It must be embarrassing to survive your own suicide bomb. I mean, the one person it’s specifically meant to kill is the bomber, anyone else is an unfortunate bystander outside the definition of the device.
Well, Wasteland 2’s suicide monks had, on occasion, had just such an embarrassment. Before the latest patch the monks would explode after a critical hit but not taking any damage. This would “result in the enemy exploding in a giant explosion but still being alive.”
There’s much, much more that’s been fixed in the patch. Heck, the notes run to more than 4,300 words long.
The most significant change you’ll notice are the memory optimisations. They should improve performance on lower-spec systems and 32-bit operating systems.
There’s also been “extensive improvements and fixes to California questlines, particularly in Hollywood and Griffith Park.” You’ll need to load a save before Hollywood to see the full effect of the changes, though. These changes are likely a result of Inxile holding back the California section of the game from Early Access. Wasteland’s opening section was used as a testbed for the game’s systems but it also saw the quest’s ironed out and improved based on player feedback, the second section didn’t have that same level of inspection.
The rest of the changes are quite granular, things like support for “very large text” and loading screen messages.
Fraser was a big fan of Wasteland 2 when it was originally released, all these changes can only make the game better.
If you’d like to read the full patch notes I’ve copied them into the next page.
Wasteland 2 Patch 2 (58347) Release Notes
Highlights
– Large amount of memory optimizations, particularly with audio, to improve performance and stability on lower-spec systems and 32-bit operating systems.
– Fixed enemy “unlimited AP” movement bug that allowed them to sometimes move much farther than intended.
– Extensive improvements and fixes to California questlines, particularly in Hollywood and Griffith Park. May require you to load an older save file before Hollywood to fully benefit.
– Added a travel speed toggle to the world map, allowing you to zip and zoom around if you so please (doesn’t affect encounters, only travel speed).
– Custom portraits will now work correctly when Windows account username contains non-English characters.
– Added support for “Very Large” text.
– Added 50 messages to load screens containing gameplay hints and tips.
– Loading now continues when the game is tabbed out, and pauses after finishing.
– Further UI fixes and improvements, such as new and correctly used icons.
– Many localization updates and bug fixes across all languages.
Combat/Gameplay
– Capped move towards target for ranged AI by maximum movement range (this prevents enemies from moving too far in combat).
– Added a travel speed toggle on the world map. This new feature allows you to travel at approximately double speed to save time if you want to rush around the wasteland.
– Fix to prevent force attack from breaking when switching between normal and AoE weapons.
– Dismissing a CNPC via the character info menu will now transfer their inventory items to the party.
– Camera should now respect height field in combat to prevent “dips” and other issues when moving it around.
– Meson Cannon attack comes from the center of it, so you can’t hide under its barrel anymore.
– Fixed computers to not be active at start to prevent farming experience.
– Fixed some turning/facing oddities and bugs in combat.
– Lowered weight of rad suits to 1.0.
– Added camera pause when an NPC dies in combat.
– Added a new status effect for when you Animal Whisper a possum.
– It should no longer be possible to use Weaponsmithing before committing points in the skill.
– Adjusted tier 3 weapon drops to not have Meson Cannon drop at a higher rate than is intended.
– Fixed issue where some high level guards had too high of a critical hit chance.
– The encumbered status effect indicator will now be updated correctly if encumbrance is caused by a status effect that ends.
– Fixed improperly trying to unequip the primary weapon twice when being disarmed.
– Pain Relievers rank 3-6 take 4 AP to use now.
– Made Ag Center enemies immune to the Pod Infection.
– Removing a high capacity magazine now resets ammo count properly.
– Prevented suicide monks from exploding after a critical hit but not taking any damage. Would result in the enemy exploding in a giant explosion but still being alive.
– Set description of radiation suits level 3-6 to the display name.
– Now only teleport unconscious player characters to a combat square at the start of combat if they’re in the same combat bounds.
User Interface
– Added 50 new loading screen tooltips (some languages may not be supported yet).
– Added support for “Very Large” text.
– Switching characters with the right/middle mouse button while dragging an item will now cancel the current drag.
– Dropping an item on the “junk” tab should no longer leave the item floating attached to the button.
