Help

[Oragepoilu]

There is a recipe that allow you to make an item that can start a fire, it cost, with other things, strings … and take more time that with a lighter. I don’t remember if it come with the more survival tools mod though.

Still it cost a decent amount of time to make and use, it’s only for the desperate guy. (a bit later you can even make a bow drill !)

There is also the possibility to have an amber keeper that will allow you to light fires for a while after you lit it.

[Zireael]

The fire drill (and it’s larger cousin, camp fire drill) are in vanilla.

[Straume21]

If you pick the base survivor profession, you start with a matchbook (20 charges) which generally can get you by until you can find a lighter with high charges.

[deknegt]

If you pick the base survivor profession, you start with a matchbook (20 charges) which generally can get you by until you can find a lighter with high charges.

This, Matchbooks and lighters are extremely common if you’re looting ordinary houses, and they weigh next to nothing and have 0 encumberance, so you can pick them all up without messing up your carrying capacity… In less than a game-week I often have more lighters/matches to never worry about them ever again… Yet you can still pick them up without any worry because they weigh nothing.

Same goes for cash cards, threads, and a lot of the drugs available in the game… You can carry infinite amounts of aspirin and only after a long time it’s going to put a real dent into the weight (where he stores them, is up to your imagination.)

Cash cards are semi-advanced things and very situational, but it’s never an issue to pick them up and hoard them… The charges work on the cent-scale, so 100 ‘charges’ is one dollar/euro/credit/survivorbuck and so forth.

[Azrad]

Scoundrel’s a pretty decent profession to start with, if you can afford the points (which for most part is quite low compared to getting some melee skills in exchange). You also get a switchblade and a lighter, so you can get some hunting down to secure food - though you’ll need a means to boil water though, or find some clean drinks to supply you on your first few days.

If you pick the cannibal trait, you also get the cookbook which does have some value in trade. If you have static NPCs on, you can trade for some handy supplies in exchange, if you’re not in a hurry to feast on anything beyond cooked creeps.

[Adragis029]

Skater Girl/Boy profession is absurd. You get double speed on flat surfaces plus you ignore the fighting on skates penalties. If your evac shelter/other base is on a road, you can make getaways simply by sprinting through the streets. Combat is basically the standard hit and run strategy but even easier. Having the Parkour Expert trait makes you a mobility machine capable of achieving quadruple speed while jumping over counters left and right. All my best characters have been Skater Girls.

[SenorOcho]

I’ve always gone with Tailor, just to start with that tailoring kit (though throwing another point in to have tailoring at 6 isn’t bad).

Go outside, grab rock. Smash locker. Tear down a curtain. Use scissors to cut up sheets. Make spike-> makeshift knife and makeshift crowbar.

Check basement now that I have a weapon.

Tear down other curtains and solve warmth issues (balaclava, duster, glove liners and/or light gloves)…possibly spending an hour tearing up a rag for more thread.

From there, ready to go food hunting. (though if the basement was loaded I may just stick around and read into the first night)

Obviously this is limited to a non-hostile evac shelter start, though.

[ianpwilliams]

Speaking of which, if you are in aa safe building with plenty of food and drink, then are you best off spending your time reading as much as possible (assuming I can manage to create some kind of light source to read by)? I’m in a pretty safe building for the moment at least. Also the basement of my latest shelter was covered in items, which kind of feels a bit like cheating, although if it can get me past day 1 then I can’t complain.

[deknegt]

Speaking of which, if you are in aa safe building with plenty of food and drink, then are you best off spending your time reading as much as possible (assuming I can manage to create some kind of light source to read by)? I’m in a pretty safe building for the moment at least. Also the basement of my latest shelter was covered in items, which kind of feels a bit like cheating, although if it can get me past day 1 then I can’t complain.

Generally when you have a little bit of a buffer built up regarding supplies, it’s always smart to do some reading. Although it’s always smart to think ahead about the future and becoming (semi) self sustaining…
Also if you can get your hands on a screwdriver and hammer, your best bet is to remove most furniture (except the top right console!) and start boarding the place up so that there’s one way in and out and you won’t have the odd zombie flail itself through a window and have him piss on your carpet.

A few useful survival supplies are…
Knife, Screwdriver, Hammer, Funnel(s) (for water!), pot’s or other utensils with boiling/cooking, bottles, brazier (for indoor fires that won’t burn the building down).
Also useful are leather patches (gained from cutting up leather items), which can help you create makeshift funnels (for water), and also with a few tailoring levels allow you to create useful and durable leather items like armoured gloves, which are durable, warm, and have low encumberance.

One thing you should never do is eat uncooked meat/bones you harvested from animals, nor should you ever touch tainted anything… Also be sure to drink CLEAN water and not just ‘water’, because the latter can make your survivor very sick.

