved.
Fixed an issue in which areas in Little Hell, near the pool room, were non-navigable.
Sending Dierdre to La Perla now provides the intended reward. Which should be the immediate death of your squad and the game auto-uninstalling, but it’s probably ammo or something. You’re sick. You’re sick and you need help.
Numerous fixes to minor and/or rare-occurrence issues.
User Interface
In a recent patch, we changed how our font was bolded, which inadvertently made text more difficult to read at some resolutions. It’s been changed to more closely match the original text.
When hovering on a target to use either Hack Robot or Tame Predator, it’ll now show as “Impossible” if the requirement is over level 10.
Targeting a Strike ability with the mouse will now show a different mouse cursor, making it easier to tell you’re aiming the ability.
Ability tooltips for deployables will now list “Empty Space” as the target rather than “Allies and Enemies”.
Fixed an issue where character models and item requirements were not updating properly when cycling through your Rangers in the inventory.
Cleaned up various UI and gameplay issues around repairing the Kodiak when it was wrecked.
[Mac] Fixed some textures that could cause a crash while set to High or Ultra graphics settings.
Co-op
Fixed an issue where the game would sometimes softlock when two players looted the same item at the exact same time.
Improved the reliability of the host’s Multi-Kill Leadership bonus triggering in combat.
Fixed an issue in which some guest players could not move through an important door in the Old Survivalist Bunker map. Why did things in this map suddenly break? Because making video games is very very fun.
Fixed some host/guest sync issues for the final combat in Cheyenne Mountain.
Numerous co-op fixes to minor and/or rare-occurrence issues. You know what I wish was a rare occurrence? My mother-in-law! Heyooooooo!
Hotfix 1.6.1 Now Live
Grab that coffee and prepare to toboggan through a veritable gauntlet of post-apocalyptic patch notes! Hot on the heels of our second (and final) DLC’s release, we’re serving up a plate of fixes and tweaks that are sure to please. Now, what’s this 1.6.1 business we’re talking about?! What the hell happened to 1.5.4? Or 1.6.0 for that matter?! The simple explanation is that patch version numbers are meaningless and everything is meaningless and time is a flat circle. No matter. Drink more coffee. Maybe splash something extra in it.
Cult of the Holy Detonation
Cheyenne Entrance:
Updated a cryo landmine to let you avoid it more easily when interacting with a nearby chest. We agree, it was a cheap shot.
If they die, Boris and Natasha will no longer return from the grave when saving and reloading.
Research Level:
Adjusted the pacing of the Particle Accelerator combat in the following ways:
Increased the armor of the Particle Cannons.
Reduced the max enemies that can be on the battlefield at one time while increasing the spawn rate of enemies to improve pacing.
The encounter will spawn fewer zealots and evangelists, in favor of spawning more initiates.
Security Level:
Improvements have been made to Sister Strontium. She’ll pull you in from a more reasonable distance, and the guard there will do a better job of detecting you if called.
Improvements have been made to Caul in the Security Level. You’ll no longer get detected by enemies while stuck in his conversation.
The Holy Detonation:
Resolved an issue where Cultists would occasionally spawn in spaces they couldn’t move out of.
Improvements have been made to the final combat encounter; there’s now less chance of being boxed in by enemies while navigating that area.
We’ve increased the movement speed of the final boss to make that encounter a bit faster-paced.
Nuke Grenades now properly deal explosive damage. They should be MUCH more effective now.
The Uranium Sprayer’s special ability now only sprays on enemies, reducing the chances of awkward situations with your squadmates.
“Increased the volume of the Skin Flute” is a patch note I never thought I’d write but here we are.
The crane cutscene in the Loading Dock encounter will now reveal the fog of war in a larger area, making it easier to see. When they said “make a cutscene” we didn’t mean it to be a literal cut scene.
Fixed a bug where a certain party follower would lose their special status effect buff if you reloaded the game. Let the projectile vomit flow!
