I know, right? I think it is the best for people who want to make strong characters. People look at the backgrounds like movie star or team or military options and just go for them. Which is not wrong. It does lead to specific storylines.
This is awesome! You did a great job telling the story with those screenshots.
#"We can take out that sniper before he sees us. If we do it fast, we can move on the train yard and overwhelm anyone who's in there."
*set impulse %+15
*set ruthless %+15
*if sop <= 2
*set allegiance %+(round(m_leadership/6))
Brody rubs his chin. "That seems pretty aggressive. Why don't we just try to talk to him? He may be up there to shoot the infected, not other survivors."
"We can't take that risk. Right now, we have the upper hand. If we talk to him or move into the clearing, we lose our surprise."
*if sop > 4
*set allegiance %-(round(20-(m_leadership/6)))
"I can hit him from here," Madison says.
"She can make that shot in her sleep. I wish we didn't have to attack, but I know we can't take the risk," Brody says.
In Chapter 9 (chapter9.txt), the allegiance be flipped between these two options.
At present, friendly groups have increased allegiance from attacking first, and vice versa for aggressive groups. The dialogue indicates it should be the other way around, likely a small copy paste error
Also, adding to the earlier discussion, having scripted deaths of characters that are stuck or complete in their arc or less popular and interesting is a good idea. Reduces workload, allows you to focus on advancing the plot, or character interactions more people will see and enjoy.
Having variable deaths would achieve the opposite effect, and from going through a lot of the code everyone can already see this is the case.
You have variable group numbers, alive/dead, if alive then variable relationship with you, also level of training (e.g. Brody being trained in stealth) to account for, different lines depending on if RO / background (for example, Bank Robber and Reily) etc.
Cutting down on this, or at least not have it spiral further in complexity, will allow you to focus on scenes and interactions much more people will see. For example, even with replays, I can see some character RO interactions being experienced by very few people. On the other hand, personally having seen all of them going through the code, even the smaller one-lines or wake-up scenes are all well written, characterize the person a bit more and have their charm.
My only concern would be ensuring the effort spent into defenses and improvements feel meaningful, especially if events (deaths, zombies coming in, etc.) are scripted. I canāt see a way to have a scripted death inside the Junkyard that also fulfills this, however if there scripted deaths during a mission or such that would detract less from the premise of base-building and planning being important in terms of keeping everyone alive.
Also, donāt be afraid to make the nephew character more helpful simply because they are designated as a challenge. Some pets are already useful too (if trained, going by code and events.)
If the concern is balance you can always gives less / no points for the nephew, or require more commitment of time, resources or something else (decrease in morale/allegiance, further decrease in food and water, anything)
*if not(know_river_dogs_location)
#"Where are you all living?" I ask, though I know the answer. I want to see if they tell the truth.
Remove the not. Should only be available if you do know their location, currently it is the opposite and leads to you having 2 options to ask if you know, and none if you donāt
I just realized that items like candy, cigarettes, toilet paper etc. now affect team morale! Thatās awesome! I kept wondering in part 2, why I kept picking up to toiletries when no one seemed to need them. Well, I did it for my immersion, but this is so much better.
Thank you for giving me a valid reason to scavenge like crazy!
Our group will devour at least 1200 units of food, my god, now Iām seriously considering about killing a few people
Hi, thereā¦ avid fan here since the first ZE before SH. :>
I am not finished yet but Iāve encountered, I donāt know if this is a problem or not, but as I remember, kevin apologized to me for his being disrespectful and peacefully agreed to work with us (we talk with peace and this happened in earlier pages), but after that, in the following scene where I will talk Eli in his office, Kevin acts again as bad again.
probably in codes or not yet fixed?
Thank you btw, and still, I am having fun with your game. 
stay safe.
So, I brought her here
Hahahaā¦ I donāt know how people can eat this much. How much is a ā1 unit foodā in the game anyway?
I did some math on the food. I have no idea if itās accurate or not, Iām assuming this is why most groups are consuming so much food.
In Part 1 it says that the MC consumes about 3-4 units per normal meal, so Iām assuming that puts us at about 12-16 units per day. Assuming you have all the survivors in your group (plus you and the optional nephew character) and youāre giving them all normal meals, youāre looking at about 12-16 units x 14 people per day, putting daily food intake at somewhere near 168-224 units per day.
