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Blackray Jack
Apr 7, 2007
Murderology AND Murderonomy!
The evacuee definitely does NOT start off with a knife, hence the initial complaint. Also the recipe says it takes a glass shard and rags to make a knife, which in turns requires a cutting weapon in order to make rags which brings me back to square one of not having a knife. I mean don't get me wrong I'm a veteran of roguelikes and all, I'm just having an irritating go at this really.

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Ignatius M. Meen
May 26, 2011

Hello yes I heard there was a lovely trainwreck here and...

Blackray Jack posted:

The evacuee definitely does NOT start off with a knife, hence the initial complaint. Also the recipe says it takes a glass shard and rags to make a knife, which in turns requires a cutting weapon in order to make rags which brings me back to square one of not having a knife. I mean don't get me wrong I'm a veteran of roguelikes and all, I'm just having an irritating go at this really.

I could have sworn there was a way to tear sheets into rags, but I can't remember how it worked.

e: In any case, since you can't get rags just make a makeshift knife instead - that only requires short strings and a spike which you can get by disassembling long strings and smashing lockers for chunks of steel respectively. If you really super want the shiv afterwards you should be able to get your rags that way too.

Ignatius M. Meen fucked around with this message at 06:45 on Apr 13, 2015

Roobanguy
May 31, 2011

Angry Diplomat posted:

It's the RM99 revolver. It uses caseless ammunition, and can mount like 10 different mods and a conversion at the same time.


I looked at the mod and yeah, it says rifles. What kinds of conversions are there for pistols?

the rm99 is nice, but i prefer the actually pistol, just cause you can stick a silencer on it.

Blackray Jack posted:

The evacuee definitely does NOT start off with a knife, hence the initial complaint. Also the recipe says it takes a glass shard and rags to make a knife, which in turns requires a cutting weapon in order to make rags which brings me back to square one of not having a knife. I mean don't get me wrong I'm a veteran of roguelikes and all, I'm just having an irritating go at this really.

the evacuee survivor definitely starts with a pocket knife.

Roobanguy fucked around with this message at 06:44 on Apr 13, 2015

Ignatius M. Meen
May 26, 2011

Hello yes I heard there was a lovely trainwreck here and...

Roobanguy posted:

the evacuee survivor definitely starts with a pocket knife.

Clarification - Evacuee is the scenario you start in and has no bearing on your initial inventory loadout. That is taken care of by the profession, which if from that menu you take survivor, you get a pocket knife.

e: extra note for the hapless newb: if you want to know the kinds of things you can expect to start with while using one profession or another, look to the right of the profession names and use the left and right arrows to scroll the inventory view.

Ignatius M. Meen fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Apr 13, 2015

Roobanguy
May 31, 2011

Ignatius M. Meen posted:

Clarification - Evacuee is the scenario you start in and has no bearing on your initial inventory loadout. That is taken care of by the profession, which if from that menu you take survivor, you get a pocket knife.

yep. what class are you starting as blackray jay?

nftyw
Dec 27, 2006

It is a game... where you will put your life on the line.
Lipstick Apathy

Blackray Jack posted:

The evacuee definitely does NOT start off with a knife, hence the initial complaint. Also the recipe says it takes a glass shard and rags to make a knife, which in turns requires a cutting weapon in order to make rags which brings me back to square one of not having a knife. I mean don't get me wrong I'm a veteran of roguelikes and all, I'm just having an irritating go at this really.

Since you seem to be having so much trouble, I'll spell it out for you: get a pair of rocks (you'll need the spare one to hammer the other rock), smash a window or a burned-out car's seat to get some long string. Disassemble that (using left parenthesis '(' ) into a bunch of smaller strings then smash a young tree, some furniture or a window for a heavy stick/2x4, craft into a stone knife. If you're persistant you can forage through shrubs in the woods (use 'e'xamine) until you find a withered plant, which you can use in place of the string. Heck you might even find a rag stuck in some brush, and that takes care of that.

e: Honestly once you know what you are doing making a knife from scratch is very easy but going for a knife-less start is not one of the things I would recommend for anyone not a veteran player, a cutting edge is a phenomenally useful tool.

nftyw fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Apr 13, 2015

girth brooks part 2
Sep 6, 2011

Bush did 911
Fun Shoe
In the latest versions a chunk of steel can be used as a crude hammer. Since you can get those from smashing lockers you don't even have to leave the shelter to hunt for a rock to create a makeshift knife now.

