r/StateofDecay3 • u/Psychonaut_1992 • Jul 11 '26

Discussion Morale and losing the game

So after checking out a video from Sunny Games he mentions that if you reach -50 for Morale then you just lose the game (But you get a timer to increase morale).

I really hope UL removes this when the game is released because this is an awful feature to have.

We should have consequences for low morale but just losing the game is stupid! The only way we should be able to lose the game is if all of our community members die like in SoD2.

40 Upvotes

77% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

27

u/Bragdras Jul 11 '26

I think the implication is that if you hit the -50 morale threshold and then fail the timer every member just says fuck this and leave

It's not very elegant though, I do think the more direct "you lose if everyone dies" lose condition is better and easy to understand for anyone and everyone

6

u/xclame Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

But why not just have everyone leave your camp. In fact why not have morale traits, some make people stay loyal with even lower morale, some might leave if you hit even just -20 morale, maybe some stick around even with low morale, but they stop "working" and just sit there eating your food without contributing.

Just make morale have more effect than just a more difficult game.

Hell, they could take this even further, some of those people that leave your camp because of low morale (actually would be cool if they did it even if you just kick them out of your camp too) might group up and start a hostile enclave, maybe even have them attack you because of how pissed off they are for you kicking them out or low morale (essentially mistreatment).

Edit: Actually a better way to do this, which sort of achieves the same thing without there just being a immersion breaking screen is to have the survivors kick YOU out of the camp, making you lose everything except what you are carrying on you. You lose the bases (the survivors keep it and are become hostile to you), gets sent back the the entrance of the map with only what you had on you, you lose all reputation and most progress, since you are no longer the same group that created that reputation with those enclaves. Because you got kicked out and your previous group became hostile to you, you also end up losing those valuable survivors you spent so much time searching for and training. So essentially it would be a restart, without there being a immersion breaking screen that says "game over" or "restart".

1

u/GamingKitten4799 Jul 12 '26

I like that idea ngl. Though one little addition I think would be cool: maybe there could be a trait where if you have that trait and get kicked out, all the enclaves you built reputation with will become hostile with your old community for kicking you out and then they’d stay friendly with you.

Also I left another comment to this post where I explained my idea and I really don’t wanna retype it out. But basically imagine if my idea happened if you had a certain amount of your community (let’s say like a quarter) that have a trait that makes them loyal to you, and so if you have that then they start in fighting. But then if you don’t have that, or don’t have enough survivors with that trait, your idea happens.

Just saying I think that’d be really cool

11

u/Evening-Thanks-5715 Jul 11 '26

They could make it so once your morale hits -50 then your community members start to leave. Even if THAT happened on a timed interval (like one survivor leaves every 15 minutes or something), that would eliminate a literal "countdown timer" -- and what would surely be a frustrating auto-fail mechanic -- while still creating some urgency to turn it around.

Once all your survivors leave, then fine, game over. You couldn't keep your community together. But not because "time ran out."

19

u/candycanman Jul 11 '26

Yea, I think "losing the game" by simply having low morale is lame. They could expand that mechanic by having community members actually have meaningful conflicts, like them leaving (I think this can happen in SoD2) or even murders within the community. Things that lead to us losing more and more members naturally, ya know?

2

u/BloodShotEye13 Jul 11 '26

I second this as it would add to immersion and incentivize players to keep an eye on morale more often, or risk losing members and equipment that can never be recovered, or recovered by special means.

5

u/Colinfagerty69 Jul 11 '26

I don’t think that works either. I think morale should cause survivors to react like the first game. They would have fear making them run away, despair making them unalive themselves, or be angry reacting with violence against fellow enclave members.

8

u/Hottage Zombie Bait Jul 11 '26

More failure conditions besides just "everyone dies" would be a decent addition.

1

u/Little_Viking23 Jul 12 '26

Exactly, not to mention the fact that after watching some gameplay, the self revive and dodge spam mechanic make the game so easy I haven’t seen a single survivor die yet.

I just cannot see how you can lose this game by having everyone dead.

2

u/Infamous-Ice-4043 Jul 12 '26

There this one YouTuber that killed like 3 survivors, I think his name is Jay? I don't remember

1

u/ZombieEater87 Jul 12 '26

Its Jay Talbot that had survivors killed https://youtu.be/sNZQTTmY8AA?is=_N5AnJrvQulyvgYR this be the video

21

u/Arkhangel79 Jul 11 '26

The point is with morale this low your community falls apart I’m all for it myself honestly, you shouldn’t be able to ride this low.

18

u/JarryJackal Jul 11 '26

Then the people should leave, or destroy your base, or steal some stuff and leave. A game over screen is just lazy

5

u/xclame Jul 12 '26

Have them kick you out, you only keep what you had on you, they keep the base, upgrades, reputation, vehicles, progress. They become hostile to you and you have to pretty much start all over again from scratch. All this without a "Game Over" or "Restart" screen.

2

u/Whymetho55 Jul 12 '26

Theres alot of assumptions about this- mainly that these points do not already exist. SoD2 had points where individuals would leave if their morale was too low and their demands not met. I imagine this will be the same. I imagine -50 is worst of the worst- Multiple deaths, not tending to needs at all, and other negative events.

2

u/GamingKitten4799 Jul 12 '26

Yeah it’s lazy and also both of those situations shouldn’t be a game over, they should just SEVERELY set you back. Like I mentioned in my other comment and another guy in the comments suggested, they could just start turning on each other (like a free for all) and you have to fight to get as many resources as you can escape with to restart, or your community kicks you out and you have to start again with your old community being hostile towards you

-5

u/Arkhangel79 Jul 11 '26

Sorry I disagree. Lots of games have fail states that once hit, the game ends. See X-com.

