Difficulty discrepancies in POI tiers

[Riamus]

I've noticed that the difficulty level of various low level POI of the same tier can carry greatly.  Take a POI has station tier 1 that has only 3 zombies.  Take one of the wilderness tier 1 POI that has a loot room address down a broken ladder that spawns 3 zombies right there in a side about 5x5, including the lumberjack.  With the broken ladder, retreating isn't really an option and at low level, you are going to have a very hard time trying to defeat that without a gun.  It is such a small area that they swarm you quickly enough that they order you against the wall so you can't jump up to grab the ladder.  At tier 1, that seems harsh.

 

Those are just a couple examples but there are many similar variations in difficulty for lower tier POI.  Why is there this discrepancy?  Shouldn't POI tier be a good indication of difficulty instead of difficulty being pretty random?  Yes, tier 1 is generally easier than tier 2 and soon on, but that isn't always the case.

 

To be clear, I don't mind a difficult POI.  I just think the difficulty should be a bit more similar within a tier.  That gas station with only 3 zombies shouldn't even be a quest POI with so few zombies.  And the other one should have been tier 2.  I can't think of the name off the top of my head, but it was something starting with a "c" and had a lot of zombies plus that final room.

Edited June 19, 2023 by Riamus (see edit history)

[boban]

1 hour ago, Riamus said:

Take one of the women's tier 1 POI that has a loot room

 

Or take Joe's America (or sth like that) with a dog that attacks you from behind just after 2 zombies engage you (that was were trader sent my for my first quest on day 1).

[Riamus]

4 hours ago, boban said:

 

Or take Joe's America (or sth like that) with a dog that attacks you from behind just after 2 zombies engage you (that was were trader sent my for my first quest on day 1).

That was supposed to say wilderness tier 1 POI.

 

Yeah, that just doesn't fee like a tier 1 POI to me.

[Scyris]

4 hours ago, boban said:

 

Or take Joe's America (or sth like that) with a dog that attacks you from behind just after 2 zombies engage you (that was were trader sent my for my first quest on day 1).

 

I hate that poi with a passion because of that dog, the zombie dogs are lethal early game, I play permadeath and every single one of my deaths has been a random zombie dog aggro as they are hard to run from if you have any encumbrance, and if they sprain or break your leg your just dead even with only one of them. I once had a situation where I was forced to melee a dog on day 1 as it was a clear quest, and I had no where to run, I killed it, almost died to the bleed because I lost 6 health during the first aid bandage use animation, I lived with 2 health, and: laceration, abrasion, concussion, infection and of course the bleed too. I pretty much just started a new game at that point as I haven't even seen a painkiller, and stumps were being real stingy with honey, couldn't find any sewing kits either, so I literally was running around with about half health as my max due to injuries I can't really fix atm. Not to mention the concussion which lowers all stats by 1 or more completly screwing my perks over.

 

Moral of the story: avoid zombie dogs as best you can, they are never worth killing unless you are forced to have to kill them. To high risk for too little reward for taking the risk.

[theFlu]

I can handle dogs and POIs in general (I usually play warrior, so not exactly difficult), but I've started just outright cheesing POIs in A21. Not even an inkling of trying to fight fair. Break walls, block doorways, build high ground. See a dog house, place a ladder somewhere close. Or several.

 

Sorta sad, sure a real survivor would be doing all of that in this world; but now I'm in an arms race with the devs, breaking their mazes wherever I go, instead of enjoying them.