What's Happening in YOUR Randomly-generated Apocalypse?

[MrQwerty]

I’ve been experiencing a lot of bugs with Z-levels lately. A lot of things seem to “pop into existence”. Mostly it goes like this:
1.I am in a building with Z-levels(a home with a basement, a two story motel, etc).
2.I make noise on the ground floor
3.I hear noise below me
4.Something spawns in my blind spot BUT in a place that it HAS NO WAY OF ACCESSING
It’s okay when sewer rats do this… but a shocker brute recently did this and i was FUCKED .-.

[deoxy]

[quote=“MrQwerty, post:11621, topic:47”]I’ve been experiencing a lot of bugs with Z-levels lately. A lot of things seem to “pop into existence”. Mostly it goes like this:
1.I am in a building with Z-levels(a home with a basement, a two story motel, etc).
2.I make noise on the ground floor
3.I hear noise below me
4.Something spawns in my blind spot BUT in a place that it HAS NO WAY OF ACCESSING
It’s okay when sewer rats do this… but a shocker brute recently did this and i was FUCKED .-.[/quote]

Things can fall down z-levels. Make noise on the first floor, and zombies above you may well fall off the edge of the floor above (or even make holes in the floor by accident as they break stuff) looking for you.

Also, zombies now use stairs, though not a whole lot unless you are nearby (I’m guessing that it’s random unless they can smell you, or something), so that could also explain it.

There was a bug for a few weeks until about 2 weeks ago that monsters could treat all tiles like stairs and go up and down anywhere, anytime. That was pretty crazy, but I suspect you would know if you had THAT going on… heh. It was… intense. (Try starting in a lab next to an anthill with that…)

[MrQwerty]

It might actually be that bug, since i didn’t update in a while(worrying if it messes up saves and whatnot)

[deoxy]

4.Something spawns in my blind spot BUT in a place that it HAS NO WAY OF ACCESSING

I doubt that’s the problem you have, because of this above. In that particular bug, they would do it any old place, even directly adjacent to you. They certainly didn’t need a blind spot.

[pisskop]

So while I usually enjoy how structures spawn on top of one another sometimes its silly.

[deoxy]

So while I usually enjoy how structures spawn on top of one another sometimes its silly.

Actually, that makes perfect sense - slime pits should show up anywhere they darn well please…

But then, the center should be deserted, as the locals would have abandoned it. THAT is the silly part, that it doesn’t handle such collisions well at all.

[Aesop]

[quote=“pisskop, post:11625, topic:47”]So while I usually enjoy how structures spawn on top of one another sometimes its silly.

Actually, that makes perfect sense - slime pits should show up anywhere they darn well please…

But then, the center should be deserted, as the locals would have abandoned it. THAT is the silly part, that it doesn’t handle such collisions well at all.[/quote]
Yeah, that’s a pretty brutal example.

In my current world the refugee center happens to be neighboring a fungal bloom. Elijah destroyed the spire and burned down the surrounding area but the Mycus are tenacious. Every time he pays the refugee colony a visit he has to top off the flamethrower and burn back some new growth.

Unrelated status update.

After helping the ranch project get off the ground Elijah was trying to get back down across the river to where he had started to crack open a few bunkers. He had originally crossed the river by doing some “caulk the wagon and float” style shenanigans courtesy of a few hastily made boat boards. OOC it felt a little cheesy to float a 10-ton RV with military plating across a river and then drive away after popping the wheels back on, so I decided to take a bit of a road trip and see if I could find a bridge.

After chopping down an acre of woodland so he could drive the RV through, he found his bridge near a riverside town that looked like it had been blasted to shit by meteors or missiles or something. While investigating some subterranean sounds beneath a pump station he found what appears to be a subterranean vault with its own population of irradiated abominations. They were probably sane human beings at one point, just trying to escape the end-times. This must be what the young government fella was yapping on about.

The vault is proving to be a bit bigger than anticipated. Both it and its inhabitants are also proving inhospitable to plant folk. The back of the RV was starting to get a bit lousy with ammunition anyway. Got about a thousand shells of buckshot taking up space and not paying rent.

It’s back to the surface for now. Gotta repair the armor, fill a waterskin with fertilizer, hone the blade, and get back down there with the big guns. Spread the word, tell your friends: The marshal is in town, and he’s pissed.

