State of decay 2 is out?! Oh...

[meiam]

So state of decay 2 is out today, awesome right? No, not really, you need to get it trough the windows store, that means a) you need win 10 (not a problem for me but still a pain) and you need to make one more account with one more service that will inevitably get hacked at some point so you'll need to change password again and so on.

Look, I don't really like steam, the UI is awful and the system is full of bug (on one of my computer it constantly randomly forget my account so I have to log back in all the time and my password is some gibberish mess of letter and number so that's a pita). But I hate having my games being spread out over 10 different stores, cause I inevitably forget some. I just brought assassin creed black flag on greenmangaming (yeah it's another website, cause buying games straight from steam is apparently too simple so you need to pay extra for that privilege, but at least they were smart and you can log in straight away with your steam account) and realized too late that this means the game could only be redeemed on uplay, so I probably won't remember that in 1-2 years when I'll get around to playing it.

So state of decay 2 dev/publisher, you'd have a sales today if you were on steam... but instead I'll probably forget all about you soon enough and won't play you ever.

 

[meiam]

Don't use it myself but this might help you out with managing your games across several services

https://playnite.link/

Spoiler: a screenshot

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Windows 10 store is awful, I'm only playing SoD2 because I got the game pass for like 1.5 bucks last month. I downloaded it at 12am when it was released and it wouldn't start, I got to the splash screen before the game just closed down, then it randomly started working 10 hours later.

The game will probably get a release on steam at a later date just like Dead Rising 4 and Halo Wars 1.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

When I heard State of Decay 2 would have coop multiplayer I was pretty jazzed. Then I saw it, and it looks like one of the worst multiplayer experiences possible.

What a shame. Hope they patch it, because at the moment it looks like only the host can progress any quests, and all the loot is color coded to different people, so you can never split up and do separate tasks.

It's like they tried their best to make the coop as annoying as possible.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

Saw it, not in a hurry to get it, especially since I'm still on Win 7.

I've plenty of mileage to get out of modded SoD 1 still.

Maybe for the best, I don't need GamerGate getting any more reason to throw me out of a helicopter for supporting these SJW projects anyway.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I loved the first one. Sorry to see its only for PC and Xbone. My lappy is on the outs right now, will probably get a new one by month's end, and have a PS4. Still I have SpaceHulk Deathwing, so I'm happy!

 

[Elijin]

I've played it a bit.

My first experience with PC / XB1 cross play. Was....pretty smooth? If the other players hadnt told me in voice chat they were PC players, I never even would have been aware it has cross play.


As for the game.... I have no previous experiences to draw on, nor any real love for the endless survival loop gameplay genre. But....seems solid? I dont know, maybe Im not a judge, without any real peers in my wheelhouse to base it against.

Short of having friends keep me coming back, I dont see long term play, but as I said, not my genre. The co-op being a passing stranger helping the town is fine for quick play, but I would definitely like a more expanded option for private friends only games. Shared progress, or world, or something.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

I loved the first one.

You enjoying an SJW game? Color me surprised.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I loved the first one.

You enjoying an SJW game? Color me surprised.

State of Decay was an SJW game?! When? I don't recall a single character demanding to be referred to as Xer Majesxer, or a blue haired lesbian gender-vapor bi-LavaGoose crying that the fat zombies were fat-shaming or the shouting zombies were ableist and that the entire zombie out-break was directly caused by toxic male white heteronormative patriarchal monsters.

All I remember was going back and forth among a bunch of characters, creating settlements, finding supplies, medicine, food and ammo and not letting the cancer girl blow herself up. Also cars were the best against hordes. I don't even think they establish what caused the outbreak. Isn't there a joke about it being a plague, a virus, or an act of God, but it doesn't matter because ZOMBIES!

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

State of Decay was an SJW game?!

Yep. Black lead character at the start. Female military officers ordering men around. Gay subplot in the early game. Straight white men being portrayed as either hotheaded rent a cops or psycho hellbillies?

Good thing /ggrevolt/ and /pol/ set me straight there.

When? I don't recall a single character demanding to be referred to as Xer Majesxer, or a blue haired lesbian gender-vapor bi-LavaGoose crying that the fat zombies were fat-shaming or the shouting zombies were ableist and that the entire zombie out-break was directly caused by toxic male white heteronormative patriarchal monsters.

Seeing that as a Dorkly skit would be pretty damned funny, I gotta say.

All I remember was going back and forth among a bunch of characters, creating settlements, finding supplies, medicine, food and ammo and not letting the cancer girl blow herself up.

Lupus. Lily had Lupus.

And yea, mine was mainly about frantic supply runs and a few "shitshitshitshitshit" moments when out stamina and Mr. Feral wants to come out and play.

Also cars were the best against hordes.

Yea, but during Breakdown I wasted way too many of them. I came later on to rely on playing molotov skee ball with them.

I don't even think they establish what caused the outbreak. Isn't there a joke about it being a plague, a virus, or an act of God, but it doesn't matter because ZOMBIES!

