Christina



Posts: 280





DS Producer





ModeratorPosts: 280DS Producer Dead State Beta is LIVE! « on: August 27, 2014, 05:24:23 pm »



75+ new locations

30+ new allies

500+ new dialogues

Crisis events

New enemy types & factions

Vehicle travel

Skill perks

Ally traits

Thrown weapons

Data system (basic)

Dog allies and enemies

Special weapons

Neutral encounters

Tutorial elements

Pause menu

New save & load screens

New goals

Allies tracker on Goals screen

Fence attacks ​ New jobs

Shelter upgrades … And a whole lot more cool stuff!



Don’t skip off gleefully to launch the game just yet, though - read on to learn more about what you should expect when you fire up the Beta.



About the Beta

First, we want to remind everyone that the Beta is not the full game. While the Beta includes tons of new content and features, there are also content and features still missing, and most of those that are in the Beta still need balancing and optimization. There are also still going to be a host of bugs and technical issues that we’re still actively fixing behind the scenes. Similar to other prominent recent betas on Steam (Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity), Dead State’s Beta doesn’t include all the final story, dialogues, or levels, but it’s sure got enough to keep you busy for quite some time! The idea behind the open beta is to expose as much content to you as we possibly can and get your feedback on both design and technical issues before we move on to the final release.



Speaking of your feedback - we need it! The community is full of passionate, motivated, and clever people and we humbly ask you to use your powers to help us improve Dead State. On the design side, we especially need feedback about combat, supplies, loot, and dialogue. On the technical side, we especially need to know about crashes, soft locks, exploits, and any progress-blocking bugs. Of course, all other game feedback is welcome too



To provide bug reports and feedback, please use the subforum located here:



Better Community = Better Game

We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the Beta, both positive and negative - just please keep your feedback polite, constructive, and on-topic. Providing constructive criticism and behaving respectfully towards others is awesome and appreciated. On the other hand, attacks and arguments detract from the effectiveness of the beta feedback process and ultimately harm the whole Dead State community. If we all keep in mind that the goal of the beta is to make Dead State the best game it can possibly be, then that’s exactly what will happen!



Known Issues and Missing Features & Content

Remember how I said there were a few bits missing and some kinks still being worked out? Right here, I’ll tell you about some of the big’uns we’re aware of. For the longer version of the Known Issues list, go



AI:

AI is still pretty basic right now. We’re already working on vast improvements to the AI system that you’ll see in the first patch. Eventually, enemies will exhibit more advanced tactics and behaviors that vary among different enemy types.



Dialogue and Scripting:

Dialogue and scripting are one of our highest priorities and are constantly being added to and improved.

- There are still a few missing dialogues for specific characters, and more dialogue may very well be added in polish stage.

- A number of world events are not scripted yet so if it seems like something more should be happening in a scene, chances are you’re right

- Scripting is also missing or minimal in numerous ally encounters, so sometimes dialogue may not match up with what actually happens when you meet a new ally out in the world.

- There are a few neutral encounters already in the game, but more are planned for the future.



Pathfinding:

- There are still a few weird behaviors being exhibited during pathfinding, such as jittering, sliding, occupying the same space, and meandering. There’s also some lag that comes up occasionally while pathfinding. Pathfinding optimization will happen closer to final release.

- There’s currently an issue where allies do not follow the active character up or down stairs. This is a very high priority issue for us to fix in an upcoming patch.



Combat:

Weapons, armor, medical items, combat skills, special attacks, and combat encounters are still being balanced and tweaked. Roof behavior is still not ideal and we have plans to make sure the roof stays invisible when any ally is inside of it, among other things.



Crashes and Locks:

Crashes and locks are one of our absolute highest priorities, so rest assured that we’re working on solutions for these even as you read these words. Right now, these are the known crashes that occur in the game:

- Changing resolution while on a level may crash the game when returning to the area map. This is an issue with the map GUI and we’re working on a solution.

- Occasionally a crash occurs when returning to the shelter. This may be related to something in the code looking for an ally that isn’t there. We’re looking into it.

- There is a rare crash that occurs when players begin to load into a location from the area map and then click somewhere else on the map before the location loads up.

- Rarely, the game soft locks after an ally panics - the player character’s turn starts and s/he has zero AP and the game is stuck on the player’s turn.

- A crash occurs when a character with no weapons equipped attempts to stand up from knockdown.

- A crash occurs when player wakes up their PC after it’s entered sleep mode with the game open.



