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Author Topic: Monday Design Update 9/20 - Dead State Q and A  (Read 72517 times)
Brian
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« Reply #15 on: September 21, 2010, 06:16:41 pm »

Will it be possible to get friendly with other human groups, even make them allies and or have them join you and strengthen the shelter or will they always be enemies?
It's possible you might come to an arrangement that will keep each side on friendly terms. Most of the time, the other groups have no real reason to ally with you, since from their point of view, they were doing just fine before you came along and have no reason to trust you. Other leaders have their own people to think about and their own way of doing things.

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Can we maybe convince individuals from other groups to go over on our side etc?
With high dialogue skills and the right decisions, you might win some people over to your side.

I want to play as a bad person and lead a group of bad dudes. Will I be able to do that?
And most important: if yes, will it be as rewarding (= same amount of XP) as playing the good guy?
Kind of - if you can find people that share your attitude. The problem is that the people that don't share your outlook may have a problem with this and try to do something about it. There aren't really good/bad extremes - every major decision comes with a sacrifice, whether that's personnel, morale, items, trust. It's all about who/what you're willing to let go or risk.
 
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Will I be able to play on, after the game ended and the credits were shown? That means to finish quests I weren't able to solve before and to just keep on surviving with my mates in the shelter.
Nope - the game will end at some point.

One question I have about this game is what time period does this game take place? Is the apocalypse in the 2000s or 1900s?  I would like this answered so I can get a gist of the technology that the survivors could find and use ingame.
Present day.

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Also, another thing I'm confused about is the antibiotics. Say you find out a survivor has been infected really recently that in about 3 days they'll die. So if I kept giving him antibiotics for let's say, 10 days, and then stopped, would he die on the 11th or 13th day after infection? Let's also say another situation where you also find out a survivor was infected two days prior and gave him antibiotics for also 10 days and then stopped. Would he die on the 11th or 13th day? Basically do the antibiotics freeze the number of days they have or will it just be a suppressor that once stopped will completely let them start zombification quickly?
Always three days after their last antibiotic. If antibiotics exist in the Shelter, they will automatically take them, because good luck telling people to go easy on the pills that are keeping them from becoming a walking corpse. It's a buffer to allow you to go out and try to find some more, which isn't a lot of time if half your shelter is infected.
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O-Positve
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« Reply #16 on: September 21, 2010, 07:34:44 pm »

Always three days after their last antibiotic. If antibiotics exist in the Shelter, they will automatically take them, because good luck telling people to go easy on the pills that are keeping them from becoming a walking corpse. It's a buffer to allow you to go out and try to find some more, which isn't a lot of time if half your shelter is infected.


Wow.  That's grim.

I like it  Wink
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Frequently Repeated Questions (FRQ)
Will there be children in this game?  No.
Will there be a scenario where The Shelter is overrun by zombies?  No.
Hope this helps Smile
Dogar
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« Reply #17 on: September 21, 2010, 08:36:26 pm »

I've been wondering how complex the combat system is.  Will you be able to crouch, go prone and sidestep?  Will the terrain provide various degrees of cover ala JA2, or will "cover" simply involve getting out of the enemy's line of sight?
« Last Edit: September 21, 2010, 08:38:51 pm by Dogar » Logged
Corrsk
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« Reply #18 on: September 22, 2010, 12:21:51 am »

Been sneaking around for a little while, and don't think i saw those questions:
Kinda sure grenades will not be common (If there is), so, will we be able to make Molotov (With the Science skill maybe)?
It's not really effective but it's kinda easy to make (As much as the word "easy" can be used in an apocalyptic world)

And, also, what type of vehicles there will be? (Cars? Motorbikes? Trucks?)
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GunFox
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« Reply #19 on: September 22, 2010, 05:07:11 am »

Is there a part of the story which explains why zombies are even remotely a threat to an armored vehicle?

I love zombies and all, but even an uparmored humvee could pretty much hold out indefinitely against a zombie onslaught.

A zombie could bang for decades on an M1A2 Abrams and barely scratch the paint.

