r/StateOfDecay

I am getting frustrated after 45 hours of play. I set the game on Standard Difficulty, but I am finding that Curveballs are making it too hard to finish.

So Curveballs were a later system added in to randomize events and effects for experienced players. But I am not experienced, I am new. And I've gotten a bad combination now where plague zombies catch fire and explode.

And it is one of those conditions that expands and doesn't end until you kill the purple plague heart . I've sent my best characters, and tried various tactics, but they keep getting killed. Now the two purple plague hearts have grow to 2/3s of the map (Providence Valley, this is the starter scenario).

I am still learning all the new player stuff about combat and weapons and base management, and this extra permanent condition of exploding plague zombies has me completely demoralized. To go from six pretty good survivors to just three, and one of them a recent recruit, has me convinced I can't finish this map with my skills. And I had already destroyed six out of ten of the normal plague hearts.

And before all this, I turned down Curveballs to be less frequent, but I still keep getting a lot of them, and as soon as one ends, it seems like another starts.

I am tempted to set the difficulty down to easy, but I understand this resets the map. I don't know what else to do, because I am not good with combat right now, especially melee. I just haven't learned yet how to do all the dodges and shoves and everything else, and I keep getting swarmed. If I try to jump on a car, the exploding zombies just make the car explode and that character die.

Any advice?

https://preview.redd.it/v64uxyp7a0kh1.jpg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a1b96ad8d671027c057d670cf965d4b1ebbaf9c6

Let me start by saying I loved SoD ever since I started playing it in Highschool after my cousin introduced me to it. But I've always thought some things could be better but couldn't voice them out loud to an entire community of people who loved the games like me; so Below I've listed most of the gripes that I have.

1. The Zeds aren't compelling and feel very generic and artificial;

Other than the survivors that get turned every zombie is generic often looking identical to another zed and it's even worse with the freaks they all literally look the same; these were never people they were always zeds which takes away from one of the most compelling part of zombies which is that they could be your turned friend, someone you knew, or just someone who had a life, job, and family once; the SoD zeds have zero connection to the world and are more like an assortment of drones or aliens in the world. This can be remedied by simple additions like notes, zed's clothes for different spawn points (construction worker, doctors, army, civs, etc. could help with visual storytelling too). And adding a more diverse set of physical aspects that can be randomized for the zeds. (Hair, face, rotting stage, etc.) And for the freaks even the smallest bit of visual addition could help, just 3 or 4 different shapes than the standard one. (The Juggernaut is the worst, he always looks the same).

2. The Survivors aren't living, at least not in a way that we can see; they do not mingle, don't engage in small tasks around the base physically other than sometimes standing guard or going to rest when you tell them to and there's often no reason for you to engage with them either, you just use them as a means to an end, the base is there but you don't stay there ever, it's not home, it's a shop, or a hotel, you go visit it grab some stuff you're gonna need for tomorrow and head off to complete your next mission, you should want to spend your time at home enjoy a nice meal, talk to friends and family about different mundane stuff and your opinions, maybe engage in a leisurely activity that you love; this can be fixed with the addition of perhaps some mini-games to do at base with other survivors, maybe working TVs and radioes when you have electricity. Maybe even playing music. Also adding text dialogues just for speaking with a survivor about mundane things, (they're favorite activity, what they did beforez how many zed they've killed, and what they wanna do rn) my favorite moments sre from when a follower tells you something personal on a car ride or a story when scavenging and I think if we could talk more we would be more attached to the community (maybe even being able to get gifts for some survivors based on how well we know them like a cowboy hat for an old west enthusiast in our group or a rare gun for an old gun nut in the community). I think generally SoD1 did characters better than 2 so that could be a good starting point to expand from. Note for point 1 and 2: a survivor could also have personalized lines for when confronting a zombified survivor based on both their traits and relationship. (I'm thinking more about how TWD scenes looked like Daryl killing zombie Merle.)

3. Going to the world with a group in single player sucks;

It's often better to go alone and prepared for what you want to do alone than in a group mostly because there's no reason for it, people are always a liability, they can get hurt, killed very easily, and most importantly are very hard to command; you can't tell them to be silent, use only blunt weapons, or run away we're gonna definitely die if we don't runaway! And then it's like that scene from the start of 28 weeks later😅 really the problem is lack of commands and the presence of a group not being necessary for tasks being done well in the game, if scavenging became faster more thorough and more rewarding and you AND your followers were safer together then that would be a start also it'd be a blessing if you could tell them to hold a certain position. The next couple of Gripes I got will be short since I don't believe they're as deep as these 3 and are mostly just a me thing.

