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Let's All Die Horribly, With Screwfly's Back Catalogue! Screwfly Studios are a studio from deepest darkest Oz who know exactly what kind of game they want to make. And they've made it. Three times. First came Zafehouse Diaries, a game with a slightly unintuitive, but fitting UI about surviving a zombie apocalypse (or, as is more often the case, not.) Then came Deadnaut, a game about exploring the aftermaths of an alien apocalypse, and surviving (Again, with a slightly unintuitive, but fitting UI, and the high chance of death), and, most recently, Fear Equation, a game about surviving... An apocalypse made of the released nightmares of the human race, with a slightly unintuitive, but fitting UI... And the high chance of death. I love all three of these games, because they work with their flaws, bake them in as part of the design. Deadnaut is real time and uses its UI to make you act like a Lieutenant Gorman, peering into several monitors while freaking out about information overload. Fear Equation has you barricaded in the lead carriage, because you're the leader, dammit (And leads to some interesting moments), and Zafehouse Diaries works on a diary format because... Well, “If anybody's reading this, we're all hosed.”  And I'm going to do my best to show what all three can do, starting with Zafehouse Diaries. The format of the LP is going to shift as time goes by, because while Zafehouse is perfectly alright in a screenshot format, Deadnaut is an RTS, and Fear Equation has real time elements too, so a hybrid format is most likely better. If the LP lasts until Zafehouse Diaries 2 comes out, we'll give that a go, and see how it improves on the original. Now, a fair warning: Zafehouse, at the least, is based on old Zombie media, and as such, uses some ideas and tropes that are commonly used in Zombie media. As in "People being horrible and conflict arising because of this." As such, there is a Content Warning of General Prejudicial Characters, and Goons wishing to apply for charactership in any part of the Let's Play (For lo, that is a thing you can apply to do, although I cannot guarantee that your character will be in, and I wish to stress that not all of the character creation elements are under my control.) With that said, let's get this horrorshow on the road. Zafehouse Diaries (2013) JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Nov 8, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 21:27
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Everyone's A Jerk: Zafehouse Diaries Zafehouse Diaries, released in 2013, was the first Screwfly offering, and involves a scenario that zombie fans know all too well... A sudden outbreak has run out of control in a small town, and survivors must band together and, possibly, escape, despite internal conflict and the ever increasing zombie hordes. Except, of course, a good 90% of these stories end with “And then they all died because there were just too many zombies.” Zafehouse is definitely the toughest of the three in terms of difficulty, and the one that requires the most perusal of the manual to understand. It's also had a sequel announced quite recently, so I look forward to that. In any case, there are three game modes: “Easy”, which has no story elements, no time limit, just survivors, trying to survive; “Medium”, which involves trying to find parts of a car, and repairing it so you can drat well leave; and “Hard”, in which you have just a week to do everything you need. I'll be showing off all three, and hopefully introducing Goons into the diary, although using custom survivors removes the ability to earn those sweet, sweet cheevos. Oh well! Content Warning: Just as with many Zombie media, which depict the downfall of civilisation due to humanity's awfulness, the characters in this game, although procedurally generated, are bigots. I go into further detail in the chargen post. Updates Entry The Zeroeth - Making Somebody (Character Customisation.) Diary The First, Entry The First (And Only) - Poor Decisions (Basic UI, some mechanics, Poor decisions) Diary The Second, Entry The First - Once More, But With Feeling(s)! JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 00:23 on Nov 15, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 21:28
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Entry The Zeroeth: Making Somebody Of the three, Zafehouse diaries is perhaps the easiest to make a character in, and has the most control. Although by no means complete control. None of the games, to my knowledge, allow complete control over the character, which means that I have to introduce a disclaimer, both here and in both the other character creation introductions:  (This is a relatively benign example, and the best a Zafehouse character could probably do. Also, accidentally, slightly true to life. You younguns... *Shakes head*) There is a distinct possibility your character will have traits that you do not like or agree with, such as homophobia, racism, or classism. I do not think this was amazingly well thought out, design wise, and will try various means to de-emphasise/shift this while also discussing the mechanical effects, although I do understand that it is a core theme of zombie media, and I am informed that it will still be a core theme in Zafehouse 2. Thank you in advance for not gettin' angry.  