Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, Part 3 - releasing 3/3/2022

I will die happily for Riley :heart: That’s it - that’s the post. All teasing aside I just cannot get over how amazing this part is like…thankyousomuch.

8 Likes

I’m definitely keeping this.

My only concern with making it too high is that it promotes a certain playstyle that may not interest players and will force them to adopt that mentality if they want to keep people alive. I will make it high though. So I’m not disagreeing with your idea. These are the really hard balancing issues that I always struggle with.

This is used when the Junkyard is under attack. While the defense stat protects the Junkyard from damage and protect members from attack, the offense stat shows the effectiveness of your team to counterattack.

Thank you for trying it!

I definitely have two work on balancing food use. It’s really broken at the moment.

I’ll have to check this out. I’m not sure what’s happening off the top of my head.

A lot of people have asked for this and so I am considering it. Your MC will take some hits with relationships with Reilly and Madison if you ask him to join in front of them.

I actually like this idea and will likely make this change.

Yes, I use voice to speech because of difficulty typing, and the translation really stinks at times. I am having a professional copy editor go through the entire story before it gets published.

16 Likes

To be honest, that’s on them.

There are some players who will feel like deviating from their playstyle this once would be worth it if they could save her. Others will be willing to sacrifice her if it means being able to improve other things they want to look after.

I don’t really see it as them being railroaded into doing something. Rather, I see it as a choice-do you want to buff up your group so you can save her, or let her go to focus on other things?

At the very least, it’ll be food for thought for the players.

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I only agree because Gina is a special case. With other, more main characters, I hope as much possibility as possible is entertained when death is involved.

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I honestly don’t mind Gina dying that much. Yes, it’s unfortunate, and I can see why some players would be upset about it, since they’re losing an RO, but it makes sense for the game and setting. This is essentially the apocalypse, no matter how much you try, you’re not going to be able to save everyone. Some people will die for no reason, no matter how hard you try in a situation like that, and one of those people just happens to be Gina.

I’d vote for keeping the scripted Gina death in there. Without it, it feels too much like all of the ROs have plot armor, which, imo doesn’t really fit with the vibe or theme of the game. Anyone can die, including the people the MC and player care about. People who don’t want their RO to die can just go for someone else.

Being able to save Gina with a really high stat check isn’t a bad idea, but I’d still prefer for her death to be unavoidable. It really ups the tension imo, and forces the player and MC to remember that anyone can die and that they won’t be able to save everyone. The other scripted deaths also do that to an extent, but it hits different when it’s an RO, since it shows that even the person the MC cares about the most isn’t safe.

4 Likes

It’s definitely not that simple for some people. Including me. And I’ve never romanced Gina once. I agree with the stat check. She’s extremely valuable, so making it hard to save her makes sense, and I feel it would appease both sides as well as you can, here.

In terms of Driver and Eli, I don’t allow bandits or serial killers in my group, so I’m good on them and think they don’t matter as much, certainly.

10 Likes

I really love this game, and I’ve been enjoying it since the first game :sparkles:
Question: Why do we have to choose a new LI if Kelly is taken by the Silverthorn group??

1 Like

The Part 3 public beta has been updated with chapter 10.

https://dashingdon.com/play/jimd/zombie-exodus-safe-haven-part-3-public-beta/mygame/

Just a reminder that I have not been making many of the changes already reported as my full attention is on finishing the main story. This is how I work in general by maintaining my focus on the story and then going back to do mass editing and additions.

Thanks to all who test!

41 Likes

no matter how many times I restart it always comes out this


I can’t use my save game

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It should work now.

Thanks! Related to your spoiler text, I’m giving you the choice to pick a new RO. I may need to alter how it’s presented.

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A few things I discovered in the code (only got about half way):

Click here!
You 
*if impulse >= 50
  follow after him.
*if impulse < 50
  glance around to make sure @{(groupsize > 0) the rest of the group|Rachel} is following him and then you take up the back of the pack. No sooner do you turn around the bush that you find yourself digging your heels into the dirt in an abrupt stop. Before you and the others is a shallow ravine, with a creek running through the bottom. Across the ravine is a sudden and unanticipated end to the forest—a paved road runs parallel to the ravine and across the road is a small building complex, though you can't make out the details through the trees planted on the sidewalks adjacent to the road. 

