I’ll try the teen and college student play throughs in the next couple of days for you then. Or do you want me to try others. Whichever I am game for. 
btw: I am fine with your setup; sometimes things not deployed this time will be next time. Yopu also know best, even when I am right 
lol anyways, I really think your project to e top tier and it shows your dedication and love.
Try teen and college student please 
Is it possible to save the injured soldier in Chapter 2? If so, how?
@JimD - a couple of small things (running the teenager):
" You glance over at Brody who stands to the side with his rugby buddies, each holding a plastic cup filled with amber liquid.
Water splashes against your face, and you spot Taylor Regan laughing as he swims by. His dark hair looks jet black, soaked in the water. With a quick wink, he backstrokes toward the rest of the crowd. "
ok. back to my session.
@lightdrago3 save him? His military “friends” are taking him to get medical treatment. Right? 
UPDATE:
I have added back the custom attribute builder. You can now customize attributes and skills. Also, I added the draft of the leveling system for skills. I haven’t worked out all of the rewards yet, but so far, you receive:
I plan to add more for:
What other rewards would you like to see? Are they too many/too little points?
http://zombieexodus.com/ze2/web/mygame/index.html
PLEASE CLEAR BROWSER HISTORY TO PLAY THE UPDATE.
I would really like to be able to choose the MC’s height hehe xD
I killed them solider to see what happens
Yes, you did. Sorry if I made it sound otherwise.
I understood what you said, I just thought about explaining what I had said previously. Reading it back, it sounded as if I was saying that the survey was too flawed to work, and should be removed. In fact, I think the survey alone isn’t enough, but is just fine if another system is also introduced.
PROFILE
Name: Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov (generic name; I tend to use my real name in the game when I’m not role-playing. I put my first name and patronymic when asked for first name.)
Gender: Male
Profession/Background: VDV Guard (it was Spetsnaz Guard until you took away that bug that gave us 45 extra skill points =P)
Skill Points: 0 (63, but I spent it all.)
Hair Color: Dark blond
Eye Color: Blue
Race/Ethnicity: H̶o̶m̶o̶ ̶s̶a̶p̶i̶e̶n̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ ̶m̶e̶l̶a̶n̶i̶n̶ White or Caucasian
Distinguishing Features: None
Pet: Siberian Husky (sometimes a German Shepherd, especially if role-playing.)
Pet’s Name: Volk (Marx for German Shepherd.)
SAFE HAVEN
Current Safe Haven: F̶o̶r̶t̶i̶f̶i̶e̶d̶ ̶M̶a̶n̶s̶i̶o̶n̶/̶M̶i̶l̶i̶t̶a̶r̶y̶ ̶B̶a̶s̶e̶ home
Location: P̶e̶n̶i̶n̶s̶u̶l̶a̶/̶I̶s̶l̶a̶n̶d̶ Stodgy Farms, outside of Nightfall (sometimes suburbs, rarely city. I usually pick the farm because it is closer to the desolate place where I actually live, even if there’s no farms nearby.)
Defense: 0
Damage: 0
Primary Weapon: A̶K̶-̶1̶2̶ none
Secondary Weapon: M̶P̶-̶4̶4̶3̶ none
Armor: R̶a̶t̶n̶i̶k̶ None
Clothes: R̶a̶t̶n̶i̶k̶ Street Clothes
Primary Vehicle: G̶A̶Z̶ ̶T̶i̶g̶r̶ two-door coupe
CHALLENGES & PERKS
Dependent Child, Pet Owner, Vegetarian (Vegetarian only for the points.)
HEALTH
Physical Health: 99%
Mental Health: 99% (Either 1% or 99%, permanently, depending on how you look at it. My mind doesn’t work in a way most humans understand, but it certainly works.)
Fatigue: 10% (really? But the game didn’t even start yet =P)
Stress: 23% (knowing myself, this stat would never go past 0% lol)
PERSONALITY & MORALITY
Daring: 59% Cautious: 41% (1%-99%, I’m always doing things that make people think I’m suicidal and/or crazy, but I only do it after a very detailed analysis of the situation, and only when I’m absolutely sure it’s the best course of actions.)
