I finally figured out a good way to film my tv using a camera (sorry the xbox recorder I ordered doesn't actually record in HD, it just uses an HD wire). Sigh, damn advertising tricked me. Regardless, the picture turned out good and I filmed 2 hours of myself playing from one breakdown level to the next. I showed a bunch of great tips even if I didn't play perfectly (lol almost lost someone in first minute!).
I'll work on getting the videos out to you asap. Gotta get some rest now but I'm still here and still trying to get you guys and girls cool videos on our favorite game!
Monday, February 24, 2014
Friday, February 21, 2014
Too Many Happy Hordes
At the start of each mission, I do not turn on my expanded outposts right away. Instead, I run around in vehicles on my unhappy characters, squishing the hordes that spawn. As soon as the character I'm using is in a happy state (smiley face regardless of what the word is), I then go back home to switch to another sad face character.
Doing this will often turn 2-3 of my characters happy from the very beginning of my play through. Once the "too many hordes" goes away on the map screen, I then turn on my outpost traps and go back to work as usual.
I'm currently playing with 23 characters and 3 bed facilities (24 bed) so that the only way my people get sad is if they have domestic disputes or recover from illness/injury. Sometimes I log in and nobody is upset at all! Because so many people are happy gathering resources (see infinite resources strategy) and sleep deprivation is a non-issue (see sleep deprivation strategy) I literally could last forever on this level. Last time I logged in I made 1 materials even though I should have lost 19. That's because of all the assertive people in my group making supply runs during the simulation.
I am torn between moving on to the next breakdown level and just seeing how long I could last with this group of 23. If I wanted I could destroy my kitchen (only non bed facility besides built in stuff and medical facility) and put in a fourth bedroom. We'll see ;)
As always I am headache4you on XBOX if you have any questions.
Doing this will often turn 2-3 of my characters happy from the very beginning of my play through. Once the "too many hordes" goes away on the map screen, I then turn on my outpost traps and go back to work as usual.
I'm currently playing with 23 characters and 3 bed facilities (24 bed) so that the only way my people get sad is if they have domestic disputes or recover from illness/injury. Sometimes I log in and nobody is upset at all! Because so many people are happy gathering resources (see infinite resources strategy) and sleep deprivation is a non-issue (see sleep deprivation strategy) I literally could last forever on this level. Last time I logged in I made 1 materials even though I should have lost 19. That's because of all the assertive people in my group making supply runs during the simulation.
I am torn between moving on to the next breakdown level and just seeing how long I could last with this group of 23. If I wanted I could destroy my kitchen (only non bed facility besides built in stuff and medical facility) and put in a fourth bedroom. We'll see ;)
As always I am headache4you on XBOX if you have any questions.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
What is the Lifeline in State of Decay?
I have a guess at what the "lifeline" will be for state of decay's newest DLC.
Here goes... The "lifeline" is going to be water/commerce/etc between your home base and satellite enclaves. This is exactly what I was asking for when I started speculating on what SOD: Lifeline would be about.
Imagine an open world where you branch out from your home base like a colony of settlers in a new world. Occasionally zombies will attack your home site as well as the satellite enclaves you've settled or joined forces with. If the zombies manage to destroy one of your sites then they can cut off supplies being moved from your home base to your enclaves. You then have a limited amount of time to re-establish a supply route to your neighbors before they start dying of starvation/disease/dehydration.
Having to manage a growing zombie threat (the zombies will also have little strongholds that spread like infestations do currently accompanied by hordes) as well as hold your supply line will be an interesting mix of going on the offensive and defensive. I really enjoy games where one moment you're top dog and the next minute you're running for your life. Hopefully lifeline will be as epic as Undead Labs is making it out to be.
Besides... I could use something new now that Breakdown is a total joke for me. I log in each day to keep my happiness at full for my characters and when I feel I've produced enough items I move on to the next level. Other than experimenting with happiness (for your benefit), there isn't much left for me in the game.
If you'd like help or have questions, please message and friend me on xbox. My username is headache4you.
Here goes... The "lifeline" is going to be water/commerce/etc between your home base and satellite enclaves. This is exactly what I was asking for when I started speculating on what SOD: Lifeline would be about.
