Rangers! Hotfix (1.4.5) is now live for Windows 10 and Linux. This is a small hotfix to address stability issues introduced with our last patch. The Mac hotfix is still in-progress, and we expect it to release in about a week.
Heads up, we're working on another hotfix to launch as soon as possible after 1.4.5 to address some additional issues on PlayStation. We're also working on a much larger patch, which is expected about a month out from the time of this post. Thanks all for continuing to report issues to us in our bug report forums.
Resolved a crash that could appear in multiple places, but most notably during the end-game fight at Ranger HQ.
PlayStation 4 performance and stability improvements.
Patch 1.4.1 "Scotchmo's Breath Mint" Now Live
Scotchmo is great, but we’re certain his breath isn’t. And just like the breath mint we imagine he chews from time to time, this update is a deceptively small but potent addition. Packing a minty-fresh wallop that’s sure to air out the place like wintergreen on the palette of a curmudgeonly alcoholic with a closet full of Snake Squeezins.
Please note, Scotchmo’s Breath Mint’s notes are separated into changes that impact Steeltown specifically, and those that impact base game content or systems that span the entire game.
The Battle of Steeltown
Balance
The special Steeltown armor is now more affordable, and it drops more often. We want players to get into the new armor more easily, as it’s designed to withstand Steeltown’s elemental-heavy weapons. Also it looks cool.
Non-lethal playthroughs were more challenging than intended. We’ve made a number of changes to improve reliability of Disruption weapons and slightly boost their effectiveness in response to player feedback.
Disruption Baton hit chance increased to 85%.
Disruption Pulser’s mag size increased to 10 and its hit chance to 80%.
Disruption Web Launchers hit chance increased to 95%.
Disruption Trap’s AP cost reduced to 4.
Heavy Disruption Blaster had its AP cost reduced to 5 but its reload cost increased to 4.
Disruption Sniper AP cost reduced to 6.
Rioter punch damage reduced by 50% and powerfist impact damage increased by 10%.
Mechanic sniper damage bonus reduced by 10%.
Foundry Worker and Exo-Tech basic attack damage reduced by 50%. Their ability damage was unchanged.
Maintenance Worker melee damage reduced by 10%.
Construction Worker hit chance reduced by 10%.
Gameplay
The Patriarch now properly acknowledges all possible Steeltown outcomes, which is good because dealing with the Patriarch is not an insignificant part of the game.
Addressed an issue where loading a save during a cutscene could cause the game to display the cutscene bars for the remainder of that session. Imagine just waiting for that loooong cutscene to end. Something’s going to happen at any moment… Nope.
Skipping the conversation with the Computation Engine could cause some weird bugs. Were they bugs though or did the Computation Engine just not appreciate being skipped?
Resolved a softlock that could occur if a player (somehow) initiated combat with Guard-Bots after opening the Steeltown gate but before the Ghost Gang arrival.
Resolved an issue where the Gift of the Magi mission was not being failed when a player sided with Crow to eliminate Markham.
Blue now takes the correct amount of money during the Degausser negotiation.
Resolved an issue where squad members would pop in and out of cover like deranged jack-in-the-boxes.
Players will now no longer lose access to the Steeltown merchants after the raid, which is nice.
All NPCs on the Admin Level will now properly react to Crow and Blue being in charge,
cough* ...if that’s at all how things play out for you. Not saying they need to, you do you.
Hacked Guard-Bots in the Steeltown Spire will no longer block the path to the witches. I mean switches! lol I can’t believe I did that. I’m so random! xoxo
Assistance by Steeltown’s Computation Engine was extremely infrequent. We made it less infrequent by a specific percentage which you can never know.
Resolved an issue in the Steeltown Spire where the player was moved to a different spot than indicated when trying to interact with the Bot-Lift switch.
Bot-Lifts won’t draw quite as much aggro from followers and animal companions as they did before. Promise.
Dr. Breeler should no longer go missing after the raid. Strong emphasis on ‘should.’ He’s a free spirit.
Luis at Steeltown’s gates will no longer repeat the same conversation after the Factory’s situation has been resolved.
Bro, the Helping Hand bonus will like totally no longer activate before Handcraft offers help. It was pretty sketch but we fixed it up so you can get back to shredding the gnar.
Resolved a softlock that could occur in the Steeltown Spire during cutscenes there.
Resolved an issue which was preventing combat from ending when more than one robot was hacked on the player's side before the last enemy was killed.
Destroying the generator at the Scrapyard bridge will no longer break the Ghost Gang behavior during combat.
