theFlu

You thought it was a game? What, we just called it a game to get clicks!

Eh, a hostile reader can demolish any sentence. I mean, your instruction there is an absolute, "Don't do it". It is strong enough to be phrased like that, but it self-negates. "This sentence is false". If all a hostile reader has to pick on is an overzealous absolute, the point has been missed already. I rather skip the caveats nowadays, can't please them all. You're into modifying the game, and weakening the traders; I'm talking about how vanilla is designed and plays. Essentially, we're talking about different games. And since you think the vanilla traders are "too strong for your sensibilities", then I'd assume you agree giving a +50% effective trade ratio at the drop of a hat isn't improving the situation... Assuming by "I have played using" you mean something like "I have done a full playthru mostly using" .. well, you've played a combat game wearing tissue paper with little usable stats (athletics gear). Combat-wise that's not far from using a primitive set. Nothing wrong with that, but that's not a playstyle that needs any strict design; past "it's possible as some people will have horrible RNG and be stuck with primitive for eternity". I'm kinda judging the design against obvious flaws, not necessarily practical playability - one can play this nude if they like, no problem.

7 Days of going postal... checks out

AP > HP > Regs .. but regs do the job just fine, and that's the stuff you'll get from loot, so you'll always carry some. Might as well use it.

Hah, that must've been a real moment finding out ...

Viability is a weird one; I do agree with the idea, but it doesn't really apply to specialized outfits. If farmer, scavenger and miner sets are also just as good as the "pure combat" sets for combat, then the combat sets are pointless. TFP seems to have gone with a mixed bag, with some choices to avoid any significant stacking (like damage bonuses are mostly on gloves, not on any other pieces). There are - four sets that could be considered "pure combat" (biker, commando, raider, assassin (stealth is combat, I'd think)) - three sets with plenty of combat power, but also barter (preacher, enforcer, ranger) - five "pure gathering" (lumber, scav, mine, farmer (the 20% rifles is negligible, feels like flavoring), rogue (looting bonuses all around)). - one kinda pure "role-playish" set, (athletic), fun for travel, but not really that useful.. - couple role-playish, but combative sets, (nerd, nomad) For me, the weirdest part* is the strong barter buff on plenty of pieces; it's a little too strong to ignore, so everyone's gonna have one of those hats. Other than that, given the variety of sets, it's pretty nice to see that "I could use that as a main set for a playthrough" for pretty much all of them - other than the gathering sets ofc. And while combining different sets might give some slight benefits (getting run speed into a set that doesn't have it, for example), it isn't practically that enticing for many of them. So overall, I'd say good job. * Ok yeah, stealth is broken with the set bonus .. but it always was

Hmm... the farmer rifle damage is weak; but it's not exactly a combat set in any way. You gain no benefit to combat from the rest of the set; so you're going to swap around if you care, and enjoy shooing off vultures with your rifle if you don't... My best guess is it's weak to encourage swapping, kinda meant to be left in a box next to your farm. Preacher is clearly designed with bandits in mind, so it might come with a drawback later on... but right now it is indeed the best in slot for gloves, unless you plan to get beat on. Something is going to be bis, but .. at least make it 50% at max, so you "could" swap for a "+60% melee" instead. Shared buffs I don't mind at all; it's not unreasonable that different shoes are optimized for similar things; and run speed is prolly the most logical one. Given that run speed is also reduced by the heaviness of the armors, 3/4 of them are not even the same speed. I dunno how boots are supposed to get you more seeds thou.. special soles to catch stray seeds in them?

dm comes with killall .. it's just what it says on the tin. Less holy than a rocket launcher as well. And if you just wanna spot it, numpad zero should pop up a stats display on every zed, which you can see thru the world.

Aye, seems rather broken tbh; I just recorded a T6 infestation with basically machete-only ... Dunno if I cba uploading it, was too uneventful

Yeap, do note that the point of the video wasn't to "use rifles", it was just a fun end-of-run Clear that I recorded, partly for debugging the joint and partly to see if I can find obvious flaws in my play watching it "from the outside". In other words, that's just how I played that run. Tactical positioning included; it's not like the good spots take that long to utilize with parkour. I often do.. One "main weapon" for accurate fire, one for aoe DPS. "2 SMGs + a pistol", yes and no; a pistol(9mm) doesn't offer any benefit over a third SMG; but 2 SMGs and a Dulture were literally what I was carrying on that run before I started adding points for the rifles. 2 assault rifles? Yes, most of Fort games from day 1. 2 Shotguns..? only early on for pipes and dubsies, a second pumpy doesn't seem beneficial, but I'll run another weapon type along with it. 2 .. wait, we already went thru all the options? Yeah, I'll bring firearms in double for most of the time, swapping is faster than reloading

Oh yeh, it's perfect for that of course

Please do, but a mandatory warning: before you max it out in all the ways, it's rather frustrating. After maxing it out, it's way too easy like in the vid - but you'll end up missing some sleepers as they don't trigger.