Finally any clothing you find be sure to use a few sweaters and other warm items as makeshift ‘blankets’, you just dump them on the tile you use to sleep and your survivor will use the items to keep him/herself warm at night, which goes a long way in getting rested and not getting frostnip/bite.

Another unrelated ‘tip’ for someone that’s new to the game, it helps a lot to just watch others play the game and show you the ropes in basic surviving. So if you just need some visual assistance, you’re best off finding a reasonably current Cataclysm DDA lets play/tutorial on YouTube, it’s how I first got into the game and also learned general useful ‘tips’ on making it far.

[ianpwilliams]

Good idea on the YouTube thing, I think I’ll give that a go.

[ianpwilliams]

I watched a YouTube video and I seemed to know most of what he talked about which is good, although he had a modded character with a bow which seemed to help him a lot.

One issue I’m having right now is that I can’t see to read, even though it’s the middle of the day (I’m in an apartment). Shouldn’t there be done natural light? I have a flashlight but I don’t want to waste batteries. Also I read about how disassembling a flashlight into a flashlight strip can extend battery life, is that worth doing?

[Taraq]

[quote=“ianpwilliams, post:38, topic:10814”]I watched a YouTube video and I seemed to know most of what he talked about which is good, although he had a modded character with a bow which seemed to help him a lot.

One issue I’m having right now is that I can’t see to read, even though it’s the middle of the day (I’m in an apartment). Shouldn’t there be done natural light? I have a flashlight but I don’t want to waste batteries. Also I read about how disassembling a flashlight into a flashlight strip can extend battery life, is that worth doing?[/quote]

Lightstrips are only useful as a basic crafting lamp or something, they don’t provide light more than two or three squares away and it’s not enough to read by quickly, so you shouldn’t make one out of your flashlight so early in the game.

As for the light: if you’re in an apartment and you’ve drawn the curtains ("c"losed the windows till you couldn’t see through them) then natural light won’t be able to get in and you won’t be able to see, or if you’re too far away from a window–you can roughly tell where it’s bright enough by where the tiles have color, or from the lighting indicator right above the time/date on your status panel, if it says “brightly” or “cloudy,” you should have enough light to read.

[Oragepoilu]

I watched a YouTube video and I seemed to know most of what he talked about which is good, although he had a modded character with a bow which seemed to help him a lot.

As I tested recently, bow aren’t worth much early/mid because how armor, range, skill works. Damage will be low, range won’t be much, speed will be low, and you can’t hit after 70%-100% max range because of the malus that will just make you miss/grazing near all the time unless it’s a weak zombie you can kill by hand.

At best there is some use for hunting, but at this point a sling do the trick with more efficiency. It’s faster and easier to make ammo early. However feel free to use archery at low skill if you find a recurve reflex box somewhere; They are quite useful (especially for the noise
One thing though, throwing and archery isn’t the same mechanic, so depend of your stats and encumbrance you may want to switch for a bow, and stack backpack of all sort.

[Taraq]

[quote=“ianpwilliams, post:38, topic:10814”]I watched a YouTube video and I seemed to know most of what he talked about which is good, although he had a modded character with a bow which seemed to help him a lot.

As I tested recently, bow aren’t worth much early/mid because how armor, range, skill works. Damage will be low, range won’t be much, speed will be low, and you can’t hit after 70%-100% max range because of the malus that will just make you miss/grazing near all the time unless it’s a weak zombie you can kill by hand.

At best there is some use for hunting, but at this point a sling do the trick with more efficiency. It’s faster and easier to make ammo early. However feel free to use archery at low skill if you find a recurve reflex box somewhere; They are quite useful (especially for the noise
One thing though, throwing and archery isn’t the same mechanic, so depend of your stats and encumbrance you may want to switch for a bow, and stack backpack of all sort.[/quote]

Yeah, bows are actually incredible for early night raids if you have night vision. You can usually kill anything before it sees you, and it’s a godsend vs. big boomers, corrosives, shockers, and other glowy ones that aren’t safe to approach without attracting more zombies.

[ianpwilliams]

[quote=“Taraq, post:39, topic:10814”][quote=“ianpwilliams, post:38, topic:10814”]I watched a YouTube video and I seemed to know most of what he talked about which is good, although he had a modded character with a bow which seemed to help him a lot.

One issue I’m having right now is that I can’t see to read, even though it’s the middle of the day (I’m in an apartment). Shouldn’t there be done natural light? I have a flashlight but I don’t want to waste batteries. Also I read about how disassembling a flashlight into a flashlight strip can extend battery life, is that worth doing?[/quote]

Lightstrips are only useful as a basic crafting lamp or something, they don’t provide light more than two or three squares away and it’s not enough to read by quickly, so you shouldn’t make one out of your flashlight so early in the game.

