The only thing I’ve found to train past about 5 or maybe six is ranged attacks - boomers are the safest way. That can get you up to 10 (I think that’s where it stops). Not sure WHAT could get you higher than that!
The necropolis was a great way to train dodge, since you’re pretty much swamped with a sea of irridated wanderers. Anything with the defense of kevlar armor is more or less enough to block out damage maybe 90% of the time.
That said, most of the time there I positioned my survivor that at most there will only be 3 enemies attacking her at once. Getting fully surrounded increases the chance to get damage at a higher rate. That pretty much put my survivor at 10+ dodge. The wanderers are ideal enemies, due to their low damage, and they don’t have the grab attack of some zombies which can seriously slow a survivor down.
Currently level 13 dodge, and upon clearing a second big military outpost skill progress only increased by a few %.
Same with close combat skills. It just doesn’t go up as fast as gun skills. Like seriously, my survivor has the combat implant bionic and she memorized muay thai and bionic combatives from it through constant fighting… and her unarmed skill is still at level 6.
Dang it. Due to thinking it would be amusing, while my survivor was emptying the big military outpost of zombies I decided to en-zlave the armored zombies there. It was a success, and now I’ve got like 10+ armored zombies just bumbling around.
Problem is that I can’t seem to lead them up stairs. There’s an option to tie them with rope, but that only immobilizes them.
Wish there’s an option where you tie them and lead them around.
'course, I suppose I can kill them, bring their corpse up and dump them in the car…
Yeah, yeah. I can kill them again (not by the tear the pheromone ball command, since that doesn’t revive them… if you can do so easily why not just do that instead of butchering?), and haul their corpse up. Then I could bring them into my base. They’ll just be for decoration, or to give the look that they’re “training dummies”.
Well, I thought I was pretty safe, killed my third Hulk in melee, got the nanobot repair drones, survived being shot by a milspec turret. Things were looking good.
With that in mind I peaked around the coner of a military bunker to shoot at an almost dead turret and, well you guessed it, died.
Dying in one frame is frustrating but it gives me a good reason to start something new so i’m not too mad about it.
“Over-confidence is a slow and insidious killer”
Died because in a static horde in a city due to the overconfidence a pair of rollerblades granted me.
The thing is, crammed the monster spawn and city distance up and lowered their sizes and item spawn rate. Managed to start with 0 skills survivor in the middle of the damn nowhere in a shelter filled with shady zombies and a lone road with a far gas station. The game feels a lot more “survivorey” like this, heh.
Due to how NPC companions remain hostile to zlaves, I’ve come to the realization that armored zombie zlaves make effective training dummies for companions. They won’t take damage, so NPCs can keep hitting them to safely bring up their melee skills. If NPC needs to rest, then all I need to do is give them the combat command of avoiding enemies and they’ll stop, giving them time to eat and sleep.
Wait, you can armor the zombie slaves? I never knew that…
Naw. There’s an armored zombie enemy; basically a zombie wearing power armor. Not too strong, but has defense that’s even stronger than a tank drone.
Hrmmmm. Really need to re-consider how I order guns and ammo. Other item categories I have an easy time sorting out, but guns and ammo still eludes me.
Like, right now each ammo is sorted out by type. For most part guns are sorted with weapon skill used, with some exceptions (such as old-time guns like flintlocks get their own pile). Guns have far lesser piles compared to the mess that is ammo, so I really need to change things up. If I stick to the current arrangement style the building the guns will be placed on will require a lot of space.
Litppunk suggested it from smallest to largest caliber, and it could be a good idea, but it still creates a ton of space for containing them, plus that’s for standard gunpowder ammo only.
Tools, guns, and ammo. Those three item categories I’m unsatisfied with, regarding on how I’ve arranged them currently. After giving my survivor a break from construction by exploring nearby locations, I ended up with more of them and right now I’m rather befuddled with placing more items on those three categories. The rest I’ve more or less locked in on how I want them arranged, but those three still elude me with regards to something I’m happy with.
Like if I can’t figure it out, then I can’t figure out the right size for the building I’ll make to store them.
That said, for an armory I reckon making an underground building might be nice. Surface level with be a small store-like area, with rooms underground that store the ammo and weapons.
So, here’s how I decided things for most part: let the game decide and work from there.
