Cataclysm: I was able to find and disassemble 4 pianos for chainmail parts

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Cataclysm: I was able to find and disassemble 4 pianos for chainmail parts

«‹›402 »

Turtlicious: Sep 17, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

The Lone Badger posted:

Nope. Shopping carts are a vehicle, not an item.

There are foldable carts as well.

I just remembered I was making a fold-able wooden cart and had forgotten about it :| What are the odds someone finished my commit for me?

# ? Feb 28, 2016 00:27

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 19, 2024 20:26

Shady Amish Terror: Oct 11, 2007; I'm not Amish by choice. 8(

King Doom posted:

Thanks, but none of this really helps when the loving things are the first zombie I run into right out of a shelter on day 1. I'm trying to start a new game and it's utterly pointless because the bastard loving things just end you the second they spot you because even if you start with a character with 20 in all stats and all the speed boosting perks they can still outrun you.

Four different attempts at playing the game in a row, different worlds each time and guess what happens over and over and over? at this point it's pretty obvious that wishing yourself a rocket launcher isn't cheating when one turns up.

Sounds like something has gone awry here. Are you using the 'fast zombies' mod? Are you using a starting build that has encumbering legwear/footwear that's slowing you down? If playing the experimentals, are you using the run command (" I think) when you really need to beat feet? Have you tried changing the zombie evolution timer in worldgen (in some experimentals it was set RIDICULOUSLY low, allowing zombies to all be max-tiered in less than a week)? Are you using a delayed start or an older starting region where the zombies have had a head-start on evolution?

They should only be outrunning you if you get pegged badly by the acid and enter what's known as the 'pain spiral', where you get slowed down enough by pain to allow the enemies extra turns to pile on even more pain; even ridiculously buff characters can fall prey to this effect. Your best bet is to try generating a new world (hopefully looking into the options mentioned above to ensure you're not playing a surrounded start with pre-evo'd fast zombies or something), and just running from any members of the acidic zombie tree until you have ranged weapons. Otherwise, you're stuck in melee combat with an enemy that has multiple ways of quickly hitting you with a LOT of pain and thus reducing your speed by orders of magnitude, leading to quick kills.

E: Also, you should be able to see and (mostly) avoid the acid pools their attacks leave; stepping into them too much can push you into the pain spiral. Not every tileset I tried seems to display them correctly, so if you can't see them, that's another potential issue to look into.

Shady Amish Terror fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Feb 28, 2016

# ? Feb 28, 2016 00:40

goatsestretchgoals: Jun 4, 2011

Shady Amish Terror posted:

As for asphalt, it SHOULDN'T be outright flammable unless the experimentals are getting weird again, but a sizable fire in dry conditions can rage out of control even on non-flammable tiles, spreading for multiple tiles away from its start point before weakening and retracting.

This is pretty much exactly what happened, I always throw 10x two by fours on the fire because wood is cheap.

e:

King Doom posted:

Thanks, but none of this really helps when the loving things are the first zombie I run into right out of a shelter on day 1. I'm trying to start a new game and it's utterly pointless because the bastard loving things just end you the second they spot you because even if you start with a character with 20 in all stats and all the speed boosting perks they can still outrun you.

Four different attempts at playing the game in a row, different worlds each time and guess what happens over and over and over? at this point it's pretty obvious that wishing yourself a rocket launcher isn't cheating when one turns up.

Evac shelter or LMOE start? The sheltered survivor start sounds awesome at first, except you start a year in so as soon as you find a town, you get hosed by 3 shocker brutes and a hulk.

e2: Also Monster Evolution Factor is a half-life, half of the vanilla zombies will upgrade into something tougher in X days. Don't set this low.

goatsestretchgoals fucked around with this message at 09:35 on Feb 28, 2016

# ? Feb 28, 2016 09:20

Luceid: Jan 20, 2005; Buy some freaking medicine.

King Doom posted:

even if you start with a character with 20 in all stats and all the speed boosting perks they can still outrun you.

this sounds like the most ridiculous hyperbole possible. check that fast zombies aren't enabled, and that your clown rear end isn't trying to run across bushes and shrubs and trees while escaping because that kind of terrain costs more movement to cross than flat grass or asphalt or dirt.

the default player speed is 100, and corrosive zombies have 95 speed. either something is awry and can be fixed or you're accidentally lowering your movement speed through some means. relax.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 09:36

Shady Amish Terror: Oct 11, 2007; I'm not Amish by choice. 8(

Literally your clown rear end, potentially; there are careers that start with unhelpful encumbering gear, and clown would fit the bill there.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 11:22

RabidWeasel: Aug 4, 2007; Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!

bitcoin bastard posted:

Evac shelter or LMOE start? The sheltered survivor start sounds awesome at first, except you start a year in so as soon as you find a town, you get hosed by 3 shocker brutes and a hulk.

