cataclysm dark days ahead- You just cant win

srifenbyxp · Post by **srifenbyxp** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 1:41 am #61778

You just can't, think of dwarf fortress except you can't cheat death by slicing off limbs and slowly strangle some one and watch as their eyes roll to the back of their head like they're getting a good dicking. There's a good number of mods for the game and tilesets but god dam, I have no clue on what the fuck to do until a horde of zombie gang bangs me or robo cop fucking tases my ass as im running away from a lightning zombie. Until you managed to find armor and craft a decent weapon you'll find yourself doing this alot because god dam son even cheating this game is hard.

There's guns, nippon steel, cars, power suits and other neat stuff. Break open doors and windows and cry as zombies ruin your innocence when you try to jump over a table.

[youtube]f782J1pg6JE[/youtube]

Remie Richards · Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:36 am

We used to have a thread about this back on the Erro forums.
Wonder why noone made one here.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 3:07 am #61797

I have a series of instructional videos I created for people who want to play this game. They're semi-informative. They're kind of outdated.

The hardest part of the game is the first day. You need to find something that allows you to smash zombie faces or git gud at some kind of hand-to-hand combat ASAP or else you'll die trying to forage.

Be super careful about what kind of clothing you wear. Encumbrance will kill you. Your legs and torso encumbrance are a negative penalty to dodging attacks while your arms and hands encumbrance are a negative penalty to landing melee hits. If you've gotten gud, your arm encumbrance is also a negative penalty to block attacks.

Thusly, tailoring is a fucking god-tier skill because it allows you to adjust clothing items so they don't encumber you, enabling you to gain their protective benefits, their exposure resistance, their warmth, and their bonuses to carrying capacity without getting fucked over and turning into a walking punching bag.

Do not wear heavy armor until you're at ridiculously late end game and your skills allow you to get over the encumbrance penalties. Putting on a kevlar vest or something early in the game before you've practiced your combat skills will lead to a slow death.

In the begining you should wear clothes in the order of Denim -> Leather -> Army. Don't wear anything heavier than Army. Don't wear anything that encumbers you more than a regular backpack (the rucksack and duffel bag will, again, get you killed if you try to use them early in the game). As a rule of thumb don't ever let anything get encumbered more than -3 until you're a combat monster who can slaughter everything anyway.

Be on the prowl for free storage items. Fanny packs, holsters, etc. These give you carrying capacity without encumbering you at all. You can craft certain items as well. Be on the lookout for items that give storage but don't occupy an equip location. These are the things I'm talking about.

If you can get a shopping cart congratulations you just won the fucking game. Go forth and be the post apocalyptic hobo you've always wanted to be.

Cheap early weapons if you can't find shit:
Spray can flamethrower
Molotov coctails
Pipe (smash a locker in the evac shelter)
Makeshift knife (smash a locker for scrap, get a rock to use as a hammer, shred something for rags)

dezzmont · Post by **dezzmont** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 5:53 am #61827

Early game encumbering loot bags make sense if you are smart and drop them at the first sign of trouble when scavenging. There is no reason to not hoard containers save for maybe the understanding it makes things harder for new PCs.

Armor also makes sense in some situations even when you lack the skills for it, because once things getting a bit more intense you are looking at more than a buise from a zombie slapping you, but in general yeah lighter is better.

Guns are extremely powerful and useful.... as an "OH SHIT" button. Don't ever fire one unless you will surely die if you don't, and run like hell once you do. But make no mistake, you will really need firearms to do some higher end raids, and in many places where guns are strictly speaking required you will not attract zombies.

The shovel is the most powerful item in the game, with it and a tent you become nearly immune to being ambushed at camp, I have never seen anything that flies cut the tent and anything that walks will die if you spend a day or two creating a multi-layered pit system with removable planks. With a gun and a shovel you can also really easily clear out a town by creating a series of traps and then using the gun to make a ton of noise.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 6:50 am #61846

I create a new world for each PC when I play them. The game updates so rapidly when a character dies you should start a new game with the latest version anyway.

