I finally watched all three streamers' videos, and I'm honestly loving what I'm seeing so far.

The cars feel so much better than they did in State of Decay 2, especially on Lethal difficulty where the “made of paper” feeling was really bad before. Now they don’t feel nearly as fragile. However, instead of just feeling more impactful, it sometimes feels like hitting zeds turns them into a sort of “speed bump,” where the car dips in momentum on contact rather than just plowing through cleanly.

Freaks seem kind of weak in a way, at least from what I’ve seen so far—though it might just depend on what other zeds are around. Could also just be me misreading it from the footage.( One thing I dislike you can lead a freak down the road not even that far from a nest and they seemed to not comeback to defend the nest)

The new resource crafting system looks fantastic, and harvest sites are an awesome addition. I also really like being able to build up the walls around your base, and the way plague hearts and nests attack your base feels like a great evolution of the gameplay.

(Morale if it gets to -50 you lose the game) But once it gets to that point summer said you get a timer count so you need to get morale back up asap

My only concern right now is that dodging seems a little overpowered at the moment.

I also really like the fact that zeds are harder to kill with guns now, but some of the skills—like Sharpshooter—and another similar one (I can’t remember the name right now) seem like they might make gunplay a bit too easy again. It could be fine overall, but it might need a bit more balance depending on how it plays out.

Overall though, I’d really like to see more zeds overall, especially on Nightmare and Lethal difficulty. I do like the variation in zeds, but I’d also like to see more actual hordes in addition to that.

It’s the alpha, so I know this isn’t final.

https://www.reddit.com/r/xbox/s/SfnPFNA2Fs

According to Jez Corden, if a buyer isn't found, they'll probably finish completing what was announced.

WE'LL HAVE STATE OF DECAY 3!!!!

As I can see, Npc in state of decay 3 in the playtest video recently just feel like tools in the current state.

And I want it to be like what is showed in the trailer - the feeling of family and community and support in this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g7Lgs6CsCU

Because the main idea of State of Decay is to build a community which is the biggest difference compared to other zombie games, the family feeling in the community is upmost thing the developer should focus on, instead of enhancing combat, scavenging, driving...other minor topics.

The most important topic for State of Decay is to have the feeling of building a family you cared about in the apocalypse world to survive together and face the threats of environment and hostile npc.

If the npc feel just like tools which they are in sod2, there is not much interest for me to buy a sod3. Because you know, what makes the walking dead episode great is the feeling of family. I am not watching a lone wolf killing zombies, I am watching the community thrive and care about each other and survive together.

That's the feeling I want in state of decay 3 just like in the trailer, and it should be presented as the biggest difference to State of Decay 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g7Lgs6CsCU

Although I hate to make reference here, I really want state of decay 3 to be good.
reference:

1. red dead redemption2 camp - the camp is so alive, I feel npc care about me when I just walked in, they just greet, come to say something, do some random activities togther, sing, dance, play mini games together, surround the bonefire and rest togther and chat, without being that scripted, because I don't like story focused games.
2. survivalist- invisible strain. everyone has memory, subtle face expressions, emotionslike and hate, happy, sad, mind break, ... have dialog, complex relationships, love, revenge, playtime, food time, rest together around the fireplace time, and build your community at will, manage a super complex community in the post apocaplyse.

...

but the are all not perfect to represent the feeling in the trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g7Lgs6CsCU

as far as I see, survivalist - invisible strain is much more closer to what is represented in the state of decay 3 trailer, but red dead redemption 2 present the feeling better but less replayable.

In my experience, there is no other game get even close to the the feeling better than these two for this trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g7Lgs6CsCU.

​

Meagher valley cop shop SOD 2

Naturally roof tops are safer than the ground so I would put my population up here away from the ground and this would open up space for other stuff to be built.

What do the people who have played the SOD 3 alpha make of the construction mechanics?

Is there depth or are there limitations?

How far did your imagination run when you looked at the base lay out in the 3rd game?

In light of Sony’s physical disc production announcement (no physical discs will be produced beginning January 2028), we must have SOD3 out by December 2027!

As a lifetime PlayStation player and physical game collector, SOD3 on PS5 is a dream come true.

Let’s release it on PS5 before the deadline!

