State of Decay 2: Midwest Simulator

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > State of Decay 2: Midwest Simulator

ZeusCannon: Nov 5, 2009; BLAAAAAARGH PLEASE KILL ME BLAAAAAAAARGH; Grimey Drawer

Man some of the tiny bases can balance things so well. I know you end up using outposts for beds but thats not a terrible thing when you have no demands on your supplies.

# ? May 17, 2020 14:43

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 03:36

marshmallow creep: Dec 10, 2008; I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

Bounty progress does not reset when starting new runs, changing difficulties or migrating maps.

# ? May 17, 2020 14:43

Mailer: Nov 4, 2009; Have you accepted The Void as your lord and savior?

Things I've brought to every game: signal booster, rifle ammo press, heavy ammo press, fertilizer, anti-materiel rifles, good 5.56 rifles (or 7.62 if that's the way you went), any forged/wacky melee, comfy chair, plague gift boxes. Remaining slots are usually books though I never wind up using them. :/

There's probably entirely different priorities for power/water until you get the builder boon and everything locks into place 30 minutes after you start a map.

# ? May 17, 2020 16:45

marshmallow creep: Dec 10, 2008; I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

I prefer white noise machine to comfy chair once I have the builder boon. I tend to bring vehicle kits as well.

# ? May 17, 2020 17:23

TheAnomaly: Feb 20, 2003

Twlight posted:

ah alright, cool I assume then as well bounty progress also resets?

Bounty progress never resets. Once a bounty is done it's done and you can continue to buy the item with influence across all your playthroughs (until that bounty pack cycles out).

EDIT: All my Red Talon characters have one of each red talon building (except the CLEO drop because I don't use it). Then the rest of their inventory is their primary weapon with a prof. silencer, two stacks of ammo, 1 stack of grenades, 1 stack of C4, 1 stack of pain pills, 1 stack of plague cure.

My non-RT characters are more diverse, I usually bring 1 RT, one person who has facility mods as their backpack inventory (try to bring signal booster, white noise machine, rifle and handgun ammo presses, compost bins, then two stacks of parts, 1 stack of plague samples, 1 stack of chems. 1 stack of bleach. They don't bring ammo or pain pills, if they have an extra pocket from their wits spec. then I'll give them an extra hiking pack. I tend to do this loadout on people whose community skill is utilities, computers, medicine, or chemistry based.

My other non-RT setup has good weapons - I try to bring 1 .50 cal and any related ammo, my best grenade launcher and any related ammo, then a couple of good assault rifles and 1-2 stacks of the related ammo. I save the last 4 slots for grenades/c4. This goes on everyone I plan on transferring who doesn't have the aforementioned fifth skills.

Since they also bring their rucks, my ruck order is usually Ammo > Mats > Meds > Food just because that's usually what I need the most of at the beginning (and you never know if your first/second recruit are going to even come with a gun or not, you'll probably have to put presses to work early if you didn't bring a bunch of small arms with a variety of ammo).

TheAnomaly fucked around with this message at 21:33 on May 17, 2020

# ? May 17, 2020 21:24

Twlight: Feb 18, 2005; I brag about getting free drinks from my boss to make myself feel superior; Fun Shoe

<all the amazing info>

Thank you everyone! I moved everyone across and am using the builder specialization now for my next play through. I've got another builder and a trader. Should i promote the trader to leader this run through so I can have two boons? Or would it be better to have a secondary builder for subsequent runs?

# ? May 18, 2020 01:21

Mailer: Nov 4, 2009; Have you accepted The Void as your lord and savior?

You want to have your leader be one that you don't have a boon for until you've unlocked all the boons and then it doesn't matter. After you've got all the unlocks it's purely stats deciding who you want to keep.

# ? May 18, 2020 02:15

Coolguye: Jul 6, 2011; Required by his programming!