Viral outbreak mainly originating from the water supply. A kind of Cabin Fever thing.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

So, the first night I booted it up with my friend, he said he rated it a 3.5 out of 5. I said it was a 4.5 out of 5. It seemed bigger, there was more to do, and I was happy.

The second day I played, I went to 3 out of 5. I realized I really had no motivation to do anything. The reason why I loved the first one was I really dug the characters. I felt their plight was my own. Ed was funny, Marcus was just trying to keep his head above water, Maya was good in combat, Lily... got annoying, but I still thought of her like a little sister. I remembered my smile when I brought something in and she piped up with "Oh, whadja get me?!".

The game was jank as hell, and it lived on it's story telling. Its characters.

I barely remember the names of the people in my group now. It doesn't matter. I don't even have specialty specialists. Everyone levels up almost the exact same way.

The weapons really switched. The knockback for the blunt weapons barely seems to come into play in this game. All the bladed weapons sever limbs and decapitate zombies with a few swings.

The Blood plague seemed like it would add more tension... But not really. Just sneak up behind a lot of infected, keep harvesting their samples, and just have an infirmary. Switch off when needed.

The controls are horrible. They are straight up horrible. Some genius decided to map the jump over obstacles button and the kick (get off me) button to the same button. When the game senses you're in combat, you will not be able to jump, only kick. So, a reason game I had plague zombies spawn around me... like I entered into a building and they T-posed into existence. I was already low on health and I was ducking in to see if I could find something. I was also fatigued, so I knew I couldn't battle like that. I beat some of them off of me, and I ran to the window furtherest away from the horde to jump out.

My character (I really don't know the names of these people) decided "Nah, let's stay for a little", ran away from the window, and went to the middle of the room to kick a zombie that just got up. I've almost lost three characters to that Brainwave of a design decision.

State of Decay 2 compared to State of Decay 1 feels like what all the other crafting games were to Minecraft. It didn't get the soul, and it didn't try. It just wanted to go for the same aesthetic because it worked before and just tried for "let's add two more things to make it seem like it's something else"

It's now at a 2 out of 5 for me.

*snips*

*snips*

This is "lulz, da sarcasms" right?

 

[Elijin]

snip

The characters are randomly generated, so the tight story telling is out the window.

Also, sprinting at a vaultable object will automatically vault it, so try that.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

See I don't see any of that as SJW shit. A female character, a black man, a gay couple(I actually don't remember that subplot tbh. Was one of the little outposts run by some gay guys?) that's just everyday shit. That's no more SJW than Mass Effect with black Shepard or Gay Shepard of Femshep or if you're truly awesome, black lesbian Shepard.
To me SJW culture is that 'outrage' that Call of Duty WWII didn't have any women Rangers during the Normandy invasion, because it may not have been historically accurate but inclusion. Or the demand for more black characters in Kingdom Come. That one I remember as particularly funny because a historian was contacted and said the African slave trade hadn't made it to Bohemia at that time. Although in fairness the Devs did themselves no favors with how they handled that shit.

To me SJW culture isn't about inclusivity, its about control. Its not that adding a transgender character to Call of Duty WWII would make the multiplayer better, its that the Devs will bow and scrape at the feet of culture warriors for their approval, regardless of what that means for their game.

For State of Decay, its just people doing people stuff. A female military officer taking control to keep people alive makes sense, because she's an officer and worth listening to. The fact she's female is totally irrelevant to her character from what i remember. She was a generic military officer

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

snip

The characters are randomly generated, so the tight story telling is out the window.

Also, sprinting at a vaultable object will automatically vault it, so try that.

I realize. But they are randomly generated in appearance and minor stats that can be leveled out with maxing them out. There's really no difference in replayability due to have minor everything is. So its inclusion makes the game suffer given that we're now left to focus on how jank the game is instead of reveling in how good the story is.

I learned that eventually, about the parkour elements. Actually, yesterday. the third time I almost died was me trying to jump onto a container. Unless I'm holding sprint wrong, it doesn't seem to work for high up ledges.

It does, however, make it annoying when I'm running to put away supplies and I'm always jumping off the stairs. So I have to redo it again and just walk up.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

See I don't see any of that as SJW shit.

Guess we're not redpilled enough, eh? Or our T-level is too low and we're still cuck soyboys.

A female character, a black man, a gay couple(I actually don't remember that subplot tbh. Was one of the little outposts run by some gay guys?)

It's another early game plot, namely Lily's brother's boyfriend happens to be one of the hellbillies. You first escort her brother out, then a little later on, you have to defend the hellbilly's base while Crusty Country Doc tries to save said other gay character.

That's no more SJW than Mass Effect with black Shepard or Gay Shepard of Femshep or if you're truly awesome, black lesbian Shepard.

Well they probably DO consider that SJW.

To me SJW culture is that 'outrage' that Call of Duty WWII didn't have any women Rangers during the Normandy invasion, because it may not have been historically accurate but inclusion.

Which is understandable, but woudl you say the same thing to, say, being Lyudmila Pavlechenko sniping Germans in the Odessa forest or playing a female Yugoslavian militawoman?

Or the demand for more black characters in Kingdom Come. That one I remember as particularly funny because a historian was contacted and said the African slave trade hadn't made it to Bohemia at that time.