This is why sheltered start is most fun, you get a solid bit of equipment and good stats but in exchange it's loving cold outside and there's shockers and brutes everywhere.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 11:27

UP AND ADAM: Jan 24, 2007

Turtlicious posted:

There are foldable carts as well.

I just remembered I was making a fold-able wooden cart and had forgotten about it :| What are the odds someone finished my commit for me?

I'm not sure what you mean, but there is a mod included with the experimental build that adds lots of vehicle parts, and foldable wooden frames and baskets are in there.

# ? Feb 28, 2016 12:35

The Lone Badger: Sep 24, 2007

Luceid posted:

this sounds like the most ridiculous hyperbole possible. check that fast zombies aren't enabled, and that your clown rear end isn't trying to run across bushes and shrubs and trees while escaping because that kind of terrain costs more movement to cross than flat grass or asphalt or dirt.

the default player speed is 100, and corrosive zombies have 95 speed. either something is awry and can be fixed or you're accidentally lowering your movement speed through some means. relax.

Maybe he's not wearing shoes?

# ? Feb 28, 2016 12:48

goatsestretchgoals: Jun 4, 2011

Gonna need a hell of a lot more than 400 2x4s once I get my molotovs out.

# ? Feb 29, 2016 21:22

RabidWeasel: Aug 4, 2007; Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!

I was going to make a huge spergy rant about clothing stats still being really badly balanced but Coolthulhu saves the day :iia:

Though either the new stats are still really unbalanced or I've been seriously underestimating the value of having slightly more resistive clothing, probably the latter.

# ? Feb 29, 2016 22:39

Turtlicious: Sep 17, 2012; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

UP AND ADAM posted:

I'm not sure what you mean, but there is a mod included with the experimental build that adds lots of vehicle parts, and foldable wooden frames and baskets are in there.

The game is open source and anyone can put stuff up on Github. I had created a foldable wooden planter box (basically one of those milk crates you can break down,) and a foldable wooden frame with the purpose of giving storage that you can fold down and throw in your car. I stopped after I hopped on IRC and a bunch of nerds told me I was breaking the balance and should give up. Ontop of that Kevin was telling me in my pull request it was unbalanced. I would have let him change the numbers to whatever he wanted because who gives a poo poo? It just sat there and I gave up, that was like 6 months ago.

Looking back, I just wasn't a good enough programmer to do what was being asked so I gave up. It got pulled as is though, and I'm waiting for someone better then me to add a tag for construct-able in vehicles.

Turtlicious fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Mar 1, 2016

# ? Mar 1, 2016 00:18

I brought my Drake: Jul 10, 2014; These high-G injections have some serious side effects after pulling so many jumps.

Is there a way to get a military ID that doesn't involve getting shot to pieces by turrets? I've dug up five different spots of plane wreckage, looted a FEMA camp, nothing.

# ? Mar 2, 2016 04:37

Ignatius M. Meen: May 26, 2011; Hello yes I heard there was a lovely trainwreck here and...

queserasera posted:

Is there a way to get a military ID that doesn't involve getting shot to pieces by turrets? I've dug up five different spots of plane wreckage, looted a FEMA camp, nothing.

I could have sworn there was a military variant of the bunch of scientist corpses random dumping ground where I found some.

# ? Mar 2, 2016 04:53

CellarDweller: Jan 19, 2014; Down In The Pit... There's It!

queserasera posted:

Is there a way to get a military ID that doesn't involve getting shot to pieces by turrets? I've dug up five different spots of plane wreckage, looted a FEMA camp, nothing.

They spawn at every toxic waste dump.

# ? Mar 2, 2016 21:36

Shady Amish Terror: Oct 11, 2007; I'm not Amish by choice. 8(

queserasera posted:

Is there a way to get a military ID that doesn't involve getting shot to pieces by turrets? I've dug up five different spots of plane wreckage, looted a FEMA camp, nothing.

