Churl Start?

I’ve wanted to try a start out in the wilderness, building up equipment and skills from the boondocks (and also build a vehicle from there and mark of one of the Gods of Cataclysm milestones) and figured the challenge-Medieval Peasant might be a good way to go, getting some early skills for the middle of nowhere start. Unfortunately I’m having trouble and looking for some guidance.

I’m having trouble in two main area, the first being clothing. It’s always cold and I might as well be nude for all the warmth I’m not getting. Being in the woods, there are VERY limited places to get rags, and I won’t be making leather on day one. Having a constant fire helps, but isn’t great.

The second is the maddening hostility of the woods. Normally taking on a Zed or two would be fine, but for some reason I’m getting wrecked and worse I always get infected. I always try to run but always end up running into a mi-go or kreck and can’t seem to outrun them.

Thoughts?

[quote=“Rokmonkey, post:1, topic:14118”]I’ve wanted to try a start out in the wilderness, building up equipment and skills from the boondocks (and also build a vehicle from there and mark of one of the Gods of Cataclysm milestones) and figured the challenge-Medieval Peasant might be a good way to go, getting some early skills for the middle of nowhere start. Unfortunately I’m having trouble and looking for some guidance.

I’m having trouble in two main area, the first being clothing. It’s always cold and I might as well be nude for all the warmth I’m not getting. Being in the woods, there are VERY limited places to get rags, and I won’t be making leather on day one. Having a constant fire helps, but isn’t great.

The second is the maddening hostility of the woods. Normally taking on a Zed or two would be fine, but for some reason I’m getting wrecked and worse I always get infected. I always try to run but always end up running into a mi-go or kreck and can’t seem to outrun them.

Thoughts?[/quote]
Go to a different forest. One that doesn’t have mi-gos or kreks. As for rags try to find one of the drugs gone wrong as from my experiences the migos are usually only around the scientists and soldiers.

That’s the solution I feared. My current run I’ve managed to hold on. I ran across both a campsite and a group of hiker corpses. Not a lot of rags, but something close.

If you’ve got triffids or fungaloids nearby, plant fiber can be turned into rags, too.

I forgot about that. For plant fiber acquisition I was mainly thinking about foraging just either raw plant fibers from bushes or crafting it from dogbane.

You can get some sinew from moose and bear, or a little plant fiber from dogbane and cattail. This is slow, so not practical.

The peasant is yanked from his idyllic village to the realm of Eastern Cannibal Pagan Empire. He is not going to build a cottage and raise hog, at least not now. Survival comes first, then style and conduct. I’d say one just does what an ordinary survivor does. Skirmishing zombies around the town, getting clothing, a lighter, and a makeshift crowbar.

Wool cloak already covers the torso well. What one wants are pants, boots, and some curtain sheets for gloves, hat, and scarf.

Mi-go bites hard but runs fast but it’s actually slower than you. Alternating between running and walking, you can escape mi-go.

[quote="§k, post:6, topic:14118"]You can get some sinew from moose and bear, or a little plant fiber from dogbane and cattail. This is slow, so not practical.

The peasant is yanked from his idyllic village to the realm of Eastern Cannibal Pagan Empire. He is not going to build a cottage and raise hog, at least not now. Survival comes first, then style and conduct. I’d say one just does what an ordinary survivor does. Skirmishing zombies around the town, getting clothing, a lighter, and a makeshift crowbar.

Wool cloak already covers the torso well. What one wants are pants, boots, and some curtain sheets for gloves, hat, and scarf.

Mi-go bites hard but runs fast but it’s actually slower than you. Alternating between running and walking, you can escape mi-go.[/quote]
Providing of course you don’t get pain locked.

That’s right. Mi-go doesn’t worth fighting. One should run away and left it to zombies.

[quote="§k, post:6, topic:14118"]You can get some sinew from moose and bear, or a little plant fiber from dogbane and cattail. This is slow, so not practical.

The peasant is yanked from his idyllic village to the realm of Eastern Cannibal Pagan Empire. He is not going to build a cottage and raise hog, at least not now. Survival comes first, then style and conduct. I’d say one just does what an ordinary survivor does. Skirmishing zombies around the town, getting clothing, a lighter, and a makeshift crowbar.