– The HUD should work correctly at 4K resolution.
– The inventory should once again use position data.
– Made the options menu taller. More options at once! How could you not want that?
– AoE weapon ranges should now be displayed correctly in the item info menu.
– Equipped items will never show up in the inventory regardless of registry settings.
– Equipped items will never show up in the trade screen.
– Changed main menu buttons so that their colliders match the text. This helps prevent misclicks when starting the game and clicking through the movies quickly.
– Fixed low resolution character portraits in character creation.
– Custom portraits should load at full resolution again.
– Pressing the enter/return key on the load screen will now attempt to load the last selected saved game, or the last hovered saved game if none has been selected.
– Added bounds checking for the inventory grid.
– Permanent corpses with lootable items now display the loot cursor.
– Status effect tooltips should be resized correctly at different resolutions.
– Fixed sprite positioning on loot menus.
– Spamming the spacebar on the popup inventory menu should no longer result in a null reference exception.
– Skill points counter in character screen will no longer blink if there are no points available.
– Local map merchant icons should no longer be rotated.
– Inventory items should no longer be sized incorrectly when they are equipped, then dragged back to the inventory, then dragged to an invalid container.
– Slightly rearranged the combat initiative display to avoid overlap.
– Text tooltips should now resize correctly regardless of resolution.
– Added tooltips to the radio buttons.
– Tooltip now shows stat values for party as well as enemies.
– CNPC-owned items can no longer be sold via the “Sell All Junk” button.
– The Burning status effect will now use the burn icon.
– Improved the Leg Wound icon.
– Improved the Blood Loss icon.
– The range info area of the item info menu will now appear just below the description label.
– Switching character gender will now change the character to a default portrait.
– The world map HUD will no longer accept keyboard input while loading.
– Updated the Point of Interest component on all the companion prefabs so they’ll show up in the scene map.
– Fix bug with radio conversation calling EndRadioCommunication() prematurely allowing the next call to start before conversation ended and leaving the player locked in the conversation UI.
– Added Ranger name tooltips to inventory and trade portrait buttons.
– Enemy mouseover tooltips should now be correctly updated when keybindings change.
– The world map Point of Interest popup background should now correctly resize at different aspect ratios.
– The dismiss button in the character info menu is now disabled for unconscious CNPCs.
– Added another check to prevent dead NPCs from displaying the cover icon.
– Added or adjusted attachment points for underbarrel laser mod for some energy weapons and revolvers.
– Tutorial messages are now hidden during cutscenes.
– Pulled some shenanigans with junk flagging to make junk items appear (or not) usefully in the vendor screen.
– Fixed negative number printing when item is removed from player’s inventory.
– The current player character of a hotkey button is now controlled by the hotkey bar.
Miscellaneous
– Custom portraits will now work correctly when Windows account username contains non-English characters.
– The game will now load levels when focus is lost, and pause correctly after loading. This lets you tab out of the game during loading and tab back when finished.
– Audio is no longer stored in a scene file to help reduce memory use.
– Deleted unused motion blur plugin.
– The game will no longer automatically take a picture of a new character during character creation.
– Chisel’s Pickles are no longer flagged as partyNoDrop. This should prevent them from being incorrectly transferred to the party when he is removed.
– Gibbed NPCs don’t re-appear when returning to them from fog of war.
– Moved radio calls into their own audio controller.
– Fixed a portrait bug on OpenGL.
– Removed unused projector textures from world maps (saves about 100 MB).
– Set HUD, conversation and radio sounds to 80 kbps to reduce memory use.
– Set ambient sounds to 96 kbps to reduce memory use.
– World map pop up panels died too soon, taking some sound effects with them. Those sound effects have been moved to a longer-lived parent transform to prevent them from ending prematurely.
– Several UI sounds weren’t properly flagged as 2D. They are now!
– Optimized dressing room (the character paperdoll scene in character creation/inventory) a bit.
– Improved settings for the terrain on both Arizona and California. Should provide less texture popping at the cost of performance.
– Fixed memory leaks with speech bubbles.
– Can no longer spam quickload on world map.
– The player should no longer be able to open the character info screen while combat is starting.