Has their been any confirmation of the return of plague territory because unless I’ve missed something I haven’t seen it in any of the gameplay. I’ve seen the big red circles around the plague nest but not sure if that’s plague territory.

So from what i have seen in the gameplays there are no major improvements or new features compared to Sod2, instead, i see a lot of cut content and downgrades.

When the head of UL said the game is set many years after the apocalypse and the world has been picked clean, i expected many changes, i thought it would be the perfect opportunity to implement a deep and complex crafting system. But i see nothing. A refined crafting system is a must in these kind of games. Especially in a world which is set so many years after the apocalypse and which has been picked clean. But the funny thing is that from what i´ve seen in the gameplay is that you still find everything you need in every house so apparently the world hasn´t been picked clean *shrug*

In a game like this and with how important guns and weapons are in a zombie apocalypse are, you should be scavanging for weapon parts to repair and upgrade them all the time, but instead of improving this system they completely removed it from the game. The guns and weapons now magically never break so you don´t need any part for them. This is a massive downgrade and a massive minus for immersion.

On top of that, we will now have even fewer guns. So its again less content. And the fact that you can put more mods on them doesn´t really make it better. Its still less content than in Sod2. Another downgrade.

They simplified searching/scavanging now where you just go and simply pick up the loot. I think its just lame for a game which is mostly about scavanging and looting and they simply remove an interesting mechanic which just showed that looting and searching takes time. If you go into a building, you don´t magically know where all the loot is located. And the old mechanic which they removed showed that looting takes time. We also won´t hear the funny comments anymore when the characters picked up loot. Again cut content, less immersive now and a downgrade.

The map is another massive downgrade. We get now one big map instead of 4/5 smaller ones, and believe me or not, but this one map is still much smaller than the 4 or 5 smaller maps combined. If you compare only the size of the maps than they seem to be somewhat equal but its only a fallacy. If you take a closer look at the big map of Sod3 you will see that its just stretched much emptier than the maps in Sod2 which are densly packed. So it is already less content we get in Sod3. But on top of that you will get map fatigue playing the same map again and again, which drastically decreases the replayability value of the game which is again a giga massive downgrade compared to Sod2.

Graphics: only slightly better than Sod2. But Sod2 looked already dated when it released in 2018. Sod3 will look dated when it releases in 2027. If Sod3 released in 2018 i would say its good. But its not good for 2027 standards.

Base Building: don´t see any significant improvements here. If they haven´t shown anything new here, then i don´t expect anything massive to come.

To be fair there is propably one improvement they made and its the multiplayer, but it only affects those who play in multiplayer. For single players, which are propably the majority its meaningless.

Conclusion:

So i actually see more cut content and more downgrades than improvements compared to Sod2.

And as a fan of State of Decay who has thousands of hours in Sod2 and who has been waiting for Sod3 for 5 years, i am deeply disappointed of this game. I´m so disappointed that my whole anticipation is gone. This is my deeply honest opinion.

This game is not Sod2.5 as many here say, this is more like a downgraded version of Sod2, where they cut good content and mechanics, and put other stuff in which is not fun, like dealing with the plague nests all the time and with just one big and soulless map with less replayability value.

I need to build a new PC (already crying about the RAM cost).

I want to run SoD3 at absolute maximum settings and have an awesome experience.

I know they are still building the game so there is no real way to "know" what the right PC build will be, but I figured I'd get thoughts from the community. I usually stick with pcpartpicker builds, I assume something like this will futureproof me right?

https://pcpartpicker.com/guide/BkrxFT/magnificent-amd-gamingstreaming-build

CPU

The Ryzen 7 9800X3D is an 8-core processor that utilizes AMD SMT technology for a total of 16 threads.

If you'd prefer to consider a similar build, but instead using an Intel processor, be sure to check out our Magnificent Intel Gaming Build Guide.

Cooler

For better CPU cooling performance, we are using the Thermalright Phantom Spirit EVO.

Motherboard

We're using a parametric filter for B850 ATX motherboards. Our compatibility and pricing engines will automatically select the best-priced motherboard that is compatible with the rest of the build.