The smashable wall in the Security Level now makes a sound when destroyed. Your smashing experience will now be significantly more satisfying.
The song ‘Down in the Valley to Pray’ will now loop properly during the Research Level combat encounter.
The song ‘Power in the Blood’ now plays properly in the Power Storage Facility encounter.
The fog of war on one of the random World Map Cultist encounters will now reveal the map properly.
The Proteus will now play the correct death animation if killed in the Observation Level. If you thought the Proteus was gross before, woo buddy...
The Surge Blaster is now not so literal. We fixed an exploit in the final battle where using that weapon to stun a certain spawner could cause all enemies to stop spawning.
Theo Curie now appropriately reacts to players’ radiation state, and will no longer acknowledge you as “glowing” when your party doesn’t have any stacks of Holy Radiation on them. Even brilliant scientists make mistakes, apparently.
Fixed a couple of reactions from the stalkers who mock you throughout Cheyenne Mountain.
[Controller] Fixed a bug where an invisible switch was accidentally accessible to a player while using a gamepad in Loading Docks.
The Battle of Steeltown
We resolved an issue that could result in an infinite friendly turn during combat with the Ghost Gang at Steeltown’s Exterior. ‘Infinite friendly turn’ sounds like a beautiful state to be in, but it’s really not.
Co-op
[Consoles] We resolved an issue that could cause a player’s game to freeze when the partner left the game unexpectedly.
We resolved an issue that was preventing the guest player from creating the Flesh Prince in the Cheyenne Mountain secret lab. Sounds harmless enough.
Cult of the Holy Detonation brings together years of experience developing Wasteland 3, allowing us to create some of our best environments, creatures, weapons, and designs, and put them all into the subterranean, mutant-infested government stronghold of Cheyenne Mountain. It’s a blast.
The Desert Rangers will once again need to dive into a messy situation, sort out the major players and their motivations, and if necessary, take them to task. In true Wasteland fashion your decisions can have wide-reaching repercussions, and the decisions you’ve made up until this point can and will impact how the events within Cheyenne Mountain play out. This expansion also introduces objective-based combats, which are marquee events that require you to use your squad in new and unexpected ways. It’s going to put even the most battle-hardened among you to the test. For an extra challenge, try it on Supreme Jerk, with difficult skill checks and permadeath turned on, while being level 16. We dare you.
We’re excited to see players jump into this final piece of the Ranger story in Colorado and are eager to hear what you think.
Cult of the Holy Detonation is also available in the Colorado Collection bundle, which includes the base game, The Battle of Steeltown, and Colorado Survival Gear bonus items all for a single low price—and it’s on sale! The Colorado Collection is 30% off until October 19, making this an incredible time for new players to jump into post-apocalyptic Colorado.
Be sure to tell at least five strangers about where they can purchase the Colorado Collection or you'll have seven years of bad luck.
With the release of Cult of the Holy Detonation, the story of the Desert Rangers in Colorado has come to an end, and we’d like to thank our original crowdfunding backers for making this possible, our Microsoft partners for elevating the Wasteland 3 experience to new heights, and our publisher Prime Matter for bringing these experiences to the masses.
What’s next for inXile? You’ll have to stay tuned. But in the meantime, there are some cultists to deal with. We’ll see you in the wasteland, Rangers.
Patch 1.5.3 Now Live
Rangers, although you may have been washed in the blood of the lamb you haven’t yet prayed at the altar of the Holy Detonation… but fear not! We aim to change that and have you fully prepared for the glowing transformation that is soon to come. Today’s Patch 1.5.3 lays the behind-the-scenes groundwork that will make for a smooth update process when Cult of the Holy Detonation is released on October 5. Along with these discreet amendments, we have a few fixes and changes to the released content as well.
As ever, thanks for continuing the good fight with us in Colorado. Good luck to you and your squad in the adventure to come. Something tells us you’re gonna need it.