The shovel is pretty decent as a utility item and a weapon but the entrenching tool is strictly better if you just want to dig. I would say the sewing kit is the most powerful item in the game for the ridiculous benefits to your character it can provide. When you're wearing a full army outfit with boots that's all been fitted and reinforced you become very resilient to damage and can use the zombie hordes and a convenient bottleneck in a smashed window to practice whatever melee skill you want at your own leisure.

The shovel is handy but there's enough debris and shit scattered around the city to trip zombies up on already that I don't find a lot of need to dig my own traps.

Camping is so outdated. Get an RV and live life on the road. Nobody uses tents anymore.

tedward1337 · Post by **tedward1337** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 7:16 am #61861

Im currently living in an APC I found on the road. Looted a nearby town and got a FUCK ton of weapons/ammo/books. The APC is south of a farm, so thats nice. Im renovating the inside, and hopefully am going to turn it into a mobile RV when I can. Just need duct tape or welding tools/goggles.

Balut · Post by **Balut** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:14 pm #61907

Man all of my habits and shit on this game are outdated as fuck. Like, I mostly played when there wasn't static spawn, so I had the ability to actually loot towns without clearing them out first - just run like a fucking madman periodically.

I'm still pretty mad that molotovs - the go-to panic button as I recall them - are so fucking hard to make now, because the crafting menu is all fiddly and stupid about requiring a different bottle if you don't have exactly enoughspin booze or whatever horseshit fuck.

I'm ALSO mad about how dogs and shit are like, literally impossible to hit. It's pretty fucking annoying.

Also I hate smashing up the safehouse and like never do it because I'm retarded I guess.

Also I hate the myriad changes they've made to turrets that make it fucking impossible for me to just set up a bunch (totally debug spawned in) on my perimeter and just never worry about shit fucking with my base camp. Acid rain kills them, I have to fuck around with ammo (which is horrible because they spray like a trillion bullets to kill one zombie), laser turrets that DON'T use ammo don't fucking work if I roof them, apparently there's no vehicle-mounted laser that I can use with solar panels and a battery... mutations, awesome crafting, mega death armored van truck adventures, artifacts, guns, plowing through zombie hordes with a broadsword, I can't get to any of that cool shit because I'm stuck sleeping in an abandoned car five miles out of town, starving and dehydrated, hoping a billion wolves or a zoose or a horde doesn't find me. ESPECIALLY the first, because they inexplicably hover around me until they nat 1 five times in a row and aggro on me, despite my taking the Disney Princess 'gets along with wildlife' perk. And since they're dogs, they're inpossible to fucking hit.

Then again, I've never been able to panickedly spin out my car while it was raining,and then back over a Tank repeatedly in other games, so.

callanrockslol · Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:23 pm

Cover it in spikes and go mad max.

Kot · Post by **Kot** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:53 pm #61914

>build a fukken mobile military base
>drive it around at sound speed
>crash into gas station

11/10 If it only had better graphics.

tedward1337 · Post by **tedward1337** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 4:21 pm #61969

>Dogs have hit and run tactics

The fuck is this, guerrilla warfare?

ColonicAcid · Post by **ColonicAcid** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 4:24 pm #61971

I once had a character who was pretty well off, had some good mutations and some guns and shit. He also had a truck, this is important.
One day I was driving my truck around when I wasn't paying attention pressing the down key. Turns out there was a fucking building and I noticed it far too late for the heavy ass truck to move out of the way of it. Cue me crashing into the building, jumping out MID FUCKING CRASH whilst the building was burning, breaking both of my legs and only having like 2 clips of ammo for my AK and the whole map being alerted to me being there due to the noise created.

Only took 200 zombies to kill me.

Skorvold · Post by **Skorvold** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 4:47 pm #61987

I remember reading what An0n3 said about the game and got into it on the old forum.

It's super fucking fun addictive shit, but cougars and wolves are OP as fuck early on. Easiest wildlife to kill for its meat is a bear.

Kill a bear and you're set for life. Shittiest thing you can do is turn on other humans.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 6:37 pm #62013

I could stream this tonight if you guys want to ride along with the pro.

I will show you the ways to be robust.

Kot · Post by **Kot** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 6:39 pm #62014

"For your whole life you've been forbidden from indulging in your peculiar tastes. Now the world's ended, and you'll be damned if anyone is going to tell you you can't eat people."

