Our continued thanks to those playing and enjoying Wasteland 3, and for those of you who have continued to report issues, and bring our attention to solutions and reproduction steps. It's been heartening to see so many of you looking to help us continue to improve the experience, and we're dedicated to doing just that for the foreseeable future.
This update has some big changes, including the oft-requested improvements to load times, as well as fixes for some progression blockers, and more. Reducing the load times was a big undertaking to essentially rewrite how our level load procedure works, but we think you'll appreciate the result—especially if love to save and reload to get that perfect outcome (we won't tell).
Patch 1.1.2 is now live! Please note that for cross-platform co-op on PC, both the Host and Client will need to have matching versions.
Highlights
Do you hate long load times? We hate long load times. Our engineers changed how the game loads levels, reducing load times by up to 60% on PC and 25% on console.
As one example, on our PC test hardware a 38 second load time was reduced to 13 seconds.
Fixed an issue where combat could become unresponsive with use of the Chain Ambush Perk for sniper rifles.
Resolved several progression blocking issues in Yuma County Speedway.
Enemies are now much less invisible after use of Precision Strike.
Performance & Stability
Significantly changed how levels load, resulting in up to 60% faster load speeds across the game on PC, and on average 25% faster for consoles.
Note: your hardware, save data, and which level you’re loading into can all impact load times. Your mileage may of course vary.
As part of this change, auto-saves will no longer occur as a part of the level load, and instead happen concurrently. This can lead to situations where you’ve loaded into the next scene but an auto-save is still in-progress. Don’t close the game while the Ranger star is spinning.
Major Prasad will no longer crash your game if you exit while she’s still talking.
Additional stability and performance improvements for consoles that were too technical for the person writing these patch notes to understand and explain easily. It’s good stuff though. All good stuff.
We’ll be continuing to target and resolve specific stability issues as necessary.
Co-op
Players can no longer attack companions that are in the process of being recruited by the other player, in case your partner likes to troll.
Fixed an issue where the Guest client could become unresponsive when talking with Hope Emerson and choosing to side with Del Hackett and her people.
Improved stability while in the Hire Companion screen.
Players can now use the keyboard in the lobby screen to choose game type, options, invite player, and ready up.
Enabled UI Narration in the Direct Connection interface and for multiplayer game messages sent through chat.
Fixed an issue with voice chat text-to-speech and speech-to-text.
[Microsoft Store] Resolved an issue where guests couldn’t rejoin a lobby they’d just left.
Quests & Gameplay
Resolved an issue where quirks could become unselectable during character creation.
Fixed a potential blocker with Medical Marvel not allowing revival without use of a Nitro Spike.
Resolved a rare issue that would block you from speaking to a companion.
The door in Yuma County Speedway leading to Liberty is now unbreakable as intended.
Misc.
Fixed minor graphical issue with the radio.
Some cinematic characters have been given microdermabrasion treatments and now have better looking skin.
Skill levels for recruitable characters now display properly in all cases.
Mission status should no longer display incorrectly after quest completion or updates.
Resolved issue where the spinning Ranger Star would permanently stay on screen after saving the game.
Wasteland 3 Patch 1.1.1 Now Live
Thank you to everyone for your support as we continue to add to and improve Wasteland 3. This update was focused on a lot of the issues we've heard about from you the most, and we're hoping it goes a long way toward improving your play experience.
However, we're not done yet. Our next patch is a big one, and contains hundreds of individual changes including fixes, balance improvements, and load time reduction. Please be aware of our Known Issues list for issues we're aware of and working to resolve. Thanks for your patience, and see you in the wasteland.
Highlights
Numerous changes aimed at improving stability on consoles.
Co-op fixes for load screens stopping at 33%.
Antique Appraiser has been appropriately balanced.
Wasteland 3 – 1.1.1 Patch Notes
Performance and Stability
We’ve made over a dozen individual changes aimed at improving performance and stability, especially on consoles.
We’re continuing work on additional improvements for future updates.
Some slight load time improvements have been made.
We’re finalizing some more impactful load time reductions which you’ll see in a future patch.
Fixed an issue where if computer consoles were used during combat, game performance would decrease.
Performance has been improved when using Precision Strike.