Gameplay
Assault Rifles have been beefed up to let you play out your deepest Rambo fantasies:
Double Tap will now crit on every bullet that hits its target, rather than just the first one. Heads will pop.
Puncturing Shot now does +100% damage on targets that are either Stunned or have Damaged Armor. Poke them holes!
Stormer now also applies to Assault Rifle weapons in addition to SMGs. Flank away!
Fixed a bug that caused the Opportunist perk to add +5% to the Strike Meter for all weapons. It now only works for handguns as intended.
Stun Resistance was giving us some resistance to working the way it should and now works as intended. A character with 100% Stun Resistance is now.... (you guessed it!) 100% resistant to being stunned!
We resolved a lingering issue that could result in a discrepancy between the Patriarch’s final dialog about Steeltown’s resolution, and the game’s ending slides.
The conversation with Quarex should now always trigger properly, allowing players to properly progress the mission ‘Quarex's Hellacious Journey.’
Fishlips now correctly takes off to Denver if he is directed there, instead of saying he’ll go and then just oddly hang out at Union Station like a friend who says they’re leaving the party and then you see them again an hour later and you’re like dude you’re still here? He won’t do that.
World map merchants can now properly reappear even after players have encountered them before.
Fixed a rounding error that could result in selling multiple items not yielding an equitable sum of video game currency the same as when said items are sold individually. It’s basic video game economics and we’re proud to adhere to this global standard.
User Interface
Improvements to the Inspection Window in the upper right corner of the game screen have been made. When using mouse & keyboard, it will now remember the last character you had hovered on, so that you can more easily view tooltips for their stats and status effects.
The pedestal out front of Ranger HQ no longer has a name displayed before players decide to name the statue that... (spoiler) may go there. In your heart, you can name the pedestal whatever you want though, we don’t mind. We named ours Hank. Hank Pedestal. He’s an amateur microbiologist.
Holding the left stick or arrow key in the crafting screen will now also accelerate the quantities of items selected there.
Saving manually will reset the timer showing the time since last save.
Console
Under the hood improvements were made for Yuma Speedway & Ranger HQ to reduce the amount of memory these scenes required, making these areas more stable.
We resolved an issue that was sometimes preventing players from changing new Rangers’ names
Co-op
We resolved an issue that was resulting in guest players sometimes encountering doors with unresolvable lockpick skill checks.
Player UI markers in cooperative mode have been adjusted to help more clearly identify which character is selected and which squad group the character is being controlled from.
When Gonzalez radios players about the statue out front of Ranger HQ, both players will now receive that transmission.
Patch 1.5.0 "Going the Distance" Now Live
In the rearview mirror of the Kodiak, you see the engines of Steeltown belching out their tar-black smoke far into the air above. Tinged with fire, it blankets an already charred sky with a reminder of the valorous work you accomplished there… or the inglorious chaos you happened to set loose. Regardless of how you dealt with the town’s conflict, you know that the road ahead is fraught with even greater challenges and dangers that have yet to reveal themselves. Just over the horizon looms Cheyenne Mountain, and before we set that adventure loose, your squad will need to be prepared.
As noted in the State of the Frozen Union article, Patch 1.5.0 is primarily focused on improving the co-op experience, as well as allowing those at the endgame to experience the Steeltown and Cult of the Holy Detonation expansion content. We’ve also taken a bright light to some of the underused quirks, perks, and backgrounds, balancing those with the intention of making them even more attractive options when you’re creating and evolving squad members. Rounding all this off is a bevy of overall polish, fixes, and other general improvements that aim to please.
A big thanks to our community for continuing this journey with us. We think you’ll agree that we’re no longer reluctantly crouched at the starting line and that this Kodiak’s engine is now solidly pumping, perhaps even thumping, in time. A green light hath flashed for us all, and the flags doth go up. Our devs are churning and burning, and they yearn for the cup.
