KickStarter Dead State: Reanimated

[Perkel]

Something that's quite cool is to get some characters infected and having a chat before killing them when they run of antibiotics. I doubt many people saw them, and the scenes are quite good.

This is part of the problem i saw in game.
Survival base simulator (kind of) would be awesome if it would constantly undermine your actions and you would need to constantly choose between different actions for which each and every choice have huge consequences.

I think big change would be to make zombie disease hidden for some time so people wouldn't be able to tell when it started thus no reload.
Suddenly having 5 people on meds would play entirely different than normal play.

Update: I decided I'm a pussy and will start over with Iron Man off. My dude got infected in like the 3rd run. Wow. The game is actually fun and has a lot of content...and it's hard. I wish the developers stick to making turn-based RPG games, they're into something

This is one of the big + for DS. I expected medium to small RPG but there are shitload of places to visit.

 

[Gozma]

If Zaids were much easier to catch and had no immediate indicator I'd get around it by only having my one super melee guy get infected, either the PC or Getz. No one else ever needs to touch a zombie.

 

[Ovplain]

I'm afraid that the only chance of that ever happening is Brian somehow redpilling/becoming a MRA then getting a divorce after a terrible ideological breakup.

Just noticed the other day that Annie seems to be using the GG autoblock thing.:S At least I couldn't think of a better reason why I was blocked. And she's not the only person on the team that's used it or is using it. BLOWS MY MIND that any dev would be using it. Especially an indie dev, especially after the craziness they've already had to deal with on Steam, when one single dude caused a PR nightmare. You'd think that would've taught them a lesson. Nope. Shit's bound to hit the fan again sooner or later, no doubt in my mind.

Shame, really. They have some talent & skill, I backed Dead State and liked quite a bit of it. I'm sure they could've done something really cool down the line.

 

[ColCol]

So, um, how does health work, because my characters woke up from bed with around 80 set as their maximum health (usually it is a hundred). I did use health packs a lot the day before.

 

[Saduj]

So, um, how does health work, because my characters woke up from bed with around 80 set as their maximum health (usually it is a hundred). I did use health packs a lot the day before.

Their max hit points will increase over the next few days until it reaches their true maximum. That is, unless they get hurt again in the meantime. The infirmary speeds up the process. Gives you reason to swap new people into your party once in a while.

Edit: That reminds me, I know that some people complain about having to go out scavenging but for the most part they were people I rarely or never used. Does anyone know if there is a mood penalty that comes with actually being in the scavenging party? I played before "Reanimated" and didn't really notice any consequences to taking out the same 3 non-complainers for 90% of my runs.

 

[Jimmious]

So my final thoughts after about 20-25 hours with Dead State:

+ Lots of content, both item-wise and area-wise. Actually impressive for an "indie" title
+ Decent enemy AI, especially for human enemies. The game is hard especially in the Hardcore mode. I would actually say that the AI is probably more challenging that WL2, which is impressive when you compare the scope of the 2 games.
+ Interesting Shelter concept with all the tasks and options and crafting, it always keeps you wanting to scavenge more stuff to build the next thing
+ Not so bad graphics. I was expecting worse from the videos I've seen.

- UI stuff. This is the major issue of the game. A lot of info is non-existant (for example what each status icon means or how you cure fatigue etc) while some other stuff are clunky(movement in real time is a bit wonky, interactions between your party also). I actually think that if these issues were adressed the game would've been a level higher that what it is now. You can feel that this game has so much potential but it basically holds itself back from being great with only some small problems..

Generally though if you like turn-based squad games, with survival aspects and some challenge I totally recommend it.
I would actually dare to say I got some JA2 vibes at some points, specifically the feeling of "I killed these much stronger dudes and got all their higher tier loot and now I feel much stronger" which due to the lack of shops and stuff is highly prevalent.

 

[Gozma]

What grounds are you using to say the AI is good? It seems about as basic as it can get to me and it's super easily exploited (i.e. you can hide around a corner and the AI will happily use its last AP to step into your line of fire). The ruleset feels designed to be really hard on AI because the gun ranges are so short, which means the AI isn't able to get into simple turtley firepower attrition battles that it could be competent at like most TU/AP games.

The only thing nasty is that it knows how to use grenades and will spam all of them in its inventory at the start of a battle.