[PS4] Resolved some visual issues with the Power Loader attacks.
[Xbox] Resolved an issue that could cause framerate to drop while players engaged in the first combat with the Ghost Gang.
Multiplayer
Resolved an issue where a co-op player would not get pulled into the conversation with Markham and Crow if they were too far from the scene. Yoink!
Addressed an issue that was resulting in the Kodiak’s parked location being desynchronized between the players. Alas, the philosophical debate about where Schrödinger's Kodiak is has finally been resolved.
Resolved an issue where only the guest could participate in the radio call from the Steeltown Refugee after the area was completed and the party was leaving Steeltown.
Resolved an issue where a softlock could occur when a guest spoke with Dr. Breeler as the session host spoke to Luis during the Flushed mission.
Resolved an issue where Beals would appear hostile for the guest, after the party defeated the Ghost Gang using non-lethal weapons.
Resolved an issue which was preventing the guest player from being pulled into the final conversation with the Computation Engine. Double-yoink.
UI & Display
Resolved a strange visual issue that was going on with Blue’s hair.
Assembling the warbot now has all the sparks and flashing lights warranted by the creation of a mobile death-machine.
The Power Loader melee smash now gibs and ragdolls bodies so you can feel the full effect of really screwing up that fight.
While hovering on the switch to shut down the Bot-Lift in the Steeltown Spire, the movement preview will no longer show a random nearby space.
Audio
Added the Disruption Turbine’s sound effects which were missing for its ambient, idle, and overloading states. What good is a turbine if it doesn’t go vrmmmvrmm, chunkachunk, and BRRZZZRRRZZ?
The all-important THUD! sound has been added for when a player falls off the treadmill within the Administration level.
Pressing the big, red, candy-like button to end the simulation in the Steeltown Spire now has proper sound effects.
Misc
You can stop holding it, the outhouse is now usable.
We’ve tweaked some things under the hood during the Steeltown final battle so that framerate doesn’t tank.
[Linux] Resolved an issue that could cause the game to crash if the camera was rotated while the screen was focused on the Steeltown gates.
Base Game
Balance
We’ve employed a general fix for crit damage calculations, which should help with one-shot crits from enemies. Don’t worry, you won’t have to do the calculations, the game will do that for you. I mean, you could on paper, but you don’t have to.
We found that enemies were calculating a higher crit damage value than intended. We’ve corrected the calculation. Player crit damage is unchanged.
Gameplay
Resolved an issue where hit chance previews would not display for enemies who weren't in your line of sight. Sneaky bastards thought they were just gonna go under the radar.
We addressed the freak of nature situation that was happening in Ironclad’s makeshift jail area where combat could become bugged-out to the extreme, preventing players from proceeding with the combat there.
The reward from the "Buzzkill" quest can no longer be acquired infinitely if Marshall Kwon is present in the squad.
Resolved an issue which was preventing Benjie Braddock from giving the ventilation system password to the player after he’s been “assisted.”
Resolved an issue which would sometimes prevent players from being able to click on the Kodiak to repair it during combat.
Resolved a softlock that could occur after interacting with computers in Aspen when their connected turrets had been destroyed.
[Xbox] We’ve employed stability fixes for a cutscene with Angela Deth at Hoon Homestead.
[Steam] Resolved an issue where enemies would not attack the party when concurrent movement had been disabled.
UI & Display
Resolved an issue where quickslot items could disappear after map transitions or save loads.
Resolved an issue that could prevent a player from accessing their character’s abilities while that character was aiming.
Resolved an issue where dialog barks would linger after combat ended. Do you have to, do you have to let it linger? Good luck not singing that for the rest of the day now.
The “highlight all” button will now no longer make non-interactive corpses show an outline because who needs that nonsense?
[Microsoft Store] We’ve attempted to fix an issue introduced with 1.4.0 that was causing the game to launch with the brightness defaulted to the lowest setting. If you continue to encounter this please report it through the inXile support site.
[Controller] Resolved an issue that could prevent a player from selecting status effects in the inventory with a controller.
Wasteland Wings
Once every generation an idea comes about that's so original, so unique, that it changes the course of history and the human race... forever. Behold! Wasteland Wings. An unholy conjoinment of spicy food eating and down-to-brass-tacks interviewsmanship.
Community Manager Matt Amy (@mattonomicon) invited developers from our Tustin and NOLA offices to subject themselves to mouth-searing pain while attempting to answer questions about Wasteland 3. Certainly nothing could go wrong.
