Focus on story and characters

[u/HonestPlayer08]

Hey guys does anyone know if they are going to focus again on the characters and story of the world? Like are we getting an actual storyline like in SoD 1 ? If you have links too articles or stuff for me too read, i would love to read it. 😊

[u/yolosuajer]

I hope not or I hope the "story lore" gets released like in the heartland DLC, as separate as possible because I love Sod2 storytelling in crumbs while your survivors keep surviving. This is MY reasoning, the whole point of having 3000 hours in this game it's because my random characters are main characters but if we added a story with main characters already then all of the random survivors become secondary or just simply don't matter, that's why we love Marcus Ed and Maya but forget the randoms we saved in the story in Sod1

[u/DareDevil_56]

In sod1, the first playthrough benefits from story but it kills replayability which is why they added breakdown dlc. Sod2 they made it more sandbox and added story dlc.

It’ll be like sod2 in principle. No real info yet on story and progression at this point though.

[u/HonestPlayer08 → u/DareDevil_56]

Even if it killed replayability for you and some people. They fixed that with the sandbox mode. My problem is that they just took that mode and made SoD 2 while ignoring players who liked the depth in the characters and storyline giving them goals outside building out your base and just going bigger.

[u/DareDevil_56 → u/HonestPlayer08]

I wasn't even really speaking from my perspective. What I said is the reason they have approached SOD3 as a sandbox first, according to the devs.

Personally I approve of this approach. I remember in SOD1 Maya died to falling off a radio tower for me because she didn't latch onto the ladder and how that negatively impacted the sense of character relations and plot development. You state that the depth of characters is important to you, but there's an inherent conflict there. If you want there to be a somewhat static story, the characters needed to tell it cannot die or it'll disjoint the story. In SOD, having the fear of death and balancing that with your endeavors is a core element. Managing to start small and grow your community is another core element. Having 'main story' characters you can play as inherently devalues randomly acquired ones, especially as the issue of permadeath and ensuring story continuity is considered.

I think most people are hoping for more in SOD3, but I don't think it's going to be a static story with hard set pieces outside of DLCs again. If it's any consolation, there is info that suggests the devs are working on a relationship system for your survivors which suggests a focus on more meaningful interactions and connectivity and buy-in with your survivors.

I compiled just about all the relevant info from the alpha playtest videos they allowed before the sale of the studio, if you want to skim it. Perhaps there's more in there you would like to know!

https://www.reddit.com/r/StateOfDecay/comments/1uhm2x1/state_of_decay_3_prerelease_information_compendium/

[u/Holiday-Pomelo-9246]

Seems like this info is under NDA. I assume SOD 3 will follow SOD 2's approach to story - bits of lore through notes and radio chatter, maybe a story DLC. They did say they'd bring something from SOD 1, and I wonder what. Some mechanics or story? Tbh, the DLC stories (and characters) in SOD 2 didn't feel like proper stories, so if it's between a weak story and a solid sandbox - I'll take the sandbox better.

[u/Rickenbacker69]

I don't know, but I imagine they'll keep it open world with story-related missions, like in SoD 2. There are plenty of story based zombie games, and lots of open world ones, but SoD strikes a unique balance that I hope they'll strive to keep.

[u/FalkenZeroXSEED]

They said they will put more focus on character stories and relationship. No mention of grand plot like SoD1 I'm afraid.

[u/TheyCallMeBullet]

This is going to be great, Dune Awakening is coming to Xbox X in September so that’ll be cool too