Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven General Discussion (Part 3 beta coming in December)

I’ve always used either intimidation to make them leave (MCs with high leadership or intimidation) or tricked them into leaving (high persuasion). Dillan isn’t terribly bright and is a coward at heart.

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Depends on stats, with high leadership, I took control of the situation and they left.
Am I the only thought it was funny when you order Driver not to shoot you in the school like a pet abou to do something bad.

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There are 2 options that keep lyle and Jillian alive. You can threaten Dillian of you have high enough in you intimidation. If you have enough leadership you can oder them to stamd down

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To be fair, I think the leadership dialogues are sometimes a bit funny, no offense to JimD, but like, you order people with guns to stand down ? With no negotiation ? People hate authority, leadership is more like being able to lead a group, and having authority over “willing” people, it takes some work.

It feels weird to be able to order around some random stranger and they’d be like “ok sir/maam sorry, I’ve been a bad boy”

Especially if you don’t have the power to back up that authority.

I mostly use empathy to make them think I was there with the militia and have snipers on the next roofs^^

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Hello :). Do you guys prefer playing with extra skill points? How much?

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From what I recall, there are a lot of people who do not play with the extra points. I do most of the time, since more skills mean more little secrets to view^^
But with games I am mostly always on the “I want to get entertained not challenged side”^^

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I have used skill points 3 times, the first 2 times I used 25 skills and 50 for the 3rd. I do think 50 and above is still incredibly overpowered and removes the threat of danger that accompanies not being decent in certain skills. Which, is something I don’t want to lose in a game that takes place in an apocalypse.

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It depends, lately I’ve been playing fairly, but I have a software that makes backups in case I make a decision that I didn’t really wanna do, because sometimes you take a decision and something happens that you didn’t really wanna do.

I used to cheat on my stats and be overpowered because I felt like at least I wouldn’t miss any scenes at all, but I’ve realised I enjoyed less the game that way so I’ve stopped.

I also realised I’ve always tried to be a jack of all trades when really you should specialize in one or two things, much more useful that way.

Although feels pretty shitty when you miss a skillcheck because of like, one point or something.

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Most of the time no. But on certain character builds like my monarchy I have to give extra skills so he can come out the way I in vison

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It really doesn’t bother me because I only use a skill in a situation I know I’m proficient in otherwise I’d have wasted time and made the situation worse or put someone in danger because I was trying to do something outside of my skillset and I’m not actually good at whatever I was trying in the first place.

I’d only create a jack of all trades character if it made sense for the character to be skilled in many things for example my mercenary character is skilled in hand to hand, firearms and Kenjutsu as well as survival. But if it doesn’t make sense to the backgrounds of the MC I’m creating then I’m not doing it because it seems silly to make a teenager have advanced medical knowledge, be a skilled sniper and hacker when there hasn’t been an established background that explains why that person has those particular skills. Unlike Maddison and Brody who do have an established background that explains why they have those skills and how long they have had those skills. But, I usually stick with a specialization in 2 skills and those skills actually compliment each other.

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Actually I can somewhat justify a teenager Mc having some high stats.
Leadership and hand to hand/CCW- The teenage MC got bullied so they didn’t have a chance to actually practice it, but since the bullying extended to physical they learned self defense either from a local dojo or from our veteran grandpa.
Science and medicine- Atleast my Mc is always with High Int. so the reason they’re high is thanks to been a “genius”.
Persuasion- Can’t find a way to justify since if they really had high persuasion they could’ve convince some or most of the bullies to stop.
Everything else basically decent between 40~59

Hand to hand and leadership make sense but having an insanely high skill level in other things don’t make sense in that specific background. That’s what I was saying, being highly skilled in some things doesn’t make sense with the character I’m trying to create and come across as being nothing more than a Marry sue to me.

“Why is Brody with Jillian…and Nora?”

MC: “You would have to ask my nephew.”

“Wait, you made your nephew into a…matchmaker?”

MC: shrugs “He seemed to be the only neutral observer.”

“Then how did you get with Madison?”

MC: “Lots and lots of comic books.”

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Yep a like for Infantry soldier soldier I don’t why a infntary soldier would have high electronic skills.

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Some characters (esp. those with backstories that imply life experience and time to learn new things) make sense with large and varied skill sets (of course, there will be the things that they are really skilled at). A custom military commander MC that I’ve played recently has Leadership and Ranged as his preferred skills (6-7), and has superior (5) Survival, with everything else at levels 1 (cooking, stealth) to 4 (Intimidation, Crafting, Empathy), which makes sense considering his job, the things that he has seen on duty, and his hobbies (knitting).

Even characters with seemingly-improbable skills (ex. a homemaker with high (5) levels in all combat skills) could be explained with role playing reasons (in the homemaker’s case, self-defense lessons, survival teachers like Maddie and Brody’s uncle, and/or a previous job as LEO/security guard/military would explain their prowess). However, when the reasons become improbable themselves (a teenager with 7 persuasion because they won an Academy Award for Best Director; an infantry soldier who is both an active duty combatant and a feared hacker who works for the govt., etc.) is when they start becoming Sues.

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It depends…and to be honest, ‘Gary Sue/Mary Sue’ has really lost most meaning. If I play an OP character in this game, then I am looking at it like a cinematic/over the top character, even if it breaks the bounds of believability.

And the fact there is an option to purchase extra skill points, etc. does mean this interpretation of the game can be as valid as a person who wants a more gritty survivalist game.

That said, I definitely admit to a personal bias in ‘zombie apocalypse games’ to view it threw the cinematic/over the top lens I mentioned above when given a chance.

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Well… since this is also kind of a game, such options suit the purpose of allowing players to have their own power fantasy , similar like gamers perform in-Game purchase to become more powerful , or the use cheat to play a game… This is just a choice for those who want to play like this, for those who prefer a more realistic style of reading/gaming , they can always ignore the extra skill points and try to continue their journey in a more balanced manner , it is a win-win situation for everyone’s play-style :slight_smile:

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I agree that it doesn’t make sense for them to have those skills, but you can always just refuse to play that way if you’re that concerned. Even if you get the 50 extra points (and IIRC, the game’s creator himself has admitted the game isn’t balanced around those extra points, so of course it will be a bit broken), you don’t have to spend all of them.

This is a story which gives you a wide variety of decisions. Also, it isn’t multiplayer, and it isn’t competitive. If you find something you feel is broken, you can just choose to avoid it. And if someone else enjoys using that broken thing, it has no impact on your own playthrough.


I’m not sure why you feel the need to get so defensive. I quoted you among multiple people; I wasn’t singling you out specifically. There was talk about characters potentially being more powerful than they should and I decided to weigh in; that’s it. I didn’t mean any offense.

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I have no problem with using the extra +50 skill points. In my opinion, some backgrounds don’t even make sense without some extra skill points (I personally headcanon them as life experience, hobby expertise, and/or outside training). I don’t even see problems with having 7 in both preferred skills. But what I personally don’t care for is in-character reasons for said high stats that don’t make much sense (the teenager with 7 persuasion could be very involved in Chipper Ridge’s theater and performing arts program, even a recognized member of the International Thespian Society, instead of an Academy Award Best Director).

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