– Fixed up progress bar tick tooltips a bit.
– Added SickDog_AliveLoop to AC_FeralDog, and added logic for dogs to switch between them.
– Fixed close sound effect bad timing on inventory window.
– Adjusted SSAO settings to be slightly better performing.
– Kathy Lawson now sounds like a female when she dies.
– Removed a bad sound from the UI.
– Clothing items had no sound category assigned; fixed.
– Unified sound effects on item move in trade screen.
– Pause menu close sound effect was childed to the pause window when it closed, killing it before it could play. Gave it a better parent.
– Improved sounds for the new world map movement buttons.
– Fixed inventory and navigation button hover sounds on world map interface.
– Adjusted headshot UI hover sound to be in line with others on the UI.
– We now play a sound effect when function/F keys are used during conversations.
– Usable skill items should now be usable on self if the player character has the associated status effect.
– Fixed sun bias setting that was causing shadows on characters to be separated.
– Fixed grenade having a white graphics artifact on it when equipped to a Ranger.
– Adjustment to camera position during transitions.
Arizona
– Ranger Citadel: Adjusted lighting to improve performance in the Citadel interior.
– Ranger Citadel: Smudged out some fog of war blockers in the map so they don’t block anymore.
– Ranger Citadel: Trying to sell junk to Dr. Tidemann in Ranger Citadel will no longer result in message spam.
– Ranger Citadel: Vargas cutscene will not play if attacking Mercaptain.
– Ranger Citadel: Fixed an issue wherein Rose complained about betraying Jan even though she was dead.
– Ranger Citadel: Fixed an issue wherein Vargas did not correctly acknowledge the state of the Highpool irrigation system.
– Ranger Citadel: Angela should properly disappear after leaving the party in the Canyon.
– Ranger Citadel: Fixed a very rare blocker bug preventing the player from traveling to California, which occurred when the player’s party was too far away from Vargas while he walked to the helicopter.
– Highpool: Changed Bryan to Mark in a logbook entry to correctly reflect his new name.
– Highpool: Added additional logbook entry for Jess-Belle quest.
– Highpool: Quest to help Jess-Belle now resolves if the tunnels flood prior to obtaining her dowry.
– Highpool: Fixed an issue wherein Jess-Belle would add empty logbook entries.
– Highpool: Irrigation logbook entry now resolves if the underground pipes burst.
– Highpool: Fixed an issue wherein a conversation would start with Bergin even though he was not visible.
– Highpool: Fixed an issue wherein Vargas would speak to a deceased Kathy Lawson.
– Highpool: Will now reverts to the destroyed state if Jackhammer is not dealt with prior to leaving.
– Highpool: The automatic conversation with Bergin upon exiting the crane will not occur if the pipes quest has been failed.
– Highpool: House on fire logbook entries now resolve if the pipe system fails.
– Highpool: Fixed Vulture’s Cry not joining the party after using Kate’s key.
– Highpool: Fixed an issue wherein PoleAxe did not play his death animation if 1-shot by a rocket.
– Highpool: Destroyed version didn’t have level music set, so it was retaining the loading level music and then losing music after combat ended since it didn’t know what to replace it with. Fixed so now music plays correctly.
– Highpool: Kate will now resume walking to the mayor’s office following a save/load.
– Ag Center: Fixed an issue wherein Julio would not acknowledge the rangers if they Animal Whispered all three rabbits attacking him.
– Ag Center: Fixed a chest that was intangible upon using Brute Force.
– Ag Center: Added vine blocker sounds to obstruction in Central Basement.
– Ag Center: “Mushroom Caves” will no longer appear as a keyword.
– Ag Center: Fixed a bug where the wrong logbook entry was used when Ag Center was saved after visiting destroyed Highpool.
– Rail Nomads Camp: Injured Topekan will now be found by Topekan patrols if the Rangers visit the Atchison camp and give Casey the Golden Spike.
– Rail Nomads Camp: Gorkinovich no longer says Sammy Haas is in the bar after he’s gone.
– Rail Nomads Camp: Rail Thief quest now resolves if Kekkahbah is unwilling to talk.