 

[Jimmious]

Actually for me what you say never happened. On the contrary when I tried to ambush human enemies they also stayed out of sight and waited for my guys which is one of the things that impressed me. Of course I dont claim that its on the level of JA2 or something like that, but at least the human AI doesn't just charge at you or that's what I've seen so far. Maybe I just were in such situations that made it look OK(I never said it's good though, decent was the word)

 

[lightbane]

Talk a little about Dead State’s – and DoubleBear’s – commitment to having a diverse cast of characters in the game[...]

Something I like in our game is that Darlene and Regina are legitimately strong women, not “Strong Women” as some kind of definer – not made strong by a traumatic event. And actually as a contrast, the guy bad-asses are kind of damaged, like Sir Charleston and Getz, and even Bud regresses to a “war mind” kind of state. I know I wanted to have a chair-kicking kind of tough woman in the game, and Brian did too, and there they are. I would be terrified to be facing down a group that had both of them in it!

Really? Regina's whole character is "I'm a brutish thug", to the point you could replace her with a guy and little would change. Also, she somehow becomes a Sub-leader in spite of any scene telling you so (I guess she punched everyone that disagreed with her). At least she's not as insufferably "chaotic (stupid) evil" like Lloyd*. Darlene, meanwhile, hints she had some issues even BEFORE the "zombiepocalypse" started. And then she has grown so jaded from killing people that she's wondering if that's a bad thing she doesn't care anymore about the issue of murdering. So she's definitively damaged.

If you were looking for "strong females", I would say Aimee is a good example, since despite the horrible situation you find her, she recovers and keeps a somewhat cheerful behavior. Then there's Anita, a character you start the game with, who's supposed to be a humble truck driver, although she has above average strength, is deadly with hammer-type weapons and quite good at mechanical stuff. I guess truck driving is a really serious business in the Dead State universe.

Then, for the guys, there are several examples of badass people who are not damaged, such as Paul, the ex-Ranger (and perhaps one of the two sub-leaders who's actually reasonable and/or not an annoying retard); Davis Cray, the incredible "do-it-all" crippled man (who also has a part-time job of being the writer's mouthpiece) and Mark Corbeau, who was able to keep alive an old woman and an asmathic kid in the middle of nowhere, with limited resources and without external help.

Also, for so much talk about diversity, there is a somewhat offensive autistic stereotype, a black guy with all of the race cards cliche, a Japanese woman who still worries about the importance of education and schooling (even after the world fucking ended) and a snobby rich woman who behaves like the topics about rich people say.

Lastly, considering how quickly zombies drop to any weapon that's not a shitty revolver, I would say that the only reason the apocalypse happened is because everyone suffered from a case of terminal stupidity, reaching Junji Ito's "no sense of self-preservation" average cast of characters.


*That's one thing that annoys me the most: evil actions here are closer to Biowarian lolEVIIL than those from the Practical Incarnation from Torment: many evil actions are counterproductive in the long or the short term and do nothing except to shoot yourself on the foot. That's painfully visible with Lloyd, who's supposed to be a ruthless pragmatist, but comes out as a idiot jackass unable to think about the consequences of his actions and whose ideas are dangerous at best, downright suicidal at worst.

 

[commie]

Actually for me what you say never happened. On the contrary when I tried to ambush human enemies they also stayed out of sight and waited for my guys which is one of the things that impressed me. Of course I dont claim that its on the level of JA2 or something like that, but at least the human AI doesn't just charge at you or that's what I've seen so far. Maybe I just were in such situations that made it look OK(I never said it's good though, decent was the word)

Man I hate it when people have to ingratiate themselves to the Codex by such base pandering. Look, you thought the AI was good enough in your situation so why not say it? Why qualify it with the "please don't hurt me for my views as really I agree that the AI mostly sucks but, but in THIS specific instance it was kinda cool, but really I know it's shit and what do I know eh?" (nervous laugh).

Simple fact is that the 'vaunted' JA2 AI is mostly there to make a beeline for your characters and uses terrain haphazardly. This is obfuscated by the fact that the player has many more options to choose from and most here get into the trap of equating system complexity with good AI which it isn't. If JA2 was as limited in mechanics as say the new XCOM it'd really draw attention to the bog standard 'AI'.

So don't apologise newfag for liking the game. I believe in you.

 

[Gozma]

Yeah I don't think it's really bad in itself, it's just that the game kinda ruthlessly exposes AP/TU game AI because there aren't that many options and the ranges are so short that it has no choice but to maneuver, when in something like X-Com it just needs to see you to blast away.

