Most frustrating playthrough of CDDA ever

Game Talk The Bunker
1

Hi,

Just thought would post this, as it led me to ask some questions about game design, as well as get some input on what I simply did wrong.

I haven’t played the game since, April or so, I think, and I figured I would say what progress has been made.

Just for reference, I am playing with Static and Wander set to True. Zombie spawn at 2.0, Item spawn at 0.25

Normally, I make a bee-line for finding an Armored Car or APC, build a makeshift welder if I can’t find a regular welder, find some mechanics/electronics books and then get a vehicle welding rig going, and then raid the world.

First problem was I couldn’t find spray cans to make makeshift welding goggles, nor could I find welding goggles.

So, for the first time time in a long time, I had to create a fortified base and operate out of there.
Also, I had to do without a fridge and without a vehicle hotplate, so continuously collecting water through funnels, hunting animals for food, chopping things up for firewood, etc … That gets very old after a while. I don’t know how to improve that part of the game - is there a way to create a long burning fire? I don’t think so …

Finally, joy of joys, I find welding goggles, I also break both my arms in the process fighting the horde around that garage.

A night or two of good eating and sleeping and arm splints, and my first arm starts healing. 14 days later, my other arm hasn’t even begun to heal. I am drinking dandelion tea, eating varied meal,s taking multivitamins once a day. Nada. I also keep getting other health error messages when I wake up - scratchy throat, muscles hurt, feeling cruddy… I assume that is affecting it, but I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong.

I also haven’t been able to find a mechanics or electronics book, so I have found that I can’t actually make a vehicle welding rig, and that means I am burning through batteries like crazy, and not advancing my skill much.

Very frustrating play-though… the tedium of keeping myself alive with no vehicular appliances is painful. As is my broken arm :wink:

I haven’t committed suicide yet, but seriously contemplating it.

2

No offense, but when you set item spawn to 0.25, can you really complain when you find yourself missing key items? Combined with having wander spawns enabled, you’re stacking the deck against yourself as far as having to make do with very little.

The health messages are a symptom of low health, not a cause. Do you have simple nutrition enabled? What you’ve described SHOULD be enough to keep you healthy as far as I’m aware, assuming you’re not a failed cyborg or something like that.

I’m pretty sure the arm healing is a very low chance every hour or something along those lines. It can take two hours or two seasons, depending on how unlucky you are. This should really have an upper limit in place, IMO. You CAN jumpstart it by finding a certain appliance in a hospital, if you have one of those nearby. Oh, and stupid question, but you DID check to make sure the splint was on the correct arm, right?

3

LOCAL MAN SETS SETTINGS TO MOST FRUSTRATING, COMPLAINS THAT GAME IS FRUSTRATING.

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4

LOL. Both responses so far are good.

Yes, I did stack the deck, because I found on default, the game is too easy. Without Wander spawns there is nothing to stop you from just pulling out a firearm and killing everything everywhere.

Similarly, with item spawn set to 1, everything is so abundant, that clearing the first town sets you up a like a king.

I am NOT using simplified nutrition, since I wanted to see how that area had come along… I think we need more messages/status to help there.

yes, I know about hospital, but can’t find one, and yeah, checked that its ion the correct arm :slight_smile:

5

Good, good. It’s not like anyone would ever make THAT mistake…shifty eyes

6

[quote=“Michi, post:4, topic:12835”]LOL. Both responses so far are good.

Yes, I did stack the deck, because I found on default, the game is too easy. Without Wander spawns there is nothing to stop you from just pulling out a firearm and killing everything everywhere.

Similarly, with item spawn set to 1, everything is so abundant, that clearing the first town sets you up a like a king.

I am NOT using simplified nutrition, since I wanted to see how that area had come along… I think we need more messages/status to help there.

yes, I know about hospital, but can’t find one, and yeah, checked that its ion the correct arm :)[/quote]

Ugh, except for like, Tacoma quests. Those are balanced for default.

I can’t imagine making 30 molotovs on 0.25

7

You really boned yourself with the 0.25 items. I started playing with 0.5, and even I was hesitant about it, knowing fully well how quickly the item drop rate can screw you once you start lowering it.

I can’t really explain the phenomenon but it does feel odd. For example, I’ve searched through three FEMA camps, and one of them had fully stocked lockers of guns, while the lockers in other two were completely void of loot. I mean, it feels like the game first decides whether these is loot at all, and if there is, it goes full on, as opposed to distributing it more equally. But then again, I don’t feel the same holds true for all places. The loot in labs, for instance, seems appropriately sparse for my 0.5. I could be wrong though.

It could be that certain items are rare enough even for 1.0, so that they go from “rare” to “super rare” quickly. Could there be a bug that doesn’t reduce the loot rate proportionally but in absolutes? Or at least for some locations or for some items?

