Dead State Post-funding Update #27: Move to Full Party Control

People who have followed Dead State so far, and watched the combat video made available last month, will know that Dead State was supposed to handle companions in a way similar to Fallout, with limited directions available but not full control.

Now, though, the DoubleBear team has announced that they’re ditching this for full party control:

Most of you have probably seen our combat video by now. This was an early build of our combat which has taught us a lot about what is working and what isn’t in the design. The biggest change that we have recently made is the following you can now control your whole party in combat.

We did this for a few reasons, namely to eliminate the wait for the player’s turn and to cut down on the frustration the player might feel from an ally AI’s tactical decision. With party control, you can also switch to characters that have the skills you might immediately need, which comes in handy when you want your mechanically-inclined ally to lockpick a door or your medic to prioritize a certain character’s health.

However, we still want to make them feel like individuals. In the shelter, they very much have their own agenda and dialogue has a big impact on who they are. In combat situations, you will still have to worry about your squad panicking. We are adding more panic conditions, such as an ally worrying about a loved one if they are low on health. The presence of zombies or combat strain can still trigger a panic episode in most of your teammates. Having full control over allies, you can now try to reduce the likelihood of ally placement causing a panic episode. You still need to use your ally’s skills wisely and know what their weaknesses are.

I wasn’t a big fan of the tendency of Fallout 1 and 2’s companions to shoot me in the back over and over so this is great news for me.