The entire description of the ravine is hidden to players with high impulse; I assume it should be:

You 
*if impulse >= 50
  follow after him.
*if impulse < 50
  glance around to make sure @{(groupsize > 0) the rest of the group|Rachel} is following him and then you take up the back of the pack.
No sooner do you turn around the bush that you find yourself digging your heels into the dirt in an abrupt stop. Before you and the others is a shallow ravine, with a creek running through the bottom. Across the ravine is a sudden and unanticipated end to the forest—a paved road runs parallel to the ravine and across the road is a small building complex, though you can't make out the details through the trees planted on the sidewalks adjacent to the road. 

*selectable_if (pain_killers >= 2) #"I can give you something for the pain." (Requires 2 painkillers, 1 water)

Although I assume most people will have enough water, the option should probably check for it.

Rain peters down upon the rooftop, and thunder booms in distant sky.

I don’t think this is quite the word. :thinking: It looks like “patter” is the more common spelling, although “pitter” is also used.

  His expression hardens. "It's not relevant. She's dead." 
*if pet_owner
  *set stress %+(round((100-wil)/5))
  Hopefully he wouldn't be so callous if something happened to ${pet_name}. Best not to think about that now.

The *if pet_owner indent probably should be in the *if with_tommy indent, since it refers to his previous statement.

    *if with_Tommy 
      Tommy joins you and Rachel in your exchange of looks, but rather than disbelief, he shows a hardened, cautious look on this face.
    *if Empathy >= 40
      Without saying anything, he conveys clearly, "I don't like this either, I'll keep an eye out for threats." 

Same as above.

Tyrannosaurus Rex

This is super-pedantic, but technically only Tyrannosaurus is capitalised; rex is not.

*if (m_search >= 60) and jude_alive
  One irregular clothing item stands out amongst the others. It looks more like a hairy grey jumpsuit made of trash than any sort of standard outfit. 
*if jude_met
  *set stress %+(round((100-wil)/5))
  The item strikes you as familiar, and a discomforting hollow sensation in the depths of your stomach urges you to rack your brain for where you've seen this kind of outfit before. 

I guess this is another where the second indent should be in the first. :thinking:

Her voice is so unbelievably high-pitched for a moment you aren't sure if it's her real voice or not. So stuck in your disbelief, you have to be pulled out of this train of thought by her hand held out directly in front of you. Coming out of your own little world, you gather a minute or so passed without you paying proper attention. 

"${firstname}, right?" the young woman repeats. You must've missed the first time. 

"Uh, yeah." You fumble, instinctively shaking her hand. "It's nice to meet you, uh,"

"Mel, space cadet."

Brody smirks. "She's only said it about five times."

This isn’t bad, but it does feel like it should be for a specific MC build, rather than everyone.

You take a seat between Lena and Mel.

I could imagine that some people would prefer to sit with other people… :sweat_smile:

He unwraps a fork from a white napkin and sets beside him. The top of the spoon has a symbol engraved in the middle.

Fork or spoon?

*if kleptomaniac and not(vege)
  *set group_food +2
  
  Seeing as the food is likely about to be taken away, you swipe two hot dogs off the platter for later.

Would it make sense to have this as a choice for non-kleptomaniacs as well?

  *if reveal_score >= 60
    #"What are you hiding?"
      *if reveal_score >= 45

There shouldn’t be any way for the second *if to be false.

5 Likes

@JimD

Hello!

I am here once more reading Chp 9 and 10 and as earlier, here’s my feedback:

  1. I forgot to mention this earlier that if I have set up Perimeter Alarm, Trenches and all, it doesn’t make sense that a large hoard ambushes the camp of MC in Chapter 9 and I’m not even aware of it (even if the Junkyard owner opens the gate). So, I guess, you can edit it later that if we have set up perimeter alarm along with other defence mechanism then we don’t have to lose our camp buddies due to poor thinking of the Junkyard owner after all, if you look into the overall choice mechanism, our choice’s shall play a key role whether someone lose’s their life or does our choice’s help someone to save their life.

  2. Similarly, I felt the need to mention this as well that I felt this very odd that I only got one opportunity to set up defences and other additional stations (such as infirmary and all) because if my crew finishes their building stuff which I tasked them with, I have more time to build or set up more stuff in the Junkyard. And it is only logical to do that. In an apocalypse where time is a crucial thing in hand, it only makes sense to use every second to make my position better at every opportunity.