Blackray Jack
Apr 7, 2007
Murderology AND Murderonomy!

Roobanguy posted:

yep. what class are you starting as blackray jay?

Well I'm an amateur martial artist cause the guide suggested so for that extra point. Other than that there doesn't seem to be any downside.

EDIT: Hey, whoever told me about the spike to makeshift knife tactic, thanks a bunch!

EDIT EDIT: Jesus loving christ, I finally get some skills up and head into some houses on the outskirts of town because I'm thirsty and there are zombies and fungaloids and I wind up dying again to another horde of zombies, no matter how carefully I approach. Static spawn is REALLY unfair. There's not a thing I can do.

EDIT: To make a balaclava, you need tailoring at TWO now.

Final edit: And I die to a regional school which is full of zombie children, despite putting the game on gradual spawn. Ugh. How do people manage?

EDIT: How do people set up their worlds, their spawn rates? ETC. I'm trying to avoid adding skill points or making things easier but ugh.

Blackray Jack fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Apr 13, 2015

Ignatius M. Meen
May 26, 2011

Hello yes I heard there was a lovely trainwreck here and...

1. You don't craft balaclavas anymore as a skill-less starter, it's keffiyehs now. They don't require tailoring skill and will keep your head warm enough.

2. If you're attracting the attention of more zombies than you can count on one hand at a time as a new player, you're doing it wrong. Attract as few as you can, lead them away from town and into bushes, destroy them, then advance further. You cannot, as a new player with an unskilled and ungeared character, take more than one zombie in a bush at a time without taking damage, so manage the stragglers so that they come at you staggered. If that seems boring get an easier profession like bionic assassin so you stand half a chance in equal ground melee matches.

3. If you do 2 anyway, remember that most zombies are slower than you - if the horde you're looking at is either normal zombies or non-speedy specials (zombie dogs being the big one to watch out for, they will wreck you in a hurry), you can take a detour through the forest and lead them away from town, then backtrack and avoid them entirely.

4. There are buildings that are filled with zombies and they're all very obvious if you just think a bit about where people might have congregated before getting zombified. Hospitals, hotels, schools, FEMA camps, megastores - if you go to these places you're going to find trouble whether you're looking for it or not, so wait until you have a decent weapon and the skill/gear to survive being mobbed.

5. If you are determined to fight on open ground or there are literally zero bushes/windows near the zombies you want dead you can get to (mind if you can kite around the zombies you can reach the window), it's still possible to do it but you get the tiniest quarter for it - if you take more than one swing at a zombie on open ground before dancing away without something like Fleet-Footed/Quick and a very fast weapon, you'll be giving the zombie time to take their own swing. Wait (.) for the zombie to get next to you, swing, then back away - also don't do this with more than one zombie because that will just end in tears.

6. I've set mine up with defaults for everything, even points for a change (usually I prefer unlimited, but I know enough about the disadvantage traits to have a 6 point build I'm liking and currently using nicely).

e: by points I mean character points, trait points I have set to 1000 because there's already trade-offs for taking bad traits to get more total points

Ignatius M. Meen fucked around with this message at 14:59 on Apr 13, 2015

Angry Diplomat
Nov 7, 2009

Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging
I have another Secret Technique to give you as well: be an angry god of fire. Do you have a matchbook or lighter? You can kill any basic zombie with relative ease. Lure a zombie towards you, such that its next step will be into a bush or small tree that is between you. Set that thing on fire. The zombie is now standing in the fire. You can stand there and hit it if you feel really gutsy and have the stuff to treat an infected bite, but the safest method is to dance away from it and set more bushes on fire as it passes through them. This will 100% guaranteed easily kill any single low-level undead and can even be used to gently caress up some of the nastier types, with a little patience and cleverness. When a zombie dies on one of your fires, quickly step up next to the fire and use 'e' to check what the zombie had on it. Some of the stuff might be a little burnt but you can pluck it out of the fire before it's destroyed.