 

[Jimmious]

Actually for me what you say never happened. On the contrary when I tried to ambush human enemies they also stayed out of sight and waited for my guys which is one of the things that impressed me. Of course I dont claim that its on the level of JA2 or something like that, but at least the human AI doesn't just charge at you or that's what I've seen so far. Maybe I just were in such situations that made it look OK(I never said it's good though, decent was the word)

Man I hate it when people have to ingratiate themselves to the Codex by such base pandering. Look, you thought the AI was good enough in your situation so why not say it? Why qualify it with the "please don't hurt me for my views as really I agree that the AI mostly sucks but, but in THIS specific instance it was kinda cool, but really I know it's shit and what do I know eh?" (nervous laugh).

Simple fact is that the 'vaunted' JA2 AI is mostly there to make a beeline for your characters and uses terrain haphazardly. This is obfuscated by the fact that the player has many more options to choose from and most here get into the trap of equating system complexity with good AI which it isn't. If JA2 was as limited in mechanics as say the new XCOM it'd really draw attention to the bog standard 'AI'.

So don't apologise newfag for liking the game. I believe in you.

Spasiba Tovarisch

 

[Saduj]

I thought it was realistic that Regina was a sub-leader in the shelter because she's a blustering fucking idiot who always wanted to do the dumbest thing possible. Seems like people like that always attract a following here in the KWA. As a fighter, she had a slight advantage over other melee characters because her ranged skill starts at 4, meaning she can use ranged weapon as a backup if you want. Eventually she gets around to leveling ranged up too. I used her in my party for a while then replaced her when I started facing tougher human opponents. Not sure if there are conditions where she actually follows through on her constant threats but in my game she made an ultimatum at one point and then didn't follow through when I ignored it.

Darlene is a legitimate badass because of the perk she has that makes using bows cost one less AP. Not sure how it is now but bows were better against armored opponents than most guns before "Reanimated". Used her in my final party for that reason. Vic and Troy were the other two that I used consistently towards the end game. Vic was in my party the whole game with a day off here and there and was the most badass NPC overall, IMO.

 

[tuluse]

Actually for me what you say never happened. On the contrary when I tried to ambush human enemies they also stayed out of sight and waited for my guys which is one of the things that impressed me. Of course I dont claim that its on the level of JA2 or something like that, but at least the human AI doesn't just charge at you or that's what I've seen so far. Maybe I just were in such situations that made it look OK(I never said it's good though, decent was the word)

Man I hate it when people have to ingratiate themselves to the Codex by such base pandering. Look, you thought the AI was good enough in your situation so why not say it? Why qualify it with the "please don't hurt me for my views as really I agree that the AI mostly sucks but, but in THIS specific instance it was kinda cool, but really I know it's shit and what do I know eh?" (nervous laugh).

Simple fact is that the 'vaunted' JA2 AI is mostly there to make a beeline for your characters and uses terrain haphazardly. This is obfuscated by the fact that the player has many more options to choose from and most here get into the trap of equating system complexity with good AI which it isn't. If JA2 was as limited in mechanics as say the new XCOM it'd really draw attention to the bog standard 'AI'.

So don't apologise newfag for liking the game. I believe in you.

One thing that makes JA2/X-Com ai seem better is reaction fire. If you just script the AI to save enough APs so running towards them means eating a shot to face it requires a level of tactics just to penetrate their defenses. Just pair this with a mildly coherent AI (JA2) or random but deadly enemies (x-com) and it creates tactical challenges that a really effective AI couldn't even do.

 

[Gozma]

Anyone know if there is some kind of "killall" console command so I can clear off the worst maps with 200 defenseless zombies that need a second each to pass their turn every time I enter combat mode

Failing that you might need to do something like cheat yourself an infinite damage weapon and infinite AP so you can clear a shit map in a couple minutes of brainless clicking instead of three hours

Things I will do to bypass the terrible parts of games that I otherwise like pt#8675858

 

[Curious_Tongue]

Anyone know if there is some kind of "killall" console command so I can clear off the worst maps with 200 defenseless zombies that need a second each to pass their turn every time I enter combat mode

Failing that you might need to do something like cheat yourself an infinite damage weapon and infinite AP so you can clear a shit map in a couple minutes of brainless clicking instead of three hours

Things I will do to bypass the terrible parts of games that I otherwise like pt#8675858

What's the net XP for one of those encounters?