[deoxy]

In my current world the refugee center happens to be neighboring a fungal bloom. Elijah destroyed the spire and burned down the surrounding area but the Mycus are tenacious. Every time he pays the refugee colony a visit he has to top off the flamethrower and burn back some new growth.

Fungal bloom. I bloody HATE fungal bloom.

Towers and flowers are fine - I can deal with those, and the problem is solved.

But bloom? Fungaloids spread out larger than all but the largest cities (playing on city size 6), and unless they’ve changed it in the last few months, I’m pretty sure they keep spawning in the area forever, even after the tower at the center of the bloom is gone.

HATE HATE HATE HATE SO MUCH. Almost enough to turn off fungaloids, and I don’t turn off ANYTHING.

[Azrad]

After about 70% deaths and 30% quitting due to starting off in uninteresting areas, finally found a world that my survivor can live in.

Area seems to be surrounded by towns and cities, and after a few nights of risky raiding I found some decent food supplies. Then I found a basement that had a human corpse, and there I found a trench knife and a single barrel shotgun and ammo. Yayness.

NPC doesn’t have a lot to teach my survivor, so I left him and my survivor is currently camped out in a not yet populated outpost. No books to teach tailoring, but recently found under the hood so in time I can set up my usual cargo carrier wheelbarrow soon at least.

[Azrad]

Camping around the outpost has proven difficult, as not long after the horde spawned nearby.

At first, my survivor managed by doing hits during night time. Even without a martial art style, the trench knife proves to be a potent weapon against most Zs. Furthermore, the barbed wire around the outpost does a great job grinding out a lot of foolish zombies to walk on it.

Then it slightly goes to hell when I explore the nearby cave, which is a rat cave. Armed with a handgun, I cleared the area and vanquished the rat king, getting poison and infection resistant… and freaking high night vision, baybay. On the other hand, the shooting attracted an even larger horde, and there’s quite a few shockers running around now.

My survivor manages to escape with his trusty shopping cart. He’ll come back there to purge the horde in the future, since there’s a nearby evac shelter and I wanna set the outpost up.

So then he wanders around for a bit. Finds a factory but does not explore the area yet. Some ways north of the outpost, he finds a house. At first I thought it was mapgen making a one-house town, but it turns out that the house is connected to a relatively big looking city, but the lone house is separated from the city by a bridge.

I’m thinking, this looks like some pretty snazzy real estate here. One house, away from the Zs, scenic view with the river. Better yet, these seems to be a new type of house that wasn’t around a few months ago. Brick walls… and a second floor! Like wow, never seen that before in a house. Me like.

So yeah, I think my survivor will be living in this place, picking up the pieces of Americana that he had lost when the cataclysm hit.

Sounds in the basement. This has a basement as well? Wow. I’m thinking it’s zombies, and if my survivor wants to have this little area peaceful he’ll go down there and take on some undead…

…eh?

Oh gods, they’ve learned how to lurk in basements! All is doomed! NOM NOM DELICIOUS MOOSE STEAK.

Wait… My survivor is displacing it. A friendly moose?

A FRIENDLY MOOSE?

[deoxy]

So then he wanders around for a bit. Finds a factory but does not explore the area yet. Some ways north of the outpost, he finds a house.

I’m pretty sure the the factory is from the More Locations mod (or whatever it’s called), and while I like the idea, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. As best I can tell, it’s just a good many turrets (?!?), a few secubots and skitterbots (?!? again), a LOT of techician zombies (so you get a LOT of that short list of CBMs), and bunch of useless equipment/furniture, which is realistic, I guess (especially without power…), but it seems like the kind of thing that could be really nifty with some more work. Also, with fewer technician zombies (the one I explored, I left with a stack of 80 power CBMs, and that doesn’t count all the duplicates of the other stuff…).

Anyway, this house you’re describing could also be from that mod - I’ve never seen one like that.

[Arek_PL]

factories are great sources of metal, plastic, and electronic scrap

[deoxy]

factories are great sources of metal, plastic, and electronic scrap

And probably all kinds of electronic bits, too, I’d assume, but I didn’t need any of that then, so I didn’t even try disassembling or smashing the interesting stuff… heh, sorry about that.