As for the light: if you’re in an apartment and you’ve drawn the curtains ("c"losed the windows till you couldn’t see through them) then natural light won’t be able to get in and you won’t be able to see, or if you’re too far away from a window–you can roughly tell where it’s bright enough by where the tiles have color, or from the lighting indicator right above the time/date on your status panel, if it says “brightly” or “cloudy,” you should have enough light to read.[/quote]

That makes sense, it’s because I boarded up the windows. I just assumed I could see because all tiles were visible rather than just the tiles around me like at night. I better unboard a window.

[ianpwilliams]

I’m still having issues with lighting. It’s the middle of the day and I can only see one tile around me, whether inside or out. The weather is snowing (formerly thunderstorm), but surely I should be able to see the tiles around me?

Also, when I’m inside and it’s dark, is there a way I can light up the area for reading, given that my flashlight has run out, without setting fire to the place?

[Taraq]

[quote=“ianpwilliams, post:43, topic:10814”]I’m still having issues with lighting. It’s the middle of the day and I can only see one tile around me, whether inside or out. The weather is snowing (formerly thunderstorm), but surely I should be able to see the tiles around me?

Also, when I’m inside and it’s dark, is there a way I can light up the area for reading, given that my flashlight has run out, without setting fire to the place?[/quote]

Are you near or far sighted and without glasses? I’m also medium sure that high eye encumbrance can do this but not certain.

[ianpwilliams]

Yes I’m eye encumbered, so that’ll be why. It’s gone full view again now, so presumably being eye encumbered reduces the amount of vision overall.

[TheWumpus]

Some starting skills/traits that make survival that much easier:

1. Night vision. Seriously. This should be in every one of your builds unless you like A LOT of early game challenge. With the way lighting has been changed in the most recent versions (don’t know if you’re running the experimentals or not) night vision is incredibly powerful. Used to be with enough to read by with some mutagen to make it better…but that’s beside the point. Even base night vision right now is great.

2. Self Defense Classes: Ninjitsu. Guess what, all your melee attacks are now silent and you gain bonuses from movement. Why are you standing still at all to fight zeds? You’re faster than them almost all the time and those you aren’t faster than can be extremely !!FUN!! early game…

3. Parkour Expert. Ignore movement penalties from non-vegetation items. This is just fantastic.

4. Pack Mule. 40% more volume. Volume is your friend all through the game, but especially so early game.

5. Light step. Reduce your walk noise radius by 4. This is huge. This is super huge. Stealth past all the zombies. This plus ninjitsu basically make you a real ninja with some practice.

Now all these cost some points. You’re probably thinking with 8 points there’s no way I can get all of these (let alone one or two) and still have my favorite starting build. That’s where negative traits come in. Some useful negative traits.

1. Bad Liar. NPCs are bug ridden disease vectors that should be exterminated before they shoot you. Even the friendly ones will shoot you, just not on purpose. It makes no sense to lie to them.

2. Ugly. See above, only who cares about their reactions, you’re going to murder them and take their stuff.

3. Poor memory. Skill rust is gross and I highly suggest turning it off until you’ve got the hang of basic survival and are looking for more challenge. Or at the very least set it to not reduce skills below their current level.

4. Addictive Personality. Unless you plan on doing every narcotic you find the penalties from this are far outweighed by the couple extra trait points.

5. Glass Jaw. Head shots early game will probably kill you no matter what. Easy points, if you live long enough to start worrying about non-melee head shots you’ve probably found or made some decent head armor.

Suggested starting class: Survivor.
Why survivor? Well early game you start with winter gear, a fire source, a knife, and a bottle of clean water. Food you don’t really have to worry about the first day, by the time you can move into town you won’t have starved (it takes a couple weeks of in game time to starve and the penalties for being hungry for a day really aren’t that severe. Also you’ll probably find something to eat in the first house).

Suggested starting weapon: Cudgel.
Precise strike, rapid strike, parry. Easy to craft out of a stick. Good for training melee. Non-conductive in case you MUST bash something that shocks you.

Suggested starting ranged weapon: Sling. Throw rocks at the floor of the shelter for the first day until it gets dark. Once you have your first night raid done craft a bow and some arrows and practice, practice, practice.

Suggested minimum starting skills:
Survival 2
Fabrication 2
Tailoring 2
Construction 2
That’s one point in each. This should allow you to immediately craft a wooden needle, tear a rag into thread, and reinforce clothing/make some useful stuff. Construction because it’s a pain in the ass to level up and you’ll want a fireplace at some point.

Suggested starting mods (once you’ve learned how to make it the first few days you can disable them on a new game if desired):
Slow zombies
Prevent zombie revification

[Adragis029]

I always find Asthmatic to be good, if you don’t mind sleeping being a luck-based mission on whether your lungs pack in before you wake up naturally. I usually find enough inhalers lying around to keep me going.