Co-op
Load screen hangs (i.e. 33% load bug) have largely been resolved for co-op games.
In a few cases the load bar may appear to be stuck at 33% but will eventually load after 5 or more minutes. We’re aware and actively working to resolve these.
Addressed an issue with the Direct Connect option that was preventing some guests from connecting to their hosts.
Fixed crash that could occur in co-op while players engaged with Major Prasad.
Players with different build versions are now blocked from playing with each other.
[Xbox One] Resolved an issue where the user would not be able to join a second game if it was hosted by the same person.
Quests and Gameplay
The Antiques Appraiser perk no longer triggers on Scrap.
This closes a loophole in which Scrap could be simply bought and sold for a profit using the Antiques Appraiser perk. We found that in some cases the perk was giving players far too much money when Scrap was included.
Of note, this change will not be reflected in the text descriptions until a subsequent patch.
Antiques Appraiser now has a 5% chance to multiply the value of Junk by 40x, down from 50x.
A persistent issue with the Fishlips encounter which would result in the game locking up has been resolved.
Resolved an issue where the epilogue song would sometimes not play all the way through.
Merchants now round up item values, instead of down. Buying in bulk is always better!
Liberty’s Warbots are now immune to hacking, which should make her appropriately more challenging.
Resolved an issue where the Survival Skill was granting Animal Whisperer abilities.
Resolved an issue where some missions related to the Gippers were unable to be completed under specific conditions.
Resolved an issue where players were being charged the correct amount of skill points on purchase, but the tooltip and the bar were using the wrong value to calculate/display the cost.
Patch Progress Update for Wasteland 3
Greetings Rangers,
We launched Wasteland 3 just two weeks ago, and if it was a nonstop effort before we launched, it’s definitely been nonstop since. In a lot of ways launching a game is not when work stops, but when it starts, and we got right to work on taking in bug reports, feedback, and working toward making fixes and improvements as quickly as possible. One thing we discovered as bug reports came in is that our testing process had been too focused, and not enough time had been spent playing the game naturally as an end user would. We’re going to have some deep discussions and post-mortems on our processes going forward, but what’s important right now is getting issues addressed.
None of this is intended to minimize the issues, but we want to share more details about what we’re seeing and how we’re working hard to address the most impactful ones. For those of you that have had a poor experience, or outright couldn’t play, we sincerely apologize, and are making fixes and improvements as quickly as possible.
We’ve already released a hotfix and the 1.1.0 patch, and the next one—update 1.1.1—will be out toward the end of next week. Rest assured, as soon as we have a fix for a major issue we’re doing our best to get a patch out. We’ll certainly have more that we want to address after this update, but ensuring major blockers and crashes are resolved is our number one priority.
Some of the most challenging issues have been for our Xbox One and PlayStation 4 players, with general game stability. While we’ve made some improvements with the two patches since launch, we know there’s more to do. In the next update we’ll have a fix for most (not all) of the issues leading to crashes, and they should go much further in helping improve game stability. We know this has been frustrating for many of you, and we’re going to continue devoting time and effort toward it for as long as we need to.
Another annoying bug we’ve been trying to squash has been the co-op “33% loading” issue, where in co-op you may not be able to load into a new map and get stuck at the 1/3 mark. We thought we had this one fixed, but it’s been difficult because we just weren’t able to reproduce it internally more than one or two times. We got desperate enough that we actually put out a bug bounty internally to the first employee that could reproduce it. We also enlisted some of you to help, and worked directly with co-op teams out there to get more in-depth logs using development builds. Thanks to those efforts we’re pretty sure we’ve finally been able to nail this one down.
These obviously aren’t encapsulating all the items we’re working on or that will be in the 1.1.1 update, but we wanted to give you some insight into our focus and process supporting Wasteland 3 and its players into the foreseeable future. Hopefully before too long we’ll be able to start sharing some of our ideas for how we want to add to and expand the experience, but right now we’re focused on ensuring you can enjoy the game as it is.
Keep the bug reports and feedback coming, and we’ll see you in the wasteland.
- Wasteland 3 Dev Team
Patch 1.1.0 Now Live
Wasteland 3 Version 1.1.0
Please note: Co-op players should ensure their client versions match as mismatched clients can cause unforeseen issues. More info here.
