A begginer's question on storage

Game Talk The Bunker
1

Hey, everyone!

I’m running the risk of sounding stupid here. Either because I might have missed something obvious or because I am looking for mechanics that don’t exist because they would be useless for survival in this game. Nevertheless, I will ask it.

I am still exploring the inicial stages of the game and learning the ropes, having lost some five characters due to carelessness so far. This game kind of awakens my Fallout 3/New Vegas instincts for survival, so I kind of feel a need to do some things that might be unnecessary/terrible for CDDA, but in time I’ll learn. One of them is wanting to keep my belongings properly stored.

I remember that one of my games had a basement with some 3 easy zombies and a shitload of cool and useful items. After my initial run to the city to make good use of the safe period (by the way, is there a wiki page about how to know exactly how long do you have without having found a clock?), I came back to the shelter and decided to neatly organize all items in categories: food, medicine, tools & materials, clothes, weapons. However, I discovered something… odd. I can’t actually store them anywhere! I mean, I can stuff them into backpacks and bags, but I don’t have so many so as to just leave them at the shelter, I want to carry those around and empty, of course. My biggest frustration was having various cabinets that I could check for things inside, but don’t allow you to store things in them! I find this mind-boggling.

Considering the scavenging ritual the game requires, it would only make sense for you to be able to use those cabinets, as well as build closets, cabinets, boxes and chests of your own. I’ve read that I can put boxes and create storage spaces in vehicles exactly for using it as a mobile inventory for all my needs, so it looks like the players do care for storing things neatly. Of course, I can make "neat’ piles on the ground, and making them from the same category of items makes the symbol to match, which helps, but it would be very nice to be able to store them in separate, closed, containers.

Am I so dumb that I just haven’t found the correct key combination or am I really searching for something that I should not be caring about?

On a separate note, I notices that the inventory screen allows me to switch selection modes, from individual items to whole categories. I find that switching makes no difference at all. “Whole category” should mean that if I choose some canned beans, all other food items as selected too, right? Am I missing something here as well?

Thank you so much in advance for your guidance and patience in reading this wall of text I’ve just realized I’ve written.

2

To drop stuff in adjacent squares or furniture use shift+d and select the destination square.

The inventory category mode just makes scrolling through your inventory faster.

3

Man, only five? I lost around 30-40 characters before I even lived longer than a season.

4

Well, there are some things; if you press / (I guess it’s the standard keybinding) you’ll open the advanced inventory interface;

Then, let’s say there is a pile of random things on your west (4 in the numpad).
To take things from this tile to your inventory, you can press 4, to select the west tile, then press the -> key (the right arrow but /not on the numpad/), to select the other side of the screen. Then, press I, to select your inventory as the place where the things will be transfered to. You can press the <- key to go back to the left side of the screen, and then press enter to take the items you want.

To sort everything in categories, press S (uppercase s) and select “Category”; this will organize everything in groups (Weapons, Tools, Clothing, etc.)
You can use “A” to select from all surrounding squares and “f” (lowercase f) to Find an specific item.

To find items in your field-of-view, press V (uppercase v), this will show everything around you; pressing TAB in the same screen will show all visible enemies. Here you can press “f” to find something specific.

(I guess my explanation turned out a bit convoluted, I’m sorry for my english :confused: But anyway, just press / , with a bit of practice the advanced inventory gets pretty useful to manage big piles of food and other things c: )

Also, to store things in cabinets and lockers and such, you can drop with D (uppercase d), and select the direction of the container!
As an example, to store something in a cabinet north of you, press D, then the 8 key in the numpad, and the inventory screen will open to select the items to be dropped.

To build things, you can press *, this will open the construction menu. But you’ll need a hammer and screwdriver to dissassemble things without "s"mashing them, and 2x4s and nails to build furniture.

If you have any doubts about the keybindings, you can open the help menu by pressing “?” and then “1”, this will open the list of commands, there are also some tips in the help menu!

I hope this was helpful!

5

Wow, so it seems I was stupid after all, hahahah
I wrote 5 large paragraphs and some extra lines and Rivet answered both questions with 2 lines =/
Well, at least now I know how to do it! It really makes me happy to know that it is possible =)

Jinzaditen, thank you so much for your extra tips and explanations, I had fliddled around the help screen and messes with controls and read a lot in the Wiki, but didn’t know about all these options!

Do any of you have a tip about the time issue? I know that without a clock the game shows you the position of the sun/moon (at least that’s what it seems to be), but I don’t know how to interpret it so as to know when I’m about to run out of “safe” time in the beginning of a new game.

6

Some tips for you. There are few things u should do in first day.