– Rail Nomads Camp: Prevented Ralphy from going into cutscene if he is encumbered.
– Rail Nomads Camp: Fixed an issue wherein Elder Cole did not join in combat alongside Mrs. Parker.
– Rail Nomads Camp: Added new art for V-8 Interceptor.
– Rail Nomads Camp: Added skill check when examining V-8 Interceptor.
– Rail Nomads Camp: Fixed a cutscene lock up issue with Ralphy and Jessie if Ralphy was unconscious.
– Rail Nomads Camp: Fixed bug where Gorkinovich had 8 blunt weapons for sale instead of 1.
– Prison: Fixed a collider not allowing clicking on a grid space in combat.
Prison: Baychowski will no longer show up if you haven’t attached at least one Repeater Unit in the game.
– Prison: Fixed some nav grid issues.
– Prison: Added higher-resolution normal maps that look less blotchy.
– Canyon of Titan: Removed mesh renderers and mesh filters from colliders that aren’t needed. Removed colliders from similar objects that also aren’t needed. Set many material colliders to static.
– Canyon of Titan: Added bark timer delay to Brother Chavez to prevent barks from appearing when they shouldn’t.
– Canyon of Titan: Put a couple camera focus calls for the Bridewell scene where she shoots Brother Shapiro.
– Canyon of Titan: Gave Jill Yates a more appropriate portrait.
– Canyon of Titan: Barrels near some honey badgers now can be used as cover.
– Canyon of Titan: Swapped out some fire effects around the level.
– Temple of Titan: Fixed an issue wherein you could only purchase items from Dale once.
– Temple of Titan: Fixed an issue wherein DBM Grunt would not resume his idle animation after the Rangers open the gate leading into the Temple.
– Temple of Titan: Fixed typo in Dr. Sidney Kyle’s dialog.
– Temple of Titan: Fixed some storage chests in the hospital pointing the wrong direction.
– Temple of Titan: Fixed broken keywords with Father Enola in the Temple jail.
– Temple of Titan: Fixed fog of war map by clearing rooms with pillar issues.
– Temple of Titan: Moved start point back to entrance area.
– Temple of Titan: Bridewell now uses the correct sex/equipment/AI template.
– Temple of Titan: Fixed drama bug where $Intro was being set as the new keyword label each time when you talked to one of your CNPCs near Dan Q.
– Damonta: Werewolf Wally should now always drop his key to the gate nearby when he dies.
– Damonta: Red shouldn’t accuse you of harming Rick unless you did.
– Damonta: Rick shouldn’t be described as being freed from the brig unless you did it.
– Damonta: Fixed typo when talking to Hopi.
– Damonta: Rick is a coward, so when combat was ordered, he effectively declined to get into the fight. Modified his script so he won’t be a coward for the Damonta fight.
– Damonta: Fixed an issue wherein Rick Baychowski was visible simultaneously in the brig.
– Damonta: Fixed area transition globes.
– Damonta: Binh’s Basket shouldn’t reappear on successive loads.
– Damonta: Now uses the Arizona loading screen.
– Damonta: Added a display name for the plane cockpit door.
– Damonta: Added some checks to prevent a door barking when Rick is dead.
– Damonta: Switched out some fire effects around the level.
– Wrecking Crew Stronghold: Fixed a bad nav grid causing enemies to clip through a bridge.
– Darwin’s Village: Jan no longer starts conversation with you if she hates you; added text to explain this better.
– Darwin’s Village: Fixed crazy issue where Pizepi Joren wouldn’t show up if the plague status effect was removed after a flag to make her visible again was set.
– Darwin’s Village: Changed the glass rooms to not look as bad.
– Darwin’s Village: Increased the resolution of the brick normal maps
– Darwin’s Village: Smudged out areas on the fog of war map to reveal because you can see through them anyways.
– Infected Village: Added barks to NPCs after they are released from the jail.
– Abandoned Railway: Now uses Arizona loading screen.
– Genache Mysterious Shrine: Added computer display name and portrait.
– World Map: Quarex radio call will no longer trigger if Quarex has recieved the CDi. Sorry Quarex!
– World Map: Added Provost voice over to his radio message.
