I started in a lab, i’m a volunteer mutant with 5 cooking.
Chatted with my starting NPC and he joined me on my quest to escape. He had 7 cutting, 6 unarmed/first aid, 4 electronics, and some other skills. Also had a Katana.
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Found a found a ton of books and corpses, butched, cooked and gathered supplies and set myself up near a terminal for light to read.
Eventually crafted a scrambler grenade and took out a turret and disassembled it for the UZI.
A random NPC tried to mug me, I burst fired him and took his shit. He had a rail laser sight, sweet.
Crafted some nick-nacks, most notably a shoulder strap and a few more scrambler grenades and some dynamite.
Gathered some ammo for my UZI and proceeded to blow up the ‘final boss’ turret with a few grenades (Didn’t have any electronics for scrambler grenade)
Blow hole into wall and escape to a nearby motel which has a pool.
Wait until night and proceed to kill all zombies.
Make base in motel
Learn all skills from NPC.
Kill him, turn him into noms.
Life is good c:
There’s a patch of forest relatively close to my base. Due to exploring, I go through it; I passed by the area multiple times already, but going through the woods the first time as a shortcut led me to a pile of bodies… and one had the rivtech combat armor, so woo-hoo.
In general, I prefer it over the standard power armors. No helmet needed, same with hauling frames since you can wear other clothes over it. Full body coverage, immune to acid even when deactivated, and in general when active the encumbrance is low enough that I can melee with ease. When inactive I go with the pneumatic bolt driver - after realizing that steel crossbow bolts can now be crafted, it became my weapon of choice.
On the flipside, the armor isn’t as strong as power armor. Since there’s a few layers of clothing my survivor still wears, encumbrance is rather horrid when the armor is inactive, and in general my survivor isn’t wearing much else - pants, gloves, MOLLE pack, and helmet. Despite the low amount of clothing, quite a bit of encumbrance is had, though having it active is enough to make melee viable. Armor value is quite decent when active. It’s a bit low when inactive, but more than enough.
Also, it looks pretty cool with Chesthole tileset. I remember before that there wasn’t a sprite way back then, so unless I really added a lot of clothing I’d end up with a survivor who looks like they got no clothes on.
Megastore filled with nothing but regular zeds. Out of boredom, I charged in, rivtech armor activated and armed with a war hammer. They didn’t stand a chance.
Pulped the corpses… and in a further act of boredom, I made some braziers, hauled every corpse, and used the mini-flamethrower thrice on each brazier. 8 braziers, 7 of them full of pulped zeds. Then I made my survivor sleep near the comfy fire. Surprisingly, the corpses didn’t last that long.
Nearby ice lab. May be my new base. It’s either that place or the megastore itself. I could make a base on the store and make the ice lab a storage for perishable food only… though while I say it’s nearby the megastore and the lab aren’t that close to each other, and a four-house town is in between them as well. Hard to decide on which to choose.
Can’t you store perishables in a basement or something? I though that time wasn’t processed across Z-levels.
It is when you go down there. They now remember when you left and simulate time/temp when you get back. Temp is easy too, since underground away from the sun and winds theres a more or less constant temp
Out of curiosity, does an ice lab’s lower levels store food better than a fridge, or the same?
Better.
Fridges slow down decay.
Ice labs, even on the upper levels, stops decay
Really? Is it only ice labs? How come they totally stop decay?
Any below freezing environment. Winter stops 99% of decay too, but then spring comes.
[quote=“DG123, post:12153, topic:47”]On another note, I just found a power armour hauling frame, in a military surplus shop of all places…
I also have a light power armour suit and a basic power armour suit.
… I have no helmet.
Is there anything I can do other than just wait and hope?[/quote]
you can cheat 
but for real, hope is basically it, try a bank. i found a suit of HEAVY power armor and a minireactor in a bank vault once.
Just about a year with this character, and I’m pretty much god. I decided to explore around a little bit to see if I could actually get out of the town (no idea what I set them to in this world, but 16 wouldn’t shock me), ran into a tankbot instead.
I’m godly enough that I survived three missile shots just fine, but I’m pretty fucked up. And convinced enough that there is no end to the city that I might just call it “close enough” and start over with a complete new gen.
Hmm. The ice lab I plan on making a base has an interesting map error. Seems like a subway tunnel is supposed to go through it, but they aren’t connected to each other. Like on the north and south end of the ice lab there’s subways going off on a direction, but there’s no transition between ice lab and subway - basically had to jackhammer through the ice lab’s walls to get to the subway.
Furthermore, in the middle of the ice lab is further proof of map probs. Eh, basically might as well show a screenshot of it.
Lab area has ice lab temp, while subway in the middle has normal temp.