  3. Regarding the 10th Chapter, I felt it very long… I don’t know if that’s odd or something but it becomes very very long for me to finally come up on a choice. Don’t think of me as a person who hates descriptions :sweat_smile: but understand that it becomes boring at a point if you describe too much… Describing things is good but you also need to make sure that it’s apt and gives as much information with little use of words and more choices to a person to make him interacted with the game as much as you can and make him enjoy the game as much as you can in turn :smiley:

Spoiler Alert!!

In the final scene where the fighting erupts between the museum survivors and Red Mamba group. After Checker dies…

It would make sense that if I have high level of appealing or any stat which makes sense in diplomacy to convince a headless group (a group without a leader or dead leader) to join the Junkyard group which is obviously under a strong and capable leader such as MC. Because, after all instead of having small chunks of people surviving in different areas, it is better for all to join under a single banner and fight against the creeps… This is not only is applicable to the museum survivors but for the train yard people as well. If the MC has high stats as a leader then he should be able to have a choice to ask other groups to join Junkyard group.

I would really like to hear from you Jim regarding it.

Sincerely,
Aditya

3 Likes

Part 2:

Click here!

Rachel pauses, then lowers her gun. “Are this place under attack?” She ducks under a window and lifts her head just to peek outside.

Seeing she’s distracting, Checkers takes the opportunity to tackle her to the ground.

Couple of typos here: First should be either “Is this place…?” or “Are we…?” The second should be either “that she’s distracted” or “her distracted”.

“I’m glad to hear you were involved with these museum scum. So stay out of our way and let us deal with them. None of you have a thing to worry about.”

I’m not exactly sure who’s saying this (Thelma?) or if it’s quite right. Why would she be glad we were associating with the museum people? :sweat_smile:

        *if attack_result < 3
          He ducks at the last second, and you spray the air over him. 

I assume that this should goto the missgil label, although looking at it, it doesn’t make that much difference.

You hear a gun go off, and Gabriel knocks her over.

Is that supposed to be Gilbert?

Blood spills from the wound, and Louise covers it with his hands, dropping his weapon.

And Luis?

@{carry_ranged Bailey puts his|You slide closer and place your}

Bailey puts her

#“There’s been blood split on both sides. Now you’re even. Trade for your captives and fuel rather than risk the deaths of your group.”

It seems a bit weird to be negotiating for the prisoners’ release if you’ve already released them… :sweat_smile:

It shows for children sitting on a park bench well before the time of the outbreak.

“four children”

#Encourage your group to support you in convincing Cruz to let the prisoners go.

Given the wording, it would be quite nice if Tommy and Lopez being there gave you a slight boost to the stat check.

    He looks back at her and
    *if (main_ro = lopez) or (second_ro = lopez)
      shrugs. "Sorry, @{male you're not my type."|I have a bed back at camp."}
    *if (main_ro != lopez) and (second_ro != lopez)
      and returns the smile. "I could use a bed for the night."

Should there be something here for if Lopez is with Tommy?

*if (tommy_killed = 10) or (bailey_killed = 10)

  You have your own @{((tommy_killed = 10) and (bailey_killed = 10)) losses|loss} to attend to.
  *if tommy_killed = 10
    Tommy, shot in the head by Thelma's gang, another life needlessly lost to the apocalypse.
  *if bailey_killed = 10
    Bailey, shot by Gilbert during the mayhem of gunfire.
  @{(ideal >= 50) Though fury burns in your heart, you know that peace, a chance for everyone left to live, is infinitely more valuable than revenge.|Fury burns in your heart, and you regret the decision to ever come here.}
  *if (main_ro = "Tommy") or (second_ro = "Tommy")
    *set tommy_ex_ro true
    You lean over Tommy's body and kiss his forehead. His skin is cold against your lips but at least you touched him one last time.
  *if lopez_romance = "Tommy"
    Lopez kisses his own fingertips and touches them to Tommy's lips.
  *if (main_ro = "Bailey") or (second_ro = "Bailey")
    *set bailey_ex_ro true
    You lean over Bailey's body and kiss her forehead. Her skin is cold against your lips but at least you touched her one last time.
  *if brody_bailey_rel
    Brody lifts Bailey's hand and kisses it. A tear drops from his eyes and lands against her cheek.
    
  Everyone in your group helps carry the body.

