Where to go, what to do next?

Game Talk The Bunker
1

Basally the last two survivors I’ve played have:

  1. Found armoured cars and modded then with all sorts of goodies, welding rig, fridge, kitchen unit etc.
  2. Have enough food to survive for a good number of days without needing to loot.
  3. Have enough guns and ammo to raid every gun store they find along with every other store.
  4. A melee weapon that kills 90% of encounters no problem.

And because of all that I’m not sure what to do next. I loot every interesting place I fined, even a strange temple (Didn’t even bring a flash-light that time) and nothing seems too challenging. The only places I haven’t explored would be Caves and Fungal blooms. But as far as I think there’s no loot there so why should I?

What is there to do after becoming a true survivor? Is there any place I can go to fight a massive horde and die a glorious death?

2

Generate a new world, enable dynamic spawn, increase city size, carry over your char save. At least that’s what I plan to do with my current dude.

3

Answers:

A) Never become a"true" survivor.
Like in, role-play like you would if you were an actor/character of your favorite zombie media. Avoid the strongest of weapons and the most protective of clothes. This is what I do, use more basic or improvised weapons (machetes, spears, shovels, mops, small caliber guns) and wear civilian clothes/hunting. (If you played DayZ, aim for something like the clothes most character models wear). And if you are worried about loosing your characters, keep a rivtech gun on you all the time to save yourself from real awful situations). Aka make a well rounded character and aim for telling a story instead of winning.

Best solution IMO, but there’s also:

B) Increase the number of zombies n town to ridiculous amounts once the first week is done.
More zombies more fun. Well, probably…

4

To be honest, I think someone in a real zombie apocalypse would put on a MBR vest or something similar if they found one.

Well, if they can actually still move in one.

5

[quote=“Mrnocamera, post:4, topic:5635”]To be honest, I think someone in a real zombie apocalypse would put on a MBR vest or something similar if they found one.

Well, if they can actually still move in one.[/quote]

Sure probably, but unlike what cataclysm makes you believe, they aren’t wards of infinite protection in real life. (I mean I can survive for about 60 minutes of zombie clawing while wearing one). So my answer is not to wear them.

6

I think RPsing and intentionally crippled / random chars are best left for experienced players, once you know the ins and outs of the game, but that’s just me. All playstiles are equally valid, do whatever you like.

Back on topic, I hear development version now has wandering hordes, which sounds like a fresh and exciting way to get killed / have your stuff smashed to bits while you sleep. So you could clone the development repo from github and carry over your save there.

There are new mechanics such as weapons breaking / reinforcing, etc to explore as well.

7

[quote=“John Candlebury, post:5, topic:5635”][quote=“Mrnocamera, post:4, topic:5635”]To be honest, I think someone in a real zombie apocalypse would put on a MBR vest or something similar if they found one.

Well, if they can actually still move in one.[/quote]

Sure probably, but unlike what cataclysm makes you believe, they aren’t wards of infinite protection in real life. (I mean I can survive for about 60 minutes of zombie clawing while wearing one). So my answer is not to wear them.[/quote]
True.

Kevlar vests would not stop a knife that well, even with the ceramic inserts.

8

[quote=“Mrnocamera, post:7, topic:5635”][quote=“John Candlebury, post:5, topic:5635”][quote=“Mrnocamera, post:4, topic:5635”]To be honest, I think someone in a real zombie apocalypse would put on a MBR vest or something similar if they found one.

Well, if they can actually still move in one.[/quote]

Sure probably, but unlike what cataclysm makes you believe, they aren’t wards of infinite protection in real life. (I mean I can survive for about 60 minutes of zombie clawing while wearing one). So my answer is not to wear them.[/quote]
True.

Kevlar vests would not stop a knife that well, even with the ceramic inserts.[/quote]
Zombies don’t wield knives. Kevlar will fail to a puncture from a powerful knife strike but it does protect from slashing quite well afaik. Anyway, a standard riot suit would keep you safe from bites and clawing for hours, though I imagine crushing injuries to your extremities would be quite painful. If we’re talking realism, you’d probably succumb to the sheer mass of bodies piling up on you and preventing you from breathing.

Edit - changed SWAT to riot.

9

RPing a new char sounds like a nice idea, however I think it would eventually turn into the same situation, too powerful for the environment.

Most RLs have ever increasing difficulty and item spawns. Taking Crawl as an example, finding some artifact is great and being more powerful is an awesome feeling, but as you descend into insanity the dungeon; things get harder and harder and it remains challenging.
In CDDA once I reach a point where I can take the fight to the Zs without fear, the game starts to loose its appeal. There is no endgame other then endless driving from city to identical city.

I feel that there should be some final goal that players can try for once then have reach their peak.

10

Well, I’ve set several goals for myself before I try experimental and hordes for added challenge. Constructing a proper fort is one, playing with various vehicle designs is another, finding exotic tech like mini reactors and fusion reactors yet another. Basically sandboxing. Also punching new pathways through the woods. Just found some tomato seeds so might try planting a plot within my fort.

11

Live on the road man. Travel west and try to find the coast(you won’t) in a foolish promise of safety. Eventually you will die of lag.

12

CDDA is supposed to be a survival/horror game, but it isn’t, really. It starts out as a survival game and ends as an apocalypse-themed superhero game. If you want to play a survival game, restart after ten days of survival, because by then the survival game is over and you’ve won. Or embrace it, treat your character like the superhuman he or she has become, and see where the world takes you.