Stealth is too slow, I can't take this anymore! Oh wait. https://odysee.com/@theFlu:d/StealthyBasementClear:4

Yeh, no worries, simple ideas are like that. That's probably the default for everyone; at least for me thinking of side-effects and implications still takes conscious effort. But other than sleeper design, that idea doesn't seem to hurt much in the general gameplay... in a simple form, maybe split "Hidden Strike" damage into two parts, stealth damage and backstab damage, giving a mild damage buff to sleeper backstabs while leaving sleeper headshots as they are, or even a little weaker. Depends of course if "backstab" is 1) any hit from direction "behind", 2) an actual "fleshy back hitbox" separate from the head hitbox or 3) something else...

Thanks, my OCD just kicked in

I don't hate the idea; basic backstab damage. On one hand it'd be neat with zeds hiding their heads in POIs, but then, it would partially negate all the meticulous head-hiding that the level designers enjoy doing... 😛 For horde nights, well, it'd encourage some weird base designs - depending a little on how the mechanic would actually work. But you'd try to get zombies breaking things "somewhere else" to be shot in the back. Not exactly hard to achieve, but everyone else wants em face-first at the kill zone. For a co-op you'll be the odd one out, standing in a sniper perch somewhere; for single player you'll be designing a convoluted path, or a dropper for DestroyArea -mode and a suitable execution wall to gather the aggravatees.

Instead of full set losing the zeds instantly, have it give a random chance for any shots/(agi-tree-damage-types?) being treated as stealth hits (whether the chance is 20% or 80%, dunno). I'd take it.

I don't need them to throw piles of steel tools at me, but I'd rather take the mollies from tier 1-2 half the time.

Well, I bring two, what does that say about me.. They make a lot of round holes. I filmed a run just for fun in A21, even the mess of an end fight there (14:40 onwards) actually saw some good use of AP Sniper as well; although for that end fight I was relying more on the short-range stuff, as things tended to get a little close... https://odysee.com/@theFlu:d/NavzPrisonClear:a Usually in my Agi/Per build, one kitted for general-purpose stealth kills (giggity) and the other for oh-crap-AP.

Technically, ye, but "to react" here would be to design an actual stealth gameplay. They have plenty of elements to one, but atm it's a binary between "the whole trigger room knows exactly where you are whatever you do" and "I can chisel down this rad tourist and his 3 friends with my stone axe, without any of them ever even turning towards me". The biggest hurdle is the trigger mechanic, I guess; requiring zeds to be able to beeline to you without actual knowledge of you. Once you figure out that you can reveal yourself to the zeds temporarily to get them to drop agro, it's a straight up hack-fest. I guess blinking your headlight at the things running at you could be called a mechanic, but I'm not sure how sneaky it feels though... it does have a flashbang feel to it when it works well, but it's just a little too meta .. and obviously not intended.

They're not all that powerful.. something like Preacher's +60% on gloves sounds like a lot, but it's stacked on top of your +100% (Q6 +50%, Maxed Talents +50%, books +10%), making your 200% into a 260%, effectively giving around 30% increase. The assassin's "+20%" attack speed is actually similar in strength, not an oversight. And the zeds got a HP buff with the patch, so I think the "maxed out end result" remains pretty close to what it was. Some of them are completely broken, though, like the assassin set.. you can just keep pelting a rad over and over again, getting +stealth damage every bolt and the zed not moving at all. I guess it's a fine revenge for all the GM-deaths that TFP has been implementing for a few alphas now, but it isn't exactly fixing stealth play; quite the opposite.

Hmm.. my screamers tend to get to 5-10m before I register them; the packs they summon end up spawning behind fences and around corners. You ain't wrong in any of your examples, but for my playstyle 30m is a stretch for all of them. If I'm lucky enough to have 30m between myself and a wandering horde, I just walk that 10m in and fight between 10-20 Your needs for a sniper should be a rounding error for any machine gun user, if they're unwilling to share otherwise, just start using a MG yourself for a day 😛

Umm, that's what I literally asked, no? Me neither, I was just amusing myself with the Championships of The Most Contrived Example over there. High tier rifles are great, I think my favorite spec is still Agi/Per, where I use mostly rifles with stealth boni, parkour and reloads on the hop. Lower tiers are a little meh, but it's not like you can't put other weapons to good use while levelling rifles. Rocket launcher isn't one I ever use, but it'd have its utility in some high tier POIs (like suitable jails and whatnot); but the basic nades fill that role while having a bit more utility with the timing, plus taking one less bag slot. If I had to complain about something, it'd be mines, but I wouldn't know how to make those "actually useful"...

So, about 2 minutes every 7 hours? 😛

Finally got into reading on the morning of D14, started looking like I would be able to make a proper nerd outfit with some care. Here's the full stash (I had read 4 forge books for the forge). With the looted gear to compare to: Got myself a Q4 Machete out of the deal; got the books for a 5er, but not 6, so I saved some steel. Other than that, one book short of an SMG, one book short of a crossbow (with some explosive bolts in a box waiting). And not nearly enough steel for a magnum (got a crucible for a few days now, haven't bothered farming for iron or clay), nor enough sewing kits / armor parts for any more armors. Seems the D14 horde will be an electric fence and a purple pistol. I think "send help" still applies.