cataclysm dark days ahead- You just cant win

[TheWiznard]

Bottom post of the previous page:

I always turn off nutritious food, literally the worst feature imho

[Deitus]

what should i do for a starting build? is the wiki up to date?

i wanna find something thats completely average in every respect possible

[Super Aggro Crag]

I like starting off completely naked and going xaveman mode and only wearing clothes i can craft and wielding spears

[Wyzack]

If you want a decent starting build go regular survivor, take enough negative traits that you can put a few points into dodging and a melee skill, probably bashing, and maybe a couple into tailoring. If you want an easier start go SWAT officer and take a melee skill like unarmed with a martial art. The armor is pretty badass early game and you also get a gun

[lntigracy]

Take the negative trait that degrades your skills faster over time, but disable skill decay.

[Wyzack]

I honestly usually just use freeform character generation and avoid making myself too OP. Min maxing like that is basically cheating anyways so why not make the character you want

[Deitus]

does what type of point pool i pick matter? if so, how?

[GarlicBread]

I believe it goes

Single pool: you get a single set point pool to use for everything; skill, stats, whatever

Multi pool: you get a separate pool for each category

Freeform: infinite points to do anything

Some people complain you don't get enough points in multi pool but its just whatever you prefer really

[Deitus]

which one is the more common option used?

[GarlicBread]

Single I believe is the most "vanilla" experience

[TheWiznard]

managed to finally get a reply from some guy's three year old throwaway account on le reddit for cdda controller binds. after a few messages back and forth he tells me how to access his profile for cdda through steam by adding it to steam and renaming it in steam to "Cataclysm DDA" which then enables us to share steam controller profiles on the community page, honestly it's everything I've hoped for and while I may not be proficient at it as I've only played for a bout 2 hours with it I am loving it so much more in my case than using kb+m

Left touchpad and the analog both do movement, but the touchpad is the numbers and allows the diagonal directions. It also allows easy use for advanced inventory because you can easily select the tile. It's also numbers so anytime you need to press a number it's right there.
The default layout has the most used keys, but the entire controller layout will completely change while you hold one of the triggers into an interact mode or a look mode (depending on which one you hold). That changes the buttons but ALSO the touchmenu. Right touchpad is always a touchmenu, but will change to relevant items if a trigger is held.
A lot of buttons have long presses and double presses if they seem related. For instance, the "B" button on the controller cancels a lot, so I made a double tap ignore a monster warning, and a long press turn off safe mode. Same with the left shoulder button: a single press does the short "." wait, while holding it brings up the extended wait menu. Right shoulder is similar, a press does f for fire and a long press changes fire modes.

also I don't actually own a steam controller yet but it translated to xbox controller fully in my case without hitches

[Deitus]

>read to forage bushes to raise survival
>(e)xamine a shitton of bushes but get nothing other than frostbitten hands even though i made gloves and handwraps
>moose kills me

is my rng with bushes just terrible or what am i doing wrong? also, how can i protect my hands from the cold early on?

[D&B]

You're supposed to forage underbrushes

[Deitus]

You can examine underbrush to forage for items and practice your survival skill. Underbrush tiles can be foraged once each, regardless of success.

so then i assume it was changed

[RandolfTheMeh]

You can examine underbrush to forage for items and practice your survival skill. Underbrush tiles can be foraged once each, regardless of success.

so then i assume it was changed

Downloaded this less than a weak ago and it still works. Go to the bushes in forest areas, they'll be brighter or whatnot. Examine them, get a bit of survival, then they'll turn grey.
On another topic, I found an encampment, and that shit was decked out with floodlights, forges, electric bikes, tons of shit. Feel kind of bad camping in it, but I took black belt, so I can pretty much camp wherever.

[Deitus]

i always examine them and it just says they're empty. they dont change colors or anything.

edit: never mind im blind.

[DemonFiren]

I forgot where I'm supposed to find lizzer eggs for mutagen.

[Deirun]

You can find them if you forage underbrushes during spring and summer.

[Super Aggro Crag]

I forgot where I'm supposed to find lizzer eggs for mutagen.

Lizard eggs are not as tasty as bird eggs

[DemonFiren]

I forgot where I'm supposed to find lizzer eggs for mutagen.

Lizard eggs are not as tasty as bird eggs

of course not
but i don't wanna be a bird

[Super Aggro Crag]

Eat the bird eggs for nutritional power use the liaard eggs to scale up

[Wyzack]

Finding lizard eggs is fucking annoying. I cheated them in with the debug menu for my lizard mutant

[Deitus]

after trying multiple times to forage bushes and getting dunked by forest creatures each time i've finally crafted a knife spear

still sucks that my head and hands are always getting cold despite me making stuff for them though

ONWARDS TO GETTING DUNKED IN TOWNS

[RandolfTheMeh]

after trying multiple times to forage bushes and getting dunked by forest creatures each time i've finally crafted a knife spear

still sucks that my head and hands are always getting cold despite me making stuff for them though

ONWARDS TO GETTING DUNKED IN TOWNS

Usually you want to get fabrication, survival, and tailoring to level 3 before you do much. Rip through clothes with a knife (craft from stone, some wood you smashed young trees for, and some thread you got from wherever) and practice your sewing on throw-away clothes to get skilled enough to make things like gloves, legs/arm warmers, balaclava, etc., so you aren't constantly chilly. High enough fabrication and survival skill lets you build makeshift versions of most tools you have trouble finding. Raid the outskirts of towns unless you're a true all-American badass. You can do whatever, really, but I find that getting that shit down right away improves your survivability.