[previewyoutube="z7ZsG_SF0II;full"]
Thanks for watching and please let us know what you thought by leaving a comment on the YouTube video or hitting us up on Twitter @inXile.
The Battle of Steeltown Now Live
[previewyoutube="mwzkuVM7Kwc;full"]
The Battle of Steeltown is OUT NOW for Windows 10, Mac, and Linux! If you'd like to grab Steeltown AND our next (unannounced) expansion at the same time for a slight discount, you'll want to be sure to grab the Wasteland 3 Expansion Pass.
Wasteland 3 Patch 1.4.0 "Appetite for Construction" Now Live
Welcome to the proverbial jungle, baby. We heard you loud and clear and we know what you want. You want to rock and roll all night and part of every day. You want us to crank it up to 11 as you compose your symphonies of destruction during a season in the abyss.
In case you didn't get the memo, the crazy train has left the station and is roaring towards the release of Wasteland 3's first expansion on June 3. We're hungry as all hell for more Wasteland 3, and we got a nasty appetite for construction. As noted in our recent 1.4.0 feature preview articles, the headliners of this concertapalooza are crafting and the animal companion kennel updates. They're followed by a lineup of other headbangin' callouts noted below that are sure to make you not-so-quietly riot from your chairs and sofas.
So come on, feel the noise.
Highlights
New Feature: Crafting
Players are now able to craft mods, weapons, gear, and mystery items from the crafting menu accessible from the inventory screen. Time to put that scrap to work.
Crafting recipes can be learned by leveling up some skills, buying them from vendors, searching containers, and discovering mystery crafting recipe ingredients.
New Feature: Animal Companion Kennel & Improved UI
A new kennel located just outside Ranger HQ is now available. Animals dismissed in the field or those who were following a Ranger who died will return automatically to the kennel, and from there they can optionally be dismissed back into the wild. You wouldn’t do that though because you’re not a heartless jerk.
The animal companion type limit has been removed, allowing squads to have multiples of the same type of animal in the squad (1 animal per Ranger still, of course). That’s right, you can now have a whole squad of pissed-off cats scratching cannibal clowns.
Character portraits now display icons for animal companions. Mousing over (or selecting) the animal icon will display a tooltip with that companion’s current stats.
12 new chest pieces are now available when creating or customizing your character, with some “job”-themed options like medic and explosives expert. Finally, what you’ve always wanted, to have a work uniform in-game too.
Polly the Parrot is 100% more inappropriate and packs a walloping Demoralize ability. Do not, for the love of all that is holy, play Polly’s dialog at high volume in proximity to anyone of high moral character.
Gameplay
Added new safeguards to ensure followers like Provost, Party Pal, clones, etc. won’t disappear if the squad member they’re following dies, gets swapped out, or when swapping them to the other player in co-op.
In certain situations where enemies surrender to the player, combat should no longer be re-triggered due to multi-shot attacks or damage over time status effects.
With Permanent Death mode on, the endgame sequence will now give a proper game over screen if your only remaining characters leave the squad during certain story outcomes.
The Tender Loving Care perk will now properly be removed when the character owning the perk is removed from the squad.
Fixed a bug where if a character had two equipped weapons granting the same ability (such as alternate fire modes), the ability would not be usable.
Fixed a bug that would cause Downed or Incapacitated player characters to disappear after leaving Union Station, past interacting with Morningstar.
Resolved an issue where the downed state timer would advance too quickly if that squadmate had already been revived during that combat.
Player characters who are Downed on the World Map will be automatically revived when returning to Ranger HQ so you don’t have to manually bring them back.
Resolved various collision issues with invisible walls in the Bunker near Aspen.
Fixed an issue for the Jackhammer shotgun with Extended Choke mods that would mess with the targeting cone in aim mode. You might think we’d make a joke here about “jackhammer” and “extended choke”, but you’re wrong. And sick.
Yellow Snowballs can now correctly apply the Black Thaw STD, making the “Back in the Sack” achievement more achievable. You’re welcome?
Lucky Crit and Lucky Mega Crit prompts are now properly followed by critical hits as intended. Lucky you.
Balance
Turning on Difficult Skill Checks was incorrectly providing bonus XP when passing a skill check, making progression and game difficulty much easier as a result. The intention of Difficult Skill Checks is to add difficulty and not to make game progression easier.
Destroyed loot boxes can no longer be re-looted after saving and then loading the game. I guess you could say trying to re-loot is moot.