Variant of the science corpses event that has military corpses instead, toxic waste dumps, toxic waste sarcophagi, I believe they're a rare drop from some military corpses, and you may be able to occasionally find them in crate events (a random site sometimes located randomly in the game world outside cities where a handful of crates are left lying around; very rare and sometimes hard to spot, not worth counting on).

Alternatively, get yourself some sort of high-powered rifle that can reach across the play area and touch someone, and just take out an outpost's turrets at night. Most things chambered in ~~.308~~(.300, .308, something like that?) or .223/5.56 ought to have the reach, though it may vary by experimental version and modset. High-end energy weapons will also do the trick, but you're probably less worried about such things if you got to that point. You'll still often have some EXTREMELY dangerous zombies inside the compound after removing the turrets.

Short answer: Check every site of random corpses in the road/wilderness you find, some are military instead of science/thugs/hippies, or find a good gun for raiding Outposts at night if you want a more reliable source of IDs.

# ? Mar 2, 2016 21:47

gays fashion: Dec 28, 2012

Shady Amish Terror posted:

Alternatively, get yourself some sort of high-powered rifle that can reach across the play area and touch someone, and just take out an outpost's turrets at night. Most things chambered in ~~.308~~(.300, .308, something like that?) or .223/5.56 ought to have the reach, though it may vary by experimental version and modset. High-end energy weapons will also do the trick, but you're probably less worried about such things if you got to that point. You'll still often have some EXTREMELY dangerous zombies inside the compound after removing the turrets.

I've had best luck with EMP grenades. They can be crafted somewhat easily with some electronics skill, and you sometimes get a deactivated turret out of the deal.

# ? Mar 3, 2016 04:16

palamedes: Mar 9, 2008

Shady Amish Terror posted:

Alternatively, get yourself some sort of high-powered rifle that can reach across the play area and touch someone, and just take out an outpost's turrets at night. Most things chambered in ~~.308~~(.300, .308, something like that?) or .223/5.56 ought to have the reach, though it may vary by experimental version and modset. High-end energy weapons will also do the trick, but you're probably less worried about such things if you got to that point. You'll still often have some EXTREMELY dangerous zombies inside the compound after removing the turrets.

You can do this in broad daylight as long as you stay 20 tiles away from the turrets. At least you could last time I checked their range about two weeks ago. Any gun firing .300, .308, or .30-06 should do the job fine. 223 works too, about as well as the weaker sporting ammo for the regular rifles.

Another super low tech option is to lure zombies into the range of the turret. Get em to chase you and either skirt around the 20 tile range limit at the corners or wear heavy heavy torso/head armor and run through it. Or if you have a ton of torso/head armor you can stand at the edge of the turret's range and let it shoot at you until the ammo runs out.

# ? Mar 3, 2016 07:57

Motherfucker: Jul 16, 2011; I certainly dont have deep-seated issues involving birthdays.

gays fashion posted:

I've had best luck with EMP grenades. They can be crafted somewhat easily with some electronics skill, and you sometimes get a deactivated turret out of the deal.

whoa.

What I really want is a costume shop added to world gen, put all the dumbass bullshit that clutters the tailoring menu in it as well as all your giant foam hot-dog suits and novelty backpacks and such in there and than remove them from default tailoring so I don't have the recipe for 'cat ears' and 'collars' in my loving brain.

# ? Mar 3, 2016 08:01

nftyw: Dec 27, 2006; It is a game... where you will put your life on the line.; Lipstick Apathy

Deactivated turrets are great, unless they changed it in recent builds, because you can drop all your ammo somewhere and plant the turret down, and it'll be a stationary light source that doesn't have the risk of shooting holes through you when a chipmunk runs by.

# ? Mar 3, 2016 08:46

Motherfucker: Jul 16, 2011; I certainly dont have deep-seated issues involving birthdays.

They changed the composition of lab walls in the latest build because I can't seem to use my homewrecker that I made out of wood and broken crates to tunnel through them anymore.

At least not at ten strength.

Motherfucker fucked around with this message at 09:10 on Mar 3, 2016

# ? Mar 3, 2016 09:06

goatsestretchgoals: Jun 4, 2011

Motherfucker posted:

whoa.

What I really want is a costume shop added to world gen, put all the dumbass bullshit that clutters the tailoring menu in it as well as all your giant foam hot-dog suits and novelty backpacks and such in there and than remove them from default tailoring so I don't have the recipe for 'cat ears' and 'collars' in my loving brain.