Save/Load:

The biggest issue with saves right now is that some save files are getting corrupted after players explore a large quantity of locations. This is a critical priority for us, so hang in there! Again, please save your game in multiple files to lower the risk of losing your game progress until we get this fixed.



Levels:

While many levels are fully playable, there are also a few levels at various stages of completion. Some levels may be missing loot, enemies, or even props, and there are certainly plenty that still require additional scripting too.



Perks:

- Leadership commands are not fully implemented in the beta build. "Go!" and "Aim for the Head" are the two working commands right now.

- A few other perks are also not working by design yet. These will be fixed in a future update.



Again, the full list of Known Issues is available here.



Thank You!

All of us at DoubleBear are really excited to share this beta with you and show off everything we’ve been working on over the past year. Your ongoing support and enthusiasm for Dead State kept us going and reminded us that there are a lot of people out there just as passionate about Dead State as we are. So thank you for keeping us company on this journey - we can’t wait to see it through to the end with you!

The Dead State Beta is here! Since I don’t want to keep you in suspense, I’ll kick off this announcement with our impressive changelog:… And a whole lot more cool stuff!Don’t skip off gleefully to launch the game just yet, though - read on to learn more about what you should expect when you fire up the Beta.First, we want to remind everyone that the Beta is not the full game. While the Beta includes tons of new content and features, there are also content and features still missing, and most of those that are in the Beta still need balancing and optimization. There are also still going to be a host of bugs and technical issues that we’re still actively fixing behind the scenes. Similar to other prominent recent betas on Steam (Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, Divinity), Dead State’s Beta doesn’t include all the final story, dialogues, or levels, but it’s sure got enough to keep you busy for quite some time! The idea behind the open beta is to expose as much content to you as we possibly can and get your feedback on both design and technical issues before we move on to the final release.Speaking of your feedback - we need it! The community is full of passionate, motivated, and clever people and we humbly ask you to use your powers to help us improve Dead State. On the design side, we especially need feedback about combat, supplies, loot, and dialogue. On the technical side, we especially need to know about crashes, soft locks, exploits, and any progress-blocking bugs. Of course, all other game feedback is welcome tooTo provide bug reports and feedback, please use the subforum located here: Early Access Beta. Don’t mind the old posts - we had a very small number of people helping us do internal testing of the beta, and we’ve converted the forum we used to communicate with them into the full Beta bug-reporting/feedback forum. You can also use our “Bug Reporting and Feedback” board on Steam to report issues if you’d prefer. Please make sure to read the “Known Issues” thread first and review other people’s posts before reporting your issue; that makes it easier for the devs and mods to keep track of everything!We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the Beta, both positive and negative - just please keep your feedback polite, constructive, and on-topic. Providing constructive criticism and behaving respectfully towards others is awesome and appreciated. On the other hand, attacks and arguments detract from the effectiveness of the beta feedback process and ultimately harm the whole Dead State community. If we all keep in mind that the goal of the beta is to make Dead State the best game it can possibly be, then that’s exactly what will happen!Remember how I said there were a few bits missing and some kinks still being worked out? Right here, I’ll tell you about some of the big’uns we’re aware of. For the longer version of the Known Issues list, go here AI is still pretty basic right now. We’re already working on vast improvements to the AI system that you’ll see in the first patch. Eventually, enemies will exhibit more advanced tactics and behaviors that vary among different enemy types.Dialogue and scripting are one of our highest priorities and are constantly being added to and improved.- There are still a few missing dialogues for specific characters, and more dialogue may very well be added in polish stage.- A number of world events are not scripted yet so if it seems like something more should be happening in a scene, chances are you’re right- Scripting is also missing or minimal in numerous ally encounters, so sometimes dialogue may not match up with what actually happens when you meet a new ally out in the world.- There are a few neutral encounters already in the game, but more are planned for the future.- There are still a few weird behaviors being exhibited during pathfinding, such as jittering, sliding, occupying the same space, and meandering. There’s also some lag that comes up occasionally while pathfinding. Pathfinding optimization will happen closer to final release.- There’s currently an issue where allies do not follow the active character up or down stairs. This is a very high priority issue for us to fix in an upcoming patch.Weapons, armor, medical items, combat skills, special attacks, and combat encounters are still being balanced and tweaked. Roof behavior is still not ideal and we have plans to make sure the roof stays invisible when any ally is inside of it, among other things.Crashes and locks are one of our absolute highest priorities, so rest assured that we’re working on solutions for these even as you read these words. Right now, these are the known crashes that occur in the game:- Changing resolution while on a level may crash the game when returning to the area map. This is an issue with the map GUI and we’re working on a solution.- Occasionally a crash occurs when returning to the shelter. This may be related to something in the code looking for an ally that isn’t there. We’re looking into it.- There is a rare crash that occurs when players begin to load into a location from the area map and then click somewhere else on the map before the location loads up.- Rarely, the game soft locks after an ally panics - the player character’s turn starts and s/he has zero AP and the game is stuck on the player’s turn.- A crash occurs when a character with no weapons equipped attempts to stand up from knockdown.- A crash occurs when player wakes up their PC after it’s entered sleep mode with the game open.The biggest issue with saves right now is that some save files are getting corrupted after players explore a large quantity of locations. This is a critical priority for us, so hang in there! Again, please save your game in multiple files to lower the risk of losing your game progress until we get this fixed.While many levels are fully playable, there are also a few levels at various stages of completion. Some levels may be missing loot, enemies, or even props, and there are certainly plenty that still require additional scripting too.- Leadership commands are not fully implemented in the beta build. "Go!" and "Aim for the Head" are the two working commands right now.- A few other perks are also not working by design yet. These will be fixed in a future update.All of us at DoubleBear are really excited to share this beta with you and show off everything we’ve been working on over the past year. Your ongoing support and enthusiasm for Dead State kept us going and reminded us that there are a lot of people out there just as passionate about Dead State as we are. So thank you for keeping us company on this journey - we can’t wait to see it through to the end with you! Logged

