Urban Strife - turn-based zombie survival RPG - now in private alpha

Funny fact. Back at Gamescom 2017, when the game was just a tactical nuXcom, we DID NOT have these kind of helpers. Because we didn't need them. We had nuXcom ones. That's why people go nuXcom, you get everything pre-cooked for you, like a microwave dinner. But come the switch to real ballistics and there's a whole new truckload of problems when you need to broadcast information in a way the player can actually use it. So these helpers are as new as they come. So while it is true that combat was pretty good since years ago, the new combat is 10x better. And completely new.

Beside that, TBS Survival RPG is not just a fancy motto for us. The TBS part as you can see it is shaping up nicely and the RPG is pretty solid. What still needs work is the survival/building part. We have the plans, we prototyped the mechanics but a virtual economy is a massive undertaking so it is going to need its own development time.

 

I know some Romanian streamers that play Romanian-made games as much as they can, and I will shill this to them.

I will also try to throw my money in your general direction as soon as I have a chance.

 

I am very happy that you decided to go for more of a JA2 style of combat than the nu-Xcom style everyone and their dog seems to be copying these days.

 

Damn, I'll have to play this. Given my hatred for zombie settings... guess that means good job guys.

 

Heck, yes, that's quite a compliment.

 

Wondering another thing. If you can see what "zones" the enemy watches, is it possible to ever get ambushed?

 

This is truly the game Dead State wanted to be and failed horribly. Once you shoot a gun, does a zombie horde automatically spawn nearby, or is there a "noise limit" you're allowed to do before zombies walk into the map if they're not present somewhere?

 

It is not what the enemies are watching that you're seeing as yellow/red zones. You see what they consider "alert zone" and "no entry zone". The NPC view cones are an entire different matter and we're still searching for an overlay that's not intrusive. Cause having like 10 wide beams criss-cross the map kinda breaks the immersion. Also, we do not evaluate stealth like say Phantom Doctrine does - aka you need to deal with the enemies 1 by 1 otherwise is full on war. In USG you can alert lets say 3 enemies out of a bunch of 15 and IF you deal with them during a single turn, you can return to real-time/no combat. Of course, if you killed them in a patrol/alert zone, next guard who will see them will be alerted, so you will need to hurry and get out of there. You will also fail if you alerted more than those 3 lets say shooting a loud gun. Other than that stealth will be a viable option.

The extra zombies are spawned by piles of dead bodies, according to an algorithm that controls both max no of spawns and frequency. And those numbers will vary. You will not spawn an entire horde by miracle, but instead wake up more and more zombies (if you continue to make noise) that will head to last known sound source, slowly forming into a horde. Once grouped, they will behave like a pack while in alerted state, then, if they find nothing to eat, go roam about. This is to allow a player with enough time, skill and resources to herd them for various nefarious purposes. Also to allow audiences to giggle when their favorite streamers get swarmed by the "stupid zombies".

 

I see. I misunderstood it then. I guess you could solve the other issue with the wide beams the way Commandos did it. You placed the eye icon over the enemy you wanted to check.



And from what I remember you could also place the eye on the ground, and when someones vision entered it, it activated that enemy soldier "beam".

 

Yeah, totally agree. I was critical of the inclusion of zombies in this game way back on the first page. Despite how much I dislike zombie settings, there is enough cool stuff going on in this game that I will definitely be playing it.

 

No moving bodies then? I mean, that's okay, I don't expect a full bore stealth game here, but a man can dream.

 

We haven't gone that far into stealth game. A mechanic like in Phantom Doctrine - where you despawn the body - is trivial, but it also comes with that mandatory screen reload (aka their unskippable cinematic of "hide the body"). After 20 repeated cinematics you kinda want to stop playing.

We've already prototyped a mechanic to damage/destroy the body piles that spawn zombies. Depending on the time and budget I for one would be more inclined to have a single action, post-combat, that piles up all dead so you can burn them down (with the reverse bonus of having them turn undead next morning if you don't). But then again, we don't lack ideas and plans, just the lifespan and budget to implement them all.

