Early Game, Night Time - What do Folks Do?

[caatalyst]

Hey Guys,

What do folks do during the early days when night falls?

I get kinda stuck and end up just sat not really doing anything in a POI because there doesn't seem to be anything to do. 

I can't go outside because it's too dangerous having poor weapons and armour, I cannot craft anything because I do not have the schematics unlocked.

During earlier alphas (15/16) I used to craft better tools over night and prepare for the next day but in more recent alphas I feel like there is nothing to do during the early night's except sit and wait for night to end. 

Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Lokeus]

I am scavenging the wilderness, zeds are good to see there in moonshine. Normally i am in crouch position and sprinting, so you won`t be detected too fast. Always make stops at rocks or stumps to get an overview over the area and positions of zombies and avoid them. While doing so you can harvest some honey from stumps (in crouch position you can hack on wood even when zombie is very near, while crouching every of your actions will do less noise)

Also some of the trash piles got some really nice bigger basice loots, 50 stones e.g. or sand and other later needed crafting materials. You can also follow the roads and loot the cars on the route, there you can also notice zeds very easy and you are able to hide easily behind a car. I would prepare a safespot for wilderness farming, there are some really good tier 1 wilderness pois which you can clear first and use as a night camp. You can prepare its entrance with wood spike traps and also half doors to defend effectively against the faster zombies which are behind you, scrap half door works best as these got good amount of hit points. Just ensure that the zombies will run against it and aren`t able to avoid it.

Don`t know how dark your night setting is, but mine is okay to have a good sight with the use of moonlight. Spots which are in shadows i try to avoid. I do this half of the night, other half i take care of hunger and thirst at firecamp.

Often forgotten by many players: You can throw a stone which can be easily found in the wildnerness to control zombie movement. very useful !!!

[Star69]

I mine rocks & clay all night to make cobble for upgrading wood block for my base. I need roughly 7000 cobble for the size of my base and another 5000 cobble to upgrade wood bars for the perimeter fence.

[BFT2020]

I been cooking and boiling water / making drinks.   Other than that, not much as I am currently out in the forest on Day 4 and haven't found a town / city yet.  I also got feral sense on so I try to be as quite as possible not to draw in zombies.

[Lokeus]

32 minutes ago, BFT2020 said:

I been cooking and boiling water / making drinks.   Other than that, not much as I am currently out in the forest on Day 4 and haven't found a town / city yet.  I also got feral sense on so I try to be as quite as possible not to draw in zombies.

 

Tried it with feral sense once, this is insane. Nearby zombies will also note you if the can`t see you right?

It was kinda fun but a lot of sneaky skills and mechanics are worthless with feral sense on. Would love it if zombies got feral sense on at the feral night day and the day after like an upcoming and fading rage for the zombies because of the moon or something like that 😄

[ijese]

Hide and stay completely still: e.g. if you are on top of some ruin but with path to you still available, especially if in wasteland 

 

Do home chores: cook stuff, boil water, etc.

 

Plan your next move, e.g.: study map, plan your next expedition, next upgrade, priorities for tomorrow, check how many of what you need, etc  <= this is useful even later on, but at the beginning is critical, especially if you are playing with no traders and/or reduced loot

[playlessNamer]

I watch Youtube. Many games have this Youtubefeature implemented meanwhile.

I never understand why the night is made so useless. Its allready very bad to not see enemys and loot and the way and everything but additional the zombies getting fast and have glitchy animations anyways so it gets absolute horrible unfunny to deal with them. Its high risk no reward.

 

Would make so much more sense to swap the cycles and buff the zombies in the sunlight while make them slow in the night. So both cycles have their reason and advantages.

Especially in the early game, just log off to save food and do other things. Maybe i am just to ignorant to understand this gameplaydesign.

[canadianbluebeer]

cooking, crafting, sorting, and of course potting whatever comes too close.

 

QUIETLY! 

 

 

[SylenThunder]

Night time is when I'm looting POI's and gathering resources. That way I can build and scout during the daylight.

[Auger]

On the first few nights where I have nothing to do I'll just exit to menu set the length of a full  day to 10 mins. Log in wait like 3 mins till morning. Log back out and reset the time. 

 

Kind of cheap I know ,  but I've played over 3000 hours so I don't like sitting there all night doing nothing.