Quests and Gameplay
Fixed issues that could cause character and quest progression to be lost
Fixed Fishlips’ encounter
Fixed an issue where some players would see an endlessly looping Ambush Site intro
The La Perla quest can now be completed
Polly and the Cyborg Chickens have been beefed up
Co-op
Fixed issues that could cause character and quest progression to be lost
Fixed multiple issues that could cause an infinite loading screen
We're aware this issue is still impacting some players and are investigating
Fixed a sync issue where the host and guest could see the Kodiak in different places after receiving a radio call
The host and guests will no longer get different radio calls on the world map
Resolved an issue where one player would only see a black screen while the other is watching the intro video
Resolved an issue whereby one player getting disconnected in character creation within Ranger HQ would cause the other player’s game to become unresponsive
Fixed a crash that could occur when a second player joins an in-progress conversation with Irv
Fixed a crash that could occur for the guest when talking with Hope Emerson
Stability
Fixed a possible freeze when approaching a specific robot in Broadmoor Heights
Fixed an issue where the UI could disappear if viewing the main menu for a long time
Wasteland 3 Hotfix 1.0.1
We've released a small update for Wasteland 3.
Improvements to memory usage that can result in a more stable play experience
Wasteland 3 Now Available!
[previewyoutube="q5Ozzp3IIz4;full"]
The long wait is over, Rangers.
The Wasteland 3 Fig campaign concluded at the end of 2016, and in the almost four years since then we’ve worked hard to make that promise a reality. Hopefully with the release of Wasteland 3 we’ll have met and exceeded your expectations.
Whether you’re a backer from the old days or you’re just now checking it out on Game Pass, we welcome you to our dark, funny, and gritty view of a post-apocalyptic Colorado. We invite you to take you first steps into the challenging tactical combat, and dozens of hours of deep story full of colorful characters, twists and turns, and brutal ethical choices. You’ll have to make choices and live with the consequences because Wasteland is a series all about reacting to your decisions, and there will be plenty of ways to change the course for Colorado and its people.
We’ve already had reviews rolling in, and the team’s been excitedly sharing 5/5 and 9/10 review scores with each other. But regardless of how the game is rated by press, we’re most excited to get it into your hands and hear what you think. So be sure to follow @Wasteland on Twitter, join the conversation in the inXile forums, and let us know how you’re enjoying yourself.
Thank you again to our backers, our fans both new and old, and any fans out there we’ve yet to meet. Your support and feedback are extremely important to us, and we look forward to continuing to support Wasteland 3 for the foreseeable future.
Head over to Wasteland3.com, and join us in our post-apocalyptic winter wonderland.
Wasteland 3 Time Capsule Challenge
Many years ago, in a time long-forgotten, when we still worked from places called "offices", we devised a scheme. A scheme to hold a contest within the grand state of Colorado that would send our fans forth into its wilds to dig up random locations to find a time capsule. Within that time capsule we would somehow fit collectible items like a signed piece of Wasteland art, and a signed Wasteland 3 Collector’s Edition.
However, when putting this scheme into action a few realizations set in. 1. Law enforcement and state laws don’t mesh well with the whole “go dig up people’s property” idea, 2. This wasn’t a very globally-friendly idea (or even other-states-in-the-U.S. idea), 3. The winner being only the first person to find it felt pretty limited, 4. We now find ourselves in a situation where sending people to physical locations for prizes may be putting them at undue risk, and 5. That's going to be a real big time capsule.
So, what’s a plucky gang of game developers to do? Brainstorm! So after putting our best brain cells to work we fixed it up to what we think is actually a much better and cooler idea. We’ve brought the time capsule hunt in-game!
Here’s how it works:
On the world map you have a rare chance to encounter a beautiful but difficult enemy: the Golden Scorpitron
Within that same map, and with enough Awareness, you'll discover a hidden Time Capsule to dig up
Within that Time Capsule you’ll find a number of useful items, chief among them a letter from our fearless leader Brian Fargo
Send us a screenshot or photo of that letter to contests@inxile.net (be careful to follow the official rules) and you’ll be entered into the drawing
The FIRST person to send us a photo or screenshot of the letter (again, being careful to follow the official rules) will be granted the Excavation Award, and as their reward have an item named after them added to the time capsule for future excavators to find.