Okay, with that out of the way, character creation in Zafehouse diaries is the simplest of the three. You import a portrait, you name them, note their age, choose their education, social standing, whether they are straight or gay (Sadly, there is no bi, transgender, or nonbinary/genderqueer option, but I think we can agree that there is enough prejudice in the world without simulating transphobia too, no?), what profession they were before the apocalypse hit, and whether they are smart or strong. Random options have been added, and these can result in “neither” type options in some cases. So, here is our fearless leader, JamieTheD. He's going to die horribly, again and again, in small towns, on trains, and in space. He's a librarian, he's 34, male, and 1- African 2- Central/South Asian 3- East Asian 4- European/Generic White 5- Middle Eastern 6- Native American Bit of an odd selection in places, but there's where we are. I start the game, and see what all this actually means. What it means is that Jamie is good at searching for things, good at watching for zombies, and okay at organising, but terrible at everything else. Skill improvement does exist in the game, but honestly? With 1 star in a skill, out of 5, it's generally best not to do a thing. But what if we want to make a custom profession? Because that's an option. Well, if we do that, then we see the reason why achievements are disabled when using custom content. Because we can do this...  Just for clarity, that's maximum in all four stats, and 4/5 stars in all but one skill. Add in the fact that extra stars are going to be added for the three descriptors, and you have someone who could probably out perform the Doom Marine. We'll... Very possibly come back to this interesting profession, but for now, with the third descriptor (Investigative) picked and the job saved, we want to click the checkbox and thus turn the job off. ...For now. JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Nov 8, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 21:28
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Diary The First, Entry The First: Poor Decisions Caleb Flores, 21 years old. Unlikely to get much older. He has no schooling. He has no money. And now, he has no hope. This is the story of how, from Tuesday, November 8th at 6AM, Caleb Done hosed Up In The Zombie Apocalypse.   This first entry in our little saga is “Easy” (read: Endless) mode. Or rather, our first game, using non-custom characters (So everyone's pretty random), and demonstrating how the game works in general. Let's start with Caleb himself. As mentioned, he's uneducated, is, I'm assuming, Ancestry 5 (Middle Eastern), uneducated, and a cleaner. He's pretty fit and strong, and what this effectively means is that he's at least okay at melee (3 stars, looks like), can quickly clean out corpses (Which is good, because corpses spoil food and attract zombies), can create a distraction well (4/5 stars. My headcanon for this is because he's an rear end in a top hat, for a reason which will become clear), and the only things he sucks at that we know about are making traps and improving equipment. He also “doesn't accept gay people.” Well, gently caress you too, Caleb.  Moving swiftly on to the house we started in, there are several things to keep an eye on. The first is location. Not great. Although it may appear like an edge tile is a good idea, it means there's less options for our zombie distracting tactics, and if we attract enough zombies, we're going to have less places to run to. We do, however, have the address of another survivor, and this is good. We need more people. Whether we'll get more people is another question. We also have a map of the town. There's a lot to take in here, so let's deal with a few things. Locations come in three varieties: Houses, which have no symbol, may have survivors in, and generally have the least amount of zombies. They also tend to be the most variable in terms of what's going on with them. If a building is circled, it generally means a definitive clue of one sort or another has pointed this building out as interesting.  Two houses, one of which has a possible survivor! Secondly, we have un-named Shops and Warehouses. While these are also somewhat low in Zombieness, they're still likely to have at least some, and even “some”, in the early game, may well murder poor Caleb. The shops have a higher chance of stocking food, while the Warehouses are kind of a mystery box.  Warehouse on top, Shop below Finally, we have various kinds of Unique Building. Regardless of their function, they are nearly always crawling with zombies. Yes, even the Library. In order from top left to bottom right, they are:  A Factory.  A Police Station.  A Museum.  The Hospital, aka DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER!  