The GWJ CRPG Club - Game 11: Wasteland 2

When I played, I found giving the leader a submachine gun to be useful.

The high Charisma/Int that build requires mean that the leader won't be one of your better fighters. You'll have other characters with more AP, damage output, etc. SMGs work nicely because they don't require a ton of accuracy or speed to occasionally be useful, and as weapons they don't tend to have high ceilings, so better to let a middling fighter use that ammo and save the rest for your more combat-focused characters. You'll want your leader character close enough to grant bonuses to the party and SMGs are situationally useful for cleaning up near-dead enemies or pulling off a good flank.

I built my leader as a full support, and let assault rifles go to another character (Rose, actually!) I was tempted by pistols, but I think they are good as backup weapons.

I went with a brawler/heavy weapons person, a scientist/energy weapon specialist, a sniper/thief character, and the aforementioned leader on SMGs. The assault rifles went to NPCs as they can make anyone useful no matter how borked their builds are.

Did you guys fight the bandits at the first tower, or did you use one of the options to “talk” them out of it?

I talked. If you have a face character, why not use them? The game has no shortage of fights and saving the ammo early when it is scarcer is a good call.

WizKid wrote:

Did you guys fight the bandits at the first tower, or did you use one of the options to “talk” them out of it?

I talked... used Kiss Ass perk.

Clumber wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I started over tonight and used that video guide to create a party of four. I'm much happier with what I've got now and understand what I'm trying to do with the party better. I just played through the intro and am ready to head off in the wilderness.

Did you build your leader character off what's in the video (shotgun, cover destruction) or the spreadsheet (assualt rifles)? Do you know which is more recent?

I used this video with just a handful of tweaks. He has four basic characters (Leader, AP Monkey, Sniper, and Skill Guru). The main idea is to cover your combat/skill/leadership needs as much as possible with four characters, and set them up for success by emphasizing the right attributes for the right roles. I used the following weapons: Assault Rifle, Assault Rifle, Sniper/Handgun, Energy Weapon. According to this guy, ammo isn't a problem in the Director's Cut, so it's fine to have two assault rifles. We'll see on that part, but if I start running into trouble I'll shift the leader's weapon to a SMG.

Probably the biggest thing I picked up on was that most players treat luck (and to a certain degree charisma) as dump stats. I have them all set to 1's on my group now, except for the leader's charisma.

I also set three characters as "Delayed Gratification", so they'll add skills slowly in the beginning but gain speed after Level 10.

After spending waaaaayyyy too much time looking at resources and guides, here's the party I've put together. I may still tweak it some before I get going, but it's pretty close to where I'll settle. It's a similar arrangement to the video GB refers to, with some influence from other spots to see if I can maximize initiative and some AP breakpoints (everyone will get Tinkerer eventually) as well as game ahead a bit with recruits to the party. Mild companion spoilers to follow:

Spoiler:

Angela Deth will provide some HardAss from the start. By the time she drops, I'll have added Vulture's Cry from Highpool, who I will train up in that as well as make use of her outdoor skills.

IMAGE(https://bn1303files.storage.live.com/y4mqjiXWWx8FKgoMsICywH9pS0Jg5v8kGLTn_LoRCi45Kc4c8eMpMwig_-bJOZvCbxPhEc2ow3ume6a8tXgvKC-rjEabRjc8NoRozrReZv_5qkdIoaSEAufLhLvpYnXFYq7A5dMU_vBa0v2TMtgSwSTOHGzQjVtLAJhSYb2Fe-A4TbjQHeYMr8-_Jfc9bMR0BbDK--0G1ApEuoYosOm-JH6vg/Wasteland2_Party.png?psid=1&width=1201&height=615)

^Nice party, ubrakto!

Is there a way I can take that a screenshot of that window after I've started? I was thinking to share mine too.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

^Nice party, ubrakto!

Is there a way I can take that a screenshot of that window after I've started? I was thinking to share mine too.

Thanks! When I was setting up my party, I set the game to Windowed mode so that I could move back and forth between game, browser, and spreadsheet across my monitors. So, I just opened up Windows 10 Snip and Sketch and used it to snip the pic you see above.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Clumber wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I started over tonight and used that video guide to create a party of four. I'm much happier with what I've got now and understand what I'm trying to do with the party better. I just played through the intro and am ready to head off in the wilderness.