1: Mutate. With targeted mutagens, purifiers, and a large enough stockpile of vitamins, you can guide your personal evolution along practical or interesting(!!!) paths.
2: Hunt for CBMs. Why settle for being able to survive for now, when you could make yourself an immortal bionic demigod?
3: Conquer. Just because the game doesn’t support civilization, doesn’t mean your character wouldn’t care about pushing back the devil from the door. Lay waste to fungal blooms, invade Triffid groves*, clear out entire towns**, etc.
4: Build. Construct or refurbish a home, build a car and/or hundred-meter-long land-battleship.

Eventually you’ll have done as much as there’s a reason to do, yes. I did, and I’m just back now because I’m checking out the new version. But it doesn’t seem like you’ve gotten near to that, yet.

*This is a pretty good way to challenge and/or kill your character. I barely escaped alive the first time I ventured into a Triffid grove with a high-powered character, and it took me several more tries before I figured out a strategy and set of equipment that would let me have a chance to win.
**This is more fun if you turn up the spawn rate. This may require starting a new world and copy/pasting your .sav file, but I think you can do it in an existing world?

13

Play on dynamic with larger towns and wander spawns on. Get gutted over and over again. Seriously.

The only real challenge ive found now on static is to try for the bottom of a slime pit. That took me a few goes to get right.

Dynamic spawn is a very different beast, you really want to focus on building a good self defending base rather than just clear, loot, move on like you do in static.

14

I used to play on dynamic more than static.

15

Woah, woah, woah! I dont like the idea of an “end goal”. I do however have somthing to point out. One word: factions, they arent in yet but there is the faction screen you can look at, so maybe later on? I know what i would do, build up a super character and…

                                                                    ACHIVEMENT UNLOCKED! : WORLD DOMINATION
16

[quote=“John Candlebury, post:3, topic:5635”]A) Never become a"true" survivor.
Like in, role-play like you would if you were an actor/character of your favorite zombie media. Avoid the strongest of weapons and the most protective of clothes. This is what I do, use more basic or improvised weapons (machetes, spears, shovels, mops, small caliber guns) and wear civilian clothes/hunting. (If you played DayZ, aim for something like the clothes most character models wear). And if you are worried about loosing your characters, keep a rivtech gun on you all the time to save yourself from real awful situations). Aka make a well rounded character and aim for telling a story instead of winning.[/quote]

Really good advice. You can, if you want, make every one of your characters a STALKER homage covered in tacticool junk, hefting around a rifle with a dozen attachments on it and bristling with more bionics than a Terminator, and you’ll probably thwart most every challenge you come across, but this quickly loses its charm. Try playing a realistic character, instead.

17

On my first successful game that’s exactly what I did. I heard on the radio that all survivors should go west, and I was hoping I might find something new. Something that would a dangerous and challenging, but all I got were auto-save times of >2 minutes.

I feel there needs to be some rare sites that are just teaming with Zeds that are intended for hardened survivors.

18

…I dunno, it doesn’t really become any more challenging when there’s more zeds. Only more tedious. And you have to butcher/pulp all those zombie corpses after it! Meh.

What I normally do after I’ve “beaten” the game is play it like Dwarf Fortress. I dig, build, craft, sort stuff, decorate and experiment. Now that buildings are moddable, I’m also thinking of adding some extremely challenging stuff.

19

I think this calls for a megaproject thread.

Let the zombie death chambers rise!

20

[quote=“Aluminumfoil, post:12, topic:5635”]CDDA is supposed to be a survival/horror game, but it isn’t, really. It starts out as a survival game and ends as an apocalypse-themed superhero game. If you want to play a survival game, restart after ten days of survival, because by then the survival game is over and you’ve won. Or embrace it, treat your character like the superhuman he or she has become, and see where the world takes you.

1: Mutate. With targeted mutagens, purifiers, and a large enough stockpile of vitamins, you can guide your personal evolution along practical or interesting(!!!) paths.
2: Hunt for CBMs. Why settle for being able to survive for now, when you could make yourself an immortal bionic demigod?
3: Conquer. Just because the game doesn’t support civilization, doesn’t mean your character wouldn’t care about pushing back the devil from the door. Lay waste to fungal blooms, invade Triffid groves*, clear out entire towns**, etc.
4: Build. Construct or refurbish a home, build a car and/or hundred-meter-long land-battleship.

Eventually you’ll have done as much as there’s a reason to do, yes. I did, and I’m just back now because I’m checking out the new version. But it doesn’t seem like you’ve gotten near to that, yet.

*This is a pretty good way to challenge and/or kill your character. I barely escaped alive the first time I ventured into a Triffid grove with a high-powered character, and it took me several more tries before I figured out a strategy and set of equipment that would let me have a chance to win.
**This is more fun if you turn up the spawn rate. This may require starting a new world and copy/pasting your .sav file, but I think you can do it in an existing world?[/quote]

Encountered similar problems with my playing experience. First impressions (around ver. 0,6) were “wow, survival, hardships, OMG Zombies killing me” stuff. Now, after gathering some experience (and couple versions ahead) its… rather boring, especially wth all fancy stuff lying almost everywhere. Even without that stuff, with rather moderate equipment, my char could eradicate hordes and/or solitary brutes/zombears while being almost unscratched. Now I’m trying to figure out some self RPrestrictions, maybe it would help to regain some fun.

Game definetely need some core improvements and/or rebalancing. Working NPC-s carrying guns and willingness to kill my char could help to feel challenged. Quest-like features (including some really long-term and challenging ones) are much welcome indeed. Dynamic maps with fungus slowly fiiling my base up would give some thrill too… Sorry for little session of daydreaming )