UI & Controls
The squad’s order will now be retained correctly when transitioning between areas or loading a saved game. Glory, glory hallelujah!
Retraining a character will now show a confirmation animation on their character portrait inside the Mange Squad screen.
Weapons and armor now list what mods they have installed in their description text. Luckily they won’t list that you’re still not done with your taxes.
The save/load menus now display information to show if you have Difficult Skill Checks or Permanent Death mode enabled for a given save file.
Conversations now show a “Click to continue” prompt when using mouse and keyboard, which helps show which ones won’t automatically progress.
We fixed an issue where Modify Armor would sometimes be displayed as Modify Weapon when armor pieces were right-clicked in the inventory.
Animal Whisperer's status effects will now no longer disappear after first meeting with [REDACTED PERSON OF IMPORTANCE].
Visual feedback improvement made for when Abilities are activated on the Quickbar.
Item icon sizes should now be consistent between inventory and merchant windows.
Floating text when Crits are resisted via Crit Resistance has now been added. How much crit would a crit resistance resist if a crit resistance could resist crit?
The Radio is now properly hidden during vendor encounters on the World Map.
Fixed an issue in the merchant screen where the “Modify Weapon/Armor” option could sometimes appear on items.
Made a bunch of additional small UI tweaks that we’re sure the UI designers don’t appreciate us summarizing in this very vague patch note.
[Controller] Explosive barrels are now included in both the hostile targeting group and the object targeting group when in Targeting Mode, making it easier to target them on a controller.
[Controller] While playing with a controller, there is now a button mapping to quickly open the Map Screen so you can get a bird’s-eye view more quickly.
Art & Audio
Flamethrowers will no longer lose their sound and visual effect when primary and secondary weapons are swap-toggled. Swap-toggle is a thing we just came up with we think.
Skipping the cloning sequence dialogue in Ranger HQ no longer causes a sound effect loop.
There was this weird thing going on where the more items a container had, the louder the sound effects were when you did things with those items. That was weird, so we fixed it. Sometimes weird is good, but this wasn’t one of those times.
Misc
Taming a Glow Hopper in the Old Survivalist Bunker will no longer cause a crash. I guess you could say, that Glow Hopper is no longer a Show Stopper.
We had a talk with the Provost and he’s now much more confident about where he wants to be and when he wants to be there. He’s still odd, but by intention.
Fixed an issue when Irv remained in Downtown Colorado Springs even after being arrested during the Don’t You Be My Neighbor mission. No, that wasn’t another one of his clones roaming free. Or was it? (No, it wasn’t.)
Fixed a softlock that could occur after an enemy was attacked with a bladed weapon two times in a row. Stabby stabby.
Players are no longer able to block the elves from leaving the place where the elves are and they'll no longer be trapped in the cutscene. I guess you could say, elves have left the building.
[Microsoft Store] We resolved an issue for Microsoft Store players who could encounter a crash when a host tried to use the "Invite Friend" button in the Direct Connection lobby.
The hype train continues as we roll into Patch 1.4.0 station before continuing on to Steeltown. Is that our final stop? No, it won’t be, but it’s a nice place and we recommend getting out and stretching your legs. In addition to the Crafting system we’ve already outlined coming in this next (free) update, we have some oft-requested features to make managing your animal companion coterie a real cinch.
Animal Companion Kennel
Chief among the new animal companion-focused changes hitting in Patch 1.4.0 is the Animal Companion Kennel. This is a safe, warm, and nurturing environment that all of your furry and spiky friends can hang out when you’re not using them to murder clown gangs or robots. Right now, animal companions don’t hang around if you dismiss them, but with the Kennel they’ll have a home they automatically return to. That lets you build up a cadre of canines and cats, and pick and choose as you need… or just collect ‘em all!
Not only do your furry friends return to the Kennel when you dismiss them, but if their owner leaves the squad (or permanently dies in battle) their animal companion will automatically return to the Kennel next time you zone to a different level. Of course, that’s assuming they survive the combat themselves.
If you’re not particularly fond of a companion, you can release them back into the wild from the Kennel too, but we honestly don’t know why you’d ever do that. They need you and it’s cold out there. One last note, any animal companions that have run away before this update won’t automagically reappear in the Kennel—they’ll have to be tamed again, where possible.
Companion Type Limit … Gone!
What’s with those pesky companion type limits, anyway? One wolf, one pig … ONE cat!? You need at least three cats. Rules be damned, we’re opening the floodgates of fur and horns! With Patch 1.4.0, you’ll be able to bring along whatever animal companions you damn well please.
