KickStarter Dead State: Reanimated

[Zombra]

Informative. "My soon to be ex" meaning at that time. I thought she was actually talking about Brian. Never mind!

 

[Davaris]

That's really sad, worse than working on some lesbian visual novel. I bet it wasnt very successfull either, as if you have a look at steam forums, the only questions are if the game is like dead state. Ffew comments and they are likely from codex residents...

~150k vs 744, so "it's not being very successful" is an understatement.

If Dead State made a profit wouldn't they have made another?

 

[Lhynn]

If Dead State made a profit wouldn't they have made another?

They thought it would do much better. The sales were too poor and the work for it was too big. Which is why they wanted to work on something other than an RPG.
Whatever.

 

[Davaris]

If Dead State made a profit wouldn't they have made another?

They thought it would do much better. The sales were too poor and the work for it was too big. Which is why they wanted to work on something other than an RPG.
Whatever.

Yeah well that is the thing. High sales numbers don't mean much if the cost to make it was still higher. The second one looks like it cost them nothing to make but their spare time, so it could have actually improved their financial situation. Then again Annie might have taken the money left from Dead State and hired people to work on it. Making your dollar go further!

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Who the f knows,s maybe they used it to pay the mortgage or whatever. It's not like it made some ungodly amounts.

 

[the_shadow]

Almost 2 years after starting this game, I finally got around to finishing it.

On reflection my view is mainly positive. The combat system is pretty simple, but with enough variety to remain enjoyable. The shelter dynamics are also decent, with enough NPC interaction and crisis events to make it feel like a base of operations rather than just a dumping ground for your loot. The writing for the dialogue is decent and fits the setting, and the data entries you can find are well written. Scavenging is fun, and slowly upgrading your gear and testing it out on progressively harder enemies is always satisfying.

I still have a few gripes, some of which remain the same as when I first commented on it:

1. Turn-based combat against zombie infested areas is unbearably slow. Even with combat animation set to the fastest setting, having to sit through each combat turn is like pulling teeth. It reminds me of unmodded Wizardry 8. If a zombie hasn't sighted you it shouldn't even register in the 'combat queue'.

2. Some bits still feel a bit unpolished. I picked up a few errors with the triggering of events, and dialogue not appearing correctly. When I was fighting my way through the Austin Hotel my PCs couldn't 'fit' in the stairwell when they changed levels, so one would get 'stuck' in the closed door, trigger combat, and get mowed down. The Ballinger Hospital lagged *bad*, making it unplayable, and alerting zombies in any area with noise would result in a couple of seconds lag. There's quite a few spelling mistakes, especially later in the game. Weirdly enough any PC's I revived in the field wouldn't get the 'Treated' debuff, even though the manual says they should?

3. The ending is pretty lackluster, at least if you take the plane ending. The final fight isn't 'bad', just mediocre as far as RPGs go (I'm still fresh from Shadowrun: Hong Kong...), but the ending slide that follows it really disappoints. It didn't help that text from the previous combat obscured a portion of the slide.

4. The game goes on way too long. I'm playing this the first time without any min-maxing, and I'd cleared all of the areas by about day 70. I can understand why they had a long time limit, given that if you create all this content you want the gamer to experience it all, but I'd be OK with missing out on getting to search a few areas if it created a sense of urgency. Maybe the ending trigger could occur around day 50, and you'd have about 10 days to tie up any loose ends.

So yeah, the game would be real good if those things were fixed. What's galling is that most of them are easily fixed.

 

[Darth Canoli]

They thought it would do much better. The sales were too poor and the work for it was too big. Which is why they wanted to work on something other than an RPG.
Whatever.

Well, i don't think it would take much to fix their combat system and it'd make the game way better, then a DLC to add more NPC interactions in the field and it could be a very good cRPG and increase the sales drastically.