Imagine an open world where you branch out from your home base like a colony of settlers in a new world. Occasionally zombies will attack your home site as well as the satellite enclaves you've settled or joined forces with. If the zombies manage to destroy one of your sites then they can cut off supplies being moved from your home base to your enclaves. You then have a limited amount of time to re-establish a supply route to your neighbors before they start dying of starvation/disease/dehydration.
Having to manage a growing zombie threat (the zombies will also have little strongholds that spread like infestations do currently accompanied by hordes) as well as hold your supply line will be an interesting mix of going on the offensive and defensive. I really enjoy games where one moment you're top dog and the next minute you're running for your life. Hopefully lifeline will be as epic as Undead Labs is making it out to be.
Besides... I could use something new now that Breakdown is a total joke for me. I log in each day to keep my happiness at full for my characters and when I feel I've produced enough items I move on to the next level. Other than experimenting with happiness (for your benefit), there isn't much left for me in the game.
If you'd like help or have questions, please message and friend me on xbox. My username is headache4you.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Easy High Score in State of Decay Breakdown
With enough patience, ammo, and firecrackers, you too can get into the top 50 players for state of decay breakdown. I made it to #1, but am now #3, using this strategy. I got so bored at 280,000 points that I just didn't feel like doing something just to have a great score any more. But I'm easily bored... so maybe you'll go even longer. I also had a bug where no more missions were spawning, so I had NOTHING to break up the monotony of this easy strategy.
All that being said... here's how you do it in a picture:
Notice all the cars? Yeah this obviously isn't a breakdown game. Just some random screenshot I found googling map of marshall. The red dots are explosive propane tanks, the green dots are bushes for you to hide in, and the black line is a suggestion for how to drive in between the two locations.
All you have to do is pull up to the tank (don't park too close!!!) and throw a firecracker to the right or left of it. Don't place the firecracker right on the tank or you might have trouble hitting it later. Now, go hide in the bushes that I marked on the map and crouch. Once a sizeable force is on top of the tank, stand up and shoot the gas canister. KABOOM! You'll get anywhere from 250-700 points depending on how many freaks are involved.
Once you wipe the goo off your face and weapon, jump into your car and drive to the next canister. Repeat this process going back and forth until you run out of firecrackers.
To prepare for this strategy, I created 560 firecrackers (2 stacks). After revealing this method on the forums, I noticed that four new people magically appeared in the top ten for breakdown's leaderboard within one week. Usually we'll see one in like a month break through to the top ten, but this was four new faces in the same week! Coincidence? I think not.
Obviously this method requires that you spend some time, possibly several levels, stockpiling ammunition on your characters by breaking open ammo boxes as well as turning the rest into firecrackers. My favorite method is to build four workshops and a medical facility at snyders, then just pump out firecrackers as quickly as I can find ammunition. 4x3 = 12 firecrackers every 5 minutes x 12 = 144 firecrackers per hour.
The other half of this strategy is going for infinite resources. I would use that post as well as my ideas on sleep deprivation to create a long lasting survival method that will give you enough time to build up points for a high score before your survivors start starving to death.
All that being said... here's how you do it in a picture:
Notice all the cars? Yeah this obviously isn't a breakdown game. Just some random screenshot I found googling map of marshall. The red dots are explosive propane tanks, the green dots are bushes for you to hide in, and the black line is a suggestion for how to drive in between the two locations.
All you have to do is pull up to the tank (don't park too close!!!) and throw a firecracker to the right or left of it. Don't place the firecracker right on the tank or you might have trouble hitting it later. Now, go hide in the bushes that I marked on the map and crouch. Once a sizeable force is on top of the tank, stand up and shoot the gas canister. KABOOM! You'll get anywhere from 250-700 points depending on how many freaks are involved.
Once you wipe the goo off your face and weapon, jump into your car and drive to the next canister. Repeat this process going back and forth until you run out of firecrackers.
To prepare for this strategy, I created 560 firecrackers (2 stacks). After revealing this method on the forums, I noticed that four new people magically appeared in the top ten for breakdown's leaderboard within one week. Usually we'll see one in like a month break through to the top ten, but this was four new faces in the same week! Coincidence? I think not.
Obviously this method requires that you spend some time, possibly several levels, stockpiling ammunition on your characters by breaking open ammo boxes as well as turning the rest into firecrackers. My favorite method is to build four workshops and a medical facility at snyders, then just pump out firecrackers as quickly as I can find ammunition. 4x3 = 12 firecrackers every 5 minutes x 12 = 144 firecrackers per hour.