4. Mechanics left behind; some things like boarding windows, higher community max number, the scene after the death of a character in the base with some personalized talk about them at base by Lily (who is very nice btw, I don't get the hate I saw on her in some yt vids); from SoD1 not being in the next games.

5. Nights aren't more dangerous than the day; I swear I got jumped by 2 Ferals during the night while stealthily scavenging in a house and my Marcus got ripped in half by them but that didn't happen ever in SoD2, I could just be imagining this one but had to say it.

Once again I'll point put that I said these just cuz I wanted to more like thinking about what my perfect additons to SoD would be, I know how hard game making is and most of these are probably unreasonable and I'm adding this part to not sound like I'm an ingrate asshole who just wants everything, I love what undead labs has done and these ideas came first and foremost from playing their works, nay, their art. And I love them and this community for it.

I am currently farming it for my endless community. Is it really possible to get it from level 3 infestation? Couldn't find a proof for it :(

So I decided to try state of decay one after playing state of decay 2 I put it off for a while because I really enjoy the second one. I’m really a pro at it so I decided to give the first one to try. Of course it’s nothing like the second one I need help with infestations what’s the best way to take them down in state of decay 2 all I needed was fuel bombs. I run in and throw in a fuel bomb and they’re all dead but in the first one, they just keep popping up as fast as I take one out another one is pops up so annoying any advice I was told using vehicle vehicles honk the horn and they come out and it run them over but there’s only so many vehicles.

As the title states... I am stuck in Trumball Valley at the very end of everything.

For context - I quit playing before Trumball became a map you could move to, and i never did my lethal legacies. I took a group through a few nightmare maps to get re-acclimated before I move this group to lethal and do the builder legacy.

I cant get Izzbee and Dr Hoffmans quests to come back. I finished with Tressie and her botany experiments. I helped Mickey complete his redemption arc. RIP Ray Santos....

The last thing that happened was the second part of chatter after I got the code book with Chavez. He said he'd keep it if it means she'll talk to him. So she reaches out and asks if he knows what G-H something was for, he said it was for like, supply drops or something. That was the last of it.

All the plague hearts are gone, there are no infestations, its pretty calm for Nightmare.

I asked google to help me figure it out.

I opened a large slot,

I said NO to the other enclave on the map (cannibals) until they eventually left. They were the only enclave engaging regularly

Ambient stuff is just wandering traders.

I drove all over around the map

I drove up north to their place and traded with them.

I drove to Chavez

I drove to drops of goodies on the map.

I exited multiple times and reloaded.

I am just dicking around waiting for this stupid thing to pop so I can leave and try out my first lethal map. I am about to say F it and forget whatever this Haven device is for.

Ray took over my radio chatter, his story went pretty quickly and then it was just, a random survivor here and there. A mechanic enclave just showed up on the map and I am not interacting with them. I have an allied enclave who supply me ammo since I got here. A new enclave who needed a backup buddy, Mickey, Chavez, the scientists up north, and a neutral enclave who have never said a word to me.

I recruited the backup buddy from that enclave just to get rid of it.

I'd like the achievement, I do have Haven devices in my forever community locker. (I have no idea how unless my forever community that was modded back in 2019 with a cheat facility that can craft any mod in the game - maybe it crafted that for me?) So theoretically I can use one if I wanted that facility but st this point i don't give a darn about it, I just want to finish the map.

Any advice? What else can I try?

The initial alpha videos from the council members have been a bit underwhelming. Sunny’s footage was bugged with broken zombie spawns, Jay’s was only 51 minutes, and Brian has more than 1 but those videos are mostly just him talking while his 1 video played in the background.

I’m really hoping this next alpha cycle brings fresh footage, and maybe some new perspectives. No disrespect to Sunny, Jay, or Brian, but their coverage felt a bit too agreeable and lacked critical feedback.

Given that the game is expected to launch next year (anywhere from 4 to 16 months from now), it’s concerning that they keep mentioning how many core systems aren't even finished enough to be tested or talked about yet.