– Arizona Random Map 3: Lowered building that was blocking the camera.
California
– Added descriptors and logbook resolutions for investigating Team Foxtrot and the threat.
– Santa Fe Springs: Reduced oversized textures.
– Santa Fe Springs: Added missing steam vent sounds.
– Santa Fe Springs: Fixed an issue wherein the Rangers are snapped outside of the radio room during combat.
– Rodia: Changed log book entries to be written with “we” and “us” instead of “you”.
– Rodia: Logbook entries for warning Dante have been updated to reflect when Dengler shows up at his house.
– Rodia: Fixed examine text for certain objects in the distillery.
– Rodia: Fixed a typo for “withdrink” when speaking to Dengler.
– Rodia: Added more descriptions for the sewer pipe and the ladder that leads to the surface.
– Rodia: Changed the graphic for the sewer pipe to reflect locked and unlocked states.
– Rodia: Added ability to Brute Force sewer pipe.
– Rodia: Removed ability to unlock sewer pipe from inside the sewer and added a description to clarify why.
– Rodia: Fixed a rogue cash register in the hospital.
– Rodia: Added in fix for broken microscope quest. Should work with old saves that were broken.
– Rodia: Keywords for Dante no longer show up if Beatrice is locked in his shed. This prevents battle cutscenes from playing when they shouldn’t.
– Rodia: Added in new logbook details for when Patt the Axe and Ulric are killed.
– Rodia: Added disinfectant to the well after telling Horchata that you did will now show a different logbook entry that doesn’t mention talking to Horchata.
– Rodia: Fixed typo in one of the mayor’s guards.
– Rodia: Added new logbook entry for killing Satan before finding out who he was.
– Angel Oracle: Can now correctly put the radio parts back in the radio receiver following a save/load.
– Angel Oracle: Added backwards compatibility fix for Rangers that stole the radio parts before key radio calls were triggered.
– Angel Oracle: Mr. Manners will now allow the Rangers into the radio room even if the radio parts have been rudely stolen.
– Angel Oracle: Fixed an issue wherein talking to Dr. Edwinson did not progress the Blisterpaw Cure quest. It will now be possible to continue the quest by speaking to Edwinson or Horchata.
– Angel Oracle: Fixed an issue wherein the execution could not be resumed after leaving the Oracle (after interrupting Mr. Manners twice).
– Angel Oracle: Fog of war will clear near the commons during the execution sequence.
– Angel Oracle: Glenn Goa no longer barks if the radio is hacked after the Repeater Units have been installed.
– Angel Oracle: Added Lockpick option to explosive crates.
– Angel Oracle: Fixed missing audio controller name.
– Hollywood: Fixed a bug that allowed players to repeatedly turn in a quest with Raji.
– Hollywood: Fixed missing examine text on Rambeau’s shop door.
– Hollywood: Matthias will now give the Rangers level 6 rad suits to better aid in his quest.
– Hollywood: Fixed Broken Man quest not resolving properly.
– Hollywood: Fixed Heidi being killed by pigs during the cemetery encounter (she now always escapes properly).
– Hollywood: Fixed Heidi showing up in her Hideaway after being killed by said pigs.
– Hollywood: After betraying Veronica, the player can no longer persuade characters to vote for her.
– Hollywood: Fixed Ma Brown quest not getting closed out if you killed her.
– Hollywood: Fixed Manny not taking the chip suitcase for his quest.
– Hollywood: Billy now has 12,000 Scrap in his inventory after giving it to him.
– Hollywood: Ratboy’s “All Items” trade tab should actually show all items correctly.
– Hollywood: Fixed flickering rug in Rambeau’s shop.
– Hollywood: Fixed Heidi describing Veronica positively after she fires her.
– Hollywood: Fixed Heidi’s quest being updated with a useless logbook entry.
– Hollywood: Fixed Flo not voting for Veronica after Schwag’s dead.
– Hollywood Sewers: Fixed Sensuari not appearing correctly in salt lab.
– Hollywood Sewers: Fixed cutscene with Heidi and Sensuari playing when it shouldn’t.
– Griffith Park: Fixed McDade’s two quests conflicting in a cut scene.