Also remember to butcher zombie corpses if they're not burned/pulped to nothing. This keeps them from reanimating and making more trouble for you down the line.

e: Oh, I almost forgot - it helps to carry around a few rocks to throw at skeletons and skeletal dogs. Throwing is really, really accurate at very short ranges, and a few hurled rocks will kill skeletal opponents in short order. Conversely, trying to fight a skeletal enemy using a bladed weapon will invariably get you loving murdered, so don't do that. In most games, skeletons are like, the shittiest, least threatening chaff enemy you can find; to an early Cataclysm character they are raging knife-immune maniacs made of glass and hate, whose only purpose is to suicide-rush you and hurt you enough for the zombies to catch up and eat you. Throw rocks at them.

In other news, I started up a Stylish Optimist with no combat skills but a shitton of useful crafting/survival skills and a couple ranks in Speaking, intending to rely on allies and items to get by. Instead I fled from my idiot NPC pal and his one-man crusade against all the zombears and fungal critters he could find, found a working hatchback, fuelled it to full at an abandoned mining lot, and drove down the road to find a mansion with a gigantic library! :haw:

Angry Diplomat fucked around with this message at 15:35 on Apr 13, 2015

Killer-of-Lawyers
Apr 22, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2020
How did I miss this gem:

https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/11897

Hell yes. They're getting closer and closer to my dream of Cataclysm Fortress. I'm off to build an NPC town at a farm now!

ducttape
Mar 1, 2008

Blackray Jack posted:

Well I'm an amateur martial artist cause the guide suggested so for that extra point. Other than that there doesn't seem to be any downside.

EDIT: Hey, whoever told me about the spike to makeshift knife tactic, thanks a bunch!

EDIT EDIT: Jesus loving christ, I finally get some skills up and head into some houses on the outskirts of town because I'm thirsty and there are zombies and fungaloids and I wind up dying again to another horde of zombies, no matter how carefully I approach. Static spawn is REALLY unfair. There's not a thing I can do.

EDIT: To make a balaclava, you need tailoring at TWO now.

Final edit: And I die to a regional school which is full of zombie children, despite putting the game on gradual spawn. Ugh. How do people manage?

EDIT: How do people set up their worlds, their spawn rates? ETC. I'm trying to avoid adding skill points or making things easier but ugh.

If you are new player and see a fungaloid tower a triffid grove on your map, delete the world and start over. Same if you see any eldrich horrors near your starting point. When you know what you are doing, they can be a fun challenge, but as a new player, starting with them close to you is unfair bullshit.

With combat, remember that cataclysm is not your traditional rougelike. You are not expected to facetank even 'trash' mobs. To survive, learn how movement works. IMM described combat as it applies to open ground (hit once, then walk away until your turn ends with a gap between you and the zombie. Wait, attack, repeat), but you really want to be taking advantage of the terrain. Zombies are stupid, and usually take the direct path to you, so if there is an underbrush between you and the Z, that is 3 free hits. Small tree is 2. If you take parkour expert, retreating along a fence lets you attack retreat wait every turn, and building interiors become killing grounds (just make sure to clear out a few windows first, so you can retreat).

If you want an easier start to learn the movement/combat system, try using the slow zombies option when you generate a world. They will still mess you up if you do the normal rougelike thing of trading blows until they die, but it is more forgiving while you learn the combat dance.

AceRimmer
Mar 18, 2009

ducttape posted:

If you want an easier start to learn the movement/combat system, try using the slow zombies option when you generate a world. They will still mess you up if you do the normal rougelike thing of trading blows until they die, but it is more forgiving while you learn the combat dance.
Also make sure to turn on the "prevent zombie revivification" mod because having to butcher endless zombie corpses is dumb, tedious and doesn't fit with the whole zombies theme.

Inexplicable Humblebrag
Sep 20, 2003

Note that if you turn that off, you should still butcher corpses when you remember, as it's a really easy way to skill up Survival. Bit gruesome, though.