Or is that the conclusion to the story? The military finally reaches the small town and cleans it, and the surroundings, up?
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Corrsk
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« Reply #20 on: September 22, 2010, 06:54:57 am »

Is there a part of the story which explains why zombies are even remotely a threat to an armored vehicle?
I think everyone can answer that:
An armored vehicle is a Zombie Food Can.

If your vehicle run out of gas, or is damaged/cannot move, you are scr*wed. You can only hope that dieing from thirst is better than being eaten alive.
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Rosbjerg
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« Reply #21 on: September 22, 2010, 07:31:55 am »

Is there a part of the story which explains why zombies are even remotely a threat to an armored vehicle?

I love zombies and all, but even an uparmored humvee could pretty much hold out indefinitely against a zombie onslaught.

A zombie could bang for decades on an M1A2 Abrams and barely scratch the paint.

Or is that the conclusion to the story? The military finally reaches the small town and cleans it, and the surroundings, up?


Assuming that the infrastructure (relating to supplying an army) stays intact then the military would roll over any zombie invasion.. but if the infection spreads into controlled zones and no real "front line" exists (meaning that supply lines get overwhelmed), then supplies will inevitably fail. When supplies fail, then tanks and any vehicle are rendered ineffective. At least on a national scale. A few tanks would remain operational in areas with a huge local stockpile, but they would run out of bullets before they ran out of zombies.
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CormagMacD
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« Reply #22 on: September 22, 2010, 09:18:04 am »

Two questions:

Regarding the tone of the game: Are you aiming for a grim "The Walking Dead" / "World War Z" -like setting or a more light-hearted "Zombieland"-like tone for Dead State?

Regarding food, is cannibalism an option? (Really.)
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Hector
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« Reply #23 on: September 22, 2010, 09:55:09 am »

Grim.
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For once we get a game with evil options that let you play malevolent character not just an obnoxious cunt. Happy times.

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Caidoz
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« Reply #24 on: September 22, 2010, 12:55:31 pm »

Signed up to ask a few questions that have been nagging me.  This game looks great, btw, and I can't wait til it's finished.  Pretty much everything I've been wanting in a game!  Awesome work so far, guys.

I was wondering if there's an actual ending to the game; does it continue into perpetuity or assuming you survive the zombies and evil humans, will you eventually starve as you run out of food on the map?

Also, are there seasons/weather?  It could be interesting to have a winter period, where you have to stock up food and prioritized luxury items change (blankets, heaters, etc, become more important)

And I know in the FAQ it says that this won't be a lunchlady sim, but it'd be great if you could decide that priority survivors A B and C got bigger rations than everyone else, for example.

Anyway, great game, looking forward to more.  Smile

 Salute

-EDIT-  Saw above that there is an ending to the game, so I guess I'm wondering more about weather, then!
« Last Edit: September 22, 2010, 01:25:45 pm by Caidoz » Logged

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Ion Flux
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« Reply #25 on: September 22, 2010, 12:57:36 pm »


Enemies don't scale to your level.


Humanity vs. the RPGCodex.  Sounds perfect and strangely accurate.  smug
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Brian
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« Reply #26 on: September 22, 2010, 02:32:31 pm »

I've been wondering how complex the combat system is.  Will you be able to crouch, go prone and sidestep?  Will the terrain provide various degrees of cover ala JA2, or will "cover" simply involve getting out of the enemy's line of sight?

Currently, you can't crouch, go prone, or sidestep and cover is mostly about staying out of the lines of sight. Most of these options would only benefit long-range weapon users, which would a small percentage of builds. We'd also have to spend time teaching friendly and enemy AI to deal with it, not to mention do additional into/out of animations for hits or grapples to prone/crouching enemies. It just wasn't worth the time, especially since we wanted to balance the game for melee/ranged rather than tailor the game to styles of ranged combat. The zombies tend to keep people moving, which is another reason we don't have a lot of options to dig in and fight. We'll evaluate defensive bonuses for firing from inside a building, probably, but we want to make sure guns aren't completely overpowered.  