Animal Portrait & UI Improvements
We’re also upgrading our character portrait system to show what pet a specific Ranger has with them, and a health bar so you can keep tabs on their condition. This should greatly help in keeping track during combat.
You can also mouse over the pet icon to get a tooltip of current stats.
Polly Want a Crack-their Skulls Open?
Rounding out the list of animal-related changes, we let the shackles off the writing team (who we definitely don’t really keep shackled so please don’t look into it) and had them seriously upgrade the smack-talk of our favorite foulmouthed featherbrain. Polly now has a brand-new Demoralize ability in combat, replete with many, many blasphemy-laden insults he’ll lob your enemies’ way. It’s as fun as it sounds—here’s just a taste of the full repertoire.
Warning: Not Safe for… well… pretty much anyone, anywhere.
Last, but not least, we’ve put the kibosh on some annoying bugs that would sometimes cause non-animal followers (Provost, Party Pal, etc.) to vanish during gameplay. They can still get their brains splattered or bolts smashed if you’re not careful, but there should be less chance of them getting lost during your post-apocalyptic adventure.
Oh, and incase it wasn’t clear, non-animal companions are not animals and aren’t stored in the kennel.
We hope you’re excited for Patch 1.4.0 as we close in on its release in the next couple weeks. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out the Crafting article we’ve published, and keep an eye out for more Patch 1.4.0 and The Battle of Steeltown feature previews as we roll toward launch.
Wasteland 3 Patch 1.4.0 Feature Preview: Crafting
The world in which the Rangers exist is a perilous environment filled with challenge at every turn, where desperation and despair wait just ahead and trail close behind. Survivors in this world do not get by with sheer luck or by accident. They maintain a will to survive that has been tempered for generations in this radioactive wasteland where life was meant to die.
Out here, the pieces of this broken world are your keys to rebuilding anew . . . or should at least prove helpful in prolonging your own grisly demise for another day.
CRAFTING THE APOCALYPSE
This year’s updates so far have included Permadeath, Difficult Skill Checks, new difficulty modes, new cosmetic options, and a host of quality-of-life changes and game improvements—but we’re not stopping there. With Patch 1.4.0 releasing in the next few weeks, your Rangers will soon be able to finally put much more of what they find across frozen Colorado to new use, and forge items that are oftentimes helpful, sometimes exotic, and occasionally, just batshit insane.
Wasteland 3’s Crafting system will introduce exciting new weapons and high-level mods for squads to experiment with. This is going to be especially beneficial for those of you coming back to play the expansions we’ve got coming. This is a true-to-Wasteland system, with new gear that celebrates the post-apoc theme, and packs other surprises that’ll keep you guessing. Along with all that new hotness, there’s also the obvious convenience of making your squads more self-sufficient in the field, as they’ll be able to make their own ammo and medical supplies on the run.
Overall, this system is going to give new purpose to a lot of the vendor Junk you find in the world, allowing you to grind it all up and spit it all back out as a bunch of shiny new items.
The new craftable W.A.S.P. Gun is every bit as horrific as you imagine it to be.
RECIPES FOR DESTRUCTION
Whether you’ll be challenging Colorado’s tundra in a fresh playthrough, or are continuing from an existing save, this next update will immediately grant you access to this new feature. Crafting in Wasteland 3 doesn’t require a Crafting skill—all you need are recipes and the components to make them.
There are effectively three ways to get recipes:
1. By leveling up your Skills!
The most basic recipes are acquired automatically as your characters’ Skills are leveled up. Increasing your First Aid, for example, will also unlock recipes to craft Med Hypos, Medic Packs, and more. Skill-point recipes like these tend to offer the most basic and regularly useful items like ammo, healing items, as well as standard weapon and armor mods.
When ranking up your Skills you’ll be able to see what recipes the next point will unlock. Not all skills have associated recipes to be unlocked, but it’ll be clear to you which ones do.
2. Buying from vendors & searching containers!
The more valuable recipes are purchased from vendors, or found out in the world in containers and safes. Vendors tend to have standard gear like higher-end mods and grenades, while the more exotic gear and unique items can only be found scattered across Colorado.
3. By acquiring mystery recipe ingredients!
Some recipes can’t be discovered directly; instead, you’ll get an idea for a recipe as soon as you pick up a particularly strange or special item. When you do, you’ll see a notification that an unknown recipe has been discovered, which will tell you what else you need to make it… though you still won’t yet know what it’ll all turn into. Only when all the listed ingredients of said recipe are glued, stapled, duct taped, or welded together will you finally perceive the glory of its final form. Ever wondered what you’d get if you combined Ken’s Shriveled Junk with some Mustache Wax? Now, you’ll finally get to find out!