1. Turn-based combat against zombie infested areas is unbearably slow. Even with combat animation set to the fastest setting, having to sit through each combat turn is like pulling teeth. It reminds me of unmodded Wizardry 8. If a zombie hasn't sighted you it shouldn't even register in the 'combat queue'.

I decided to give Dead State Reanimated another chance (using the wiki not to miss time sensitive characters), it's really good but this is my biggest grippe, i counted around 60 zombies in one area and even if they fast skip their turns when they're out of the combat, they shouldn't be registered at all in the first place, that's a very bad design decision on their part, half a second x60 is still 30 seconds and it's happening a lot, was really a hassle in the eastern shelter.

On the plus side :

• Base management is really interesting.
• A lot of meaningful interactions with the other survivors
  
• Crisis and sub-leaders to deal with
• Different factions (from what i gather, only met the cops and the coyotes)
• Psychotic survivors

On the down side :

• What Shadow said above
• Fighting the zombies is both easy and annoying, it's mostly taking them down one by one with your faster/stronger char and the other ones never act
• Not enough NPC interactions outside the base

Overall, i'm really enjoying the game, i have to admit the actual good cRPG drought makes this game far more appealing.

 

[JarlFrank]

1. Turn-based combat against zombie infested areas is unbearably slow. Even with combat animation set to the fastest setting, having to sit through each combat turn is like pulling teeth. It reminds me of unmodded Wizardry 8. If a zombie hasn't sighted you it shouldn't even register in the 'combat queue'.

I decided to give Dead State Reanimated another chance (using the wiki not to miss time sensitive characters), it's really good but this is my biggest grippe, i counted around 60 zombies in one area and even if they fast skip their turns when they're out of the combat, they shouldn't be registered at all in the first place, that's a very bad design decision on their part, half a second x60 is still 30 seconds and it's happening a lot, was really a hassle in the eastern shelter.

The huge turn times whenever you alert zombies is one of the biggest problems with the game. It's what keeps me from replaying it even though there's one achievement left to do (getting all companions; probably didn't trigger because Getz left the shelter after his morale dropped too low) and I tend to be an achievement hunter. But just the thought of sitting through 30 second combat turns when I have only alerted A SINGLE ZOMBIE but the game has to skip through the turns of 40 zombies is... ugh.

It made me approach zombie-rich maps somewhat stealthily: try to approach them from behind with my axe, enter combat when I'm close enough that I know I can approach the thing and hit it with a high damage slash for a takeout in turn one. That way the zombies never get their combat turn and I don't have to sit through half a minute just for a single zombie to attack me.

I don't even know why they had to do it like that. Human enemies don't appear in the action sequence either, unless they have actually spotted you and are actively taking part in combat. Why is it necessary for the game to give every sngle zombie a turn, even those at the other edge of the map?

 

[Darth Canoli]

It made me approach zombie-rich maps somewhat stealthily: try to approach them from behind with my axe, enter combat when I'm close enough that I know I can approach the thing and hit it with a high damage slash for a takeout in turn one. That way the zombies never get their combat turn and I don't have to sit through half a minute just for a single zombie to attack me.

I don't even know why they had to do it like that. Human enemies don't appear in the action sequence either, unless they have actually spotted you and are actively taking part in combat. Why is it necessary for the game to give every sngle zombie a turn, even those at the other edge of the map?

To be fair, being on day 27, it was really problematic on one map (eastern shelter) and slightly annoying in another one.
Bashing open 15+ doors in the storage facility was the second worst thing (my char having 6 points in mechanic, still not enough ...) because of the noise system but it was a single map.

Still, the former is really something they should have spotted and fixed during development.

As for fighting zombies, i'm using the same tactic but with a baseball bat, works better with the regular one, more damage on zombies and and no knock-back effect, still, sometimes, you fail to finish it in one turn or a hidden zombie ambushes you ...

