Tips, Tricks, and Newb Questions!

[Asura]

[quote=“deoxy, post:16519, topic:42”][quote=“Asura, post:16518, topic:42”]how do you deconstruct wheels for plastic? are there better sources for plastic?
just want to make some arrows xD[/quote]

Computer consoles have a good bit, so labs and schools (among other places).

Arcades, IIRC, are a GREAT source for both plastic and ball bearings.

As far as zombie drops, cleansuits, rollerblades, hazmat suits, rubber boots and gloves (those are pretty useful for plastic in general - labs, schools, lots of places), also, some firefighter gear.

I’m sure I’m leaving out some good ones. Oh, the smaller gas tank smashes to plastic (unless they’ve changed it recently), and plastic jerrycans and other plastic containers (gallon jugs) can be pretty good.[/quote]

thx a lot. so we can not deconstruct wheels?

the FAQ says: Where can I get plastic chunk?
Wheel removed from abandoned vehicle is also a good source, a single wheel can easily provide around 20 chunks.

[Kadian]

[quote=“Rot, post:16520, topic:42”]I’ve looked into the golden fiddle, just for curiosity’s sake.

As far as I can tell, it looks like it just has some neat flavor text. Are there any other abilities that are not obvious? Like better morale boosts or maybe even nether attention?[/quote]

It’s a fiddle. You play it. You get a normal morale boost, like from any other fiddle, as far as I know. No other abilities that I know of, it’s just an easter egg, like the Jaqueshammer which is a glorified Jackhammer.

[quote=“Asura, post:16521, topic:42”]thx a lot. so we can not deconstruct wheels?

the FAQ says: Where can I get plastic chunk?
Wheel removed from abandoned vehicle is also a good source, a single wheel can easily provide around 20 chunks.[/quote]

You can’t deconstruct wheels, no. You can break them on purpose when they are on a vehicle though. Even then they’ll only give Steel lumps, chunks and scrap metal though.

[deoxy]

[quote=“Kadian, post:16522, topic:42”][quote=“Asura, post:16521, topic:42”]thx a lot. so we can not deconstruct wheels?

the FAQ says: Where can I get plastic chunk?
Wheel removed from abandoned vehicle is also a good source, a single wheel can easily provide around 20 chunks.[/quote]

You can’t deconstruct wheels, no. You can break them on purpose when they are on a vehicle though. Even then they’ll only give Steel lumps, chunks and scrap metal though.[/quote]

I’ve seen people claim (repeatedly, over a long period of time) that you can butcher removed wheels for plastic, but I’ve just never bothered to try.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

[quote=“Kadian, post:16522, topic:42”][quote=“Rot, post:16520, topic:42”]I’ve looked into the golden fiddle, just for curiosity’s sake.

As far as I can tell, it looks like it just has some neat flavor text. Are there any other abilities that are not obvious? Like better morale boosts or maybe even nether attention?[/quote]

It’s a fiddle. You play it. You get a normal morale boost, like from any other fiddle, as far as I know. No other abilities that I know of, it’s just an easter egg, like the Jaqueshammer which is a glorified Jackhammer.[/quote]

The golden fiddle was used in a recipe.

[Nibelung44]

I’m still clueless on how to use the 1.00 liter capacity of a belt. Nothing is accepted there.

[Kadian]

a belt with capacity? If it isn’t considered to be inventory-capacity (empty toolbelt for example), then it’s probably one of those rings/clips ; some tools can be attached to those. I think the Hatchet is one of them, or a handaxe. Not quite sure which one.

[Nibelung44]

it’s not inventory capacity but ‘innate capacity’, I tried to add there a lighter and it was refused.

[Justin_Case]

There are belts you can add crowbar forinstance… i guess its the toolbelt, maybe its a different thing

[pisskop]

Slings are. And we can add more

[Kadian]

[quote=“BorkBorkGoesTheCode, post:16524, topic:42”][quote=“Kadian, post:16522, topic:42”][quote=“Rot, post:16520, topic:42”]I’ve looked into the golden fiddle, just for curiosity’s sake.

As far as I can tell, it looks like it just has some neat flavor text. Are there any other abilities that are not obvious? Like better morale boosts or maybe even nether attention?[/quote]

It’s a fiddle. You play it. You get a normal morale boost, like from any other fiddle, as far as I know. No other abilities that I know of, it’s just an easter egg, like the Jaqueshammer which is a glorified Jackhammer.[/quote]
The golden fiddle was used in a recipe.[/quote]

By the way, just to clear this up: He was asking if the Golden Fiddle is just nowadys in something or if something special is linked to it. It isn’t. Maybe there once was a recipe, but its not there anymore, it’s just a fiddle. You can’t craft it, you can’t use it to craft anything, you can’t even dissassemble it to get some gold out of it.