 

I'll only do that  for the first day or so.  Once  I have armor and weapons I'll with prep stuff for next day or go scouting.  I also usually set up a mining base and mine at night.

 

[Exxodous]

14 minutes ago, Auger said:

On the first few nights where I have nothing to do I'll just exit to menu set the length of a full  day to 10 mins. Log in wait like 3 mins till morning. Log back out and reset the time. 

 

Kind of cheap I know ,  but I've played over 3000 hours so I don't like sitting there all night doing nothing.

 

I'll only do that  for the first day or so.  Once  I have armor and weapons I'll with prep stuff for next day or go scouting.  I also usually set up a mining base and mine at night.

 

Press F1, type DM and enter, Press F1 again, press escape and slide time to 4 am, hit the exit button.  It's a lot easier than logging off and on twice.  You can turn debug off again when your done if you want by repeating the first 3 steps.

[ElCabong]

Work on your base.

[Vaeliorin]

I usually spend night 1 chopping trees, and subsequent nights mining or building.

[marak]

Working on my base, planning tomorrow's actions.  Setting up named storage boxes.  Organising loot drops ( during the day i have dump boxes for loot that I sort out at night time). 

[BarryTGash]

16 hours ago, caatalyst said:

What do folks do during the early days when night falls?

 

settime n+1 4 0

 

Seriously though, depends. A21 aside as that is pure vanilla testing, deep level mining if relatively early game, base work if further along and turrets are up. Sometimes I just watch a movie and wait it out.

 

 

[SylenThunder]

34 minutes ago, BarryTGash said:

settime n+1 4 0

 

Sure, if you enjoy broken saves.

[jemriah]

have you tried just carrying on with the exact same things you would normally do like foraging and killing zombies, looting POI's? that's what I do 

[mprojekt]

Early game at nights, I often have food cooking and water boiling on the campfire while cobblestone is being crafted in my inventory, and I mine for more stone and iron like a cracked-out gnome. If I get bored with these activities, I am sneaking around and bestowing the Emperor's Peace upon the undead.

[Raist]

Well, after queueing up whatever I'm trying to craft, I like to either fold my laundry or do small exercises (situps, squats, etc).

[theFlu]

For the laziest option, stone axe to stone the whole night (sure some stuff is cooking in the background, but that would happen in the daytime as well..).

 

But early game, night time POIs are likely the easiest.. the zeds are practically blind even without points into stealth. And for the few nights I've been out, the night time spawns seem no different to the day time atm. Maybe a few more of the stronger zeds, but haven't seen a wolf yet, much less a dire and only a couple ferals.

 

I took an easy-mode start for the new patch though, so, can't say much for more pressing settings. The only issue I've had has been running, the start position was over 2k from the trader and closest town was another 2 from there.

[Lumpus]

On 6/13/2023 at 8:55 AM, Star69 said:

I mine rocks & clay all night to make cobble for upgrading wood block for my base. I need roughly 7000 cobble for the size of my base and another 5000 cobble to upgrade wood bars for the perimeter fence.

 

This...

Or get the new A21 Nocturnal mod that gives extra xp rewards for the extra danger

[madmole]

I usually build near a mine and mine all night after I sort all my loot from the day in my containers or work on my base.

[meganoth]

If you can plan ahead a nice option is to clear a POI (or POIs) in daylight but defer the looting. Then eliminate access to the upper floor except for yourself and loot the house, Thoroughly. Even the ground floor is no problem until zombies notice you. Let them wreck the house, it doesn#t matter, just continue looting and scrapping until day break

 

Edited June 14, 2023 by meganoth (see edit history)

[Catdaddy]

I spend my nights looting, pretending that I am stealthy.

 

I set zombie speed to Run/Day and Jog/Night, with Feral Sense set to Day only.

 

I get chased all day, but at night it makes stealth tactics feel more natural and effective. 

 

It really feels like they can see me during the day but at night can only hear me. 

 

[BFT2020]

1 hour ago, meganoth said:

If you can plan ahead a nice option is to clear a POI (or POIs) in daylight but defer the looting. Then eliminate access to the upper floor except for yourself and loot the house, Thoroughly. Even the ground floor is no problem until zombies notice you. Let them wreck the house, it doesn#t matter, just continue looting and scrapping until day break

 

 

I do that for T4 and T5 POIs all the time.