Wild Wasteland!

[syrus mac]

I've been running some 100% wasteland maps, 90 min days, 200% loot/loot respawn disabled, all other settings default.

My day 7 spawn lasted all night and had irradiated cops, day 14 had lots of demolishers!

Day 17 and I checked my gamestage and it's 176!!

Bug or feature?

[Old Crow]

Feature.

[Syphon583]

Definitely a feature as horde nights are tied to gamestage. However that does seem awfully fast, even for the wasteland (though admittedly I've never done an all-wasteland run, so what do I know 🤷‍♂️) If you've made your horde base inside a POI, it's possible that the POI multiplier is also playing a part in upping your gamestage (unless I'm mistaken and the POI difficulty only applies to lootstage).

 

GunsNerds&Steel on youtube has a video  explaining how gamestages are calculated with some pretty helpful information.

 

[Riamus]

5 hours ago, Syphon583 said:

Definitely a feature as horde nights are tied to gamestage. However that does seem awfully fast, even for the wasteland (though admittedly I've never done an all-wasteland run, so what do I know 🤷‍♂️) If you've made your horde base inside a POI, it's possible that the POI multiplier is also playing a part in upping your gamestage (unless I'm mistaken and the POI difficulty only applies to lootstage).

 

GunsNerds&Steel on youtube has a video  explaining how gamestages are calculated with some pretty helpful information.

 

You are right.  If you check your game stage while in a POI location (not just inside but anywhere within the bounds of a POI), your game stage will be multiplied by that as well at the biome and your normal game stage of you were in the forest.

 

As far as being a challenge to do a wasteland horde night on day 7?  Definitely a feature.  It should be significantly harder to start in the most difficult biome.

[hiemfire]

Is you're horde base a remodeled remnant? A tiered POI? Built in the middle of a field of rubble where the only the wasteland's difficulty modifier applies (remnants are the same)? Are you set up in the parking lot of a tier 5? As @Syphon583 and @Riamus are pointing out that affects what you will encounter on horde night. Heck, it'll affect what spawns in period depending on where you're standing when enemies spawn in.

[Syphon583]

31 minutes ago, Riamus said:

You are right.  If you check your game stage while in a POI location (not just inside but anywhere within the bounds of a POI), your game stage will be multiplied by that as well at the biome and your normal game stage of you were in the forest.

 

As far as being a challenge to do a wasteland horde night on day 7?  Definitely a feature.  It should be significantly harder to start in the most difficult biome.

Oh I definitely know it's a feature. As I've never done a wasteland only run or spent any amount of time in the wasteland early game, it just surprised me that a players gamestage could advance into the 150 range (where I think you need to be to get demos) by day 14. I suppose anything is possible depending on how quickly you can level your character.

[Riamus]

1 hour ago, Syphon583 said:

Oh I definitely know it's a feature. As I've never done a wasteland only run or spent any amount of time in the wasteland early game, it just surprised me that a players gamestage could advance into the 150 range (where I think you need to be to get demos) by day 14. I suppose anything is possible depending on how quickly you can level your character.

The second part of that was to the OP.  Sorry for the confusion. 😀

Edited August 2, 2023 by Riamus (see edit history)

[syrus mac]

Hi, thanks for the replies.

My base was built by me on a patch of wasteland on the edge of a town, no POI modifiers apply.

Because i was playing perma-death, (died yesterday in a tier 3 infested, full room of rads at the end on day 18), it's very slow progress at the beginning.

You're basically walking around in your underwear with a pointy stick against zombie bears and dogs, crawl nearly everywhere, if a bear gets interested you're probably dead, like I said, slow progress so not leveling up very quickly.

I do like a challenge but 176 gamestage on day 17 seems a bit op?

Demolishers on day 14 is crazy, still have a cobblestone base!

Like the man said, I don't know if I can stop them, not with these weapons...

[hiemfire]

3 hours ago, syrus mac said:

My base was built by me on a patch of wasteland on the edge of a town, no POI modifiers apply.

 

So that is the baseline for wasteland now. Ouch. It is supposedly supposed to be the last biome you do anything in, not that the traders in Navezgane got that memo...

[theFlu]

3 hours ago, syrus mac said:

I do like a challenge but 176 gamestage on day 17 seems a bit op?

I kinda like the idea that a game offers difficulties that aren't really meant to be habitable ... that way there's always something to work towards.

[Syphon583]

3 hours ago, syrus mac said:

Hi, thanks for the replies.

My base was built by me on a patch of wasteland on the edge of a town, no POI modifiers apply.

Because i was playing perma-death, (died yesterday in a tier 3 infested, full room of rads at the end on day 18), it's very slow progress at the beginning.

You're basically walking around in your underwear with a pointy stick against zombie bears and dogs, crawl nearly everywhere, if a bear gets interested you're probably dead, like I said, slow progress so not leveling up very quickly.

I do like a challenge but 176 gamestage on day 17 seems a bit op?

Demolishers on day 14 is crazy, still have a cobblestone base!

Like the man said, I don't know if I can stop them, not with these weapons...

Sounds like a challenge for sure. I don't think I'm skilled enough to do a wasteland only run, but it might be fun to try. I know a few streamers who do (JonahBirch on twitch for one) but I haven't watched in a while and don't know if he's done one since the gamestage changes in A21.

 

EDIT: Just checked and he's currently doing a wasteland only run if you're curious.

Edited August 3, 2023 by Syphon583 (see edit history)

[warmer]

On 8/2/2023 at 2:49 PM, hiemfire said:

Is you're horde base a remodeled remnant? A tiered POI? Built in the middle of a field of rubble where the only the wasteland's difficulty modifier applies (remnants are the same)? Are you set up in the parking lot of a tier 5? As @Syphon583 and @Riamus are pointing out that affects what you will encounter on horde night. Heck, it'll affect what spawns in period depending on where you're standing when enemies spawn in.

