# Is the human race able to survive Cataclysm?

**URL:** <https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204>\
**Category:** The Bunker\
**Created:** [January 4, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204 "2019-01-04T20:33:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 11

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**Author:** ![hydroplatypus](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/hydroplatypus/32/4070_2.png) [@hydroplatypus](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/hydroplatypus)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 9:05pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/206 "2019-10-13T21:05:07Z")

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> [@Litppunk](#):
>
> Best case for humanity has to be: survivor with boosted intelligence studies blob, purifier etc… and figures out how to regularly purge blob from human systems enough to allow uncomplicated births to be a reproducible affair without the need for a team of specialists to watch over the pregnancy.
> 
> Unfortunately even for a hyper intelligent blob boosted mutant this would likely be a full lifetime of work requiring extended life.

I’m pretty sure the labs already discovered a reliable way of purging the blob from humanity. They just couldn’t produce enough of it in time to stop the cataclysm. So all they actually would need to do would be to find the relevant lab notes, and replicate the process. Now, there isn’t actually said item in game yet, but it is repeatedly mentioned on the lab console logs.

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**Author:** ![Invalid\_Username](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@Invalid\_Username](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Invalid_Username)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/207 "2019-10-13T21:48:02Z")

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> [@Stone](#):
>
> we havent exactly been open to different.

When some of the “mutants” are elves, catgirls, and literal ubermensch? Whether or not any breeding occurred, they’d definitely find people willing to try.

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**Author:** ![mlangsdorf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mlangsdorf/32/2462_2.png) [@mlangsdorf](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mlangsdorf)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2019, 10:56pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/208 "2019-10-13T22:56:17Z")

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They can purge the blob from someone, but the process kills the patient. So even if that “cure” is rediscovered by diligent research, it’s not particularly useful for humanity.

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**Author:** ![monny](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/monny/32/4985_2.png) [@monny](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/monny)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 9:40am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/209 "2019-10-14T09:40:35Z")

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I think there is a big gap between the lore and the gameplay as it stands, and that’s just the nature of a game.

Yes, players here can gather the best weapons, 100 NPCs, build a magnificent base and deathmobile and so on. Great players can last past 100 days. But who here last more than 5 days on their very first playthrough? Hell, I don’t think I lasted 5 hours, and I imagine most other people would be the same. In real life you only have one life.

The average survivor (whether they survived through luck or skill) would have no prior knowledge of anything in the game. They wouldn’t know about the Blob, they would see zombies out of their window but it would take them a while to realise they evolve. They may have heard rumours about triffids or mi-gos or giant ants, but they wouldn’t truely know how to handle them until they came across them. Even something relatively intuitive like “that giant blue glowing zombie with electrical sparks all over it” - as an individual you could guess it has an electrical effect, but you wouldn’t know first time around the range of that effect or the damage it does to you. Not to mention the fact that in real life you’d probably start somewhere equivalent to a basement in a “megacity”, or an evac shelter not far away from a “megacity”.

Humans are remarkably adaptable that’s true, but we’ve never had to adapt to a scenario quite as extensive as this, or one where the situation accelerates as rapidly as this. Yes, there are plenty of books to learn from, a few computers, and sharing knowledge between each other, but forms of rapid communication are lost (I don’t know what the status is on radio towers or the Internet, but I assume it would take a fair amount of knowledge and time to get such things set back up)

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**Author:** ![Maddremor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Maddremor](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Maddremor)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 10:04am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/210 "2019-10-14T10:04:23Z")

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When discussing any high-tech solutions to problems, we have to remember that all that tech was manufactured before the cataclysm. With our industrial basis destroyed access to basic stuff like functional plumbing becomes uncertain, which puts obscure items like bionics in the hand of a few elite/luck scavagers, not the general populace.

(For example when talking about burning fungal infestations, gasoline or similar combustibles are not infinite, and we already fight wars over oil in our current pre-cataclysm world. We might not have fuel to spare for flamethrowers every day.)