Tyrone Biggums
Mar 5, 2013
First run. I started in a shelter near some woods, a parking lot, and an assload of fungaloids. I managed to stave off thirst by drinking the fungaloids' sweet sweet fluid sacs before running into the woods out of desperation for food, where I got mauled to death by a pissed off moose. How do I handle food in the beginning of the game?

emanresu tnuocca
Sep 2, 2011

by Athanatos

AceRimmer posted:

Also make sure to turn on the "prevent zombie revivification" mod because having to butcher endless zombie corpses is dumb, tedious and doesn't fit with the whole zombies theme.

You don't have to butcher zombies anymore, you can smash them to pulp with 'S', it also works on a stack of corpses so it's not that much of a hassle.

Spoggerific
May 28, 2009
I like the zombie revive thing at the beginning of the game. It gives some interesting decision making, like "do I try and stay long enough to smash this zombie brute I just shot, or do I get the hell out of here before things are attracted to the gunshot?" Once you get to the point where you can wade through an entire sea of zombies with your diamond katana and suit of power armor, though, it's just pure tedium to smash three dozen corpses across four screens.

Ignatius M. Meen
May 26, 2011

Hello yes I heard there was a lovely trainwreck here and...

Tyrone Biggums posted:

First run. I started in a shelter near some woods, a parking lot, and an assload of fungaloids. I managed to stave off thirst by drinking the fungaloids' sweet sweet fluid sacs before running into the woods out of desperation for food, where I got mauled to death by a pissed off moose. How do I handle food in the beginning of the game?

Your best bet is raiding houses. Long term you're going to need cooking skill and some way to hunt game or need to learn how to set up a bread farm, but at the beginning when stuff hasn't rotted yet houses have potentially lots of good food. Eat the perishables first, save the canned food and otherwise preserved stuff for hopefully long after everything perishable rots, get more perishables when you run out and learn about cooking when you have the time.

Othin
Nov 20, 2002

Hair Elf
Leaving shelter-->Finding working car-->Punching car through front of gun store has to be one of the most satisfying series of events that I've ever experienced in a game.

How do you get your construction up at the beginning of the game (besides books)? I took apart a bunch of counters and that got me up to 1 I think, but now I need to get up to lvl2 to rebuild a door. I built a bunch of crates but that didn't seem to work.

girth brooks part 2
Sep 6, 2011

Bush did 911
Fun Shoe
I tried a mall cop scenario, and it was a suitably exciting start. I made a mad dash through the mall before jumping out of a display window and into the parking the lot; where I found myself surrounded by innumerable undead, and in a moment of serendipity I used my taser battery to start a nearby motorcycle and make my escape just as the zombies began clawing at me. The bike had just enough gas to get me to safety before rolling to a stop in a mostly empty field a few block away from the mall.

A couple of days later I decided to start prepping the mall for my eventual raid and ran a circuit around it getting dozens upon dozens of zombies to chase after me. I led them into a nearby house where I then trapped them and set them ablaze. A few days after that I woke up at 1:00 am and couldn't fall back asleep, so I figured I'd mosey back over to the burning house to get some reading done until the sun was up. I didn't notice it at first, but there was something strange and uniquely Cataclysm going on:



I had damned those mallrats to a cycle of flames, death and eventual rebirth so they could repeat it all over again. Thanks to various mechanics and idiosyncrasies in the game this happens every time I pass by and it has become a more or less permanent monument. I've dubbed it Le Petite Enfer, since I'm classy like that.

Million Ghosts
Aug 11, 2011

spooooooky
Can't you punch out and board up windows to get to 2?

Anticheese
Feb 13, 2008

$60,000,000 sexbot
:rodimus:

The survival cook set is an amazing item. The only thing you need that you can't get from forests is a bit of duct tape. It takes up the same space as a pot, and acts like a big hotplate you can fuel with bear fat. :black101:

Makes cooking in the rain a lot more feasible, and is very space efficient. A good integrated toolkit substitute.

Angry Diplomat
Nov 7, 2009

Winner of the TSR Memorial Award for Excellence In Grogging
I've seen the eternal flaming death cycle before. I really like "Le Petit Enfer," I'm gonna start calling it that.

nftyw
Dec 27, 2006

It is a game... where you will put your life on the line.
Lipstick Apathy

Tyrone Biggums posted:

First run. I started in a shelter near some woods, a parking lot, and an assload of fungaloids. I managed to stave off thirst by drinking the fungaloids' sweet sweet fluid sacs before running into the woods out of desperation for food, where I got mauled to death by a pissed off moose. How do I handle food in the beginning of the game?