There are belts you can add crowbar forinstance… i guess its the toolbelt, maybe its a different thing

that’s what I meant by rings/clips ; Ingame they are called slings, if I can believe pisskop, i just didn’t remember the correct name of it. As it stands, only a few tools are compatible with those things, so…yah.

[The_Sad_Fox]

A few questions from a fairly new player:

1. Is there any benefit of wearing multiple items with “block” property at the same time? Knife spear and leather armguards for example. Would the block chance be increased or stay the same? Or items with parry and block.

2. What is the advisable computers skill to hack consoles in labs.

3. There apparently been some changes and the wiki is no longer accurate, especially when it comes to newest experimentals. How useful is perception nowadays? I know that it increases NV range, reduces dispersion and allows you to detect traps. Is there anything else worth mentioning to it? Is investing points into it beyond 10 (maybe even 8) worth it, or theres no point in bothering with it.

4. Connected to above question - is there any up to date list of effects of all stats?

5. Is archery really so bad, or am i doing something wrong here. I’ve debugged myself a character with 5 archery, 5 marksmanship, 10 in all stats, along with a longbow upgraded with some early craftable gunmods and wooden arrows, to test around if its worthwhile investing into archery. Effectiveness of said bow was…horrible. With zombies set to 200% health (my usual setting), the character was most of the time unable to kill even a single basic zed from maximum range before it got to her. Even with maximum steadiness and aimed shots, my character has been missing like 1/4 of the shots, even at targets 5-6 tiles away from her. When it actually hit, the damage was nothing impressive, dissapointing rather. All in all, i’ve had better success killing zombies with a brand new character with zero weapon skills and using a heavy stick (which has -2 to-hit) +kiting, than the above setup. Lets not mention the fact that the arrows break at such fast rate you have to carry a backpack of them if you want to use the bow for more than a few minutes. Compared to throwing or hell, even slingshot, bows appear to be extremely lackluster. Please advise :3

6. Is there any reason other than massive health debuff and temporary nausea, assuming one has robust genetics, to not gamble and not drink buckets of sewage samples from the sewer treatment facility early in the game if one happens to stumble into it.

7. Can you still aquire normal mutations if you decide to pursue the secret not so secret mutation tree?

[SpadeDraco]

1. The “block” property gives you the ability to block with that body part. If you are not using a martial art with arm and leg blocks then it is beneficial to wear arm and leg gaurds. Otherwise you just want to maximize protection on the appendage in question.

2. 8. Always 8 for everything. You can get away with 6 or so if you have high INT, but there is still a risk.

3. On a non specialized character you don’t want it over 10. On a ranged character you don’t want it over 12. If you plan on using a Katana as your primary weapon then you want to get it up to around 20 eventually as it makes the “Niten Ichi Ryu” martial art extremely powerful.

4. Here ya go: http://dev.narc.ro/cataclysm/doxygen/pages.html

5. Archery is perfectly viable, just not in the early game. You need a Reflex Recurve Bow and steel arrows as well as high archery skill.

6. Robust genetics does not fully protect you from bad mutations. If you go this route you will likely destroy a character beyond repair.

7. Technically yes, but you will suffer an extremely debilitating “rejection” when you eat the mutation lines’ restricted food source.

[The_Sad_Fox]

Thank you for answers!

1. The "block" property gives you the ability to block with that body part. If you are not using a martial art with arm and leg blocks then it is beneficial to wear arm and leg gaurds. Otherwise you just want to maximize protection on the appendage in question.

The thing that bothers me about this is that when wearing multiple items with block property, without martial arts, my character always seems to block with her knife spear/broadsword, while never actually blocking with her arms/armguards. And so, i am unsure if i the additional block on armguards has any effect, or it would be more beneficial for me to switch to less encumbering arm gear with simmilar protection level, that doesn’t have block.

6. Robust genetics does not fully protect you from bad mutations. If you go this route you will likely destroy a character beyond repair.

I am aware that robust genetics only increases my chances of gambling the beneficial mutations, not guarantees them. My question here is - assuming i’ve managed to luck it out and get a set of good mutations with only minor bad ones, should i expect my character to suffer some long lasting, life threatening side effects of feasting on the sewer samples, or can i consider it “winning the lottery”.

[SpadeDraco]

[quote=“The Sad Fox, post:16533, topic:42”]Thank you for answers!

1. The "block" property gives you the ability to block with that body part. If you are not using a martial art with arm and leg blocks then it is beneficial to wear arm and leg gaurds. Otherwise you just want to maximize protection on the appendage in question.

The thing that bothers me about this is that when wearing multiple items with block property, without martial arts, my character always seems to block with her knife spear/broadsword, while never actually blocking with her arms/armguards. And so, i am unsure if i the additional block on armguards has any effect, or it would be more beneficial for me to switch to less encumbering arm gear with simmilar protection level, that doesn’t have block.

6. Robust genetics does not fully protect you from bad mutations. If you go this route you will likely destroy a character beyond repair.

