If Important NPC dies...

[Vman009]

So first, I am not totally clear how the story works in this game meaning, if a "story" character is killed randomly does the game adjust or do you just miss out on content. So my question is: if a story character does die what happens? It was right after the Sgt. **SPOILER** showed my the bodies rotting in the water, then he ran off into a horde. He was downed and I was too far to save him so I paused the game, let it do its little auto save, and exited out. I am not sure what happens now. Is he considered dead, and if not what would have happend if I had let him die?

[moosc]

The Sgt is pretty important to the story plot. It takes a really long time in the original to kill characters. Boot it up again and see what happens.

[mitc1111]

yeah, most of the characters are not essiential and you wont miss anything if someone dies. But the Sgt ... I bet he's still alinve when the story needs him again later.

[crezeh]

I don't know if he can be killed. But if you exited the game while he was still alive, he'll be fine, no matter how much trouble he was in.

[sandrastarling]

Hmm not sure if I encountered a bug with this but I had a char that had clearly screwed up accidently setting off firecrackers rather that take a pain pill. So far down on health and just about out of stamina. I see tons of Zeds hear the noise and start comming at my location. No escape really possible and then I log and came back an hour later to see and I was at the ranger station, no crisis, and even a better weapon. Hmmmmmm? Like how did he get out of that?

[crezeh]

I don't think the game simulates individual survivors when you're offline or far enough away that characters aren't rendered.
The "persistent world" simulates a number of scheduled, timed and random events; resources consumed, survivors recover from injury/disease/tiredness, resources are gathered, construction time progresses... etc. Survivor deaths when you're offline are probably just a calculated random event based on number of infestations and some other stats, not actual zombies killing the character as if the game was running.
Don't quote me on any of this though, I'm only speculating from what I've seen.

Once you quit, the game just forgets about all the zombies and your survivors location.
Heck, I think you can quit out of the game while down and about to die, and log back in safely at home.

[SmeggyOldMan]

I'd suspect that the sarge is as mortal as Lily - that is to say - not.

Don't get worried if you kill off "game critical" characters. They come back.

http://youtu.be/S_fBclZBR0E