Woods are actually very good sources of food, 'e'xamine bushes and shrubs to rummage through them. Usually you'll find garbage but even at lower skill levels you have a chance of finding grains, wild vegetables, and animal eggs. As long as you stick to the outskirts and don't venture far in where visibility is low and dangerous critters can lurk, you should generally be fine. Cities are also great places, but it's much more RNG as some places will have tons of food and others will have a couple bags of candy and that's it. Also, make use of your crafting menu, lots of food items are much better when cooked. For water, the easiest thing to do is to find or make a funnel and set the biggest container you can under an activated one. Works great until winter, by which time you hopefully have enough skill to explore for another source of it. Even a sewer can be harvested for water and boiled clean, amazingly.

For me foraging blackjack oaks for their acorns is almost overpoweringly good, the main thing is you have to get your survival and cooking up to a somewhat decent level to cook them. They stack in huge amounts, don't spoil, give lots of nutrition, are everywhere, and can be ground into flour too.

If you see an anthill and have a decent weapon, you could try approaching it and picking off a straggler worker ant to butcher up, just watch out for those soldier ants, they'll ruin your day if you let them. Bring some burnable items and a lighter so you can scare em off if they get too agitated, ants are really afraid of fire.

Corsec
Apr 17, 2007
I always play with a 'regular person' chargen, so 8/8/8/8 attribute, and maybe a few utility traits at most (packmule, scout, night vision). I've always found my characters do just fine in ranged/melee combat once I have leather clothes, quarterstaff, pneumatic weapons and abundance of caution. I like the challenge of not being very good at anything and also not being limited to particular strategies. So I've never learned if/how game becomes easier with higher attributes. I can't find any exact information about how the attribute bonuses affect probablistic combat outcomes, how much easier do things get with higher starting stats? How much of a handicap is a -120 ranged penalty?

With my 8/8/8/8 characters and some caution I find my biggest danger is when I'm hauling back sweet loot, don't have good ranged weapons and I can't hit the enemy due to torso encumberment or drop my stuff fast enough to lose the torso encumberment before I get killed. Spiders are absolutely the worst for this.

Anyone think pneumatic weaponry is overpowered? Once I get them, I never find a need for a better gun. Just different bolts for different folks.

Million Ghosts
Aug 11, 2011

spooooooky
So what do you put all the extra points into if you have default stats?

nftyw
Dec 27, 2006

It is a game... where you will put your life on the line.
Lipstick Apathy
I think reflex recurve bows are overpowered, you can deal with a huge amount of problems at range while toting around two duffel bags worth of stuff, with easily recoverable and readily craftable ammo. The major problems is the strength requirement, the need for skill books to make them, and having to find a fletcher's guide if you want to make the best ammo for them.

Also loot hauling becomes a lot less dangerous if you take a bike/motorcycle/shopping cart with you.

nftyw fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Apr 14, 2015

Corsec
Apr 17, 2007
I just let the extra points go to waste, expect maybe for the utility traits I mentioned, but I don't always play with them. It's not like the amount of skill points you have available to spend is anything but arbitrary anyway. Just enough for the challenge you want. I was curious how much easier it was with higher stats though since I didn't find exact info for combat calculations.

I find that pneumatic weaponry has much more conveniently craftable ammo than bows, since you just go straight from 2x4 to wood bolt, or rock to pebble and no multi-stage processes involved. You need metal bolts for amoured enemies, but that's easily made too. The only drawback I find is range, but you can take the enemies down fast enough it doesn't matter, in the worst case you can backpedal. You still need books and recipes, but you get no strength requirements and round capacity is enough so that reload time is not a major factor. Usually when I craft pneumatics I find the game suddenly becomes far less difficult so I was considering not playing with them anymore.

Actually I usually haul so much loot I need a shopping cart plus duffel bags. I only just now realised you can weld carts together so I'll try that next.

