Candlebury's ISG -Idea thread and poll (See the Guide!)

Game Talk The Bunker
21

Id say just do the most common stuff, if people can work that out, they can work out the other items. Otherwise simple crafting stuff could get reeeealy complicated looking.

So, some stuff from me then.

My usual starting build for a long game:
This guy is set up as an all rounder, he can fight in melee, shoot ok, tank a bit and still has the stats to play with bionics, He starts off with almost no skills, but a few books and general surviving will fix that
Traits:

Poor Hearing Great hearing isnt a huge plus
Glass Jaw Most of your deaths will come from torso damage, and good helmets are the easiest armor to find
Heavy Sleeper Be Careful where you sleep and its not much of a problem
Night Vision Almost and essential, it can be much easier to go night raiding for supplies when you cant be seen, its also handy against turrets. Makes it more likely to get other night vision traits from mutagen.
Quick Another essential, 10% faster almost everything, just handy.
Robust Genetics I can never resist mutagen roulette, so…
Trigger Happy Means SMGs and assault rifles should be avoided unless you have 1000s of rounds, but generally pistols and rifles will do any job you need.
Truth Teller These next two are a bit cheap, with NPCs off they are free points, its not and easy game for new players so a few extra
Ugly points to play with can be handy. Using forgetful with skill rust off is also currently free points
Wool Allergy If you survive till winter you should be fairly well set up, so wool clothes aren’t essential

Profession:

[spoiler]Chain smoker. You will be addicted to the cigs for a day or two, if you never smoke it will slow down your skill gain for the second day mostly, but its a small price to pay for the point.

You can pick up more points from hobo or the like but they can make your start MUCH harder, so take care.[/spoiler]
Stats:

Str 13 Dex 10 Int 11 Per 10
Note that all the stats are pretty high, no min/maxing or glass cannon here. High strength means more melee damage, more health and carry weight, at 13 you can take more than a few hits which is always good, especially early game before you get some dodge skill and armor. Having it high also means bows will be better for this survivor if I choose to go that way.
Per you always want high enough to see all the traps, if its low eventually you are going to walk into a minefield.
Dex and Int are both high enough to be useful for bionics and books, adderal can be used to bump Int for some books and bionics. Dex is also high enough to make melee viable.
Dropping a point from Str and putting it into Int for a little buff on skill gain is an option.
Skills

1 point in dodge. Thats it, as I said earlier, all the useful skills can be trained to a decent level with some books, general surviving and the odd bit of crafting grinding. Putting a point in dodge will just generally improve your survival so I always do it. Also helps to mitigate some of the problems with torso encumbrance early game.

Playstyle (static spawn):
Clear the zombies, live in their houses and loot everything. The plan is to basically live in towns, clearing out areas to have safe zones to sleep, loot, read, craft, etc. Not much surviving in the wilderness, more all looting all the time.
Startup:

FIRST THING: Check your map, if you are near a triffid grove, fungal bloom, ant nest, slime pit or the like, you are going to want to move the hell away from that, ditto for any area you see worms running about. Just flat out avoid all those types of places till later game.
Grab a rock and go belt up some furniture in the shelter then craft a nail board, totally respectable melee weapon. Check the basement then move into the town using windows and preferably 1 tile wide windows to kill zombies, just stand inside and wait for them to start climbing through and then start belting them. With this build normal zombies should die in about 3 hits with the nail board, so if you stand your ground you shouldnt get hit much. Just stick to residential areas for now and get looting, you are looking for clothing mostly till you get a bit of storage space but anything good really. Avoid smokers and be careful zombie dogs dont catch you in the open. If you have the space, grab rocks or the like and throw them at zombies as they come. Butcher EVERY corpse you can find so you can have a safe place to sleep without worrying about zombies nomming on you while you sleep, clear broken windows of glass so you dont get cut if there are no zombies around. Mark any good stuff you dont want to carry on your map, maybe make a dump in a house if you want. Find somewhere to sleep with intact windows so you can close the curtains. If you are fairly hurt take some nyquil (not much) and sleep at night, otherwise go to your shelter if its safe and read some books or fix zombie clothes till you have some tailoring skills.

Day 1 loot goals:

Backpack. You need one fast so you can start looting.
Trenchcoat. More storage, one that fits for preference.
Cargo pants. Even more storage. Army pants in a perfect world.
Helmet. Even a simple bike helmet is pretty good, I try and avoid things with mouth/eye encumbrance though.
Crowbar. Smash some metal shelves and use a pipe and rock to craft.
Some food/water. Grab stuff that will rot first, meat sandwiches/frozen dinners are great but they dont last long, fruit a bit longer, apple cider and orange juice will also rot so drink them first.
Sewing kit and any thread
MP3 player
Bandages/first aid/drugs
low level books.
flashlight
lighter
batteries if you have the space.

