Shame we are not getting any people in the group
@JimD
I found these errors in chapter 2 when the soldier appears.
I chose âGo out and see if I can get equipment or supplies off these new soldiers.â
Then âLook for an opportunity to attack. They have too much gear to pass upâ
If you attack any soldier with a club or sword it has this spelling error.
Dead center
I chose to âWait and watch the soldier. I want to make sure itâs safe before I make a decision to help or not.â
'Go outside to learn more about whatâs going on"
Then âStop them to discuss something.â
I chose to ask what injured him and found this error.
It said that he asked for water but I didnât help him.
I got this error when I chose to kill the Cowboy with a firearm.
Delete the highlighted sentence.
I got this error after I killed croston.
If you chose âRush outside and help the injured soldier.â And âKill him (for a specific reason).â
The game acts like you have a dependent.
If in chapter 1 you call Fred and select âDo you need anything?â Then in chapter 2 select âuse my CB radio to contact Fredâs mom.â When you call his Mom the game acts like Fred is still at home.
having another full playthrough(normally just skip text if I can just get the story from playing it so much lol. My first typo âyou step from the car. You stop for a quick smoke before entering the buiilding. Your 2 Is in building.â oh yeah this is the scientist playthrough, so any further typos etc are this same playthrough fyi. Also this is when you first arrive at the lab.
"Listen to me all times, do as I do, touch⊠whilst in the lift/elevator should be at all times.
"a way to develop a vaccine.
Your eyes cross and head aches. " should be your head aches? when checking out the flash drive at hom.
"As he moves onto the curb outside your home, he looks over his should from where he " should be shoulder, and is regarding the soldier outside your house.
whilst on the phone to greg? in the three story house after looking at the note his dad had first "She got bit by one of this freaks. " not sure as I know you purposefully misspell speech sometimes for character realisation, but this should be those if not.
âtold her not to yell at that guy for stepping on her flowers.ââ
" should there be an apostrophe and quotation mark at the end? âmean.ââ
" same issue, just noticed that so sorry if itâs not a mistake.
this is from the new part with the soldiers "draws everyoneâs attention to north of your house. The noise scatters a flock of pigeons which flutter " should be overhead.
was doing a quick skim playthrough as a custom class with a cat, the cleptomaniac and short fuse challenges too. andI didnât pick a dependant child though and I came across this and other sentences like it âButâŠbut you went out to help him,â unknown says, his voice " also note the name.
Oh and lastly really liking the new layout 
canât wait for the next update and lold so hard when you kill the soldier(s) in the new part and say it bluntly to your nephewâŠhis reaction is amazing lol.
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Happy new years zombie exodus fans
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@JimD
If you donât finish setting up reinforcementâs in chapter 1, can we have a option to continue setting them up in chapter 2?
I found this bug in the three story home in chapter 2. I was a engineer with no ranged weapon skill. I received the pistol from the injured soldier.
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I think this is spot on with the caveat that people will rise or fall in extreme situations regardless of their background in non-expected ways.
Another, simplistic way of thinking about this: the SNCO is the practical every-moment leader, knowledgeable in the nitty-gritties and who concentrates on the immediate details. The CO is the theorist, educated in higher tactical and strategic thought and who thinks in the big-picture and in generalities.
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@Harley_Robin_Evans I am adding a few NPCs to chapters 2 and 3 who will join or be eligible to join (meaning itâs playerâs choice). I have a ton to add and with each addition, a lot is affected. Sorry for the delay.
@Bugreporter thanks for pointing out the typos.
Yes, I keep meaning to add it.
An engineer with 0 levels in ranged has 25% chance due to raw stats. The m9 pistol is +5 to hit. When shooting Flora, the character needs 30 or better for a moderate success. So I think itâs fine unless I missed something.
@Bruno_Frank_Hill thanks for these errors
.[quote=âBruno_Frank_Hill, post:2941, topic:2000â]
Oh and lastly really liking the new layout canât wait for the next update and lold so hard when you kill the soldier(s) in the new part and say it bluntly to your nephewâŠhis reaction is amazing lol.
[/quote]
Glad you like it 
I really enjoy writing the dependentâs parts, though itâs time consuming. I hope people pick that challenge is it really changes the game.
@Zolataya for the reasons you list, and as Starshina stated, I am going to make the commander more a tactician than strict leader as before.
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@JimD
I found this spelling mistake as a mixed martial artist.
I chose to go on a date, then in chapter 1 when the Zombie attacked chose bare hands as a primary and knife as a secondary.
âAnother kick and legs stiffen but arms go limpâ
Add a full stop after limp.
@JimD, if you were to change the Combat/Medicine/Lead approach to the military, you could make it Medicine/Tactics/Strategy. Keep the Medic as it is, make a NCO with excellent combat and good social skills, and make a CO with lots of knowledge.