PS: Also, considering the zombie virus infection, WOULD YOU go about carrying dead bodies around the map?

 

Great response Yeah, I'm just dreaming here.

Just brainstorming for no reason, what if you could burn bodies to (eventually) destroy the evidence? You'd get to use that cool fire modeling system some more. And maybe a sentry finding an unidentifiable, burning corpse would make them react differently from finding their friend in faction clothes with a .44 bullet wound in their back, know what I mean? The other side of living in a world with rampant infection: seeing burning bodies might be unremarkable!

 

I think the sentry's reaction would be the same anyway. Also, making bodies vanish is an overpowered tactic (and pretty much an exploit) that much that Phantom Doctrine devs felt the need to put a certain limit to vanishing sentries and sound the alarm anyway after a couple guards "fail to report to work". And I think it even might get very boring when each map you have to burn/bury 20 enemies. That's why we took a different route:

Sentry seeing a dead body, burnt or not, wouldn't send the enemy exactly to your location, because you know, it's a computer game and the computer knows already where you are. The alerted sentries will come, investigate, roam about a certain area and if they do not spot you in the danger zone, they eventually leave, allowing you to carry on. There is no permanent switch to turn-based forced combat. If the enemy calms down you get back to real time and continue sneaking around.

 

Here are the much awaited Urban strife zombies.
They're going into the next internal pre-alpha so our coding wizard, Razvan, is getting their behavior in order. Atm they sit around waiting for the unemployment benefits, but he'll get them in shape.
This isn't final footage but WIP so their melee is disabled, fog of war is off, etc. But you can see how they chase sound and also that unique turn we've been mentioning.

Enjoy!

 

Will there be any form of zone of control for the zombies? So you can't just run by zombie hordes I mean.

 

Yes, definitely. They are not completely blind and they do have excellent hearing. So if you run too close they will see you and also hear your footsteps thus get alerted.
Sneaking quietly though does give you the upper hand.

 

Looks interesting. Early access ETA?

 

All depends on how the closed alpha will perform. The plan is to release a couple of builds into alpha and have a solid chunk of the game before going Steam Early Access. A common mistake indies make is to release very early into EA, then get thrashed by reviewers. Some make it back to life, most don't. After investing 4 years + and all our savings into the game we kind of want to avoid wrecking the game before it's even born.

But on the plus side by the time closed alpha is done most of the mechanics of the game will be matured and solid. And the rest will be mostly about adding the story/content (which, trust me, is the easiest part) without breaking stuff.

 

Zombra - Truth is I am blessed with some great team mates, with immense know-how, and all that made planning for this game feel like a trip into Willy Wonka's candy factory.

 

By zone of control, i assume not being able to walk freely out of close combat like in the video, everything is great but this.
No attacks of opportunity or any "zone of control" mechanism ?

In the video, when he's between the truck, the wall and two groups of zombies, it's weird he's able to run away without any of them trying to grab of bite him.

Also, do we get to control a party ? *holding my breath*

 

As stated, this is a production snapshot, taken from the sound aggregation behavior tests, with everything else turned off, combat included, that's why Razvan just waltzed through those zombies. That being said, no, you won't be able to just stroll through a horde, simply because you will get interrupted, slashed and bitten. But more on that when the full zombie combat is plugged in.

And yes, check out the previous video with alpha combat and you can see the party on the bottom of the screen. There's no physical limit other than actual space on screen on minimum resolutions so probably smth like 5 man team would be the max number. Once you assemble the militia team you have full control over the members. When you're back at shelter, the party demobilizes and everyone will see to their own schedules and jobs (everyone has dual roles, both as crafter and as a soldier, it's up to you to chose what you use them for), while the player will continue to control the custom avatar/main actor.

 

Well, i'll add your game to my incline incoming list.
Sounds like the cRPG dark ages are coming to an end, finally.

Brofist shower time.

 

Hope everyone is ok and ready for some pretty big news!