Bunch of questions

Game Talk The Bunker
1

So i have been playing this game for a couple weeks and have a few questions that i have came up with in that time

1: What is the best tool for butchering in the game. I know the butcher knife has a 25 butchering and an activated circular saw has 60. Is anything better than that?

2: Night vision gives +2 vision in the dark and for those same 2 points you can put them into perception and get +1 vision in the dark and all the other perks from perception. Is it worth getting the perception bonuses and losing the +1 dark vision?

You feel depressed. Cataclysm would help.

3: What are the stats and skills used in installing/removing a bionic?

4: When doing batch crafting do you get xp equivalent to crafting those items individually or just the xp of a single craft?

5: Is there a level cap on skills?

6: For the Joint Torsion Ratchet bionic do you gain power faster per time in game if using rollerblades and/or running than you do with regular walking and would that allow you to run more bionics at once or are bionics power use calculated per movement you take?

7: Is there a way to see the setup you use for the current world you are one like the spawn rates and the mods?

8: Should i go for trying to setup a mobile base or a static base? Is there anything i would lose out on if going for a mobile base?

You feel depressed. Cataclysm would help.

9: Does the lower chance to break of the metal arrows worth using them for regular combat make it worth using them over the heavy wooden arrows? How much lower is the breaking chance of metal?

10: When fighting a shocker at range does it matter if the ammo used is conductive or not? (I don’t feel like it should matter but i have never tried it yet)

11: I found a l-stick and it says batteries last longer than other light sources. How much more efficient is that than a regular light?

12: Does storing food in the basement during summer help it last longer?

13: Does moving a shopping cart slow you down and if so by how much?

14: Where can one find more NPCs in static spawn?

15: What do the riotbot’s handcuffs do? Every time he has tried to put them on me i slip out of the cuffs so i had like 5 in my inventory. Is there anything i can do with those?

16: How do you deal with copbots in the early game? The only thing i have found is to just not move and they will leave me alone but when i have an npc with me they tend to do alot of damage to both of us before we killed it because the npc is stupid and i am to lazy to change his combat commands all the time.

You feel depressed. Cataclysm would help.

17: What are some good long term food options other than dehydrating because batteries? I currently am boiling eggs and making jerky but trying to find other options.

2

Why have you fnorded the question list?

3

I know some of these! Hi. Let’s see, lemme make sure I number the ones I know right…

1: As far as I know, the best /knife/ is the Hunting Knife, for butchering. The circular saw might be the actual best, but it’s bulky and relies on battery. Better to just up your survival skill and use the hunting knife which you can tuck int oa sheath, survival belt, etc.

2: As far as I know, Night Vision as a perk works better than putting the extra points in Perception alone, but I don’t know the exact mechanics behind it.

3: Installing Bionics taps both First Aid and Electronics, as well as Intelligence. The higher these are, the easier the installation goes. Removing it probably relies on the same skills, and you also need a knife and a first aid kit.

5: I’m pretty sure 10 is the highest skills can go.

8: Personally, I prefer mobile bases, but I’m the nomad type. Building a static base of course gives you essentially no limit for how much you can store, and while you can put funnels and water tanks on your vehicle for infinite water (or just make stops at rivers as needed), a static base can have a water pump. Static bases can also be painted, carpeted, and generally customised into a nice, pleasant home! … With boarded, spiked windows and a perimeter fence. I mean, both options have multiple ways to do it, and neither one is ‘right’. It’s a matter of your play style. If you like constantly seeing new things and getting into trouble, nomad it up. If you like making your own little corner empire, make a massive fortress.

10: Ammo does not matter when fighting a Shocker, outside of whether or not it can do enough damage to put him down.

12: I don’t think so? But what you could do is build a non-mobile vehicle frame with solar panels, storage batteries, and a minifridge or two. Keeping perishable goods cold helps a lot.

17: Finding canned goods and storing them for long-term is always great. If you have glass jars and the tool to seal jars, you can cook things and then seal them up in the jars, which keep them from spoiling.

4

Night vision bonuses are cumulative, so you would be better off getting both. See this pull request: https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/19010. Night vision traits don’t stack.

Look in the save folder, find your world, then open world options.

5

[quote=“BorkBorkGoesTheCode, post:4, topic:13192”]Night vision bonuses are cumulative, so you would be better off getting both. See this pull request: https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/19010. Night vision traits don’t stack.

Look in the save folder, find your world, then open world options.[/quote]

I know that they are cumulative. I was wondering if it would be more beneficial for a character to have the 1 extra sight range or the bonuses from 2 extra perception while using the same amount of points.

6

  1. Hunting knife is the best KNIFE in the game, the circular saw, carving knife, etc. are bulky, use batteries and are noisy. I only recommend them if you really wanna get the most bang for your buck when you’re hunting.

  2. Always pick night vision. Later in game when you take up mutating you can get full night vision w/o that much of a hassle. Without the perk, it’s mostly just luck to get the first mutation.

  3. Don’t know the specifics, but first aid and electronics at around 6-8 is optimal.

  4. I believe it gives the total amount of exp, equivalent to crafting them individually.

  5. Not as far as I can tell, I’ve gotten my skills up to 20. From what I remember, it’s possible to get your skills to 30 or 40, but at that point it’s kind of redundant.

  6. For the bionic you just get 1 power each time you move you walk. It deposits directly to your power banks to which your bionics draw from immediately. I don’t think you can get more power from running.

  7. Not sure, but you can change it in the main menu.

  8. Mobile base is just that, you trade storage space and living space for a mobile base. Static bases have infinite storage and the possibility of farming. It’s best to set up a static base when you have a decent amount of construction skill.
    The only con about static resources is the depletion of resources like food.

