This I just a place to post player builds. Please post profession, Traits, Stats, Skills and ease of play
Im not a big believers in taking strong initial builds.
My favorite start is a Surrounded start hobo in a burning building at midnight in spring. The hobo has 2 skill in computers, melee, and first aid, and has bad knees, an itchy finger, is a slow learner, is an insomniac, has poor hearing and is a heavy sleeper. On the positive, he is a fast reader, has robust genetics, may have night vison (but its op so Im trying to shy away from it), has a strong stomache to help deal with the drinking, and may be poison resistant or pain resistant. he is usually masochistic.
While not optimized or overly powerful there is some level of synergy (both for negative and good).
-The poor hearing and heavy sleeping really bones you if you sleep in a bad location.
-Insomnia usually means he is tired, and with slow learning his skillgain is well less than half. Somewhere down the line Dead tired capped focus to 60 max.
-Itchy finger limits the use of rare powerhouse weapons.
-Strong stomache and poison resistance helps with the alcohol and drinking unlcean water.
-masochist helps with the lower combat ability.
-robust genetics helps with my preference towards mutations, and guides him away from poor trees. With all the bad traits and underwhelming force he does have he needs that security
-Fast reader counterbalances slow learner a little, granting him the ablity to cover his loses in academic fields. imagine trying to level computers or something with slow learner :roll:
Overall, its a pretty balanced build that is more focused on being a jack of all trades rather than a specialized build. 2 computers lets him get a fair shake at hacking lowlevel computers (like lab maps or sewer rooms) and first aid lets him craft badages off rip and eases him into making first aid kits later.
It provides much more challenge in the early game and keeps you behind the curb in the late game, meaning that every difficulty increase (from nerfing tailoring to introducing monster evo) really keeps me on my toes.
Experiment scenario
Pick Unstable Genetics trait
DON’T pick Robust Genetics trait
Being a constantly degenerating mutant is a lot of fun. You can’t ever truly stabilize self and each next mutation can be something as debilitating as Carnivore, Webbed Hands or even Disintegration.
Carnivore + Very Fast Metabolism is very well doable due to the fact that food currently gives MUCH more nutrition when you’re ultra-hungry. This will be nerfed, so it’s a good idea to check it out.
It helps to unlearn panicking when hungry. “Famished”? It’s just a speed penalty. It’s “starving” where eating zombies starts. Unless you have Poison Resistant - then you can start eating zombies at Very Hungry just fine.
I like to play lab start, broken cyborg, and dump most of the points into stats (nothing in skills). I don’t take any of the really cheesy negatives (I play with skill rust off, since it’s so crazy broken, so I don’t take forgetful, for instance). I do usually take robust genetics and night vision.
Ease of play: Well, you have to get out lab before you starve, stealth is basically impossible, you’re constantly taking damage and pain, your health stat is getting constantly drained at a very high speed, you have extra encumbrance on every body part (so combat of every kind is penalized), you get tired quickly (and don’t heal much, since your health stat is low), and crafting and sleep are constantly interrupted. On the plus side, you have high stats and all the superalloy CBMs installed.
My current character started like that, and I got the last broken bionic out on the last day of winter the first year. Now I’ve a post-threshhold elf with all the stat CBMs, base speed of like 130, and my stats are all 17+. The late game with such a build is quite ridiculous (obviously), but the early game is a good challenge.
I like slightly weak, INT-focused builds. 7 or so Strength adds a bit of challenge to the early game by forcing you to avoid combat in open areas, while not being overly debilitating once you get your combat skills up. I almost never take combat skills on character creation, partially for the challenge and partially because I like the idea of playing as an average guy. There’s something I find sort of… disheartening about being able to clear a street on day 1, which shied me away from military professions. I’ve recently been focusing on characters with a focus on science; lab technicians are my favorite.
Infected start, house location
10 Strength
10 Dexterity
13 Intelligence
10 Perception
Computer Hacker
6 computers
2 driving
2 dodging
Asthmatic
Bad Temper (I really want to call this dysthymia as that’s what it’s really like)
Nearsighted
Insomniac
Poor-Hearing
Night-Vision
Gourmand
Packmule
First task has me fleeing from the gigantic city, then searching vehicles for a first-aid kit, following up with crafting a makeshift knife if my search doesn’t reveal anything better.