Wool cloak already covers the torso well. What one wants are pants, boots, and some curtain sheets for gloves, hat, and scarf.

Mi-go bites hard but runs fast but it’s actually slower than you. Alternating between running and walking, you can escape mi-go.[/quote]

Ahh, but the peasant starts in the wilderness, there are no houses and curtains around. That’s what makes it a difficult start.

Walk straight to any direction and you will see “people” before noon…

Is there a swamp nearby? Turning cattail stalks and rhizomes into starch (a precursor of flour) produces a large amount of plant fiber, roughly 50 per cattail. You can potentially get thousands of units of plant fiber and near-infinite amounts of flour that way, though preparing it takes a fair bit of time. I think making starch only needs cooking 1, whereas flour needs cooking 2.

Do cat tails grow back?

So, finding corpses has been the biggest savior and really is key to surviving a Churl start. Wild Veggies and cattails have been life savors as well.

I’ve managed to get a full smithy up and running to make higher end gear but I came to a new disappointment:

  1. I can’t make a screw driver. You need duct tape, but without being able to read you can’t get the recipe to make duct tape.
  2. Either my tailoring/mechanics/fabrication skills aren’t high enough, or I need a book to get the recipes for plate or chain mail armor.

[quote=“Rokmonkey, post:13, topic:14118”]So, finding corpses has been the biggest savior and really is key to surviving a Churl start. Wild Veggies and cattails have been life savors as well.

I’ve managed to get a full smithy up and running to make higher end gear but I came to a new disappointment:

  1. I can’t make a screw driver. You need duct tape, but without being able to read you can’t get the recipe to make duct tape.
  2. Either my tailoring/mechanics/fabrication skills aren’t high enough, or I need a book to get the recipes for plate or chain mail armor.[/quote]
    Plate male requires a book chain mail I think needs to be found. Also yeah I find it a bit dumb that you need duct tape to make a screwdriver. Sure you need to grip it somehow but if you can make a rod with a philips head by hammering it together this is where I say if you can’t find the tape just edit the recipe and say you made a grip out of tightly wrapped rags or something.

Take a rod of metal, say 12". Sharpen one end into a screwdriver. Bend said rod 90 degrees at about the half-way point. Bam, no “grip” required.

A screwdriver SET? Yeah, you need specialized stuff… but a basic screwdriver? Heck, a butter knife works passably well for most things.

I completely agree. Although right now my interpretation of the screwdriver set is the it is a box filled with different sizes and types like flat,start and maybe others.

This is another one of those things that make me want to make a mod that adds a lot more makeshift things but I don’t really have the time,drive or patience to really do so.

[quote=“DeWolf, post:16, topic:14118”]I completely agree. Although right now my interpretation of the screwdriver set is the it is a box filled with different sizes and types like flat,start and maybe others.

This is another one of those things that make me want to make a mod that adds a lot more makeshift things but I don’t really have the time,drive or patience to really do so.[/quote]

Yeah, the “set” I assume is “exactly the right tool for almost any situation”, so I get why that would be really hard to model making (minutia and tedium). Do you include all the sizes of hex-key, do you include that funky triangle one, etc…

But the basic one should be stupid easy - butterknife + fabrication 1 or something.

Only thing though is that we make Phillips head screwdrivers.

A butter knife (or smaller flathead screwdriver) can actually function decently well for most phillips head screws.

[quote=“DeWolf, post:16, topic:14118”]I completely agree. Although right now my interpretation of the screwdriver set is the it is a box filled with different sizes and types like flat,start and maybe others.

This is another one of those things that make me want to make a mod that adds a lot more makeshift things but I don’t really have the time,drive or patience to really do so.[/quote]

Same here. I’m thinking I actually will do it. Just to address the short-comings you really only find doing challenge starts like this one. A second recipe for a screw driver requiring a rag and resinous cord, or something like that would work.

A few recipes for make-shift metal armor. Without a book you can’t make the old school stuff, but even a passing knowledge should get you something sturdy if encumbering.