Honorable: 61% Self-centered: 39% (99%-1% or 1%-99%, depending on how you look at it. I find it pragmatic to keep everybody around me alive and well. I don’t see them as people, I see them as walking sets of skills that I could use. This way of thinking seems to work in the game, too.)
Straightforward: 55% Manipulative: 45% (1%-99%, but I can quickly change into straightforwardness if I notice that it will make manipulating somebody easier. I don’t like to lie, instead, I prefer to manipulate the person’s feelings and emotions so they’ll accept the truth the way I want them to.)
Practical: 58% Emotional: 42% (99%-1%. What even are emotions, anyway?)
Civilized: 80% Depraved: 20% (99%-1%, but see the “Mental Health” above.)
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 50% (60%)
Dexterity: 55% (60%)
Agility: 50% (40%)
Stamina: 55% (40%)
Charisma: 50%
Intelligence: 55% (60%)
Willpower: 50%
Perception: 55% (60%)
I choose the stats that fit the skills I’m planning to get, and keep them balanced at 60%. 50% are the useful ones, but that don’t fit too right with the skills I’ll pick. 40% are the unfortunate ones that got sacrificed so the others could be kept at 60%.
SKILL LEVELS
Athletics (2): Beginner (could be 1)
Close-combat Weapons (2): Beginner (could be 3)
Crafting (1): Basic (could be 0):
Electronics (1): Basic (could be 0)
Empathy (3): Adept
Leadership (3): Adept
Medicine (3): Adept
Persuasion (3): Adept
Ranged Weapons (3): Adept (could be 4)
Scavenging (3): Adept
Science (2): Beginner (could be 1)
Search (2): Beginner (could be 3)
Stealth (3): Adept
Survival (3): Adept
This is my most balanced set-up. I’d change the indicated attributes if I wanted a more specialized character. The other ones are pretty set, and would take a whole lot of arguments to make me change them. As you can see, I use 3 as average for the “useful, must-have” skills, while willing to give 4 to a “useful, my style” skill, keeping “useful, not must-have” attributes 2, and dumping my extra points on “useful, not my style” skills. I don’t like to cook or drive in real life, so I only end up getting these skills from the start if I’m role-playing. I’m not a fan of gadgets or crafting things, but I’m fairly good with both, so I use them as my “dump skills”.
You updated the game while I was writing this post =P
The first page is exactly the same, but I modified my attributes to the percentages I put in parenthesis. Also, a new information showed up “Rank: Sergeant” (let’s see if I can figure out a way to hand-wave my VDV Guard working for the US Army…). An M9 also showed up as my primary weapon.
Since I ended up with 65 points instead of 62, I gave 4 to my ranged, and didn’t pick electronics.
hmm sounds like @JimD you’re awarding skill points for achieving things(rather than improving yourself) like the current suggestions but think you could also add : sill points gained for gaining a hard to obtain safe haven/car/weapon don’t know how you’ll obtain new sh/wpns/cars know you can find/craft some but would be nice if you can find hidden ones(like in z1) and buy them off other survivor groups and steal them so getting skill points for say capturing a really good safe haven would be good. and maybe skill points for romancing a hard to romance npc? and that’s a point remember you saying the dependant will improve…how is this calculated? as in do they have unseen skill points, if not how please? cheers.
First off, Awesome work on the update.
The game feels so alive, which is funny cos there is a lot of dead things running around in it…
(Bugs)
On another note, I seem to be running into a bug where the last stat point allocation does not seem to actually increase the stat.
(After getting to the chapter Two stat point allocation section the same bug occurred, and it kinda divided my persuasion by half)
Further more, my persuasion drops from 32 to 16 at the ending of the beta, for reasons I don’t quiet understand.
(It may simply be a bug or issue of my own marking but it is still rather annoying.)