What we’re saying is, with Patch 1.5.0 we’re going the distance.
We’re going for speed.
Patch 1.5.0 'Going The Distance'
Highlights
Players are now able to leave the endgame area and head back out into the world to experience The Battle of Steeltown and Cult of the Holy Detonation content as they damn well please. Additionally, players with one of the expansions (or both) will also have access to a specific squad management option available to them within the endgame area.
Note: These options are only available to games that have access to The Battle of Steeltown or Cult of the Holy Detonation expansions.
Say goodbye to blindly crafting items and guessing at what they might be good for—the crafting interface now shows detailed information and stats for what will be crafted. We truly live in the future.
We now display how long it’s been since you last saved your game next to the Quicksave menu button. Not displayed is whether you’re save scumming to try to force a specific outcome. But we know. We all know.
Do we smell bacon? Hot Hogs will no longer immediately charge you the same turn their fuses have been lit, allowing you to respond to them more effectively. They will also properly switch their hostility to Hostile/Red, making it easier to shoot them or tame them. Time to go H.A.M. on your enemies; which stands for Hogs Attacking Murderclowns.
Numerous co-op quality of life improvements have been implemented in this patch, and are noted in detail below.
Co-op
Peer-to-peer communication between co-op game clients has been optimized, which should result in fewer soft-locks and desyncs between players in cooperative mode.
Note: As Wasteland 3 is a peer-to-peer game, the individual network configuration and performance of the host and client still play a huge role in starting and sustaining a stable connection.
[GOG] Co-op sessions can now be started through the GOG Galaxy client.
The connection strength indicator, which is displayed in the multiplayer lobby, will now more accurately display the signal strength between players. Strong signal, good. Weak signal, bad.
Your co-op partner’s selected grid square is now displayed during combat, while browsing the squad inventory together, and while perusing merchant wares. Our goal here is to create a strong, psychic bond between co-op players. Soon you will become a single being of light, operating as an enhanced quantum emergent structure of consciousness. Don’t fight it.
You are now able to select your friend’s Rangers in the inventory screen to see what the hell they have equipped. No more having to ask what that weird thing with the green squiggles is on their head. Now you’ll just know, and of course, knowing is half the battle. The other half is probably telling them they’re playing wrong.
When you’re in a conversation with a skill check that you cannot pass without your partner present, the skill check will properly update as soon as your friend joins the conversation.
“Game-exit flow” & messaging improvements have been implemented. Just keep reading.
When a player opts to go back to the main menu or quit to desktop while in a co-op session, they’re now met with a prompt informing them that the action will disconnect both players. You’ll also be informed whether progress is able to be saved at that point or not.
If the session end is at a point where saving
is* allowed, progress will be auto-saved using the multiplayer auto-save slot. This save will be provided to both players. If saving at that point is
not* allowed, then no new save is created.
Conversely, the player who did not quit the game will now also see a prompt informing them why the game ended, in lieu of receiving a generic “Game Disconnected” error message. This messaging will likewise indicate whether progress was able to be auto-saved. Unfortunately, it will not include an evaluation of the health of the friendship, and whether the session was ended in anger or on amicable terms. You might want to shoot them a quick message like “we cool?”
Resolved an issue where the host would be unable to use the Kodiak after the guest player revived them with a Nitro Spike.
Resolved an issue where merchant and inventory selections could get stuck for both players.
The "Join Shopping" prompt will now properly appear when a player hovers their mouse cursor over the merchant that the other player is trading with.
Resolved an issue that could result in infinite enemy/friendly turns occurring during specific combat scenarios.
Resolved an issue that could break the host’s camera view while they were using Precision Strike.
Resolved an issue where the selection in the appearance customization would reset for one player if the other was also making changes to their appearance customization at the same time
Both players will now be properly pulled into combat with the Refugee Smugglers outside of The Bizarre.
Resolved an issue preventing players from sometimes joining conversations.
