What's Happening in YOUR Randomly-generated Apocalypse?

Game Talk The Bunker
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Good ol’ Chris Record just had a hell of a couple of days to cap off his first week in the apocalypse. First, he finds himself in need of a battery for his newly found school bus because he broke rule number one of Cataclysm vehicle ownership (don’t leave your damn dome light on!) and after hauling back three different batteries that all seemed to have their charges mysteriously drain mid-journey, finally gets said bus up and running. He’s only got 2 liters to run on, though, and he’s not sure he’ll be able to get himself, his partner, and the little bit of stash he’s piled on the bus for the maiden voyage to the new base (a lovely little three-story about a quarter mile from a tiny town, with a basement even!), but even if he breaks down half way, it’ll be worth the little bit of ground he no longer has to run between.

He makes it to the new base with barely any diesel to spare, and in prep for the ferry of goods from the old apartment towers he’d been living in to the new base, he decides to make a journey to the edge of town where he knows there’s a gas station. Long and short of that journey, he finds himself being chased into city limits by a bear, with about half a dozen zombies ahead of him. ‘No sweat, juke the bear and leave the zoms to clean up,’ He thinks. Lo and behold, as he gets closer, and he successfully jukes the bear, the zombies start tripling. He breaks around a garage, zombies start piling out of that. Past the gas station (oh look! they do have diesel! journey not for naught!) and he starts tearing down the road back towards his house. At least 20 zombies in tow. He’s starting to lose his breath. They’re gaining. He lets them get in close, then empties a full magazine of 9mm into the bastards. 10 or so down, but they’re still gaining.

He pulls out his rifle, lets them get in close, fires off all four shots. Gets some distance, catches his breath, reloads, and does it again. Tosses that aside. There’s still four zombies left. He doesn’t know shit about melee. But he’s about to find out as he whips out his makeshift crowbar. Goes to town on the damn bastards. They’re tearing at him, he’s beating them back, it’s all hell breaks loose, and somehow, somehow, that damn Record boy walks away with two infections, a broken right arm, two 9mm rounds in his pocket (didn’t have time to reload them), but somehow still alive.

This son of a bitch is either going to go places, or he’s going to crash and burn spectacularly.

12362

Luck smiles upon my character. I had just finished clearing out a lab, and was touring the countryside in search of a nice spot to stall my mobile base for the summer for some planting and brewing.

Made a quick stop to unleash a nuke on a semi random fungal bloom, and then I stumble upon a farm, right next to an apple orchard with stall and processing centre. I guess that’ll do just fine. Not sure if I’m gonna hang around until autumn for the apples though. My mobile base can just barely fit into the farm’s barn, while the orchard processing building makes for a nice metal bunker.

EDIT: dang, it gets better. It has a river fishing spot 2 map tiles out.

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[quote=“pisskop”]Oh look, its my buddy officer Getfhucked

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Them migos and grackes are apparently doing a number on his 12bashing armor.

In other news, I am not. Ive discovered that a few days ago they refactored the melee code, and now my 2melee heavy skick wielding naked rump is not the best suited to smack dead guys upside the head to death.

2x4s are much better now, whereas before it was pretty arguable. This guy survived by

A: not getting mobbed by zeds leaving his burning house
B: using a pointy stick and scrounging - I mean utterly digging the gum off your shoe to eat it scrounging - sheets and stuff until he got a shopping cart.
C: Not getting cheeky with the item hording or going for shops. Usually Id go 3 streets in to get to a sporting goods store on night 1.
D: finding a boomer with a flashlight on it.

p:

Ahh, it only got better. I have a handcannon I found on me with 6 shots. Since I made the cop I know what and when he will do things, and I figured I could take him, and loot the military gear.

hahahaha

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Never say I dont test my own creations and spawn lists. that jabberwock is a 1 in like 500 chance when the red moon rises of actually spawning on day1.[/quote]

That only got worse before better.

A shocker zombie was directly between me and becoming closer to the jabber than his next victim. I had to waste 2 shots putting it down.

12364

Last day of autumn - I decide to try my luck at middle of the town; found spider basement earlier with light power armor but had to bail out because of the spiders were just a bit too much to handle at the time and the zeds above messed stuff alot. Also nearby gunshop was quite inaccessible because of zeds, so I thought its time to try to tackle them both now; after all, its three seasons of preparing and time to get hands really dirty.