Corsec fucked around with this message at 00:30 on Apr 14, 2015

Tyrone Biggums
Mar 5, 2013
Run 2, same world. I went 14/12/10/10 this time with Trigger Happy, Addictive Personality, and Lightweight. I followed the road up from the parking lot and was promptly hit-and-runned to death by a coyote. All of the attacks I made against it with my knife spear missed. Every last one. gently caress coyotes.

Tyrone Biggums fucked around with this message at 13:23 on Apr 14, 2015

Killer-of-Lawyers
Apr 22, 2008

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2020
If you're point blank with something you can't hit, then try throwing a rock at them. This won't work on hard to hit tagged mobs, but it will work on a lot of the just quick and dodgy types like rats and dogs.

TheBlandName
Feb 5, 2012

Corsec posted:

I always play with a 'regular person' chargen, so 8/8/8/8 attribute, and maybe a few utility traits at most (packmule, scout, night vision). I've always found my characters do just fine in ranged/melee combat once I have leather clothes, quarterstaff, pneumatic weapons and abundance of caution. I like the challenge of not being very good at anything and also not being limited to particular strategies. So I've never learned if/how game becomes easier with higher attributes. I can't find any exact information about how the attribute bonuses affect probablistic combat outcomes, how much easier do things get with higher starting stats? How much of a handicap is a -120 ranged penalty?

With my 8/8/8/8 characters and some caution I find my biggest danger is when I'm hauling back sweet loot, don't have good ranged weapons and I can't hit the enemy due to torso encumberment or drop my stuff fast enough to lose the torso encumberment before I get killed. Spiders are absolutely the worst for this.

Anyone think pneumatic weaponry is overpowered? Once I get them, I never find a need for a better gun. Just different bolts for different folks.

Intelligence just affects skill up rates and bionic success rates. High intelligence characters aren't any less challenging than other characters, they just require less time spent grinding. Honestly, intelligence doesn't add anything compelling to the game.

Ranged characters don't actually care about stats unless you're trying to pull off sick nasty view-distance shots with rifles. The distance that an average dexterity and perception character can reliably shoot zombies is further than melee range. There's basically no difference between killing your enemy 30 tiles away instead of 2. If you really want to have a fair handle on it, add your penalty from your stats to the dispersion from your weapon and ammo together. Every time you halve that number you can shoot things twice as far away. Of course, anything that you absolutely have to kill at any real kind of range is a turret, and so you can take as many shots as you need from outside of the turret's attack range.

Melee is where stat optimization starts to matter, but only one stat really matters. Dexterity affects your crit rate in a way that nothing else can. To get a critical hit you need to hit your target and then pass 3 out of 4 extra checks. One is a dexterity check, one is a luck check, one is a skill check, and one is another to-hit roll. A high dexterity character has a pretty good crit rate starting out, and it becomes silly once you get a few levels of weapon skill. Practically speaking, all that a high dexterity character needs to take on an absurd number of zombies is a bashing weapon and a couple points of skill. Bashing critical hits cause your opponent to act slower, and a speed advantage is enough to get free hits on any enemy until it's dead.

Tougher enemies still require the right plan to kill, but a high dexterity character can pretty comfortably consider brutes and anything weaker to be fodder.

Strength doesn't change much. You don't get meaningful damage bonuses until you break 20 points of strength. Strength gives you more HP, but if you lose enough HP to kill a strength 8 character you'll be in too much pain to survive whatever dangerous situation you're in. The exceptions for the HP situation is damage from coughing and poison, since those only start damaging/paining you a while after you've actually escaped the situation. But carrying some bandages/first aid kits will take care of those situations almost as well as a large HP pool.

ducttape
Mar 1, 2008

Othin posted:

Leaving shelter-->Finding working car-->Punching car through front of gun store has to be one of the most satisfying series of events that I've ever experienced in a game.

How do you get your construction up at the beginning of the game (besides books)? I took apart a bunch of counters and that got me up to 1 I think, but now I need to get up to lvl2 to rebuild a door. I built a bunch of crates but that didn't seem to work.