I am aware that robust genetics only increases my chances of gambling the beneficial mutations, not guarantees them. My question here is - assuming i’ve managed to luck it out and get a set of good mutations with only minor bad ones, should i expect my character to suffer some long lasting, life threatening side effects of feasting on the sewer samples, or can i consider it “winning the lottery”.[/quote]

I believe weapon blocks take priority over arm\leg blocks. You will only use arm\leg blocks if you are fighting hand to hand or with a weapon that supports them. I think you can get parasites from sewage, but thats the only really obnoxious long-term negative.

Edit: Still didn’t adequately answer the block question sorry. There is no advantage to stacking block gear. Block chance and poperties are modified by the martial art you are using. No matter how you configure your block gear it will remain default until you add a martial art into the mix.

[Rysith]

Having just finished my first “successful” game (character retired as an anti-fungal crusader, all hail their M202 FLASH and the salvation that it brings), I was wondering if anyone had any tips for making the late-game interesting. The early game (looting the first town, bootstrapping into a working vehicle) and the midgame (driving said vehicle around looting, setting up a farm, mutations and CBMs) seemed fine at 2x spawn, it seemed like there wasn’t much to /do/ with diamond weapons, artifacts that made you fast and dumb, and the dozens of mininukes that I pulled out of the bottom of labs. The scenarios also seem (by and large) to address the early rather than late game.

So: If I want a reasonable early and mid game, but want some interesting challenges once I’ve got top-tier gear, what world settings and/or mods are there out there to help do that? Alternately, any interesting challenges/goals/limitations that I should try?

[pisskop]

[quote=“Rysith, post:16535, topic:42”]Having just finished my first “successful” game (character retired as an anti-fungal crusader, all hail their M202 FLASH and the salvation that it brings), I was wondering if anyone had any tips for making the late-game interesting. The early game (looting the first town, bootstrapping into a working vehicle) and the midgame (driving said vehicle around looting, setting up a farm, mutations and CBMs) seemed fine at 2x spawn, it seemed like there wasn’t much to /do/ with diamond weapons, artifacts that made you fast and dumb, and the dozens of mininukes that I pulled out of the bottom of labs. The scenarios also seem (by and large) to address the early rather than late game.

So: If I want a reasonable early and mid game, but want some interesting challenges once I’ve got top-tier gear, what world settings and/or mods are there out there to help do that? Alternately, any interesting challenges/goals/limitations that I should try?[/quote]
http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=12051.0

[deoxy]

2) What is the advisable computers skill to hack consoles in labs.

Depends on the console.

The basic mapping console (that has a turret in the room with it) is pretty safe to try even at low level. Usually, you will fail (electricity or shut down), but sometimes you will succeed, and it only takes one to get a good map.

The analyzer machines are pretty hard, but they never shut down, only electrify or drop manhacks, so they are good for both training AND manhack farming.

The barracks/prisoner containment shut down fairly easily, but don’t drop anything at you. Level 6 is enough more often than not, but even 8 isn’t a complete guarantee.

The observation room ones… they’re not dangerous (electrify is all), but they do shut down fairly easily. Just to open the doors, 6 is usually enough.

The CBM ones? They can drop SECUBOTS in your face (or manhacks, or electrify). Don’t mess around with those. Luckily, they aren’t quite as hard as some others, and 6 is pretty reliably good enough.

[SpadeDraco]

The barracks/prisoner containment shut down fairly easily, but don’t drop anything at you. Level 6 is enough more often than not, but even 8 isn’t a complete guarantee.

Is there any point in opening up prisoner containment rooms? They’re a dead end more often than not, and I’ve never noticed any sort of loot in there.

[Rysith]

[quote=“deoxy, post:16537, topic:42”]The barracks/prisoner containment shut down fairly easily, but don’t drop anything at you. Level 6 is enough more often than not, but even 8 isn’t a complete guarantee.

Is there any point in opening up prisoner containment rooms? They’re a dead end more often than not, and I’ve never noticed any sort of loot in there.[/quote]

There is a room with a locker and some crates in the back that has drugs in it, but nothing exceptional unless you need lots of drugs (say, for making medical mutagen).

[deoxy]

[quote=“SpadeDraco, post:16538, topic:42”][quote=“deoxy, post:16537, topic:42”]The barracks/prisoner containment shut down fairly easily, but don’t drop anything at you. Level 6 is enough more often than not, but even 8 isn’t a complete guarantee.

Is there any point in opening up prisoner containment rooms? They’re a dead end more often than not, and I’ve never noticed any sort of loot in there.[/quote]

The room with the dissector sometimes has interesting things, and the room next to the inner terminal also tends to have some drugs or various kinds, along with the occasional useful books/flashlight/deskfan.

But the main reason is that there are often zombie scientists in there, and they butcher to CBMs.
There is a room with a locker and some crates in the back that has drugs in it, but nothing exceptional unless you need lots of drugs (say, for making medical mutagen).[/quote]