Does this apply once a land claim block is placed? That should remove all spawn within its range. My assumption is the place they spawn is the level of the gamestage, vs. your actual location. Does placing a land claim remove the tier bonus from the POI? My assumption is it does.

[hiemfire]

1 hour ago, warmer said:

Does this apply once a land claim block is placed? That should remove all spawn within its range. My assumption is the place they spawn is the level of the gamestage, vs. your actual location. Does placing a land claim remove the tier bonus from the POI? My assumption is it does.

Gamestage is calculated based on player location. Does placing a land claim block change the number of skulls displayed under the POI name on the UI?

[Syphon583]

1 hour ago, warmer said:

Does this apply once a land claim block is placed? That should remove all spawn within its range. My assumption is the place they spawn is the level of the gamestage, vs. your actual location. Does placing a land claim remove the tier bonus from the POI? My assumption is it does.

 

5 minutes ago, hiemfire said:

Gamestage is calculated based on player location. Does placing a land claim block change the number of skulls displayed under the POI name on the UI?

As far as I've seen, the UI still displays the same POI name and number of skulls regardless of the presence of a LCB. Now that technically does not translate to the players actual gamestage changing as I've not actually opened the player stat screen to see if there is a difference. However, there has been no other indication that placing a LCB removes  the POI bonus to gamestage.

[syrus mac]

Started a new world.

Day 4 and there's a screamer in a wardrobe in a POI!!!!

WTF!

[Syphon583]

14 hours ago, Syphon583 said:

 

As far as I've seen, the UI still displays the same POI name and number of skulls regardless of the presence of a LCB. Now that technically does not translate to the players actual gamestage changing as I've not actually opened the player stat screen to see if there is a difference. However, there has been no other indication that placing a LCB removes  the POI bonus to gamestage.

So I think the assumption that POIs increase game stage based on their tier might be wrong altogether. They definitely increase loot stage, but in testing last night I looked at my game stage before and after entering the grounds of a POI, one where I had a LCB and one where I didn't. In all 4 times I checked my game stage, it remained constant. Unless I'm completely missing something, game stage is not affected by the POI you are standing in.

 

I suppose the only thing I didn't check was whether that was still true for questing at a POI. Honestly though, it would surprise me at this point if it was different. Not that it matters for this discussion.

[Dark Wun]

Very cool, OP.

 

I'm a pretty good player at the PvE part of the game from a pure technical standpoint - but the thought of surviving in a world that is entirely wasteland still makes me cringe.

 

How are you dealing with all the dogs? wasteland is littered with ferals on day 1 even, and in my experience, trying to deal with one of those with a level 1 weapon and armor is futile and usually results in near-instant death.

 

I'm assuming you are also not dying, since your game stage progressed so rapidly? Or did you die a few times before level 6?

 

What are some of your general strategies for dealing with zeds with that type of power mismatch?

[Vaeliorin]

6 hours ago, syrus mac said:

Started a new world.

Day 4 and there's a screamer in a wardrobe in a POI!!!!

WTF!

They're not real screamers.  I'm not sure if they scream (I've killed all the ones I've encountered before they woke up) but even if they do, it doesn't call in zombies.

[Riamus]

17 minutes ago, Vaeliorin said:

They're not real screamers.  I'm not sure if they scream (I've killed all the ones I've encountered before they woke up) but even if they do, it doesn't call in zombies.

Yeah, they are just "decorative" and a jump scare for veterans who aren't yet expecting them.

[hiemfire]

1 hour ago, Riamus said:

Yeah, they are just "decorative" and a jump scare for veterans who aren't yet expecting them.

Also an extra squishy treat for newbies. They have allot less hp than their normal/feral/rad equivalents of the other zombie types iirc.

[syrus mac]

15 hours ago, Vaeliorin said:

They're not real screamers.  I'm not sure if they scream (I've killed all the ones I've encountered before they woke up) but even if they do, it doesn't call in zombies.

Killed it before it made a noise, that's good to know, thanks.

Still made me jump through!

[syrus mac]

17 hours ago, Dark Wun said:

Very cool, OP.

 

I'm a pretty good player at the PvE part of the game from a pure technical standpoint - but the thought of surviving in a world that is entirely wasteland still makes me cringe.

 

How are you dealing with all the dogs? wasteland is littered with ferals on day 1 even, and in my experience, trying to deal with one of those with a level 1 weapon and armor is futile and usually results in near-instant death.

 

I'm assuming you are also not dying, since your game stage progressed so rapidly? Or did you die a few times before level 6?

 

What are some of your general strategies for dealing with zeds with that type of power mismatch?

I go agility, first points in archery and both stealth skills, you can one shot a dog on day one.

Usually go strength for the tools mainly, point in clubs straight away.

I play perma death, took a few runs to get the hang of it. Sneaking is what keeps you alive, both for the extra damage and limiting engagements, also best to sneak in POI's just incase a bear is walking past, don't want one of those chasing you!

I always build my own base, near the trader, 9x9, floor 6 blocks high, usually have the first 2 layers cobble on day one but most of it is still frames, if you crouch in the middle 6 blocks up a bear can walk right bye and not notice you.

Bears are your worst problem, always have many stones on your tool belt to throw and distract them.

Priorities are all different, looting is much slower there's no oil shale to mine, no flowers for teas, no tree stumps for honey, stuff like that.

Cloth armour or leather/military if you have any muffled connector mods, need to be quiet.

The stealth skills are key, the damage multiplier and noise reduction keep you alive.

You're going to need as much ammo as possible for horde night, and a few fall back positions, it's insane.