Since you added the enemy soldiers with so early in the game, Iâm now considering playing as my own created protagonist. My main concern about playing as one was that I wanted to have a fairly high (3 or 4) ranged skill, but the game only let me be a gun owner if I was a lvl 5 (or a level 4 with very high perception and dexterity). Since I was spending all my combat points in ranged, I couldnât make my character a competent close combatant. I didnât knew how long it would take for me to get a k̶a̶l̶a̶s̶h̶n̶i̶k̶o̶v̶ decent gun, so I was skeptical about creating my own Soldier. Now that I can kill Cowboy and get his gear, I should be able to play as I originally wanted.
Since I donât like the way the survey works, I always go with my professionâs own preset attributes, which makes it impossible for me to be a gun-owner unless my created protagonistâs ranged is lvl 5. I suppose you need 70% weapon skill to be a gun-owner, right? Why not just 60%? You donât want to have everybody start the game armed, I get it, but it looks like all the people who can be gun owners are the ones that already start armed, anyway.
Also, why would a protagonist with lvl 4 ranged skill try to tackle the zombie chasing his movie date? Shouldnât a high ranged skill net to the soda bottle scene? And when you fight the soldiers, it says I jump behind a bush if I live in a farm, and behind a fallen tree if I live in the suburbs. Shouldnât it be the inverse?
When you name your profession, the game asks which area would it fit better (education, communications, government, etc). How does it work? I remember choosing the Military industry back when Lyle and Jillian were still in the early chapters, and when they asked me about my profession I told them I was a Soldier, and the game acted as if I was lying.
Now on for some totally hypothetical rambling: It would be absolutely awesome if could subtract some skill from the preset professions to re-distribute them. I mean, I know I can make my own character and distribute their skills from scratch, but then they wouldnât get the same scenes as the preset characters do (nor any of the items that come with them).
The pet-owner challenge doesnât seem to award any skill points. You know, it would be really cool if it did. Right now Iâm going as a vegetarian just for the extra points. Speaking about it, does this challenge really impacts game play? I mean, would a vegetarian protagonist refuse to eat meat even if theyâre starving? Or theyâd just refuse to scavenge for meat, but eat if itâs available? Could we âconvertâ ourselves into âmeat-eatersâ?
To make character creation absolutely perfect, the only thing that needs to be added is a way to fine-tune the stats. As I said some time ago, the survey is very flawed, and only leads to crippling overspecialization. I wanted to be able to distribute my stats like I do with my skills. As I said earlier, giving the player points to distribute, each one raising the stat by 5%, would be awesome.
And about the dependent childâŠAre you really, really, really sure it couldnât be a niece?
This!
(for the sake of the forum)
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A couple of thoughts:
- Every professional sniper I knew (from them being my fatherâs professional peers) had training in and had mastered some sort of close quarters combat. It was just expected that at that level of proficiency that their basic skill set included close combat mastery.
I also know that these men (all were men at this time) were trained in everything from desert survival to mountain climbing - and they were trained worldwide with their peers.
- As a person involved in gaming for years now, I also realize there must be balance and there must be a structured advancement system in place that all different types of gamers can grasp and understand. Sometimes this means simplifying reality and sometimes this means changing reality.
When you combine these two thought processes I see a need to limit the initial skill allocation in-game which would warp the game reality away from the real reality.
With that said, I also see a need to link advanced investment of skill points into a specialization with the beginning advancement of related skills. In our discussed case, before any skill points beyond 3 can be placed in ranged combat, an additional investment of 3 points need to be spent in close quarters combat.
This type of solution would structure more realistically developed MC protagonists that would both make the story more believable bit also more satisfying overall.
Again with all that said: I still enjoyed my âcreationâ MC as well as my âpre-madeâ mostly because I was able to suspend my disbelief ⊠something a lot of experienced gamers may be able to do but many inexperienced gamers or those with real-world experience may not.
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@StarshinaSokolov great feedback.
I want to keep it the way it is at this point. Changes to major aspects of the game have a butterfly effect. Even when I temporarily changed Commander to a Staff Sergeant, I had to spend time finding references and it broke some code. Iâd say 80% of people who play ZE know even less than I do about the military. For people like you, I have to give reasonable professions to play and I doubt you even want to play a canned Soldier.
Lots of the early game didnât receive much feedback on the aspects youâre bringing up. Everything is up for change if someone makes decent arguments and it doesnât blow up my game.
Iâll lower gun owner to Ranged at 60%.
Itâs a bug. I have the checks for skills out of order.
I had an option to choose stats based on a stat pool, down to single digits. You could have a 52 in Dexterity for example. But that code broke the tools Choicescript has to test the game, and I canât do without those tools. I will add the custom character builder before the game goes live.
This is for flavoring text, and your comment reminds me I need to do better to check it. In the case of L&J, I check that youâre a military professional but have to add the check for custom characters.
I may add some. Pets can be a benefit, so I debated whether they are an advantage and not a challenge. As for vegetarians, I need to make more checks that food you scavenge is not meat. By default, your nephew will also be vegetarian.