Fade in/out for cutscenes should now for real only happen while viewing cutscenes.
Resolved an issue where armor coloration could be incorrectly displayed after a saved game was loaded.
Disabling the Difficult Skill Check option in the Multiplayer Lobby will properly disable it every time.
Resolved an issue that could result in an infinite loading screen when players attempted to start a co-op session via Steam.
[Consoles] Resolved an issue that could trigger a softlock during the transition to the Garden of the Gods map.
[Controller] Resolved a display issue that could prevent players using a controller from being able to host a game session.
[Steeltown] Resolved an issue where co-op players could “kill” Crow's hologram by bypassing the opening cutscene on the Factory Level. We use quotes liberally here since “killing a hologram” seems like a good thing to use quotes for.
[Steeltown] Resolved an issue where players were sometimes unable to move their characters after Blue’s arrest.
[Steeltown] Fixed a bug allowing a co-op guest’s character to travel through radiation without taking damage after a host used an injury kit on the affected squad member.
[Steeltown] Resolved an issue where only one co-op squad could be healed by Doctor Breeler after the Ghost Garage encounter.
[Steeltown] Resolved an issue after Steeltown’s completion where only the guest was able to participate in the conversation with the Steeltown Refugee.
Balance
Dev Comment: "This post-Steeltown DLC period was a great opportunity for us to take stock and act on some of the community's feedback on character builds, as well as look at playtest data on which perks, quirks, abilities, and backgrounds were being used less than we'd like. Our hope for these changes is to inspire you to pick options you've never used before or see them in a new light, and generally beef up underpowered options.”
Note: In the last patch, a number of the text descriptions for these balance changes accidentally went in. With this patch, the actual functionality changes will be active.
Quirks
Doomsday Prepper - Increased Status Effect Resistance to +33% (previously +25%), added a +15 CON Bonus.
Two-Pump-Chump - Removed the -15% Hit Chance Penalty.
Varangian Blood - Changed the -4AP penalty to -20% Evasion for 2 turns.
Lone Wolf - Increased Initiative to +30% (previously +20%), added +15% Healing Rate.
Circus Freak - Removed -10% Evasion because clowns suffer enough, but doubled the detection time down to -2.00 (previously -1.00) because bright neon colors do NOT make for good camouflage.
Perks
Bloodsport (Melee Lvl 6 Perk) - Increased the number of debuff enemy types to Shocked, Bleeding, and Poisoned enemies (in addition to the original Stunned and Blind enemies).
Conductive Beams (Weird Science Lvl 9 Perk) - Increased the chance to activate Electrocute to +20% (previously +10%).
Pressure Cooker (Big Guns Lvl 7 Perk) - Pressure Cooker is now a lvl 6 Perk (previously lvl 7).
Close Call (Sneaky Shit Lvl 7 Perk) - Increased the malfunction chance to 66%, this perk affects all squad members.
Breakfast Bandit (Toaster Repair Lvl 5 Perk) - Added the description of the Toast healing item to the perk; Toast is delicious!
Shrug It Off (Melee Combat Lvl 10 Perk) - Increased Armor gained for every adjacent enemy to +5 (previously +2 Armor), added +10% Status Effect Resistance for every adjacent enemy.
Fortify (Mechanics Lvl 7 Perk) - Increased the amount of armor gained to +7 for friendly vehicles, robots, and deployables (previously +5 Armor).
Toasty (Toaster Repair Lvl 10 Perk) - Your first attack every turn will inflict Burning (previously the first attack after killing an enemy inflicted Burning).
Tender Loving Care (Armor Mod Lvl 10 Perk) - Increased Armor gained to all squad members to +8 Armor (previously +5 Armor).
Reinforced Plating (Mechanics Lvl 5 Perk) - Increased the amount of CON gained to +33% on repaired Vehicles and Robots (previously +25% CON).