SniperHF



Posts: 134







DS Silver PatronsPosts: 134 Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #1 on: August 27, 2014, 05:44:44 pm » .



Do you know if the save corruption is a case of the save will work sometimes but not others. Or will you simply get to a point with enough locations explored that they stop working completely? Looking forward to itDo you know if the save corruption is a case of the save will work sometimes but not others. Or will you simply get to a point with enough locations explored that they stop working completely? Logged

Dead State: Check out my AoD videos: www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=c4-feed-u&list=PLJA_Rkb-8pttM6_bSPCoRje1KmUi2nwKN Dead State: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJA_Rkb-8pts_zFAVWY86VD-ctNBK0nGP

Christina



Posts: 280





DS Producer





ModeratorPosts: 280DS Producer Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #2 on: August 27, 2014, 05:52:07 pm » Quote from: SniperHF on August 27, 2014, 05:44:44 pm .



Do you know if the save corruption is a case of the save will work sometimes but not others. Or will you simply get to a point with enough locations explored that they stop working completely?

Looking forward to itDo you know if the save corruption is a case of the save will work sometimes but not others. Or will you simply get to a point with enough locations explored that they stop working completely?

Honestly, we'll need more people from the actual beta reporting on that to us. It happened to a couple people during internal testing, but I don't think it happened to everyone, so we'll see. Nonetheless, it is one of the most urgent fixes we're looking into - we want everyone to be able to play as far as possible! Honestly, we'll need more people from the actual beta reporting on that to us. It happened to a couple people during internal testing, but I don't think it happened to everyone, so we'll see. Nonetheless, it is one of the most urgent fixes we're looking into - we want everyone to be able to play as far as possible! Logged

CounselorPally



Posts: 370





CraftsmanPosts: 370 Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #4 on: August 28, 2014, 02:04:51 am » Great job guys. Unfortunately I haven't heard about my job, so I'll miss you guys in Seattle this year (I'm beyond broke...) ... it's absolutely breaking my heart missing you guys. I will get this tested for you guys though. Will start having feedback to you within a few days. Take care. Logged My youtube channel has quite a few Dead State vids on it. You can come check it out if you want. http://www.youtube.com/chancepaladin

Darkwombat



Posts: 68







ApprenticePosts: 68 Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #6 on: August 28, 2014, 10:58:47 am » I'll be stopping by to provide feedback after I get further along in the game! Again, great job! Congrats, and big thanks, on release of the beta! I've been away from the forums on summer vaction/work stuff for a while, and was very pleasantly surprised to get an email stating that the Beta is live! Stayed up too late last night getting started.I'll be stopping by to provide feedback after I get further along in the game! Again, great job! Logged Specs for Bug reports:

Windows 7.1

EVGA Nvidia Geforce GTX 650TI, 1GB, Driver 331.82, 1920x1080

Christina



Posts: 280





DS Producer





ModeratorPosts: 280DS Producer Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #7 on: August 28, 2014, 11:20:48 am » Thanks Darkwombat! We're super thrilled to have the beta out, it's a big step for us.



