Finding this Very Difficult

[AccelExhilar]

I don't understand how people find this game not hard, I was doing pretty decently after many reloads with what I believe is a good team (including angela) good spread of attributes high initiative varied weapons ect. I finally made it up to the point after you shutoff the second pump valve and killed the boss. He soaked up almost all my ammo I had left, so then I go to run back to the base and I see 2 pod people. Ok that doesn't seem bad right? Wrong, there were atleast 6 pod people I ended up having to take them mostly out with melee with non-melee party members having them explode in my whole parties face one after another. What the hell could I have been expected to do at this point in the game, after fighting your way past already a level full of enemies and a 100hp boss fight, the game throws 6 pod people at me at once? Good grief... I had even already bought out the medical supplies from the vendor and used them throughout the level, so now I have 4 party members with no health, cannot buy medical bags because the vendor is disabled and rose is dead (not really concerned about that)

[Biscuitism]

100 HP ain't nothin'. Honestly, your squadmates turning into pod people is pretty common. You just have to manage the best you can. Keep your distance, pick priority targets, and make sure you have a good healer with adequate supplies.

On the subject of HP, by the way, you'll come across normal human enemies that have 125+ HP. The bigger robots even more so. I'm going to give you a piece of advice that contains a small, but non-lore, spoiler. Robots are probably one of the hardest enemies to kill during the Arizona half of the game. I'll still be a decent person and spoiler it. You've got a giant-ass robot that you'll come across eventually. During the Beta it had about 1,000 HP, I think. I was lucky that my team wasn't wiped out. Armor and a good healer saved my ass.

[AccelExhilar]

Originally posted by Biscuitism:

100 HP ain't nothin'. Honestly, your squadmates turning into pod people is pretty common. You just have to manage the best you can. Keep your distance, pick priority targets, and make sure you have a good healer with adequate supplies.

On the subject of HP, by the way, you'll come across normal human enemies that have 125+ HP. The bigger robots even more so. I'm going to give you a piece of advice that contains a small, but non-lore, spoiler. Robots are probably one of the hardest enemies to kill during the Arizona half of the game. I'll still be a decent person and spoiler it. You've got a giant-ass robot that you'll come across eventually. During the Beta it had about 1,000 HP, I think. I was lucky that my team wasn't wiped out. Armor and a good healer saved my ass.

I can understand that fine later in the game there are higher HP enemies that's fine because you also gain HP and better gear while you level up so I could handle that, but im talking about the first mission hub in the game lol. This isn't a "be stocked up" scenario I'm in either because I mentioned I already bought out the medical supplies from the vendor and used them through the level fighting rabbits, wasps and pod people and the boss fight lol... My issue is with the timeing of the next event which triggered just after fighting my way through all that crap then on the way back it's bam 6 pod people one right after another...

It MIGHT have still been OK at this point if I had been able to reserve enough ammo to deal with them but it was gone the vendor in this area didnt sale any I know because I tried to buy some before I set out and when I got back... That's mostly how my team got damaged also by checking crates for ammo but about a quarter of them were trapped...

[Karma Ω]

if i remember correctly, the medical supplies respawn - so go back to the vendor and buy some more packs. i didn't do that but i am pretty sure it works.

in general, i agree with you - it's a challenge (i basically JUST beat the boss) but it's a fair challenge. good luck.

PS - worst case scenario start the game over and likely you will do things better the second time.

[Krutsi]

There are less obvious paths you can take during the early game which completely trivialize difficulty through giving you access to better weaponry and more squad members.

That said even without doing this, if you have done a powergaming build with your 4 starting members there really is no challenge in the game. The CLASSIC system is horribly unbalanced, one minmaxed character is nearly as good as two balanced ones.

[Moon Punisher]

It all falls down to how well made is your team i guess.

Honestly , i didnt find the game itself hard , but im finding hard as hell keep up skill wise.

I gave each char of mine only one weapon skill and even then i find myself missing some skills.

Truth be told i gave every single member of my squad only 4 INT.

[Zeon08]

It's a point of a game, be ready for everything. it's not really hard if you know what are you doing.

[DeadlyAlbatross]

No, in fact this game is rather shoddily balanced combat-wise and item-wise.
And then the devs get to blame the 'improper difficulty issues' on 'scrubs who can't play', and that's not fair.

Thing is, the game didn't make it to the 'good honest difficulty' drawer, but made it to 'idiotic unforeshadowed unbalanced difficulty' drawer instead.
Gimping your character in Fallout 2 is nothing compared to what Wasteland 2 has to offer and we should see it for what it is.