The Bar. We will be heading there post-haste, because we've already established this is a “Bad decisions” update.  The School.  The Hotel.  The Church.  The Library.  The Diner.  The Bank. Each of these Unique Buildings have a special ability. But we won't be getting into that right now. All we need to know about this map, this update, is that there is a bar, we are the opposite end of the map to the bar, and there is someone who might be able to join us on the way to the bar. Now, back to the house, because if Caleb's going to go walkabout, he might as well see what he can take with him. But before he leaves forever, let's see what he's leaving behind in terms of security.  Hrm, 9 total entrances to barricade, and then possibly fortify. Enough furniture that he could probably fort up stupidly quickly if he had the right tools, and the building was fort capable. He hasn't even explored it fully, and I bet he doesn't even know how many showers it has yet (That tends to be the result of the first search action.)  He likely never will, as he has okay starting supplies. Some cards (That used to cause hideous amounts of friction before some patches), some good cooking and cleaning stuff, scrap for making traps and modifying items (Which he's going to ignore, because we've established he knows nothing of this), 9 snacks (Which really aren't going to last that long, even for him), and a 9mm handgun with 7 rounds (And you can guarantee he's not going to save one for himself. Nobody ever does.) Some of that stuff comes in handy. The cooking pot, for example, doubles as the best close combat weapon to hand (Although, at a meager 2 stars, it might not be worth it), and the stereo would come in very handy for “distracting” zombies (Read: Making a big noise or light in a location you've successfully entered, attracting shitloads of zombies, then trying to escape afterwards. Even done well, it's risky as hell.) So we want to stroll a couple of blocks to 5 Wide Court, where our potential survivor is. We want to take things with us. Unfortunately, without a bag or container of some sort, Caleb can only carry so much. When visiting a location, it's important to distinguish between the three modes.  Investigating just gives an impression of the building, risking zombie encounters in the open on the way there and back. It can occasionally be useful, especially if you're thinking about moving up to a Unique Building, and want to feel a little bit discouraged.  Breaching means, without investigating, you try and enter the building, by fair means or foul, get into a fight with any zombies inside, and either win the building for yourself (Having made some noise in the process, and thus attracted some deadheads), or die. There's no running away in this fight, folks.  Assault, similarly, is a win or die thing, but instead of dealing with the building itself, you're picking off the zombies around it. Obviously, that can be quite noisy, but if it makes an area just that little bit safer? Very possibly worth it.  So Caleb's Breaching the new home of this second survivor. They're bringing along the cooking pan, the 9mm handgun, and some snacks. Can always come back for the things, right? (Half-right. But we'll deal with that later.)  We end our turn by clicking the watch in the bottom right (For lo, each turn is an hour), and Caleb is on his way. He gets there at 7:01 am, just a moment after attempting to breach (If a survivor is in a building, and they're on your team, they'll let you in. If nobody's in a building, it's proper breaching time. In this case, it's still a breach, because they met him on the way.)  And hoo boy, he's definitely met a fellow survivor! Caleb feels the warm fuzzies as not only is Adrienne Gonzales a woman, not only is she of his ethnic group, she's a mechanic with medical supplies. He's almost certain that broken arm can be fixed (Somehow), and isn't a suspicious injury that indicates infection.  He accepts the offer of joining up, and at 8AM, they both arrive at 5 Wide Court, and break the hell in. No zombies. That's good, but since he hasn't searched the house yet, he doesn't know if there's more than one shower.  The cooking ingredients and gasoline (used to distract zombies too) are definitely a bonus. The house, however, is not. More openings need to be barricaded, and while there is more furniture, it's probably not enough for a decent job. It has some good supplies, and, while it wouldn't be a bad place to hole up, it won't be excellent.  Adrienne, on the other hand, is almost a match made in heaven for Caleb. She's around his age, at 23. She's also straight, also uneducated, also poor, and also prejudiced. Although I can forgive hating the rich much more than I can being a homophobe. She's European, but that's no problem, because Caleb isn't a racist. While she's not better at improving things than Caleb (They're both awful), she's definitely better at building barricades and cooking, and knows how to make ammo. It's not even 9AM, and already, things are looking interesting. So far, we've established that we were shepherding two ignorant and irritable assholes, one of whom has a suspicious injury on this particular run of Zafehouse Diaries. To finish this update off, we're going to be showing a little bit about orders, noise, and then we're going to send this pair of assholes to their deaths.  