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**Author:** ![Paul\_Blay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/paul_blay/32/6803_2.png) [@Paul\_Blay](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Paul_Blay)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/211 "2019-10-14T13:39:43Z")

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Fungal growth out of control? We teach the triffids how to start fires.

Surely this will have no unintended consequences.

 ![nuclear%20spiders](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/cataclysmdda/original/2X/d/d45efa5b54fa874ec8259569328f0af5356a265f.png)

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**Author:** ![MutaMan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mutaman/32/7000_2.png) [@MutaMan](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/MutaMan)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/212 "2019-10-14T14:44:42Z")

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I would be the guy over there betting that, yes, humanity would be able to survive.

As it stands there is no encounter in the entire game that cannot be handled by 4 people with moderate combat proficiency, in leather armor with spears and shields and survival gear spread out between them to conserve encumbrance(firestarter, etc), excluding mi-go camps, robots, and turrets. And that’s taking into account the current brave idiocy NPCs are famous for. I’m fairly certain one would be able to make some sort of siege engine with the help of other survivors to deal with robots from a far distance like chicken walkers, assuming it’s capable of being aimed accurately.

Humanity would even thrive if some sort of champion of a survivor gathers people wherever they go into their group like some sort of apocalyptic messia and eventually form a cyber-medieval society from which you can rebuild large farms, infrastructure, and where an entire army can be commanded to clear a city for looting. Or where entire villages live in mobile city death-mobiles. You don’t even need matches or a lighter to deal with the fungus. Just keep a fire going and be ready to dump a large amount of burning material into the fungal fields.

What I don’t know is if humanity would still be able to reproduce. Then again, the majority of other animals can sooo… highly likely.

IF, however, things were continuously as bad as the start of the cataclysm when the portal storms occured, then they probably won’t survive.

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**Author:** ![Litppunk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/litppunk/32/409_2.png) [@Litppunk](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Litppunk)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/213 "2019-10-14T17:09:47Z")

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the problem isnt “can some humans survive in the world as it currently is?” which has strong arguments for yes (assuming that reproduction can be made possible, via a mass producible process using simple resources makeable/salvagable by survivors) already a bit of a stretch, but instead the real question is:

“can survivors continue to maintain a sustainable breeding pool while the world around them continues to grow increasingly dangerous around them, with multiple vast and endless oceans worth of enemies waging an exponentially increasingly dangerous war through and around them?”

That takes a lot more doing than anything in game can allude to.

On a side note people keep saying that the blob can’t reproduce its army, but isn’t that the reason the insects grew in size? Sure not the deadliest enemies now but… if they start evolving at the same speed as the zombies while reproducing on a similar scale to how they do…

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**Author:** ![akrippler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@akrippler](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/akrippler)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/214 "2019-10-14T17:37:38Z")

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Lots of replies here so sorry if its been touched on: Last time I checked wikipedia compressed is ~ 15GB. So a very healthy portion of the worlds knowledge can be preserved pretty easily.

Also it shouldn’t be that hard to capture an torture a mi-go. I dont know a ton about the lore of them, but they are afraid for their own lives, and I know the collection of information is their primary drive.

Feels to me like information is the debilitating factor. Also there are no sentient driving forces on earth right? The blob isnt going to target a faction of humans trying to hold out. Aren’t triffids and the mycus similar in that fact? That they have 100 other planets to worry about rather than coordinating targeted attacks on humans.

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**Author:** ![Litppunk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/litppunk/32/409_2.png) [@Litppunk](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Litppunk)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/215 "2019-10-14T18:09:00Z")

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collection of info - partially correct. experimentation and learning new info, namely how to ensure the fertility of the human race, mutated or not seems to be the largest factor, keeping survivor numbers high enough the 2nd. As far as I am aware non of that needs old information as much as it needs new information. It was mentioned earlier that scientists found a way to purify the body of the blob, but that it also killed the body itself. Knowing how they did that could be benificial, if someone smart enough to understand, and with enough resources to find an answer, and could then make it into a way to allow fertility w/ or w/out the blob in the body.