First off, went and picked one bullet from every ammo type in the game. Then more or less sort it out alphabetically, according to how the game sorts them out in advanced inventory.
That said, for starters I’ll still group together the same ammo types, regardless of alphabetical order - like 00 shot with birdshot and shotgun slugs. At the very least this provides a layout where I can easily move around and drop ammo in the appropriate tiles, since when I began sorting it wasn’t organized and I was running around trying to figure out where goes where.
Furthermore, I’ll make different sections. Mainly, gunpowder and casing based ammo in the main section, then a section for heavy explosive stuff like tank ammo and launcher rockets. And another section for mainly non-gunpowder stuff like crossbow bolts (which will include its explosive variants) and other unusual stuff like serrated discs. And one for super low power stuff like BBs.
That said, upon getting a closer look at things, I’m starting to figure out an idea somewhat better than sorted alphabetically, in the case of gunpowder and casing stuff: sorting them according to what type of gun usually uses the ammo.
This would be rather tricky, as some ammo can be used by different types of guns, like .45 ammo can be used in handguns, rifles (in the case of the .45 long colt) and SMGs. Or .22 ammo, like the S&W 22A for handguns, the Marlin 39A for rifles, and the American-180 for SMGs.
I’ll just have to sort them that way according what feels right for me. Like I feel that .22 ammo is more of a handgun round, while .223 ammo which can be used on some handguns is more of a rifles deal. Come to think of it, I can figure it out based on what primer it uses.
So I’ll arrange it by three categories, for gunpowder and casing stuff;
Handguns and SMGs, as the two often share the same ammo types.
Shotguns.
Rifles.
Then, sort them out alphabetically… or perhaps by power. By caliber is possible, but I’m not sure on how to sort them out that way.
This still will require a ton of space and construction work, but at the very least this provides an easy to sort layout.
Can picture it now; main floor is a sort of barracks, then underground floor/s hold the ammo and guns. Vehicle mounted weapons will be elsewhere, on a garage-like area.
Right, right, right. Figured it out on the gunpowder and casings side.
First line: “handgun” type ammo, and by extension SMG ammo. The ammo here is placed on the line, partially based on primers used. Only partially, as there’s some exceptions, namely .454 and 5.7mm ammo, as those use rifle primers. On the other hand, the .454 is used on the Taurus Raging Bull, which is a handgun, and the two guns that use 5.7 ammo is a handgun and a rifle. There’s also the .22 ammo which uses no primer.
Next line is rifle ammo. With the handguns taken care of by elimination most other bullets use rifle primers.
Last line is shotgun ammo. Normal shotgun ammo, then .410 bore, and signal flares.
They’re all arranged alphabetically. For now, at least. Might rearrange things based on damage done of the most common ammo of the ammo type in question, but for now I’m satisfied.
I’ll still have to arrange other ammo types. Left out Rivtech ammo from the current setup, since I’ll group them together (8x40, 20x66, and 5x50).
Aside from that, I’ll just have to figure out how the other ammo types should be arranged.
F U C K mooses.
So, more or less done for now with sorting out ammo.
First three lines I’ve already elaborated on, though chaingun ammo was added in the rifles line, since I wasn’t sure on where to place them.
Fourth line is Rivtech stuff.
Fifth line is high-tech future stuff, factory-made. Hydrogen canisters, fusion packs, H&Ks railgun ammo.
Sixth is old-timey gunpowder/black gunpowder ammo. Paper cartridges, fire lance shots. Might include blunderbuss shot on this line when I make some.
Seventh is mainly explosive ammo. 40mm grenades, rockets, and tank stuff.
Eighth is pellet-like or round stuff; lead balls, BBs, marbles, DREAD pellets.
Ninth is “long” ammo. Arrows, crossbow bolts, steel rails, javelins, fishing spears, steel rails.
A tenth line will have liquid ammo. Napalm, sprayable chemicals.
After that, just three things I’m not sure on where to place them. Blunderbuss shot I’m not sure yet whether they should be on the old-timey line or on the shotgun ammo. Nailgun ammo like flechettes maybe on the pellet-like stuff. Bladed disks maybe on the long ammo.
Spawned in as a Groom, for roleplay reasons. Anyway, I spawned in the town as a challenge and while my NPC was smashing apart the zeds, it allowed me to make haste and loot around. Didn’t find much until I saw a museum on my map. Using a crowbar I found in a survivor basement I cracked open the doors and quickly grabbed and put on the armor that was available and grabbed a khopesh while I was at it.
