Recent stable alpha 20 buried supplies

[ungkor]

As I'm digging, each time the circle tightens and says "you are getting closer to the treasure", 2-3 enemies attack .  Is this the new normal, or a bug?

[Mounty]

It doesn't seem to happen every time, unless the zombies are spawning and then wandering off in random directions, happens a lot though.

[PoloPoPo]

This has been added with A20. It is normal but, as Mounty has already stated, does not happen every single time when the circle gets closer to the burried supply. I get Zombie spawns most of the time, though.

 

I have also the feeling that with increasing tier of the burried supply quest the more and stronger Zombies spawn. Maybe other factors contribute to that as well (gamestage...).

[longcheq]

52 minutes ago, PoloPoPo said:

This has been added with A20. It is normal but, as Mounty has already stated, does not happen every single time when the circle gets closer to the burried supply. I get Zombie spawns most of the time, though.

 

I have also the feeling that with increasing tier of the burried supply quest the more and stronger Zombies spawn. Maybe other factors contribute to that as well (gamestage...).

The higher the quest tier is, the more zombies spawn. The higher the game stage is, the stronger zombies are.

[Spatch]

I like this new feature and hate it at the same time! 

[PoppaSmirk]

I tend to do a lot more..."prairie -dogging" now when I am on a buried supplies quest.    I dig and dig....then POP my head up and do a 360 scan,  then dig and dig some more.  I stay alert for that first snarl or growl,  then pop fully back to ground level and dispatch the undead with malicious abandon,  then resume the digging.

[Sjustus548]

I really like the new feature.  It makes digging buried treasure to be more than just "kill the zombies in an area and then commence digging".  Now I'm constantly having to look around and make sure I can easily escape my hole if needed.  It's a great change in my opinion.

[Ramethzer0]

Yeah my very first A20 buried supplies I had no idea what was happening.  I thought it was a bug.  Nope.  Need friends now, or you gotta do that Prairie Dog tactic mentioned above.

 

Edit:  What I really hate is that since I'm a very big kiter.. if I leave the area I fail the quest.   This doesn't cause the loot to vanish though, so sometimes extra digging is needed if you do fail it.

 

Edited January 15, 2022 by Ramethzer0 (see edit history)

[Tohskrad]

Glad someone addressed and confirmed that.  I didn't notice it early on, but at level 2 it seemed to happen almost every time.  As a result, they are almost a death sentence to do solo without having the quest quit on you.    My group plays on a survivalist (heading towards insane at higher levels) and we have the zombies on sprint.  So by the time the circle closes and the 3 zombies spawn, once you pop your head above ground they are literally on top of you.  

 

Really wish there was a way to either 1)  make them spawn further out and run in,  2)  limit the # that spawn,  3)  increase or show the radius of the quest for movement before failing or 4)  make it so they only spawn after every 2nd or 3rd shrink.   I've considered building a perimeter wall  around the zone, but it really feels like a waste.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Tohskrad (see edit history)

[Cobretti_]

How about instead of digging straight down you dig at a slant so you create a natural ramp from the dirt so that way you can get out and ready to fight in about 1 second.......

[theFlu]

For the high difficulties, you might have to change how you dig. I propose digging just vertical shafts in essentially chess knight-patterns. The advantage is, you'll have your feet at ground level at all times, plus it might actually require less digging to cover an area (depends a bit on depth).

Assuming you can only see the NSWE sides of a shaft, you'll cover 5 blocks per: (X = shaft, S = seen)
 

OSO
SXS
OSO

 

Since the shape is what it is, you'll need to "misaling" the shafts (X, x = shafts, S,s = their respective seens):
 

OSOOO
SXSsO
OSsxs
OOOxs

 

I used to do this in around A16 just to reduce the effort. Just plug the holes as you go, less surprises..

Now the box may be too deep to find from the surface, try ladders in the hole, maybe. They're pickable now.

[Whorhay]

Yeah, this has been a great change. Not only does it generate some good tension while digging up the supplies but it generates a log of experience compared to what you got before. Whenever the circle shrinks I just pause for a second and listen to see if I hear zombies, if I do I got topside and knock'em down, if no zombies spawned I just keep digging.

[Tohskrad]

3 hours ago, Cobretti_ said:

How about instead of digging straight down you dig at a slant so you create a natural ramp from the dirt so that way you can get out and ready to fight in about 1 second.......

That's what I've previously been doing and it works well enough.  However, it can still take a few seconds to get above ground, depending on how far you're probing underground.    The biggest issue on the higher difficulties (and faster zombies) is since our levels are still pretty low (<30), we don't have the armor to really absorb the hits without moving around and potentially exiting the quest area. (Lvl3 Scrap is the best we have atm, with some padded/leather thrown in)  Each hit tends to do ~20-25% HP currently.  So having 2-3 hostile zombies on top of you almost immediately is a problem, not to mention the possibility of getting infected.

[PoloPoPo]

32 minutes ago, Tohskrad said:

That's what I've previously been doing and it works well enough.  However, it can still take a few seconds to get above ground, depending on how far you're probing underground.    The biggest issue on the higher difficulties (and faster zombies) is since our levels are still pretty low (<30), we don't have the armor to really absorb the hits without moving around and potentially exiting the quest area. (Lvl3 Scrap is the best we have atm, with some padded/leather thrown in)  Each hit tends to do ~20-25% HP currently.  So having 2-3 hostile zombies on top of you almost immediately is a problem, not to mention the possibility of getting infected.

The circle closes always after X amount of blocks removed, initially 10 I believe. What you can do is dig 9 blocks deep to look for the supplies, get back on surface and dig 1 more random block for the Zs to spawn. You will be instantly ready. If fighting them on foot is too hard place two cobblestone blocks, stand above and hit down on the Zs. OR, even better, use those big rocks that are scattered around randomly in the world. There is a high chance that one of them is inside your quest radius. Or use something else that is elevated, like sheds or fences if the quest is in a town. OR, my favourite, get out your big guns and go BOOM BOOM.

 

I had to leave the quest area only once. That was when a random wandering horde spawned in, 30+ Zs in total. (mod content)