It's worth bringing a stack of parts, chemicals, etc if you ask me. 99 chemicals is more than you're going to need for critical path purposes (crap like getting the infirmary up) and it means you can skip searching for that stuff explicitly, which can be quite a big deal on harder difficulty levels.

On a similar note, bring plague cure to Nightmare zones. Preferably in its bulk form.

# ? May 18, 2020 08:03

TheAnomaly: Feb 20, 2003

Coolguye posted:

It's worth bringing a stack of parts, chemicals, etc if you ask me. 99 chemicals is more than you're going to need for critical path purposes (crap like getting the infirmary up) and it means you can skip searching for that stuff explicitly, which can be quite a big deal on harder difficulty levels.

On a similar note, bring plague cure to Nightmare zones. Preferably in its bulk form.

quick note on this: if you're using an RT member, bulk cure doesn't stack, so you can bring more cures in their pockets than you can in a bulk cure. Same if they have skills that let them stack more than 4 consumables. These survivors make great mules for any kind of consumable.

# ? May 18, 2020 08:25

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Update 17 Patch Notes

quote:

Gameplay
The basic Shooting skill now awards improvements to Reload Speed.

This means that Gunslinging specialists are no longer the only ones who can manage to reload an AK-47 without fumbling the magazine.

Survivors with Gunslinging can still get far quicker at reloading than everyone else (and their maximum is still the same). The baseline is just higher for all experienced shooters.

You still want Gunslinging if you�re packing the Eternal Guard�s Infinite Rage � not that you ever really need to reload that one.

Last month, we fixed some problems that cropped up when fighting juggernauts with guns. This month, we�re extending that fix to melee weapons.

Hitting a juggernaut in the back now does more damage than hitting it in the front.

Hitting a juggernaut while staggered now damages it properly.

Weapon impact now makes a major difference. Heavy weapons are over three times as useful against juggernauts as close combat weapons!

Don�t try stabbing a juggernaut to death with a screwdriver unless you�re looking for a bad time.

Some weapon balance was done to help clarify the differences here. Specifically, heavy weapons (especially heavy blunt weapons) are now far and away the hardest hitters.

The Bell Club, Persian Meel, CLEO Mace, CLEO Hammer, and CLEO Greathammer have had their impact reduced to ensure that heavy weapons can fulfill their role as the heaviest of weapons.

The CLEO Greathammer had it�s swing cost reduced to compensate, since it�s primary strength is impact. It�s still top of the charts for blunt weapons.

Gas cans and toolkits now work 50% faster than before. You still don�t want to use them in the middle of a fight, but you also won�t want to claw your eyes out by the time they�re done.

Advanced toolkits are unchanged. Because standard toolkits got faster, the advanced toolkits are now only about five times as quick, instead of the usual eight.

Rapidly opening and closing the Supply Locker no longer locks your character in a search animation.

Using the Interact button to finish a zombie now takes priority over a whole host of other interactions, not just container searches. This means you�re less likely to enter a vehicle or start a conversation when you�d rather be busy snuffing zeds.

It is now much easier to find those last few outfits and hats you�re looking for, as the random selection process is no longer making invisible fruitless attempts to offer you outfits you�ve already unlocked.

AI
AI-controlled humans now engage more thoughtfully in combat, making better decisions about weapon use, staying focused when surrounded by zombies, and responding appropriately to freaks.

AI-controlled followers will now prioritize getting into the car when you�re trying to beat a hasty retreat from combat, instead of going for just one � more � kill.

Zombies near a player�s base will no longer be inexplicably drawn inside to cause unnecessary fights.

Zombies, especially hordes and freaks, now also do a better job at avoiding safe zones of all types.

Knocking the helmet off an armored zombie no longer attracts attention from other zombies.

Morale
Twice a day, characters with morale of Stable or higher now have a chance of finding extra resources each day, finding useful items, or finding weapons.