Everyone that submits a valid entry will be entered into a drawing to win a prize package consisting of:
Wasteland 1 cover art lithograph, numbered and signed by Brian Fargo
Wasteland 2 Kickstarter Collector’s Edition
Wasteland 3 Collector’s Edition signed by the development team
After the contest ends we'll be removing the letter and adding in the item named after our Excavation Award winner. The Golden Scorpitron will remain, shiny and chrome and forever prepared to defend its treasure.
These prizes aren't going to drool over themselves, so get hunting and get digging, Rangers!
Looks like we made it! Here we are in the final stretch before Wasteland 3’s release on August 28. It’s been a long haul since our introduction of Wasteland 3’s Fig campaign back in 2016, all the way up through this year.
2020 has not been without its challenges, not the least of which for us was the introduction of working from home and a subsequent delay from our previous release date. It was a daunting prospect filled with unknowns, but the team rallied, and we quickly adapted to these new complexities. The extension on release also offered us more time to consider the feedback from the Beta and to implement much needed polish, general refinements, and focus on additional elements. We shared some of those in our last update, and we have a few more for you.
Let’s get down to it.
Tactical Combat Option: Crouch
You asked for it. We did it. Feedback from the Beta overwhelmingly called out that the absence of crouch made players feel less in control of the tactical options they expected in isometric turn-based combat. In addition to the tactical abilities that characters had control over in the Beta, they will now be able to improve their hit chance, evasion, and detection time when crouching.
Wasteland 3 already had a deep combat system that we think players will be learning to master for quite some time, but we were happy to act on Beta feedback and get this feature in before launch. Crouch is always accessible from the action bar:
UI & You and I
In that previously mentioned update we teased some of the newly-minted options in the UI, including the ability to toggle custom armor visuals, as well as the addition of the much coveted ‘sell junk’ option. In addition to those, we’re happy to announce that the merchant interface has also been overhauled and improved. Each individual character will now be able to be selected while you’re browsing a store’s wares, to make for easier comparison and identification of necessary gear while perusing the merchant’s goods.
We’ve also implemented a minimap to help you locate nearby points of interest and vendors. This won’t take the place of the existing map, but will give you an always-available means of identifying where you’re at in the world. For those who prefer less clutter in their lives and on their screen, there’s an option to disable the minimap if you so desire.
Posthumous Permadeath
A few of the more hardcore among you have asked us for permadeath in Wasteland 3. We actually went back and forth quite a bit on this as an option, mainly because we knew the amount of development work it would need. When you can welcome story critical NPCs into your party, and approach the game content in essentially any order, and those critical story NPCs can permanently die from anywhere in the story… it’s a lot to account for. So, we are working on permadeath, but because of the additional effort, this is going to be a post-launch feature we’ll patch in for the hardcore among you for your second or third playthroughs.
The Final Countdown
As you’ve no doubt seen, the Wasteland 3 Collector’s Edition was finally released into the wild. In particular, we were very fortunate to see CohhCarnage spend some time digging into this delectably radioactive treat (not actually radioactive).
We’ve really enjoyed seeing everyone’s reactions on social media when they realize how much we upgraded the Collector’s Edition (thank you Microsoft!) from what our original backer page had promised. It was a labor of love, and serves as a huge thanks to our backers, as we would not be where we are without them.
We’d also like to thank our Mac and Linux backers who we previously spoke to in our last update. As stated, it’s our intention and priority to get the Mac/Linux versions out the door just as soon as possible. We expect to be able to share that good news before the end of the year. Until then, thank you again for your patience. We want to deliver the best quality game to you that we can, and we know you’ve been very excited to share in this experience.
DEFCON 1
It’s mind-blowing to think that we’ve reached the final days before the release of the game. We can’t wait to see your reactions and follow along with your adventures as you and your squads work to build a Ranger foothold in Colorado … or bury what’s left of them into the powdery snow. Though we’re soon to cross a milestone with the game’s release, this is a product we’ll be supporting for the foreseeable future, and we’re already cooking on some post-release ideas.
Thank you again, Rangers! We look forward to seeing you in Colorado as the saga of Wasteland continues. Wasteland 3 releases on August 28 for Windows 10, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.