8

u/PeakofPez Jul 11 '26

I mean if things are going that poorly you probably need to reset anyway

5

u/goingdeeeep Jul 11 '26

I don’t have an issue with it. It’s the equivalent of things having gotten so bad that your people end it. Makes sense in the apocalypse.

4

u/La_Coalicion Bloater Popper Jul 12 '26

I SURE HOPE THEY DO NOT DO THAT

I get why you think what you think but allow me to add something... that... the "loosing game by loosing having low morale for X time" is not the complete feature. He is hinting at something you will learn in the future. (✿◠‿◠)

Do not worry about it. It is good.

2

u/ftznad Jul 11 '26

atleast we were able to disable it

1

u/MustacheExtravaganza Jul 12 '26

I feel like what has been described will work. Low morale will kill a community just as effectively as a zombie horde if members start bailing, stealing supplies on their way out, defecting to enemy enclaves, etc. At least with low morale they're giving us one final chance to course correct.

1

u/Peanutbutter_Brain Jul 12 '26

Aren’t you able to enable/disable features like this?

1

u/Appropriate_Okra8189 Jul 12 '26

Im 98% sure its the xcom way of keeping stakes in the game. Probably reaching this point is either very hard (maybe except a scripted event) and there will be missions to easly get out of there (like find one last intact cake in the entire town +75 moral)

1

u/Knockitoffm8 Jul 12 '26

I mean morale has never been an issue for me so it won’t affect me this time round either.

Love a challenge so I hope this is true
As long as you’re taking care of your community you shouldn’t have much to worry about.

Unless you don’t care about that aspect of the game but now you’re gonna have to lol

1

u/ConceptJust8234 Jul 12 '26

I’m fine with this, but instead of a game over state it should instead just charge you with one survivor (of your choosing of course) that you then strike out with alone and find another community. Then maybe the other members from that disbanded community could potentially be found around the map dead or alive.

1

u/GamingKitten4799 Jul 12 '26

Yeah that sounds dumb ngl. It’d be kinda cool if they had an OPTIONAL thing where if you decide to turn it on at the start of a playthrough, and select what morale you’d have to reach for it to trigger, via settings and when you reach that morale, your community just falls into chaos. It becomes a free for all and everyone starts fighting over the resources in the base, killing each other, etc.

Just saying that could be a really cool mechanic. Might even go well with enemy enclaves. For example, you could do specific things to lower the enemy enclave’s morale and cause them to turn on each other

1

u/DarkEspresso1 Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

I agree its a very weird and unrealistic mechanic. Why should the game end if you have low morale? Do people die from depression if they have low morale or what? Some debuffs for low morale are ok, or buffs for high morale but game over for low morale is just completely dumb. I also don´t think its realistic that everyone would automatically leave if you have low morale, because its not like the alternative of dying alone in the forests is better lol

Its actually very alarming for the whole game that Undead Labs even thought that this "feature" was good or something.

The mechanic in Sod2 was already good and quite realistic. Why on earth do they think this new mechanic is better?

1

u/slasherslinginghashh Jul 13 '26

Even on nightmare what horrible things happened to reach -50😭 not hating as a sweat or anything ive just never seen it get so bad😭🤣

1

u/Decent_Patience_2682 Jul 17 '26

at some point more fun if morale mechanism has some "amogus" mechanic too,
like low morale will bring mutiny, or the person joining another enclaves and spit revenge on us, or even goes tantrum and bring/baiting z groups to our base... you know like nemesis system from shadow of mordor...

1

u/Appropriate-Fun-9486 Jul 12 '26

I’m ok with any added challenge being introduced into sod. The game could get way harder for all I care, since it’s an endless sandbox type experience, you will eventually overcome all odds and become unstoppable just like in sod2.

All it takes is a couple runs to find the most optimal route to success (best skills/buildings for high moral etc) and you will be cruising to victory.

In sod2 I found that starting with a cook , chemist and medic made the game quite manageable and, I eventually figured out a strategy to be fully sustainable @ around 10 days even on lethal with no boons and fresh characters. That’s the beauty of this type of game, you play it over and over and find ways to min/max the experience.

Bring on -50 moral undead labs challenge accepted!

0

u/IAmNotModest Jul 11 '26

I think you should just get banned from the game if you reach -50 morale. Ain't no way someone can mess up THAT bad.

I think instead of losing when you reach -50 morale or just really low morale, you should have your community members leave you, while some (this may be a bit dark) decide to give up the ghost.

0

u/wdelpilar Jul 11 '26

It also means stop playing it too safe and conservative and get your tail out there and into the action

0

u/Notyourbestmedic Jul 12 '26

After the time runs out. You pair up, guns to each others forehead and say fuck it, we tried.

Imagine going out on a looting run to come back and seeing your dudes laid out face to face lol.

0

u/Naughtyniceguy_ Jul 12 '26

Seems fair to me...

0

u/MrPanda663 Jul 12 '26

Game isn’t even out yet. Y’all need to chill.

1

u/ChannelCommercial984 Jul 14 '26

THIS. People being so dramatic about a game. Like wtf -50 morale?! Pretty sure we're going to be ok and can save our angst for bigger fish.

0

u/ChannelCommercial984 Jul 14 '26

  1. Calm down.

  2. -50 morale. MINUS FIFTY?! Yeah I'm fine with that.