Digging wreckage. Smashing cars.
It’s not that hard to find car to smash or a building to deconstruct.
Youd be suprised how often Im wanting for metal when Im not in a city.
Pipes or chunks, or good old fashioned scrap metal; its used in a lot of specific recipies and not having it breaks my heart.
Hell, Ive legit been out of rags once or thrice
While I have been enjoying Cata for the past few days, I am also getting a little confused with how things work.
So far I’ve got myself a nice car with lots of fuel, leveled up most of the basic skills by finding books in libraries, but don’t know how to progress from there.
My main issues -
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Are the guns you find lying around useless in the game? I can never find enough ammo for them and have pretty much been relying on melee, which means I cant really kill hulks or shocker brutes without running over them.
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I’ve been trying to progress to the point where I have a self-sustaining mobile base (food and water) but I’m very confused on how to make that happen. I know the beginning product - a normal vehicle - and the end - a self sustaining vehicle with all modifications listed on the wiki - but I dont know how to get there.
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There are a crap-ton of crafting options with different recipes. I don’t know how to connect the materials I find in the world to the requirements in recipes (mainly for electronic stuff). Are there any basic things I should be working towards that I don’t have to go to an exotic place to find? (I’ve been crafting basic stuff like lightstrips).
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What are some bare minimums I need to successfully attempt a lab?
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An addon to the above but what exactly should I be focusing on putting in my car. Currently anything that sounds important goes in and I end up with a trunk full of random stuff that I have no idea if I need or not.
I would love some help with these, since running from town to town getting just food and random things is getting a little weary
The search function, anywhere it appears in-game is your friend. This includes the crafting menu and all the various ways it lets you sort through it.
having some piles, whether inside our outside your car, to help organize all the random items helps a lot.
Ammo, can be a problem, I suggest keeping all ammo you find and any guns in calibers you don’t already have, if you have the room to do so.
Do you know how to modify vehicles yet? I would think if you’ve seen the screen you would more or less, know what to do, just not what parts are needed to craft the car parts… but that can be solved with the crafting menu search, if you have found the appropriate crafting books and keep them nearby for all the recipes you haven’t memorized yet.
[quote=“Pickle, post:14725, topic:42”]While I have been enjoying Cata for the past few days, I am also getting a little confused with how things work.
So far I’ve got myself a nice car with lots of fuel, leveled up most of the basic skills by finding books in libraries, but don’t know how to progress from there.
My main issues -
-
Are the guns you find lying around useless in the game? I can never find enough ammo for them and have pretty much been relying on melee, which means I cant really kill hulks or shocker brutes without running over them.
-
I’ve been trying to progress to the point where I have a self-sustaining mobile base (food and water) but I’m very confused on how to make that happen. I know the beginning product - a normal vehicle - and the end - a self sustaining vehicle with all modifications listed on the wiki - but I dont know how to get there.
-
There are a crap-ton of crafting options with different recipes. I don’t know how to connect the materials I find in the world to the requirements in recipes (mainly for electronic stuff). Are there any basic things I should be working towards that I don’t have to go to an exotic place to find? (I’ve been crafting basic stuff like lightstrips).
-
What are some bare minimums I need to successfully attempt a lab?
-
An addon to the above but what exactly should I be focusing on putting in my car. Currently anything that sounds important goes in and I end up with a trunk full of random stuff that I have no idea if I need or not.
I would love some help with these, since running from town to town getting just food and random things is getting a little weary[/quote]
Great newbie questions! You’ve taken the time to learn the very basics yourself. I’ll try to contribute a bit.
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Ammo is fairly scarce (as it should be, I think, after society has been over run - most of the easily accessible stuff was USED, eh?), but it’s a little better if you know where to look. SWAT trucks often have some, as do gun stores (duh, right?), but one of the best common sources is actually what is usually referred to as the “gun nut basement” - it’s a basement from a regular house, and it has LOTS of guns and ammo (and really nothing else). Military bunkers are pretty good, too, but don’t try those without at least one military ID (you can smash through the stuff in the basement with the right tools, but there’s a deadly, deadly present waiting for those who try to smash in the front door). Also, lab armories are GREAT.
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Basic vehicle modification requires an acetelyne torch, welder, or Integrated Toolset for all the serious stuff (duct tape can work for some of those things, but it eats up the duct tape pretty fast). Also, you’ll need a hacksaw, wrench, and screwdriver (or Integrated Toolset, of course, or a toolbox, etc). If you’re talking about parts, solar panels pretty much just have to be found (or at least solar cells - solar panels can be made from solar cells, but solar cells are uncraftable), so you’ll just have to look for electric vehicles. Onboard chemistry sets are pretty easy to make, mini-fridges must be found (pretty easy - lots of RVs around), kitchens are pretty easy to find or make, FOODCO kitchen buddy is REALLY nice but I’ve never found one (always had to craft it - pretty easy to find the recipe, though), welding rigs can be found once in a while (but can be crafted), and I’ve never found a forge rig (but they’re pretty easy to craft).