  9. In my opinion it’s up to you. If it’s more efficient on resources to craft wooden arrows vs heavy arrows - then go for it. The durability in my opinion doesn’t matter since I can craft more arrows, it’s just that I can craft a lot more wooden ones than metal ones.
    It’s mostly just quantity over quality and vice versa.

  10. It doesn’t, it’s a projectile and this it’s separated from your body. Conductivity only matters if you’re using it to melee something.

  11. The l-stick is just a glorified baton. The only use in batteries is powering household items. You can find plutonium cells and modify the item to run off plutonium cells or UPS power, the latter is more efficient if you have a power source you can draw off of. (Ups recharging station + a solar panel or two).

  12. It only works if the temperature is in the negatives. Find an ‘Ice’ laboratory if you want preservation of food via temperature.

  13. It only slows you down by getting caught in bushes or other terrain that it can’t pass. Otherwise, it’s fine to use and fight with.

  14. Refugee centers and other areas (like a farm) in the refugee center quest line.
    You can find them in military (bandit) outposts and such.

  15. They just prevent the use of your hands and if you can’t get it off and move around it makes a loud noise which can attract monsters.

  16. Just avoid them or lead them into a crowd of zombies/trap them in a house.

  17. You should try smoking racks. They use charcoal which you can make with a charcoal kiln and wood. Both need the construction skill to build.
    Also, try making jerky in a swamp. The swamp has infinite salt water pools and you can use that and a fire to batch craft jerky.

Also, for questions it best to post it in the ‘Tips, tricks, and Newb questions’ thread. It’s pinned on the top of the sub-forum so it’s impossible to miss.

7

Perception affects these: http://dev.narc.ro/cataclysm/doxygen/Effects_Stat_Perception.html. Night Vision trait counts as a mutation when you consume mutagen.

8

Just tested this. Surprisingly it DOES generate more power when you run. I’m getting one unit per two steps walking and one unit per step running. No idea if its based on speed or what. Only did a cursory test.

9

Just tested this. Surprisingly it DOES generate more power when you run. I’m getting one unit per two steps walking and one unit per step running. No idea if its based on speed or what. Only did a cursory test.[/quote]

See if speed does change the output of power, curious minds want to know.

10

(G)rabbing and moving a shopping cart around, whether full or empty, does consume more movement points, regardless of the terrain type you’re currently moving on. Look at your UI - the number directly next to “Spd” is your turn’s length, and the one after that is your last turn’s movement point consumption. You’ll notice that when nothing’s affecting your status and your health is full, moving over a regular tile will consume something like 105 points. If you hold onto a cart and try moving it around, the point consumption will raise slightly, to 112 or so. When the cart is full (depending on item weight), or when the wheels are damaged, the consumption can get up to 123 or 136. That’s a difference of 20-30 points; not much, but it can certainly have an impact on performance over a prolonged period of time. Put into perspective, consider that with 20-30 points you could steady your aim when wielding a pistol a couple of times for a better chance to hit your target. Yeah, you can fight that way, but you should also be aware of your character’s limitations when they can very well decide the outcome of a battle.

I thought Mechanics also had an impact on successful installation/removal of bionics? Or is the wiki outdated in that regard?

11

3: First Aid, Electronics, Mechanics + Intelligence = bionics. The lower the chance of failure, the less bad the results of failure (ie, 2% chance of failure means 0% chance of death upon failure)

5: No level cap, but the game balance assumes a max of 10. Anything above that is overkill, and for most skills all crafting recipes unlock at 8 or below.

8: A temporary Static Base is nice for collecting a city’s worth of car parts for building a Mobile Base, but once you have a mobile base you are unlikely to need a static base again. Want to farm? Park your mobile base in one spot for the spring. Want more storage? Make a resource depot and put a note on the map so you know what’s in it - a careful scavenger only loots what he will actually use, in which case even 1,000L is overkill*. The issue with a static base is if you’re going after labs or other relatively rare locations you will need to travel 100+ map tiles from a static base to you’re next destination.

9: Break chance of arrows is irrelevant. You want either maximum damage, or damage/weight ratio (metal, plastic respectively). Once you have the ability to produce arrows out of common scrap quantity becomes more important than durability.

11: data/json/items/tool/lighting.json “Turns_per_charge” Lightstrip: 120, Electric Lantern: 45, L-Stick: 40, Flashlight: 20, Smartlamp: 25, Heavy Duty Flashlight: 12
The L-Stick is almost as efficient of the electric lantern, and twice as efficient as using a flashlight. Thanks for the question, I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t looked it up on the CDDA github.

13: Dragging vehicles slows you by a lot. A LOT. A pedal powered lootbike with a max speed of 32kph (walking speed) is faster than dragging said bike. Get a watch, it will give you the time. 6 seconds is (usually) one step. Dragging can take 18+ seconds per step depending on weight/wheels.

17: Easiest to make non perishable food is flour, which can make flatbread by adding water. Get flour by grinding barley or wheat. Find seeds by foraging or looting farms or gardening places. Once you have 20-30 seeds you will only need to farm once or twice a year for food. If you’re playing with vitamins on, also consider fruit leather (any fruit + sugar beets), aspic or pemmican (fishing/hunting). Early on the easiest is probably jerky (fishing/hunting+saltwater). There are lots of other options, these are just my favorites.

*I’m a shameful hoarder, and I’m slowly learning to drop all the guns/scrap/chemicals I won’t use. Best weight/inventory ratio on vehicle parts is the Floor Trunk followed by the Stow Board, the worst weight/inventory ratio is on the Cargo Carrier. If you’re going for a massive, light solar roller keep this in mind.