POTENT COMPONENTS
So you have some recipes and are ready to craft, but this isn’t the Nordic realms of yore – you ain’t gonna find pristine iron ingots and finely milled cords of lumber just laying around. As you might surmise, the primary crafting component in the wasteland is… (drum roll…) Scrap! Now, you may have seen some Scrap in the game before, but with your newfound knowledge of Crafting you’re going to want to see a lot more of it. Scrap is obtained lots of ways, but primarily by looting it from the corpses of your enemies, opening containers that don’t belong to you, as well as from field stripping weapons you have no need for.
In addition to Scrap, there are of course other components you’ll usually need to craft your various items. These components are also mostly obtained from dead bodies and containers. Fair warning: Items which may have been previously disregarded as junk back before patch 1.4.0 could now be worth their weight in clean drinking water. Good thing vendors don’t seem to have much of a market for all that junk you sold them—that stuff is easily bought back if you revisit them.
As mentioned above, sometimes picking up a random piece of junk will kick off a mystery recipe. You won’t know what these mystery recipes are going to make, and you’ll just need to find the odd and sometimes very unique bits and pieces and hope they make something useful when you smash it all together.
CUE THE MONTAGE
Ok, so we’ve teased a bit at some of what you can make. Ammo and healing items are great and all, but we know what you’re thinking: what’s the end game here? What’s going to make chasing after recipes worthwhile? So, we’ll simply leave some images here of just some of the things you could discover and craft in the next update—that is, if you can find the recipe and components. Make no mistake, these cobbled-together items are powerful late-game weapons that, as you could guess, are typically unconventional with unique mechanics.
SAFETY GLASSES REQUIRED
We’re in the thick of it now, Rangers. We want to thank all of you in the community for continuing to answer this call to arms and for joining us on this leg of the adventure in Colorado. We’re continually humbled by your appreciation for the game, and we want you to know that it’s our pleasure to continue to pour our frozen hearts and icy souls into this.
Stay tuned! We have more features and additions to preview for Patch 1.4.0 in the weeks ahead, as well as content and previews for the recently announced first expansion to Wasteland 3, The Battle of Steeltown.
F.A.Q.
Q: How much will I get out of crafting if I’m close to the end of the game?
There’s fun to be had with crafting for you, and recipes to be found, but you would very likely need to reacquire reagents you had previously sold to vendors. Additionally, any crates you’ve opened and NPC’s you’ve talked to are “tapped” and won’t populate with the new recipes available to discover. To be clear, we expect that the feature is going to be most valuable to new playthroughs or those early on in their adventure.
Q: So, stuff marked as Junk could be useful? Now you tell me…
Vendors don’t actually sell the items you’ve dumped on them, so you can buy any crafting materials back as you see fit.
Q: The new craftables sound cool, but how cool are they really?
They range in coolness from literal shit to some of the best weapons in the game. Good luck!
Q: How will this work with The Battle of Steeltown?
We're so glad that you asked, imaginary person! If you own The Battle of Steeltown, you'll be able to access additional new crafting recipes that tie into Steeltown's own content, such as weapons and armor. But rest assured that if you don’t own the DLC, we aren't holding anything back from the base game when 1.4.0 drops.
Q: How are these questions “Frequently Asked” when you just posted this?
We’re going to level with you… FAQs are a sham. A charade. It’s bull hooey. They’re almost never frequently asked questions, but instead a different way to present the information to the reader to explain complex or confusing ideas. Or sometimes it’s a way to get across info the presenter left out entirely. They should really be called “Important Info We Left Out, Phrased As a Q&A” or “What We Said Before Might Have Been Confusing, So Here it Is in a Different Format.” We’re sorry to have to drop this on you but try to have a good day anyway.
Wasteland 3: The Battle of Steeltown Releasing June 3
The towering factory complex of Steeltown manufactures all the tech that keeps Colorado running and the Patriarch in power—trucks, armor, weapons, and robots. But deliveries from Steeltown have stopped cold, and all the Patriarch is getting from Abigail Markham—Steeltown's leader—are excuses. When he sends the Rangers to investigate, they find the place is a powder keg with the fuse already lit. The workers are striking, bandits raid with impunity, and nobody is allowed through the gates, not even on the business of the Patriarch. Without help, Steeltown could crash and burn for good, and take Markham with it—but maybe that's just what it needs.
