I'm looking for a "completed" game, not something that is early access.
I want a survival type game that does not have a soft cap on population or the number of survivors I can have in my group.
I want the characters / survivors that I can invest my time on.
Similar to Dwarfs in Dwarf Fortress in terms that each can learn in any skill they work on.
But not game over when one dies.
I want some plot that I can get in on, be it zombie, or virus, or world ending aftermath. Or at least plot to give directions to a game goal / ending, with the option to continue or at least have the survivors become characters in new games.
I don't want First Person perspective / view, and prefer isometric views. I don't want top view only, or game board view only either.
I want on some "tech tree" where whatever I build / craft can be used to upgrade to the next tech / tier.
I don't want unbalanced or too spread of a tech tree, especially when modding allows. I feel that too much modded stuff with similar functions are distracting, or too much info for little reward for the time learning it.
Games I like.
Project Zomboid - but I want more than 1 character.
RimWorld - it's ok, but the plot is shallow; mods are nice, but takes research and time to figure out if the mod is good.
In terms of combat, I prefer turn-based similar to the XCOM (circa 2012?), and I would not mind using Turn Units as in the old XCOM circa 1980s.
Turn based combat similar to Divinity (Original Sin?) is ok too. I like how oil based magic is enhanced with fire magic; and I think poison based is neutralized or diminished by water magic. So a similar damage type affected by other damage types.