Day 2:

Generally you are going to get you fastest skill gain first thing when you wake up as you will often have max focus, so do some tailoring first thing till you get a point or 2.
Now, big question: how much hp do you have? If you are ok, then keep clearing zombies otherwise, loot your area some more and read some books, one of the big things in cataclysm is not to move too fast early game, if you are really hurt, stick to safe areas for a while and take some nyquil or sleeping pills and have a snooze so you can heal. If you have a bite wound, use first aid or cauterize it with you knife.

Early game:

Dont move to fast and try and loot some good stores, you are looking for gunshops, pharmacies, sporting goods, military surplus and libraries mostly. Access to a gas station is handy but not essential. Eat as many perishables as you can, mark out working cars on your map and just keep trying to clear some decent stores. Find the first mechanics book and get your mechanics up to 3, thats important. Tailor all your gear so it is reinforced and fitted.

Early game loot goals:


Shopping trolley: Your first vehicle, you will love your trolly. Pile all your excess gubbins in and grab it with G, you can even drag it through windows and keep it close while you sleep. Leave most of your stuff in your trolley so you can loot more.
Filter mask: Essential for killing smokers, once you have one they are a breeze, if you cant find one, you can craft one with common items once you have 2 tailoring skills
A gun with ammo. Preferably something powerful but any gun really. Its mostly for hulks, bears and rabid moose at this stage, its just nice to have some range. Unless you have piles of ammo, be careful firing loud guns in areas you havent cleared, they can drag in alot of zombies if you arent careful.
Warm hat. Cotton hat or the like with 0 encumbrance, chilly head will drive you nuts till you do.
leather vest. Torso seems to take the most damage, leather vest is a good tradeoff between encumbrance and armor
Decent boots. Fitted steelcaps preferably
Eye protection. Something with 0 encumbrance
Hacksaw
Wrench
Welder
Hammer
Screwdriver
Fabrication tools
Pot
Frypan
Soldering iron All this stuff you want at least one of for crafting.
Steak knife Butchers knife is better for butchering until you get your survival up to 3 or 4, then the steak knife is better as its smaller, ok throwing weapon as well.
Booze. Always carry a bottle for pain relief and happy making.
Molli. Can be handy to have one or two.
MP3 player. Its pretty much an essential
Food and drinks. Keep most of them in the trolley, again eat the perishables first.
Drugs, first aid and bandages.
Batteries.
A few empty plastic gallon jugs. Fill them with water to purify, mixed booze drinks or petrol.

And dear god im spent. ill probably edit and do a bit of a cleanup later

22

I agree only the most common ingredients is probably the way to go in general, though there are a few potential exceptions.

Recipe A and B share a component, use different sources for it in the two recipes for variety.
A recipe uses a rare component with two equally-obscure sources, depect both of them to give people a better chance of being able to complete the recipe.

These (especially the second one) may easily be outweighed by the need for consistency across recipes, so it’s still a judgement call.

23

As someone who played dark souls, that image/guide from /v/ was invaluable. Something similar filled with hints and tips for cata would be a great asset for everyone. As to the art: KISS. Keep it simple and sweet and you can’t go wrong. I’d advise you to do it uncolored just to save time, as there’s a ton of stuff that could be covered.

[quote=“John Candlebury, post:16, topic:2940”]
[/quote]

This would be perfect for such I guide, I think. :slight_smile:

24

I wrote the introduction to the guide first because i am that rad. Things in parenthesis are the planned images. Will be doing the playstyles next.

[size=18pt]Introduction
[/size]
So, you just started this character and find yourself in the relative safety of your designed evacuation shelter, it seems that you got lucky and are one of the few lucky ones who managed to escape. Still it is obvious that staying here is impossible, the provided food and water have been exhausted and the competent authorities are nowhere to be found. Persuaded by the idea of dying of starvation, you have wisely decided to grab anything useful that remains in the basement and venture into the world.

A world that has changed a lot since you called it home, a world that is now the domain of the dead, a world in which unimaginable horrors roam the plains, a world that you barely managed to escape last time. This unforgivable place in which every single decision marks the difference between life and death, is now your only hope for survival. As of now, it obvious that you don’t stand a chance to survive in this new age; but perhaps some careful planning and ingenuity can show you the way to adapt in this new dark days.

(Zombies, zombies and more zombies)

The way to your new life starts right now, the moment you leave the shelter doors. But first, you need to know how to approach all this mess.

(John with his back toward the evac shelter seeing something in the distance

25

I love both the art and the text snippets. Brilliant!

26

So I made the portrait of a spitter zombie for the enemies album
(came out a little graffiti like)

Been writing the play styles but i dont think i ll upload them until later

27

Perhaps I should stop spoiling the guide but update!