Yea that one was pretty headache inducing.

Although in fairness the Devs did themselves no favors with how they handled that shit.

Not to mention how the game's being put ona pedastal as SOREDPILLUGUYZ!Which is a shame, because I otherwise respect the hell out of the game even if it's not really my bag. In an age where being distinctive is still so frowned upon, I like seeing more and more games wanting to be their own thing and not give a damn about the broadness of appeal.

For State of Decay, its just people doing people stuff. A female military officer taking control to keep people alive makes sense, because she's an officer and worth listening to. The fact she's female is totally irrelevant to her character from what i remember. She was a generic military officer

Eh, they TRIED to give Montressor and Hawkes from Lifeline some life, but it didn't register with me either. Not the fault of the voice actresses either, they just had so little to work with.

 

[meiam]

snip

Wait, character don't have unique trait anymore???? But half the fun was making your character unique ("Oh I gotta go to this area, I'll be using a gun so I'll use that character, once it's somewhat clear I'll come back with this one to loot").

 

[Ninjamedic]

Maybe for the best, I don't need GamerGate getting any more reason to throw me out of a helicopter for supporting these SJW projects anyway.

Have you thought about going outside at all? Take up Salsa Dancing maybe? Just a thought.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Maybe for the best, I don't need GamerGate getting any more reason to throw me out of a helicopter for supporting these SJW projects anyway.

Have you thought about going outside at all? Take up Salsa Dancing maybe? Just a thought.

Oh I took Salsa dancing in college! It was great! Super fun and exhausting, and just as a personal aside there isn't a woman alive who doesn't look good Salsa dancing in a dress. Guys take it or leave it, but ladies damn! Salsa all night long!

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

snip

Wait, character don't have unique trait anymore???? But half the fun was making your character unique ("Oh I gotta go to this area, I'll be using a gun so I'll use that character, once it's somewhat clear I'll come back with this one to loot").

Not even specialties are unique any more. Don't have a doctor and you're afraid someone's going to die? Scour the land for handy-dandy text books! They will impart wisdom of 8 years of medical school in a matter of moments! No doctors needed!

Maybe for the best, I don't need GamerGate getting any more reason to throw me out of a helicopter for supporting these SJW projects anyway.

Have you thought about going outside at all? Take up Salsa Dancing maybe? Just a thought.

Oh I took Salsa dancing in college! It was great! Super fun and exhausting, and just as a personal aside there isn't a woman alive who doesn't look good Salsa dancing in a dress. Guys take it or leave it, but ladies damn! Salsa all night long!

No love for Swing Dancing? You people sicken me. SICKEN.

 

[Elijin]

snip

Wait, character don't have unique trait anymore???? But half the fun was making your character unique ("Oh I gotta go to this area, I'll be using a gun so I'll use that character, once it's somewhat clear I'll come back with this one to loot").

Obsidian is underselling the new system (or doesnt fully understand it).

With no set characters, the 'base' skills are present everywhere: Cardio, Wits, Fighting, Shooting. Every character has these. Upon mastery of these skills, they offer the chance to specialise. For instance, fighting can become swordplay, striking, endurance or close combat. These come with their own bonuses, and you will have the chance to pick from 2, usually.

Past that, we have the 5th skill. Sometimes a player will have one, sometimes it will be blank, allowing a player to learn the core community skills from skill books found in game. These include the specialised skills for base management (ie medicine, farming, construction, mechanics). Also available are an array of special passives with a unique trait. These include things like fishing (+2 food per day), driving (vehicle passives around fuel use and durability) and animal facts (literally a super rare joke skill that offers no benefit). There are 26(?) of these unique 5th skills, and they can only be attained when a character is created (at the games initiation, or new NPCs enclaves entering the zone).

On top of the 5 skill bars, characters have traits and a 'hero' power upon leveling up enough. There are 45(?) traits, able to appear in any combinations, ranging from 1-4 traits per character (randomly decided). Traits include things like morale bonuses, enhanced XP rates overall or for specific trees, modifiers such as 'irritable' or 'annoying' (which combine on different characters to cause fights in the camp, which lower morale when they occur) or even additional stats, or stat penalties.

I am unsure how many Hero modifier traits there are, but these are similar to traits, but exclusively positive. Things like additional morale, food per day, XP enhancements.

Every character also rolls one of 4 roles, Sheriff, Builder, Warlord and Trader. This only comes into effect when you elect a leader, and the leaders role allows unique bonuses and buildings to match their class. For instance the Warlord can create an Armoury, but the Sheriff can make the best Farms.

Leaders also provide a permanent unlock if you complete a game with them, allowing to apply up to 2 modifiers to future games. A warlord's gift will grant a stockpile of ammunition and guns at the beginning of the game. Sheriffs will allow you to receive a daily gift in recognition of past communities you saved, etc etc.



So yeah, its not the super tightly scripted experience the first game sounds like, and specialisations have opened up a fair bit, to allow mitigation of bad luck (imagine never getting something as core as medicine on any of your randomly rolled characters?) BUT, its not as super simple as Obsidian is presenting.