Fun game setup...

[Morloc]

I'd wondered how a game would play if setup with the zombies always walking. I presumed it'd be much easier, and appropriate for some casual gaming where I could level/quest day and night without issue.

 

I set the z's to always walk (I left the default Bloodmoon settings).

Kept the difficulty up on Insane.

Lowered the loot to 25%. In the pre-A17 days, I often played with 25% loot just to make things as hard as possible.

 

I was shocked to see just how little loot you get with 25% now! Trash pile after trash pile, nest after nest...all empty. OK...not quite...a few feathers did sometimes happen, but eggs?...not in 100 nests. Dumpsters, bookshelves....empty. I found a treasure map!....dug up the chest....EMPTY! My first air drop?.....15 sheets of paper! In over 2 weeks the only article of clothing/armor I've found is a pair of cowboy boots.

 

I found it necessary to use the vending machines....a LOT.

 

...but, hey....combat would be a breeze with all walkers; right? Sure, but not so much as I'd thought. Note: Ferals still "walk" a bit faster than their colleagues. Insane level vultures will end you. Run into a giant grey wolf in the basement?....goodbye.

 

The experience is turning out to be far more fun than I'd thought. The punishingly-low loot levels really force you toward the vendors, and the better-balanced economy leaves you wishing you had more coin. Feels much more "survivaly"

 

 

-Morloc

[zombo]

I personally have not tried 17.2 yet, but it sounds like 25% loot still isn't fixed properly yet- finding empty containers 99% of the time was the issue with it in alpha 17.0-17.1. It acts too much like an on off switch instead of real percent odds of finding loot. So I had to play at 50% in alpha 17 where loot is waaay too common imo. I personally love a low loot run, but not as low as it starts out being in the current 25% abundance cause it's broken and it's more like .5% loot abundance (but even worse cause some things are 0% like eggs).

 

 

STRATEGY==

So it's actually probably best you don't even look in valuable containers until you level up a bunch of times and put points into scavenging- that's the biggest downside to your mode. Yer just wasting future loot potential to dig in valuable containers now, as you end up with an empty town near home and hardly any loot to show for it- you can make more progress in the wild harvesting instead. So keep living off the land... do a lot of mining... cutting wood... killing... hunting... A simple life in the wilderness like a good ole redneck hillbilly. Sell them stacks of wood so you can buy a new axe and some hard ass whiskey until you level up a lot.

If you do keep looting, I suggest putting loot respawn to fewer days unless you like nomadic play.

 

 

THE WALKING 7 DAYS?=

I can't do walking zombies ever again, it's just too easy now. I like using the run setting. I would only go back to walking if the game could actually have hundreds of zombies at a time, or introduce far more mutants and dangers (bandits). Walkers might also be more acceptable if doing a dead is dead play- but even then it's probably a wolf or bear you didn't hear (and cheaply spawned 50ft behind you) that will end you, which is part of why I haven't taken a stab at that mode yet (I really want to though someday when the game isn't using cheap mechanics).

 

 

 

7 DAYS TO DIFFERENT-

Like you, I am always trying to find new ways to experience the game, and yep, I try to make the survival harder and last longer too, but in ways that are fun and make sense.

 

1 idea I thought would be amazing was a run I tried to do in 17.1 where I forced myself to only live in the wasteland even from the start.

That was fun at first but surprisingly it ended up still being almost as easy and thus the same experience, even moreso if you allow yourself to loot in other biomes. I was expecting chaos but it was fairly peaceful. A few more vultures which just gave me more arrow ammo. A few zomb bears now n then but meh... Unless you don't hear them, they are hardly a threat (big dumb n slow).

I suppose at lvl 100+ it might have gotten a little intense with more wights and rad zombs, but I got bored by then having almost all the loot I cared to have and decked out gear (the problem any playthrough of this game has right now).

 

 

And shame on you for your location morloc... Most of us here are dudes, and we don't like doing the splits. Leave my ankles alone! You ZOMBVERT!

[RipClaw]

I set the z's to always walk (I left the default Bloodmoon settings).

 

It would certainly be an interesting game mode if you let the zombies run during the day and walk at night. So you could only make safe loot runs at night.

[Morloc]

I think I'm starting to suffer from MyPCIsTooOld-itis. I get brief pauses or stuttering at the worst possible times. A17 forced me to initially turn down the difficulty due to the runners. My venerable rig was originally close to $4K, but has lost the "beast" classification being nearly 9 years old. With a 980GTX it's still OK, but I can't time my swings like I once could. It may be that I'm less than patient when opening up a POI. It's also possible that it's ME that's too old now too

 

 

And shame on you for your location morloc... Most of us here are dudes, and we don't like doing the splits. Leave my ankles alone! You ZOMBVERT!

 

No worries! I'm spreading them over a nice piece of toast (sometimes a bagel).

 

 

-Morloc

[zombo]

GHASTLY! I'd issue you a citation but yer already a zomb like me so it won't do any good.