[Wyzack]

Also in case you don't know you can (f)ire most spear weapons to hit non adjacent enemies

[D&B]

If you have mansions in your map they're pretty good for weapon looting.

[Deitus]

god fucking dammit

i really, REALLY want to like this game but 9 games out of 10 when i go outside to forage i always get fucked over by a wolf or moose or something and very rarely get to the point where im even able to go into towns

getting really goddamn frustrated here

[D&B]

Press V and it should show monsters and creatures nearby.

If a wolf is getting near just position yourself so they stand in a brush and hack away at them. Roguelikes tend to be harsh at first but that's the fun of it imo

[Deitus]

thats what i do but they always kill me anyway

i mean i like a challenge too but there's a difference between "challenge" and "fuck you over before you can start"

ill keep at it though

[Super Aggro Crag]

Use a bear trap on a wolfe

[Wyzack]

Take animal empathy, or start off with some better close combat skills or a gun. Playing with an easier start is always better than getting pissed and not playing at all

[Deitus]

so on my latest attempt right outside my shelter there's a bunch of scientists with cards on them and a suit of power armor. am i able to use that this early?

[Wyzack]

oh fuck son. The ID cards are always useful, science labs are full of awesome loot. The power armor is a good find, but it will be pretty much worthless without a Universal Power Supply or UPS to power it. You can find them in science labs or rarely in electronics stores. Either way stash it someplace safe and put a note on your map to remember. Its super rare.

[Super Aggro Crag]

Yeah put it on

[Deitus]

oh fuck son. The ID cards are always useful, science labs are full of awesome loot. The power armor is a good find, but it will be pretty much worthless without a Universal Power Supply or UPS to power it. You can find them in science labs or rarely in electronics stores. Either way stash it someplace safe and put a note on your map to remember. Its super rare.

too late already dead

im gonna go get some dinner and then imma come back and try and work out a good beginner's build with you guys

[Wyzack]

If you keep getting killed by low level stuff set chargen to freeform and start as a SWAT officer. Take night vision and Self Defence Class (krav maga). Put a couple points into piercing or slashing as you like, as well as dodging. You should now be able to kill all basic zeds/wildlife that tries to step to you without taking damage

[Deitus]

ill make a build and take some screenshots here in a minute. for now let me know whats wrong with what i usually do so far with my games:
>go outside and forage for shit until i get lvl 1 survival
>go back to shelter and make hand wraps, sock mits, a turban, chest wrap, foot wraps (which do jack shit against cold i might add)
>make knife spear
>use all curtains to make a shitton of foot wraps for fabrication/tailoring (what can i make that would be better for "grinding?")
>try to go to the nearest town and promptly get dunked by whatever
>restart

[Deitus]

double poost:

new build is
>single pool (freeform just feels like cheating)
>evacuee
>swat officer
>addictive personality, lightweight, thin-skinned, trigger-happy, truth-teller, ugly, weak stomach
>animal empathy, fleet-footed, night vision, quick, self-defense (krav)
>strength 2, dex 1, perception 1
>dodging (2)

good/bad/ugly?

[D&B]

You could take heavy sleeper and glass jaw instead of lightweight and thin skinned.

if you make a knife spear you can forego taking points in dodging and take more in intelligence (for book reading.)

Ideally just practice with one newly made set of clothes instead of making new clothes. Level up your fabrication level by making fishhooks and then make a wood needle and grind tailoring away.

[Deitus]

You could take heavy sleeper and glass jaw instead of lightweight and thin skinned.

if you make a knife spear you can forego taking points in dodging and take more in intelligence (for book reading.)

Ideally just practice with one newly made set of clothes instead of making new clothes. Level up your fabrication level by making fishhooks and then make a wood needle and grind tailoring away.

glass jaw just seems like an overall terrible thing to have regardless of points, as well as heavy sleeper since you just sleeper harder and longer but still need to sleep just as often. are they not as bad as they seem?

also, if im going krav should i even bother with a knife spear? im unfamiliar with how martial arts work, is the wiki up to date on it or can you give me a rough outline?

and finally, what do you mean by practicing with one newly made set of clothes? like, disassembling and then reassembling them? im not sure what you mean here. and after i get a wood needle what should i make to grind tailoring with?

[Wyzack]

When you use a tailoring kit on any piece of gear, even a fully repaired one, you can try to improve it. At low levels you destroy it pretty fast bt as long as you have thread you can get xp. Honestly I usually just go directly to town unless I am playing a wilderness character. I will write a small guide soon, do you have epeirmental z levels on?

[Wyzack]

Also static or dynamic spawn and if static is wander spawns on

[Drynwyn]

Let me put together a quick "starter build", deitus, using single pool

"Glass Jaw" is a good trait to take for points because of relative limb hit chances- you're usually much more likely to die from running out of torso hit points then head hit points, so the odds of the extra 20% mattering are pretty low.