The fighting is not directed AT humans so much as to use them as one of the available resources, but the various invaders only have figurative beachheads thus far and already everything has gone to hell and back, from here the fighting will only intensify. So it strikes me as a “This War of Mine” kind of situation that only grows worse with time.

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**Author:** ![bobchaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5f8ce5/32.png) [@bobchaos](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/bobchaos)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/216 "2019-10-14T18:25:38Z")

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humanity can absolutely survive, and even trive post-cataclysm. All they have to do is eat those tasty tasty berries. If you can’t beat em, join em!

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**Author:** ![Litppunk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/litppunk/32/409_2.png) [@Litppunk](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Litppunk)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/217 "2019-10-14T18:29:03Z")

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Hmm that would actually probably be part of the cure process honestly. Looking into how the other factions fight the blob on the atomic/cellular level, and using that.

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**Author:** ![akrippler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@akrippler](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/akrippler)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/218 "2019-10-14T18:29:38Z")

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Where does the idea that we are infertile while infected by the blob come from? and it doesn’t seem to effect normal functions save for getting back up after you die… and I guess even that is up for questions considering human corpses don’t rez.

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**Author:** ![Litppunk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/litppunk/32/409_2.png) [@Litppunk](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Litppunk)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/219 "2019-10-14T18:39:30Z")

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The lore writers seemed to think it was highly likely the blob had rendered people sterile, and that even if the infected/mutants could reproduce the results would be abominations. Im working with worst case scenario since that is the general theme of the whole apocalypse. All the worst case scenarios occurring simultaneously.

Lore says the corpses do rez, it just hasn’t been coded in yet.

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**Author:** ![mlangsdorf](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/mlangsdorf/32/2462_2.png) [@mlangsdorf](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/mlangsdorf)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/220 "2019-10-14T20:06:47Z")

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All of the information on wikipedia will not tell you how to set up and operate a microprocessor silicon wafer fabrication facility. Last I checked, it won’t even tell you how make a mold board plow - I don’t even think there are any good pictures of a mold board plow on wikipedia.

And I don’t know why you would think the Blob isn’t eventually going to target human hold-outs. The Blob is sentient and smarter than you are. It is not particularly concerned about the human hold-outs right now, but if it ever gets concerned, it can trivially open a couple dozen tears in reality inside any human base, just like it did to cause the Portal Storm that kicked the Cataclysm into high gear.

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**Author:** ![akrippler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@akrippler](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/akrippler)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/221 "2019-10-14T20:25:46Z")

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I don’t mean to infer it will contain every bit of human knowledge, just that a large sum of our collective knowledge can be maintained by anyone in this information age. Just to play devils advocate though, heres information on semiconductor fabrication and plough construction.

> **[Semiconductor device fabrication](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_device_fabrication)**
>
> MOSFET scaling (process nodes)
> Semiconductor device fabrication is the process used to manufacture semiconductor devices, typically the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) devices used in the integrated circuit (IC) chips that are present in everyday electrical and electronic devices. It is a multiple-step sequence of photolithographic and chemical processing steps (such as surface passivation, thermal oxidation, planar diffusion and junction isolation) during which electronic circuits are graduall...

  

> **[Plough | Parts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plough#Parts)**
>
> The diagram (right) shows the basic parts of the modern plough:

I thought the blob wouldn’t target human settlements just because I thought it doesn’t care about expediency in the way we do. Whether Earth is conquered in 10 years or a 1000 might not be much difference to a eldritch abomination like that. Could all be wrong though, just chuck that up to my lack of knowledge just trying to learn more about the cataclysm lore.

I feel like Mi-go’s are proof enough that with sufficient tech you can survive on a world with the blob.