I play with Stats From Skills, so naturally I don’t spend points on any attributes. But as a General Rule, I prefer traits that are impossible to get through mutations, but add some decent bonuses.
Absolute first choices
[ul][li]Scout[/li]
[li]Robust Genetics[/li]
[li]Parkour Expert[/li]
[li]Night Vision[/li]
[li]Martial Artist[/li][/ul]
Right now my favorite build is the HEMA Instructor, whereby I take the above traits, some negative traits such as ugly and trigger happy, and then I go with these skills:
Melee 3
Cutting Weapons 2
Dodge 1
My main strategy is to get Medieval Swordsmanship as my starting Martial Art. It’s great with Melee 3, and can be a godsend once you find an appropriate weapon. I’ll briefly look out from the starting house to find a pawn shop, and then make a beeline for it. The shopping list will be for any sort of medieval weapon; even the new Inferior Weapons. I don’t care this early on if my weapon is going to break on me. But I also want Binoculars to further increase my ability to spot hordes.
From there on, I need a shopping cart… Which I will use to go shopping for stuff like clothes, food, and more weapons. Since the latest experimental merged my Inferior Weapons patch, I actually have to stockpile medieval weapons for when they break on me. The shopping cart helps with this a lot.
[quote=“deoxy, post:4, topic:11249”]I like to play lab start, broken cyborg, and dump most of the points into stats (nothing in skills). I don’t take any of the really cheesy negatives (I play with skill rust off, since it’s so crazy broken, so I don’t take forgetful, for instance). I do usually take robust genetics and night vision.
Ease of play: Well, you have to get out lab before you starve, stealth is basically impossible, you’re constantly taking damage and pain, your health stat is getting constantly drained at a very high speed, you have extra encumbrance on every body part (so combat of every kind is penalized), you get tired quickly (and don’t heal much, since your health stat is low), and crafting and sleep are constantly interrupted. On the plus side, you have high stats and all the superalloy CBMs installed.
My current character started like that, and I got the last broken bionic out on the last day of winter the first year. Now I’ve a post-threshhold elf with all the stat CBMs, base speed of like 130, and my stats are all 17+. The late game with such a build is quite ridiculous (obviously), but the early game is a good challenge.[/quote]
Broken cyborg? Never again. The frequent minor damage from starting CBMs is unbearable, causing frequent interruptions. On top of that, removal of broken CBMs can kill you AND it’s risky, even with high skills. It made me save-scum. I did like my build eventually but it was so annoying to get there.
My tips for broken cyborgs:
- Do NOT pick any hp-reducing negative traits such as Frail. This helps surviving the failed CBM removal attempts. In fact, you might want to pick Tough and Robust Genetics, and aim for the other hp-increasing traits, obtained via mutagens. Note that Tough can’t be gained via mutagens.
- Attempt CBM removal only at full health, and preferably right before going to sleep at a safe location, so you can start healing if/when something goes wrong.
- Electronics, First-Aid and high intelligence are your priority. You’ll really want to get rid of some of your starting CBMs ASAP.
Furthermore, and I’m not sure if this applies, but the ranch eventually gets a doctor after you’ve done a number of fetch-this jobs. The doc can install CBMs for a price, or at least that’s in the dialogue options, but can he also remove CBMs? If that’s the case, then you have more freedom for your character build as high Electronics or hp isn’t a necessity… Unless the doc, too, can fail?
Do note that I played as a broken cyborg 1-3 months ago on an experimental version, so stuff might have changed since.
Yes, the doctor can help with removal, but there’s still a chance of failure. Not as high as it would be, at least.
que? ranch?
mod or new doodads?
The outpost. Once you do several missions from the peeps there a doctor should show up.
As you do quests for the foreman, more people show up. Several of them are just for atmosphere, but some of them also give quests. Do enough foreman quests that the nurse shows up, then do enough nurse quests and the doctor shows up. I don’t think the doctor gives quests, but he does install and remove CBMs.
so not a re-fug-ee center then. a new structure
It’s somewhat old already, and you need to do some quests from the refugee center to open up the outpost, and then hope that the outpost isn’t close to a city.
It’s a different structure, yes (been around a while), but you habve to do some quests AT the refugee center to get the foreman to spawn at the outpost to start those quests.