[size=18pt]2. Your first Steps
[/size]
[size=14pt]2.1 A weapon
[/size]
(John thinking about wepons)

So you don’t have a weapon and considering the situations of things outside, it will be much more intelligent to get one. Thankfully this predicament can be fixed by creatively using the materials found in the evac shelter or by using the tools you brought in less orthodox ways. Depending on your play style and tastes, you might prefer to use:

(Nailboard)

A heavy melee weapon: Slow but strong hitters, the high damage outputs of this type of weapons works great for clearing small groups and enemies that can easily outrun you. Most also have defensive rolls like parries and blocks and usually offer some specialized attacks. Due to their already somewhat slow swings, they don’t suffer as strongly from encumbrance as light weapons and it is often a good idea to wear some armor to protect yourself as you hit. From the starting shelter you can make the following heavy weapons knife spear, nailboard (each linked to a illustrated recipe and a brief description of each weapon).

(Crowbar)

A fast melee weapon: even though they have a considerably reduced damage, their fast attack times open the possibility of hit and run strategies. Characters using fast melee weapons can’t really afford the encumbrance of strong armor and must instead rely on sheer strategy and their dodging skill to avoid being hit. From the starting shelter you can only make a crowbar but some professions also start with the following fast melee weapons: wrench, hammer, glock 19, golf club, hockey stick, butcher knife. (again linked)

(Spikes n rocks)

Throwing items: Miscellaneous small things that do more than 10 damage of any kind and even more preferably have piercing or cutting as main attacks. Throwing items is a by far the faster ranged attack and is ideal for fighting quick enemies and weakening strong enemies before they enter melee range. While throwing might seem pathetically weak at first, once you level up must thrown things will do more damage than a normal hit with a 9mm. Simple rocks are very good throwing material, but you can also make the following throwing items from the shelter: spikes, bayonets, pointy sticks, knife spears and wood spears. When choosing your throwing item you’ll have to decide between powerful but larger items that can only be carried a few at a time and weaker but small items you can saturate with. (links)

(Self bow)

A Ranged weapon: ranged weapons obviously offer the possibility to solve problems from comfortable distances using a ranged weapon is generally the safest way to approach any situation but might put you at risk when combating fast or hard to hit enemies. At the start of the game ranged weapons are composed of bows and the occasional crossbow which can be easily crafted or found. From the start you can get a self bow and some wooden shafts and at the risk of some damage can get a crossbow with a single shot from disarming a trap.
(links)

Regardless of whatever weapon you choose, know that what really makes the difference is not the tool but its wielder and that if you keep your head cold and play your cards right, any type of weapon is going to take you where you want to go and beyond.

[size=14pt]2.2 The basement
[/size]
You have probably already noticed that there are stairs leading to the basement in the middle of the room, even though it may not seem most of the time, the room has one of the best loot lists in the game (link to loot lists). It could contain all the surviving equipment (link to what you should take chapter of looting section) you may want and could potential save you from a lot of looting for those fabled tents and water purifiers. Even if the start basement is completely empty it never takes much time to look out.

[size=14pt]2.3 Where to go? What to do?
[/size]
Now that your inventory is for now settled down, it is a great moment to bring up your map up. Depending on your luck, there may be micro towns and small lakes around your shelter or you could find yourself surrounded by the spawn areas of triffids fungaloids and ants (each linked to the mass monster spawners in what to avoid chapter). On this randomly generated map depends what survival approach you should take and more.

[size=14pt]2.2.1 The common starting maps:[/size]

[size=12pt]The no danger map
[/size][center]

M03Tbyg.png251×502

[/center]The no danger map has well nothing really worth noting when i comes to dangers. A part of a city with some shops is revealed and other than that the map consist mostly of forest and plains. This type of map poses not imminent danger that should be avoided and small residential parts of the city are safe to be looted. The wilderness around you is ideally for low risk hunting trips and occasionally buildings (like the sewage treatment plant in this case) that make good home bases might spawn near you. This is the most common spawn and is ideal when you are starting out, as the map is well suited for whatever survival approach you wish to take, eventually and if things go right, your character will be forced to build a vehicle and search for new horizons to explore.

[size=12pt]The dangerous map
[/size][center]

eVpOXgk.png249×501

[/center]This map is often very similar to the nothing special map with just a single, small but very important difference: a mass enemy spawner is in the area and be it slimes, fungaloids, giant ants or triffids such a high amount of foes is not under your ability to handle and make exploring the nearby town a suicide mission. When confronted with this situation is often wiser to adapt yourself to a wanderer character and It is better to leave the surrounding area as fast as you can, if enabled, the starting NPC will distract nearby enemies to give you an opportunity to escape, make the sacrifice worth it. If possible, follow a road and hope it will take you to a better town.