I can think of a way to explore this. First we generate a world with 1.0 items, and then again for, let’s say the 0.25. And then we compare the item counts in the world via savegame analysis. If the 1.0 creates 2000 bags of potato chips in certain size CITY area, then the 0.25 should create approx 500. But then again, if the 1.0 creates 8 gunsmith repair kits, the 0.25 comes with only 2. That’s a huge drop. And only devs can tell whether the amounts are rounded up or down if the amount results in less than 1 (or less than 0.5 rather). Or is the item spawning based on probability?

I’m just trying to pin if this is a problem with psychology (perception) or an actual flaw.

I have no idea if spray cans can be found in certain locations. But often welding goggles do have to be searched out aggressively (unless you start out in a lab), which means garages, labs, public works. Other locations?

8

Any idea when items get spawned? I assume its when the reality bubble hits for the first time, no? Because if all items were spawned on World Creation, I would have imagined that world creation would take more time.

Easy enough to test…

9

Vehicles, Map Specials (like dead bodies and police barricades), and Items are all generated when encountered by the reality bubble.

10

Try setting Spawn Rate to 20x+. There are some people here that play on 50x, while I personally play on 25x. And the highest I’ve ever set it to was 75x on my OP AS FUCK Space Marine character. While granted, said character started on 20x, got a BANEBLADE, Heavy Power Armour, and the Marloss Man build… So I was steadily increasing the spawn rate until I got ambushed by over 200 hulks in a Fema Camp.

11

Try setting Spawn Rate to 20x+. There are some people here that play on 50x, while I personally play on 25x. And the highest I’ve ever set it to was 75x on my OP AS FUCK Space Marine character. While granted, said character started on 20x, got a BANEBLADE, Heavy Power Armour, and the Marloss Man build… So I was steadily increasing the spawn rate until I got ambushed by over 200 hulks in a Fema Camp.[/quote]

My next world I’m going to make cities really small and the space between them really wide, and play a wilderness survival character. Probably going to double the amount of zombies too.

I want to actually have to use wilderness skills

12

With these spawn rates, zombie drop is an important source of loot. Combing hord through nailboard matrix may net you something useful.

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Does that work? don’t nailboards break over time?

Also which is better, nailboard ‘matrix’ or spike pit ‘matrix’

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I once set them in front of a mall and did not notice they broke.

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[quote=“Subhazard, post:13, topic:12835”]Does that work? don’t nailboards break over time?

Also which is better, nailboard ‘matrix’ or spike pit ‘matrix’[/quote]

Not that I’ve ever seen.

I’ve never bothered with a spiked pit matrix, simply because it would have to STUPENDOUSLY more effective to be worth that much more effort… and nail boards are already good enough that something that much better would ruin the game.

So either it’s not worth it, or it ruins the game. Or maybe nail boards are just way too good…

16

i always but zombies to 50% at minimum, i will die otherwise :/, so… how to you survive this game on a normal game with like, most relistic mods? i righ now have a crazy world (fun) not realistic (learning about the game)

17

Throw some logs on a wood stove or other fire container tile. One log will burn for a couple of hours, easy. Gone are the bad old days of having to relight that sucker every five minutes. Three or four logs ought to last through the night.

18

I always play with 0.30 for the item spawn rate. This slows down progression alot but It makes finding good stuff more rewarding. Also Like others had said when you lower it to that zombie loot is your best bet for finding needed items. Also you can search bushes and other things and use alot of the survival skills to get you going. But its still a slow progression.

Also yes use logs to burn they last a very long time. Ive had a single log burn for a sleep cycle so they last at least a few hours.

19

I’ve been having it even worse, there’s no way in hell I’d be able to survive even five minutes with those settings! I usually keep all the world settings the same, spawn rate at 1.0 and city size at 4, but nine times out of ten, I end up getting killed while trying to find a place to use as a shelter, or I do manage to find a shelter, but I get killed while scavenging for stuff. The thing that irritates me to no end is when I start a new game with a normal spawn rate, and i have a zombie brute, zombie hulk, or mi-go (That weird alien thing that talks) come after me, and then they grab me, beat me, my pain goes up more and more each turn, and then I get that “Watch the last moments of your life?” message (You have no idea how many times that’s happened to me)… I want to decrease the spawn rate, or turn on mundane zombies, but I don’t want to be seen as a wuss from the C:DDA community… However, I have tried putting on every restriction that would weaken the zombies, and lower the spawn rate to half, (Heh, what a wussy) but not a single zombie spawns, or NPC…

20

0.25 Item spawn? Christ, I play with it at 2.50 and I STILL have trouble finding what I need.

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