Gonna self quote from a few pages back (The quote from picroft was that you only train construction by doing something with difficulty equal to your construction level):

ducttape posted:

If you have them, books. Comparing the skill gain by reading books to grinding by building/deconstructing things, books win hands down. They are unaffected by focus, don't cost any materials, and are almost always faster than the building/deconstructing cycle. If you don't have them, then like picroft said, it depends on your level. It also depends on what materials you have available. Often the slowest aspect of constructing is acquiring the materials.

0: Fastest way would be to dig (10m) and fill (5m) pits. However, the best would be deconstruct (20m). Unless you have another source of 2x4's and nails, you are going to do this a lot anyway
1: Fences (5m). When you build then destroy one, it usually only costs you 1-2 2x4's and a few nails. Turning trees into logs is more time consuming (20m), but it also creates materials for later, and if you have an area you want cleared anyway, it works out.
2: Wood walls (10m) are fast, but they can get expensive in therms of used up 2x4's if you don't actually need the wall there. Slower but cheaper would be chairs (20m). Slower still, but again making materials would be turning tree trunks into planks (23m)
3:Building and deconstructing wooden doors (15m) is going to be fastest. If you have excess wire, or have cleared out a building with chain link fencing around it, building wire fences is a little longer (20m) and cheaper
4:This won't get you all the way to five, but reinforcing all the boarded windows (10m) in your safehouse is something you probably want to do. Empty windows (10m) are fast, but expensive, cupboards (20m) are slower, but cheaper. Lockers (20m) can be build without 2x4's, if you have more metal scrap handy. If you are serious about building up your safehouse, palisade walls (20m) are available now.
5: build a window (5m) out of an empty window and a sheet of glass. I believe that this is free, as you get the sheet of glass back each time you disassemble the window.
6: Rope and pully system (5m)
7+ I think you only get one option each level after this: armor reinforce windows at 7, build metal door at 8, and dig a well at 9

Building crates should have worked. Could you have been at low focus? Alternately, did you check skill progress? You are going to have to build a lot to level up.

Strudel Man
May 19, 2003
ROME DID NOT HAVE ROBOTS, FUCKWIT
What the hell. My revolver isn't accurate enough to increase my marksmanship skill further? That is some straight-up BS. :mad:

Particularly when high marksmanship is required to apply gun mods. Sheesh.

Solid Poopsnake
Mar 27, 2010

by Nyc_Tattoo
Nap Ghost
If Str really isn't a big deal, then I guess the minimum is 10, for decent bows. Per needs 10 to see all traps. Dex bonuses are obvious with to-hit bonuses, so let's say 12. So what's the acceptable minimum for Int? If we go with 8 for 100% read times, then you can use the following trait mix:

Addictive Personality, Animal Discord, Heavy Sleeper, Lightweight, Trigger Happy, Truth Teller, Ugly

Which gives 15 points, for a total of 18. Use 8 points to bring stats to:

10/12/8/10

Which leaves 10 points for:

Quick, Robust Genetics, Packmule, Parkour Expert

Which brings you to zero points. Add a point with Chain Smoker, which gives a lighter and an easy to break addiction to add a point to dodging. Spawning in a shelter, leave long enough to get a rock and the material from one window and you have enough for a solid start.

Maybe? Is this right?

Turtlicious
Sep 17, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
You need 12 or 14 int to read the mutagen books.

tweet my meat
Oct 2, 2013

yospos
I'll never understand how anyone can stand not taking Self Aware.

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Turtlicious posted:

You need 12 or 14 int to read the mutagen books.

You don't need need it, it just helps read them faster.

Strength 12 for the best bow.

chiefnewo
May 21, 2007

Sergeant_Crunch posted:

I'll never understand how anyone can stand not taking Self Aware.

Why do you need to know the numbers? All you need to know is that green is good.

Xand_Man
Mar 2, 2004

If what you say is true
Wutang might be dangerous


So I met my first tank drone. I drove an armor-plated truck into it. It turns out this is a winning strategy for lots of encounters. This game. :allears:

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chiefnewo
May 21, 2007

Xand_Man posted:

So I met my first tank drone. I drove an armor-plated truck into it. It turns out this is a winning strategy for lots of encounters. This game. :allears:

First time I met a tank drone I stepped out the door of a house and got plastered across the front step.

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