State of Decay now on Steam!

Still in Early Access, I noticed it is top one in sells, and that surprised me a lot for an Early Access game until I investigated a bit. :)

Some feedback are welcome (well steam forums do this job well too).
 
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I heard great things about it when it released on XBL, except for the world always running when you're not playing. I would expect that to be a high priority mod from the community though. I grabbed it but haven't played around with it yet.
 
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Added to my cart then removed it when I saw it lacked keyboard and mouse support. The work around doesn't seem sufficient yet.
 
I'm sure the game is good but less that it will be for me. I'm not in the mood to switch to PC right now so I'll skip, anyway I'd prefer play a version some other players have help polish a bit thanks to Early Access.

I'm not sure it's good for me because it's on values that don't work well for me:
  • Open world : Great but with that level of details and quality of graphics it can only rely on tricks like random spawning and fillers area to support the challenge, ie for me repetitive fights and boring exploration.
  • Dynamic world : Lol the quadrature of the circle and my experience is it means no story because for now nobody know create dynamic stories.
 
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I might pick it up when and if it ever gets keyboard support. No controller will ever be connected to my PC.

Lol, I'm totally incompetent with any gamepad, not a pro with mouse+keyboard but at least a little more skilled. But one game made me changed my mind on this, it's not a major game, it's a game with mouse+keyboard controls but it was a lot more pleasant to play with a gamepad, it's Dungeon Siege 3. I'm playing now a second grade game, but I also think I wouldn't like it much with mouse+keyboard because its controls, the game possibilities and gameplay design are designed for gamepads.

Add modifiers design, multiply little commands, add some action menu, and then keyboard+mouse control become a burden if keyboard control movements and mouse the camera/direction. Just look at PC "first person/over the shoulder/third person" RPG how simplistic they are when they implement long range or close range fights, from magic to sword fighting a lot of the fights design quality rely on enemies design and movement management not on multiplicity of actions/spell available quickly during the action. But the game need on a start a design for such controls devices.

I mean there's a good chance this game won't benefit of mouse+keyboard controls.
 
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i've really been conflicted about the whole "early access" thing.

on one hand, the last thing that I want to do is waste my time playing something that's buggy and undone. I also dont want to burn out on it early, playing a halfass version.

on the other, you are helping create the game by providing input. If something really sucks, you have the chance to stop it early

that said, i definitely get good zombie vibes from this game. This may be the game that we wished Fort Zombie was gonna be
 
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I might pick it up when and if it ever gets keyboard support. No controller will ever be connected to my PC.



-Carn

Not so much about keyboard support. The game has keyboard support. But at the moment, the game design is all wrapped up around the use of controller. On Friday and Saturday's nights, I ran two games, one with controller, the other with keyboard and mouse. Unsurprisingly, the gameplay is richer with a controller. As usual in that kind of cases, the gameplay is balanced toward melee combat which is skilled based while shooting is more attribute based. With a controller, handling five or six zombies in melee with a character low on stamina is doable as long as you are composed and apply yourself. With a keyboard, it is all a different story.
It gives situations as you are forced into smashing the left controll button with your little finger (if you are right handed) Not so many games hand down smashing a button to the weaker finger in the hand.

Ah, yes, it also only works with Xbox controller PC version. If you have another controller because Xbox controllers do not fit your hands'size, you are in.
 
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….With a controller, handling five or six zombies in melee with a character low on stamina is doable as long as you are composed and apply yourself. With a keyboard, it is all a different story.
It gives situations as you are forced into smashing the left controll button with your little finger (if you are right handed) Not so many games hand down smashing a button to the weaker finger in the hand….
I wonder what are the commands, I played Lord of the Ring War In The North with both gamepad and mouse plus keyboard, The gamepad is more comfortable but when I switched to mouse plus keyboard my play level rises quite significantly.

The point is the movement pad is less efficient with a keyboard, ie much less precision by itself but rather quick like for changing direction. But the mouse is just a huge advantage, the rotation speed and aim precision is invaluable even if auto aim moderates this a bit. Now ok above a certain number of special actions I have difficulty of follow.

So I really wonder why you had to use the little finger of left hand to smash your keyboard. But LOTRWitN allows custom controls, and with a keyboard it's mandatory.
 
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I've yet to run in to a game that I would rather play with a controller.

I found war in the north to work great with M&k. I do use a controller for games that have driving areas such as sleeping dogs but I keep it in my lap and use it only to drive then switch back to m&k to control my character. I even played dark souls with m&k.

The slow and laggy input of an analog stick just drives me crazy when trying to position the camera. I can't seem to get past that. I do play sports games with a controller but there's no camera to control so no problems.

Maybe the steam game pad will fix that issue but I'm still not sure I'd ever switch to a controller as I just feel more of a connection with the game with mouse and keyboard. Weird I know but that's how I feel.
 
I prefer M&K, but there are definitely some games where a controller is superior. Not surprisingly, most of those are console ports.

Some, like Dark Souls, are borderline, but games like Castlevania just don't feel right at all with M&K.
 
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I wonder what are the commands, I played Lord of the Ring War In The North with both gamepad and mouse plus keyboard, The gamepad is more comfortable but when I switched to mouse plus keyboard my play level rises quite significantly.

The point is the movement pad is less efficient with a keyboard, ie much less precision by itself but rather quick like for changing direction. But the mouse is just a huge advantage, the rotation speed and aim precision is invaluable even if auto aim moderates this a bit. Now ok above a certain number of special actions I have difficulty of follow.

So I really wonder why you had to use the little finger of left hand to smash your keyboard. But LOTRWitN allows custom controls, and with a keyboard it's mandatory.