The other half of this strategy is going for infinite resources. I would use that post as well as my ideas on sleep deprivation to create a long lasting survival method that will give you enough time to build up points for a high score before your survivors start starving to death.
Saturday, February 15, 2014
New Features of Lifeline
We only know a handful of things for sure about lifeline and they are:
1. There will be a new map.
2. Breakdown and campaign mode will not be compatible with lifelines. This is good news for anyone who decided not to buy Breakdown.
3. "A new way to play the game."
We can't do much more than speculate right now, but I think I found a hint to what's coming.
In the job board page for Undead Labs, there is a listing for experienced coders building economic infrastructure. This would be the equivalent of an auction house designer for an mmorpg. While this could very well be for the mmo that Undead Labs desperately wants to complete within the next decade, I'm wondering if maybe Lifeline will have some economic aspect to it.
I can argue against myself by stating that if it was meant to be in Lifeline then they would already have the personnel, since the new DLC is already being worked on.
Let's talk about Breakdown versus Lifeline. I think that Undead Labs is going to learn from what made Breakdown successful. First off, Breakdown doesn't end so don't expect Lifeline to have an ending either. Second, Breakdown does a good job of recycling content by randomizing your start location and all the other elements of survival. You can expect the same thing from Lifeline.
I think that the primary difference between Lifeline and Breakdown will be the home base setup. The word Lifeline makes me think of a supply line, similar to what you see in wars. I expect that Undead Labs wants you to conduct a salvaging war against the zombies. Instead of a home base you will have a sort of band of brothers who complete missions for npc towns and set up temporary locations to camp. Think of it as if you were able to move the camper around in Breakdown.
The location of npc towns and starting location could be randomized, creating a completely unique play through experience each time. Instead of always listening on the radio for Lilly's advice, you could be the leader of the pack giving it out.
This is what I want to see in Lifeline and I expect that building bases will vanish from this mode of the game. It'll all be about surviving on the go instead of turtlin' as one female survivor likes to call it.
1. There will be a new map.
2. Breakdown and campaign mode will not be compatible with lifelines. This is good news for anyone who decided not to buy Breakdown.
3. "A new way to play the game."
We can't do much more than speculate right now, but I think I found a hint to what's coming.
In the job board page for Undead Labs, there is a listing for experienced coders building economic infrastructure. This would be the equivalent of an auction house designer for an mmorpg. While this could very well be for the mmo that Undead Labs desperately wants to complete within the next decade, I'm wondering if maybe Lifeline will have some economic aspect to it.
I can argue against myself by stating that if it was meant to be in Lifeline then they would already have the personnel, since the new DLC is already being worked on.
Let's talk about Breakdown versus Lifeline. I think that Undead Labs is going to learn from what made Breakdown successful. First off, Breakdown doesn't end so don't expect Lifeline to have an ending either. Second, Breakdown does a good job of recycling content by randomizing your start location and all the other elements of survival. You can expect the same thing from Lifeline.
I think that the primary difference between Lifeline and Breakdown will be the home base setup. The word Lifeline makes me think of a supply line, similar to what you see in wars. I expect that Undead Labs wants you to conduct a salvaging war against the zombies. Instead of a home base you will have a sort of band of brothers who complete missions for npc towns and set up temporary locations to camp. Think of it as if you were able to move the camper around in Breakdown.
The location of npc towns and starting location could be randomized, creating a completely unique play through experience each time. Instead of always listening on the radio for Lilly's advice, you could be the leader of the pack giving it out.
This is what I want to see in Lifeline and I expect that building bases will vanish from this mode of the game. It'll all be about surviving on the go instead of turtlin' as one female survivor likes to call it.
Thursday, February 13, 2014
7 Reasons Blunt is the Best Weapon Spec in State of Decay
Blunt is the best weapon spec in State of Decay. Unless my character is reflex (spin kick makes blunt spec redundant) they always get blunt now for their weapon spec. For a while I only played as edge and heavy, but then I forced myself to experiment with blunt. I'm so happy that I did and I recommend this spec for everyone who reads this blog. Why did I choose something that 99% of the player base ignores/hates/etc?
Here are 7 reasons that Blunt is the best weapon spec in State of Decay.