Backgrounds
Grease Monkey - Increased Damage to Robots and Vehicles to +15% (previously +10%).
Paladin - Increased Crit Resistance to +15% (previously +10%).
Stoner - Increased Status Effect Resistance to +15% (previously +10%).
Gameplay
Rangers who may leave your squad at the end of the game will now drop their loot for you to pick up.
Note, dropped gear that was previously modded will drop as un-modded. This is an issue that our Dev team is aware of.
Resolved an issue that was allowing certain abilities such as Rally and Demoralize to apply status effects from an active weapon.
Abilities that dealt a percentage of your equipped weapon's damage should now deal the correct amount of damage again.
Loading an autosave that was made after starting a fight with a Scorpitron on the world map will no longer make the encounter disappear.
Deployables that are spawned far from combat will now be destroyed after combat ends, resolving an issue where a combat encounter could seem to have no way to end it.
We resolved an issue that allowed players to duplicate scope mods. We see you. Through non-duped scope mods.
Those damned elves will no longer softlock the game if they’re freed during the Elf on a Shelf quest. You know what though? Don’t free them. Blow them up. They cause too many problems.
We’ve hacked the hacked robots so that they will no longer be targeted by a player’s ambushes.
Combat speed penalties for weapons you lacked the skill to wield, are now correctly applied to those weapons.
Benjie Braddock now appropriately rewards the player, if helped.
As intended, it is now possible to use the Suture and Injury Kits to save Georgia Overdrive or Shotgun.
We fixed a specific tripmine that was not able to be disarmed in Yuma County Speedway. Trippy Tripmine, Trips are for kids.
Resolved an issue where the Patriarch would incorrectly state that Cordite had been freed even if you did not free Cordite.
Strength will now correctly apply a range bonus to all throwable items (including snowballs).
Resolved issues with the components required to craft Extended Mag and Rubber Grip mods, allowing them to now be crafted correctly.
Fixed some edge cases that could cause experience points to not be granted to the squad for every enemy death in the combat, such as kills by friendly units or status effects applied by the enemy.
The Sonic Emitter can now be used out of combat so you can emit… sonics (???) whenever you want.
Resolved an issue that was resulting in new characters having their starting weapon field marked as complete during character creation, before their weapon was selected.
[Consoles] Resolved an issue that was preventing players from sometimes creating custom Rangers at the start of a new game.
[Controller] Resolved an issue that allowed players to sometimes attack multiple times in one action by repeatedly pressing the attack button. By the way, remember the NES Max controller with that sweet turbo button? Stubin’s Farm remembers.
[Controller] Resolved an issue that was preventing players from being able to select status effects in the inventory.
[Steeltown] We resolved the issue where DI would sometimes go missing and would not rejoin the player's squad as a companion. The faint scent of cheese curds may though be detected on her breath...
[Steeltown] We replaced a Guard-Bot to its appropriate station for certain Markham outcomes.
[Steeltown] There is now additional dialog with Serena Ash when a player speaks with Luna Moon first.
[Steeltown] DI’s conversation is now correctly triggered when Markham asks about the Synaptic Degausser.
UI & Controls
Squad Management Screen updates!
The Squad Management screen will now display skulls atop incapacitated squad member portraits, and EKG lines on portraits of Rangers that are downed.
There’s now an alert reminder within the management screen that the squad can only be modified back at Ranger HQ.
The number of skill points each new recruit has available is now displayed beneath their portrait within the squad management catalog at Ranger HQ.
The Mission Log now defaults to open, making the details displayed there quicker and easier to read.
We now warn you when you’re about to leave a World Map merchant interface. Once it’s closed, it’s closed for good, so we want to be upfront with you about that.
The game will now automatically close the menu after saving your game, letting you get back to the action quicker.
When targeting robots and animals, the user interface will now indicate whether you meet the requirement or not for hacking and taming. Not indicated is whether the robot or animal will fill the void left by the retirement of the Mexican Pizza.