It's literally easiest meat ever, also comes with useful drops.

Also i wish there was multiplayer on this thing.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 7:04 pm #62024

Human meat is pretty rare.

If you're talking about eating zombie meat that's a horrible, horrible idea. You're incredibly likely to get sick and you're better off using it to make mutagen and zombie pheromones anyway. Butchering zombies is also great because it's free survival skill practice.

Kot · Post by **Kot** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 7:27 pm #62030

An0n3 wrote:Human meat is pretty rare.

If you're talking about eating zombie meat that's a horrible, horrible idea. You're incredibly likely to get sick and you're better off using it to make mutagen and zombie pheromones anyway. Butchering zombies is also great because it's free survival skill practice.

I run into other survivors a lot, and there is usually at least one in starting bunker.
Also there is a mutation for eating Zombie meat.

EndgamerAzari · Fri Jan 23, 2015 10:27 pm

An0n3 wrote:I could stream this tonight if you guys want to ride along with the pro.

I will show you the ways to be robust.

Hell yeah

I'll be a shitty DM and watch while I'm running my Pathfinder game

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:41 pm #62102

Word. I'll blast Nuclear Throne music in the background and get this setup.

srifenbyxp · Post by **srifenbyxp** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:58 pm #62104

Skorvold wrote:
It's super fucking fun addictive shit, but cougars and wolves are OP as fuck early on.

Bruh you serious? I got attacked by 3 wolves and bashed them to death with my baton and this is before I figured out how to reload my 3 guns. Malls have alot of shit in them.

Also A DAM SHAME NO ONE KNOWS WHAT LINK TO CLICK TO SEE WUT STREAM

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 5:36 am #62188

My best run I ended up as a hard as fuck Lizard man, snout lizard eyes and massive tail, the whole nine yards. I had a 44 magnum, wore a leather trenchcoat, chain smoked cigarettes and drove a tricked out motorcycle. I had cybernetics out the ass too. Ended up leaving it after i raided a bunch science labs and got bored. How much has the game changed in 7 months, i wanna get back in to it. Might make another badass lizard man

nsos · Post by **nsos** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:03 am #62191

started game walked outside got buttfucked by wild dogs while 2 zombies stood around and watched, presumably laughing at my misfortune

nsos · Post by **nsos** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:04 am #62192

i need a tileset but for some reason this game makes me want to make a new hellmoo account

god hellmoo is fucking awful

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:11 am #62195

This is actual the first game i was ever able to play full ASCII, the tilesets are fucking so bad for this game. And this is coming from a guy who uses tilesets to play DF

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:29 am #62199

I talked a lot of shit about being a pro at this but got slaughtered repeatedly by my own stupidity.

Personal highlight: toss up between throwing a Granade at myself (I thought it was good!) and getting killed by an NPC over a can of fucking clam chowder.

Eskrima wielding buff ass tailor is still my go to character though.

srifenbyxp · Post by **srifenbyxp** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 6:38 am #62200

An0n3 wrote: Personal highlight: toss up between throwing a Granade at myself (I thought it was good!) and getting killed by an NPC over a can of fucking clam chowder.

Grenade jumping is for Halo

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 4:18 pm #62301

I think he meant GRANADE, which is an ebin inside joke about one of the main contributors whos last name is Granade. They esentially have a chance to buff all your stats like cazy, spawn a bunch of tough enemies, or completely dick you over by wrecking your stats.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 4:22 pm #62303

Also how in the sweet fuck do they release 3-4 new versions of the game every day? I just imagine the game is coded by a team of 6 basement dwelling wizards who take shifts sleeping and eating so development never actually pauses.

Ricotez · Post by **Ricotez** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 4:56 pm #62311

Wyzack wrote:Also how in the sweet fuck do they release 3-4 new versions of the game every day? I just imagine the game is coded by a team of 6 basement dwelling wizards who take shifts sleeping and eating so development never actually pauses.

this supports my theory that everything in the universe needs an opposite to maintain balance, these guys are what balances chucklefish

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 5:14 pm #62312

You are making me want to play this game.

Bad people.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 5:22 pm #62316

Do it! One of my absolute favorite roguelikes! Not to mention the car creation is completely open ended and awesome, you can make completely custom vehicles. Also they just added a police detective class complete with fedora and trenchcoat so i can play my favourite spaceman in the apocalypse.

