State of Decay

[Max Peck]

Okay, now I understand where you're coming from, but your quote does not mean that it is a truly separate single player universe. They may just be saying that it is possible to play solo within the multiplayer universe. Sorry for being pissy, it's been difficult for me to process the events of this past weekend, and I've been a little short-tempered..

No worries. I was a little bit bemused and a little bit amused, but not particularly annoyed.

There's not a lot of hard information out yet, that I've seen anyway. My take on what I've seen is that from an individual player's pov the game is going to be much like the original, where you control a group of survivors, directly controlling any one of them as required while the others operate under AI control. My impression is that the multiplayer component will be implemented such that some of the other survivor groups will be player-controlled rather than solely AI, and if you choose to play solo then the possible player survivor groups will either not exist, or will be under AI control. If that is indeed the case, then the core gameplay should be substantially the same for either solo or multiplayer. I'm particularly interested to see how (if?) they fully integrate multiplayer with the sort of emergent narrative gameplay that made the original so special. Everyone will want to be central to their own story, not be a supporting character for someone else's story (well, I would anyway).

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

I'm a constituent from the "ornery old cuss" people, and I just want a strictly single player game. Multiplayer is fine for those who want it, but I want to be in my own Trumbull county, without *DTRuMpZ420* blazing through my neighborhood. Obviously, this may be outdated info, but I do remember a couple of years ago reading one of the Devi saying that the next game would be multiplayer only. I don't play MMO's for a reason.

[Lordnine]

I'm a constituent from the "ornery old cuss" people, and I just want a strictly single player game. Multiplayer is fine for those who want it, but I want to be in my own Trumbull county, without *DTRuMpZ420* blazing through my neighborhood. Obviously, this may be outdated info, but I do remember a couple of years ago reading one of the Devi saying that the next game would be multiplayer only. I don't play MMO's for a reason.

There is a BIG difference between co-op and public multiplayer. Playing through a game with a close friend will make almost any game better. You should try it!

[Max Peck]

Wikipedia has some background on the development history for State of Decay.

State of Decay was first announced in 2011 as an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive title originally titled Class 3. Jeff Strain, the founder of ArenaNet and co-creator of World of Warcraft, wanted a game where individual players could make up their own zombie survival plans and put them to the test. Then, he set out to create the game, which runs on CryEngine 3. On May 16, 2013, Undead Labs announced that State of Decay had gone into the final certification process and is now ready for testing by the game's publisher, Microsoft Studios. State of Decay was envisioned as a step towards Undead Labs' full online console game, Class4. Class4 will be one of the first zombie massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) to come to the Xbox One. In a 2014 interview, Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain stated that State of Decay had officially become a franchise, with the company's partnership with Microsoft Studios confirmed. He stated that the first State of Decay was "just the start of (Undead Labs') long-term ambitions".

I have no idea whether Class4 is still a thing that they plan to do, but from what information we've seen, SoD2 is not Class4. In some ways, it just represents a fuller realization of the original vision for Class3 (which was apparently going to include limited multiplayer).

MNM1245 asks in an article comment: “I’m kind of confused about the “Class3″ and “Class4″ thing. Does Class4 just add online support? Will we have to purchase Class4 to get the online portion even if we already bought Class3?”

Class4 will do a lot more than just add online support to Class3. It’s best to think of it as a sequel.

Class3 is our smaller scale, open-world XBLA (Xbox Live Arcade) game that will allow 1-2 people to play together online though Xbox Live or together on the same screen. This game will come out first.

Class4 is our large scale, full online world game that will allow thousands of players to run around simultaneously in a much larger server-hosted world. It will have more weapons, vehicles and zombie types. In addition to vastly greater scope, Class4 will revise and expand any number of game systems like weather, vehicle customization, player-to-player trade, and technology research. It will have types of content specifically designed for having a vast number of players online at the same time. This game will come out after Class3.

[AjD]

Windows 10 only (and requires the UWP store). From PC Invasion:

It’s just that part of every PC owner’s mind is following up with the sentence “… shame it’s only on the fucking Windows 10 store”. More so in the case of games like Dead Rising 4 and State of Decay 2, where prior entries in the series were available through Steam on all (recent) operating systems. In those cases, Microsoft’s Windows 10 obsession is going to actively upset people. They could previously play State of Decay how they wanted. Now they not only have to be using Windows 10, but the rubbish UWP store as well.

[Smoove_B]

I saw a report on Blues this morning that Dead Rising 4 has a 90 day exclusivity timer for Win10. Not sure if that will be mirrored for State of Decay.

[coopasonic]

I am fine with W10 only, but Win Store only is a shame.

[Max Peck]

So, I guess you could say that the UWP store finally has a killer app.

But, yeah, that's disappointing. I'll see how strongly I feel about it once the game is actually out, but for now it's definitely a buzz kill.