Default stack sizes are now smarter when shopping.
When selling stack size defaults to 100% of the stack.
When buying stack size defaults to 50% of the stack and/or does not exceed what you can afford.
The interface now displays Hit Chance when you’re aiming your weapons at non-hostile NPCs.
Players can now launch brightness calibration again from within the options menu.
The inspection panel interface now lists the level of the enemies you’re hovering over.
We improved messaging within the UI when you’re attempting to equip an item that you don’t meet the requirements for. It’s the visual equivalent of a slide whistle making a sad ‘beeooooo’ sound.
The modding screen will now display a label indicating your highest-skilled character.
Fixed some localization errors for various languages.
Resolved an issue that was causing quick slot items to disappear after players transitioned across maps or loaded a saved game.
[Controller] The AP bar now highlights a preview of spent action points during the radial menu selection; this matches the existing mouse and keyboard behavior.
[Controller] As you hold the joystick when selecting a stack size within an inventory window, the selection rate will accelerate to make it less tedious.
[Controller] The gamepad selection cursor now sticks to patrolling enemies.
Audio
Everyone can once again have fun tonight, as we’ve made sure to return the song “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” to the Cannibal Jamboree. We suspect the elves from Santa’s Village had something to do with its absence. BLOW. THEM. UP.
Resolved an issue that was resulting in looped sound effects when the cloning sequence dialog was skipped. Another clear example of why cloning people is an affront to the natural order of things.
Wasteland 3: Cult of the Holy Detonation Releasing October 5
Wasteland 3: Cult of the Holy Detonation releases October 5 on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Cult of the Holy Detonation is the second and final narrative expansion to the award-winning tactical RPG from inXile entertainment.
Deep within the Cheyenne Mountain military complex, mutant cults worship an ancient deity they call the Holy Detonation—a nuclear explosion held in stasis. Whether god, science experiment, or accidental miracle, the Detonation's energy could power Colorado Springs for hundreds of years, or level it in an instant. The warring cults have differing opinions on who should be allowed to honor their god, and you’re going to have to muscle your way to the altar.
It’s one last mission for the Rangers in Colorado, and the outcome is certain to be explosive—one way or the other.
[previewyoutube="4c4gM37wQO0;full"]
Cult of the Holy Detonation expands the Wasteland 3 experience with entry into the Cheyenne Mountain complex, crammed with new characters, enemies, challenging combat encounters, and powerful new weapons and armor. Your squad of Rangers will be tested like never before in objective-based encounters that put a creative spin on the already deeply tactical turn-based combat. As they face overwhelming odds, the Rangers will need to shut down reactors, clear ventilation systems, and engage defensive countermeasures to stem an unending tide of dangerous mutants and machines within the dilapidated military bunker.
Cult of the Holy Detonation is the second and final expansion to Wasteland 3 and will be available for $6.99, or as a part of the Wasteland 3 Colorado Collection for $59.99, which includes Wasteland 3, The Battle of Steeltown, Cult of the Holy Detonation, and Colorado Survival Gear.
[Controller] Resolved the stuck dialog bug that was occurring at Marshal Lupinski in Little Vegas, and a similar issue also occurring at the Computation Engine, within Steeltown.
State of the Frozen Union – July 2021
Rangers, grab your flask and your Hobo Dog, and set yourselves around the irradiated campfire. So far this year we’ve covered a lot of ground, but we’ve still got a ways to go before this leg of the adventure is done. As a brief recap of 2021 to date, we opened the gates to the Patriarch’s production factories at Steeltown, leveled up the game with crafting and an animal companion kennel, shared a slew of behind-the-scenes videos, dropped the soundtrack on Spotify, launched our initial merch offering, and even set our mouths on fire with some hot wings, just for you.
But we’re not quite done yet. Before the summer is out, we’ll be announcing our second and final DLC for Wasteland 3, and we’re excited to share those details soon. First, we have some important updates to detail.