Thanks to Gamgee too, I missed you earlier when I replied!



Logged

Trash



Posts: 28





NovicePosts: 28 Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #8 on: August 28, 2014, 11:26:11 am » Initially posted this at the Codex but decided to toss it in here as well since it might actually get read by a dev here. Hope it's of some use.



Been playing it for a few hours and I must say that I’m really enjoying myself. They nailed the whole zombie apocalypse vibe and with it the excitement of exploration and the deadliness of combat. When I played the previous release it genuinely felt too loose and empty for me. This beta actually has meat to it, although obviously with lots and lots of rough edges. Here are a few things I noticed while playing.



Environmental. The last version I played felt soulless to me because the maps where rather static with little to no interaction. While I still can’t climb over walls and fences or try to enter buildings through smashing a window there is a lot more to find now. The little quips that party members and others make help as well. I do hope we’ll see a little more reactivity here, although I doubt it. Even some lines regarding things there are too see would help. For example a car crash that would lead to one or two remarks or some painted text that would invoke a response.



Combat. What can I say? I like it. The little text blurbs make it more exciting, the difference between lumbering undead and scared guys with guns is interesting and it’s hard enough to really mess up your day when you don’t pay attention or just have plain bad luck.



Killing. The zombie genre is as much about moral questions and having humanity as its own worst enemies as it is about shuffling undead. Right at the beginning of the game you can already get into a situation where you kill other living people. Why not implement some dialogue about this back at the shelter? Killing another living being is quite a thing and most of the initial gang surely have been through a lot but I doubt they're all hardcore killers. Perhaps make it a group discussion, implement a trigger that those in the actual fight have a talk about it or anything. Not doing anything with something of the magnitude of society falling so far that you have to actually murder another human feels wrong in this genre.



The sound mechanic. Making noise spawns walkers. I like that. A lot. Making noise also attracts attention on the map. I like that as well. Shooting a pistol at a looter, killing him and then walking less than five meters to find his oblivious buddies is something I don’t like. May need more polish. Otherwise, neat.



Trading items amongst party members. Perhaps it’s in the manual or in a tutorial hint I missed but trading items amongst my party was undoable without me using a container in the game to store everything. Lame. I also did not like that my party members did not want to hold on to the better gear or items they held dear. I could imagine a guy who dislikes me not wanting to give up his gun, or a scared girl not wanting to give up her body armor.



Midnight. At midnight you’re presumed missing when still outside and the game ends. It feels kinda gimmicky and cheap and I wonder if the danger of being outside so late could be shown in another way. Big stat penalties to reflect stress and how tired people get? Unskippable encounters with lots and lots of zombies during map travel? Higher spawn chance on maps of zombies? Make it difficult and bad to stay out late. Not an arbitrary end.



Luxury items. A nice touch to get stuff to make the people feel better. Empty as it is just a stat and there is no remark about it in game. ‘Wow, awesome that you got me that toothbrush!’ would already make a huge difference.



Zombies at the gate. Fix the fence and you get a cutscene. In it there’s casual mention about a bunch of zombies you kill at the fence. Why not let you play that out? Even the most mundane actions in a zombie apocalypse should be dangerous and full of possible peril. In fact, why not make clearing out the map regularly a genuine task? With dangers and all?



Area design. Kudos here. The areas I’ve seen so far have all been interesting to explore, all had the possibility of different approaches and all held their own challenges. Do hope we’ll see some areas with traps and ambushes to keep players on their toes. Perhaps hostile outside agencies apart from walkers who would enter a map to hunt you might give some extra excitement.



Anyway, I was not expecting too much after the last build. Now I’m already having a blast. Do hope to see more polish but I’m genuinely excited to get my hands on the finished game. Logged

Caidoz



Posts: 2446





ModeratorPosts: 2446 Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #9 on: August 28, 2014, 11:41:48 am » Quote from: Trash on August 28, 2014, 11:26:11 am Feedback



Thanks for your feedback! In order to keep things organized, could you post your feedback in individual threads in the



Thank you!



Also, you can trade with your characters on an area map by right clicking until you get a backpack icon, which opens the character trading menu. Thanks for your feedback! In order to keep things organized, could you post your feedback in individual threads in the Feedback Sub-Forum , rather than posting them in bulk in a single thread? It makes it much easier for the team to keep track of everyone's suggestions.Thank you!Also, you can trade with your characters on an area map by right clicking until you get a backpack icon, which opens the character trading menu. « Last Edit: August 28, 2014, 11:55:01 am by Caidoz » Logged "A gang of crazed druggie looters could sneak up and rip open our gate with their PCP meth strength - I mean, haven't you ever played a post-apocalyptic role-playing game before?"