It's worth noting that when an order has coloured text, you can click on the coloured text to specify further or change things, such as searching specifically for medical supplies, for example. But first, Caleb and Adrienne quite sensibly come to two conclusions: That the bar is not yet “meant” to be open, and that they haven't a thing to wear. So they decide to see what the house contains. It takes them from 8am to 3pm to completely root through the house, and several things happen in the meantime.  Pictured: -4 painkillers in 4 hours. Firstly, Adrienne uses up the painkillers she had. At no point is anything useful for a broken arm found (Splints, as well as bandages, are needed for a broken arm.) She also unhappily notes that there is only one shower in the house. Over Caleb's objections, they take turns.  Caleb, over time, is becoming more suspicious and unhappy with Adrienne (Partly because relationships can get strained when working together, partly because people with injuries cause suspicion that they might be infected, but mostly because they're both assholes), and it's time to show off a core mechanic of the game: Managing relationships via rumours. Since Caleb has been (in character, as opposed to in game) ranting loudly about his hatred and fear of “Catching The Gay” (Horrid little man that he is), Adrienne decides to be equally horrible, and tell him how she ruined a man because he was gay. This backfires, and the relationship improves. (Rumours can be negative, harming relationships; positive, possibly improving relationships, while worsening others; or, as in this case, negative for a net positive result. This game is good at making you feel like a monster sometimes.)  They've also found some things. Most notable are a drill (The water and power in the town has yet to be cut off, so showers and, more importantly, power tools are still viable), some pliers, and two bits of headgear. They're not great, but they do protect the head somewhat, and that's actually kind of important. A crowbar is good for breaking into a place, and, thankfully, there is both soap and booze. Even though this house isn't ideal, that, plus the copious food, is a good start. Power tools are extremely useful for building barricades quickly, which is the best way to do so despite the noise, soap keeps you clean (and thus happy), there's a game for them to play, and they have at least one weapon.  But of course... The Bar calls. And somehow, they get lucky. 6 zombies, counting the two they murder on the way in, and none outside. The Bar usually has a weapons and tools cache, and it looks defensible. In their first hour of breaching, only Adrienne has been injured, and that was mild bruising. The next hour, however...  At 5PM, on Tuesday, November the 8th, two assholes die, unmourned. They ignored every opportunity of worth, hated each other and the world, only sustained their relationship through lies, and died trying to get a drink, unaware until they got there that the Bar would have had tools and guns. And looking at the statistics (Most of which don't matter for this run), we note that yes, Adrienne had been infected with the Zombie Bug, and just wasn't telling anyone. JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Nov 8, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 21:28
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Can't wait to see what kind of rear end in a top hat my character turns out to be.
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Nov 8, 2016 22:48
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This should be fun. Large amounts of character death always make for the fun times.
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Nov 8, 2016 22:58
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Looking forwards to this. Shame the portrait I was gonna use for my guy isn't exactly 51x51. I had such a great dude,too.
VolticSurge fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Nov 8, 2016 |
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Nov 8, 2016 23:23
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Gonna watch others get eaten by zombos while I wait to be zapped by an alien.
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Nov 9, 2016 01:13
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Holy cow looking forward to more of this lp. These games have been on my wishlist for ages but the weird stuff kept scaring me off.
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Nov 9, 2016 01:42
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This'll be fun.
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Nov 9, 2016 01:52
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I really love Screwfly's games, despite being particularly bad at them. They have great concepts and great execution of the concept, though that doesn't necessarily mean the best execution of gameplay.
