Getting the most out of wasteland

this is a simple guide to how to get the most fun out of wastland.

How to begin (A few suggestions from the author)

When you first start, I highly recommend reading this guide, of course, but staying FAR away from walkthroughs, etc, or even heavy spoilers. Part of the real, strange charm of this game, IS experiencing it. Its never as much fun to see it after having already heard about it. yes the game is weird. Enjoy and embrace that fact. Now a few suggestions.

1. Don't be afraid to mess around with parties, try out new stats, or outright just walk into the heavily radiated desert and fall over dead. The best way in many cases to learn how to play this game is get the basics, then learn by doing.

2. Don't expect it to be like fallout or wasteland 2.
Well it does have similarities, it's about the same as comparing an apple, to apple juice. tastes pretty much the same, but you would never mistake one for the other. You might end up disliking the game especially, if you have your expectations to high...as with 3..

3. remember the time and era this game was made in. "the experimental phase of gaming". It's not bad, odd, strange, a bit..well experimental yes. Some design choices are of course antiquated, but keep in mind, there have been almost 30 years, since this game was made

4. (from the manual) "IMPORTANT: Wasteland is a dynamic game and it’s very important that you understand how it saves and keeps track of the time. The game changes as you play and updates changes to the disk permanently. If you take an item, it won’t be resurrected just because you leave and return.".
....Little old, but i hope you understand what i mean.
Now onto the basic basics

your life starts now. the plot, charecters, and basics. (aka how to do ANYTHING)

http://wasteland.wikia.com/wiki/Wasteland_manual

That. right there. will save you so much time, trouble, and heart ache. the game WAS MEANT to be played with that manual. why the game on steam doesn't just come with that as a pdf file or the original manual or something, is well beyond me. The most important to sections to read if you ask me, are the commands, and the parts about recruiting allies.

The most important incredibly basic basics

save every item you can. you never know when you'll need it.

Constitution = health
You will want to rank up by radioing to command when ever you can. as those +2 "constitution" quickly build up, and make your time a lot. lot easier.

Equipping weapons
(this is meant to be done a characters inventory screen)
"unEquip: To equip an item so it’s ready to use, press E. If you use this while you’re already equipped, the chosen item will replace the previously-equipped item. You can only have one type of armor and one type of weapon equipped at any given time. The weapon you equip shows up in the onscreen statistics below WEAPON. When a piece of armor is properly equipped, your armor class reflects the change." (thanks wiki)

the base characters are NOT the best
...That simple. If you take some time and set up your squad well, you will almost certainly have a better group then the base team, unless your stat rolls fall flat always. just remember to keep your party well rounded. as a party with more then one person who does -blank- is rarely a good thing

The leveling system: There is no simple "you beat a monster, level up +4 hp,". the leveling up system in this game is done by radioing in to command, and having your rank raised when you have enough exp. This is the best way to gain stats, of course, as you get two constitution, and two attribute points to apply as you choose.

Disbanding Intended use: This allows to break up your team. If a person is dead and just dragging the team down, or hes much faster, and may be able to run to town, and get life saving treatment, without being bogged down by his team.. Real use: break up the team, and all the exp from that group of monsters goes to just that guy,

save: What's that? why do I bring up such a simple feature as saving? Because if you save to often, or to rarely, you WILL regret it. you may risk saving at the time where you are trapped in a fail state, no matter what you do, Or you may die, and go back two hours. Saving when you know you are safe, and taking time to take a moment to make sure you are now and then, can really help make the game not come back to bite you in the butt.

Your medic: You my friend, are a heavy. He may not have a medigun or an ubersaw, but bandages and combat knives will have to do. the person in your squad who is a medic can be a god send. You can easily access his skills from selecting the use skill, after selecting him. Simple eh?

(more to be added very soon)

A quick FAQ

Q: I bought the sequel, why is this so little like that?
A: about 30 years between the release of wasteland 1 and 2. Simple as that. Things changed a lot.

Q: Is it true that this inspired fallout?
A: More or less, Brian fargo later went on to create the lovely fallout series, and the game had many simularities. Though ofcourse fallout is a very diffrent game.

Q: what does ENC mean?
A: Enc: Simulate an Encounter. This calls up combat commands, which you can use to initiate combat or use the Hire command to hire a non-player character into your party.

Q: Can I mod wasteland?
A: Yes and no. The oldest mods are just lost to time, as most of them were on very early inXile forums, and a lot of them just have been lost, or are so old they're more or less both incompatible to the new updated game, and to any current operating system. if you feel like hunting through the NEW inXile forums, with their mods, I have seen several threads for them, but not as much as you might expect.

Q: the cursor is hard to control, won't respond, is floaty ETC. Please help!
A: the only other guide on steam about wasteland is for fixing this very issue, if that doesn't work, I reccomend temporarily lowering/raising mouse sensitivity, untill you find a point you feel comfortable.

Q: I keep dieing, Is there an easy mode?
A: There is an easy mode, it's called HAVE SOME GUTS!... Ok no, more seriously, the game was developed in a time when your game would be hard as heck, slightly non-sensicle, and take trial and error, or else one of two things happened, either you were looked as to easy or your game was to short and easily beaten. atleast for rpgs.

Q: Why is this so gosh darn weird!
A: This man went on to make Fallout. I don't see a need to say another word farther.

Q;-insert gibbering profanity of rude madness, or other things found in the more rude steam comments-
A: Yes, I to love cthulu.

Q: Why are you such a crass, painfully straight to the point, hater of every one who doesn't respect old games, nastalgic, curt, self loving, jerk?
Q: Why are you the best person who ever has lived and made a guide on steam?
A: I have no clue, Just born that way I guess!

Hopefully helpful?

Hey I can hope right? If you found the guide helpful, I'm glad. rate it a few stars, be on your way, or stay here, raise a family, get married, who am I to judge?

~Lamron.

[STAHP]

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[steely111]

I tried to play Alone in the Dark recently only to realize I didn't know how to run and you get attacked soon after the first screen. Instant game over. If you're playing a game from the mid-90s or earlier, make sure to use the manual lol. That extra bit of reading will save you a lot of time.

[the t]

the manuel is included by Steam. Just go and check the game file: under ''Extras''. Also in this file you get all the animated portraits :D

[Harry]

Also, I am a huge Bard's Tale Trilogy fan, and wondered if you have done a guide for that?

[Harry]

I enjoyed reading your guide. It made me chuckle, and I liked how you just gave enough info so that the player can understand the basics without getting told everything about the game (which I hate in guides as I like discovering things for myself).

[erikszpyra]

I played this game when it came out, it had a big effect on me, glad to see people still playing, I re-play it every few years, never gets old, thank you for the new guide.

[TheUsedMisfit]

awesome guide, hope to see more soon:D

[danbosonline]

Very nice info indeed as I played it years ago in dos, and I also played dos games in dos 2.1 on a microsoft pc junior. some of those dos games where super hard to play in the 1980's

[Foxstorm_rage]

already knowing how to play dnd is a huge help for this game as well

[ODR]

Thank you so much! Was afraid I would miss out on a lot of things/give up playing it, becasue I didn't have the right information. The game just starts and says nothing...