When you are starving or lacking cigarettes (for nicotine addicts) or alcohol (for addicts) or afraid of heights (for those who fear heights), breaking the challenge is based on Willpower and Stress. You can technically lose the challenge.
I donât know the % but I would bet a large number of people want to jump into the game and not min/max or even select stats. So the survey is the option to start quick. I do plan to add a way to customize stats and still go through the professional prologue scene. I have to work out how to code it, since I canât assume a custom Military player is a US Army soldier.
Yes I am 100% sure. I hate coding pronouns as it is.
@Zolataya You said it better than me.
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Bro Iâm sure Julianne will make a cameo but Imagine this what if Jason that other tech geek that keeps her severed finger finds out and commenced a hack battle at you through SurvNet it would be so epic.
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@Zolataya, believe me, I tried telling Jim this. He prioritizes balance over realism, so this isnât going to work.
I even tried re-distributing the points myself to see if I could do a better job while remaining balanced, but thereâs never enough points. If we add more points to one protagonist, weâd need to add to the others as well, to keep up the balance. If we do this, weâd have a lot of overpowered protagonists.
Since we have so few points to work with, and I like all-arounders instead of specialized characters, I select the skills that suit my style the most, and focus on balancing them. Usually empathy, leadership, medicine, persuasion, ranged, scavenging, stealth, and survival get 3 lvls; athletics, melee, science, and search get 2 lvls, and I usually dump the remaining points in cooking and crafting.
@JimD, pets can be a benefit, but so can the nephew. One could argue that he, being a human being, could help the protagonist much more than a pet. Also, itâs your nephew, not your son, so youâre not used to taking care after him. The game says âLooking over the list of skills in the magazine, you realize it does not account for the extra training you have had throughout your life.â since the dependent child doesnât live with you, it wouldnât make much sense to give points for taking care of him. A pet, on the other hand, lives with you, and your experience taking care of it could account for the points.
Now, Iâm saying saying that you should take away the points for the nephew. Iâm just saying that you should also give the pet-owners a few points.
Also, would the dependent child be a vegetarian by default, or only if you chose the vegetarian challenge? If itâs by default, then I would be inclined to pick it as a challenge as well.
Iâm not saying you should remove the survey, Iâm just saying you could add another way to distribute stats, for players who want to customize their characters.
blush It is a harsh truth on many levels, Jim. I just got done replaying Exodus 1 and I can unequivocally say the rebuilt system in Safe Haven is my favorite. It was hard to go back, once I played the new story.
At this point, it seems the skill structure is pretty firm, so if there is any feedback in particular that you desire, let me know. From the viewpoint of a tester, the only thing I can think that would add value is a weapons glossary. I know the differences between a Springfield 1903, a M4, and a Marlin repeater but I suspect many, even if they know a little about guns night not - also using an actual Winchester might clue in more people instead of the Marlin. Little things that wonât change anything but might help clarify.
I know. I see both sides of the issue but when push comes to shove, this is both a game and a story first. So warping reality is going to be needed so there is constant challenge from beginning to end. If balance was secondary, then too many gamers would min-max to the point where Jim would have been better writing a pure story⊠in addition to the actual gameplay there must be replay value.
Some of the smartest and brightest programmers Iâve dealt with in gaming do not understand this concept well. We are lucky Jim seems to grasp it well.
This doesnât mean we should stay quiet though so whenever there can be improvement to reality to consider, those with the knowledge should always speak up. I think that is why Jim values your feedback - it helps in more ways than one to have fans both dedicated enough to join a community and knowledgeable enough to add insight and fact.
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How about this for a little twist. Remember in ZE when we look through Jasonâs computer and then it starts to automatically delete and shut down everything? What if that was Hacker MC hearing about Jasonâs attack and covering his tracks for him?
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Yes!! and maybe Julianne chose the safehaven MC instead of Jason.
So thatâs why he chose to get close to Candace in the cathedral and move on rusulting to him becoming badly beaten or dead.
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Julianne in the safe haven is a win for me so why not? 
@StarshinaSokolov in fairness, Iâve accepted much of your advice.
My plan is to add points for the pet. How much is yet to be determined.
Sorry, I meant if the MC is a vegetarian, the dependent is too.
From my last post: âI had an option to choose stats based on a stat pool, down to single digits. You could have a 52 in Dexterity for example. But that code broke the tools Choicescript has to test the game, and I canât do without those tools.** I will add the custom character builder before the game goes live**.â
@Zolataya this pushes the game even further to RPG land, which is not the direction I want to go. Iâm probably already past where I should be which is why I am a year and a half into this game and not close to publishing. I really like RPG mechanics but linked advancement would complicate things for the core reader.
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@Zolataya
I can still use help with balancing the professions. Soldier is fairly set though none are locked. I do have plans for teen and college studentâto change their initial points and their leveling rate.
@StarshinaSokolov can you post details of your typical hybrid character?
Just show stats, copy/paste the first page and skills. Also, Iâll back in the custom builder for today.
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