More details: at the moment, the mouse is poorly accelerated. If you want to tune in the mouse, you must tune in from within the game and in the OS settings. You can forget about 180 ° turn around in a trice if you do not do that. Working the settings from within the game leads to a 180° turn around through two full mouse sweeps added to strafing properly in the right direction to help. Nothing fast in that.

The game is also balanced toward melee combat, NPCs at the moment do not even use their guns to shoot down zombies from a distance, except when they are on guard tower duty.
Managing stamina matters a lot in this game. You can only run away from frenzied zombies when you sprint. When you keep jogging, frenzied zombies catch up on you. As soon you sprint far away enough, you can resume jogging.
In melee, strikes drain the stamina bar. Anytime you run into zombies, you must balance out how much stamina will be required to make it, either through flight or fight (you can also use diversion means or stealth)
Zombies are enduring and it takes five to seven normal blows to despatch them. When you beat them enough, they leave an opportunity to apply a finisher.
If you time well your sequences of strikes, it takes two normal blows to be followed by a finisher.
As the PCs gain XP, they get access to new combos that are melee changers. With a controller, using the combos and applying yourself, a single PC can take down a horde of zombies (seven to ten zombies) all alone. Combos give moves that allow to thin down a horde by four or five zombies from the very beginning. Stamina use is minimal, the PC is still fresh to take down the remaining zombies.
With keyboard and mouse, releasing combos is highly demanding. One combo for example leads to crush two zombies head together, only managed it once with a KB and mouse.
Left control is defense and opens up the way to counter attack moves, that are very effective and welcomed.
When surrounded, zombies catch you from behind and then to wrestle your way out, you must smash the left control button. When you dont manage to wrestle your way out, you are overwhelmed and then you must smash the space bar to get back on your feet.

Summary: at the moment, with a controller, melee fight can be undertaken using the full range of moves.
With keyboard and mouse, applying the finisher is already difficult.
 
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Mmm not sure what you mean by combo. Well if it's like fighting games (as street fighter) it's happy for me that you explain the details because I just cannot play games requiring a precise series of buttons to be hit with a precise timing.

If that's this sort of controls ok I don't see how even you can throw one with a keyboard. I'll never play this type of game and State of Decay won't be the exception, with gamepad or not.

For finishers, LOTRWiTN also uses it but in a way discouraging click feast. There's intermediate finisher and final finisher, plus there's a mark to show a finisher is possible and it last some time. It's a final finisher only if the enemy is down on ground, otherwise it's a hit with much more damages and generally stunning the enemy or something equivalent. It's fun and very efficient to discourage click feast because ponder attacks and constantly care of finisher availability will kill much faster than throwing click feast, plus you get more control. But those finisher, intermediate or final don't require to throw special attacks. Special attacks are either attacks that are specials (he he) either sort of spells. Ok there's perhaps special a bit hidden combo with chaining something, but apart some suspect messages few time, I don't use any but perhaps with luck.

EDIT: For LOTRWiTN the controls are:
- Normal attack
- Heavy attack and is required to apply a finisher or an intermediate finisher.
- Roll, it's major in fights, roll in the direction you are moving. It also important just for moving because it allows you move through friendly or enemy.
- Run, rather important even in fights, many reason, from rescuing a companion to rush to an enemy.
- Parry, important but to use with spare because it's not a 100% parry, but also a modifier for 3 special actions.
- Long range mode, the game is designed to switch often and quickly between long range/close range, more over in this mode you move slowly, so to really move you need deactivate it or use a roll.
- 3 special actions, at least two are rather important, in fact the three are important but you could choose use just two.
- And the game is kind with you, for using potions it's either a command to open the items panel and it pauses the game, either two more commands for healing and mana/energy.

EDIT2: It means there's 4 modifiers (Roll, Run, Mode, Parry) and 6 actions buttons (3 special actions and it's same buttons for 3 other with parry modifier, 2 attacks and open items panel). My own setup is:
  • Left Hand Little finger for my quicker/easier modifiers positions, Roll and Parry.
  • Left Hand Little finger for a third efficient but less quick modifier position, Run.
  • Mouse third button for range mode with toggle.
  • Mouse left and right click for Normal and Heavy/finish attack.
  • Left Hand Little finger for opening the items panel.
  • Left Hand Index for the 3 special actions or the 3 actions with modifier (Parry) and for Right Strafe.
  • Left Thumb for backward, Left Hand middle finder for forward, Last Left Hand Finger for Left Strafe.
In practice I could use some more actions commands for casual use ie 3/4 but if I need choose among too many commands during action I get lost in the number! Lol.
 
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This game is either a Rockstar project that got aborted or developpers loved to play Rockstar games.

Basically, that is a GTA set in an zombie apocalyptic world. It is set to work the same, with parts of town to be unlocked as the campaign advances.

For the combos, it is not a one vs one combat but a melee fight. Coolmindness and thoroughness matter. Crowd control is the way.
Combos are very similar to what is delivered in The Warriors by Rockstar. They are time based as cool is what matters. You must swing in rythm.
For example, two well timed left clicks can be followed by a finisher (left shift plus E)
If the timing is not good, the combo is not valid and therefore, you waste one move and you need to give more blows etc
 
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Ha ok that sort of combo, thanks I get it, well when I read left shift plus E it means a game where you can't rebind the key, no go for me. And Rockstar… I don't think I played a single game of them more than 5/10h, usually more 2/5h and I have many.
 
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here's a question then, how does it play on console?

since I got my XBox and seen how bad games get ported to Android I've noticed its sometimes best to stick with the preferred platform.
 
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It should play well on XBox. It is not the state of the arts. It looks more like GTA 3:San Andreas than GTA 4.
 
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