1. It Looks Good on the Leaderboards
Blunt weapons give you points every time you get a kill. If you chop off zombie legs with the other weapons then you must execute again to get your 11 points for the kill. Otherwise the zombie dies off during the battle and you get 0 points.
2. 90% Knockdown Chance
Blunt weapon spec adds 300% to knockdown chance. It's already around a 30% chance when you're a 1 star character, so that means you are going to knock a zombie down almost every single time (close to 90% from my testing so far).
3. Uppercut
While uppercutting (blunt ability unlocked at level 4) you can immediately execute. This will send your character flying after the zombie you just hit with upper cut and then you execute the zombie wherever it landed. This is remarkably fast, keeps you moving forward, and is in my opinion BETTER than any other spec's "instant kill" ability. Obviously this is an abuse of the game mechanics and not intended, but I don't think anyone would consider it cheating.
4. Powerhouses are Better With Blunt
A max level powerhouse using blunt spec will have a decent chance to kill someone as well as the crazy high chance to knock them down. This combination is the greatest chance to disable or kill zombies per swing except for spin kick, which is a 100% chance.
I want to reiterate this point for those people who think stacking the kill chances from edged and powerhouse is better than going blunt and powerhouse. Let's pretend that it's a 10% chance to instant kill and 30% chance to knockdown at level one. So that's our baseline. Now, a powerhouse edged character ends up getting +475% kill chance for a total of 57.5% chance to kill per hit and 0% knockdown. If the powerhouse character goes blunt instead, then they will have a 40% chance to instant kill and a 90% chance to knockdown. Which do you think works better now?
Just so you know, if indeed my math is correct, you have a 96% chance to disable the zombie (kill or knock down) with a fully maxed out blunt + powerhouse character. Shame so few takes their characters to the point of seeing this!
5. Two Heads are Better Than One
Blunt can hit two targets at a time with just the regular swing. Edged cannot, making it less effective against groups. Heavy can hit three targets but costs more energy to use and is much slower.
6. Get Over Here!
Uppercut will send the zombie flying forward, and in case you don't to warp with them (see reason #3 again if you forgot this trick already) then you can let the zombies body stagger any of its friends that it comes in contact with.
7. Not Just for the Weak
I've seen a lot of people who only use blunt weapons on their worthless characters and one stars. As soon as they hit level four in fighting they graduate to the "better" weapons and take on a weapon spec of edged or heavy. Because of this fact, very few people actually try out blunt weapon specs! I have found that characters who keep using Blunt remain safer than edged/heavy even when their cardio stat is very low.
8. Old Reliable
Here's an extra reason just because I feel like it (and because this is a weaker reason than the others). Blunt is the only spec that doesn't really have a shortfall or weakness, which is why we all use it for our weakest characters to begin with! Heavy is slow and edged is extremely random. Blunt is fast and reliable. Yeah, you have to perform executions, but it's fun to knock down an incoming horde with a few swings and then gingerly execute them all. Feels bad ass!
Another aspect of the game that people ignore are guns that cannot be silenced (shotguns and revolvers are the biggest culprits). I think an article for this blog on why those guns can be the best in the game would be good food for thought as well. But for now, excuse my bluntness and go try blunt weapon spec.
Here are 7 reasons that Blunt is the best weapon spec in State of Decay.
1. It Looks Good on the Leaderboards
Blunt weapons give you points every time you get a kill. If you chop off zombie legs with the other weapons then you must execute again to get your 11 points for the kill. Otherwise the zombie dies off during the battle and you get 0 points.
2. 90% Knockdown Chance
Blunt weapon spec adds 300% to knockdown chance. It's already around a 30% chance when you're a 1 star character, so that means you are going to knock a zombie down almost every single time (close to 90% from my testing so far).
3. Uppercut
While uppercutting (blunt ability unlocked at level 4) you can immediately execute. This will send your character flying after the zombie you just hit with upper cut and then you execute the zombie wherever it landed. This is remarkably fast, keeps you moving forward, and is in my opinion BETTER than any other spec's "instant kill" ability. Obviously this is an abuse of the game mechanics and not intended, but I don't think anyone would consider it cheating.
