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I'm trying to get back into this game after several years, and I never really got that far with it before. I keep hitting this point fairly early on where I just feel really unsure of wtf I'm doing and what my priorities should be. It's pretty easy for me to just take over some house at the edge of town with a basement that has a furnace and use that for my initial base of operations. That solves water, and I can night raid to keep myself rolling in food. I understand the recipe system well enough that I can easily identify what things I can I quickly make to level up skills, but this is kind of where I hit the awkward valley. At this point, I could just dig in and not leave my base for days while I work on skilling up, setting up a butchery station, charcoal kiln, smoking racks, etc. but I'm concerned that the zombie evolution is going to severely outpace me if I do that. I'm frequently seeing evolved zombies -- mostly slavering biters and feral runners -- as early as day 3 on default settings. I've even encountered a day 4-5 dissoluted devourer (what is this an upgrade to, anyway?). I feel like I lack a good schedule of objectives. I.e. what kind of items/equipment/skills to aim for by the end of week 1, week 2, etc. Youtube isn't much help. The existing tutorial series are way out of date and a little too nuts-and-bolts, babby's first CDDA, besides. Meanwhile the contemporaries who really know their stuff only produce series that are either heavily modded or some kind of crazy challenge play with wacky restrictions and starting conditions. I totally understand that and I'm not knocking it; it just happens to be less than helpful for my purposes. I'd really kill for a basic LP by an experienced player on 0.E or experimental with nothing more exotic than just aftershock in play.
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May 11, 2020 19:21
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 00:58 |
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Well RIP to Carin Reeder, survived radiation torment only to discover that collapsed towers are uh... a little above her pay grade
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May 11, 2020 20:22
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I'll be that guy and state that turrets and NPCs have never really been an issue for me. I have maybe lost a couple characters to them and most of thoses where due to gimmick starts where your survival is coinflip. That being said I always assume all NPCs are hostile and I tend not to gently caress around in areas where turrets are going to show up before I am ready. Theres almost always a better avenue to get poo poo that turrets protect before you are equipped to deal with them. But I also am able to consistently use the Dwarf fortress military screen and get results so maybe Im just brain broken in just the right way.
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May 11, 2020 21:49
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Only time I've had troubles with NPCs is one time when I wasn't paying attention and thought I was dandering into somewhere neutral only to get put in the ground by some hostile bandits. Oh and one time I forgot to run No NPC Needs once so someone starved  I have had my poo poo pushed in by turrets now and then but I tend to be okay with them now.
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May 11, 2020 22:30
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Stathol posted:At this point, I could just dig in and not leave my base for days while I work on skilling up, setting up a butchery station, charcoal kiln, smoking racks, etc. but I'm concerned that the zombie evolution is going to severely outpace me if I do that. I'm frequently seeing evolved zombies -- mostly slavering biters and feral runners -- as early as day 3 on default settings. I've even encountered a day 4-5 dissoluted devourer (what is this an upgrade to, anyway?). I'm not actually sure feral runners are "evolved," I've definitely seen them in the starts where you start surrounded first move.
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May 11, 2020 22:39
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I honestly have no idea how dissoluted devourer's work. Their just a variably big pile of HP that occasional suck up another zombie or a dog or something and I have no idea if it heals them or alters their stats or what. I was afraid when I encountered one that ate a spitter that now they might get acid blood or something but nah.
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May 11, 2020 22:44
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reignonyourparade posted:I'm not actually sure feral runners are "evolved," I've definitely seen them in the starts where you start surrounded first move. I think runners are the base 'fast zombie', so you're always going to get them; hunters and predators being the evolved versions, and christ knows what past that. I have no idea if there's a feral brute or hulk or anything.
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May 11, 2020 22:48
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Sorry, I meant feral hunters, not runners.
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May 11, 2020 22:50
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Caidin posted:I honestly have no idea how dissoluted devourer's work. Their just a variably big pile of HP that occasional suck up another zombie or a dog or something and I have no idea if it heals them or alters their stats or what. Also two out of the three I met so far just vanished. Like I spotted them, started to carefully kite&kill the zombies around them and then when I went back to kill them they were just gone 
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May 11, 2020 23:16
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I think anything that absorbs items/corpses uses the same absorb function, which adds to their health (based on volume, maybe?) Anyway it can lead to those blue amoebic slimes getting thousands of HP, because I don't think there's a cap.
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May 11, 2020 23:38
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Stathol posted:I'm trying to get back into this game after several years, and I never really got that far with it before. I keep hitting this point fairly early on where I just feel really unsure of wtf I'm doing and what my priorities should be. I typically try for full light survivor gear + survivor harness by day three or four. Typically just need one military body site or surplus store for the kevlar, and once you find a tailor's kit to reinforce the suit you're pretty much invincible against normal zombies. At that point you can get away with just a quarterstaff, but forging serious weapons is much less work than you'd expect. Do have to find books for that though.