[size=12pt]The Intercity spawn
[/size][center]
[/center]In an intercity spawn your shelter is often located somewhere between the road connecting to big cities with very few wilderness around. This spawn is very challenging and you might prefer to avoid it when starting but if you think you can manage the high number of zombies close by, you can a turn into a settler and dedicate your time to fortify your home base and looting the cities, this exploration should proceed in a very careful way, as you don’t really have a safe haven to retreat after being severely injured. Character in this spawn end to have very short lifespan if not played in a careful way and you may be interested in obtaining a vehicle and escaping to safer zones as fast as you can.

[size=12pt]The river spawn
[/size][center]
[/center]Very similar to a nothing special map with the addition of having a river conveniently nearby this spawn guarantees an infinite source of drinking water and is ideal for settler character, however don’t make your home base too close to the river shores and always keep your distance r unless you are going to collect water as you risk being attacked by nasty swamp critters. Usually swamps are also located near this spawn, which pose several risks and are to be avoided as much as possible. This spawn poses no risk if you play in classic mode, as swamp creatures are disabled.

So do you like it? Is it clear enough? It sucks?
BE sure to tell me

28

re map positions:
Nothing Special: Actually the Sewage Treatment is a fine place to re-base. That’s a Good start IMO.

Dangerous: Yeah, and spell out that the T is a fungal bloom just to be clear. That’s an Abort and Re-roll IMO.

Intercity: The FEMA and to to a lesser degree the Office Tower make that a fairly Dangerous start: lots of zeds, close by. Rebase or abort, IMO.

River: The river bank is an enemy spawner: swamp critters! That there is an exceptionally Dangerous start, I should think.

29

Dangerous, but it can be rewarding! Don’t make much noise around it, grab a bow, some arrows, some swimming skill and you could clear out a whole town easy mode. And it’s a safe transport if you’re being followed.

Or I could be speaking insanity.

30

[quote=“KA101, post:28, topic:2940”]re map positions:
Nothing Special: Actually the Sewage Treatment is a fine place to re-base. That’s a Good start IMO.

Dangerous: Yeah, and spell out that the T is a fungal bloom just to be clear. That’s an Abort and Re-roll IMO.

Intercity: The FEMA and to to a lesser degree the Office Tower make that a fairly Dangerous start: lots of zeds, close by. Rebase or abort, IMO.

River: The river bank is an enemy spawner: swamp critters! That there is an exceptionally Dangerous start, I should think.[/quote]
Yeah you are right about the nothing special spawn possibly going to rename it as no danger spawn as i mostly meant that no real danger is close and that there is nothing that makes it more convenient to change your play style, not that there’s actually nothing of interest around you. I ll edit it as appropiatlely

The intercity spawn however is not such a bad start if you take things calmly but it might be indeed to hard for a new player to handle adequately. Will also change that one

31

Please note that river spawn isn’t dangerous in classic mode.

32

Dunno, the only way I ever loose a deathvan full of loot is rivers.

33

Hey
You can already see the final Google doc that will be the actual guide (there is no new content though, just the formatting and some pictures)
its here:

The Guide

34

I like this. A lot.

35

The first and only weapon I religiously make after starting is the crowbar, very quick and packs a wallop given you have the right stats.
It is incredibly versatile as you can "A"ply it on doors and windows, allowing for silent entry into buildings.

After that I typically go for a sewing kit, and then go and smash a window, cutting a sheet up into 20x rags.
After that I craft enough glove liners to get my tailoring skill high enough to make cargo pants and such.

HELPFUL HINTS:
The string you receive from smashing windows can be disassembled down into thread, allowing you to reload your sewing kit, the same can be done with sinew.

To get leather you can apply scissors (and perhaps some other cutting item) to fur pelts.

Current Exploit:
Duffel Bags take 40 rags to produce, however when cut back down into rags, they will typically always yield 80 rags, double the amount you began with.

36

This is great! you sir have my thanks

37

Caution: they nerfed the craftable crowbar in the Git. Now crafting creates an Improvised Crowbar rather than the real thing: all the stats of Pipe.

38

^ Dammit one day on the internet and already out of date :smiley:

Thanks will update it

By the way anyone has its stats it seems the latest experimental is broken and cant see the makeshift version

39

Ah well, back to the nailboard and picklock kit then…

40

cXvzluQ.gif700×517

Sorry I havent been updating this as much as I should, and i have somewhat valid reasons for that; but anyway it’s time for me to start working on this again. Expect an update today/tomorrow.

Well I just moved to Europe and I havent had time to concentrate, sit down, and write about the game with all this turist-ing I have been doing in the past month, but now its over so lets continue this thing!