 

[Mexi]

Why am I subscribed to this thread? Anyways, isn't Brian working on VtM:B2? I'm guessing his career isn't over yet. Seems Dead State will never get a sequel, though. I can take it or leave it. They should avoid turn-based combat at all costs next time, though.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

They should avoid turn-based combat at all costs next time, though.

That was the best part.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

I thoroughly enjoyed watching a youtuber play this game.

 

[Curious_Tongue]

RTWP is for keyboard warriors.

I like to take my time with the mouse.

 

[Zombra]

In the earliest stages of development, the plan was to have zombies all move simultaneously on their "turn". Also, the player was going to only control their one PC and issue general commands to the rest of the party ("you attack", "you defend this area", etc.), but party members would use their own AI. Would have been a very different story. Sadly they weren't able to make it happen.

 

[Roguey]

Seems Dead State will never get a sequel, though. I can take it or leave it. They should avoid turn-based combat at all costs next time, though.

The "next time" was a terrible high school visual novel nobody but a handful of friends bought.

 

[fastjack]

In the earliest stages of development, the plan was to have zombies all move simultaneously on their "turn". Also, the player was going to only control their one PC and issue general commands to the rest of the party ("you attack", "you defend this area", etc.), but party members would use their own AI. Would have been a very different story. Sadly they weren't able to make it happen.

Do you know if there were any other large changes to the design during production? I mean obviously the design probably went through several iterations, I'm more curious if the 'vision' of the game differed substantially from what came out I guess. Personally I found the game ultimately flawed, but felt like it was a few choices away from being a winner.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

because Getz left the shelter after his morale dropped too low)

He's one of the best companions, what's wrong with you

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

Excellent RPG, very underrated.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Dead State: Reanimated is one of the top base-management RPGs, FYI.

 

[Mexi]

Dead State: Reanimated is one of the top base-management RPGs, FYI.

It's like saying you're the tallest kid in kindergarten, though.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Dead State: Reanimated is one of the top base-management RPGs, FYI.

It's like saying you're the tallest kid in kindergarten, though.

If your implication is that there should be more base management RPGs: I agree.

 

[Zombra]

Do you know if there were any other large changes to the design during production? I mean obviously the design probably went through several iterations, I'm more curious if the 'vision' of the game differed substantially from what came out I guess. Personally I found the game ultimately flawed, but felt like it was a few choices away from being a winner.

IMO they hit what they were originally shooting for in terms of gameplay loop and features. The loss of party AI was certainly my biggest disappointment which is why I remember it so specifically. There must have been other stuff that got cut but I don't recall anything in particular.

 

[Roguey]

Mustawd https://store.steampowered.com/app/515000/PANIC_at_Multiverse_High/ https://steamcharts.com/app/515000

 

[Max Heap]

Mustawd https://store.steampowered.com/app/515000/PANIC_at_Multiverse_High/ https://steamcharts.com/app/515000

So let me unwrap this real quick cause I only read parts of the thread:
Dead State was a financial failure so they decide to make something quick and easy to rake in some bucks and keep things afloat. Fair enough.

But then I wonder: Why would they decide to dive into a genre, where competing titles offer the same gameplay, at the same price, but also anime tiddies?

You oughta know your target audience before you make a product. And the VN scene is known for two things:
Grotesque violence and games with sex scenes that have to be patched in manually, cause otherwise you can't openly sell the damn thing.

What an odd decision.

 

[Roguey]

So let me unwrap this real quick cause I only read parts of the thread:
Dead State was a financial failure so they decide to make something quick and easy to rake in some bucks and keep things afloat. Fair enough.

But then I wonder: Why would they decide to dive into a genre, where competing titles offer the same gameplay, at the same price, but also anime tiddies?

You oughta know your target audience before you make a product. And the VN scene is known for two things:
Grotesque violence and games with sex scenes that have to be patched in manually, cause otherwise you can't openly sell the damn thing.

What an odd decision.

The west coast indie crowd loves these ironic parody visual novels. Not hers, obviously.