(Comments)
On the balance verses realism route, I feel the current arrangement is perfectly fair as far as game-play is concerned.
(And even in terms of realism as far as I’m concerned, after not everyone is a master or even remotely good at everything, and while some people may find crippling specialization annoying it is more often than not true, after all are you going to trust a major operation on a mail man, or a surgery on a police officer…No, people play to their strengths, and avoid situations where their weaknesses are played upon.
ECT if you suck at sneaking than you are going to avoid being placed in a situation where sneaking and stealth are the major factors, just like someone who is slow is not going to run from the infected)
IF we were to do everything realistically then I would expect soldiers to be the end all be all class, because they are both well stocked and trained (However I’d expect them to have a higher challenge…Dealing with the infected en mass, railroading and the fact that going rogue would probably get you executed), and the teenager would probably be maxim difficultly cause would a teenager really be able to handle a Zombie outbreak better than a police officer, Soldier or really any adult individual.
Anyway keep up the good work, and mayhaps lower the amount of points given at the end of chapter two, I found it rather easy to gain levels.
Example: 28 points to start, plus roughly 11 points or more at the end.
Job: Scientist
Crafting (4): Advanced
Electronics (2): Beginner
Empathy (3): Adept
Leadership (4): Advanced
Medicine (5): Superior
Ranged Weapons (3): Adept
Scavenging (1): Basic
Science (5): Superior
Search (3): Adept
Stealth (2): Beginner
Persuasion (1): Basic (This stat upgrade had no effect…As it was reduced by half at the ending, and the bug prevented the last stat point allocation from having an effect so the neat gain was a negative 16 from the original 32, and a wasted point
I feel as though maybe a skill point could be granted if the player were to pick a “stat > x” choice and succeed. Kind of a reward for players picking choices attuned to their character. One example I can think off the top of my head is the bag of supplies Fred drops that you can only retrieve if your character has a high enough Stealth. Or, if I were to refer to something from before the 12/15 update, whether or not you manage to successfully intimidate/bluff Driver and co. into retreating without any casualties involved. You get what I mean?
Also, @JimD , I really hope Lopez is a character we can recruit. Not gonna lie, the second I heard him mention the white room, I immediately remembered that one ending for Zombie Exodus that made me want to claw my heart out. My police officer went against everything he believed in to shoot White in order to try and save him. :’(
@JimD, I’m having a lot of fun messing with my statistics so far. I made some of my friends, and had a lot of fun role-playing as them. I also noticed that the attributes aren’t just there to determine the skill percentage. I mean, you actually do checks with the attributes themselves, right? I was setting my attributes in a way that allowed me to make the most out of the skill percentages for my characters, but, if you do checks with the attributes themselves, then I’ll begin setting them to actually match the protagonist’s personality.
I’ve been thinking about counting the first two chapters as part of the prologue. I was having a hard time distributing my attributes in a realistic way right from the start, but I seem to be killing a lot of zombies, and it gives me quite a bonus, so I’m thinking about getting only a few skills in the start, and then buying the rest at my first opportunity, making my non-role-playing protagonist actually match myself from then on.