So I get my gear up, and head to the town in the morning from my mansion. Everything seems OK when I stumble to the spider basement house, dispose few zeds from around and then start pushing towards the gun store. Coming from the blind corner I meet a boomer and … well. Get boomed. Not a biggie, except for the noise. Step back blind and … well fook. A shrieker is also here, pointing out to others where the fresh meat is. This … might get hairy. So I dispose the shriekerer too and take a peek at the direction of center of the city.

Horde is there and they are all coming this way. Amongst them at the front line… oh dear. A hulk. So far I have avoided them totally, not even seen one… but this time its there and its coming in fast.

I know I have tools to get over the situation and the landscape is a bit favoring - there is metal debris field I can use and I got upgraded compound bow - tho limited number of arrows - to whittle the hulk down. And cocaine ofc :D… So I decide to go for it, even if its risky. The reward is definately worth it.

So i dash to the debris field and dance there with the hulk, everyting is sweet… until a shocker zombie stumbles in. I got the hulk down to one health bar, I need to ditch the bow to deal with the shocker with my L-stick, which leads to getting thown around by the hulk. My HP is starting to disappear at worrying pace. Time to get the gun out - so now Beretta M9 does the negotiation with the hulk… but the constant BLAM BLAM BLAM will attract absolute attention of everyone in the town.

Finally hulk is down but there are every other type of zeds pouring in and I cannot stay here at current pain levels. Now I know I’m dealt with the situation and cleared it alive and able to continue… but one problem remains: That Hulk corpse is still there and I have no time to make it go away right now. That means unless I deal with it I have only wasted day’s effort and lost my precious weapons and before long that hulk corpse will rise to place where it exactly isnt wanted. I cannot do it right now - so I must do it SOON.

I ditch the town center cutting trough buildings to the areas where I have already cleared pretty much everything. Go to bathroom and lock the doors and crash there, bandage up, first aid kits… not much help since my character is fast healer so first aid is not very good… wait an hour to see how well performing I am. Fuckton of pain, slowed, HP alarmingly low but otherwise intact and still have decent armor against weaker zombies, I can probably pull it off if im careful. But I don’t have a silent weapon because beretta is only one I have in inventory… so … I make a cudgel. Now its time to figure out how to get into the hulk corpse to butcher it and be able to recover my stuff and to ensure this raid wasnt in vain. So I enter the eastern town where I have visited few times and cleared most of the zombies - I need to bash some heads in with my cudgel but nothing biggy. So now I approach the place from the east and visit some houses just to hit a Jackpot - atomic lamp at one house, making whole trip already worth the pains… after that - carefully… nearly at the edge of the assumed horde I toss in handful of firecrackers and run away without looking back. I’d assume that will pull majority of the horde to the east side for while, so its time to backtrack to the hulk carcass.

Night sets in. Seeing absolutely nothing I stumble to the direction where the hulk corpse is. Get spooked by shadow zombies that get few hits in but can dispose them even with cudgel quite asily… HP is now precious, im not yet at the edge of death but soon will. And the increasing pain is bad, its slows me down. Finally find the hulk corpse and only fireman zombie and one regular around. Takes a bit dancing and lots of stamina to get the fireman Z down relatively safe. Finally… pull a butcher knife out of ankle seath and start chopping up the mound of meat.

On the way back to mansion last night of autumn turns to snowstorm and being in my combat gear I start getting frostbitten. Your arms hurt. Your torso hurts. Your feet hurts. At last frozen and beaten man shambles into the familiar place, amongs the pool and the broken windows is his stash and residence. Set fire to warm up, eat, drink and contemplate the past day. Mission was not completed - but it wasnt failed either.

Mission was… survived.

12365

I’ve decided to recognize the mushroom kingdom as the helpful and benevolent force that it is. I’m currently in my armored car, rolling along at the head of a massive mushroom army. The plan is to let the fungus take care of all the zombies in the city while I read books and occasionally hop out of the car to grab gear from nearby houses that haven’t been assimilated yet. The zombies tend to ignore me in favor of charging into the massive hoard of fungaloids around my car. This is a good thing since they inevitably kill some fungaloids, providing me with an infinite source of fluid sacs. Combined with the fact that marloss berries self replicate this has completely eliminated the need to gather food and water.