#cataclysmdda has awesome chat most of the time but I'm reminded of the fact it's not SA because furries are allowed.

# ? Mar 3, 2016 09:53

Shady Amish Terror: Oct 11, 2007; I'm not Amish by choice. 8(

Motherfucker posted:

They changed the composition of lab walls in the latest build because I can't seem to use my homewrecker that I made out of wood and broken crates to tunnel through them anymore.

At least not at ten strength.

In general, materials and inanimate objects seem to have been hardened overall the last several experimentals. It's pretty tough to get through walls without a jackhammer, so I don't know what, say, the trapped lab start is supposed to do if they're locked in somewhere.

# ? Mar 3, 2016 12:15

palamedes: Mar 9, 2008

Shady Amish Terror posted:

In general, materials and inanimate objects seem to have been hardened overall the last several experimentals. It's pretty tough to get through walls without a jackhammer, so I don't know what, say, the trapped lab start is supposed to do if they're locked in somewhere.

Yeah. That was a rude surprise last time I started a string of lab challenges. I've found a few other ways to escape the lab, please tell me anyone if you have something easier. All of these are theoretical except the science ID, sewer, and teleporter methods.

science ID in a facilities room crate or on a science zombie corpse
very small chance of heavy explosives (RDX etc) in a facilities room (not sure these will breach anymore)
find a book with dynamite recipe, get skill and materials (same problem as with RDX)
find a book with electric jackhammer recipe, get skill and materials
cookoff explosion from shotgun ammo or heavier busting through metal doors and concrete walls (cookoff might have been nerfed since)
teleporter in a teleport room, science zombie corpse, or random shelf
teleporter from disarming and disassembling a teletrap in a teleport room, requires tools + a shitload of trap skill or luck
pray that a sewer system intersects the lab and hacksaw the grates to freedom
mininuke from one kind of lab finale
probability travel CBM from another kind of lab ending or a lucky drop
mutate like a motherfucker and hope to get a burrowing mutation

# ? Mar 3, 2016 13:37

Shady Amish Terror: Oct 11, 2007; I'm not Amish by choice. 8(

From experience, most explosives won't touch lab walls as they are now. I doubt that even mininukes are a reliable tunneling method past maybe a one-tile radius, which is crazy, and you still have to deal with the potential for rubble and cave-ins.

I have definitely found all the components for an electric jackhammer in a lab, as that's what I've done to deal with some poor lab layouts while looting, but I don't know how good your odds are of finding a book with the recipe.

# ? Mar 3, 2016 18:41

goatsestretchgoals: Jun 4, 2011

I play Cataclysm wrong, but I don't even touch labs until I'm geared up in heavy survivor armor with lategame car and gear. gently caress your science IDs, I'll just facetank the turrets and beat them to death with my broadsword.

E: With my electric jackhammer(UPS)

# ? Mar 3, 2016 19:32

I brought my Drake: Jul 10, 2014; These high-G injections have some serious side effects after pulling so many jumps.

Visited a toxic waste dump and bingo! Found an ID. Went to a bunker, got through to the basement, realized I needed more. Played around in the radioactive sites some more, collected a few more IDs, opened some rooms with interesting stuff. A Barrett M107A1, wonder what this does...

Tested it out on the military outpost turrets. :holymoley:

Now I need to find some earplugs.

# ? Mar 4, 2016 01:59

Switzerland: Feb 18, 2005; Do what thou must do.

Where would one go to procure the latest OSX binaries?

# ? Mar 4, 2016 02:04

Bozart: Oct 28, 2006; Give me the finger.

1) get homebrew
2) in console:

pre:

brew install --HEAD homebrew/games/cataclysm

edit: that will be the latest, most bleeding edge version. If you just want the most recent "stable" then omit the --HEAD.

# ? Mar 4, 2016 02:10

emanresu tnuocca: Sep 2, 2011; by Athanatos

Is there anywhere explaining how to use the new farming equipment? Ran into a farm with a working tractor, no idea how to use it.

Similarly, can I read anywhere about the new encumberment mechanic? it seems like roughly 10 points of encumbrance in the new system are the equivalent of one point in the old one?

queserasera posted:

Visited a toxic waste dump and bingo! Found an ID. Went to a bunker, got through to the basement, realized I needed more. Played around in the radioactive sites some more, collected a few more IDs, opened some rooms with interesting stuff. A Barrett M107A1, wonder what this does...

