The Synthetic Wasteland (Work Title)(WIP)

[E_RedMark]

told you…over used trope !

now make giant Pew Pew canon a reality!

Update: Btw…can you tell us more about the Romance ? if there will be any !

Like will there be full romance…a friendship path…and such ?

[ExcaliburV]

Currently the plan is that there will be romances, though I will add the same “if” I have been this whole time…

If I can actually write a good romance.

Still, the plan for now is, yes. The idea is that everyone with a relationship meter will be an RO. There’s even already some (admittedly subtle) flirts floating around that you can find if the right conditions are met.

As for friendship path… I’m not sure what this means? If you mean can you have a positive relationship without romance, then yeah, of course.

[Johann]

@Bugreporter

These tunnels, hidden from the sensors and scanners of the machines, quickly became the headquarters for the then-budding Resistance movement.

Remove the hyphen.

The hyphen is fine as is since it turns then and budding into a compound adjective. “Then budding” on its own makes no sense.

Typos

Disheveled.

Commander should be capitalized here.

Agent should be capitalized here.

Agent should also be capitalized here!

Authoritative? That’s probably what you were going for.

Field Agent should be capitalized, Squad Five probably should be too.

Extra O

I found myself in an infinite loop during the fight against the Commander wherein the first 3 choices are successful but the next three send me back to the first and so on. Could it be caused by my stats not being balanced?

Also, I noticed when I went to visit B3 that his responses were incredibly hostile, despite making every friendly/trusting choice. I never went to visit him on every other run so it could be the same every time but His relationship stat was at 51% for reference, still is.

I really like the small variation in responses the MC can give to flesh them out a bit more, though I’m worried the game might become too “Pick a dominant stat and stick with it or you fail.” since that’s kinda happening to me rn (but at the same time it isn’t, see: above.)

Question: will we meet back up with the agent who went to collect us after our miraculous escape or are they gone forever?

Edit: Just noticed there was a health stat Tried distracting him by talking one last time and died.

[ExcaliburV]

Ok, I’ll respond to this one at a time.

First, thanks for the typo list, I’ll get to that as soon as possible.

@Johann

I found myself in an infinite loop during the fight against the Commander

It is because your main stat is agility, pretty much, yeah. The Commander fight is something I know I need to rework a bit- I’ve known that for a while now. One of the things I was going to do was add in an instance where if you do get into a loop and spend too long in the fight, the fight will end automatically and you get the sub-par/bad outcome regardless of preparations.

Short answer, I know it’s a problem, and it’s on the bucket list.

@Johann

Also, I noticed when I went to visit B3 that his responses were incredibly hostile

If your relationship with B3 is less than 50%, it will be hostile at the start of the conversation. If it is less than 45% at the end of the conversation, it will confront the protagonist about its aggression.

I think what happened was you had less than 50 at the start, but then did something to raise it a bit, so it was 51% by the end and you didn’t really get they rivalry payoff.

Anyways, yes, its hostility was on purpose.

@Johann

I really like the small variation in responses the MC can give to flesh them out a bit more

Thanks! It’s appreciated.

@Johann

though I’m worried the game might become too “Pick a dominant stat and stick with it or you fail.”

That’s kind of what I implemented the “Artifact” items for. I’ve never actually mentioned it on the forums, but they do exist. Basically, there are 4 items in the game that, when obtained, boost a corresponding stat by +15. This way you can either make your dominant stat even more amazing, or you can bring up your lower stats so that you might be able to pass more of the checks.

Right now, only the Combat and Charm artifacts are in the game. The Agility artifact is in one of the side missions coming up, and the Intelligence one will be in chapter 7.

@Johann

Question: will we meet back up with the agent who went to collect us after our miraculous escape or are they gone forever?

Not really. It’s not planned, anyways. He was just a nameless character meant to serve a plot purpose.

Still, I have plans to rewrite some of chapter 2. Maybe I’ll do more with him.

@Johann

Edit: Just noticed there was a health stat Tried distracting him by talking one last time and died.

Ouch. Yeah, that’s a thing.

[Johann]

@ExcaliburV

Short answer, I know it’s a problem, and it’s on the bucket list.

My bad! Sorry if its been mentioned before I was expecting Javier or Walker to intervene and take MC’s place while they’re out of commission.

@ExcaliburV

I think what happened was you had less than 50 at the start, but then did something to raise it a bit, so it was 51% by the end and you didn’t really get they rivalry payoff.

You’re probably right, actually. I didn’t check his stat until after the conversation but I wasn’t expecting it to increase any given how it went

@ExcaliburV

That’s kind of what I implemented the “Artifact” items for.

Perfect! Could you give a hint as to how I go about getting the Combat and Charm artifacts?

[ExcaliburV]

@Johann

My bad! Sorry if its been mentioned before

No, not at all! It hasn’t been mentioned, it’s just something I’ve known would be an issue eventually. I’ll get it sorted eventually, swearsies.

@Johann

You’re probably right, actually. I didn’t check his stat until after the conversation but I wasn’t expecting it to increase any given how it went

Yeah, even hostile B3 can be made to like you a little bit more if you pick the right options.

