Codex Interview RPG Codex Interview: DoubleBear on Dead State

[InspectorRumpole]

to be honest there's been hardly any negative response to it being about zombies on the other gaming sites
and absolutely none about zombies being unintelligent opponents

most of the complaints have been about it being turn based

That's because most fans of zombie games just want to plow through hordes of them in real time. Awesome!!

 

[Gakkone]

I'm pretty sure human groups will play a much larger role than zombies in combat. I'd imagine the zombies are there mostly to force you to play cautiously and to avoid attracting their attention and that it would make sense to flee from them if they do notice you. At least I really hope that's the case.

 

[SerratedBiz]

commie

I don't think that DS is about managing your resources until you can frag the local zombie population.

The point of a zombie infestation is to hostilize the environment around the characters, not to kill them outright. You want said characters to scramble for a defensible position and fortify it, because just standing around or moving out in the open is dangerous (it attracts more zombies, of which we assume there's an infinite amount of). The beauty of such a configuration is that, when you lock up people in a certain place and siege them, their resources will be consumed at a determined rate.

Eventually, and this is (IMO) the real objective DS is aiming for, the situation evolves into a) efforts being made towards acquiring more resources, with all the dangers and misadventures such would entail, and b) straining of group dynamics as roles are defined, priorities need to be established and morale needs to be maintained - the problem is, everyone has their own conception on how exactly all these things should work (the guy who thinks his decisions would do better for the overall group, the person that thinks survivors should be turned away because resources are scarce, the one who thinks the other isn't pulling their weight, and so on and so on).

I'm reminded of the Night of the Living Dead movie, with the characters (a ton of survivors of all kinds, which make for numerous points of conflict) cooped up inside this random country house. The place is fortified, they're safe inside, but for a certain reason they decide that someone needs to man the truck outside, fill it with gas and drive off. Of course, they're surrounded by zombies. That's when the main character remarks something like "they're so slow, we can easily outmaneuver them", which is totally true, and they make it to the truck without a hitch. Of course, the situation goes downhill as things don't work out as they were supposed to, someone dies, survivors retreat back to the house, and eventually people start shooting each other.

TL;DR - The zombies are the catalyst that allows for tense situations to happen and not necessarily the big bad monster you're supposed to be focusing on.

 

[hiver]

The problem I have with zombies is that they are limited as fuck as an adversary. It's not like they can be anything but shambling hulks making a beeline for your face. The real challenge in this game will be to utilize the environment and limited ammo to maximise the chance of slaughtering the hordes before you are overwhelmed. That's cool and all for a few missions, but there better be something more elaborate than just this tower defense style of combat otherwise it will get old pretty fast. Adding human groups certainly helps, unless they use the same zombie AI.

There is something much more elaborate.
1. You cannot slaughter any hordes in this game - Zombies are unlimited.
2. If you use guns of any sort you create noise.
3. Noise attracts more zombies.


Allies panic, make bad moves - and they get infected too, only, they dont turn to zombies because you have to either provide antibiotics to slow down the "disease" or kill them - before they turn.
Which affects other allied NPCs you have on top of making you loose any skills those that got infected brought in to the shelter or exploration or combat.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

all this talk of constant need for wariness and uneasy group dynamics makes me sad that The Thing videogame didn't turn out all that well

I'm also thinking of this large open world style 3D zombie survival thing, kind of like a free-roaming zombie stalker writ large + detailed battlezone-like in terms of combat management except with you controlling multiple different humans with inventory and skills and morale that prevents you from taking control when broken etc, you know, kind of like how games were supposed to progress with what we've learned from successive titles and technology instead of just going LINEAR CORRIDOR GRAPHICS SHOWCASE COMPELLING BUTTON PRESSING WITH CELEBRITY VOICEOVER SIMPLICITY IS JUST ENGAGING COMPLEXITY

with the one goal of making it with a set minimum group alive to the canada/the arctic fresh from the early days of the outbreak and everything else left to your discretion

all staying quiet behind a hill while you control and send up a scout with binoculars to check out the next town, posting two lookouts outside a store while you loot it with your group, meeting up with hostile human factions lol etc, deciding whether you should save friendly npcs stuck in a building and risk wasting ammo and getting potential dead weight in your group

scavenging, inventory and nutrition management, gun-nut porn, freeform survival hiking, impromptu trailer park defense itz heavan, the kind of shit that should be fully realised with 500 million dollars and not a shitty star wars mmo that goes F2P despite having the singular prestige of full voice acting

 

[RK47]

So, will Dead State equate to pseudo x-com with zombie as alien and chrysalid that can infect through bite?
i hope the developers play x-com to understand how these 'terror' stuff works.
i expect to control my whole team, until they go berserk/panic etc.

