Behold... a pale rider in the distance and it tolls a bell, but for whom doth it tolleth its bell for? Forsooth! It tolleth its bell for thee... You sick bastards. From day one you've been clamoring for us to bring permadeath back to Wasteland, and well, here you go. Have fun watching your Rangers squirm in the snow choking on their own digital blood... reaching up to you through the screen, asking for help. But you can't help them. Or you could but you choose not to. Maybe their evasion was just a little too low a little too often. Maybe if you hadn't thought they couldn't possibly take that much damage in a single turn. Or maybe you kept them standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whatever, pour one out and say a little prayer. They're dead. Of course, permadead Rangers aren't the only thing we cooked up in this patch. Scope the highlights below for the meatiest chunks of info in our newest iteration of Wasteland 3, Patch 1.3.3 "Death & Taxes." P.S. Hang onto yer butts, plenty more to come this year! Colorado is just getting warmed up.

Wasteland 3 Patch 1.3.3 "Death & Taxes"

Highlights

• Permadeath
  • Permanent Death (aka Permadeath) is here to challenge your sanity. This is an optional mode that can only be enabled when starting a new game.
  • If enabled, your squad members will be permanently killed if their Downed timer during combat expires. Once theyre dead, theyre dead forever. How death normally works.
  • Permadeath is a single player-only mode.
• Difficult Skills Checks
  • Difficult Skill Checks is here to challenge your squad-building prowess. This is an optional mode that can only be enabled when starting a new game.
  • If enabled when starting a new game, all Skill, Attribute, and Perception checks are increased by +2 over their base value (up to a max of 10). This applies to in-world interactions, conversations, and equipment requirements.
  • We recommend this only for veteran players who want an extra challenge that puts their squad optimization to the test.
• Retraining
  • You can now respec your squad members to reallocate their Attributes, Skills, and Perks!
  • While at Ranger HQ, a new Retrain option is available in the Manage Squad screen, which refunds all points to be spent again. This excludes unique gameplay bonuses such as Cyborg Tech and the Tarjan Machine perks, and any Quirks chosen at character creation.
  • Retraining characters has a cost which is shared with Recruiting new Rangers.
• Recruitment Cost
  • Recruiting at Ranger HQ now incurs a cost that is shared with Retraining.
  • The cost is waived for the first two Rangers recruited from Ranger HQ.
  • The Recruitment/Retrain cost starts at $200 and increases 1.75x (rounded to the nearest $50) with each use, up to a maximum of $3000.
• New Character Customization Options
  • Since youll need to start a new game to turn on permadeath and difficult skill checks, we have 23 new character customization options to use including helmets, masks, makeup, scars, and tattoos are available.
  • Multiple helmets were designed alongside renowned post-apocalyptic costume designers for this update. Check inXile-entertainment.com for photos and info.
• Additional Crash and Performance Fixes
  • Weve been continually working to improve stability on systems with low amounts of memory (older consoles, primarily) and this update resolves one of our most impactful issues. For those of you experiencing crashes after longer play sessions, wed love for you to give this update a try and let us know if it resolved your issue. If not, wed also like to hear from you on the inXile forums so we can continue to make improvements.
  • Weve taken a pass at textures across the game to either reduce or increase texture sizes to create a more consistent memory footprint. This should result in slightly more even performance.
  • Additional misc. changes and fixes that should result in overall improved stability.
• [PC] Added voice chat options to enable Push to Talk, show microphone input source, manage volume, or disable it entirely. The Push to Talk key can be customized in keyboard bindings.

Gameplay

• Game options now have descriptive text in case our very intelligently named options werent clear enough.
• Fixed the Poindexter quirk for Rangers recruited from HQ. Theyll now correctly receive their bonus skill points as intended NERDS.
• Resolved an issue with the bonus Hit Chance from Leadership not increasing correctly as its leveled up.
• We just made the Hoon Homestead always available from the world map regardless of choices and progression. So that better fix it.
• We screwed up the intercom before Vic and now we have unscrewed it.
• Resolved a softlock that could occur while arresting Vic.
• Fixed an issue where you sometimes couldnt save the game after a combat where you hacked a robot or tamed an animal. How does that even happen? Who knows. Well, someone does, just not me. Making games sounds hard.
• Fixed an issue with the Pyromaniac Quirk catching you on fire with elemental damage types other than Fire and Explosive.
• Fixed an issue where the pre-order bonus Colorado Survival Gear items could disappear from the inventory. Did you really pre-order, though? Maybe not. Feels like that was 20 years ago. Its hard to remember.
• Rally will now properly apply to squad members that are at a different elevation.
• Double-dipping into two containers at the same time, where one requires a skill check to open, will no longer cause loot to disappear.
• Fixed a quest progression issue with King Cordite, reported by Ralph. Thanks Ralph!
• The quest One of Us can now be correctly completed if you have Ironclad Cordite in your party.
• Fixed a quest progression issue during "Heads or Tails" when a creature is tamed during combat and then runs away. Story of my life.
• Fixed an issue where the last character in combat killing themselves would make it so you couldnt end your turn.
• Using the Brainwave Destabilizer on enemies in the Clown Museum no longer breaks their animations. Maybe though just shoot the horrifying clown people before they get too close?
• Fixed a quest progression issue with Hard Knox Life when loading specific saves.
• Llewellyns shit had gone missing and was un-interactable. We found the shit and have re-added the shit so you can interact with the shit again now.
• Fixed an issue where the Optilaser 9000 couldnt be used if your weapon was out of ammo or you had melee equipped.
• Fixed an issue where getting Vic to join the Rangers and then cancelling out of the Manage Squad screen would make it impossible to add him later. But why would you do that? Add him immediately, its hilarious and terrible.
• Fixed an issue with Close Call perk causing nitrogen, oil, and explosive tanks to sometimes not explode when attacked.
• The Call to Action mission is no longer able to be completed more than once.
• Mortar Blast now uses the correct amount of AP.
• Rangers at max level (35) no longer level up when receiving the requisite XP. Can you imagine if life stopped at 35? Like a Logans Run Carousel situation and youre running around with a gem in your hand and a robot is shouting about sea greens. I need to watch that again.
• Fixed a possible softlock when taming a Glow Hopper during a combat.
• The Minesweeper perk now correctly applies to gas mines, as god intended

UI & Controls

• Fixed some wonkiness with removing and re-adding custom characters in Squad Manager.
• Making lots of custom Rangers no longer blocks the ability to scroll down to the Companion section.
• [LOC] DEV: "104%" removed from Shockwave mortar description. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
• Fixed a display issue with the Mechanics skill showing an incorrect effectiveness value at level 5.
• Changed the icon for Big Guns to not be a rocket launcher, which are explosive weapons. Theyre also Big, but we had to pick one.
• Fixed some mpre typos.
• [Controller] Revive now shows the correct AP cost.

Co-op

• Fixed another issue where the host could drive the Kodiak around like a Ranger after their squad had been killed. Cool? Yes. But still a bug.
• Misc. co-op bug fixes and improvements.