This is also assuming that all the survivors consume the same amount of food as the MC; if some consume more or less the numbers change.
Then it is impossible to provide enough food to your group unless you have a succesful hunt with more than 700 units of foods, with 320 units of food in the beginning, our group will need to somehow get at least 200 more units of food (this is the lowest consumption I have encountered. Most times it will be 1300-1500 units). This system need a serious balancing
I was going through the code to check how the food is measured, and it does look kind of balancedā¦ but then I noticed that thereās a line that essentially multiplies the number by 15, taking it from 60ish a day (with a good cook) up to about 900ā¦ 
(which is then reduced to 320, the starting value).
@JimD: I really think this line is the problem (I assume it was from a previous version of the code):
*set food_use +(food_use*14)
Thank you for pointing this out.
This is definitely something I overlooked. Iām going to work on that scene.
Thanks for your help catching those errors!
Yes, I always had plans to make everything valuable in some way. It just took a while to code it.
Yes, I have to fix that one. There are times when you will not meet Murphy, which is not something I had predicted.
Yes, I think I forgot to change the fourteen. Thank you for finding that. I definitely need to work more on the food and resource consumption to make sure itās balanced.
If I remember correctly the homemaker gets penalized skills and only 1 specialized skill.
The college student is set up for the best build due to the skill discounts and dual socialization. They get some penalty too but easily countered ones.
Still a custom military commander and police officer unlock early kickass m16/m4 (forget) and the military officer allows for the military storyline. Both uniforms are great too. They both get dual specialization but pay full cost for skills.
Use my guide and character calculator. Easy to figure out optimal builds.
Hey, as someone who has both a movie star and now a military commander background character I like the flavour of both and thus far I have found the military commander to indeed be the best post apocalypse leader. And it seems the mc in the leadership position will become more important now that we have the junkyard. While the homemaker may be a stronger individual character the military commander and maybe also the movie star are leaders who can create stronger teams and a better upgraded junkyard, imho of course.
That said, I was planning to maybe do a homemaker character to cover a very specific background I had in mind for myself, the former air force flyboy with a bad case of PTSD, which would be represented with the delusions effect in-game. 
That said I will probably only get around to that once you have coded a vehicle, like a helicopter, for which a driving stat of 6 or 7 would actually be useful. Kinda like a post-apocalypse and more modern version of Howling Mad Murdock. 
Well the homemaker doesnāt have a preferred skill however, the massive discount on all the skills makes up for it. The college student is a good background to have with some sort of beginning stats in most of the skills, having two preferred skills, and having a discount on the skills. If used correctly, you can master the vital skilled needed for the apocalypse however, it also overlooks other potential skills that help aid later on. For example, the skill of driving (while generally overlooked) can prove to be useful in the future. It is very obvious that there are still working cars, trucks, and even a bloody helicopter. If you have the ability, special kinds of vehicles that would prove to be useful. All that being said, the college student (as well as many other backgrounds) donāt have the number of skill points needed to potentially work in many of the ālesserā skills without giving up vital other skills. Also from what I know (I could be wrong), the background isnāt penalized or if it is then itās not enough to make much of a difference.
Perhaps the biggest pro for playing as the homemaker is the idea of Jack of all trades, master of none. While many backgrounds will come with some sort of super high perk (like superior or advance), many of the other stats are a lot lower. But this the homemakerās massive skill discount, they have the ability to become really good at pretty much everything if the points are used correctly. This discount will also allow for the character to invest in some of the other skills (like cooking, driving, search etc) that arenāt perhaps on top of most peoplesā list. While the skills can only go up to āsuperiorā, it is stated that being superior in a skill will get you through most situations. Even just more on a personal level, I love the idea of beating the odds despite my characterās chosen profession. The idea of a college student in a zombie apocalypse seems rather cookie cutter at times. But a homemaker, normally docile and seemingly only skilled in domestic skills, turns from a chirping couponer to a zombie fight super solider who can still make a good apple pie while sparing with Rachel. I just really like the stories I can come up with.
Thus this is how my many elaborate tales begun: starring Winifred āWinieā Dixon who is master of none but superior of many. 