Tested it out on the military outpost turrets.

Now I need to find some earplugs.

Military ID cards are too valuable for the doors inside the bunkers, I usually use hand grenades to get through them if there's anything interesting on the other side.

# ? Mar 8, 2016 13:46

Shady Amish Terror: Oct 11, 2007; I'm not Amish by choice. 8(

Once you're inside the bunker, explosives, acetylene torches, jackhammers, or hydraulic muscles and a really big stick are preferable ways of busting into the individual vault rooms, yes.

You pretty much have the gist of it as far as nu encumberment. The specifics keep getting shuffled around in the experimentals, but the basic idea is to create more nuance by making it so that articles of clothing can contribute portions of a point of encumbrance without necessarily being encumbering on their own. It also coincided with a number of nerfs to armor, encumbrance, and layering, with the presumable goal of making it harder to game the system and making it simpler (theoretically) to pick a workable outfit without just jumping straight to being bulletproof by layering kevlar-reinforced fireproof socks or whatever.

# ? Mar 8, 2016 15:30

goatsestretchgoals: Jun 4, 2011

emanresu tnuocca posted:

Is there anywhere explaining how to use the new farming equipment? Ran into a farm with a working tractor, no idea how to use it.

No tutorials that I know of, but it's pretty straightforward. Get your tractor where you want, activate the plow/seed drill/thresher from the ^ vehicle menu, and drive forward. If you're planting seeds, the seed drill has cargo space for seeds, not sure how it works with multiple seed types because I just load one type in at a time.

E: According to the official forums, running the seed drill/thresher on untilled soil will damage it, so make sure your drill/thresher tiles are over the first plot of tilled soil before turning them on.

# ? Mar 8, 2016 16:10

RabidWeasel: Aug 4, 2007; Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!

Shady Amish Terror posted:

You pretty much have the gist of it as far as nu encumberment. The specifics keep getting shuffled around in the experimentals, but the basic idea is to create more nuance by making it so that articles of clothing can contribute portions of a point of encumbrance without necessarily being encumbering on their own. It also coincided with a number of nerfs to armor, encumbrance, and layering, with the presumable goal of making it harder to game the system and making it simpler (theoretically) to pick a workable outfit without just jumping straight to being bulletproof by layering kevlar-reinforced fireproof socks or whatever.

They did just recently buff a ton of armour items so they're actually worth using, the medieval mod "man at arms" start is pretty fun.

# ? Mar 8, 2016 21:02

Red_October_7000: Jun 22, 2009

It's stupid newbie question time! I've been playing this off and on for the past week or so after reading the ongoing Let's Play thread. This is by no means my first Roguelike, which was actually Rogue itself... but that was a long time ago. Most of my experience comes from ADOM, which I've actually beaten twice, so I'm used to roguelike games that give it to you dry. But this, this is a new experience...

I've tried several different classes and scenarios and I can definitely say some are better than others. Abandoned is especially crap seeing as how it gives like 8 points when it's forcing 6 points of deficit on you anyway in return for a starting location that's very random. I've had Abandoned characters start out in a room with a scalpel and dust masks and safety goggles and first aid kits, and ones start out near zombies that have what amount to insta-kill abilities at that stage in the proceedings. It seems like it should be interesting but it's not.
Burning building is good, though; usually you can grab whatever's handy and duck out a window or door before being overcome by smoke; I haven't had a Burning Building start actually get impeded by the fire in any way yet. I haven't gotten to the point where I'll try the "really bad day" start yet, though.

My questions are mainly about item safety and character progression. In other roguelike games, you don't leave good items on the floor because some random monster will either hoover them up, destroy them, or actually use them on you. Yet in Cataclysm I find myself having to leave really good poo poo all the time. Skill manuals, food, arms and armour are the main ones. I want to find safety, but so far everything I've found that seems safe can be battered down by zombies, except perhaps starting in a gun shop which lets you open the steel door non-destructively. My most recent start did not start in a gun store, but she has found one, and, thanks to a sledgehammer, gotten in. But I have too much stuff to get out with the good guns (there's enough there, including duplicates of things like 10\22s and Remington 700s that I don't need to have it all) on top of what I've already found. What is safe to leave and moreover where is it safe to leave stuff?

My other problem is the encumbrance system. It seems like I have more encumbrance than my gear should make up; I've had big trouble with the "your torso encumbrance throws you off balance" message appearing, especially with child zombies, to whom I've lost more characters than I think anything else.