A lot of the strategy comes from the different weapon types, how you employ them, how you use thrown items (like noisemakers), where you choose to engage enemies, how much your allies compliment your style, and how you pick your battles.

Been sneaking around for a little while, and don't think i saw those questions:
Kinda sure grenades will not be common (If there is), so, will we be able to make Molotov (With the Science skill maybe)?
It's not really effective but it's kinda easy to make (As much as the word "easy" can be used in an apocalyptic world)
Yes, there will be different kinds of thrown items. Invest in the Science skill if you want to make sure you can always make more of these. We do have Molotov Cocktails - they're not great, but they can set things on fire.

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And, also, what type of vehicles there will be? (Cars? Motorbikes? Trucks?)
Cars for sure. Other vehicles will be announced later.

Is there a part of the story which explains why zombies are even remotely a threat to an armored vehicle?
Yes... yes, there is.

Two questions:

Regarding the tone of the game: Are you aiming for a grim "The Walking Dead" / "World War Z" -like setting or a more light-hearted "Zombieland"-like tone for Dead State?
Grim. Zombieland had almost nothing in common with the zombie genre and shares more of its structure with a Judd Apatow comedy. There will be some humor, but nothing at the expense of the setting.

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Regarding food, is cannibalism an option? (Really.)
If there was an illness transmitted by unknown means and you didn't know what caused it (and therefore didn't know how to eradicate it from your food), would you take that chance? Or risk the horrible, crippling morale issues that would follow such an action? Seems like one of those ideas that sounds grim and edgy, but doesn't make sense in the context of the setting.
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Ion Flux
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« Reply #27 on: September 22, 2010, 02:52:58 pm »


Currently, you can't crouch, go prone, or sidestep and cover is mostly about staying out of the lines of sight. Most of these options would only benefit long-range weapon users, which would a small percentage of builds. We'd also have to spend time teaching friendly and enemy AI to deal with it, not to mention do additional into/out of animations for hits or grapples to prone/crouching enemies. It just wasn't worth the time, especially since we wanted to balance the game for melee/ranged rather than tailor the game to styles of ranged combat. The zombies tend to keep people moving, which is another reason we don't have a lot of options to dig in and fight.


I understand your reasoning behind this design choice, but I find the lack of ability to change stance or to use cover tactically to be a pretty significant disappointment.  It may be less of an issue with the zombies, but what about well-armed, opposing factions? 


We'll evaluate defensive bonuses for firing from inside a building, probably, but we want to make sure guns aren't completely overpowered.  


Wouldn't it make more sense to just limit the number of weapons and the amount of ammo, rather than to artificially nerf guns?  I always find that it really strains my willingness to suspend disbelief if I shoot someone in the face with a shotgun and they don't fall over dead.


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Dicksmoker
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« Reply #28 on: September 22, 2010, 03:38:02 pm »

I have a question: If the stated main focus of the game is surviving and constantly maintaining your shelter, as well as keeping everyone alive as much as you can, then what steps have you taken to insure that the game drives towards some kind of conclusion? In other words, does the focus shift at some point into something else so that you won't feel like the whole game was repeating more or less the same thing ad nausuem? I'm not saying something like discovering a cure, but at least something to make you feel like the game didn't just stop arbitrarily when you survive for X number of days, or something similar. Can you answer this without giving spoilers?
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CormagMacD
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« Reply #29 on: September 23, 2010, 02:18:37 am »


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Regarding food, is cannibalism an option? (Really.)
If there was an illness transmitted by unknown means and you didn't know what caused it (and therefore didn't know how to eradicate it from your food), would you take that chance? Or risk the horrible, crippling morale issues that would follow such an action? Seems like one of those ideas that sounds grim and edgy, but doesn't make sense in the context of the setting.

I agree regarding unknown illness vectors, however once the canned goods run out, then what? I suppose this is more a game length question. Will food shortages be an issue late-game? Or can you just keep ranging farther from the Shelter to find more food? Since your focus is on the people in the Shelter, wouldn't this be an issue at some point? This brings a related question to mind: are there unskilled NPCs who do not contribute to the Shelter but still consume resources?
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