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That’s a HUGE question, really, but basically, electronic stuff is the stuff to horde, on the whole, as most other stuff is fairly easy to come by. Beyond that, let me just quote, “The search function, anywhere it appears in-game is your friend. This includes the crafting menu and all the various ways it lets you sort through it.”
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Easiest thing is having a Science ID, as that removes the turrets that otherwise make life a real pain. In terms of hostile creatures, you need to be able to deal with scientist zombies (including manhacks), regular zombies (which can turn into various things, if it’s later in the game), hazmat zombies, sometimes soldier zombies, and the occasional biooperator (those can be pretty nasty, if they catch you unaware). Also, there will usually be Secubots in the “loot room” at the bottom, and those can be REALLY nasty, but there are plenty of reasons to go to a lab without hitting the loot room. It’s also a REALLY good idea to have decent trap-finding ability (either high perception or decent trapping skill). Computer skill of at least 3 can reliably get you a map of the area, and computer skill of 6 can usually open door and such, but a failed attempt can end very badly, and a jackhammer can replace all the computer skill, anyway (except the mapping part). There are commonly some other creatures in labs (including some VERY nasty ones), but you’d have to let them out yourself before they become dangerous to you.
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Another HUGE question, but basically, it depends on what you want to do. I generally try to collect things I can’t make or are very rare, so MBRs, MOLLE packs, and other stuff that butchers to kevlar is decently high on my list, and I’m kinda stupid about collecting ALL the food (and them I go to great lengths to avoid using anything I can’t make more of, so I end up with huge stockpiles), but plutonium, ammo, certain kinds of electronics, rare and/or time-consuming-to-make chems (like lye powder), and rare weapons tend to all be on my list. Oh, and I’m pretty obsessive about picking up all non-weapon “ammo” as well - thread, batteries, duct tape, etc. - long strings are a GREAT source of thread, so I often collect that for the first chunk of the game, even if I’m not needing it at the time (it’s SO compact for how much thread you get!). Beyond that, it depends on what I’m specifically looking for at the time.
5b. You didn’t ask, but stuff that I NEVER bother picking up (unless I’m specifically needing it right then or making a stockpile): clothes, rags, leather, metal, bleach and ammonia (until late game, anyway - they can be useful later, but they take up WAY too much space early), wood, frames, etc - stuff that is either REALLY common or REALLY large. Sometimes I’ll make a note on the map where a large stockpile of that kind of stuff is, in case I need it later.
Hope that helps.
Edit: “I’m kinda stupid about collecting ALL the food” - make that all the “non-junk” food. Other than very early game desperation, I don’t pick up potato chips or candy of any kind (except chocolate bars) or any other “junk” foods - anything too low on nutrition to be worth bothering with or that has a negative health modifier.
@Pickle, I’m not sure if you’ve tried it, but Pain Resistant is a trait I take 100% of the time, and I also take -12 points in traits, stuff like milk or junkfood intolerance are easy to deal with.
You MUST level up on weak enemies if you’re going to “fight” bigger guys. Dodge is critical, and starts being useful around 3-4, because that’s when (if you’re watching your encumberance!) you can have at least 1-2 dodge available. At the beginning, crowbars or two-by-fours (and a 2-by-sword) are good, because they have high to-hit. Once you’re at melee/bash 2 or so, you can find other weapons. I think I usually look for baseball bat (19 bash) and if I get lucky, a fire-axe (19 bash 20 cut or something, ludicrous). Boomers don’t bite, so you can’t get infected, and if you have good dodge and/or armor, you can just grind up dodge a bit before your focus drops to useless. If you have the time, you can just sit there for hours letting the boomer harass you.
Only with minimum 3 dodge, good armor, and melee would I even suggest going near brutes, let alone hulks or other types. I was able to kill a brute at a low level only by setting all the bushes I could on fire, and it almost broke both my arms. This is with pain resistance, so I would’ve been obliterated without it. If there’s a shocker enemy, you can use wooden weapons, like the baseball bat or quarterstaff to not get shocked while you hit them. Ironically, guns are harder to level up because of their ammo scarcity, so in practice are worse to use, and far more dangerous if you haven’t leveled dodging.