The plan right now is to read every book that I find and then break away from the fungus once I’m skilled enough to be self sufficient. That is assuming that I don’t contract a fungal infection and die horribly of course.

12366

So, on this character the spider basements seem unusually lucky for me.

There are only 2 I’ve found so far, but:

  • In the first one, I’ve found the Rivtek/Rivtech ( which one is it? ) stimulant injector. Not exactly sure what it does though.

  • In the second one, I’ve found two power armor helmets ( light and heavy ) and a flask of mutagen.

12367

My current haul, from 6-7 spider basements:

2 Power Armor Hauling Frames
2 Basic Power Armor Helmets
1 Basic Power Armor
1 Heavy Power Armor
19 plutonium fuel cells
2 Hackpro USB drives
15 stimulants and 2 injectors
100 fusion cells

miscellaneous other stuff that doesn’t even rate.

Now if I could just get the NPC to wear the power armor helmet to go along with her power armor, I’d never need to to bandage her wounds again.

12368

Im just start to explore around the starting shelter… To the west, there is a mansion in the forest (haven’t checked it out). To the south there is a a 2story motel, which i have never encountered yet, so im curious about it. I managed to find a settelment while I was chased by a Krek, but it lost me in the forest. In the city I found a church, so im setting up my temporary base there. I start to scavange for water, food, clothing and weapons. I have a baseball bat, a pocket knife and I found a glock in the church with one clip. So I have to save ammo, until i can pile up. Now my plan is to find a getaway vehicle and start to gather the construction materials i found and establish a base for future characters to meet up.

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I’d try editing the stats of his/her current headgear to something really bad, and then offer the power armor helmet.
Or edit the savegame and outright replace his/her headgear with power armor helmet.
I think there’s a command for ordering the NPC to remove a clothing item, but I think that requires trust. When you view the NPC’s armor, check the available hotkeys in that screen.

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PKs great adventure and quest for a vehicular object.

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I started at the White me at the bottom of the screen, went slightly south to a evac shelter you cant see, then went all the way around the city up north slightly past the edge of the map and back down. Was a harrowing journey full of “I didnt have a flashlight until halfway done” and “I accidentally used my marlin .22 rifle when I meant to use my knife spear” and “coyotes smelled blood after the cougar bleed me dry too close to town to use fire and I was nommed on a bit” and “OMG I forgot one fucking drink now I need 8 hours of nightime hallucinations while simultaneously having to be actively avoiding zombies, wildlife, and fungus at the same time”.

but, now Im here. I have a cart full of crap, some badly damaged sewed items, and Hope. I has hope for a bit.

12371
that jabberwock is a 1 in like 500 chance when the red moon rises of actually spawning on day1.

Ouch.

My last post was 20 pages ago, so posting it again for a reminder. The alter ego got into a FEMA camp last I posted…

[quote=“Zireael, post:12069, topic:47”]As for my alter ego, she got in finally, put down all the Zs by the power of a zweihander and proceeded to carry out a couple of rifles (there were too many to carry).

Back at the house, she proceeded to take apart the toaster, remember about the UPS stashed in the basement and lo and behold, Battery System and Power Storage are now live (in her body, that is)!

Time to find a better way to provide that sweet energy.[/quote]

Still running the same game - I think I changed experimentals dozens of times, fortunately with no nasty effects.

Day 10 of autumn, the only thing that changed since then was that the alter ego slept the night. It’s 5:10 AM now and she’s contemplating what to do next. Hopefully the electric scooter works now (it’s in a good shape, but bugs made it difficult to use).

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May I ask how large your save is? Is it over 1G, given the length of time and the area explored?

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LOL no. It’s 40 MB give or take according to the launcher. The cities I’ve been mentioning aren’t very big. And other demands on my time as well as avoiding bugs mean that while the game has been ongoing for a long time (since March or even February), little has been done for months…

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Thanks for answering. I try to keep my save under 500M, since a roguelike save larger than that is just uncanny to me. xD

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im scared…

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[quote=“Ember, post:12375, topic:47”]im scared…

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[/quote]

Well you’ve got two legs, so that means you’ve got one mulligan for this. I’ve never tried it at all, but what I’d do if I found that scenario would be trying to throw random things in my inventory at the tiles I plan to try and cross. Dunno if that would detonate any mines that are present, but its worth a shot.

