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Romero's Aftermath AMA w/ Adam Skidmore

ArtemisKnivesArtemisKnives Member UncommonPosts: 7
Hey everyone!

My name is Adam Skidmore and I am the Design Lead for Romero's Aftermath, a free to play open world survival game.  You are a survivor in a zombie infested apocalyptic world with a Southwest tileset for the map.  There are common and rare items to loot that spawn dynamically throughout the world, cosmetics to wear, civilian and military grade weapons and attachments, skins for the weapons, base building, crafting, town liberations, safezones, global inventory and a whole bunch of other real players running around in the world for you to befriend, trade with or attempt to kill.  How you play the game is entirely up to you!  We offer both PVE & PVP servers for both types of player experience.  Hopefully that is a nice summary to give you an idea of what the game is about!

You can check out more about the game and register for free on Steam or at -- http://willyousurvive.com

I'll be available so you can Ask me Anything starting at 7 PM EST (~an hour from now)!  Post your questions and please try and keep the trolling to a minimum :awesome: 

Comments

  • TalonsinTalonsin Member EpicPosts: 3,619
    edited October 2015
    1. Will you be reducing the spawn rate of ammo and then selling it in the cash shop like you did with War-Z/Infestation?

    2. Besides a new map and some cosmetic changes, how is this game any different from War-Z?

    3. What exactly is Mr Romeros role in the games development?  [mod edit]

    4. How will you address hacking which plagued your last zombie game?
    Post edited by Talonsin on
    "Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game."  - SEANMCAD

  • Restor145Restor145 Member CommonPosts: 1
    are fall 2015 cases limited editions skins or will they always be for sale ?
  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    I never troll weather someone might think so or not,i am always am a straight up person,no holds barred.

    I played this game,for about 3 days everything felt too linear.Example the ONLY notable stops are the markers on the map,nothing left to discovery.The items/loot is always in  the same places attached to objects with no room to actually store anything to craft.

    Assets,we need a LOT more,are there any new assets in the works?

    Is there actually a bag bigger than the Tier 4 i think it was?I carried the basics refined metal,plastics a few water bottles empty dirty and full etc etc and a few guns i found of which none of them worked.I always had only one space left to pick something up,then had to constantly open and close my UI to refine it.So i was opening and closing it sometimes 10x in a row one after the other,instead of picking up 10 items and then opening it once.

    IS there any plan to bring in some "discovery" so items rare can be found anywhere or are they always going to be tied to the fixed objects where we find them now?Example on that garbage pile,car seat,on a box,it is always the same.

    In three days i never found one working gun and unless i am just dumb i couldn't figure out how to load any even though i had the ammo.Is that because the weapons were damaged?Also i did not see how to repair them,i saw the REPAIR icon and tried a wrench but had never seen any other way to repair them.

    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

  • goboygogoboygo Member RarePosts: 2,141
    Does the world really need another F2P, zombie infested end of the world simulator?  If so than my question is why did you make one and why is this one worth playing?
  • ZombieCatZombieCat Member UncommonPosts: 55
    Talonsin said:
    2. Besides a new map and some cosmetic changes, how is this game any different from War-Z?
    100% this! I played War-Z and want to know why I should even bother with yet another resurrection of that game.
  • ArtemisKnivesArtemisKnives Member UncommonPosts: 7
    edited October 2015
    Talonsin said:
    1. Will you be reducing the spawn rate of ammo and then selling it in the cash shop like you did with War-Z/Infestation?

    2. Besides a new map and some cosmetic changes, how is this game any different from War-Z?

    3. What exactly is Mr Romeros role in the games development?  [mod edit]

    4. How will you address hacking which plagued your last zombie game?

    1.  I am extremely against that type of mechanic and I do not feel that starving players of necessary gameplay items is conducive to a healthy gaming community nor does it encourage players to buy it simply because they cannot find it.  Ammo is acquired at a pace we feel is acceptable via killing military zombies, farming military areas and doing town liberations (as well there is always the chance of finding it in a civilian car or house or other area due to dynamic spawns at a much lower rate than a higher weighted spawn area like a military zone).  Of course more difficult group tier town liberations such as the center city are more likely to give more ammo per supply drop than say a simple solo tier liberation and we think that is okay. 