Hotfix 1.4.6 & Patch 1.5.0
With a recent update a particularly sticky dialog issue was introduced, where players are unable to select any dialog options at key points in Little Vegas and Steeltown. Thanks to some eagle-eyed redditors, a workaround involving having Kwon and/or Lucia hang back at HQ during those conversations reportedly helped in those situations. All the same, we’ve got the fix for these which will be hitting the various platforms as soon as next week.
After 1.4.6, a larger forthcoming update (Patch 1.5.0) will be taking square aim at continuing to improve and refine the co-op experience in Wasteland 3. We know that for many of you co-op is your preferred way to deal with dispensing justice and we want to deliver the experience you’re looking for. We’re aware that since launch there’s been a number of issues reported with co-op, so we’ll be doing our best here to knock as many of these out as we can with a single blow. We’re expecting 1.5.0 to be ready in a few weeks.
Improving Co-op
One of the primary challenges with co-op in our game is that we're peer-to-peer, and that puts all the strain of communicating the game state on the players’ machines and network connection, rather than on a server. We’ve found troubleshooting firewalls, routers, and host network resolves a decent amount of these.
As we noted above, there are definitely still co-op bugs we’ll be addressing in Patch 1.5.0 to reduce interactivity and display issues (the full change list will be available in the final patch notes), but we're also looking at adding some ways to help players better identify when their network connection could be contributing to the problems.
In cases where there’s a disconnection, we’ll be generating an autosave for both players to ensure you can jump back in right where you left off. And if one player decides to quit, we’ll have better messaging so you’ll know what happened, rather than just see a generic disconnection error. We’ll also be making the connection strength indicator in the lobby more reliable, which will show if a co-op session may be unreliable due to either player’s networks.
Co-op Quality of Life Features
Focusing our energy on fixing co-op bugs and helping players diagnose connection issues should go a long way to improving the co-op experience, but we're also looking to add quality-of-life features. When 1.5.0 drops, you’ll be able to see what your co-op partner is hovering over/selecting in combat, in the inventory, and when perusing merchant wares. Communication is key in co-op, but this helps take some of the guesswork out of what the other player is thinking.
Additionally, while checking the inventory, you’ll be able to see the gear details of your partner’s squad members. With 1.5.0, conversations with skill checks will also automatically update the moment your friend joins the conversation, allowing them to sweet talk you out of whatever sticky situation you got yourself into when you ran off solo.
End Game Escape
Patch 1.5.0 isn’t entirely focused on co-op; we have a bunch of other fixes and quality of life improvements, not the least of which is allowing players to access the DLC even after they’ve passed the point of no return.
We were caught a bit off guard with how many of you only keep a single save file, which meant that when you went to go play Steeltown your only option was to replay the game from the start. Now, we think it’s absolutely worth a replay (or five) but we understand not everyone is looking to take on the full burden of Colorado’s problems again.
We’re fixing that in 1.5.0 by letting those of you past the endgame point of no return to go back to the world map, manage your squad (including replacing lost Rangers), and restock before attempting the DLC content.
[Edit: a prior version of the post titled this section "End Game DLC Rewind" which was misleading. The features being added allow you to exit the end game section and access expansion content, it does not rewind any progress made while in the end game. It's also worth noting that these features specifically only allow access to the expansion content, and won't let you finish up other quests, etc. as it would allow for too many end-game variables to be potentially changed.]
Other Cool Stuff
The patch is a big’un, with fixes and improvements across the board. We’ll have the full details in the patch notes (when the patch goes live), of course. In the meantime, if you have co-op bugs you’ve never reported or it just seems we must not know about, please sound off on the official forums as we’d like to make sure we’re getting as much into this future update as possible.
Thanks for continuing this journey with us! We look forward to getting 1.5.0 in your hands and blowing your minds with the second and final DLC.