I find it really annoying when I’m not role-playing, and my protagonist fails to do something I would have been able to do in real life. That’s why I’m considering ignoring anything my protagonist does until after I distribute my skills points for the second time. This is how my new protagonist ended up like:
PROFILE
Name: Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov (again, not the name I played the game with)
Gender: Male
Profession/Background: VDV Guard (I think I’ll change that, the protagonist seems to be getting back into Spetsnaz territory now =P)
Rank: S̶t̶a̶r̶s̶h̶i̶n̶a̶ Sergeant
Skill Points: 0
Hair Color: Dark blond
Eye Color: Blue
Race/Ethnicity: White or Caucasian
Distinguishing Features: None
Pet: Siberian Husky
Pet’s Name: Volk
Zombie Kills: 16
Survivor Kills: 1
SAFE HAVEN
Current Safe Haven: home
Location: City of Nightfall
Defense: 3
Damage: 4
Primary Weapon: M16
Secondary Weapon: M9 pistol
Armor: None
Clothes: Army Combat Uniform
Primary Vehicle: two-door coupe
CHALLENGES & PERKS
Dependent Child, Pet Owner (yeah, meat-eater…Actually, anything-eater =P)
HEALTH
Physical Health: 99%
Mental Health: 92%
Fatigue: 70%
Stress: 51%
PERSONALITY & MORALITY
Daring: 89% Cautious: 11%
Honorable: 82% Self-centered: 18%
Straightforward: 80% Manipulative: 20%
Practical: 46% Emotional: 54%
Civilized: 37% Depraved: 63%
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 50%
Dexterity: 50%
Agility: 50%
Stamina: 50%
Charisma: 40%
Intelligence: 60%
Willpower: 60%
Perception: 60%
These new attributes represent me quite well, it seems. I’m very good at physical activities, but my mental capabilities tend to get mentioned first when people describe me. Yes, I asked people to describe me so I could create an accurate character to play the game with. My weirdness makes people think I’m anti-social, that’s why charisma got a little less than the others.
SKILL LEVELS
Athletics (3): Adept
Close-combat Weapons (3): Adept
Crafting (2): Beginner
Empathy (3): Adept
Hand-to-Hand Combat (3): Adept
Leadership (4): Advanced
Medicine (3): Adept
Persuasion (4): Advanced
Ranged Weapons (5): Superior
Scavenging (3): Adept
Science (3): Adept
Search (3): Adept
Stealth (3): Adept
Survival (3): Adept
I started with athletics, empathy, leadership, medicine, persuasion, ranged, scavenging, search, stealth, and survival, everything lvl 3, and then upgraded right before the end. I think it describes me well-enough to start with. Awesome with guns, pretty good with leading and persuading, experienced in a lot of different fields given my military training, interested in science…The only thing that is lacking is the intimidation. If I don’t actively try to be nice, I usually end up scaring people. Heh. But I prefer to manipulate people using more friendly or subtle ways, so intimidation is not something I use that much, then I don’t think it will make much of a difference if I don’t get it early in the game.
@Jimd a mechanic that would be cool would be if certain survivors could train you in certain skills for example if you have jillian she could train you in perssusion or a military sharp shooter could train you in ranged
I found this error in chapter 2, I chose “Rush outside and kill the infected.”
I chose to use my primary M9 pistol.
I might have found a spelling error in chapter 2.
I had a dependent and killed the soldier.
Yeh, I think I found a problem, because I don’t think a teenager is allowed a gun in their closet, it should be in there mother and fathers closet
I would argue its merica but I’m relatively sure it’d Canada so you’ve got a point
but aren’t teenagers allowed to buy guns? plus depending on how prepared the teen wwas maybe they moved it from their parent’s closet to theirs when seeing the news reports…or black market gun, hidden from parents? when I play a teen I’m a total bitch to my nephew…and well anyone, smoke, drink and kick arse so imagined my character doing the latter of my suggestions lol.
That’s a hidden challenge for teenager professions. It’s called ‘teenage angst’
My favourite profession at this moment in time is hacker. I just want to play the role of crazy conspiracy theory bitch who survives the apocalypse pretty damn well on her own while surfing the survnet for her former lover Julianne, but that’s beside the point.
Teenage me is… Anti-social. I locked myself in the house and refused to come out at all
Is that teenage you IRL or in game cus thats me IRL
If this was Chicago or New York, maybe but in the west US, a gun would be something that was familiar and even owned by a teenager. Especially in the suburbs or the rural areas.
The scene which Jim writes about the neighbors stopping the couple in the van - that is much more realistic and expected then you might believe.
I am not ready to give my full critique yet but the lack of firearm skills as a teenager in the rural setting was something that felt very wrong and “off” to me. If nothing else 99% of the houses have a shotgun for home protection and most kids are actually trained to use them early. I remember my dad introducing me to rifles in 3rd grade.