A few issues here. Firstly, the _ro variables are set to “” if either Tommy or Bailey dies, so the text under those variables will never be read… that is, aside from the second bug: if only one of Tommy and Bailey dies, the code assumes they both have, which would give you the “they’re dead” text without actually killing them. It will break off a relationship with a survivor, though. Also, Lopez can mourn Tommy even if he’s not present. Lastly, if they both die, there’s still only one body at the end. I think this code would work better:

*if (tommy_killed = 10) or (bailey_killed = 10)

  You have your own @{((tommy_killed = 10) and (bailey_killed = 10)) losses|loss} to attend to.
  *if tommy_killed = 10
    Tommy, shot in the head by Thelma's gang, another life needlessly lost to the apocalypse.
  *if bailey_killed = 10
    Bailey, shot by Gilbert during the mayhem of gunfire.
  @{(ideal >= 50) Though fury burns in your heart, you know that peace, a chance for everyone left to live, is infinitely more valuable than revenge.|Fury burns in your heart, and you regret the decision to ever come here.}
  *if tommy_killed = 10
    *if (main_ro = "Tommy") or (second_ro = "Tommy")
      *set tommy_ex_ro true
      You lean over Tommy's body and kiss his forehead. His skin is cold against your lips but at least you touched him one last time.
    *if (lopez_romance = "Tommy") and with_lopez
      Lopez kisses his own fingertips and touches them to Tommy's lips.
  *if bailey_killed = 10
    *if (main_ro = "Bailey") or (second_ro = "Bailey")
      *set bailey_ex_ro true
      You lean over Bailey's body and kiss her forehead. Her skin is cold against your lips but at least you touched her one last time.
    *if brody_bailey_rel
      Brody lifts Bailey's hand and kisses it. A tear drops from his eyes and lands against her cheek.
    
  Everyone in your group helps carry the @{((tommy_killed = 10) and (bailey_killed = 10)) bodies.|body.}

Overhearing the conversation, ritual steps over to you and says in a low whisper, “We did not discuss this. Do you really want a mentally disturbed killer joining us?”

Should be Rachel.

I think that was everything. :sweat_smile:

2 Likes

Thank you once again for your help. I truly appreciate your willingness to help after all of these years.

Thank you for your help!

This is one of the major things I have to fix. It’s definitely on my list.

Yes, I am going to add more opportunities for this.

This is interesting. I thought the pacing was good but I will review that.

12 Likes
One more thing.

Whoops, didn’t spot this one before: if Lopez is there, he always saves Tommy, so this text will never come up.

1 Like

First load option doesn’t work. Always error
2nd there are so many things you can make some even have more space then 200. Yet only 200 is available. 3rd after you click to look at other stations to build the previous one becomes unavailable and you can’t select it again.i had a chicken coop done but where does chicken comes from? I had workshop done but no chance to use it.
There were defense done but I guess I need to put people to make it work and I never got chance as things kept happening or they got built? As I remember reading trench would take time for whole area but not for gate area.still zombie came in.
In scientist place what do you do with plants? Even if you have vegetable house you get no option to use it. At museum even after cruz was dead for dialogue he kept shooting and after dialogue itbwas said by mc that he killed him.

Don’t you think you have put so much here? Chp 12 feels too less? Almost no station has been set up. No chicken or vegetable or crop or anything. Even defense or anything. Most vehicle has not been worked. After first day at that place 1100+ food was eaten. All the food that was there and it turned 0. How on earth few people ate so much? Seriously.event keeps going and gives you no time.

Rest of the game is great. As the series has been

1 Like

Is there going to be polyamorous romance in this game?
Because right now both main RO and 2nd RO are described as girlfriends/boyfriends which is weird because there should be some anger expressed by main RO for MC having a 2nd RO and some jealousy by 2nd RO, which will eventually lead to break up drama.

3 Likes

Well there already is polyamory, considering the threesome in the previous book seemed to leave everyone satisfied.

1 Like

I like the fake normality of the museum, reminds me of Dawn of the Dead. Hope we could take Mel though, she’s not carved out for her crew
Also since we’re in some kind of safe haven, I think it’s natural to have opportunities to restore health?

5 Likes

Wait, what? With who? And what skills/choices do I need to get that?

Sorry for asking soo many questions at once, I did a few playthroughs but had no idea about this so I’m curious.