Twice a day, characters with morale of Cheerful or higher may provide a variety of bonuses to the community, including morale boosts to all members of the community, resources, items, etc.

and a whole bunch more. I think this is a good update overall.

e: oh yeah and you get free outfits just by logging in

quote:

Logo Ninja Hoodie: There�s just one way to make the ninja hoodie more awesome: by adding the logo of your favorite zombie survival game! You can unlock this outfit in your Closet by logging into the game between May 19, 2020 and June 28, 2020.

Undead Green Cattleman Hat: Now this is a hat that shows your true commitment to celebrating. Just like the Logo Ninja Hoodie, everyone who logs into the game between May 19, 2020 and June 28, 2020 receives this hat as a free gift!

StrixNebulosa fucked around with this message at 10:39 on May 19, 2020

# ? May 19, 2020 10:32

pantslesswithwolves: Oct 28, 2008; Ba-dam ba-DUMMMMMM

New patch is good and game continues to be even more fun.

I think this has happened to all of us at some point, but I do feel genuinely creeped out when I have a mission involving a hostile human faction whose base spawns right by a plague heart. The whole thing feels very creepy and almost Lovecraftian or something, like they�re worshipping or guarding the heart from people like me.

Also I�ve been having such a good time playing on Dread I don�t think I can go back to playing standard at any point soon.

# ? Jun 7, 2020 20:17

marshmallow creep: Dec 10, 2008; I've been sitting here for 5 mins trying to think of a joke to make but I just realised the animators of Mass Effect already did it for me

I finally got my 100 days in Dread or higher challenge done. Closed out by doing the builder legacy and surrounding the hostile survivors with C4 before talking to them. Easy life.

# ? Jun 7, 2020 21:37

Nitis: Mar 22, 2003; Amused? I think not.

New update today.
3.1 Gigs

Link

Undead Labs posted:

Increased fuel capacity for all vehicles
Increased resource storage for all bases
Easier-to-find containers in secured buildings
Improved follower behaviors against juggernauts and plague hearts
Tabs on the inventory screen to ease navigation

Undead Labs posted:

Welcome to the Green Zone!
Enemies deal less damage
Your Stamina lasts longer in a fight
Freak zombies are much rarer
Crafting items and building facilities is cheaper
Rucksacks provide more resources
Scavenging delivers more weapons and skill books

Undead Labs posted:

It�s a Pirate�s Life for You
Sea Dog Blunderbuss: Some call this short-range shotgun-style weapon the original horde stopper.
Spyglass Rifle: With a .50 caliber rifle like this elegant beauty, you can brave the darkest waters without need for a bigger boat.
Dead Man�s Cutlass: This marvelous bladed weapon is just what you need to take arms against a sea of thieves. I mean troubles.
Bilge Rat Shovel: It may not look like much, but this handy blunt weapon has plenty of �digging� left in it yet.
Buccaneer Bandanna: This handy piece of headgear bears the insignia of the mysterious Order of Souls!
Naval Tricorne: It�s the hat that plundered a thousand ships.
Pirate Jacket: This tattered coat has seen more than its share of pillaging.
Kraken Hoodie: Terrifying monsters inspire the most attractive outfits.
Megalodon: A gorgeous muscle car modeled after the legendary marine predator.

Undead Labs posted:

Gameplay

You can now see all the containers in a building once the site has been completely secured, to address the frustrating experience of failing to find that one last container. (This ability was previously reserved for Scouting specialists. Scouts still keep their loot-and-scoot advantage, as they can spot containers without having to kill every zombie in the building first.)

We raised the fuel capacity of all vehicles by 40%. Gas cans still contain the same amount of fuel as before, so it now takes more cans to fill a vehicle � but you can stock up and drive around longer without refueling!

The right-side panels (Inventory, Skills, and Radio) now feature tabs, so it is much easier to navigate between them, and for new players to discover that the Skills and Radio panels exist at all.
They�re not technically tabs, visually. They�re little button things. But they work like tabs.

We improved the way your survivor determines when they can interact with items in the environment, checking both the character facing and the camera facing to determine your intent.

