After 40+ hours of gameplay I suddenly find myself getting executed and thus loosing the game.

This despite not loosing a single person under my care and having ample supply of food, medicine, water and many other comfort needs.

The morale of my people is at worst 'content'. Yet this is still enough for me to very suddenly loose the game.

Its bizarre because the guy who executed me said I've failed because we have lost too many people and the people left are miserable, yet I haven't actually lost anybody and the majority of my people are either 'happy' or 'okay', with only a couple being 'content'.

I think the morale system used in the game carries far to much weight.
Just because I can't find somebody's favourite food or special item I apparently deserve to loose the entire game.

This annoys me since this is a survival game, and I think having enough food, water and medicine, and functioning sanitary facilities, should be more important to the game than finding luxury items.

After all, if you were in a survival situation what would be more important to your morale: having food and shelter or finding some freakin' deodorant ?

I'm a bit pi##ed off to be honest. Some kind of warning would have been nice, not a sudden execution, which in itself is ridiculously harsh:
' our leader - who has kept us all alive and fed, couldn't find enough deodorant and batteries for us, so lets f'n kill the bastard, he deserves to die ! '

Safe to say, in my next playthrough I'll use some kind of guide for the game, because this is bullcrap game design.
I don't mind loosing a game when I think its fair, but loosing like this does not feel fair.

That’s probably what they always say on a morale failure state. Maybe they shouldn't have delved into specifics on that one. I've gotten some silly events too, like a group meeting about a troublesome character within the shelter, who had in fact left weeks ago.

What’s the actual numerical total of shelter morale? I think anything below -300 is a game over. Pay close attention to the end of day report which tells you what is affecting morale. Luxury items help but the goal is to synergize with other methods. Some shelter upgrades provide a shelter morale bonus, and some provide an individual morale bonus because a character within the shelter wants a certain facility (can ask them). I think a cat provides a morale bonus and depletes a little food. Jobs like guard duty, chef, and janitor increase morale. Hostile characters, infected, and backed up toilets or broken generator will decrease morale.

One of the major contributors to lost morale is a penalty the shelter gets just for existing in a zombie apocalypse every day to simulate the reality of the situation taking its toll. The shelter is not supposed to be permanently sustainable, it’s desperately holding out until help arrives. The penalty is minimal if most allies are in a positive mood. -3 per ally with a good mood, -5 for content, -10 for okay, and -15 for bad. If you've got just a couple of people in really bad moods, it can wreak havoc on the numbers.

I agree the morale system seems too dominant for the type of game it is. An unwinnable scenario typically comes in the form of Dwarf Fortress or Don’t Starve, where the maps are randomized and no two games are alike. Dead State is a huge RPG. Sinking 40+ hours into the game and losing not because of a particular obstacle, but due to everything you did or didn't do over the course of the entire game can be infuriating. Even if you have saves reaching back weeks, it might still not be enough to keep the shelter, and it’ll cost hours of play just to find out.

The game was just released (so not even close to actually being finished) when I played it, so they might have changed it, but late in the game there's also one particular scenario that will eventually decide whether you win or lose the game. Doesn't matter how much supplies you have, how happy your people are: if you decide "I'll choose option A" you win (or rather, have a chance of winning). If you decide "I'll choose option B", your people (and you) will perish.

Most constructions can be supervised. Assign a skilled worker that meets the requirement for the building, and then assign other people who don’t. The skilled worker is in charge and tells them what to do. A lot of time gets shaved off.

I stuck to one raid per day, and increased that to two with the car. The car has 100lbs of trunk space so taking that along to a zombie-infested shelter guarantees a huge payday. Bring a dog too, because they’re zombie-killing maniacs who can also carry another 100lbs of stuff.