  1. weapons
    makeshift crowbar - easy to get, pipe and rock will do it
    cudgel - easy to get, hit and run with parry ability

  2. clothes
    needle and thread - for fitting and repairing
    cargo pants, trench coat, cargo shorts for storage
    **keep torso encumbrance at 0 for fighting
    **mouth, leg and foot encumbrance at 0 for running

  3. zombies
    run while u can, your speed will drop if u get hurt or in pain.
    fight only in 1 to 1 battle
    hit and run. zombies are usually slower than you.

7

[quote=“dreamfantasy, post:6, topic:7727”]Some tips for you. There are few things u should do in first day.

  1. weapons
    makeshift crowbar - easy to get, pipe and rock will do it
    cudgel - easy to get, hit and run with parry ability

  2. clothes
    needle and thread - for fitting and repairing
    cargo pants, trench coat, cargo shorts for storage
    **keep torso encumbrance at 0 for fighting
    **mouth, leg and foot encumbrance at 0 for running

  3. zombies
    run while u can, your speed will drop if u get hurt or in pain.
    fight only in 1 to 1 battle
    hit and run. zombies are usually slower than you.[/quote]

Thanks for the tips!
I already use crowbars, cudgels and needle and thread. However, the clothing, layering and encumbrance system still eludes me. From your post I see that I have to keep a constant eye on it and change my clothing configurations according to the current situation (raiding, escaping, fighting, sleeping - for warmth-, etc.) right?

8

Your char will use clothing thats on the same tile as your sleeping position to keep warm at night. You don tneed to specificly dress for sleeping … thatssomething the game does for you if you provide the clothes and blankets for the night.

Experiment with clothing and try to fill all possible layers with apropriate clothing.
And yeah you should adapt to tempreture. Note : warm / cold isn t particulary bad … its just a warning that your on the verge of suffering from heat/cold so you can still operate mostly normal in that condition.

9

The safe period is a bit outdated, most of the wiki is unless someones worked on it in the last week I don’t know about. Basically the newer-ish buildings such as apartments and pools and parks (theres more), these will spawn their zombies at the beginning no safe period.

And I think if you play with static spawn there isn’t even a safe period at all. But I mostly make clothes for longer then the hour and a half anyways before I even leave the shelter.

10

[quote=“LordOfganza, post:7, topic:7727”]Thanks for the tips!
I already use crowbars, cudgels and needle and thread. However, the clothing, layering and encumbrance system still eludes me. From your post I see that I have to keep a constant eye on it and change my clothing configurations according to the current situation (raiding, escaping, fighting, sleeping - for warmth-, etc.) right?[/quote]

Don’t worry, you’ll get it all eventually. This game is quite complex and full of features.
As for encumbrance, it should be kept as minimum as possible if you plan going melee. If you are using ranged weapons, it can be more or less neglected.

11

Mandatory tips for early game:
Loot at night.
Sleep in basements.

I can’t stress enough how important those are to weak characters. With those in mind, you won’t even need to shrubdance the zombies. Maybe a tiny bit, before the first nightfall.

12

Never did that personally and IMO it is not mandatory for starting characters. But if you do, take Nightvision as starting trait.

13

Normally, i make that set of clothing: Balaclava (to make this you need 1 survival, you can forage to get lvl), trenchcoat (tailor lvl.3), hoodie (tailor lvl.3), 2 bindle,light gloves, 2 cargo shorts (tailor lvl.2). The light gloves and balaclava is just for warm. I make a duffel bag but i don’t use in the start (duffel bags gives 120 volume at cost of 3 enc.). My strategy is to kill every close zombie of a house and use duffel after that.

Some good itens to get extra volume is: Helmet Netting (Head, Belt-Layer, gives 4 storage, can be crafted with 500 thread), Drop Leg Pouches (Leg, Belt-Layer, gives 8 storage, found in Military Places), Shoping Bags (Hand, gives 20 storage)

Itens from differents layers don’t give a extra enc. . For Example, if you put 2 Hoodies, they have 0 enc., but because they are in same layer, you get a extra point (so 0+0+1=1 torso enc.). Now if you change one hoodie for a trenchcoat (over-clothing layer) you don’t receive that extra point, with a total of 0 torso enc. . I don’t know the reason, but some itens with low coverage can used in the same layer and don’t give that extra enc. 2 cargo shorts can used with no penalty. A tool belt, if fitted, can be used with another backpack (or duffel bal) with no penalty.

14

What clothing layers are there? I know of the under-clothing layer, the clothing layer, the over-clothing layer, and the belted layer.

15

Yes, that’s all.