Minor accidental noises from stumbling or falling short distances no longer attract zombie attention.

Combat

Pump-action shotguns no longer take durability damage, and are effectively indestructible like revolvers and bolt-action rifles, to help balance their slower rate of fire.

Your survivor now moves forward slightly when swinging a heavy weapon at an enemy just outside their reach, to avoid frustrating near misses, especially right after knocking a zombie back.

We increased bonus melee damage to juggernauts from behind from +20% to +40%, to make it more worth the risk of trying to get behind them.

We fixed a bug that could cause your survivor to get hung up on their own ally while attempting to charge and attack a zombie.

Followers

Followers now engage more intelligently with the larger enemies (juggernauts and plague hearts).

In most circumstances, they should now use guns when appropriate and avoid area-effect attacks more rationally.

Followers now prioritize human threats a little higher than zombie threats, because hostile humans are scary.

Followers wielding shotguns and fully-automatic weapons now experience projectile spread like normal people, instead of every pellet in a shotgun shell parading directly into their target in single file.

We made it possible for community events to check if a given character is your follower, so that we don�t have followers claiming to have run off and collected supplies or something while you were staring right at them.

Base Management

We�ve increased the capacity of all Storage facilities by 10 for every resource. This should reduce resource storage pressure, especially during the early game.

You can now check community members into the Infirmary to speed up the removal of partial infections (prior to full-blown blood plague). This was a thing that many players assumed should be possible, so now it is.

This effect stacks with the benefits of the Sanitizing Machine and the Cleaning Station.

Finding a new map via the upgraded Command Center no longer has a cost associated with it. This should remove some friction from the process of switching maps.

In Green Zones only, if you keep your Morale at 10 or higher, new potential recruits will show up at your base once per day and offer to join your community.

This should hasten the process of acquiring new people for your community, though we�re deliberately making these fairly average folks with no dramatically awesome or terrible traits.

Nitis fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Jun 24, 2020

# ? Jun 24, 2020 21:53

moist turtleneck: Jul 17, 2003; Represent.; Dinosaur Gum

the new update is causing really bad hitching on the xbonx right now it seems

https://i.imgur.com/x1VKVBl.gifv

# ? Jun 28, 2020 18:48

Nitis: Mar 22, 2003; Amused? I think not.

I'm on PC, and I've noticed that I have started to get weird frame pauses and skips, as well. I've updated my video drivers, per Steam forum suggestions, and it only got slightly better. Still very difficult for me to play.

There's already been one hot-fix, so I hope there's another one soon that resolves this issue.

# ? Jul 8, 2020 16:44

Basic Chunnel: Sep 21, 2010; Jesus! Jesus Christ! Say his name! Jesus! Jesus! Come down now!

I haven�t experienced any changes, what sort of GPU are you running with

# ? Jul 8, 2020 17:28

Nitis: Mar 22, 2003; Amused? I think not.

Basic Chunnel posted:

I haven�t experienced any changes, what sort of GPU are you running with

My laptop is running a GTX 1060. It's run the game just fine, up until the last week. I did just move to Denver, and I'm sharing an internet connection, but I wouldn't think that would affect framerates would it?

# ? Jul 8, 2020 18:30

moist turtleneck: Jul 17, 2003; Represent.; Dinosaur Gum

Yeah the xbonx had a patch that helped quite a bit but drat I had extremely lucky timing to run into that since I hadn't played in months

# ? Jul 9, 2020 00:00

TheAnomaly: Feb 20, 2003

Nitis posted:

My laptop is running a GTX 1060. It's run the game just fine, up until the last week. I did just move to Denver, and I'm sharing an internet connection, but I wouldn't think that would affect framerates would it?

The green zone patch introduced a stuttering problem; I believe it is supposed to be hotfixed soon.