@Johann

Perfect! Could you give a hint as to how I go about getting the Combat and Charm artifacts?

The Combat Artifact is in chapter 2. You need to convince B3 to free the prisoners, and you need to go all-in to save them. Not a subtle hint, but it’s not a hard item to get, so eh.

For the Charm artifact, you have to be selfless and get the best ending with the tribe by putting yourself fully in harm’s way and overcoming the added danger, though there are two ways of doing this.

[Johann]

@ExcaliburV

The Combat Artifact is in chapter 2. You need to convince B3 to free the prisoners, and you need to go all-in to save them. Not a subtle hint, but it’s not a hard item to get, so eh.

This is the first time I don’t try saving the prisoners and I end up missing out on something Genius.

[ExcaliburV]

Heh.

Well, not to worry. Like I said, it’s easy to get. (Though if you don’t have the charm or intelligence to actually convince B3 you’ll have to tank its relationship a bit more. Ouch.)

That Combat Artifact should see you through the Commander fight, too.

[ExcaliburV]

Well, I did a test play-through today only to find out the suicide mission route in chapter 4 was completely broken.

So, uhm… yeah. Fixed that up. My bad.

[ExcaliburV]

@E_RedMark

Update: ok…first…found error : chapterfour_a line 6431: Non-existent command ‘walkerstealth_reveal’

Hey, sorry for sitting on this for so long. I, er, never noticed this part of your post.

So, yeah! This issue should be fixed now, again, sorry it took so long for me to get to it.

[ExcaliburV]

Hey, everyone. I have both good and bad news to share.

I lost my flash drive a few days ago, probably slipped out of my pocket while I had it on me. And because I’m an idiot and don’t update my backups nearly as much as I should, I basically lost nearly everything I had on my other WIP, but thankfully, Wasteland wasn’t hit that bad from this.

On the bright side, I was able to dig up the files hosted on Dashingdon and copy-paste everything back to new files on my computer, so hey, nothing really lost. And I wasn’t working on anything for a new update that was lost either, so hey, another win.

So yeah, Wasteland wasn’t affected very hard by this, thankfully; for the most part, I just wanted to mention this if only to explain why I might getting things done slower for a little bit. (slower than I usually get things done, anyways.) Without my flash drive, I won’t be able to work as often as I did, at least until I get a replacement.

[ExcaliburV]

Hey, everyone! I wanted to make a quick report and mention that I’ve been working on some of the rewrites I had in mind for chapter two. I’ve been forced to work on it in bits and pieces because of schoolwork, and I don’t really know when it’ll be ready, but I thought it’d be neat to mention some of the things I was going to change.

• I’ll be adding an entirely new scene where the MC interacts with one of the robots running the bastion. I thought it would be good to add, since the MC doesn’t get much one-to-one interaction with the machines (aside from B3), and it also gives me a chance to let you peeps raise/lower that Assimilation stat, since there’s very few times it gets affected at the moment.

• I wanted to basically rewrite and add onto the “scout the bastion” choice and make it its own scene. I feel like I could have done more with that.

• Rewriting some of the conversation with the benefactor in the cell to accommodate for the new scenes.

Basically, I wanted more interaction with the Bastion and the beings in it. I feel like that was kind of a huge missed opportunity in the first draft, and I want to explore it a bit more.

If you like, or hate, the sound of the changes, let me know! And if there’s anything else you might want added on or changed in a rewrite, please let me know. I’m always happy to listen to ideas.

[ExcaliburV]

Hey everyone! I, uhm, am mostly posting this so I can bump the thread and confirm that I am still working on stuff. Sorry it’s taking so long! Juggling some new RL stuff I have to deal with, and all. I appreciate the patience!

[Freja]

Don’t worry about it and take your time. We’ll wait as faithful readers. Hoping to hear about B3 anyways

[Gapaot]

I hope it continues because I love that peaceful route and B3 is a cute. Very cute. And I like your style of exposition - choices to explore + 1 moving forward option, then clear choices that shape stats. I really like being able to tell where I can explore and vocalize opinions and where to check stats and act on them.

[lynossa]

I like this story and your writing is good. I’m still in the middle of playing it but I have comment on the scene below.

Is it possible to add an option to be indifferent? I play as a covert specialist and my character is quite indifferent about many things (at least that is what I prefer) so these three options aren’t really suitable.

[ExcaliburV]

@Gapaot: I’m glad you like the style! I do try to have a pretty distinct difference between the exposition/relationship building scenes and the more action-y scenes. As long as it’s coming across well, I’m happy.

And yes. B3 is a cute.

@lynossa: I sure can. In fact, since that should only take a minute or two, I’ll get it done now while I’m thinking about it. I’ll @ you again when it’s done!

@lynossa Finished adding it in for ya!

[Gapaot]

Will there be romance option for B3? I mean, despite being robot, I’d like to be in a relationship.

[ExcaliburV]

What? A romance with B3? Don’t be ridiculous…

But yes. There absolutely will be.

[lynossa]

Thank you

I’m gonna play it again now