Ran around the town in broad daylight laughing as the zombies tried to penetrate my various mismatched pieces of armor from history, until an acid zombie or two comes and ruins the fun.
Managed to haul a good amount of guns, martial arts books, experience, and secure a good base. Spawned in a bookstore, so plenty of skill books.
Thinking about venturing to the OTHER museum I found while running about in broad daylight, and hopefully I can find a katana or something in there. Fingers crossed.
Edit: Found a aluminum nodachi. Ditched my damaged khopesh for the 2 budget steel broadswords instead.
Interesting idea. Can you use that to get an NPC’s combat skill over 20? XD
I usually sort looted tools in 2 piles - those with infinite uses and those with limited uses. There’s also a 3rd pile with 1 of each commonly used tools. Perhaps you can sort the limited-use tools by their fuel/refill type? Like, battery-powered, Gas-powered, ducktape-using, single-use (Flare, Glowstick,…), other. You could also have them sorted by cooking tools, metalworking tools, gun maintenance & reloading, vehicle building & repair, gardening, fishing, etc.
My character seems to have recovered from being “unhinged” rather uneventfully. A bit disappointing, really. I’m thinking about building a tertiary base from scratch near the place where I killed my 1st (and so far only) Tank Drone, then hauling my broken robot collection there, as Broken Tank Drone takes up 3,500 volume, making it impossible to transport it in a vehicle (and it’s almost 100 world-map tiles away from my nearest base).
More or less what I’m thinking about. Usually I sort it to tools with a charge and the tools without, but on the current design of my base it would look out of place if I did it like that.
Anyway, more or less hammered down how I want to spread out guns, at least.
For starters, spread out the factory-made firearms by gun skill used.
Handguns, divided into magazine-fed and revolvers.
Shotguns, just one pile. Considered separating .410 bore shotguns as well as magazine-fed, but there’s only one shotgun for each of those (the .410 youth shotgun and the Saiga-12… though there’s also a .410 Saiga-12 as well).
SMGs, just one pile.
Rifles, divided into magazine-fed and not magazine-fed.
Launchers, one pile for every factory-made launcher for most part), and M27 LAWs.
Then, some specific stuff, regardless of gun skill used.
Rivtech weapons, mostly the ones that use bullets.
Leadworks weapons.
Old timey weapons.
High-tech future weapons, laser pistols and suchlike, factory-made.
For launchers, launcher weapons that use liquid ammo - flamethrowers, chemical sprays. Rivtech flamethrower goes here.
Then we got vehicle-mounted weapons.
Ones that use bullets. M2 Brownings, Miniguns.
Ones that use explosive ammo. Tank guns.
Ones that don’t fit either; water cannons. Uncommon ammo, basically. Might make a fourth pile for uncommon, but not so odd ammo, like ballistas and whatnot.
Then we go to the rest;
Low power ranged stuff. Odds and ends. Nailguns, slings, BB guns.
Homemade pipe guns. Pipe rifles, shotguns, etc.
Kinda medieval-age weapons. Crossbows, atlatls, bows, etc.
Slightly more complex, or at least non-pipe gun weapons. Shotgun revolvers, 12 gauge pistols, survivor carbines.
A little more complex than that. Pneumatic assault rifles and bolt drivers.
The last two I’m not sure if I should combine them or not yet.
Lastly, magazines. I’m going with something slightly more simple for this. Just base the order of the magazines by the bullet caliber alphabetically. Starting with .22 ammo and I think ending with .50 BMG.
Continued playing the groom, running around replacing my armor sets with various military equipment. Killed a Z-9 and cut up it’s harness and stuffed the kevlar inside an MBR vest I found in a milsurp store. General looting and trying to find a better weapon, but I get held up by a random NPC with a TEC-9. Not wanting to risk it, despite having good armor, I ran off and decided to see if a tougher zombie can kill the NPC for me.
Lo and behold, I find a riot control bot battling a few zombies. I dispatch the zombies and don my gas mask, using the riot control bot’s gas to my advantage, I lured the NPC into it and started hacking away with my butcher knife. Killed the NPC, grabbed the TEC-9, and 50 bullets and ran off.