# ? Mar 9, 2016 06:45

Motherfucker: Jul 16, 2011; I certainly dont have deep-seated issues involving birthdays.

Red_October_7000 posted:

It's stupid newbie question time! I've been playing this off and on for the past week or so after reading the ongoing Let's Play thread. This is by no means my first Roguelike, which was actually Rogue itself... but that was a long time ago. Most of my experience comes from ADOM, which I've actually beaten twice, so I'm used to roguelike games that give it to you dry. But this, this is a new experience...

I've tried several different classes and scenarios and I can definitely say some are better than others. Abandoned is especially crap seeing as how it gives like 8 points when it's forcing 6 points of deficit on you anyway in return for a starting location that's very random. I've had Abandoned characters start out in a room with a scalpel and dust masks and safety goggles and first aid kits, and ones start out near zombies that have what amount to insta-kill abilities at that stage in the proceedings. It seems like it should be interesting but it's not.
Burning building is good, though; usually you can grab whatever's handy and duck out a window or door before being overcome by smoke; I haven't had a Burning Building start actually get impeded by the fire in any way yet. I haven't gotten to the point where I'll try the "really bad day" start yet, though.

My questions are mainly about item safety and character progression. In other roguelike games, you don't leave good items on the floor because some random monster will either hoover them up, destroy them, or actually use them on you. Yet in Cataclysm I find myself having to leave really good poo poo all the time. Skill manuals, food, arms and armour are the main ones. I want to find safety, but so far everything I've found that seems safe can be battered down by zombies, except perhaps starting in a gun shop which lets you open the steel door non-destructively. My most recent start did not start in a gun store, but she has found one, and, thanks to a sledgehammer, gotten in. But I have too much stuff to get out with the good guns (there's enough there, including duplicates of things like 10\22s and Remington 700s that I don't need to have it all) on top of what I've already found. What is safe to leave and moreover where is it safe to leave stuff?

My other problem is the encumbrance system. It seems like I have more encumbrance than my gear should make up; I've had big trouble with the "your torso encumbrance throws you off balance" message appearing, especially with child zombies, to whom I've lost more characters than I think anything else.

yer a hoarder. Stop trying to carry everything that's stupid.

Obscurity is your best security when it comes to zombies, go live in the evac shelters far away from large crouds of zombies, animals don't batter down windows or walls so you won't have to worry about bear attacks or anything.

My general strategy is to find a city, find a grocery store, steal in in the night and pour all the skillbooks and such into a trolley and take it back home to my evac shelter / farm.

# ? Mar 9, 2016 06:53

Synthbuttrange: May 6, 2007

That's why people start building vehicles or carts, to store all their loot and keep it nearby. You can start with a shopping trolley, but my preferred starter option is to find a truck and smash the front end, leaving a wheeled cargo bed that I can easily drag around.

# ? Mar 9, 2016 06:55

Motherfucker: Jul 16, 2011; I certainly dont have deep-seated issues involving birthdays.

SynthOrange posted:

That's why people start building vehicles or carts, to store all their loot and keep it nearby. You can start with a shopping trolley, but my preferred starter option is to find a truck and smash the front end, leaving a wheeled cargo bed that I can easily drag around.

To be fair my characters are usually weak mutant nerds who start in a forest with nothing

I've gotten making a stone knife down to an art.

# ? Mar 9, 2016 06:56

Shady Amish Terror: Oct 11, 2007; I'm not Amish by choice. 8(

Cataclysm is very different from the ADOM/Nethack school of item hoarding; a big part of the experience is picking through the drek to find stuff that might actually be valuable to your current character, and sometimes making hard choices about what to leave. In exchange, there really aren't a lot of invaluable/can't-live-without items. Having a ranged attack option and a melee attack option (or a quiet ranged attack with lots of ammo) is preferable. Having a little food on hand is nice, though you'll usually be limited to a couple drinks and a meal or two to carry you in between chowtime while looting or farming. Beyond that, the game is reasonably forgiving and LOTS of stupid character gimmicks are viable.

The game doesn't actually offer much in the way of endgame challenge, so a lot of the fun is in setting your own goals and figuring out what's viable in the early game. One recommendation I have is making sure that Hordes and Zombie Revivification are turned off for the first few games while you're learning, as it will make things easier. You may also need to set the Zombie Evolution rate to a higher number; in many versions it starts out ridiculously small, leaving you with max-level zombies everywhere within a week. Turning off Skill Rust is also a good idea, as it's just pointless busy-work when it's relevant at all. All of these can be set at the start when generating a world.