Did you build your leader character off what's in the video (shotgun, cover destruction) or the spreadsheet (assualt rifles)? Do you know which is more recent?

I used this video with just a handful of tweaks. He has four basic characters (Leader, AP Monkey, Sniper, and Skill Guru). The main idea is to cover your combat/skill/leadership needs as much as possible with four characters, and set them up for success by emphasizing the right attributes for the right roles. I used the following weapons: Assault Rifle, Assault Rifle, Sniper/Handgun, Energy Weapon. According to this guy, ammo isn't a problem in the Director's Cut, so it's fine to have two assault rifles. We'll see on that part, but if I start running into trouble I'll shift the leader's weapon to a SMG.

Probably the biggest thing I picked up on was that most players treat luck (and to a certain degree charisma) as dump stats. I have them all set to 1's on my group now, except for the leader's charisma.

I also set three characters as "Delayed Gratification", so they'll add skills slowly in the beginning but gain speed after Level 10.

Thanks. I ask because that video includes this link to a google doc BUILD-A-TEAM SHEET!, but the google doc build is slightly different from the video build, and it looks like the google doc is a little more recent.

ubrakto wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

^Nice party, ubrakto!

Is there a way I can take that a screenshot of that window after I've started? I was thinking to share mine too.

Thanks! When I was setting up my party, I set the game to Windowed mode so that I could move back and forth between game, browser, and spreadsheet across my monitors. So, I just opened up Windows 10 Snip and Sketch and used it to snip the pic you see above.

Oh, thanks! I realize now my question wasn’t clear. I’m good with the technical aspects of taking a screenshot, but wasn’t able to navigate to that particular screen again after I started my game. I was wondering if you only get that party view during the party creation process or can also access it once you’ve started playing the game with that party?

Game is quite decent, and I am looking forward to the third game soon'ish, but not going to replay this one.

Just wanted to say here, as well as the CRPG club thread, in case someone is only reading this one, I got a Wasteland 2 key if anyone are interested in playing (key might have expired, but I dont think so)

(edit: key is gone, actually it was apparently gone 4 years ago, sorry)

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Oh, thanks! I realize now my question wasn’t clear. I’m good with the technical aspects of taking a screenshot, but wasn’t able to navigate to that particular screen again after I started my game. I was wondering if you only get that party view during the party creation process or can also access it once you’ve started playing the game with that party?

Ha! Yeah, I misread that (and should damn well know that you're way too tech savvy not to know how to do that). I don't think you can get that screen once you go into the game. (Anyone?) But you might be able to recreate it. If you exported your characters while creating them, you could probably click to start a new game, import those builds, grab the shot, and then exit out.

ubrakto wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Oh, thanks! I realize now my question wasn’t clear. I’m good with the technical aspects of taking a screenshot, but wasn’t able to navigate to that particular screen again after I started my game. I was wondering if you only get that party view during the party creation process or can also access it once you’ve started playing the game with that party?

Ha! Yeah, I misread that (and should damn well know that you're way too tech savvy not to know how to do that). I don't think you can get that screen once you go into the game. (Anyone?) But you might be able to recreate it. If you exported your characters while creating them, you could probably click to start a new game, import those builds, grab the shot, and then exit out.

No worries, thanks! I didn't export my characters. (I should have, as I had to remake them one more time when I realized that I screwed up what I was trying to do on Attempt 2.)

I'll poke about and see if I can figure out some sort of easy way. I could probably grab four screenshots of their individual character screens. That'd be fast. Not as slick at the "Your Squad" screen but good enough.

Thanks to everyone for the recommendations for the team building stuff. I think this is usually what sucks the energy out of me before I even get to play an RPG.

"Am I picking stats sub-optimally?"
"Will I regret this setup halfway through the game?"
"How much more time is this going to take before I can just play the game?!?"

Looks like this Mal guy on the YouTubes should get me most of the way there with some options to add my own flavor to the party without min-maxing all day.