# ? Jul 9, 2020 01:22

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

I fell off a slight hill in my car and got lodged against a tree. Almost had it flipped back over when a Juggernaut charged it, lighting it on fire, while a Bloater appeared from nowhere and covered it in gross disease so now I'm dying and my car is completely on fire. It blows up 60 feet from my base, I get out on fire and manage to pick myself up from death but then immediately go down again because I'm still on fire and I die so now I'm mad at the game.

The option to Exile someone didn't exist; I wanted to get rid of my Gardener, as I already had someone with Hydroponics. Guess which one just died!

# ? Jul 16, 2020 02:31

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

https://streamable.com/oyd7en

I'm less mad at the game today.

# ? Jul 17, 2020 01:59

Nitis: Mar 22, 2003; Amused? I think not.

TheAnomaly posted:

The green zone patch introduced a stuttering problem; I believe it is supposed to be hotfixed soon.

My community got jumped by three blood jugs (Brand new community in nightmare difficulty), and I lost count of how many hordes, today. I lost two of my five survivors, and I feel I could have done better if I wasn't still fighting this frame stutter problem.

I hope this does get fixed soon, or I might be done with the game for awhile.

# ? Jul 21, 2020 06:26

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

Managed to get the Trader legacy boon on Nightmare with the help of a friend. Now I can aren't the 100 Day Nightmare achievement.

# ? Jul 21, 2020 12:45

Nitis: Mar 22, 2003; Amused? I think not.

Getting Trader makes that cheevo much easier. I'm going to get the Sheriff legacy and earn that achievement, as well.

# ? Jul 21, 2020 16:19

El Seven: Jan 15, 2012

State of Decay 3 just announced.

# ? Jul 23, 2020 17:24

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

El Seven posted:

State of Decay 3 just announced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0dWuznjIaU

# ? Jul 23, 2020 17:27

moist turtleneck: Jul 17, 2003; Represent.; Dinosaur Gum

the state of decay 3 reveal was the only cool thing in that "Xbox Exclusive" stream that just finished

I want that scream button

# ? Jul 23, 2020 17:58

Nitis: Mar 22, 2003; Amused? I think not.

I am low-key excited for this. We knew it was in the works when Microsoft acquired Undead Labs. With any luck, it's being developed for PC and Xbox together, rather than getting a half-baked port.

There will likely be more info coming out in the next week, or so.

# ? Jul 23, 2020 20:06

Drakenel: Dec 2, 2008; The glow is a guide, my friend. Though it falls to you to avert catastrophe, you will never fight alone.

Nitis posted:

I am low-key excited for this. We knew it was in the works when Microsoft acquired Undead Labs. With any luck, it's being developed for PC and Xbox together, rather than getting a half-baked port.

There will likely be more info coming out in the next week, or so.

Low key excited is probably the best. It still is a giant publisher acquiring a small studio so... cautious optimism at best.

# ? Jul 23, 2020 20:23

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Unless they completely make a hash of things I'm willing to preorder 3 purely on the strength of how much fun I got out of 2.

# ? Jul 23, 2020 20:46

Morter: Jul 1, 2006; Seashells by the
Seashorpheus

Goddamn it i barely played 2 and 3's already announced :negative:

# ? Jul 23, 2020 21:37

Sab Sabbington: Sep 18, 2016; In my restless dreams I see that town...

Flagstaff, Arizona

StrixNebulosa posted:

Unless they completely make a hash of things I'm willing to preorder 3 purely on the strength of how much fun I got out of 2.

Same.

I'm excited to hit zombie deer with my truck at full speed only for it to send me spiraling 300 feet into the air while simultaneously breaking the sound barrier.

# ? Jul 23, 2020 22:16

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

I'm cautiously excited. 2 is a lot of fun but it really feels like a 1.5 to me, and kept a lot of the annoying jank from the first time like controls. I'm sure I'll buy it regardless.

# ? Jul 24, 2020 00:12

Ham Sandwiches: Jul 7, 2000

I hope that for SOD3 they find better ways to leverage Unreal Engine 4 (or whatever they use for the sequel), a way better netcode, and maybe experiment with the mission pacing stuff a bunch.