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It will if its heavy enough. Ive used heavy sticks to do it.

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The cabin in the woods…

The horror…

Look at the sky, are we in the underworld? At least it doesn’t rain down here.

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So I started a character in an ambushed cabin in winter. Me and the npc who I started with went on an adventure. Eventually we found a mansion where I watched him defend me right up until his death. I killed the remaining zombies and looted the mansion. Because my buddy had died there, i decided to leave with whatever I could carry. As I walked along I saw a military outpost to the south of me, so I turned north. At this point I was skyping my friend and it never crossed my mind to think of defences an outpost might have. Until I stepped on a land mine,.blowing my right arm off. Enter stage left Cougar. I ran northeast. One step. Another landmine blew my left leg off. Cougar starts attacking but can’t hit me. Somehow I kill it. I crawl in the dark for miles freezing until I find a road. As I drag my way up I find a town with four buildings and fight my way to the nearest one, bash my way in, and sleep until morning. I had lived. But I was crippled. So, I decided that I wasn’t going to sit and die. I ran out screaming and took down every possible bastard I could until a skeleton dog took the last chunk of my health away. Last words? I choose when to die… not them!

12380

Ronson and his faithful comrade Danielle have, at long last, made it to the refugee center. It only took 107 days from the start of the game and roughly 47 days from the start of the attempt to reach the shelter.

First steps were clearing the main streets of the nearby city, block after block of zombies. It’s all gone vague, but I clearly remember charging after a necromancer while two hulks moved up to attack at the same time. Fortunately, there are few monster attacks that can’t be tanked with heavy power armor, a heavy survivor helmet, and a heavy survivor mask (powered UPS optional). Sure, it’s warm as heck when unpowered, but it gets the job done.

After Ronson finally got through the city, he discovered (as he’d expected) the forest blocked off direct access to the refugee center. Two days of lumberjacking with a fire ax created a path through the forest and a heck of a lot of two by fours (Ronson stopped loading the APC at 200 two by fours but had at least that much unclaimed and 4-5 trunks still unplaned). Finally Ronson got through and of course, got told off by the refugee center.

He did their petty, mild tasks and finally got a manifest for the farm - which was fortunately on the other side of the lake, behind Ronson’s starting firehouse, less than an hour’s drive from the lakeside mansion that is Ronson’s main crafting digs. So after all that, Ronson retraced his steps through the city and returned to the mansion, where his garden is producing enough food to greatly extend Ronson’s huge food cache.

Lessons learned:

  • Even if an NPC decides to claim your garage as his territory, you have to talk to him and provoke him before attacking him or you get sad.
  • Corporate records are easy to find in office towers, and don’t spawn in normal offices. This is useful if your NPC companion has wild conspiracy theories.
  • When wearing unpowered power armor, it’s better to go with heavy survivor headgear 100% of the time rather than try to juggle lighter gear and a power armor helmet for emergencies. The power armor helmet will always take too long to retrieve from the hauling frame in emergencies and the encumbrance of wearing it unpowered will drop your stamina too much. Just wear the armor and survivor headgear and then activate the armor when the hulks show up.
  • Wear the powered armor to clear out the area, and then switch to lighter stuff for looting - the difference between having +25 lbs of available load and +75 lb of available load is huge. But clear the entire reality bubble on all sides of where you plan to loot or expect to face hulks while out of the power armor.
  • Bandits die hilariously to upgraded spawns. There’s no need to kill the bandits: just watch them die.
  • An APC will get wrecked trying to push wrecks out of the way, even at 20 mph with composite rams. Keep a sledgehammer in the stow boards to clear that crap out.
  • Lumber jacking through three tiles’ worth of forests is faster than ramming with a vehicle and then repairing the vehicle.
  • Cutting through bank vaults with acetylene torches uses up 2/3rds of the charges. Jackhammering around the vault takes 20 batteries. Jackhammering is better.