Hi. To start with, Cataclysm DDA is my favourite game at this moment. I like realism, focus on details, immersive gameplay, randomization. But usually I play with ,classic zombies" or even ,no monsters". I hate situations in which we can kill zombie hulk with a knife… After some time our character becomes too op. Or ,Carmageddon" shit- ,run over 1000 zombies within one hour". How it compares to ,The Road"(McCarthy) or ,The Last Man on Earth"(1964)? Lack of radiation zones, dangerous anomalies, acid rains, lethal gases(for example in swamps), extreme cold winters/extreme hot summers is also a bit strange for me. NPCs are much better now but their spawning system is quite chaotic. I strongly admire Kevins/other developers work. The scale of changes in this game is incredible. But for me it is more like Call of Duty than survival simulator:/ I tried to beat boredom by:
Using very low item spawn-0.25 or 0.15(small amount of food and ammo)
Using mod which doubles enemies damage and HP(say ,goodbye" to op characters)
Creating believable characters with low stats(not superheroes)
Imaging ,realistic" limits of character psychological endurance
Roleplaying is REALLY the huge one for me. Super low item spawns don’t really do it for me, as you add time to gameplay, but not fun time. Usually its tedium.
There’s the overmap rebalancing mod though. Most buildings are bombed and burned out. That, plus enhanced spawn rates still nets overall less stuff, but when you do find a place with stuff, you get a fair amount. As opposed to finding a gunstore with maybe a rifle and a few bullets left, you find four craters that were once a gun store, and then one that’s still in good condition, and well stocked. Fun stuff.
I also try to limit how much deathmobile I let myself get, based on the character. Even if the skills say “You can totally install a turbolaser into this tank”, I have to ask myself, would it even occur to my character to jury-rig a laser cannon atop an ice cream truck. Usually, the answer is no. As time goes on and the vehicle gets straight up busted up, it gets more mad max and ramshackle. But I’ve never had a character even get close to a deathmobile without surviving a year or two. Most complex operation most of them do is replacing trunks with cargo spaces, and aisles with floor trunks. More recent additions include Camera systems to replace wing mirrors. But that’s more QoL than anything else.
Still all comes down to roleplay at the end of the day. Suboptimal gameplay in the pursuit of telling your survivors story, whatever you feel it might be. Otherwise, you end up metagaming, and each character becomes the same through min/max.
Taking a break helps too. Put the game down, come back in a few months and see what new features and mods exist. I’ve done it twice so far, and it feels much better to come back after a while.
When it comes to believable stats i have some problems. Where chosing 8 strength makes you unable to move most furniture.
There things you can t drag arround then which i can lift above my head. What would be a believable value for strength then? And if that value is the same for other stats how would it look like? For an average person in my opinion it would be easily above 8 if i go by that example. There just not many instances in which i can realy measure the meaning behind the numerical stats. Any suggestions?
One of the freakiest things I remember was when I found a radio for the first time. I started scanning the channels, until the voice on the radio said “Head east”. Nothing else. Just that. I’ve been meaning to do that sometime. Just drive east non-stop for a week, only to stop for a quick nap occasionally. So, take a roadtrip.
BTW Have you done any of the refugee center or ranch missions?
I visited refugee center and it was awesome. The first bigger RPG element. But now I see this in different way. Immersive refugee center contrasts with artificial, chaotic, non realistic interaction with NPC
Yeah. If NPCs were better, the refugee center would be amazing.
Follow the main quest line until you get to the tacoma commune. Tacoma Commune quest line is actually interesting. With every quest, they build more of the commune, and then make some free tools available to you.
I found ,Overmap Rebalancing" mode but it has debuging errors. Something with special locations and their terrain. Mod is working but I have to press space button 20x
Overmap special “2fMotel” has invalid location ,by_hiway"
Did you follow all the install instructions properly? You need to change things around based on what other mods you have, or have not, added to the world with it.