Okay, very hard to kill starter build:

Stats: Str 10, Dex 10, Int 8, Per 8.

Profession: Traceur/Traceuse. This costs 3 points, gives you Dodge 4, the Parkour Expert trait, and a whole bunch of storage space right in your starter gear.
Negative Traits: Animal Discord (Natural animals essentially can't land hits on you), Glass Jaw (See above), Chemical Imbalance (it's not particularly impactful and actually often helpful early game since one of the most common imbalance effects heats you up, which is good half the time), Truth Teller, Trigger Happy (automatics aren't that much better than semi-auto anyway), Wool Allergy (very little clothing is wool), other traits to taste.

Positive Traits: Parkour Expert (Free from profession. You can easily dance along a counter while zombies follow you, moving back after each swing while they never get a chance to take a swing back- not that they could hit you), Night Vision, Fleet-Footed.

Skills: 1 each in melee, Tailoring, and survival- dump everything else into Dodge.

Depending on what other negative traits you take, your Dodge should be between 8 and 10, since the +4 (which is stupidly high) from Traceur applies as a flat bonus (i.e, you still buy dodge as though you had no points in it, even though you really have 4.) For context, the highest I've EVER gotten dodge after character creation is 7 (very few things are difficult enough to advance dodge past 6.) You're starting as high as 9. Run away from threats, you're faster than them on both rough and even ground, and laugh when things swing at you because they will *never actually land a hit*. You only fear fire and electricity. (also guns, until you find an Uncanny Reflexes bionic.)

[Deitus]

werent z levels supposed to be super buggy right now? i think ill pass on them for the time being other than that my world is:
>base game, craftable gun pack, bright nights, makeshift items mod, more survival tools, dinomod, beta national guard camp, more locations, boats, vehicle additions pack, tanks and other vehicles
>default world gen options (no npc's, no wander spawns, etc)

ill also try out what you suggested, drynwyn. im still really confused on martial arts even after reading the wiki. if you guys are on steam i could just add you on there if you wanted a more streamlined way of me annoying you with simplistic questions.

[Wyzack]

When raiding towns it is super important to pick your point of entry very carefully. Certain areas in cities are much more enemy dense and therefore more difficult. At the beginning your best bet is to raid a ton of houses. Normal houses often have really good loot, and special basements like gun nut or prepper basements can be a goldmine for items.

Always approach a city towards the most isolated groups of houses you can. Cities often generate with little suburb areas containing nothing but houses, and they are usually a safer bet especially for daytime looting. Smash a back window of a house to get in, stay in the darkness. Approach windows from the sides and {c}lose the curtains to prevent zeds in the streets from seeing you. If you get spotted by a few zombies pull them into a window frame and fight them one or two at a time. Find a house with a nice basement and make it a mini base. Stash loot there and make a pile of blankets/clothes so you can sleep in it.

I'm Wyzack on steam, feel free to add me if you want

[D&B]

I'm a little iffy about breaking windows since you can make a makeshift crowbar real easy and I think opening the window with it makes no noise.

With a makeshift spear you can f to hit from a 2 tile range. This is good for the fat zombies since infections are a bitch to deal with.

Tailoring is easy to train and a good investment. If you can find a grocery shop, try to get shopping carts and G grab them. The ability to move lots of stuff makes looting easier.

When raiding cities and houses you can do it during the day, but the lighting that allows you to see zombies also lets them see you. The inverse is true at night too. If you can't see them, often they can't see you either.

Always, always, always try to butcher zombies. Treat them like lings. If you don't get rid of them, they will come back.

[Wyzack]

you can also mash the corpses, but this can damage your weapon and i dont think it gives any survival skill. Also drains stamina really fast.

Smashing windows does make a bit of noise but i dont think i have ever aggrod a zed that way, other than ones in the house i would have had to fight anyways

[TheWiznard]

dinomod might make some things people are telling you about zombies a little wrong and/or more difficult. I don't think it only adds dinosaurs but also changes zombie behavior

[lntigracy]

The only thing it changes about non-dino shit is it modifies the sewer and swamp spawnpools to have dinosaurs, and adds a map feature that spawns dinosaurs.

t. guy who read the github files

[Super Aggro Crag]

Deitus if youre still having trourble you should cheat

[John_Oxford]

im disapointed that for how much you people play you havent suggested this

if you want a easier start but not to easy but manageable

evacuee
scoundrel
and take eskrima as a fighting style

use your drugs if you get fucked by moose being moose and kicking your shit in
or take animal empathy and dont get your shit kicked in by moose

take a point in melee or dodge to help even more

switchblade is fucking good but it breaks eventually, you can use other shit like knives and what not that you find or make after it breaks

don't wear handwraps and gloves and glove liners if your trying to stab shit.

make -SURE- your layers are in the correct order, i don't remember the keybind but make sure its glove liner < glove

you should be starting in spring anyways where it isn't super mega ultra cold

also try save whoring if you aren't super duper good at the game its a good way to get a start going at the beginning of the game