In your …/templates folder, you’ll find any presets you’ve made for yourself, post them here to show them off to the group with a little guide, or why you spent your points the way you did.
And here’s the other end of the move to include presets. Just as well to have 'em here where folks can look and borrow, I’d imagine.
One downside is that this further encourages point optimization, rather than experimentation. But wev.
This template will fit for those who want really difficult gameplay so this is powergaming, not roleplaying template.
As scenario I choose Challenge - Really Bad Day for maximum challenge, otherwise game is way too easy for experienced player. This gives us 10 points to distribute.
There is only two professions for this scenario - Tweaker and Shower Victim. I choose Tweaker for extra difficulty and 2 points.
Traits that I choose - Neg: Addictive Personality, Glass Jaw, Poor Hearing, Heavy Sleeper, Truth Teller, Ugly.
Pos: Quick, Night Vision, Strong Back.
I take maximum negative traits for maximum points. At the moment they don’t really give any significant disadvantages. I take minimum positive traits - only those that absolutely necessary for my style of survival.
I take no skills at all - they are too easy to learn ingame, so I don’t bother with them.
All remaining points (22) I distribute amongst stats.
This combination of scenario and profession require good knowing of game mechanics, so I even wrote some guide: http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Challenge-Really_Bad_Day
Valiant’s is similar to what I do. I actually think “really bad day” is easier, not harder, at least in the long run.
The first day or so is an ass kicker, as you desperately try to get yourself back to normalcy, but after that, you have permanent buffs from the temporary discomfort at the beginning.
Granted, Valiant’s additional changes with hordes and minimal item spawning make it extra brutal.
Why do you guys shy away from starting skills / mutations?
i presume(from exp and reading tje forums) that you can, with varying amounts of ease, pick up just about any skill or mutation.
actual stats, however, are /mostly/ locked after chargen; and also make a huge amount of differnce early on, even skillless.
Most mutations are underbalanced. Both the positive ones (too costly) and the negative ones (give too many points). So taking all the harmless negative ones and only the best positive ones is a good idea.
As for starting skills: you can’t buff your starting skills to reasonable levels without spending tons of points. You can easily grind tailoring (most useful early game skill) to 3 (hoodie, trenchcoat) or 4 (nothing really useful here) with materials available in a starting shelter or any regular house. Combat skills aren’t good enough, because you can just put those points in dexterity and it will be a much better solution in the long run (and also isn’t much more costly, even at start).
2 dex gives you roughly 1 dodge and 1 melee. You can’t grind dex (which also has many positive effects) the way you automatically grind combat skills out of necessity.
Why do you guys shy away from starting skills / mutations?Stats is the hardest resource to develop. Actually there are only 3 permanent ways to increase your stats: get mutations (kinda hard, because you get negative mutation alongside), get CBMs (the only 100% way to make your stats higher, but you need skills, you need luck to find those at first place and you won't get really high boost to your stats), granades (extremely !!FUN!! thing. Rare like hell, MIGHT give you permanent boost equal upto a half of your stats, but the chance is only 20%, with other 20% being the same, but in reverse, so it's basically luck-game). So investing in stats when you have this choice is wise decision. Everything else may be developed while you are playing the game. Well, investing in mutations is also another good thing, but the problem is that most of them are useless at the start of a game and there are only, like, 5-6 mutations that are worth investing to (Quick, Fleet-footed, Fast Learner (under question), Night Vision (#1 OP), etc.). They were discussed million times and I am not going to write it again.
You can’t really pick that many mutations at start that actually help you out. Personally I like to take dodge and melee as skill points since I can go to town right away. Depending on scenario I might put a point in survival so I can craft survival stuff once I level up my fabrication. With rust on I pump my int to at least 10. Str usually 8 or 10.
For negative traits I usually go for mix and match of: Addictive personality, flimsy, glass jaw, bad temper, heavy sleeper, insomniac, poor hearing, wool allergy.
Positive traits I usually mix and match are: Night vision (pretty much always, can’t do anything at night without it), parkour, fleet-footed, fast learner, fast reader, optimist, packmule(for low volume builds), combat training, good memory (with rust on though seems like a waste most of the time)
My God of Code used to be:
12 STR
10 DEX
12 INT
10 PER
Addictive personality
Glass Jaw
Heavy Sleeper
Trigger Happy
Truth Teller
Ugly
Night Vision
Fleet-footed/Quick (interchangeable)
Robust Genetics
My usual build starts from here:
10 Str
12 Dex
10 Int
8 Per
Addictive personality
Insomniac
Heavy sleeper
Wool allergy
Quick/Parkour
Nightvision
If I go for mutations I pick robust genetics. Fill rest negatives depending on character I want to play and get more stats or more traits. I don’t make to many ranged characters.
for new player this build will be good:
stats:
12/12/12/12
traits:
night vision and some negative traits (night vision help a lot with night raids)
profesions:
every cheap what you think is usefull like survivor, computer hacker, backpacker, student and other
skills:
spend 1 point at mele, tailoring, dodge, mechanic and if you still have any point give it at construction
while early game will be not too easy but focusing on skills and stats give easier and earlier start of medium game
since the introduction of randomized characters i only played those. Makes for some interesting runs, removes the meta gaming and the min-maxing at the beginning of the game and forces me to adapt to my strengths and weaknesses.
What i’d like is more extreme randomization, even to the point where some skill point are left unused, or one of the stats can reach values as low as 1 or 2. That and loot spawn set to 0.2 - 0.3 make the games much more enjoyable for me.
I’m with Ferodaktyl in that I only ever use randomised characters, in randomised scenarios. But I only play the ‘Missed’ or ‘Evacuee’ starts, none of the ‘Challenge’ starts, because that makes each game totally unpredictable.
With fast zombies, if you spawn in the middle of a city, you are pretty much screwed.
[quote=“digitCruncher, post:14, topic:9141”]I’m with Ferodaktyl in that I only ever use randomised characters, in randomised scenarios. But I only play the ‘Missed’ or ‘Evacuee’ starts, none of the ‘Challenge’ starts, because that makes each game totally unpredictable.
With fast zombies, if you spawn in the middle of a city, you are pretty much screwed.[/quote]
actualy missed and evacuee starts are harder than abandomed challenge
Scenario: Challenge-Abandoned
Profession: Patient
Skills: None!
Str: 13
Dex: 12
Int: 14
Per: 12
Frail
Night Vision
Heavy Sleeper
Lightweight
Truth Teller
Wool Allergy
Weak Stomach
Parkour Expert
I like it. I see no point in spending points for early skillpoints, you learn SO fast.