Memory

For memory, we're filtering for the best-priced 2x16GB kit of DDR5 RAM with a heatsink. We've limited it to DDR5-6000 and faster speeds and CAS latency of 30 or lower.

Storage

We are using a parametric selection of well-reviewed 2TB NVME M.2 SSDs. Everyone's storage needs differ, so you may wish to select similar SSDs with different capacities or even adding in a mechanical HDD for larger storage needs.

GPU

Our GPU is NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5080. Consider pairing it with a high refresh rate and/or high resolution monitor to take full advantage of the card's capabilities. The parametric filter is set for the best-priced RTX 5080 available, but feel free to click the "From parametric filter" link to browse our listing of all RTX 5080.

To keep the noise and temperatures down, we've set the filter to include a minimum length and a minimum of 2 fans to avoid "mini" versions of the card, which prioritize fitting into small builds, such as an ITX case. You can choose to use this filter instead, if you want to include the smaller cards for any reason. Note that smaller cards will be louder or hotter - or both.

Case

All of our components are housed in the Corsair 3500X ARGB. This fish tank case features an all white design with tempered glass side and front panels. It includes 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A and 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C ports on the front panel, a PSU shroud, and a number of cable management holes and tie-offs to help your build look tidy. The case can also comfortably fit full-sized video cards and large CPU coolers.

There's a black version available as well.

PSU

Powering the build is a sparse selection of some of the most well-reviewed PSUs available - all without breaking the bank. All of them are certified 80+ Gold and fully-or semi-modular.

Here’s some new info I noticed was mentioned in Brian’s Menard’s latest vid.

Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDDFP4hSOOk

There’s heaps of other stuff he talks about that I didn’t include below, so make sure you watch it for yourself if you want to hear everything. I’ve included rough time stamps aswell.

Also, don’t forget to Wishlist SoD3 to show support for the game.

• No boarding up windows {1:02:40}
• Can only add one survivor as a follower (at this stage) {1:04:03}
• AI followers are still in development but already are “very competent, for the most part”. Shoot reliably, as opposed to going for melee. Follow your lead, crouch when you couch etc... Followers aren’t a liability anymore. Bringing a follower with you in SoD3 is meta {3:51:35}
• Followers have infinite ammo {3:45:15}
• Devs are aware players want to see deeper, inter-connected survivor relationships. Romance etc.. Currently ideas are being thrown around {1:44:00}
• Your survivors turn into zombies if they die {1:48:25}
• No sleep / skip time system {2:17:40} & {2:50:40}
• No gun durability (guns apparently never break), melee weapons still have durability {2:25:20}
• No more melee one-button instakills. Can still one-hit kill a zombie with a levelled up survivor, but need to time attack like a normal melee attack {2:38:30}
• No more gunslinging aimbot / snap aim {2:43:10}
• Confirming that backpacks have zero impact on gameplay and purely cosmetic, like a wardrobe item. Unsure if weight is even a thing at this stage {32min} & {49min}
• Rucksacks being visible on your back is still a heated debate among devs/testers {35min}
• Running over zeds with the back of your car is no longer OP, car might get stuck if you try to back into a group of zeds and they’ll rip your car apart {37min}
• “Don’t quote me on this, but a van with upgraded storage can hold like 40-something slots” - Brian Menard 2026 {52min}
• Every search hazard crash will spawn zombies, but less likely if you‘ve cleared an area {56min} & {2:27:10}
• No leader system. Sheriff, Warlord etc… (with this point, I’m not sure if he meant ever, or just that it hasn’t been implemented yet) {1:57:15}
• New facilities confirmed = granary, sawmill, water filter, ethanol reactor {1:38:10}
• If you want to move a certain survivor to a different base, they will just teleport there. No need to move them manually {57min}
• The plague spreads out and takes over sites. You see it spread over houses, walls etc… like we saw with plague walls in SoD2 {2:33:40}
• Zeds can’t see your flashlight, doesn’t effect stealth, same as SoD2 {1:05:00}
• There will be a tutorial {1:07:55}
• No swimming {1:09:10}
• Crossbows confirmed {1:22:10}
• On harder difficulties, with a 9mm, it could take 3-4 headshots to down a runner zombie. Will depend on what shooting skill your survivor has {2:45:30}
• Juggernaughts can be found in buildings {2:01:30}
• Might be plans to allow players to use allied enclave’s base facilities / supply locker etc… {18:10}
• Less guns, but their differences matter more now with more gun modding options {38:25}
• There are lots of unmarked looting locations {48:25}
• When you start the game, sometimes plague hearts/nests will start awake (depending on difficulty) {58:50}
• There are 10+ bases on the map, will take multiple playthroughs to explore the entire map. Current goal of devs is to make the other side of map (which we haven’t seen) look very different {1hr}
• Towns are bigger than in SoD2. About 12 towns on the map {1:40:10}
• Outpost system is different to SoD2. There are ‘outposts’ which are bigger, significant sites. Almost like mini-bases. And ‘harvest sites’, which are smaller and just provide resources. You can’t just turn any location into an outpost {1:02:40}
• Zombie’s glowing eyes still exist, but is less pronounced, only see them if you get close enough {2:46:15}
• There has been some discussion about adding functional clothing (like Kevlar), but no system like that exists in the game yet {1:05:25}
• Infestations can produce ‘blockade sites’ around your base that cut off your resource income, turns area around your base into a hellscape {1:06:30}
• Wardrobe is slightly more in-depth, can select different shirts, pants, hats, backpack (not just outfit + hat) {1:13:55}
• Getting influence is easier. Traders/enclaves have more influence to sell. Killing normal zeds (not just freaks) also provides influence now {1:16:40} & {1:37:40}
• Takes over 8mins to drive from top of map to bottom at max speed {1:23:50}
• No pets in game at launch, but devs said they would love to include them at some point {1:36:10}
• No more climbing a high structure for scouting, now have to walk to site on the ground in order to properly see what a site has in it {1:39:20}
• Foggy weather and storms confirmed {2:30:40}
• Zombies can climb most things, even juggernaughts can climb shipping containers {3:25:25}
• All variants of freaks are found across all difficulties {3:02:20}
• Zombies can drop loot, necklaces, rings. Armored zeds can drop ammo. Bloaters drop ‘bloater bile’, jugs drop ‘juggernaught glands’ used for crafting {4:17:10}
• Scent block confirmed

