Urban Strife - turn-based zombie survival RPG - now available on Early Access

[Zombra]

This game looks great, but would look even better without the zombies.

Can't really decide which button to use so I guess I should reply properly ...

Not sure if the appearance of zombies will be a sales killer. For every person who is sick of zombies, there may be another person who enjoys them. While the genre may not be the chart-topper it used to be, I don't see why "turn based tactics with dudes shooting other dudes and nothing else" would be substantially more popular.

Speaking for myself, it's always better to have multiple enemy types with substantially different rules. Having one type with few dangerous ranged units and another type that is slow and harmless individually but swarms and overruns positions is great for gameplay. Changing it to a game with only snipers would be dull. Dead State worked.

Personally I am turned on by Urban Strife's setting as presented, both as fiction and for its gameplay implications.

 

[Jinn]

Can't really decide which button to use so I guess I should reply properly ...

Not sure if the appearance of zombies will be a sales killer. For every person who is sick of zombies, there may be another person who enjoys them. While the genre may not be the chart-topper it used to be, I don't see why "turn based tactics with dudes shooting other dudes and nothing else" would be substantially more popular.

Speaking for myself, it's always better to have multiple enemy types with substantially different rules. Having one type with few dangerous ranged units and another type that is slow and harmless individually but swarms and overruns positions is great for gameplay. Changing it to a game with only snipers would be dull. Dead State worked.

Personally I am turned on by Urban Strife's setting as presented, both as fiction and for its gameplay implications.

Always prefer a reply to a stupid ass button, so thanks.

Glad you're interested, but I think the state and activity of this half year old thread is evidence enough that at least around here, zombie fiction is not a major draw. As for "just guys shooting at each other," there are plenty of ways to make an urban post-apocalyptic setting interesting without just using human male shooting at human male.

Personally, I'll probably check this title out regardless, but am definitely less likely to with zombies as a main focus. Just thought I'd throw my two cents in on this horribly boring and dated setting genre. This is all coming from a hope of a title like this succeeding, not a negative place.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Think of it like this: zombies are melee NPC that you need to approach differently than human enemies. So they add a new dimension to combat. No, not the "wait 12 turns for each zombie to slowly move" dimension. We learned from DS mistakes. We coded in something better and different when it comes to fighting the hordes, but we won't spoil the surprise. The zombie apocalypse setting also allows some very quirky plot twists we think most of the people will enjoy. Zombies resemble so many human typologies that we see around us, they're a very rich writing material. But more on that when time is due.

There are people who hate zombies, people who hate Sci-Fi elements in JA2 and people who are tired of killing poor 3rd world dictators. One can never satisfy all. One can though make use of the fact that USG is almost entirely hand-coded by us thus quite easy to open to modders. So with good modding support and tools, everyone will be able in the end to make USG in whatever they see as dream game.

 

[Zombra]

Always prefer a reply to a stupid ass button, so thanks.

For most people I would have clicked the

button just to be a dick, but not you.

 

[Alienman]

Zombie thing might be overdone, but personally I like it if it is well told, and not something just played for laughs. For some reason, zombies, infected or whatever has this extra sense of apocalypse feeling to me. The pure chaos of something so unnatural roaming the streets, showing no remorse, creature that will tear anyone unlucky getting trapped by them in pieces. So I'm looking forward to the setting, battling people and undead. I hope you can use the zombies to your advantage in battle also.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Aaand it is Thursday, so it is time for another USG goodie bag. What you see below is the cosmetic part of the player character creation.

There is also a second part, just a bit later in the game (both scenes are intertwined with the story), that handles attributes and skills. We will reveal that in due time, don't want to spoil the surprise.

If you want to see what is actually written on that incident report, see below:

Spoiler

 

[Zombra]

Character creation.

I'm guessing the player creates one (1) character, and then recruits the rest of his team from premade guys? Or can we create several characters ourselves?

Can cosmetics be changed later, like if I hate the shirt or hairstyle I chose?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

I'm guessing the player creates one (1) character, and then recruits the rest of his team from premade guys? Or can we create several characters ourselves?
Can cosmetics be changed later, like if I hate the shirt or hairstyle I chose?

Yes, you get ONE alter ego per run, the rest of the team is recruited from the NPC you meet. These are preset, but once recruited can be developed as you see fit.
Cosmetics are final, but some gear pieces you loot can change your appearance somewhat. The funds for playing dress-up were dramatically cut short when our level designer bought a bottle of Pepsi. He has been punished in an exemplary fashion but the deed was done.

 

[Jimmious]

Urban City Sferiff Department

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Urban City Sferiff Department

Sferiff and and officiers too...

Noted, sent for fixing.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

FIXED

Good eyes.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

I'd like to hear more about stealth mechanics and AI, since zombie games are about (or should be about) avoiding combat and minimizing noise. After XCOM2 and Phantom Doctrine binary stealth I'm hoping for something more simulationist.

Sound alert system, vision reduction by night (and day/night cycle ofc), melee and silenced weapons, stealth movement, non-static AI with schedules that you can exploit with proper recon, stuff like that... We'll reveal more in due time, but feel free to explain your ideas for a perfect stealth game.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

It is all our own, internally written AI code, so we will glad to answer you questions when we get to inner workings.
A tad later though, now it is too soon for that.

 

[Zombra]

Too many stealth games have AI that has some kind of brain damage level amnesia where they completely forget whatever the player did.