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Nov 9, 2016 13:38
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Well this looks remarkably difficult and fun. Looking forward to seeing you handle these, Jamie! 
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Nov 10, 2016 00:54
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That went south rather quickly. I can wait to see how this and the other 2 games go!
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Nov 10, 2016 01:39
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I've thrown in someone to the mercy of the RNG. I can't wait to see their fate.
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Nov 10, 2016 04:33
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Definitely gonna watch this. Are you adding in any custom locations?
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Nov 10, 2016 04:54
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The problem with Screwfly games is it seems like they come up with a really good-sounding idea and then do everything possible to make it absolutely no fun at all I wanted to like Deadnaut, I really did, but it's just loving horrible to actually play
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Nov 10, 2016 05:37
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I tried Zafehouse Diaries, but... just couldn't quite find the fun. That said, I'll be watching this, and glad to see something from somebody who helped give me some good memories in my earlier LPs. 
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Nov 10, 2016 06:43
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Heh, quite a few comments along the same lines. Yeah, the Screwfly games definitely have a sharp learning curve, but this is part of why I'm doing these Let's Plays: To demystify some of it, give hints and tips, and show what parts of, for example, Deadnaut's UI you can mostly ignore. And when not to. :P Anyways, I'll be talking a little bit about difficulty in each game, why it's difficult, and for the most part, the answer will be "Denial of Information." Some stuff, it's in the manual. These aren't games where you can get away with not reading the manual. Others, such as learning about enemies by attacking them or facing them in Deadnaut, is quite deliberate. These are first encounters, and part of the challenge there is working out what works, and what doesn't. Another part is turning on the right view modes, such as NET (Network status) and LOC (Location health.) I reviewed both Deadnaut and Fear Equation (Although not Zafehouse. Maybe I should), and... Yeah, Screwfly very much focus on atmosphere, something which takes getting used to. Customisable locations are a thing in game, but I won't be taking much advantage of that because, while it's good for "This is my hometown" type stuff, or getting a bit weird (Wait, the Hospital's the Suspicious Bath-house from Persona 4? Whaaaaaa-?) , it doesn't really have any gameplay effect, and... Well, this is it, in its entirety.  You pick a picture, then you get to pick which of the buildings it represents. It has no in-game effect, it doesn't affect placement. It's just a nice touch. Although this, too, disables achievements if it's in. So, the last thing to deal with in this post is the fact that I'm going to be throwing some of you to the wolves early. Don't worry, you'll get your moment in the game of your choosing, but...  10% of our current respondents (We salute you!) are Zafehouse folks. As such, some of you are going to be thrown to the zombies, then sacrificed to the Idols when we get to Deadnaut, or put on that train to oblivion when we get to Fear Equation. If you definitely don't want that, lemme know via PMs or the Unofficial SA LP Discord Server (SALTCastle) (@JamieTheD I don't wanna be nommed on *just yet*), and I'll not put you in Zafehouse. Next update in a couple of days, so plenty of time.
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Nov 10, 2016 10:32
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I'm okay with being killed multiple ways. I just signed up for aliens because it's different than zombies. And honestly, I thought there would be a few more entries...
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Nov 10, 2016 16:20
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I think the difficulty presents an interesting take on the whole zombie horror thing. While most stories show ordinary people transforming into awesome shitwreckers in the wake of a giant catastrophe, the more likely option is that people are just going to be incompetent idiots and die in embarrassing ways.
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Nov 10, 2016 18:44
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I don't mind being chucked into whatever, though Deadnaut is my favourite of Screwfly's games.
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Nov 10, 2016 19:33
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I applied for zombies, if you could kind of swing so I hate rich people I'd be ok with that but whatever works.
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Nov 10, 2016 21:50
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I also applied for zombie death, but would take any of them really.
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Nov 11, 2016 02:01
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Zafehouse is a weird game. Every single drat time I tried playing, the only competent person in the lot is someone the rest of the crew HATES and promptly murders.