The people that I tried to get into SOD2 had issues with the constant radio chatter asking for help and interrupting your flow with time limited missions (a carryover complaint people had from SOD1 base game), and really weird netcode with any latency causing hilarious rubber-banding and really ungraceful client drops.

I hope they find a bit more "deeprock galactic" type pacing where the fun is slowly driving/going somewhere, scouting an area, securing your objective, and zombie waves being actually significant. Somehow with SOD2 I'm constantly doing these very short supply runs because everything is limited. Inventory is super limited. Trunk space is super limited. So the low amount of stuff means more trips and less danger during any given run. My ideal SOD would be closer to deeprocks "20-40 minute per mission" type pacing with better payouts than SODs "a supply run is 2-5 minutes"

Either way it will be a while and hope it's fun.

# ? Jul 24, 2020 00:20

Mailer: Nov 4, 2009; Have you accepted The Void as your lord and savior?

It's hard to figure out what I'd even want from a third game aside from being SoD2 but with more and better.

One of the few things (that was intended and not just buggy) I disliked was that aside from Container Fort, or extreme car parking effort elsewhere, you never really secured a home. Every location was just a temporary hovel until you beat the hearts and your quest. I wouldn't mind if they removed the base idea entirely and just let you turn captured points into small defended outposts. Either go all in on having a home base or don't, but doing it halfway didn't feel good on later playthroughs.

Multiplayer feels like it'd be a good place to expand on, though I don't know how they'd do it. Co-op is fun but the rewards for non-host players were usually junk unless you pushed it out to a marathon session. Burning through all my ammo in a friend's game and coming back to find two blenders and some handgun bullets wasn't a great feeling.

# ? Jul 24, 2020 02:57

Sab Sabbington: Sep 18, 2016; In my restless dreams I see that town...

Flagstaff, Arizona

Admiral Joeslop posted:

I'm sure I'll buy it regardless.

Since they're a first party dev now, too, it'll get auto-added to game pass when it launches which should take the sting away if it, somehow, ends up being Not Good(TM).

# ? Jul 24, 2020 03:43

Back Hack: Jan 17, 2010

FYI, Undead Labs hasn't even started developing SoD3, this is Microsoft marketing something that doesn't exist. The entire Showcase was Scalebound 2.0

# ? Jul 24, 2020 18:15

Admiral Joeslop: Jul 8, 2010

Back Hack posted:

FYI, Undead Labs hasn't even started developing SoD3, this is Microsoft marketing something that doesn't exist. The entire Showcase was Scalebound 2.0

My guess of "Early 2022" sounds much more wrong then

# ? Jul 24, 2020 21:24

TheAnomaly: Feb 20, 2003

Back Hack posted:

FYI, Undead Labs hasn't even started developing SoD3, this is Microsoft marketing something that doesn't exist. The entire Showcase was Scalebound 2.0

I don't know where you get your information, but if you've been following the UL's devblogs for SoD2 they have several people who just dropped off the face of the planet about a year ago in terms of coming into the streams or being mentioned in streams as having done stuff and it's been pretty obvious that SoD3 was in, at the every least, the planning stages of development for a while. We'll likely hear about where they actually are development wise on Monday's stream.

# ? Jul 25, 2020 01:22

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# ? Apr 20, 2024 03:36

Back Hack: Jan 17, 2010

Just speculation because this is old hat for Microsoft advertisement, they do it every E3, where they will create trailers and announcements long before developers have finished conceptional a game or tech. Forcing those same developers to change projects to fit that marketing, whether it's a deadline, features, or even the whole game itself. There is a reason 90% of the game they announced were CGI trailers and not demos or gameplay trailers.

If it is, great, but I don't think we'll see anything concrete even as early as 2023 or even 24.

# ? Jul 25, 2020 02:18

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