Planning a survivalist type character, any suggestions?

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-14T05:51:21.000Z

so i’m doing a living-off-the-land type character, using as much as possible only what i can take from the wilderness.

weapons are unarmed, blade, bow, xbow, and other primitive weapons to start with; no guns until i find an LMOE shelter, and no vehicles until i have a palisade wall built around that LMOE shelter.

science labs only for fungicide and/or royal jelly for protection against fungal parasites, after that science labs are off limits until i have vehicles. military bunkers are also off limits until i have vehicles.

things found on scientist, military, and druggie corpses are free game.

Character Name: Darryl Dixon

season lengths: 90 days

static/random NPCs: yes/yes

spawn rate: Dynamic

initial points: 25

max trait points: 25

skill rust: off

all stats: 14

Profession: Survivalist

Good Traits:
-Animal Empathy
-Eagle Eyed
-Fast Learner
-Fleet Footed
-Inconspicuous
-Light Step
-Night Vision
-Quick
-Robust Genetics
-Self Defense Classes: Ninjitzu

Bad Traits:
-Addictive Personality
-Chemical Imbalance
-Far Sighted
-Forgetful
-Glass Jaw
-Heavy Sleeper
-Lightweight
-Slow Healer
-Slow Reader
-Trigger Happy
-Truth Teller
-Ugly
-Weak Stomach
-Wool Allergy

Additional Skills:
-Archery 2
-Dodge 1

Inadequate · 2013-12-14T06:40:52.000Z

Set city size to 1, that ensures nothing but unique buildings spawn. If you’re not averse to man-made tools you can loot a public works building, it’ll be pretty hard to get set up without a hacksaw. Then you can roam the roads, find car seats and disassemble them for leather patches, then make a shelter kit with those. Also, if you can make your way up to metal arrows, using a shovel to clear up helicopter wrecks are a good source of scrap metal. The hardest part might be getting a stable source of water early on, look around for rivers/swamps and scientist bodies to loot plastic bottles off.

Zombie soldiers in FEMA camps and around outposts often drop guns and ammo, although you probably won’t be able to get close enough to the outposts with just a longbow.

100Rads · 2013-12-14T06:47:37.000Z

[quote=“Inadequate, post:2, topic:4487”]-snip-

Zombie soldiers in FEMA camps and around outposts often drop guns and ammo, although you probably won’t be able to get close enough to the outposts with just a longbow.[/quote]
Why not? I could easily sneak into outposts on day one, just wait for the night (so the turrets cant shoot you), climb over the fence, and get inside. If a turret is blocking your way, I think you could destroy it with a longbow.

KA101 · 2013-12-14T07:30:11.000Z

[quote=“100Rads, post:3, topic:4487”][quote=“Inadequate, post:2, topic:4487”]-snip-

Zombie soldiers in FEMA camps and around outposts often drop guns and ammo, although you probably won’t be able to get close enough to the outposts with just a longbow.[/quote]
Why not? I could easily sneak into outposts on day one, just wait for the night (so the turrets cant shoot you), climb over the fence, and get inside. If a turret is blocking your way, I think you could destroy it with a longbow.[/quote]

Metal arrows, maybe. They can generally see out to range 5-6 or so at night, though, so be careful.

(There’s a PR out to give 'em 5 squares of lighting, though…look out!)

HunterAlpha: Congrats on the 250th post.

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-14T07:52:05.000Z

w00t! i’m a survivor now! TBH though i didn’t really mind being an NPC, i’ve seen some NPCs who were real BAMFs.

is it just me or do the real nasty swamp critters no long spawn? i’ve set up camp near a swamp and nary a one in sight, only lemmings and bullfrogs, and since i chose Animal Empathy the BFs don’t bother me.

Inadequate · 2013-12-14T08:05:16.000Z

You should be thankful for that, no way you’d be able to crack a giant centipede’s carapace with wood arrows.

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-14T08:34:32.000Z

kind of a “chicken & egg” question here, but how do i make a shelter kit if i don’t have a damaged shelter kit?

ChristopherWalken · 2013-12-14T08:45:24.000Z

I don’t see many river/swamp animals anymore either.

Kinda happy about that, they spawned way too fast and made living anywhere near the water next to impossible way back.

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-14T09:26:12.000Z

i’ve got everything i need to make a shelter kit except for a damaged shelter kit, but how do i get the damaged shelter kit?

fishy1234555 · 2013-12-14T09:36:55.000Z

HunterAlpha1:

kind of a “chicken & egg” question here, but how do i make a shelter kit if i don’t have a damaged shelter kit?

You need lvl 1 or 2 construction

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-14T09:37:47.000Z

fishy1234555:

[quote=“HunterAlpha1, post:7, topic:4487”]kind of a “chicken & egg” question here, but how do i make a shelter kit if i don’t have a damaged shelter kit?

You need lvl 1 or 2 construction[/quote]how do i train construction?

infectedmochi · 2013-12-14T10:04:30.000Z

By construct a lot of things, or just clear lots of broken windows. But since you are not going to the city, that would be hard to train I think.

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-14T10:14:31.000Z

yeah ok i dug a bunch of shallow pits, but now my game crashes when i try to sleep in something other than a bed

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-14T10:21:47.000Z

well, shit, now the experimental DL is fucked up

i guess i’ll have to give my survivor a rest for the night, folks! maybe if i can figure out how to post screenshots i’ll put some up.

system · 2013-12-14T16:16:55.000Z

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-14T23:37:53.000Z

does the overmap exploring bonus from Eagle Eye stack up with the one from binoculars?

KA101 · 2013-12-15T02:46:13.000Z

HunterAlpha1:

does the overmap exploring bonus from Eagle Eye stack up with the one from binoculars?

It does. No downside, either.

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-15T02:46:50.000Z

nice!

HunterAlpha1 · 2013-12-16T07:48:52.000Z

some observations from my first few days of gameplay as a survivalist:

the first big challenge was raising the skills and finding the supplies necessary to build a shelter kit.

it turns out that items left sitting out in the acid rain don’t melt. no clue whether or not this is a bug but i’m exploiting it!

in order to use the best arrows you have to bash up a car or find scrap metal somehow, no completely roughing it

scientist and military corpses are your friend!

it doesn’t appear that mansions respawn zombies in dynamic spawn mode.

Inadequate · 2013-12-16T13:30:40.000Z

Acid rain will only damage items that are left on the road, if an acid rain puddle forms right on top of it. It makes sense, it probably flows away into the dirt and doesn’t pool up like it does on the road.

You can harvest scrap metal from helicopter crashes with a shovel, if that’s kosher for your survivalist playstyle.

Dynamic/static spawn only appears to apply to zombies that spawn in cities. Everything else is either dynamic (like wildlife) or static (like mansion zombies) in either mode.