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Nov 11, 2016 13:57
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I played some of Zafehouse, mechanically and in content it actually interests me a lot. But the unforgiving nature of it as well as the vaguely depressing aspects kind of made me stop. Looking forward to someone competent at the game showing it off.
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Nov 11, 2016 15:43
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My application, adorable be their name, is honestly good for anything. I just chose what I did because I had to choose one specifically.
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Nov 12, 2016 03:32
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I'm up for whatever. If it's Zafehouse Diaries , eat the rich. Thanks for LPing these - I like the idea, but I'm usually to chickenshit to deal with the tension and play.
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Nov 12, 2016 05:53
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JamieTheD posted:the Doom Marine. Thanks for the character idea. Signed up for the zombies but any and everything would be appropriate.
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Nov 13, 2016 03:26
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my dad posted:Zafehouse is a weird game. Every single drat time I tried playing, the only competent person in the lot is someone the rest of the crew HATES and promptly murders. The trick to Zafehouse is dividing people into teams. There are two things that make a good team: 1) Everyone has at least 2 pips in what they're doing 2) The team should have at least yellow relationships with one another Maxing out pips is less important than making a cohesive team, they'll get more done anyway. Certain smaller jobs (like upgrading equipment) can be done fine alone, though. The trick of a cohesive team is that as they continue to have positive interactions with one another, eventually they'll be getting along so well that everyone will get relationship bonuses. You can prime the well as it were with rumors, but the point is to get at least two pairs of people solid green with one another so they start spreading the good cheer by simply existing.
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Nov 13, 2016 07:21
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Sent a victim request as Tafferling, the cat lover space marine.
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Nov 13, 2016 14:28
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Working on the update now, showing how you can get by in an "Easy" run, and a few things I'd forgotten have cropped up. 1) It's not necessarily the first survivor you make that's going to be the first survivor, so congratulations Choco Chunk for being the final hope of Humanity this time around! 2) Sometimes, you luck out. 4 days and counting, due to the hero of the run, the angle grinder. ( although that doesn't necessarily mean there aren't ups and downs. Let's just say I'm a bit bold at times.  )3) Several things will be demoed, from proper breaching, to rumour mongering, to the value of Power Tools! Just thought I'd keep you posted. Custom Survivors seen so far: Choco Chunk (Our Hero) - Ancestry 1, Claims not to be a racist  Jamie The D - Ancestry 4, Claims not to hate the Middle Classes. Image not needed, I'm in the first post. Custom survivors still to be met: John Doomguy (Ancestry 4)  Dan (Ancestry 4)  Circl Mastr (Ancestry 4)  (With apologies to Liam Sharp, Comic artist, for zombie nommings.)
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Nov 14, 2016 10:51
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Haha, I was JUST considering going through the signup. Guess I don't have to anymore! I've never heard of these games for the record, so this should be neat.
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Nov 14, 2016 16:27
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Diary The Second, Entry The First: This Time, With Feeling(s)! The Final Diary of Zachary Wilson, who you may remember as Count Choco-Chunk. Not that it really seems to matter anymore...  ...Everything's gone to hell. First, they bring Nixon back. Then, I lose my job as Count Choco-Chunk... “We need a new image”, they told me. Bullshit. God-drat white folks just want to paint their fence the way they like it, gently caress 'em. ...And then, in the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere (No, really, that's what the town was called), it happened. Way I hear it, it was happening everywhere else, too, but it's kinda hard to tell, what with communications being sporadic as hell since The Outbreak. Anyway... ...Zombies. Things that used to be corny as hell, but it's hard not to take something that can take a hammer to the head and still claw your rear end seriously. Guess it's time to see how a true blue African American handles this poo poo.  