For a slightly cheaty but overall easier experience, you can also turn on the Stats From Skills mod and lower all your stats at character creation, spending the points on skills instead. If you can survive to midnight (easy with most starts), your high starting skills will result in tons of stat ups, making for a much simpler starting character to play around with.

As for encumbrance, try to limit yourself to the bare essentials; enough clothing to keep you warm and carry a little food, a backup weapon, and a couple of tools. Layering clothing that occupies the same slot will result in additional encumbrance penalties, which get killer real fast, especially on the torso and legs (a slot being like 'torso' or 'legs', with 'strapped' or 'next to the skin' representing different layers as well). You may also want to find a sewing kit and some thread and practice your sewing on leftover sheets and clothing; once it's up two or three levels, you can repair your own clothing and, importantly, bring in the fit on items that don't already have the (fits) modifier. Clothing that CAN (fit) but doesn't also adds extra encumbrance.

# ? Mar 9, 2016 07:17

Red_October_7000: Jun 22, 2009

Shady Amish Terror posted:

Cataclysm is very different from the ADOM/Nethack school of item hoarding; a big part of the experience is picking through the drek to find stuff that might actually be valuable to your current character, and sometimes making hard choices about what to leave. In exchange, there really aren't a lot of invaluable/can't-live-without items. Having a ranged attack option and a melee attack option (or a quiet ranged attack with lots of ammo) is preferable. Having a little food on hand is nice, though you'll usually be limited to a couple drinks and a meal or two to carry you in between chowtime while looting or farming. Beyond that, the game is reasonably forgiving and LOTS of stupid character gimmicks are viable.

The game doesn't actually offer much in the way of endgame challenge, so a lot of the fun is in setting your own goals and figuring out what's viable in the early game. One recommendation I have is making sure that Hordes and Zombie Revivification are turned off for the first few games while you're learning, as it will make things easier. You may also need to set the Zombie Evolution rate to a higher number; in many versions it starts out ridiculously small, leaving you with max-level zombies everywhere within a week. Turning off Skill Rust is also a good idea, as it's just pointless busy-work when it's relevant at all. All of these can be set at the start when generating a world.

For a slightly cheaty but overall easier experience, you can also turn on the Stats From Skills mod and lower all your stats at character creation, spending the points on skills instead. If you can survive to midnight (easy with most starts), your high starting skills will result in tons of stat ups, making for a much simpler starting character to play around with.

As for encumbrance, try to limit yourself to the bare essentials; enough clothing to keep you warm and carry a little food, a backup weapon, and a couple of tools. Layering clothing that occupies the same slot will result in additional encumbrance penalties, which get killer real fast, especially on the torso and legs (a slot being like 'torso' or 'legs', with 'strapped' or 'next to the skin' representing different layers as well). You may also want to find a sewing kit and some thread and practice your sewing on leftover sheets and clothing; once it's up two or three levels, you can repair your own clothing and, importantly, bring in the fit on items that don't already have the (fits) modifier. Clothing that CAN (fit) but doesn't also adds extra encumbrance.

Good stuff here. I've already got skill rust turned off and am using static spawns and 80% monster generation rate, no hordes. Just random NPCs. But Stats from skills is news to me, and the clothing advice is all good. I spent about an hour of real-time just sitting in a house and tuning up all my clothing. Having everything fit seems to cut encumbrance down a lot.

# ? Mar 9, 2016 09:13

PiCroft: Jun 11, 2010; I'm sorry, did I break all your shit? I didn't know it was yours

On the topic of Hordes, has anyone tried them recently? I had them turned on once, ages ago and it was bullshit; my shelter in the middle of nowhere was constantly under siege despite me being pretty quiet and not having had a chance to venture towards a built-up area.

# ? Mar 9, 2016 10:34

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 19, 2024 20:26

emanresu tnuocca: Sep 2, 2011; by Athanatos

As long as effectively everything outside your 60 tile reality bubble is dormant this game will not be able to pull off truly satisfying hordes\wandering-mobs\dynamic-respawn mechanics. imo.

# ? Mar 9, 2016 14:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Cataclysm: I was able to find and disassemble 4 pianos for chainmail parts

«‹›402 »