 

 

And yes your pc is ancient. But even on my rig with a 1060 6gb- it still does half second frame freeze stutters when zombies are around. I think a lot of people have that issue. You might buy a new $4000 computer and still have the issue.

 

Oh and if you want more of a survival feel I recommend banning merchant quests- the rewards are waaaaay too good for us who want a harder game. Either ban or limit- like only 1 quest per week allowed per point put into the quest perk. Though if you insist on keeping the broken 25% loot- then you might want to keep questing. I am guessing like me, you will eventually break and give in to 50%.

 

I also did a run where I could only eat food I loot or buy. That was fun, but of course it still ended up being waaaaay too much food later on when cash if flowing and you find multiple merchants.

 

 

 

Well back to don't starve I go! I am bored waiting for alpha 18, so I have been totally CHEATING on the fun pimps. Eatin the monster meats like a boss yo!

[andrewcu]

GHASTLY! I'd issue you a citation but yer already a zomb like me so it won't do any good.

 

 

And yes your pc is ancient. But even on my rig with a 1060 6gb- it still does half second frame freeze stutters when zombies are around. I think a lot of people have that issue. You might buy a new $4000 computer and still have the issue.

 

Oh and if you want more of a survival feel I recommend banning merchant quests- the rewards are waaaaay too good for us who want a harder game. Either ban or limit- like only 1 quest per week allowed per point put into the quest perk. Though if you insist on keeping the broken 25% loot- then you might want to keep questing. I am guessing like me, you will eventually break and give in to 50%.

 

I also did a run where I could only eat food I loot or buy. That was fun, but of course it still ended up being waaaaay too much food later on when cash if flowing and you find multiple merchants.

 

 

 

Well back to don't starve I go! I am bored waiting for alpha 18, so I have been totally CHEATING on the fun pimps. Eatin the monster meats like a boss yo!

 

I have to disagree about trader quests. im on level 3 quests and the best ive gotten is like pipe bombs and lvl 3 armor

[RipClaw]

I have to disagree about trader quests. im on level 3 quests and the best ive gotten is like pipe bombs and lvl 3 armor

 

I'm already at level five of the trader quests. Also at this level the rewards are very low compared to the effort. It usually takes a whole day to clear a level 5 building and depending on the playing style also a lot of ammo.

 

I actually only do the quests because they bring additional XP and some money. The stuff I get for the quest I usually sell directly back to the trader.

[FileMachete]

Just in case it piques anyone interest, one of the funnest playthroughs I had during a16 was a Golf game. Lower z-kills the better.

 

With so few old style, non-dungeon POIs on a map in a17 it would likely be quite a bit harder to get going.

Later Horde nights in a17 would be easier since you can control the path and feed all the z's into traps.

 

And a17 diggers would really change things. In the a16 playthrough I just had multiple exit tunnels so if a few z's were standing over my basement base, who cared. Now you'd have to either go up or 40+ down, or until you can make traps.

 

If you played w all trap kills allowed you could clear dungeons with mines and hastily placed dart traps or turrets.

 

The mindset took a bit to get into, but mid-game was a lot of fun

[Morloc]

That'd be like...."We should have the cure in another year or so. In the meantime, PLEASE try not to kill anyone!"

 

 

-Morloc

[FileMachete]

That'd be like...."We should have the cure in another year or so. In the meantime, PLEASE try not to kill anyone!"

 

 

-Morloc

 

Ha! never thought of it that way, but sure, that could be a motivation

 

For me it was more of a, "what in the H E double hockey sticks would I really do..??"

 

and I think "Rule 1" would actually be, "Stay the HEck away from zombies!"

[zombo]

I have to disagree about trader quests. im on level 3 quests and the best ive gotten is like pipe bombs and lvl 3 armor

 

 

It somewhat depends what kind of game yer playing. Difficulty- loot rarity- personal prefs. On 50% or lower loot abundance, insane difficulty... I want to survive in the stone age, desperate for supplies for a while. I find the quests to be too generous, especially dig ones, which take a few minutes to run to- but then give you plenty of food\meds and sometimes guns or iron tools as a reward. With how few tiers of lot\tools there is, I find it just isn't spreading it out enough like this. I could loot houses for days and not find iron tools, but the quests reliably lead to them which takes away from the RNG roguelike action I am looking for.

 

now...

If you play at loot 100%, yeah, quests are a waste of time, about any location will explode loot at you. It's the logging into warcraft to be handed purple epics mode. I don't know why anyone plays this way, you might as well be on minecraft creative.

Low loot% is where it's at!

 

 

If food spoilage ever makes it in- I look forward to canned foods becoming a new form of currency =)

 

BUYING LEGENDARY MAGNUM- 500 cans of MEOW CHOW! PREMIUM OFFBRAND QUALITY NEVER OPENED, ONLY SLIGHTLY DENTED!