So... This house I'm holed up in isn't too great. Too many ways in, not enough furniture. But maybe, if I look for tools, I can luck out. Maybe the poor sap who used to live here used to do woodwork or something. I can only hope. Hope that I'm not ambushed by some deadhead, and hope that I can rifle through this place quickly. There's a hint there might be someone I can meet up with a few blocks over, but I'm not leaving until I'm happy. Still on “Easy” mode, but this time, I'm going to show you how to survive a little bit longer. With luck, we may even make the 7 Days achievement... Or rather, we would, if we weren't using Custom Survivors. Oh well, this is a fair general guide anyway!  So, generally speaking, you're going to start somewhere a bit poo poo. With 13 potential entrances, we might as well mark this house “Deathtrap” and move on (Sadly, something the game doesn't allow us to do.)  However, the Search order has some coloured text, and, while the screenshot doesn't show the pop up, the options are “Anything useful” (Default), “Tools and weapons” (The one we're picking, for reasons which will become clear), “Food and Cooking Supplies”, and “Medical Supplies.” Depending on how your supplies have started, you'll probably want to specialise in your search. Unless, of course, you have someone crap at searching. Thankfully, ol' Choco Chunk here is pretty good. Just in his first hour, he finds a crowbar (Good for assaults and breaches, breaking up furniture... But a bit unwieldy to be a proper weapon), a dumb-bell (Good for buffing Strength and boosting mood somewhat), a flashlight (Good for searching, which you'll bet he immediately starts using, because the AI will generally use the best equipment they can use. More on that when it's relevant), and a mop (Good, of course, for speeding up the cleaning of corpses.)  For seven hours, he roots through the house from top to bottom (As quietly as possible), and along the way, he finds several godsends... Most of which he doesn't realise are godsends. A Fire Axe, for example, is excellent at breaching, while Cooking Ingredients are pretty much the only thing you're going to get, food supplies wise, that can actually feed people (Snacks are short term food. Meals, whether small or large, require cooking supplies and cooking tools to make. Keep this in mind, always.)  Instead, he decides to take the handgun (Because you never know when you might get ammo, and sniping zombies is an acceptable, lowish risk means of cutting their numbers down), a hammer (for reasons which will become clear), a Fire Axe (For good breaching), a Flashlight (For signalling other survivors and watching for zombies at night), and some bandages. The cooking ingredients get left behind, despite Choco being a big burly man, because food can be found. Decent tools, on the other hand, are gold, the Fire Axe alone being worth 4 cooking ingredients in weight, or one to two small meals, but will allow quick access to so many more cooking ingredients, given a chance. Now, in a sense, we've lucked out, because, as an Athlete, Choco Chunk is capable in both breaching and zombie hacking, and, thanks to being Practical, can also feed himself and others. So, thus armed, he goes to meet this second survivor, and hopefully a better house.  3PM, November 14th: Met Danielle Jackson. She seemed familiar somehow, but all that really mattered was that she wasn't white, she didn't seem like an rear end in a top hat, and she seemed like good company. It'd be nice to swap recipes with someone, feel normal for a while, and as a Chef, she seemed cool. She's got this thing about “freeloaders”, which I'm not entirely on board with, but since I know I'm gonna pull my weight, I don't think we're gonna have any problems. This house seems marginally better than the one I left an hour or two ago. No deadheads, two showers, and it seemed like there'd be food here. Danielle, it seems, was a sensible lady. Just to be sure we get along, though, I'm gonna tell her about the charity acting and football outreach stuff I had going. Couldn't hurt to keep team morale high.   Here, we already get a look at how Custom Survivors work: Erratically. Rather than being put at the top of the pool, Custom Survivors are simply added to the pool, so we're going to be seeing more generated survivors than not. Nonetheless, Danielle's not a bad person. Not great, but definitely not bad. We also start to use rumours positively, as Choco Chunk has wisely decided to use the up sides to ensure relationships are good.  In any case, the house is fairly defensible, although it can't, like most houses, be fortified, and the survivors attempt to take advantage of the low zombie spawn in the first day to search the house before attempting to barricade.  ...It doesn't quite work. At 6PM, the first encounter of the game begins, and we see the importance of several factors. First up, barricades: There weren't any. With no defenses, zombies will just stroll right into the house and attempt to gently caress your poo poo up. Second up, spotters: Choco and Danielle were too busy looting (With Choco having a slight edge there, at 3 stars to Danielle's 2) to spot. Tools are important, and mostly seem to be on a “First to hand” basis in home invasions, with Danielle taking the Fire Axe, and Choco taking the handgun. Finally, relationships. If the relationship between folks is good, then one person will take the lead, and the others will follow, having a coherent plan. I don't think I need to tell you that splitting up is potentially a bad idea, but that's okay, because we'll have demonstrations of that... Soon enough. In any case, two zombies, with two well equipped survivors with a plan, doesn't cause a single hitch. However, in order to ensure they don't get caught with their metaphorical pants down, Choco decides to keep watch while Danielle loots the house (Slightly less efficiently.)  (Blue circle my addition.) The spotting sort of helps... And sort of doesn't. Only an hour later, two things happen: First up, a mobile home pulls up outside 4 Quarter Lane, and a group of survivors come begging for food, nebulously offering help. They don't look hostile, but they don't look strong either. Choco decides to give them most of the food they have, and they trundle off.  One nice touch with this game is that the diary/map/papers get somewhat darker at night, to simulate... Well, it getting darker! Unfortunately, the noise attracted a couple more zombies. Now, here's where it gets a bit weird. Notice how Choco and Danielle withdrew to the basement, but most of the fighting was in the Main Bedroom. Answers on a postcard as to why this happens. Still, fast forward a couple of hours, and the house has been completely searched, and the bodies have been ditched outside. Really, that should have been done as quickly as possible, because corpses do two things in Zafehouse Diaires: First up, they attract zombies. Secondly, and more importantly, over time, they spoil food, and the mood of the people inside the same house. I'd gone from green to yellow again thanks to this morale hit (“Why ain'tcha clearin' this house, Choco?  ” “Spottin' fer zombies, lemme the hell alone! ”) , but something more important had happened. Power tools. Remember, if you've got power tools, you're automatically a leg up on the competition. Now, the real survival can begin... Next time. Day 1 (6AM – 9PM) Tally Current Survivors Choco Chunk (32, African American, Athlete, Somewhat Racist) Danielle Jackson (30, African American, Chef, Hates Freeloaders) Deceased Survivors None at the present time Building Status 2 Houses explored, 1 Occupied, 0 Barricaded, 0 Fortified. Zombie Attacks 2 Invasions, 4 Zombies. Repelled, no injuries. 1 Breach, 0 Zombies.
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Nov 14, 2016 19:49
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JamieTheD posted:Unfortunately, the noise attracted a couple more zombies. Now, here's where it gets a bit weird. Notice how Choco and Danielle withdrew to the basement, but most of the fighting was in the Main Bedroom. Answers on a postcard as to why this happens. My theory is that before they could get to the basement, the zombies found them in the main bedroom. Alternatively, the main bedroom is in the basement.
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Nov 14, 2016 20:04
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I vote spatial distortion in the house. The apocalypse is weird like that.
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Nov 14, 2016 20:30
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DoubleNegative posted:Alternatively, the main bedroom is in the basement. Choco Chunk didn't choose the NEET life, the NEET life chose Choco Chunk.
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Nov 14, 2016 20:32
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Did I read right that we can add multiple characters? Also wasn't Dan the guy who helped Herbert West in the movie?
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Nov 14, 2016 21:47
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Just submitted a character and got REALLY uncomfortable with myself when facing what by Zafehouse bigotry would be.
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Nov 14, 2016 23:04
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White Coke posted:Did I read right that we can add multiple characters? Also wasn't Dan the guy who helped Herbert West in the movie? poo poo, you're right. It's been that long since I saw Re-Animator, I'd forgotten about Dan Cain. My bad, folks, just assume you've got a slightly more butch nerd in place of the infinitely hotter Jeffrey Combs! JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 23:12 on Nov 14, 2016 |
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Nov 14, 2016 23:10
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 00:08 |
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(For the record, I'm nothing like Choco Chunk irl.)
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Nov 14, 2016 23:56
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