-The Wasteland 3 Team
Wasteland 3 Beta Improvements + Mac & Linux Delay
Greetings Rangers,
Your testing and feedback during the Beta was invaluable, and we’ve already incorporated a number of your requests—in addition to fixing bugs, improving performance, and continuing to finish up the game. We wanted to share details on a few of those with you today.
First though we have some news for our Mac and Linux players—we’ve made the difficult decision to focus Wasteland 3’s initial release on Windows 10, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. We’re prioritizing the work for Mac and Linux post-launch, and expect it to be complete by the end of the year. This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but ultimately will result in a better overall product for Mac and Linux as well. We’re still a small studio considering the size of the games we like to make, and this allows us to keep our engineers dedicated to the core game systems.
We know that for some of you the additional wait will be frustrating, and we want everyone to feel satisfied with their experience, so we’ve taken steps to ensure we can offer refunds beyond the standard Fig and Crowd Ox refund cutoffs. We know Wasteland 3 will absolutely be worth the wait, but we respect your pledge, and we want you to be confident in continuing the journey with us. Contact us through the inXile support site if you’d like to discuss that option. Please be aware that once retail keys are distributed, and/or physical rewards are shipped, we will no longer be able to offer refunds—rewards are expected to be sent in the next few weeks.
Beta Makes It Better
Before we get to the improvements we’ve been working on since Beta, it’s important to note that this isn’t a comprehensive update on all the features, fixes, and feedback we’re working on—these are some of the things that we have fully implemented. We’re looking forward to sharing a few more as development wraps up.
Alternate Firing Modes
One of the most common requests from Beta participants was bringing back firing modes for automatic weapons. Our thought in removing them was that the types and variety of weapons we have in Wasteland 3 will more than make up for single- and multi-shot choices, but the message was well received.
That said, we couldn’t just throw it back on a few assault rifles and call it a day. Wasteland 3 (like everything else) punches it up to 11, and we’ve added additional firing modes to many weapons across the game. That’s right, no matter what weapon type you’re using, be it a shotgun, assault rifle, pistol, or sharpened road-sign, you’ll likely have access to an alternate firing mode. These are attacks that aren’t inherently better, but provide you with situational flexibility—and in the right circumstances they can be devastating. These alternate firing abilities won’t generally be found on powerful or unique items, or weapons with their own secondary effects.
Here’s a quick look at some alternate firing abilities that can be found.
Custom Portraits
This one wasn’t so much a Beta request as a question we get from time to time, and we can confirm that custom portraits are in, and they are spectacular. This is a PC-only feature that allows you to create, name, and once again add a custom face to each of your squad members. Might we recommend a squad made entirely of your family and friends? Or the various ingredients in a ham and cheese sandwich?
However you choose to roleplay your squad, custom portraits can help put on a finishing touch.
Custom portraits should be 420x337px as either a JPG or PNG and placed into a self-created folder named: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\My Games\Wasteland3\Custom Portraits\
Sell Junk
Yes, we will indeed have a sell junk button when visiting merchants. We’re not exactly challenging the paradigms of game design here, but it was a common Beta request/mention. Good job, you.
Hide Armor
We shared this on social a while back, but this is a good place to show it again—with an update! Based on Beta feedback we’ve added the ability to hide your armor, and that now also includes leg armor.
All Animal Companions in Combat
One of the features we’ve gotten consistently positive feedback on has been the Animal Whisperer system and bringing animals along with you in the game; however, there was a clear message we received that people would like to see more animal friends taking an active role in combat. You’ve spent the points, you’re bringing these furry friends with you, and so it only makes sense that they’d be able to assist you with claw and fang as you explore Colorado.
To that end we’ve added attacks and attack animations to all creatures in Wasteland 3, allowing all animals to join you in combat, and making this a more fulfilling skill to put your points into. We’ve also redone all the animal walk, run, and idle animations.
Here’s a short video of their attacks in action: [previewyoutube="nrrf9HVZtbA;full"]
As we mentioned at the top of the article, this isn’t an exhaustive list of Beta feedback-led changes and adjustments but are some of the systems that are already fully implemented.
We’re of course looking forward to continuing to share updates as we near Wasteland 3’s release on August 28!