On the OP subject -- no, the robot is not a fair challenge and the whole location could be done better, but what aggravates everything is the combat system that quite litreally doesn't give you any opportunity to use ammo wisely or non-wisely, or any real alternative as to conserving it, unless you are seriously minmaxing.
So no, the game is bad and as far as I can see it hasn't gotten any better since its release. Good luck to you, kickstarter backers.

[|$m0k!n|-Mr. 4HyDe-]

It kind of sounds like you are playing on a higher difficulty, than you really should be at this point, but sometimes the game is also really messed up.

The game is actually pretty easy if you know what you are doing, but it takes quite a long time to learn and realize that by yourself and that's really too much, but sometimes you'll learn a lot by trying to overcome the difficulties, but if it becomes too much of a hassle there is very little to do about it, except trying again with a different build, again and again until you get it right. That's very taxing, frustrating and extremely player-hostile. There are lots of suggestions around here on party-builds and so on, that will enable you to overcome that learning curve much faster.

In the Beta you could sort of fix your 'mistakes' by the use of Mysterious Shrines that gave you Atribute points. I really don't understand why they dropped that nice playerfriendly design, but considering how much punishment this game packs I guess it was probably too nice..

[Sentient_Toaster]

Demolitions is mandatory if you intend to use containers, Perception is helpful but not mandatory since you can attempt to disarm a trap even if you haven't perceived it.

You may have wasted ammunition on unlikely, longer-range shots -- it can be better to drop behind a corner and reserve AP for overwatch, to encourage the enemy to spend AP to approach you and then to guarantee that it's in a better range and not behind cover. Depending on enemy health you may want to allow multiple rangers on overwatch -- but this is wasteful if a a single shot will drop the enemy.

If you're low on ammo vs. pod people, you can melee them *mostly* to death, back up a few tiles, and shoot them. They don't explode until the kill shot, after all.

Oh, and explosives are nicely reliable even for beginning characters -- 100% accuracy.

[Frost]

I enjoy having a hard game. You actually see consequences. Perfect. If you struggle, build a better party. My gunner + sniper probably take out 90% of the enemies (and angelas last name should be deAth - she kills everything).

[Gregorovitch]

Just wondering, OP, what specific weapons models you were using? What sort of assult rifle was Angie using for example. The boss fight is tough (unless you use a few explosives) but the pod people are pretty easy if you tackle thm the right way 'cos they're slow and easily picked off as they approach - unless of course you run out of ammo and this seems to be your problem really. If you upgrade you weapons they do a lot more damage for the same number of bullets.

[|$m0k!n|-Mr. 4HyDe-]

The economy in the first half of the game is really based on the use of Weaponsmithing to use Strip for Parts on Weapons and selling the Broken Weapon Parts to the Trader inside the Ranger Citadel who pays a hefty sum for them.

[Flyboy Connor]

I have to agree with the OP that the boss fight in the AG Center, FOLLOWED by being attacked by 6 pod people, is pretty unfair. On my first playthrough, on Normal, this seriously bugged me. I mean, the AG Center slurps up ammo, and does not dole out much of it, and overwhelms you with enemies without you being able to restock (as the only merchant in the AG Center has very little in his inventory, and if you leave, the AG Center gets destroyed).

After your first playthrough, once you KNOW what to expect, it becomes much, much easier. I think the AG Center is one of the more interesting quests (and I play on Ranger), simply because it requires thoughtful planning even for an experienced player.

As a consolation, those 6 pod people are the last enemies that you have to deal with in the AG Center, and after that the game becomes much easier. If you are currently stuck at those 6 pod people without ANY ammo, I would reload an earlier save and try again from there. If you still have some ammo and/or explosives, then hide behind the fence and let the pod people come to you. It takes them a long time to reach you and you should be able to take them out from a distance.

[Sir Crashalot]

The first playthrough of this game can be very brutal and unforgiving, it can be frustrating but it is also a little refreshing to have a game that is a complete and utter bastard. :)

[kdodds]

One of many thing that has stayed true to the original WL. There really is no optimal "party build". And, honestly, once I hear people going on about this build or that build from PnP RPGs down to party CRPGs, I stop listening. Because when you start talking about "builds" you stop talking about roleplaying and start talking about mathematics. Digressing too much... It's stayed true to the original game in that you can succeed with any build because it's not about builds, it's about characters, party, and tactics. If you're finding it overly difficult, going back to roleplaying, you don't necessarily need to "adjust your build" or "change your playstyle". Put yourself in the role and play the characters.

That said, playing through early access, the Ag Center was WAY more difficult than Highpool if you chose it first. I have tried that yet post-release, but I can't imagine it's changed that much from pre-release.