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May 12, 2020 00:45
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How do you get your tailoring and fabrication that high that fast? Reading books takes almost an entire day to gain a level past, like, 3.
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May 12, 2020 01:33
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megane posted:How do you get your tailoring and fabrication that high that fast? Reading books takes almost an entire day to gain a level past, like, 3. Here's an updated skill-grind guide which is really helpful imo
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May 12, 2020 02:01
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No need for books anymore. You can get tailoring 5 and fab 6 in the first 24 hours no problem. There's even a recently updated guide, though it really isn't necessary. Just craft whatever. https://old.reddit.com/r/cataclysmdda/comments/gdr06j/skill_training_guide_a_minimalists_skill_training/ efb
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May 12, 2020 02:02
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Even then the focus drain seems like it'd make things tough, wouldn't it?
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May 12, 2020 02:03
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So if I’m reading the firearms grinding section correctly, you can raise pistols/rifles by just firing it at anything until level three, then you need to shoot at creatures after that?
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May 12, 2020 02:05
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Galaga Galaxian posted:Even then the focus drain seems like it'd make things tough, wouldn't it? You can just power through it, though junk food and music help. Smartphones drop constantly, double as an mp3 player, and the battery lasts a long time. Skill gain from crafting is really fast even with bad focus. It also increases material costs, but for the 5 tailoring/6 fab (which is what you need for all the light survivor gear) just two shelters/cabins/rural houses should have everything you need. Palcontent fucked around with this message at 02:07 on May 12, 2020 |
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May 12, 2020 02:05
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Yeah the focus drain isn't that much of an issue. You can keep it hovering around 50 and still get good returns on the right crafts. Also some of them can be disassembled again for ease on the material usage and you recover a bit of focus while doing it. I'm currently on the morning of day 3 and I'm at 4 fab/tailor starting from zero but a seasoned player can surely do it faster. All the materials I used so far came from two empty farm houses. E: But take note that the guide is based on the experimental build. A few of the items aren't in the stable build. Like the wooden dog whistle that's recommended to get fab 4-5 Tin Tim fucked around with this message at 02:24 on May 12, 2020 |
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May 12, 2020 02:19
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I'm trying a character with fast learner and 11 int, both of which I've avoided in the past. Every point of int beyond 8 gives an additional five focus for the purpose of skill gain, and every point below subtracts five. Together with fast learner the 11 int provides +30 hidden focus at all times. Funnily enough it's almost irrelevant for crafting skills, but makes a huge difference for combat skills. When fighting a lot your focus immediately plummets to ~10-15 and stays there. Combat skill gain is effectively quadrupled.
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May 12, 2020 03:03
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Palcontent posted:Smartphones [...] double as an mp3 player  How did I not know this? Does it make noise, or do you conjure earbuds when you use it?
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May 12, 2020 03:28
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Airpods I think
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May 12, 2020 03:49
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The game certainly feels a lot more interesting and wildly more dangerous than my first run that had classic zombies activated. That mode gets easy as soon as you have like 12/12 protection and a decent melee weapon. I mean it was still a fun game while it lasted and taught me a lot about mechanics and items but that's also all it could offer me after a certain point. With the much wider range of monsters I'm constantly terrified of walking into unknow areas and play cautious as heck. Liking it! Currently on day 4 sitting in a farm which is in decent range of two towns. There's also a mi-go scout tower in my area but I think they won't bother me since there's a fair bit of swamp between us. I've gone through most of the basic skill grind but hit a bottleneck when it comes to actually upgrading my gear. I got next to no leather and I'm missing a wrench to get it from car seats. One of the towns has a garage that seems fairly easy to reach if I'm going by the map and I'm coming to terms with having to raid it during the next night. I'm real scared of doing it but also see no other option to advance my position so wish me luck I guess
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May 12, 2020 04:30
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Lots of clothing items are made from leather and can be butchered for it. If you're real desperate, you can even wash the filthy leather stuff that zombies drop and butcher that.
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May 12, 2020 04:34
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You can easily identify leather (or anything else) from the 'V' look around menu by pressing '+' and entering 'm:leather'. Everything made of leather will be highlighted at the top of the list. Good for making sure you don't miss anything you're looking for, like hackpro.
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May 12, 2020 04:40
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Stathol posted:you can even wash the filthy leather stuff that zombies drop and butcher that. Is it more efficient to wash then butcher or butcher then wash the patches?
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May 12, 2020 04:46
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Galaga Galaxian posted:Is it more efficient to wash then butcher or butcher then wash the patches? The items generally. The patches all (used to, at least) need one unit of soap per patch so it's not really super time or resource efficient.