 

[Gozma]

Zero, because there's no combat XP. XP basically comes from getting non-equipment loot (food, luxuries, computer files, spare parts, antibiotics - all of which are desireable for your shelter-running anyway) but there's no serious way to sneak past zombies or anything like that. Plus the only time zombies can pose any danger is when they flank you when you're fighting something else, which means it's tactically stupid to leave an easily-disposed threat behind you.

 

[Jimmious]

I've to add something that I find really really cool:
The loot placement is nearly perfect. I've never seen anything completely out of place and you always find what is "logical" depending on what you loot. For example there are no toilet sinks with guns or grocery stores with tools or whatever. Loot is placed well and I wonder if it was all done manually (!!!) or their algorithms are simply THAT good. Kudos

 

[Morkar Left]

I've to add something that I find really really cool:
The loot placement is nearly perfect. I've never seen anything completely out of place and you always find what is "logical" depending on what you loot. For example there are no toilet sinks with guns or grocery stores with tools or whatever. Loot is placed well and I wonder if it was all done manually (!!!) or their algorithms are simply THAT good. Kudos

It's actually essential to have the items fit the environment in such a game. I'm pretty sure it was made manually or at least some lootlists specifically fit for the theme of the store.

 

[naossano]

While this is indeed great to have those, it is sad that we have come to praise a game that have loot logically placed. This means that it almost never happen...
About the algorithm, this doesn't need to be incredible. They just need to put a "fridge container" and have a list of food associated with fridge, for instance. It doesn't take a genius level. Just a caring level...

 

[ColCol]

Getting kinda tedious having to clean out zeds in certain areas.

 

[paintinggrey]

I have been playing for about 80 hours of the new version and the game is good, however it still a bit glitchy though. Here are some things that annoyed me.

Confrontation between player and survivor needs some work, some times the surviver concern doesnt really match the situation in the shelter is in. For instance Ulyssus challeged my leadership stating how he cant let me continue due to so many people getting killed etc even though i have never lost a single survivor and shelter has shit laods of food and morale is 3000. Option to kick out any survivour out would have been great as well.

I would have been nice if the morale section was more fleshed out and actually gave you reasons why some survivors are unhappy, for instance too many people in the shelter or survivor X does not like survivor Y. I am not sure how morale works but some survivors morale doesnt decline while other like Ulyssus shift constantly.

While in the shelter, i wish you could check the in party's inventory in the inventory screen rather than going to stash and scrolling through 40 survivors to find that particular survivour just to check if he has everything. I know it would only takes a few moments to check in the stash but you be surprised how many times you actually do it.


Overall I enjoyed the game and dont regret backing this. I never knew i could have so much fun looting shit from shelfs and corpses. Also thank fucking god the stairs got fixed in Austin because


Just putting my 2 cents. Ta!

 

[Perkel]

I always wondered if DS could be better handled by using third person narrative with abstract language for games such as this.

For example:
first person narrative - "Hey i am talking to you punk ! Where is my godamn food you promised !"
vs
XXX is angry at you. She is demanding food you promised.

Using first person narrative confines C&C to long therm process of writting dialog branches and so on.
Using third person narrative cheapens overall experience from writting perspective but thanks to it, it could be systematized and handled via coding instead of which would lead to more interesting C&C as you won't be able to predict what will happen next.

Naturally second system would need to be a lot more expansive and more deep to counter lack of writting and should be tied to some emotion system which would change dialog depending on person state of mind like for example:

character XXX was bitten. lack of meds = scared for her life ---> which could lead depending on other character traits to for example murdering other member of shelter for meds or begging to go to nearest hospital or trying to buy into your good side so when time comes you will do something about it.

 

[Atchodas]

While this is indeed great to have those, it is sad that we have come to praise a game that have loot logically placed. This means that it almost never happen...

State of Decay had its loot placed properly , that game and Dead State are both very similar and great zombie games just one of them is TB and another is GTA type sandbox , other than that they are kinda the same ;D

 

[Roguey]

So yeah I can be fickle.

A shameful typo after six months.

As expected, I don't like the writing style at all. Feels like it's written by a typical modder. I don't dislike the combat yet, but I imagine the novelty of pulling mobs will get old with frequent repetition. I'm purposely going to make the combat content duller for myself since I'm playing a person with a conscience; that is, I'm going to do my best to avoid other groups of hostile people even if that means leaving loot behind, since they're just trying to survive, same as me.