Can someone explain to me how to meet Jude in the part 2?
From what I remember, Before part 2 ends, you were given choices about possible activity/ies to be done. You just need to choose the activity where you need to go with Jaime to scavenge the grocery store and donāt come back empty-handedā¦
Jude is the sniper who guards the grocery store. Donāt snipe him or kill him, talk to him through the telecom or signals and heāll introduce himself when you two meet.
So Iāve been thinking over the whole scripted deaths at the end of Chapter 9 and how to improve it. Iāve come up with a few ideas.
First up is the actual scripted deaths. Keep Eli, Church and Driver-this is the apocalypse, and the player needs to be shown that, sometimes, people will die. Itāll also clear up some characters for you to over look. However for Gina, have her be saveable-if you pass a really high team_offense + junkyard_offense check. Like, 80 to 90 points high. Put a number on it so that the players who havenāt been paying attention when it comes to training the group or setting up inital reinforcements to the Junkyard simply canāt pass it.
Another thing is the junkyard_offense stat. I still donāt know what it does or what itās supposed to be, but it could help if you had some of the playerās interactions early on in Part 3 influence it. For example, have reinforcing the gate give a +5 to it-same with setting up the alarm, setting up the trench and all the other reinforcements. If a person put 3 people on watch duty, give it a +5 to show how alert they are. If they put even more than 3, than change it to a +10 (might seem like a lot, but theyāre losing out on opportunities to scavenge for food and supplies so I think it should be adequately rewarded). Admittedly, Iām not sure if the watch guard part is doable in the code. Iām just throwing ideas out there.
I think thisāll have a nice balance in regards to the tone-the first three deaths show that people will die because thatās just the nature of the apocalypse, and Ginaās death shows that people will continue to die unless you get your shit together and properly defend your home and people.
Hey Jim!
First, thanks for having a public beta up here.
So, I will start with my feedback:
Firstly, I guess it is a bug, that no matter what meal allowances I put, it turns out at last that it will consume all the food which I have in my store which is really strange and makes no sense to have normal meals or conserve if the group totally empties the granary 
Further, when talking with Amir and Ayanna, I think it will be much better if we can invite them to stay with us in our camp as they are scared about their safety as well.
Moreover, no matter who I go with to spy the people who talked with Brody (I guess) outside the Junkyard, people who were living in East of Sapphire, they always spot me in the end. I donāt know if I am messing up somewhere that I am unable to spy them but I am bringing it to your attention so that if it turns out to be a bug then you can fix it. Also, even if I send a group to spy on those people, the people sent doesnāt report anything. So, I sent Rachel and Church but then I skipped two hours and later on I find Rachel in my bedā¦ No Reportsā¦ 
Additionally, I think it will be better if the person whom we find in Research Centre in the Brian compartment (I guess), although he is scared that he shits himself but if we have high appealing then we can convince him to join our group.
Same goes for Murphy, there should be an option where we can invite Murphy to join the group even if Reilly just go guns blazing but MC stops him midwayā¦
Moreover, I think there should be an option to bring a supply truck or whatever truck you want where we can load a ton of food, water, meds etc etc whatever we need from different locations. Although to balance it, you can add challenges if we take a truck, considering the size and noise the truck will make, people may follow and attack MC but if MC surpasses that then we can load a ton of resources and take it to the camp. (This is seems most sensible option to me which a person may take even if he/she is an apocalypse)
There are many typoās in the text so I guess if a person can proofread the text for you and inform you about them then you can easily correct them. Iām attaching a snapshot of one of the typoās which I found, although I found more and more but I didnāt took snapshots of them.
I think it should be āFineā instead of Find.
Thanks once more for the Public Beta
Sincerely,
Aditya
@AAO thats a good idea it will add excitement and thrill in the story as MC witness deaths of Eli, Church and Driver in quick succession and then notice Gina in the mix and has a very tough choice to save her with high stats, and if he doesnt meet them then Gina dies and MC might get injured as well. well it is a good idea if @JimD can easily incorporate it:)
Also i think further depth can be added by checking whether a leader MC has put right people in right job e.g a survivor who have very low to nothing crafting put on improvement task should show as bad outcome in Rachelās report
training your group as in part 2 can be a good addition as well