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**Author:** ![kevin.granade](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/kevin.granade/32/1316_2.png) [@kevin.granade](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kevin.granade)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/222 "2019-10-15T01:11:52Z")

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> [@Litppunk](#):
>
> figures out how to regularly purge blob from human systems enough to allow uncomplicated births to be a reproducible affair without the need for a team of specialists to watch over the pregnancy

There’s a much simpler option, just don’t mess with mutagen. I said I’d expect heavily mutated survivors to be sterile, not everyone.

> [@Xvimic](#):
>
> Imagine that somehow this game could be remade with the same mechanics and systems but be multiplayer so that a 100 players could spawn in together and play in one world at the same time

Imagine this scenario, but it’s a randomly selected 100 players instead of the experienced group you seem to be envisioning. Also everyone is playing randomly generated characters instead of hand selected ones.  
I don’t have hard numbers, but the feedback I get from new players says this population is going to be decimated on a daily basis or so, leaving maybe 10% of that original numbers at the end of the first month.  
At the end of that first month the 10 or so survivors probably resemble what you were thinking of, but now the numbers are way down, and plus they’re probably isolated from each other as well as more focused on survival than wiping out nearby threats.

> [@Litppunk](#):
>
> On a side note people keep saying that the blob can’t reproduce its army

I never said this, and I have plans for making it happen.

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**Author:** ![kevin.granade](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/kevin.granade/32/1316_2.png) [@kevin.granade](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kevin.granade)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2019, 2:03am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/223 "2019-10-15T02:03:34Z")

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> [@akrippler](#):
>
> So a very healthy portion of the worlds knowledge can be preserved pretty easily.

Wikipedia’s isn’t a healthy portion of the world’s knowledge, it’s a _summary_ of the world’s knowledge. It will tell you that certain things can be done, but except in certsin specific circumstances, it doesn’t tell you _how_ to do them.

> [@akrippler](#):
>
> Also it shouldn’t be that hard to capture an torture a mi-go.

I mean I’m not one to judge how one gets their kicks, but torture has never been a reliable way to obtain information when used on people, much less an utterly alien organism.

> [@akrippler](#):
>
> The blob isnt going to target a faction of humans trying to hold out.

No one has said that, quite the opposite. Probably a settlement keeping to themselves isn’t in too much danger of direct attack, but if you start clearing a large geographical area, you’re going to get noticed.

> [@akrippler](#):
>
> Just to play devils advocate though, heres information on semiconductor fabrication and plough construction.

Did you actually read those articles? They represent exactly what Mark and I were saying, they _describe_ the things without providing details of how to make or use them.

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**Author:** ![ecchi\_squid](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/ecchi_squid/32/6386_2.png) [@ecchi\_squid](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/ecchi_squid)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 5:46am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/224 "2019-10-17T05:46:30Z")

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Read this for about 30 minutes, seen humanities’ odds of survival anywhere from 1%-0.1%  
Just watched avengers endgame, their odds were 0.0001% or 1 in a million.  
Then again, they had an army of superheroes and were facing Thanos and his army, who seemed maybe 6x as strong as the strongest superhero.  
If their odds were so low, I’m pretty sure that an army of even 500 expertly trained, well geared and (but possibly drugged for morale)NPCs facing off against the seemingly endless undead legions along with a blob that is incredibly large, intelligent and powerful, all the while keeping their supply lines intact and not losing ground, is probably close to one-trillionth of a percent.

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**Author:** ![Erk](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.cataclysmdda.org/erk/32/3871_2.png) [@Erk](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Erk)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2019, 5:59am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/is-the-human-race-able-to-survive-cataclysm/18204/225 "2019-10-17T05:59:18Z")

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Litppunk, I don’t know where you’re getting your ideas about antibiotic resistance, but they’re not accurate. There’s no simple rule that a bacterium that produces any of the hundreds of genes involved in various antibiotic resistances has to have increased susceptibility to “phage”, as if that were even a monolithic thing.

Anyway ecchi\_squid, the idea of an army of survivors “facing off” against the blob is not really a thing. It’d kinda be like facing off against gravity.

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