Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven Content Poll
As I write Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven, I consider skill checks that are made throughout the story. A skill check occurs many times during the game. For example, you may throw a rock past a pack of zombies to distract them. This would entail an Athletics check. I check the character's Athletics against the difficulty of the challenge. In this example, I may set the difficulty at 45. Lower than a 45 is a failure, while 45 or above is a success. I then write a failure scene and the success scene.
There are also times when I write 3 variations: high success, low success, failure. This takes extra time and effort to write the third path (high success).
By the time your character has reached Part 4, you have had numerous opportunities to increase skills. You also may add skill points and attributes through in-app purchases. Therefore, most characters have a wide range of skill ratings.
As a player of my game, how do you feel about skill checks? Do you think there should be a low difficulty to make your character stronger? Do you think skill checks should be higher to reward players that have invested in a skill? Do you think I should use more variations (high success, low success, failure) even though it takes more time and effort?
Comments (11)
I think the scale of difficulty should be very situational. However, i also think the skill checks are basically optional. I pointed this out years ago in a beta test, but you can survive the entire game with no skills and never leveling up. Its not the happiest playthrough, but it was still funny to discover that a useless player could still somehow survive.
You can survive by making the right choices, but you are going to have a bad time surviving, as you said. You will likely have people die around you as well. But I definitely have to balance those people who relax skill and still give them a chance.
I'd like it if it were easy enough to feel badass overall, but if there were also high risk/high reward options. I feel like these difficult options add to the replayability of the game; if i play a physically weak character but see an skill check option to carry survivors to safety knowing i'd fail if i tried, i make a mental note to create a strong character next time to give it a shot.
That’s an interesting approach. I like the idea of trying the same options with stronger characters to see the changes.
I often wondered how the attribute set varies. How much difference is there between having dexterity at 65 and dexterity at 70? Would skills also be situational? For example, the scene in Lancelot where you can hack the computer but zombies are bearing down on you would take more skill than hacking an ATM at your own leisure.
There is definitely a situational effect. Making skill checks under pressure are often harder. This is especially true during combat.
If possible you could have selectable difficulties to determine how hard the skill check is, for example easy would be a 45 skill check normal 55 and hard 65 or something like that
I do this sometimes, but not often because it takes so much extra work. One example is targeting specific enemies during a large battle. Some enemies may be behind cover, farther away, etc..
Balanced, even if it's harder it'll be the sweetest fruit.
Being a badass MC is satisfying 😅
It's how I like to play.