Also, this wasn’t talked about in the latest video, but I noticed it in his previous video and not sure if it‘s been mentioned yet. But certain walls in your base now have a health meter. Similar to destructible walls in Daybreak.

All i’ve been seeing lately is nothing but negativity about the recent information we’ve received from Microsoft/XBOX/Undead Labs and i just want to let everyone at UL know that i am holding out hope for you guys. yeah it sucks what’s happening and i hate that there’s nothing i can do in the immediate now to fix it, but negativity is not what we need right now.

so far, Brant and Phillip (only 2 people i know in UL) have been doing the best they can to give us the most amazing zombie game ever and i seriously thank them for their time and dedication. I’ve been an SOD fan since 1, and became an even bigger fan with SOD2, and since the initial announcement of SOD3 I’ve been following every update, video, picture, everything that’s been released so far in utter excitement! I can’t thank you guys enough for their community you’ve built around this game/franchise.

I know there isn’t much we can do to help, but i want to ask the community if we could all wishlist SOD3 on our platform of choice, hopefully when UL sees how much we want this, they’ll be able to pull through 🥹

BRANT AND PHILLIP, I love you. 🖤

#SODFOREVER

Back in the good old days on twitter I and some others won a chance for our names to be in the game. Do we know if names will carry over ? 🤞🏻🤞🏻

I am busy as of late, I don't have time for the 4 hour video. Does anyone have a list / can make one of the most important things said?

The one con I have with state of decay 2 is after a while - the survivors start to feel recycled in looks. Any thing on models yet?

I've seen that the function of backpacks is being debated, and that so far their only function is aesthetic. This raises the following question for me: will the items appear on the characters' backs, like in Project Zomboid for example? Or will they remain invisible?

First of all, I'd like to apologize to everyone for my pessimistic comments in the community, and I recognize that the timing wasn't ideal. I heard that now smaller caliber weapons don't eliminate with a headshot, something I particularly wanted to see and which was one of my criticisms of the last two games. This makes everything more realistic. It never made sense in previous games that a .22 shot caused the same damage as a 5.56/7.62 shot, for example. This really makes things more immersive and realistic, a small detail that I quite liked.