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May 12, 2020 04:48
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Stathol posted:
Palcontent posted:Airpods I think Yeah I just checked, you automatically have earbuds so it's just for you
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May 12, 2020 04:54
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Man, I am playing way to slow, I guess. My recent gripe - the lone cabins, with the little ponds by them, usually spawn with a vehicle, which is handy. But there's no exit for the vehicle - me and two NPCs had to spend a couple of days clearcutting a path to get to the nearest patch of fields. Did somebody just park one there and leave long enough for trees to grow around it?
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May 12, 2020 05:21
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apparently since all the cars are rusted and burned up
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May 12, 2020 05:47
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Tooling around in an intact prison bus with a gang of Mad Max looking delinquents hits different
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May 12, 2020 06:53
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Stathol posted:Lots of clothing items are made from leather and can be butchered for it. If you're real desperate, you can even wash the filthy leather stuff that zombies drop and butcher that. If you're just not seeing much leather clothing, with a level or two of mechanics (and maybe a wrench or something), you can remove seats from vehicles and butcher those for leather. Used to be pretty much all vehicles, but you only find them in 'expensive' cars nowadays - mostly sports cars and limos.
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May 12, 2020 09:54
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I always just go through everyone's bedrooms for leather clothing. It's clean and intact which makes it better than zombie leavings. Boots are always good.
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May 12, 2020 10:10
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The Lone Badger posted:I always just go through everyone's bedrooms for leather clothing. It's clean and intact which makes it better than zombie leavings. I'm totally imagining a coat made out of a patchwork of leather pants, boots and misc fetishwear. probably lookin' like an anime antagonist.
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May 12, 2020 11:00
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Motherfucker posted:I'm totally imagining a coat made out of a patchwork of leather pants, boots and misc fetishwear. Is that why they look like they're wearing 30 belts?
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May 12, 2020 12:23
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Motherfucker posted:I'm totally imagining a coat made out of a patchwork of leather pants, boots and misc fetishwear. The Lone Badger posted:Is that why they look like they're wearing 30 belts? 
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May 12, 2020 12:51
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I'm frankly surprised they haven't come up with a system were the more patchwork an item is the less effective it is, like a survivor duster made out of a real duster is as good as advertised, but a survivor duster made out of pieces of scrap is 50% as sturdy and defensive.
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May 12, 2020 15:24
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Carcer posted:I'm frankly surprised they haven't come up with a system were the more patchwork an item is the less effective it is, like a survivor duster made out of a real duster is as good as advertised, but a survivor duster made out of pieces of scrap is 50% as sturdy and defensive. I actually wouldn't mind a system where this was the case. Right now gear and fabrication/tailoring grind is pretty trivial once you know how it works, and this could give you a reason to actualyl hunt animals for their fur and hides.
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May 12, 2020 15:37
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Stathol posted:Lots of clothing items are made from leather and can be butchered for it. If you're real desperate, you can even wash the filthy leather stuff that zombies drop and butcher that. Also I wouldn't say that you need to be desperate to clean zombie clothes. A few choice items are really great and easy sources for collecting leather, lycra, nomex, kevlar and synthetic fabric. Especially kevlar and leather come easily if you keep an eye out for motorcycle jackets, pants and boots. Soap/detergent can be found in almost every house and all you need for infinite water is a shallow puddle in your forest/swamp of choice. Galaga Galaxian posted:Is it more efficient to wash then butcher or butcher then wash the patches? Wolfechu posted:If you're just not seeing much leather clothing, with a level or two of mechanics (and maybe a wrench or something), you can remove seats from vehicles and butcher those for leather. Used to be pretty much all vehicles, but you only find them in 'expensive' cars nowadays - mostly sports cars and limos.  Palcontent posted:You can easily identify leather (or anything else) from the 'V' look around menu by pressing '+' and entering 'm:leather'. Everything made of leather will be highlighted at the top of the list. Good for making sure you don't miss anything you're looking for, like hackpro.
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May 12, 2020 16:11
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Needing 8 mechanics to install 2 engines is a pain but weirdly at some point solar panels got un nerfed since my atomic battlebus Is apparently able to run a mini fridge, mini freezer and recharging station with like 4 panels. Last time I tried this 4 panels was about enough to keep the battery stable in direct sunlight, let alone power it and a freezer and charger all at once. I haven’t needed to turn my reactor on since I installed them.
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May 12, 2020 16:30
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Arven posted:I actually wouldn't mind a system where this was the case. Right now gear and fabrication/tailoring grind is pretty trivial once you know how it works, and this could give you a reason to actually hunt animals for their fur and hides. Yeah thinking about it this would actually be an interesting system where you could have grades of material, where it made sense. So when crafting the duster, for example, the material grades would go "filthy patch->filthy duster->patch->premade duster->handmade duster->high quality handmade duster" where the high quality is determined by the material grade the duster was made with and possibly skill level. Properly dried and cured skin/fur would be the best starting material something could be made of, to incentive hunting stuff. There'd also be a trade off between using a piece of clothing whole to save time and get something ok now vs breaking it down to make a higher quality item later.
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May 12, 2020 16:31
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