The Rangers will have to decide that for themselves.
[previewyoutube="lTulpiGkMUg;full"]
Traverse the Steeltown manufacturing complex alone or in co-op in this epic narrative expansion. Take on challenging new quests, face off against new robotic enemies, and solve the mystery at the heart of Steeltown however you see fit.
Tactical combat is taken to new heights with new mechanics like devastating telegraphed attacks, stacking status effects, elemental shields, and non-lethal weapons—letting you solve Steeltown’s skirmishes in brand new ways.
Combat and gear scaling means that both new and returning players can enter Steeltown during their playthroughs for a level-appropriate challenge, with a story and cast of characters that adapt to the decisions you’ve already made.
The Battle of Steeltown expands the base game with new enemies, weapons, armor, and world map encounters.
Music Supervisor Mary Ramos and Composer Mark Morgan return with original scores and new post-apocalyptic inspired covers.
The Battle of Steeltown is the first expansion for Wasteland 3 and will be available for $13.99 on June 3, 2021. Visit The Battle of Steeltown page and be sure to add the game to your wishlist.
The Battle of Steeltown will come shortly after the release of Patch 1.4.0 which introduces some exciting new features. Stay tuned here and follow us on Twitter and Facebook as we preview content and features of Patch 1.4.0 and The Battle of Steeltown in the weeks ahead.
inXile Joins Xbox Game Studios Publisher Sale
The entire inXile catalog is on sale from now until April 12 as part of the Xbox Game Studios Publisher Sale. With some of our deepest Steam discounts to date, you can grab the critically acclaimed and award-winning Wasteland 3 for 50% off, Torment: Tides of Numenera and The Bard's Tale IV are both 75% off, and more!
Find your new favorite RPG.
Wasteland 3 "Death & Taxes" 1.3.3 Patch Now Live
Behold... a pale rider in the distance and it tolls a bell, but for whom doth it tolleth its bell for? Forsooth! It tolleth its bell for thee...
You sick bastards. From day one you've been clamoring for us to bring permadeath back to Wasteland, and well, here you go. Have fun watching your Rangers squirm in the snow choking on their own digital blood... reaching up to you through the screen, asking for help. But you can't help them. Or you could but you choose not to. Maybe their evasion was just a little too low a little too often. Maybe if you hadn't thought they couldn't possibly take that much damage in a single turn. Or maybe you kept them standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever, pour one out and say a little prayer. They're dead.
Of course, permadead Rangers aren't the only thing we cooked up in this patch. Scope the highlights below for the meatiest chunks of info in our newest iteration of Wasteland 3, Patch 1.3.3 "Death & Taxes."
P.S. Hang onto yer butts, plenty more to come this year! Colorado is just getting warmed up.
Wasteland 3 Patch 1.3.3 "Death & Taxes"
Highlights
Permadeath
Permanent Death (aka Permadeath) is here to challenge your sanity. This is an optional mode that can only be enabled when starting a new game.
If enabled, your squad members will be permanently killed if their Downed timer during combat expires. Once they’re dead, they’re dead forever. How death normally works.
Permadeath is a single player-only mode.
Difficult Skills Checks
Difficult Skill Checks is here to challenge your squad-building prowess. This is an optional mode that can only be enabled when starting a new game.
If enabled when starting a new game, all Skill, Attribute, and Perception checks are increased by +2 over their base value (up to a max of 10). This applies to in-world interactions, conversations, and equipment requirements.
We recommend this only for veteran players who want an extra challenge that puts their squad optimization to the test.
Retraining
You can now respec your squad members to reallocate their Attributes, Skills, and Perks!
While at Ranger HQ, a new “Retrain” option is available in the Manage Squad screen, which refunds all points to be spent again. This excludes unique gameplay bonuses such as Cyborg Tech and the Tarjan Machine perks, and any Quirks chosen at character creation.
Retraining characters has a cost which is shared with Recruiting new Rangers.
Recruitment Cost
Recruiting at Ranger HQ now incurs a cost that is shared with Retraining.
The cost is waived for the first two Rangers recruited from Ranger HQ.
The Recruitment/Retrain cost starts at $200 and increases 1.75x (rounded to the nearest $50) with each use, up to a maximum of $3000.
New Character Customization Options
Since you’ll need to start a new game to turn on permadeath and difficult skill checks, we have 23 new character customization options to use including helmets, masks, makeup, scars, and tattoos are available.