[dbemont]

I'm a constituent from the "ornery old cuss" people, and I just want a strictly single player game. Multiplayer is fine for those who want it, but I want to be in my own Trumbull county, without *DTRuMpZ420* blazing through my neighborhood. Obviously, this may be outdated info, but I do remember a couple of years ago reading one of the Devi saying that the next game would be multiplayer only. I don't play MMO's for a reason.

+1

[gbasden]

I'm not sure that's necessarily accurate...

Accordingly, Spencer said that Microsoft "will ship games on Steam again."

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

Blues News posted an article stating that there would be a 90 day exclusivity for Dead Rising 4. Stands to reason this could work the same way for State of Decay 2.

[Daehawk]

Without going through 6 pages...is controller or kb/mouse the way to go?

Ive added a handful of mods to improve the game..flashlight, 2k textures, effects, lots of handy stuff.

[Max Peck]

Without going through 6 pages...is controller or kb/mouse the way to go?

Ive added a handful of mods to improve the game..flashlight, 2k textures, effects, lots of handy stuff.

Controller (especially for melee), although the game plays fine with a kb/mouse too.

[Paingod]

Without going through 6 pages...is controller or kb/mouse the way to go?

Ive added a handful of mods to improve the game..flashlight, 2k textures, effects, lots of handy stuff.

Controller (especially for melee), although the game plays fine with a kb/mouse too.

I'll second that the game plays fine with a keyboard and mouse. That's all I use. The driving mechanics are similar to GTA, though, so if you never got used to driving there with a KB/M you might want to consider a controller. The times where I had to aim and line up a lot of headshots, I was glad to have my mouse.

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

I found the controller was a better fit for me, and I had no issues with precision shots, fwiw.

[Daehawk]

Reinstalled again. Was wondering to go kb/m or controller. Guess Ill try controller this go.

And Ill look at mods. Not sure Ill bother though.

Never mind will be deleting again. Looking around on the net I see there is a Year One Survival Edition out there and Ill wait until I can get that to play it again.

[Daehawk]

Never mind pt2. After looking that YOSE version up its not that different from the original and includes both addons which I don't care about. No point in saving to buy that when SoD2 comes out this year. Ill just mod this original up and try it again. It takes me years to save up for a game thats on sale even. I still have games on my wishlist from 2014.

[Daehawk]

Having some fun with this. Wish I could sleep the night away though. And again with weapons breaking after a few kills. Its silly. Its why I quit Dying Light. I loved that game but the weapon degrading got to me.

In here I worked for 2 in game days. Ive brought back tons of supplies and built on the only 2 free spaces in the church base.

[Daehawk]

Still playing but the two big problems with this game may have me delete it again. Item breakings and needing sleep that forces me to switch characters. Prefer having one player and no breaking.

Should I build any outposts in that first little town with the church?

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

If you check Nexus for State of Decay mods, they may have some fixes for those issues.

[Punisher]

You could also download a cheat/trainer to fix the issues.

[Daehawk]

Been having fun saving folk and finding supplies. The base building is my favorite part so hoping to start base 2 soon.

Things I dislike include not being able to skip night, item breaking, NO FAST TRAVEL!!!, and that woman on the radio CONSTANTLY bothering me with missions.

So Im hoping to find mods to turn her off and fix the item breaking.

Do I need to do all those rescue missions?

Also do I need to keep finding loot?

Also Ive opened 1 outpost at the gun store. Should I do more of those?

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

Please take this with the affection it contains, but sometimes your gaming questions remind me of my mother asking how to use her email on the IPad.

[Daehawk]

I cant decide when to go see the sheriff woman. She is a long drive away down in the main town. I cant tell when to stop the stuff in my own area of the church and go all that way.

[Paingod]

I cant decide when to go see the sheriff woman. She is a long drive away down in the main town. I cant tell when to stop the stuff in my own area of the church and go all that way.

Relatively finite resources in some areas tended to push me to move.

[Max Peck]

I took a couple of runs at Breakdown today. They did not end well, thanks to unexpected encounters with ferals in both cases, but at least I relearned the basic game mechanics.

[Paingod]

I took a couple of runs at Breakdown today. They did not end well, thanks to unexpected encounters with ferals in both cases, but at least I relearned the basic game mechanics.

Ferals are the only thing I really hate in this game. You can have everything under control, exploring, staying quiet, smashing heads - and then in a split second it's a life and death brawl. Easy to avoid the big boys and floaters. I turn down feral quests and lower their spawn rates to near-nil.

[Max Peck]

I took a couple of runs at Breakdown today. They did not end well, thanks to unexpected encounters with ferals in both cases, but at least I relearned the basic game mechanics.

Ferals are the only thing I really hate in this game. You can have everything under control, exploring, staying quiet, smashing heads - and then in a split second it's a life and death brawl. Easy to avoid the big boys and floaters. I turn down feral quests and lower their spawn rates to near-nil.

I had two more very short Breakdown starts where my initial spawn location was almost right on top of a feral, meaning I died within seconds of starting. The third time was the charm, and I'm finally off to a good start.

[Max Peck]

If you own a copy of State of Decay on Steam, you should have received a free (giftable) copy of SoD:YOSE in your Steam inventory.