– Griffith Park: Added text so hostile NPCs after McDade takes over make more sense.
– Griffith Park: Correctly disabled a spawner for Heidi that was a causing her to reappear even after being killed.
– Griffith Park: Fixed one of McDade’s lines.
– Griffith Park: Fixed an issue with McDade hiding too soon.
– Griffith Park: Added journal entry for Veronica and McDade’s peace treaty quest.
– Griffith Park: Fixed a logbook entry being updated after the quest was over, leading to confusion.
– Griffith Park: Fixed quest to retake the Bastion not updating correctly when McDade and Veronica are killed.
– Griffith Park: Meson Cannon will now be set to friendly after siding with Retribution Jones. Previously it was still hostile.
– Griffith Park: Made killing Jones after he takes control of Griffith/Hollywood make more sense via some new text.
– Griffith Park: Fixed up Retribution Jones’ examination/description to be less confusing.
– Griffith Park: Fix for not being able to identify the Broken Man correctly if the player put him in charge before talking to Veronica.
– Griffith Park: Fixed Heidi disappearing in the cemetery if McDade was put in charge – should have only happened if Jones was in charge.
– Griffith Park: Prevented a bug allowing players to get the same quest reward from Retribution Jones multiple times.
– Griffith Park: Fixed barks appearing during cutscenes.
– Griffith Park: Fixed Veronica’s quest not closing out once Jones took over.
– Griffith Park: Fixed Billy quest ending if Lam was dead.
– Griffith Park: Fixed a bug with Jones’ knights not joining combat when they should have been.
– Griffith Park: Fixed McDade barking when he shouldn’t after Jones is killed.
– Seal Beach: Added descriptors to Seal Beach computer access doors.
– Seal Beach: Added a fog of war revealer to prevent breaking line of sight exploit when in cover during a certain fight.
– Seal Beach Underground: Fixed an issue allowing player to unintentionally bypass an important combat encounter.
– Seal Beach Underground: Fixed some fog of war issues.
– Endgame: Fixed an issue with cover on a wall.
– Endgame: Removed excess audio controllers.
– Long Beach: Revealing Seal Beach will not happen twice now in conversation.
– Culver City Brothel: Fixed player being able to walk through a wrecked car.
– World Map: Fletcher’s Hideout and L.A. Aqueduct will now remain visible on the world map.
– Clerc Shrine: Rebuilt navmesh because height mesh was not turned on, so the Rangers were floating.
Text/Localization
– Localization updates across all languages.
– Skill item tooltip instructions (i.e. “Right-click to use”) should now be capitalized correctly.
– Fix to correctly handle naked keyword (no ) with label assignment, e.g. “Goodbye=Out”, so that it generates “Out” for the English text instead of “Goodbye=Out”.
– Changed “Ranger” to “Party Member” for Speaker Name of cmd.sayRanger.
– Additional improvements for localization output so additional strings can be properly localized.
– Updated fonts to include Korean character sets.
– Removed specific Korean font that was no longer used.
– Fixed bug that removed speaker name for party members.
– Cleared the PRETRANSLATED_MARK from keybinding display text.
– Changed the ammo display name setup to use localization-friendly TextBuilder.
– Removed erroneous localization tags (!) from a number of strings.
– Added a real line for Lexcanium’s rejoin.
– Added a less insulting snarky message when setting off a perceived trap.
– Fixed misspelling of “Tooltip”.
– Fixed misspelling of “HoneyDew Lewis”.
– Fixed several instances of “desert Rangers” vs. “Desert Rangers”.
– Fixed Empty Sludge Container grammatical issue.
– Fixed “ordinance” -> “ordnance” typo.
– Fixed missing space in various “PoleAxe” strings.
– Fixed “Cannibal” -> “Cannibals” typo.
– Fixed missing word in several copies of a string, making it the same as another correct existing string, so no new string generated.
Epilogue
– CNPCs should now correctly have text in the epilogue when they sacrifice themselves.
– Added an epilogue for Hopi/Magee in Damonta.
– Fixed some names of locations for epilogue.
– Fixed logic issue with Rodia if you killed Virgil and he’s mentioned in the epilogue.