4. Powerhouses are Better With Blunt
A max level powerhouse using blunt spec will have a decent chance to kill someone as well as the crazy high chance to knock them down. This combination is the greatest chance to disable or kill zombies per swing except for spin kick, which is a 100% chance.
I want to reiterate this point for those people who think stacking the kill chances from edged and powerhouse is better than going blunt and powerhouse. Let's pretend that it's a 10% chance to instant kill and 30% chance to knockdown at level one. So that's our baseline. Now, a powerhouse edged character ends up getting +475% kill chance for a total of 57.5% chance to kill per hit and 0% knockdown. If the powerhouse character goes blunt instead, then they will have a 40% chance to instant kill and a 90% chance to knockdown. Which do you think works better now?
Just so you know, if indeed my math is correct, you have a 96% chance to disable the zombie (kill or knock down) with a fully maxed out blunt + powerhouse character. Shame so few takes their characters to the point of seeing this!
5. Two Heads are Better Than One
Blunt can hit two targets at a time with just the regular swing. Edged cannot, making it less effective against groups. Heavy can hit three targets but costs more energy to use and is much slower.
6. Get Over Here!
Uppercut will send the zombie flying forward, and in case you don't to warp with them (see reason #3 again if you forgot this trick already) then you can let the zombies body stagger any of its friends that it comes in contact with.
7. Not Just for the Weak
I've seen a lot of people who only use blunt weapons on their worthless characters and one stars. As soon as they hit level four in fighting they graduate to the "better" weapons and take on a weapon spec of edged or heavy. Because of this fact, very few people actually try out blunt weapon specs! I have found that characters who keep using Blunt remain safer than edged/heavy even when their cardio stat is very low.
8. Old Reliable
Here's an extra reason just because I feel like it (and because this is a weaker reason than the others). Blunt is the only spec that doesn't really have a shortfall or weakness, which is why we all use it for our weakest characters to begin with! Heavy is slow and edged is extremely random. Blunt is fast and reliable. Yeah, you have to perform executions, but it's fun to knock down an incoming horde with a few swings and then gingerly execute them all. Feels bad ass!
Another aspect of the game that people ignore are guns that cannot be silenced (shotguns and revolvers are the biggest culprits). I think an article for this blog on why those guns can be the best in the game would be good food for thought as well. But for now, excuse my bluntness and go try blunt weapon spec.
Sleep Depravation in State of Decay
When you look at the tab on your journal that is shaped like a chest, do you notice that one of the stats (among others like fame, population, labor, etc) is beds? If you have more population than available beds, then when the simulation runs all the people who couldn't sleep will deteriorate in mood. Usually to grim, uncertain, numb, determined and brusque. You then have to work hard to get these people happy again, especially if you're following my infinite resources guide. Say you have a sleeping area (not bunks but just the tier 1 area) then you have a 50% chance that each person who can't find a bed will remain happy. Obviously that means 50% chance that the person will become sad.
I am currently experimenting with keeping my population equal to or below 16 beds and I'm being sure to always build a bunkhouse along with built in beds to achieve this. While trying this method out I've been playing at Alamo and/or savini's. I find that I can quickly gather the resources I need and keep my people happy very easily. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if you are guaranteed materials if every member of your little society is in a good mood. Last night when I logged off with 10 happy people, three of them made "finds" for materials. So even though I have zero material outposts I ended up making 5 materials for the night. If this is true then I'm only going to need food/ammo outposts for long term survival with a small group.
Who cares if Lilly keeps telling me I don't have enough people haha.
I'm thinking about creating a video of myself playing a level on breakdown. As of this writing I'm on 39, so maybe the big 4... 0... will be a good time to do it!
I am currently experimenting with keeping my population equal to or below 16 beds and I'm being sure to always build a bunkhouse along with built in beds to achieve this. While trying this method out I've been playing at Alamo and/or savini's. I find that I can quickly gather the resources I need and keep my people happy very easily. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if you are guaranteed materials if every member of your little society is in a good mood. Last night when I logged off with 10 happy people, three of them made "finds" for materials. So even though I have zero material outposts I ended up making 5 materials for the night. If this is true then I'm only going to need food/ammo outposts for long term survival with a small group.
Who cares if Lilly keeps telling me I don't have enough people haha.
I'm thinking about creating a video of myself playing a level on breakdown. As of this writing I'm on 39, so maybe the big 4... 0... will be a good time to do it!
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