    2.  There is a massive laundry list of difference, some being large in your face changes, others being subtle.  To name a few...  Town liberations, unique dynamic spawn types that include 5 different 'types' of zombie spawns IE a farm zombie has a different loot table than a military zombie does or a town zombie.  There are over 170+ campsites all over the map that make exploring worth it especially due to the new dynamic spawn system that makes it so certain items such as blueprints can only be found in certain areas of the world.  Cosmetic items don't require you to delete your character anymore :)  Server hopping won't put you in the same spot anymore.  Lots of small gameplay tweaks.  Snipers are weak close range.  The list goes on and on :)

    3.  He has been a creative inspiration for gameplay elements that aren't just about PVP.  One of my favorite questions of his that really surprised me was when he asked "how do you get rid of all of the zombies in an area" to which I replied "you can't because they respawn".  He thought that was strange in a zombie game and thus inspired Town Liberations which call down supplies of goodies as well as allow you to kill off the entire population of zombies in a town and prevent them from spawning for a period of time allowing you to loot an area in peace and collect the supply drops for liberating the area

    4.  We have changed a lot of gameplay mechanics to combat known cheats in the game such as the amount of information we send from the server to client and when we send that now.  Items cannot be seen from more than 20 feet away thus making players have to actually explore and loot an area instead of ESPing items through walls.  The same goes for players, we do not send player information over 300 meters now simply because it does not benefit a normal player to spot players at absurd distances where any gameplay is not really possible.  I want to say that we are much more on the ball and have been addressing known issues in the game and targeting them directly.  We are in a phase where we are working on optimizing the game and patching up holes that make game breaking hacks & cheats possible.  Keeping a handle on cheating is a big priority to us.  We are keeping a watch on what types of 'clever' things are possible in the game and constantly looking for ways to stop it.  Cheating is a cat and mouse game where each party tries to stay a step ahead of the other, there is no permanent fix but I believe we have a much more solid approach to dealing with it this time around.

  • ArtemisKnivesArtemisKnives Member UncommonPosts: 7

    Restor145 said:
    are fall 2015 cases limited editions skins or will they always be for sale ?

    We don't currently have any plans to remove the Fall 2015 cases or the skins that they contain.  The name convention on the case is to let players know during what Era the case was introduced.  If we do introduce a limited edition case we will let players know. 
  • ArtemisKnivesArtemisKnives Member UncommonPosts: 7

    Wizardry said:
    I never troll weather someone might think so or not,i am always am a straight up person,no holds barred.

    I played this game,for about 3 days everything felt too linear.Example the ONLY notable stops are the markers on the map,nothing left to discovery.The items/loot is always in  the same places attached to objects with no room to actually store anything to craft.

    Assets,we need a LOT more,are there any new assets in the works?

    Is there actually a bag bigger than the Tier 4 i think it was?I carried the basics refined metal,plastics a few water bottles empty dirty and full etc etc and a few guns i found of which none of them worked.I always had only one space left to pick something up,then had to constantly open and close my UI to refine it.So i was opening and closing it sometimes 10x in a row one after the other,instead of picking up 10 items and then opening it once.

    IS there any plan to bring in some "discovery" so items rare can be found anywhere or are they always going to be tied to the fixed objects where we find them now?Example on that garbage pile,car seat,on a box,it is always the same.

    In three days i never found one working gun and unless i am just dumb i couldn't figure out how to load any even though i had the ammo.Is that because the weapons were damaged?Also i did not see how to repair them,i saw the REPAIR icon and tried a wrench but had never seen any other way to repair them.

    We would love to introduce additional Art Assets to the game but you must understand that they are very expensive and time consuming.  We are a very small team that acquired the rights to the engine and license for the game and some of the items such as buildings and zombies we had to use what we had for placeholders for the time being.  Yes this does totally suck but it's better than stick figure zombie men or simply deleting a building just because it's old.  We added tons of new cosmetic items for characters as welll as new items to be looted in the game.  There is still gameplay to be had with these older assets regardless of the models being recycled.  If things go well we hope to update old models but you must understand this takes real time as well as real money.  