Interesting, in any case. The cold temp of the ice lab on that floor isn’t too bad, and my survivor can live in it without problems, though it’s summer and it might go colder during winter. May make the base on the isolated subway area. Not sure yet.
If you have the skill/tools to make stairs, you could put stairs down into the subway (or just next to it) - that would be awfully convenient.
That’s the general plan.
Don’t want to go all out like last time and jackhammer the storage areas and whatnot, so I’ll make use of the relatively warm space of the isolated subway area for living quarters and basic storage, while the adjacent ice lab room will keep the perishables secure. For the furniture most of it will come from the ice lab, dragged into where I want them - might build some walls at least to define each storage space more cleanly.
Haven’t fully explored the ice lab itself - managed to run down to the main room at the bottom before my survivor froze herself to death. Bionics room, nothing special. When I got the clothing for it I intend to explore the area fully, and hope there’s a shoggoth in one of the containment rooms. Would be nice to have an item disposal at my disposal.
Don’t have a car yet, but I intend to move the stuff at the motel base my survivor had into the ice lab itself. After that, I’ll consider making a vehicle ASAP. There’s a couple of tanks on the way to the ice lab and I intend to strip them of parts.
Hrmrmrmrmrmrmr. The sound of my thoughts as I try to figure out how to divide items into separate containers once again.
Starting with guns. Handguns, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and launchers for a start. Mm, archery as well, like standard crossbows and bows of all kinds. I suppose I should place the repeating crossbow among the crossbow storage as well, even though the skill used is submachine guns.
I also suppose that survivor-made unique weapons could be placed on another container. Like the pneumatic bolt launcher in another container, which can also contain things such as the fire lance and atlatl. A general survivor-made ranged weapons container, if you will, separate from factory-made guns, and crossbows/bows as well. I mean, a survivor can make a crossbow/bow, but since those are in circulation pre-cataclysm, they can be kept separate from the truly cataclysm era weapons like the pneumatic assault rifle. Then I think, what about mounted weapons? The storm bolter and hypervelocity driver. Should they be placed in another container? What about vehicle mounted, factory-made guns?
In any case, sorting them that way works better for my thoughts than just calling it sorting by weapons skill, since it grates my soul before when sorting the rivtech short shotgun among the handguns because it uses that skill. It won’t be too bad since I’m sorting out the guns exactly by skill.
Of course, that doesn’t take into account yet weapon mods, melee weapons (the war hammer has the exact same value for bashing and piercing damage!), ammo, and gun magazines.
At this point, my brain temporarily shuts down while my survivor is dragging around another display rack.
Okay, okay, okay. Factory-made guns, one container for each skill; handguns, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, and launchers. Old-era weapons, like the Colt Army, get their own container. Basically anything that uses cap and ball ammo and paper cartridges in one container, ignoring weapon skill type. Energy based weapons get their own container. Rivtech brand guns… not sure if they’ll be in their own exclusive container or be divided among the weapon containers according to skill. Big asterisk on that one.
Weapons such as crossbows, slings, bows, atlatl, etc - they have their own container. Again, ignoring weapons skills. They’re survivor-made, but weapons such as pneumatic bolt launchers, survivor six shooters, get a container of their own. Both are basically creatable by survivors, but have a distinctly different means of firing. Like how crossbows/bows uses muscle power to load/fire, while the bolt drivers and six shooters have certain mechanisms on how they launch the ammo. Debating on placing the fire lance on one of the two or putting it with the cap and ball types. Same for the blunderbuss, but at least one of the three can contain the weapon.
Weapons that can be mounted on vehicles… hmm, that’s a bit tricky. I guess if the weapon can’t be used without mounting it on a vehicle, then they’re in one container, both factory-made, like the minigun, and survivor-made like the mountable hypervelocity driver. Even misc. stuff like the water cannon goes in. Basically, if you need to mount it on a vehicle to use it, then you go in one container. Turrets, I suppose, can be placed in the same container as well.
Strictly melee weapons are a bit tricky. After all the work in having several containers for guns, just dumping all weapons in one container feels a bit cheap. Dividing the containers by damage type seems most ideal - like one container for bashing weapons, another for cutting weapons, etc. If a weapon has more than one damage type, they’re placed in the container for the damage that they’re higher in. Like a morningstar has piercing damage, but its bashing damage is far greater, so the morning star is placed among the quarterstaffs and maces.
HOWEVER, there’s tricky ground to be had, mostly due to one weapon: the war hammer. It has equal bash and pierce damage, so where to place it? Instead of sorting melee weapons out by damage type, perhaps it would be better to just have three containers for it. One’s for standard melee, which covers nearly everything. Another container for melee with reach attacks, such as spears - and the bullwhip will be placed here as well. If you can use the fire keypress, then it goes in there. The fire lance is not included as it uses ammunition. Finally, the last melee container will be for knuckle-weapons. Brass knuckles, punch daggers, tiger claws… basically anything that can be used alongside most martial arts styles. Maybe another container for weapons with defects, and useless replicas.