[Aesop]

[quote=“Arek_PL, post:11632, topic:47”]factories are great sources of metal, plastic, and electronic scrap

And probably all kinds of electronic bits, too, I’d assume, but I didn’t need any of that then, so I didn’t even try disassembling or smashing the interesting stuff… heh, sorry about that.[/quote]
And 9mm casings. The turrets will be shooting quite a lot of those at you, which is the primary reason it’s on my list of locations that require more time, energy, and risk than they’re worth.

Currently that list only has two entries, factories and prisons. Nothing in there but common loot guarded fiercely by shooty and bitey things.

[ChiliFriez]

I was fighting a hulk while a giant fly was buzzing near us. Hulk knocked me through the air, I collided with the fly, and the fly exploded into guts and gore. It was beautiful.

[Azrad]

Probably mentioned before, but mine fields seem to gather hordes like flies to rotting meat. Thankfully that place is relatively far from my current base.

[Voqar]

Well, updating to the latest (to try to ditch a previously never happening crash with reloading tailor kit) during a run was a terrible idea, since jacks have been rendered butt useless no idea what “lifting equipment” is or where to get it, so can no longer deal with tires on anything but a bicycle, apparently.

Acetylene torches have got the ammo treatment, since magazines are such a great idea. The game has about 500 things that run on batteries, including many things that would never run on batteries, but why be consistent when making things annoying and adding hassle is the dev theme lately (and sadly that’s getting to be consistent).

Not to mention, our superheroes can fabricate bionics in the back of a truck with a screwdriver or make mutagens out of bleach but creating fuel/power for an acetylene torch, oh no, that’s way too complicated - can’t craft that.

What’s next…let’s split screwdrivers into philips and flat head - because just having one screwdriver isn’t very realistic. Chop chop!

As I’ve stated previously, this IS a game, and randomly adding tedium to the game to make one out of the hundreds of elements of the game more realistic makes very little sense. It’s selective realism in a game full of oodles of unrealistic elements - there’s a whole thread on things that aren’t realistic (but that make for great gameplay, which IMO, is being ruined by these types of mutilations).

Oh well, I suppose somebody other than the random dev that adds these random tediums to the game must like these changes, so I guess it’s all good. It’s curbing my desire to play this game anymore and that’s not all bad, can get to my extensive backlog.

Cheers

[railmonkey]

Went ahead and updated to latest experimental, myself. Rolled up an Infected Rogue. So far, still alive, which is more than I can say for my poor erstwhile starting NPC. She got eaten while I was out getting her software. I was, however, able to trade for a first aid kit before I left, which solved my infection problem rather handily. Meanwhile, I’ve made it to day two. A safehouse basement had an entrenching tool, while a firearm cache basement yielded an M1014, complete with 00 shot. Keeping that in reserve for emergencies. Absolutely not regretting dumping points into mechanics on chargen, since I found a fully stocked garage! Welder and welding goggles, an acetylene torch, wrench, hacksaw, bottle jack, various vehicle parts, and a folding engine crane for good measure. Found a screwdriver set and hammer from a zed drop, so I’m all set on tools for now, since I also found a soldering iron and tailoring kit. Book drops are pretty nice, too: Computing 101, which I now no longer need; Augmentative Tech Review 2041, which I will for some time; Bon Appetit, and Sushi Made Easy.

All told, things are definitely looking up. Won’t have to resort to building a makeshift jack, thankfully, since I don’t even have a single point in fabrication yet. Now I just need to find a workable vehicle, and I’m set. Crossing my fingers for an RV or, better yet, an APC. In the meantime, I’ve welded a trunk space in place of my shopping cart’s basket. That will hold me for a while.

[Azrad]

Different survivor, got bored of the last one.

Somehow survived against a hostile NPC pelting my survivor with bursts of TEC-9 fire. He ran out of bullets, and my survivor is barely alive.

Leaving that area around that NPC alone. When the time comes, there will be REVENGE!

[railmonkey]

Well, made it to day 10. Managed to find myself an RV, a mobile meth lab, and several security vans. Oh, and a mobile gun system. From those, I’ve cobbled together a Frankensteinian creation that’s quite serviceable. Gonna be a pain once it comes time to swap from wheels to treads, but I should hopefully have the heavy duty equipment I need in order to get the job done. Next order of business is to finish swapping out the steel plating for military composite. After that, I have some book learning to do. Ultimately, I’m aiming for the full suite of vehicular tool stations.

Seems there’s a triffid grove somewhere nearby. Time to stock up on Molotovs.