Vehicle modification is battery intensive, so until you can survive (renewable or multi-season stored food, water, and clothing), you can just save up batteries, work on finding books, etc. Books are the only practical way to progressing in Cataclysm in my opinion, though I do occasionally have to craft 20 ergonomic grips or other things. Use the Find (search) function to look for the easiest, or at least, most manageable recipes if you have to grind. I don’t usually do it, but if you’re patient and look through houses (use ‘v’ to go faster) you can find lots of stuff you’d normally want skills for. Charcoal smoker for example, cooks and dehydrates food and you can make plenty of charcoal (constructed kiln + logs), but it takes something like fabrication or mechanics 4 and a book. I found one in a house literally as I was planning to grind up to the level. If you learn where you can reasonably find cool stuff (schools have books, restaurants can have food, spices, gallon jugs) you can get the barely surviving part of the gameplay over with, and work on the exploring parts, which in my gameplay is like “stage three”. Stage one is starting out and getting food and water going, stage 2 is grinding skills and scavenging up exploring a little if I need something unique, and stage three is when I get the vehicle, find a lab, and die to a turret. I’m going to get past stage three someday.
yeah its kind of funny how the game tends to organize itself into “stages” without anyone specifically trying to make it do that. I feel like it really kind of reaches… stage 4? when youfinally get a memory CBM. Though I’ve not yet reached that point so I can’t say that conclusively it certainly feels like it when you get to the point that you are spending half the day making sure things don’t rust away AND leveling things further. Functioning RV also kind of serves as a “stage” for me, signifying both the transition from fire to full electric power, and the “can now hoard anything I need to, and don’t have to abandon more late game things due to weight/volume constraints”
In the debug options you can turn off skill rust. I haven’t tried skill rusting since like, version .6 because it used to be broken as hell. If the memory bionic is relatively affordable in terms of energy I might turn on skill rust, but I don’t like games that turn into 100% maintenance (if you’ve played Don’t Starve you’ll know what I mean).
This game is nothing like 100% maintainance.
Turn back on the rust, its fine. If you use the skills theres no rust. Reading a book up to level 6 construction and then never touching a hammer is whats broken.
Nope
It’s pure tedium, a horrible mechanic.
You probably need a book or two about electronics, just for the various crafting recipes. So visit places that you’d expect to have relevant books. Mansions sometimes contain a ton of books too. Disassemble electronic equipment into their basic components. You can also salvage a ton of electronic parts by deconstructing the constructs at power substations (cyan H on the overmap), and by deconstructing broken consoles. Deconstruct command is given via the construction menu. Smashing them is an option too if you lack tools. Electronics stores also have many relevant toys, which can be disassembled for parts.
Also embrace the idea that if you can’t seem to find some part, check first if you can actually craft it. Do you lack a power converter? Try to craft one. Do you not have the amplifier circuits to craft a power converter? Try to craft an amplifier circuit. Always go deeper like that. You’ll soon discover what the most basic resources and components are for your particular needs. Familiarize yourself with the production chain of a given item.
Nope
It’s pure tedium, a horrible mechanic.[/quote]
Could someone remind me again how bad can the skill rust be? Could it in theory deteriorate your skill 10 all the way down to 0? I think the info should be mentioned in a description somewhere as you start a new game or change options. Basically I too abhor skill rust but I’m open to the idea of trying limited skill rust some day, say never dropping a whole skill level. I just never bothered to look it up.
Edit: And I’m sure any newbie would rather be safe than sorry, and never try skill rust in the first place, assuming it even occurs to them that skill rust might be limited.
Nope
It’s pure tedium, a horrible mechanic.[/quote]
Could someone remind me again how bad can the skill rust be? Could it in theory deteriorate your skill 10 all the way down to 0? I think the info should be mentioned in a description somewhere as you start a new game or change options. Basically I too abhor skill rust but I’m open to the idea of trying limited skill rust some day, say never dropping a whole skill level. I just never bothered to look it up.
Edit: And I’m sure any newbie would rather be safe than sorry, and never try skill rust in the first place, assuming it even occurs to them that skill rust might be limited.[/quote]
It could, but as far as I know, the decrement doesn’t get worse (in terms of frequency or period), and it doesn’t have to be at your current skill level, presumably. So I’d expect make a lightstrip would prevent electronics 10 from rusting, but I could be very wrong. If you’re concerned, go into the debug and use IntCap instead of Int rusting. That’d guarantee you don’t fall back levels.
Turn on intcap then.
As long as we can sit down with 20 jerkies and a bottle of water and an MP3 player and learn enough to be certified HVAC I support skill rust.
Which doesn’t actually fix it, just makes it more tedious since you have to take breaks from learning to perform rituals to stop other skills from rusting.
It isn’t hard at all to stop rusting from mattering. In fact vast majority of skills have braindead rust stoppers that take no real in-game resources and can be invoked anywhere.
The only time rust actually matters is when you fall asleep, because you can’t stop it to craft a skewer/lightstrip/sandwich/sew a sock/solder a piece of scrap.
Rust is a bad, unrealistic, tedious mechanic that goes directly against proper game design and represents one of the worst things that you could do in a game with survival elements (actually, even in a game without them): attempt to balance things by making best options tedious to use, without making them difficult.
