r/postapocalyptic

Greetings fellow scavengers!

Ok, so, this armour is different. It's not a breastplate, it's a whole vest!
I also wanted to make a headpiece (something like Bullet Farmers wig), but I've run out of Mosin-Nagant cartridge cases D:

Well, what can I say, in postapocalyptic world the resourses are scarse.

Hope you'll like it.

I posted the first volume of this comic to read to my patreon, if you’re interested in reading it

Und natürlich Licht!

Greetings fellow scavengers!
These are my postapo armous I've made not so long ago. Hope you'll like them.

Inspired by the loners from STALKER :D

No, this photo not dealing for cosplay, airsoft (maybe) or festival, but it's my choice.

November, 2023

Hi everyone,

We’re starting a series of devlogs to take a closer look at Pale Tide’s core gameplay loop and the systems behind it.

For this first article, we wanted to focus on a simple but important moment: leaving the bunker.

In Pale Tide, every expedition begins with preparation. Before stepping outside, you decide what to bring, what to leave behind, and how much you are willing to risk for the people waiting in the bunker.

What you bring outside may keep you alive. What you bring back may keep everyone alive.

No so quiet...

Preparing your backpack

Before heading outside, you prepare your inventory. Food, water, medkits, ammunition. The more you take with you, the longer you may be able to survive outside. But every item also has weight, and every item you bring is something you could lose if the run goes wrong.

An empty backpack gives you more room to bring resources back to the bunker, but it also makes the expedition more dangerous. A full backpack gives you more comfort and more options, but it raises the stakes if you die, make too much noise, or get caught in a bad situation.

That is one of the first decisions we want players to think about before every run: Are you preparing to survive, or are you making space for what the bunker needs?

Bunker inventory

The last radio frequency

Your bunker storage will not always have everything you need. Before leaving, you may also be able to use the radio to trade for missing supplies. The radio relays warnings and trading messages from other survivors still using the national frequency.

It is a practical tool, but also part of the atmosphere we want for Pale Tide. The world outside is broken, but not completely silent. Somewhere out there, other people are still trying to survive too.

Choosing where to go

At the beginning of the game, you will only have access to the first zone. As you progress through the questline, new areas will unlock through skills, technologies, and progression. But reaching a new zone does not mean you should rush into it right away.

In Pale Tide, moving forward too quickly can be dangerous. Taking time to gear up, gather supplies, improve your bunker, and prepare properly can be the difference between a successful expedition and a backpack left behind in the wrong place.

The outside world rewards preparation and decisions.

Exploring

Noise is a risk

Good gear improves your chances, but staying alive still depends on how you move, how much noise you make, and when you choose to fight or avoid danger. If you are careless, and especially if you are noisy, the infected will notice. Noise can turn a quiet supply expedition into a fight very quickly.

Sometimes, that might be intentional. If you are confident in your weapons, drawing infected toward you can be a way to clear an area or create an opening. But every fight has a cost. You need to stay mindful of your ammo, health, time, supplies, and the attention you attract.

We do not want combat to feel like the only answer. Sometimes fighting is the right call. Sometimes sneaking through is smarter. Sometimes the best decision is to extract before the situation gets worse.

Get ready for some troubles

Supplies do not last forever

When you are outside, food and water are among the most important resources to look for.

You may eventually build up a stockpile, hopefully. But the bunker is not just a storage room. Survivors consume resources. Every person you bring back can help your community, but they also depend on the supplies you manage to recover.

This is one of the reasons every expedition matters. You are not just filling an inventory. You are trying to keep a group of people alive long enough to reach something better.

We wanted to add this extra decision-making layer to make the game more strategic and deeper.

Looting

Good boy, great backup!

Your dog is more than a companion during expeditions. Some of his features are still being refined, but the goal is for him to play an active role during expeditions. He may help you track items, point you toward survivors, or even draw infected attention so you can sneak through a dangerous area.

He also has one very important function: the safe pouch. Your dog cannot die. Anything you place in his safe pouch is protected, even if the rest of the run goes badly. That makes him a key part of how players manage risk.

If you find something too valuable to lose, the safe pouch gives you a way to protect it.

Never alone :)

Death is not the end, unless you die again

If you die during an expedition, your backpack is not immediately gone. You get one chance to retrieve it. But if you die again on the way back, that loot is lost for good.

This is a system we are designing to keep failure meaningful without making every mistake feel like the end. Death should matter. Losing supplies should hurt. But players should also have a chance to take a risk, go back out, and recover what they lost.

Of course, that creates another decision: do you risk another run to recover your backpack, or do you accept the loss and focus on keeping the bunker alive?

Stay on your toes

Knowing when to turn back

The longer you stay outside, the more dangerous things can become. You may be low on food. Low on water. Hurt. Out of ammo... Too far from safety. And still, there might be one more building to search, one more item nearby, one more reason to keep going before extracting.

That is the kind of tension we want Pale Tide to create. Our goal is not to punish you for exploring. Our goal is to make every choice feel like it has weight. Sometimes, the smartest move is not to push deeper. Sometimes, the smartest move is to slowly get out while you still can.

You'll meet survivors outside

Survival starts outside

In Pale Tide, every expedition is designed to feed back into the bunker. The resources you recover help expand it. The survivors you rescue can open new possibilities. The tools and weapons you unlock help you reach deeper, more dangerous areas. In the end, every expedition is part of a larger goal: keeping your community alive long enough to reach a safer place.

We will share more about the bunker, survivors, gear, and future expeditions in upcoming devlogs. Until then, wishlist Pale Tide on Steam.

What part of the game you would like us to cover next?

You’re scavenging a quiet residential street a few blocks away from your shelter.

So far, it’s been worth it. You found some food, a bit of medicine, and a few tools that would actually be useful back home. Your bag isn’t full yet, but you’re already carrying supplies you really don’t want to lose.

Then you check the wrong car. The alarm starts screaming.

You can hear infected nearby, but you don’t know how many are close enough to react. You have a melee weapon, a few bullets, no vehicle, and your dog with you.

What’s the smartest move?

• Do you run immediately and abandon the area?
• Hide nearby and wait for the noise to pull infected past you?
• Use the alarm as a distraction to search somewhere else?
• Try to shut it off, assuming that’s even possible?
• Or hold your ground and deal with whatever shows up?

I’m curious how people here would handle it tactically, especially assuming slow undead-style zombies where noise and numbers are the real problem.

What’s your actual survival move, and why?

For context, I’m part of the team working on Pale Tide, a top-down zombie survival game on Steam, and this kind of situation inspired part of our latest devlog about noise, infected reactions, hostile areas, rescue situations, and knowing when it’s smarter to head back with what you’ve already secured.

Devlog here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/4683590/view/687513353583592548

Thanks!