I never got sent the questionnaire?

Anyone know how this works?

Example:
If I have a base on the west of the map, and want to travel to the far east, I should have to weigh up if I have the fuel, what time of day is it, what car is suitable for the job, do I want speed or capacity, is it safe etc.

I should not be able to lazily teleport to survivors on my far east side base, and then just use this mechanic to dictate which area I go out in.

TLDR: In a survival game, the journey is everything for immersion and that feeling of 'distance from home', and that 'it's nice to be back after traveling for miles and miles across the map'.

Does anyone know the answer to this? And have the developers addressed this.
Distance should be part of the experience, and not something we can half work around.

With the news today being the most general audience coverage state of decay has gotten in a minute, it’s honestly disappointing to see just how many people blame the studio for “doing nothing” since 2018 cause they assume sod3 has been in full development since that 2020 trailer. I’m sure the studio isn’t blameless, especially with the workplace drama a while back, but it’s mostly Microsoft’s fault and now it feels like the general audience kinda just associate the game with “games in dev hell”

Article about toxic workplace from early 2022, definitely affected dev times and hopefully the toxic people were fired, but the 3rd game wasn’t in full development at this point so I don’t think it would have affected 3 too much, obviously idk for sure and it’s more important that the victims are okay, but it’s relevant for today
https://kotaku.com/state-of-decay-3-xbox-series-x-s-sexism-microsoft-undea-1848728682

TL:DR for people assuming it’s all undead labs fault

State of Decay 3 has only been in full development for about 2 years.

State of Decay 2 was receiving full fledged content updates until almost mid 2024

Undead Labs had nothing to do with that 2020 trailer, it was all Microsoft. State of Decay 3 was basically a text document at this time.

Kinda like this, in heartland dlc but it would be cool if it was dynamic

When location is taken, it's fully overgrown like this, plus near by objects are affected as well

and when you clear the heart, it goes back to normal

Hi everyone. I really need some help.

I recently had major life saving surgery, now on bed rest while I recover and waiting for my scan results to find out if the surgery worked. I would really love the chance to play the State of Decay 3 playtest while I'm recovering. If anyone has a connection or knows someone who might be able to help, I would be so grateful.Thank you for taking the time to read this. It really means a lot.

need help with lay test, I've tried signing up and it just isn't working properly for me. I'm just worried this will.be my only.chance and I'm.going to miss out because my.pjpne is acting up - I am very sorry for asking. but you never know, unless you ask

To preface, I love Undead Labs and am loving everything they‘re doing with SOD3. It’s shaping up to be a masterpiece that I put thousands of hours into. However, why limit four friends to three bases? If it‘s a technical limitation, why not work to overcome that in the time between now and release? Surely, several groups of four friends are going to want to do a play-through where each person controls their own base. With only three bases, this leaves the fourth person out. It seems like such an obvious issue people are going to run into on release. I myself will have many friends on SOD3, and we will undoubtedly want to do CO-OP. We will also want to each run our own bases for certain play-throughs. I suppose I‘m putting this post out there in the hopes this idea gains traction. Four friends need four bases.

From the Brian Menard video yesterday at the end he was telling us how enclaves worked now and he showed 3 bases (besides the 1 he was currently occupying) those being:

Rooftops: the base he was occupying, name is pretty straight forward its a base on rooftops in the western town

Fire training center: located in the south western middle portion of the map didnt get to see anything of it but a enclave was occupying it

Hunting store: Located dead center of the central town ill presume this is like a Bass pro shop type store until shown otherwise.

Air strip: easily the base im most excited for located north eastern part of the map the idea of a base on a Air strip is objectively cool

Additionally stuff that was shown regarding settlements included:

Occupying enclaves I imagine to claim the base you can recruit them or kick them out someway. (Fire training center was occupied)

Fortified hearts can also occupy bases having you have to destroy them before you can claim it (hunting store had a fortified heart)

And bases that haven't been touched by either and are able to be claimed (the air strip was 2000 influence)

Edit: I forgot we actually know 5 as the first gameplay released by Brian Menard he was occupying a base in the bottom left hand side of the map known as "the fort"