Trash



Posts: 28





NovicePosts: 28 Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #10 on: August 28, 2014, 11:57:54 am » Sorry. It was a bulk post on the codex and I honestly don't feel like stripping it into a lot of seperate posts while also looking in what subforum they should specifically be posted. Anyway, thanks for the UI pointer. « Last Edit: August 28, 2014, 11:59:56 am by Trash » Logged

Christina



Posts: 280





DS Producer





ModeratorPosts: 280DS Producer Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #11 on: August 28, 2014, 12:04:17 pm »



Really glad to hear you are enjoying it!



Regarding your thoughts on reactivity, in the polish phase we hope to have even more reactivity from allies in areas and encounters. We're definitely not done in that regard @Trash,Really glad to hear you are enjoying it!Regarding your thoughts on reactivity, in the polish phase we hope to have even more reactivity from allies in areas and encounters. We're definitely not done in that regard Logged

SuicideBunny

Posts: 21





*frumple*





Posts: 21*frumple* Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #12 on: August 28, 2014, 12:48:26 pm » Quote from: Trash on August 28, 2014, 11:26:11 am Midnight. At midnight you’re presumed missing when still outside and the game ends. It feels kinda gimmicky and cheap and I wonder if the danger of being outside so late could be shown in another way. Big stat penalties to reflect stress and how tired people get? Unskippable encounters with lots and lots of zombies during map travel? Higher spawn chance on maps of zombies? Make it difficult and bad to stay out late. Not an arbitrary end. this, so much. the whole midnight issue feels very gamey and not in a good sense. why not have different fatigue levels that progressively worsen combat effectiveness, effective skill levels where applicable, and let people who come in late and fatigued oversleep so they can get less stuff done the next day? really bad fatigue could also require several days of regular sleeping to shake off, possibly affecting shelter projects negatively. more choices and ways to fuck up are always nice. this, so much. the whole midnight issue feels very gamey and not in a good sense. why not have different fatigue levels that progressively worsen combat effectiveness, effective skill levels where applicable, and let people who come in late and fatigued oversleep so they can get less stuff done the next day? really bad fatigue could also require several days of regular sleeping to shake off, possibly affecting shelter projects negatively. more choices and ways to fuck up are always nice. Logged

Caidoz



Posts: 2446





ModeratorPosts: 2446 Re: Dead State Beta is LIVE! « Reply #13 on: August 28, 2014, 12:59:27 pm » Quote from: SuicideBunny on August 28, 2014, 12:48:26 pm Quote from: Trash on August 28, 2014, 11:26:11 am Midnight. At midnight you’re presumed missing when still outside and the game ends. It feels kinda gimmicky and cheap and I wonder if the danger of being outside so late could be shown in another way. Big stat penalties to reflect stress and how tired people get? Unskippable encounters with lots and lots of zombies during map travel? Higher spawn chance on maps of zombies? Make it difficult and bad to stay out late. Not an arbitrary end. this, so much. the whole midnight issue feels very gamey and not in a good sense. why not have different fatigue levels that progressively worsen combat effectiveness, effective skill levels where applicable, and let people who come in late and fatigued oversleep so they can get less stuff done the next day? really bad fatigue could also require several days of regular sleeping to shake off, possibly affecting shelter projects negatively. more choices and ways to fuck up are always nice.

this, so much. the whole midnight issue feels very gamey and not in a good sense. why not have different fatigue levels that progressively worsen combat effectiveness, effective skill levels where applicable, and let people who come in late and fatigued oversleep so they can get less stuff done the next day? really bad fatigue could also require several days of regular sleeping to shake off, possibly affecting shelter projects negatively. more choices and ways to fuck up are always nice.

There is actually a fatigued status that characters can get if they've been out for 12+ hours, although I don't believe this is currently enabled in the beta. According to the known issues thread, there will be ways to travel at night which you can unlock at some point in the game, although I don't know if that's in the beta yet either. There is actually a fatigued status that characters can get if they've been out for 12+ hours, although I don't believe this is currently enabled in the beta. According to the known issues thread, there will be ways to travel at night which you can unlock at some point in the game, although I don't know if that's in the beta yet either. Logged "A gang of crazed druggie looters could sneak up and rip open our gate with their PCP meth strength - I mean, haven't you ever played a post-apocalyptic role-playing game before?"