I typically dont lose levels of anything I didnt read up anyway. Its hard to, because unless it just a flash fad of crafting, its a skll you use.
I think people dislike seeing “X skill has decreased” no matter how much they nvested into it, be it 16 floodlights or reading a book. Skill rust has never been a real issue for me unless I was busy building a megatruck or someing similar, and even then it was at most a fraction of a level.
You have to do some serious neglect of a skill to lose significant skill, and most lost skill points are book-gained.
Its not a bad mechanic, people see the red text and get upset. Theres no tedium in it unless youre using a book to learn the skills (or are incredibly resource poor).
The real issue around crafting/rust is the ease of leveling up via crafting
-Instead of diminishing returns for crafting low(er) level item we get almost none.
-Many skillsets have very poor leveling via crafting. Take medical, trap, or, to a lesser extent, tailoring.
-Many skillsets have limited use outside of crafting. Trap being a large offender. And computers being the reverse offender.
-Skillbooks level up to a whole level instead of over it. Yes, when you read up to 3.00 electronics and do nothing with it it wll rust to 2 quickly. Lets see skill books level up to the half level or something
Rust really needs 4 key factors to work well in my opinion.
- The speed that it happens needs to be way turned down. This is something that should be happening on a time scale of weeks at the soonest, not hours.
- Skills need to be separated more into “knowledge” and “practical skill”. This lets you have rust apply to them differently.
- Rust should only burn down a few levels max of “practical skill” and at absolute most maybe 1 level of “knowledge”. This captures the aspect of you never really forgetting the basics.
- Any rust should be able to be worked off very quickly back to the player’s actual “levels”, and simply doing a few tasks once a week or so should be enough to prevent rust from even starting (i.e., there is some “padding time” that has to be spent before the player actually starts to rust).
The goal is to hit the sweet spot where, like the vitamin system, it’s not really something that the player has to worry about too much in average gameplay, requiring little more than maybe a short review of the skill every week or so, and it’s main purpose is only to stop people who would hard grind a skill right at the beginning and then never use it again until months later (just as the vitamin stuff is aimed at stopping players who subsist totally off of beef jerky :P).
And I mean within the given boundaries above it would probably be fairly realistic too; I know it certainly takes me a couple of days to get back up to speed on things like coding if I haven’t done them in a month, and I often double-check the rules for things like wiring things up (equivalent to reading a book on the subject) prior to doing so if I haven’t done anything similar in a long time. Heck, if you want a skill that epitomizes the need to practice than look no further than guns. Police are required to train at least once a year, and many departments are suggesting the move to quarterly training. And that’s just in a semi-dependent field, in the infantry they spend “As often as possible within the constraints of limited budgets, logistics of range time and range control procedures, deployments, mandatory/required recurrences, and sustainment training, scenario-specific training, and other tactical training that is higher priority than marksmanship”, working on a variety of different scenario trainings as well as just the basic drills.
You want to just do occasional repairs on your car or build the occasional add-on to your house? You probably won’t need to worry about rust at all, and at most might just need to skim a book for an hour or so before starting up. You want to have the skill to be able to be competent in most situations? Throw in a bit of practice every month or so. You want to reach and maintain that extreme edge in any given life-or-death situation? You’re looking at practicing at least once a week, and preferably more often than that.
I’ve only recently discovered Cataclysm, and believe that the questions I’m about to ask are quite obvious for those who’ve been playing it for a while, but I can’t find definite answers anywhere else.
Which is better to use - the last stable release or experimental builds? If experimental, is it worth updating to the last release every time it appears?
I’ve started several times and died horribly almost immediately (mostly due to complete lack of understanding of some basic mechanic), then created an intentionally OP character to get the hang of the basics and in addition got lucky with my surroundings (lots of firearms and underequipped NPCs). Right now I’ve managed to establish a well-stocked base and slowly get the hang of the crafting system, but one thing I don’t quite get.
I’ve started with Static Spawn as it was by default and I didn’t tweaked what I dodn’t understand. Does it mean that new monsters never appear at all, and once I’ve cleared a location it will stay safe for the rest of the game (save for NPCs?). Does it mean that there is no point in fortifying and surrounding your location with traps and suchlike unless you relocate to a new place you haven’t explored yet? As far as I understand, if I change the setting to Wander Spawn now it won’t take effect until I reset the world, thus losing all my current progress?
In short, my question is this: what world settings would experienced players suggest for a more or less balanced experience? That is, something that would be challenging without being curb-stompingly brutal? I don’t know what I expected, but I went into the game believing that fortification and protection of a home base is going to be a large part of it, that there is constantly going to be a sense of danger, and the way it seems now all these reinforcements and traps are more or less decorations.
FINALLY, I was able to update to build 5025 and my vehicle DIDN’T DISAPPEAR. Now I can enjoy all the new graphical and in game updates with my vehicle intact.