Ricotez wrote:
Wyzack wrote:Also how in the sweet fuck do they release 3-4 new versions of the game every day? I just imagine the game is coded by a team of 6 basement dwelling wizards who take shifts sleeping and eating so development never actually pauses.
this supports my theory that everything in the universe needs an opposite to maintain balance, these guys are what balances chucklefish

Absolutely rekt. Arent we like 11 months without a stable update now? THINK AND FAST

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 5:43 pm #62326

Spreading my scalefaggotry to it posthaste, then.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 5:59 pm #62337

A heads up, becoming a lizard mutant is fucking super hard to do. You need to max out a few crafting skills, find some rare books, find a shitload of lizard eggs which are super rare, and then craft a ton of lizard mutagen and hope the RNG doesnt dick you over with bad mutations. Robust Genetics trait helps

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 7:31 pm #62367

Can't raptors scalefag, too, though? Or is that even harder?

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 7:36 pm #62372

As far as i know raptor is even harder than lizard, with more possible nasty bad mutations in the pool. Not positive though, raptor was integrated right around when i stopped playing

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 7:58 pm #62387

Well, time to get this thing moving regardless.

Kot · Post by **Kot** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 8:14 pm #62395

Or just use debug mode to give yourself scaly shit like dirty lizard cheater you are.

srifenbyxp · Post by **srifenbyxp** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 8:23 pm #62403

I was a pussy and made zombies spawn after 24 hours giving me time to learn shit. I now have a car filled with guns and ammo which has a dead battery when I drove into town.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 8:29 pm #62406

Be a fucking tailor holy shit.

1 point gets you 4 skill points in tailoring, starts you out with a sewing kit, some thread, and some scissors.

You can immediately smash windows, cut up the drapes, and craft all kinds of better shit for yourself. Backpack and a reinforced trenchcoat yes please. Everything fitted. Glorious.

Kot · Post by **Kot** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 8:31 pm #62408

Yeah, tailoring is suprisingly robust.
Makes sense actually. Because fighting with loose pants would be hell.

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 8:37 pm #62412

Even just layering a reinforced shirt and a reinforced trenchcoat lets you shrug off a surprising number of zombie bites and claws.

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 8:53 pm #62420

Kot wrote:Or just use debug mode to give yourself scaly shit like dirty lizard cheater you are.

Please, I want to pretend to have a challenge.

The glorious reptilian master race requires work to change into.

tedward1337 · Post by **tedward1337** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:18 pm #62429

I got a trenchcoat(fits) from some house in town, I went downstairs and I shit you not there was a civilian armoury just waiting to be looted. I got a fuck ton of guns and ammo. My personal favorite was the autoshotgun. The thing was basically an AK that fired shotgun rounds. Heavily modified it with parts I found in that house.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:21 pm #62431

Gun nut basements are the shit. I reccomend setting up your base in a basement if you can find one in a realitivly secure location. Bonus points if you can build a wood stove down there for all your crafting needs

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:24 pm #62433

Meanwhile, the shelter I spawned in turned out to be far emptier than the wiki advertised.

This is going to be a fun first time.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:30 pm #62435

They are usually empty, smash apart the benches and lockers to craft some basic gear like a makeshift crowbar and a two-by-sword

Kot · Post by **Kot** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 9:46 pm #62443

There is a world gen setting for that i think. Set it to max and whole basement is covered with 4-5 layers deep blanket of items, just as every building ever.

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:19 pm #62458

Got lucky, shelter full of tons of shit, including two medkits and more food than I could carry.

Also two zombies. Today I Learned: How to Butcher.
Today I Also Learned: Dogs really are awful.
Furthermore: Krav Maga is robust.

Balut · Post by **Balut** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 10:39 pm #62465

Hideous loud guns.

Glorious bows.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 11:40 pm #62479

Krav Maga was really op, not sure if it has been balanced at all. Also be sure to butcher/pulp every corpse unless you want them to come back

tedward1337 · Post by **tedward1337** » Sun Jan 25, 2015 12:35 am #62488

What is this "Mi Go" monster?