Okay, ranger squad created.

quasiChaos wrote:

Thanks to everyone for the recommendations for the team building stuff. I think this is usually what sucks the energy out of me before I even get to play an RPG.

This always strikes me as a side effect of the increased complexity of larger RPGs. Skill systems and combat have added so many stats and skills that it's almost impossible to understand what to emphasize at the start. You almost have to play a half a game to understand how to start. How many players want to play 20-30 hours just to understand how to start for real?

I really liked Mal's guide, but we'll see how it holds up as I play along. I'm a little concerned that having two characters using assault rifles will lead to an ammo shortage.

I do remember the OG version of the game having some really severe ammo shortages early that went away in the second half. Honestly, I kind of liked that - though I can see why they might have changed it. It definitely made the early going challenging. You really had to rely on a melee character and be precise with how you used your ammo. Was the shot absolutely necessary? Could you switch to your secondary gun (usually a pistol) and finish the encounter?

Director's cut might have done away with that - not sure that sort of resource scarcity is popular. (Though honestly, I thought it added something that I definitely missed in the second half.)

^According to that character guide video anyway, they did address ammo scarcity in the DC version. We shall see.

IIRC there’s enough ammo in the game to support two people having assault rifles. Obviously good weapons etc were harder to find early on, but that decreases as things go on.

Exploration is key - you need to investigate everywhere to find all the little weapons and ammo cache’s there are in the game. I don’t remember struggling with that aspect of the game, but I did look everywhere.

I'm in, but I'm going to at least have to finish Persona 4 Golden before I start yet another massive rpg.

I seem to be in, but maybe on a slow approach. I’ve owned it on PS4 for a long time but have since learned I don’t really care for this kind of game on console even when they do a good job with the interface. Since I paid very little for the PS4 copy and it was really cheap on Steam, I’m giving it a shot on PC. Made a squad, did the first mission and then decided to start over. Did so and got back to the same spot. I ended up basically using this build but I switched the medic to handguns because I felt uncomfortable having 3 characters with ARs. Guide seems to think it’s fine but I’d rather the variety. From an RP perspective I like the idea of the medic just having a handgun even though it probably limits them range wise in combat.

That guide also has a mini-walkthrough on the first mission, basically the first hour. I followed it but skipped one item that was a bit of a sequence break.

Oh btw, press Z to highlight all things you can interact with.

Also finding it useful to reload after battles by just hitting R with the whole squad selected.

Thanks for the highlight tip, mousing over everything was getting old.

Welcome, steinkrug and Alien Love Gardener!

Good to know on the ammo situation, sorbicol, and thanks for the Z tip, steinkrug! Super helpful that is.

Yeah even quest items can be super small and tough to see at least on my laptop. They seem to sparkle a bit but hitting Z makes things a lot easier.

The sirens song of Pathfinder:Kingmaker is proving irresistible, my ranger squad might be delayed heading towards the radio tower.

ubrakto wrote:

IMAGE(https://bn1303files.storage.live.com/y4mqjiXWWx8FKgoMsICywH9pS0Jg5v8kGLTn_LoRCi45Kc4c8eMpMwig_-bJOZvCbxPhEc2ow3ume6a8tXgvKC-rjEabRjc8NoRozrReZv_5qkdIoaSEAufLhLvpYnXFYq7A5dMU_vBa0v2TMtgSwSTOHGzQjVtLAJhSYb2Fe-A4TbjQHeYMr8-_Jfc9bMR0BbDK--0G1ApEuoYosOm-JH6vg/Wasteland2_Party.png?psid=1&width=1201&height=615)

Cool. Dr. Horrible survived into the post-apocalypse.

Of course he did. He's a survivor with a PhD in Horribleness!

Watched that video GB posted and basically followed that example. One change I made on two characters, he was going to wait until level 10 to up INT to 4 (for extra skill points), I chose to drop STR by 1 until lvl 10 instead for the extra 9 skill points. We’ll see how that goes.

Got to be late making those characters so I saved and quit before doing anything else

I can't promise I'll finish, or even that I'll start in the next month, but I do intend to try.
Especially considering I kickstarted it at a higher tier and have yet to even load it up.

Thanks to a very generous Steam key gift, I am in as well! Going to assemble a party this weekend.