It's been a long, long time since I've thought of WASTED, though I've replayed it many times over the years (it's surprising how well some of the jokes hold up. It turns out poo poo pee pee jokes are timeless). So as not to bury the lede, WASTED is no longer being delisted from the Steam store! After the phenomenal efforts of the kind folks at Warner Brothers Discovery, we were able to work out a deal to allow me to continue distributing and updating the game. While this means a sequel is unlikely to happen, it does generously keep the door open on future updates.
Speaking of updates, while making changes to the game to accommodate the hand-off, I took a few hours to re-accustom myself to the half-a-decade old codebase. Having replayed the game many, many times over the years since the last update, I'd always felt like there were small changes I could make to the game to make it a little less annoying, and so I figured while I was already making changes to the game, I'd take the opportunity to address some of my personal complaints about the game. Hopefully, they make the game a little more enjoyable for you all too!
Besides what's in this update, I've got a few more fun little ideas percolating in my head that I'll hopefully be able to drop into the game, but with my focus shifted firmly towards finishing my next game (I can't really imagine there's a huge demographic overlap, but who knows ??) I can't give a firm answer as to when they'll come to light. With that said, for those of you out there still playing the game, I'll be carefully monitoring the Steam Discussion Boards for the game for suggestions and bug reports, so be sure to reach out if anything tickles your fancy!
At any rate, thank you guys so much for all for the support over the years, especially those of you who reached out on my Twitter/X about the game's potential removal. It can't be overstated how happy I am that this game, as weird, crass, and flawed as it is, will continue to live on !!
- Arthur "Mr. Podunkian" Lee
Changelog for Build 1011:
- Replaced the logic for retrieving the current real world date for Courier Runs so that they can be accessed again! This fixes the "Couldn't contact server" message when attempting a Courier Run, and allows players to access the Courier Run specific loot once more!
- Unmarked Flasks can now be identified before they're consumed. The chance of identifying a Flask's contents increases with the number/level of Hangovers/Buzzes you're affected by (+5% for every Hangover and Buzz) as you become more and more discerning of a Booze snob.
- Removed item stack limits from most items, because the inventory management was already cumbersome enough! Hangovers that used to increase ammo capacities now increase the amount of ammo looted/found in containers instead, and the High Cap Nightcap hangover has been renamed to Bulletvardier since the old name doesn't really make sense anymore.
- The Weird Science Chemistry Set now grants 10 stacks of the produced chemical rather than just 1, and finishes concocting on your next return from a Cooler Run rather than based on a 24 hour timer.
- The Excremator Throne now shows you which hangover will be removed before you choose to remove it, and refills its tank on your next return from a Cooler Run rather than based on a 24 hour timer.
- Added damage falloff on explosions against player (and player allied characters). With explosions being as deadly as they are, it didn't seem right that being grazed by an explosion while you're running away from it did the same amount of damage as taking a blast to the dome.
- Interacting with a text input field while playing on the Steam Deck will now open up the onscreen keyboard, which hopefully will allow the game to be Steam Deck verified in the future!
- On the gamepad, when returning to previous topics in conversations/computer terminals, the last selected dialogue choice will be selected by default. This is most helpful when reading email threads on Cooler terminals, with finishing reading an email now highlighting the last email you just read instead of selecting the first email like it used to.
- Fixed an issue where having a save with the Payne's Painkiller hangover could cause the title screen and new game intros to run in slow motion.
- Adjusted splash screens and the verbiage of the endgame credits.