Multiple helmets were designed alongside renowned post-apocalyptic costume designers for this update. Check inXile-entertainment.com for photos and info.
Additional Crash and Performance Fixes
We’ve been continually working to improve stability on systems with low amounts of memory (older consoles, primarily) and this update resolves one of our most impactful issues. For those of you experiencing crashes after longer play sessions, we’d love for you to give this update a try and let us know if it resolved your issue. If not, we’d also like to hear from you on the inXile forums so we can continue to make improvements.
We’ve taken a pass at textures across the game to either reduce or increase texture sizes to create a more consistent memory footprint. This should result in slightly more even performance.
Additional misc. changes and fixes that should result in overall improved stability.
[PC] Added voice chat options to enable Push to Talk, show microphone input source, manage volume, or disable it entirely. The Push to Talk key can be customized in keyboard bindings.
Gameplay
Game options now have descriptive text in case our very intelligently named options weren’t clear enough.
Fixed the Poindexter quirk for Rangers recruited from HQ. They’ll now correctly receive their bonus skill points as intended… NERDS.
Resolved an issue with the bonus Hit Chance from Leadership not increasing correctly as it’s leveled up.
We just made the Hoon Homestead always available from the world map regardless of choices and progression. So that better fix it.
We screwed up the intercom before Vic and now we have unscrewed it.
Resolved a softlock that could occur while arresting Vic.
Fixed an issue where you sometimes couldn’t save the game after a combat where you hacked a robot or tamed an animal. How does that even happen? Who knows. Well, someone does, just not me. Making games sounds hard.
Fixed an issue with the Pyromaniac Quirk catching you on fire with elemental damage types other than Fire and Explosive.
Fixed an issue where the pre-order bonus Colorado Survival Gear items could disappear from the inventory. Did you really pre-order, though? Maybe not. Feels like that was 20 years ago. It’s hard to remember.
Rally will now properly apply to squad members that are at a different elevation.
Double-dipping into two containers at the same time, where one requires a skill check to open, will no longer cause loot to disappear.
Fixed a quest progression issue with “King Cordite,” reported by Ralph. Thanks Ralph!
The quest “One of Us” can now be correctly completed if you have Ironclad Cordite in your party.
Fixed a quest progression issue during "Heads or Tails" when a creature is tamed during combat and then runs away. Story of my life.
Fixed an issue where the last character in combat killing themselves would make it so you couldn’t end your turn.
Using the Brainwave Destabilizer on enemies in the Clown Museum no longer breaks their animations. Maybe though just shoot the horrifying clown people before they get too close?
Fixed a quest progression issue with “Hard Knox Life” when loading specific saves.
Llewellyn’s shit had gone missing and was un-interactable. We found the shit and have re-added the shit so you can interact with the shit again now.
Fixed an issue where the Optilaser 9000 couldn’t be used if your weapon was out of ammo or you had melee equipped.
Fixed an issue where getting Vic to join the Rangers and then cancelling out of the Manage Squad screen would make it impossible to add him later. But why would you do that? Add him immediately, it’s hilarious and terrible.
Fixed an issue with Close Call perk causing nitrogen, oil, and explosive tanks to sometimes not explode when attacked.
The “Call to Action” mission is no longer able to be completed more than once.
Mortar Blast now uses the correct amount of AP.
Rangers at max level (35) no longer “level up” when receiving the requisite XP. Can you imagine if life stopped at 35? Like a Logan’s Run Carousel situation and you’re running around with a gem in your hand and a robot is shouting about sea greens. I need to watch that again.
Fixed a possible softlock when taming a Glow Hopper during a combat.
The Minesweeper perk now correctly applies to gas mines, as god intended
UI & Controls
Fixed some wonkiness with removing and re-adding custom characters in Squad Manager.
Making lots of custom Rangers no longer blocks the ability to scroll down to the Companion section.
[LOC] DEV: "104%"’ removed from Shockwave mortar description. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
Fixed a display issue with the Mechanics skill showing an incorrect effectiveness value at level 5.
Changed the icon for Big Guns to not be a rocket launcher, which are explosive weapons. They’re also Big, but we had to pick one.
Fixed some mpre typos.
[Controller] Revive now shows the correct AP cost.
Co-op
Fixed another issue where the host could drive the Kodiak around like a Ranger after their squad had been killed. Cool? Yes. But still a bug.
Misc. co-op bug fixes and improvements.
As ever, thanks to all, especially those in the community who continue to report issues and bring our attention to solutions and reproduction steps.