 

[Alex]

Sorry, RK47, I think you have the wrong idea:

Is combat real-time or turn-based?
Turn-Based. The player doesn’t have full control over their party, but can issue group and individual commands. The player is also responsible for equipping teammates. Sometimes allies may not respond to player commands if their Morale is low or because of their personality or because they are panicking.

How many characters can travel together outside the shelter? That is to say, how big is the party?
The player plus three other characters. It will be pretty clear when you see the GUI. Which we might show off next week.

I mean, there are similarities, of course, but the scope of the combat is much smaller.

 

[RK47]

Oh god. Why? Why would you take away control from the player?

 

[Fezzik]

I'm getting deja vu when you respond like that, RK47.

 

[EG]

Yes . . . Automated party members really do scare the hell out of me. However, ti would appear you can "issue orders" . . . Let's see how they handle that!

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

Yes . . . Automated party members really do scare the hell out of me. However, ti would appear you can "issue orders" . . . Let's see how they handle that!

My bet is on generic things like "hold your fire" (not to make noise), "stay close", "hold your position", etc, whose success probability is influenced by how scared/how in good terms with you they are.

 

[Oriebam]

By the way, I am still amazed by one first page user complaining about there being combat in a zombie game.

Have some cRPG fans really become so delusional that they want dialogues and diplomacy with zombies?

disgusting

take the hint wyrmlord

 

[Wyrmlord]

By the way, I am still amazed by one first page user complaining about there being combat in a zombie game.

Have some cRPG fans really become so delusional that they want dialogues and diplomacy with zombies?

disgusting

take the hint wyrmlord

This has precedent. There are people complaining about too much combat in combat-based games, with some on the Codex complaining that Icewind Dale has too much combat and too little "roleplaying". And then there is the infamous Andhaira thread about Fallout.

 

[Wyrmlord]

The problem I have with zombies is that they are limited as fuck as an adversary.

They could have disease effects, which means that even if you successfully defeat them and survive, you could still be in an extremely nasty situation as your attributes or your health deteriorate. Zombie disease effects could lose you the necessary action points in future battles. Already, a lot of variety in the kinds of disease effects that can be anticipated.

Zombies could also be such that every last bit of them continues fighting. You blow the leg off a zombie, and focus on the others. But after the fight is over, this zombie grabs you when you walk across the room thinking it is dead.

Plus, with the possibility of one your party members being affected, the effects could be invisible, until you wake up from the resting period and suddenly find your strongest party member a zombie.

Of course, I am not saying such ideas will be there, but I reckon there is huge potential with even such seemingly uninteresting enemies.

 

[hiver]

They are not automated but Ai controlled, or... semi independent. And thats one of the primary reasons why im going to invest insane amounts of Dongs in this venture.

 

[Infinitron]

invest insane amounts of Dongs in this venture.

Dongs? o_O Well that's a new one.

 

[hiver]

Not really no... its actually real.

528,425.81 Dongs coming your way soon, doublebear!

 

[CappenVarra]

Vietnamese currency? So you're going to donate $25?

 

[hiver]

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

Joy to the world! Hiver made a funny.

 

[hiver]

I object yer`onor!!! this trial is a travesty!

I make funnies all the time! Especially those that make tards get a cramp on their faces.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

I object yer`onor!!! this trial is a travesty!

I make funnies all the time! Especially those that make tards get a cramp on their faces.

Aye, trolling retards and developers' White Knights: but that ain't a family friendly, politically correct funny. M:

 

[hiver]

i demand all of this enters the records!

what can i say... its The Smiling Knight within me.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

i demand all of this enters the records!

what can i say... its The Smiling Knight within me.

Oh, boy, I just clicked the link... this ought to be a handful... hiver captioning game of thrones!

 

[Alex_Steel]

I don't really care about the semi-controlled party members, it will be like a semi-single character game. Fallout had one character and it was awesome. There are a whole lot of other stuff that can make a game good or bad. I hope for the best.