Ammo is somewhat tricky, but I suppose I’ll go with what I’ve been doing for ammo since forever. Most ammo in one container, mainly the ones that use gunpowder. A separate container for shotgun shells, both standard and rivtech… blunderbuss ammo, maybe here as well. Exotic ammo and launcher ammo in another; missiles and hydrogen and fusion packs. Though it’s a chemical, napalm will be included here, but not gasoline nor diesel as those are primarily vehicle fuel. Then, arrows, crossbow bolts, pebbles go in one container. If it’s classified as ammo but doesn’t use gunpowder and not future-tech like fusion pack, they go all in one container.
Gun magazines, well, all in one container. Dunno if there are non-factory made ones. Either way, if it’s a gun magazine, it goes in one container. Likewise, all gun mods get one container only.
Lastly, explosives. Nothing related to launchers, just straight up bombs. In general, big bombs like the ANFO charge get one container. Mininukes have their own as well, while everything else is in a third container.
That about covers everything for weapons, I think. That’s around 23-24 containers, which most will be gotten from the lab armory - display racks. 24 if I add containers for Rivtech, methinks. 25 if I divide ammo between factory-made and reloaded.
Those display racks are easy enough to drag around. Making them won’t be too bad either, which I will need to do since it’s not just weapons that get multiple containers. The problem is layout. Freaking layout. Three rows of 8 racks each? Four rows of 6 racks each? Have them line up horizontally or vertically?
General dividing line between the armory and other rooms is easy enough; half-built stone walls, since I don’t have to dig out rooms since I’ll use the isolated subway area, but man, the layout. More or less I know how many containers I need, but how should they be spaced? Do I have to have them all as display racks? What do I do about ammo casings?
I’ll cut myself off here, but to reply in advance; yes, I am loony, thankyouverymuch.
In any case, I do know what to do about casings: They go in the spare parts room, which is another chapter in this sordid tale - though not as dramatic as the weapons storage. Spare parts and chemicals and drugs are easy enough. It’s food that will be just as loony as weapons. Maybe even clothing.
edit: FURTHERMORE, while this could potentially be extra time-consuming when hauling new stuff to storage, all guns have to be unloaded. Magazines removed, and those magazines have to be unloaded as well. Any mods are also removed. It’s not required to have all guns/weapons accurized/reinforced, but damaged weapons should be repaired to at least its basic condition. Any guns that are loaded/modded are ones that get regular use, and thus placed in a different storage area: the bedroom, which thankfully will be an all-in-one weapons container.
You have an OCD problem.
Who? Me? Naaaaaaaaaw!
Like, what makes you say that? Har, har, har.
Yes I do. Help. But seriously, while adventuring and exploring is quite fun, making a place where my survivor can dump excess stuff has a charm of it’s own.
I’m going to confess I like a orderly base as well, but 4 piles (Ammo, mods, guns, melee) are usually more than enough for me. 
Haven’t really made any progress on storage yet, just hauling stuff from the old base to the new base. After that, it’s clearing out the ice lab for all items that can be taken, and aside from a quick trip to the bottom, I haven’t fully explored it yet. It’s five floors of ice lab, so I’ll need scarves and blankets to keep my survivor warm.
Aside from that, the isolated subway area has a 16x48 space I can work with. During the trip to the old base, I encountered a shocker brute who thankfully gave me a unified power system bionic to work with. That will at least give me something to work with if I wanna dig out some extra space, and later it’ll be really needed when I start hammering out a vehicle for bigger hauling jobs and further exploration. Basically plan the same thing I usually do; close areas explored during spring-autumn, far exploration during the winter - mostly to keep any meat and other perishables found during those trips preserved and fresh.
Still, layout continues to elude me. Sure, I got an idea of how many containers I’ll need, but it’s a matter of look. Like I said, there’s a weapon armory, then chemical and spare parts storage, then food storage - one for perishables and another for the ones that don’t, and after that it’s a matter of food and drink and further complicating things are food that are considered ingredients like flour and salt and junk food like candy. An armory for armor is another thing, which has always been rather complicated, since there’s stuff that offer whole-body coverage. Maybe a container for upper body/torso, container for lower body/legs, then boots, then gloves, then helmets. Things that overlap, like covering both lower and upper body get their own container, and power armor being special get their own…
It’s a real complicated issue. Since I’m being real OCD about the weapons, it would look odd to leave the armor in an uncoordinated state, or somewhat uncoordinated compared to another thing. If I’ll set up rules, then it has to cover everything.