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[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.

[Azrad]

If you’re building a melee fighter from the start, going with hospital scenario can work out. You should have medical supplies available in the hospital itself; bandages and first aid kits for wounds, saline eye drops for boomer bile. Won’t work out as well if hordes are on since you might get swarmed in the first few hours. Frail/fragile can be somewhat problematic, but at this point I’m pretty much picking those traits plus glass jaw all the time so I’m used to it.

[deknegt]

If you’re building a melee fighter from the start, going with hospital scenario can work out. You should have medical supplies available in the hospital itself; bandages and first aid kits for wounds, saline eye drops for boomer bile. Won’t work out as well if hordes are on since you might get swarmed in the first few hours. Frail/fragile can be somewhat problematic, but at this point I’m pretty much picking those traits plus glass jaw all the time so I’m used to it.

I really can’t suggest any beginner to go with such a start, because it dumps people headfirst into a zed-infested area with no weapons, clothing, and a pretty bum trait when it comes to tanking damage. It’s the exact opposite of what you’d suggest a new person to do, the main rule of Zed-Club is that you stay the fuck away from them unless you’ve got no choice but to bust a few heads.

[quote=“TheWumpus, post:46, topic:10814”]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.[/quote]

I never knew this was a thing, I always thought shocking zeds would shock you regardless of bashing them with a crowbar or a baseball bat.

[Azrad]

[quote=“Azrad, post:48, topic:10814”]If you’re building a melee fighter from the start, going with hospital scenario can work out. You should have medical supplies available in the hospital itself; bandages and first aid kits for wounds, saline eye drops for boomer bile. Won’t work out as well if hordes are on since you might get swarmed in the first few hours. Frail/fragile can be somewhat problematic, but at this point I’m pretty much picking those traits plus glass jaw all the time so I’m used to it.

I really can’t suggest any beginner to go with such a start, because it dumps people headfirst into a zed-infested area with no weapons, clothing, and a pretty bum trait when it comes to tanking damage. It’s the exact opposite of what you’d suggest a new person to do, the main rule of Zed-Club is that you stay the fuck away from them unless you’ve got no choice but to bust a few heads.

[quote=“TheWumpus, post:46, topic:10814”]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.[/quote]

I never knew this was a thing, I always thought shocking zeds would shock you regardless of bashing them with a crowbar or a baseball bat.[/quote]

Early on desperate encounters with shockers had me using a book or a cash card as a weapon.

On hospital start, you can also rely on a static NPC to do the killing for you. Extra useful if it’s a melee oriented NPC.

[ianpwilliams]

I can’t believe it, I’m on day 5 and I’m still alive! I’ve even killed several zombies and a zombie soldier! And I’ve been upping various skills by doing a hell of a lot of reading, with eating in between, as one of the apartments has a massive amount of food in it.

I’m just wondering if I should stay here for as long as possible, reading away and eating when required, until I run out of books and/or low on food, and then move on. Seems to be the logical thing to do, right?

Also, has anyone else discovered OCD in themselves when playing this game? I’m finding myself wanting to tidy up all the time, storing two by fours, splintered wood etc in one room, litter in another etc. Seems like a waste of time really considering that I’ll be moving on eventually anyway.

[Azrad]

[quote=“ianpwilliams, post:51, topic:10814”]I can’t believe it, I’m on day 5 and I’m still alive! I’ve even killed several zombies and a zombie soldier! And I’ve been upping various skills by doing a hell of a lot of reading, with eating in between, as one of the apartments has a massive amount of food in it.

I’m just wondering if I should stay here for as long as possible, reading away and eating when required, until I run out of books and/or low on food, and then move on. Seems to be the logical thing to do, right?

Also, has anyone else discovered OCD in themselves when playing this game? I’m finding myself wanting to tidy up all the time, storing two by fours, splintered wood etc in one room, litter in another etc. Seems like a waste of time really considering that I’ll be moving on eventually anyway.[/quote]

Yes.

[ianpwilliams]

Nice! Which tileset is that out of interest?

Another thing I was wondering about - is it possible to get to a point where you have so many supplies, you’ve levelled up so much etc that you’re pretty much invincible? Or are you always up against it? Personally I would prefer to be up against it otherwise I might get bored. I thought I read somewhere that the game constantly gets harder.

[Azrad]

Chesthole. That’s the ground floor of an ice lab, by the way. Removed several walls, then added a ceiling to the place; rock floor has an odd quality where it’s an indoor tile, yet they don’t have a roof so rain will come in. I found that untidy and decided to build ceilings except for the areas with solar panels and the funnel area.

And yeah, it’s pretty easy to reach a point where you can be invincible. Especially in the case of having no skill rust whatsoever, at least in older versions. Some skills now can take a long while to level up now, mainly melee skills, so it can be easy before to get melee skill to an extent where you become a physical demigod.

For me, to prevent getting bored, I usually be lightly armored. Still light survivor gear, decent protection but not enough to try to brute force through a horde. That way, there’s still a risk of death while having a reasonable enough chance for fighting back.