Can't agree enough here. Once they see you, human enemies should never revert to "I guess he left, back to sleep then". Zombies of course can have terrible AI and it's fine

 

[orcinator]

No, not the "wait 12 turns for each zombie to slowly move" dimension. We learned from DS mistakes. We coded in something better and different when it comes to fighting the hordes, but we won't spoil the surprise.

Nice to know you know that's a problem.
Still skeptical about the project because it doesn't look all that different from the dozens of other games that copied the nuXcom gameplay but added more stats to fiddle with.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

...nuXcom...

Completely agree. Almost everything out there says nuXcom because there's still a lot of material that has been produced before Gamescom 2017. And in all honesty, that was the game back then. But then we realized we do not want another clone. And spent another 12 months getting away from nuXcom. We have free roam, we have RPG, we have a dynamic world affected by your interaction, we have unique personalities with very defined history and character. Definitely a lot more than "more stats to fiddle with". But that's all on our hard-drives and it will take months before we can share in a proper way and change the perception. Just follow the updates and see if that changes your view.

...AI...

About AI, I am going to say one single thing then shut up before the programmers put a contract on my head: concept-wise, we want everything you do to have consequences. Will we manage to execute that perfectly?... Don't know honestly. We will give our best shot, AI is one of the areas we are working hardest on. When we are happy with what we've got, we're gonna show it to you and you can decide for yourself if we did enough. Guess that's the best and most honest answer I can give you right now.

 

[lightbane]

This looks interesting, shame about zombies, but you already mention that you'll try to avoid Derp Estate's faults. If so, and the game has a central base/hub where you choose missions, please ensure that there are several songs to be played (or no music at all), instead of a single, annoying music track that quickly becomes repetitive and nerve-wrecking. I suppose they did that in DE to emphasize your characters slowly going insane, but it wasn't fun to play at all.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

annoying music

We do plan to have a shelter radio station but we will only add it if or when we find the perfect combo of a radio voice and good background music. If that doesn't happen, we'll stick to using it for normal game comms.

The Shelter is actually not one building - it's a full sector comprising the old town hall, a derelict hospital, old radio tower, a workshop, a garage and a former lunatics asylum (welcome to your future home), plus the ad-hoc refugee camp of tents and scrap buildings, plus all the industry you build around these. And a lot of stuff is going on inside this shelter, it's far from being a quiet place that will slowly drive you crazy. It might have sudden bouts of insanity, but those won't be cause of background music.

 

[Zombra]

We do plan to have a shelter radio station but we will only add it if or when we find the perfect combo of a radio voice and good background music. If that doesn't happen, we'll stick to using it for normal game comms.

This may be an off the wall suggestion, but it's always nice when games let me mod music into the game. Like if there's a folder for "fight music", another folder for "safe shelter music", etc. and I can just stick mp3s in there. Then when a fight starts, the game crossfades in an mp3 from that folder. This could work with the shelter radio too, you guys put in as many tracks as you can but let the player mix their own in there as well.

In before someone says, "Just turn on Spotify while you play, same thing!" No it isn't.

 

[agris]

We do plan to have a shelter radio station but we will only add it if or when we find the perfect combo of a radio voice and good background music. If that doesn't happen, we'll stick to using it for normal game comms.

This may be an off the wall suggestion, but it's always nice when games let me mod music into the game. Like if there's a folder for "fight music", another folder for "safe shelter music", etc. and I can just stick mp3s in there. Then when a fight starts, the game crossfades in an mp3 from that folder. This could work with the shelter radio too, you guys put in as many tracks as you can but let the player mix their own in there as well.

In before someone says, "Just turn on Spotify while you play, same thing!" No it isn't.

Also, giving that in-shelter radio an on/off button for the player is crucial.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

The plan is for the radio to broadcast two things - one is a regular program with music (where the mp3 idea would fit perfectly) and some random-ass funny announcements, the sort of

"Mother of little Billy Brown, please come pick him up from the Sheriff's office. Our Sheriff asks kindly to teach him to stop rigging the door handle to the electrical outlet. Wasting power during an emergency to shock people is irresponsible"

(I just came up with that, it's just an example). And the game critical broadcasts, where you're notified of impending crisis or called in for emergencies. If you turn those off you'd probably get them at least as text notifications somewhere. It's not fully implemented yet, so changes are bound to happen - thus suggestions are very welcome.

 

[Zombra]

The plan is for the radio to broadcast two things - one is a regular program with music (where the mp3 idea would fit perfectly) and some random-ass funny announcements

That sounds like exactly what I want - tracks of my choice integrated into DJ dialogue and seamless with the game soundtrack. (I hope there isn't too much comedy - the setting seems pretty serious.) In a perfect world, your original soundtrack would also be in mp3 format in the same folder, so if I hate/get sick of a particular track I can remove it.

Also, if there are emergency announcements etc. it's completely fine for the announcer to interrupt my mp3s, just FYI. Will make the radio feel more "alive".

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Yea, don't worry, we are not doing a comedy, the situation is quite dire. The character we planned for the radio DJ (remember, wip) was an old professor who knew most of the locals since they we kids so he would actually give you background information with his comments. And since he was a Physics teacher, maybe some random recipes how to make explosive ammo or something. Anyway, stuff you'd need and appreciate.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Anyway, stuff you'd need and appreciate.

This is a top-class idea, in all honesty.

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Well this is looking good. Will you guys have a Kickstarter and will you release on GoG?