Dead State - Interview @ Nightmare Mode

We missed this interview a couple of weeks ago and, I'm guessing, most of you did too. Brian Mitsoda chats about DoubleBear's zombie CRPG, Dead State, with Nightmare Mode:

Will the game feature a mission/quest system that the players can undertake or are the players completely on their own in that matter? Will there be major fixed story events that the player must respond to?

There are multiple ways of finding objectives – finding and exploring a building, dealing with threats to the shelter, scavenging large quantities of supplies, meeting new allies, etc. Allies are helpful for guiding players to new places, but they aren’t necessarily like traditional quest givers. You may want to help them out in a reasonable amount of time to keep their morale from dropping, but you won’t get skill points from merely doing a quest, as any ally can die at any time. Story events aren’t necessarily going to happen at the same time or at all for every player, as they are based on personal conflicts, ally death, shortages of supplies, and interactions with other groups. There’s a lot of ways each player’s story can branch, even right from the beginning.

During combat, the players will only be able to issue commands to the NPCs, not take direct control. But how much control can the players assert on the survivors in the Shelter?

In the shelter, the player can assign their allies to jobs, such as crafting new items or guard duty or even just cleaning up the place. Each job has different results – construction of new rooms for the shelter, morale boosts, food production, etc. The player can also assign wounded allies to the infirmary (if the shelter has one) to heal up faster. In addition, the player can strike up conversations with allies while walking around the shelter. Almost every day the player might have requests from allies, or be pulled into an argument, or may just have to deal with someone who is sick or depressed. Micro-managing your personnel and assets is a big deal in the game.