    There are 7 different bag sizes.  If you only found the Level 4 backpack then there was still a level 5, 6 and Alice pack.  They all hold significantly more items thus making looting much easier because you don't have to prioritize bag space and can kind of just 'vacuum' up all the loots :)  

    The guns all likely worked however you did not have any ammunition for them.  I would love to introduce a 'disassemble all' button but that is for a wishlist for the time being.  A new character won't find a massive amount of use for all the disassembled items like a veteran character will.  These new items basically fill the necessary 'trash loot' that shows players "hey there is a spawn here, but you didn't hit the lottery try again".  It replaces dead end items that war-z was plagued with such as helmets, chemlights and flares everywhere.  For a veteran character that has many crafting recipes these "junk" items are suddenly very valuable in filling in the gaps.  One mans trash is another mans treasure :)

    I must ask, were you on a PVE server or a PVP server?  PVP servers have drops geared more towards a 'combat' related apocalypse and the PVE servers have drops more geared towards "everyone's my best friend survival apocalypse" where you don't need guns, explosives, traps, and combat related items like the PVP server players do because they are constantly getting into scuffles and killing each other.  It would also be ridiculous to have players go breeze through the PVE servers and loot up like it's Christmas morning and then go PVP with it.  Healthy risk, healthy reward :)  
  • ArtemisKnivesArtemisKnives Member UncommonPosts: 7
    goboygo said:
    Does the world really need another F2P, zombie infested end of the world simulator?  If so than my question is why did you make one and why is this one worth playing?
    Hell yea I think it's worth playing.  It's free!  You honestly have nothing to lose, and you might like it!  Why did we make it?  Because we are Devs that love making games and we always felt like war-z was kind of a 'skeleton' of a potentially great game and we set out to make it the game we always felt it could have been. We couldn't do that under the old company and had to break off and get our own license because the changes we wanted for the game were too drastic.   Of course we don't have the full original team, and the only war-z guys that are left among the entirely new team are old vets but we are all gamers at heart and we didn't feel like the current zombie games are doing it justice.  We think we are a pretty damn quality game for being free.  When it's the weekend and you want to play a game with your friends but you don't want to spend any money... Aftermath is a pretty damn badass choice right now and we accommodate both casual PVE players with their own servers and PVP servers for the PVP players.  I don't think the game is for everyone, I definitely think each type of person has their own ideal game, but if you are a fan of this niche genre then I think Aftermath will give you a quality experience and at the end of the day if you didn't like it you didn't spend a dime :)
  • BrokenSilenceBrokenSilence Member UncommonPosts: 321
    So this was either a really poor AMA with few people or it's been heavily censored due to people unhappy with the way Infestation Survival Stories went and the fact that Sergey Titov is the CEO of the team the develops Romero's Aftermath.
  • BurntvetBurntvet Member RarePosts: 3,465
    edited October 2015
    So this was either a really poor AMA with few people or it's been heavily censored due to people unhappy with the way Infestation Survival Stories went and the fact that Sergey Titov is the CEO of the team the develops Romero's Aftermath.
    Winner.

    This is the 3 effin game from the same people, more or less, on the same subject with presumably a bunch of recycled stuff.

    Why should anyone really give a shit?
  • ArtemisKnivesArtemisKnives Member UncommonPosts: 7
    edited October 2015
    It wasn't heavily censored.  I just don't think it got a lot of visibility.  I am happy to answer questions though!  I am heading home from the office now!  If there are additional questions over night I'll stop by tomorrow and answer them!  :) 
  • BrokenSilenceBrokenSilence Member UncommonPosts: 321
    edited October 2015
    It wasn't heavily censored.  I just don't think it got a lot of visibility.  I am happy to answer questions though :)  
    As someone who bought H1Z1 I was very disappointed, mainly with the poor zombie AI and tons and tons of cheaters so I was looking for another option. I was going to try the game but I have to be honest the history of what your CEO has said in the past and the history with the previous games really made me think twice and I didn't end up installing it. I never played Infestation so I really didn't experience what happened back then first hand. The Steam reviews are really bad and it's unfortunate because it does seem like the game is being judged by a pissed off Infestation crowd.

    I do think this game looks better than some of the other zombie survival out there currently. As I mentioned I haven't installed Aftermath either so I'm going by videos on youtube but from what I can tell the Zombie AI seems more alive. The weapon accuracy seem a lot better.The crafting system and inventory system seems smoother and easier to use. 

    So on that I will ask a few questions.. 

    I understand that the game is free but there a various free 2 play models out there, both good and bad. Would you consider the game pay 2 win? 

    Cheaters are a big issue in a lot of games. As the game currently stands, is there a big issue with cheating?

    The game consists of about how many players currently?

    How often will there be updates for content and things of that nature?




  • MikeBMikeB Community ManagerAdministrator RarePosts: 6,555
    Wrapping this up. Thanks for joining us, guys!
This discussion has been closed.