My "Survival" Settings

[vom]

Blood Moon = Off - I play permadeath, and it's too much
Zombie Speed: Run! They run both night and day. Ferals sprint.

Difficulty: Adventurer (zombies on Warrior are ok, but the black wolf is too scary)
XP Multiplier: 25%- this is survival, its a lot of sad music and ruined landscapes

Air Drops: Off
24 Hour Cycle: 120 Minutes
Loot Respawn: 50 Days

 

I added two mods: from Khaine: The Headshot only mod increases the challenge, and these are zombies - right? A red eye feral chased me out of my first night base. My tier 1 bow is effective at hitting center mass, but it can't reliably headshot running zombies - so avoiding zombies is a good idea. Previously, I would snipe them with a few arrows to the chest - but no, you need to hit the head! If you fail, they run right at you, so it's better to stay quiet. The spear (or the baton?) is once again my new friend.

On Day 1, a horde came into the adjacent farm field, and after milling around they were trapped by the fences, and came back in my direction. A red eyed feral chased me out of my little treefort, built around a telephone pole. I fell back, and repeatedly hit him with arrows, but you have to hit them in the head! I broke contact, but soon saw another red eye, followed by runners. I abandoned my home entirely. The only good news is that nobody is left alive to loot my chest.

As dawn breaks on Day 2, I am not headed back to my little home. I don't know where to go, but there is definitely a horde of zombies back there. The continual running is a real threat, combined with the headshot mod. I don't know how many buildings I can safely loot. The game is pretty scary like that. Skill points are limited, so my focus is going to be jogging and running away. If I get the hunting skills, perhaps I will trade with the trader, but I won't be a mission monkey!

My goal is to create a tree fort, expanded on stilts. High enough the zombies can't jump up, low enough that I can jump down. Ideally the zombies can walk underneath, without feeling the need to break down a wall. I can fire down with arrows, or drop down with a spear. I will place spikes. I need a gun!

Going into buildings is pretty dangerous, and I was very fortunate to find both a grill and a cooking pot in one house (with a police cop in the bedroom!). I ran away from that, and looted the barn of some chickens. I will try my best to hunt deer or something, and if I get enough fur the trader will give me a water purifier! I also have some old rubbish, and actual US American dollars! I have accepted the water changes, as I am no longer digging tunnels and breaking rocks on the first day. Cobblestone tower is a fantasy that may never be. The red eye runners are a real threat, and I don't want to get infected.

For now, unless I see a suitable building soon, I will start making a tree fort. I ran into the forest a bit, and there is a hill which I am about to summit. I don't know what's on the other side, but there are dozens of running zombies behind me and I didn't want to live in a farmfield anyways.


 

Edited January 5 by vom (see edit history)

[warmer]

Cool settings! I started playing with

5x the spawn rate

No loot respawn

 

The rest vanilla default.

 

It definitely makes it a lot more fun for veterans who play solo. Default is just too easy.

[Roland]

You are playing Adventurer and getting feral zombies and large wandering hordes on day one...? I guess you didn't mention the second mod you downloaded. I take it that it must be feral zombies and larger wandering hordes starting from day one because that is certainly not what you get from vanilla.

 

Or....are you playing in the wasteland instead of the forest?

[Vaeliorin]

33 minutes ago, Roland said:

You are playing Adventurer and getting feral zombies and large wandering hordes on day one...? I guess you didn't mention the second mod you downloaded. I take it that it must be feral zombies and larger wandering hordes starting from day one because that is certainly not what you get from vanilla.

 

Or....are you playing in the wasteland instead of the forest?

He mentioned at night, and you can definitely get ferals on night 1.  Also might have a different definition of "large wandering horde."  10 isn't a large horde to me (and presumably to you), but might be to him.

[zztong]

7 hours ago, Vaeliorin said:

He mentioned at night, and you can definitely get ferals on night 1.

 

I assume we're talking about single-player, as multiplayer can complicate things with other players of different levels.

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen feral zombies on the first night. I know in A20 that was true and I want to think I've seen it in A21. I also want to say it depends on the settings of the game and how quickly experience can be earned on that first day. So a longer game day lets you get more levels on the first day, for instance.

[BFT2020]

OP also mentioned two of Khaine's mods but only named one of them.  The other one could be Wandering hordes which increases the wandering horde difficulty

[Ramethzer0]

10 hours ago, Roland said:

I take it that it must be feral zombies and larger wandering hordes starting from day one because that is certainly not what you get from vanilla.

 

Or....are you playing in the wasteland instead of the forest?

 

Didn't we acknowledge the fact that there are first night ferals, or has this been changed in patches since then?

[Vaeliorin]

There are definitely first night ferals.  No wolves or bears any more though, and I always found those far scarier (well, dire wolves and bears are scarier, regular wolves are mostly free food.)

[Rotor]

Dire wolves are bad arse, but I usually have enough arrows.  Dire bears....argh!  If I can find a high spot before I die, I hopefully have enough arrows.  Otherwise I way him out ..if I can.

 

There is a dire/feral Zombie at one of the motels that has the semi trailer shipping container.  That one is always there even on first day...........although cant remember if I've visited it in A21.

[BFT2020]

2 hours ago, Rotor said:

There is a dire/feral Zombie at one of the motels that has the semi trailer shipping container.  That one is always there even on first day...........although cant remember if I've visited it in A21.

 

Trust me, Feral Boe is still there

[Vaeliorin]

There's a T3 house POI that used to have a solider/biker level zombie at a certain point, but when I ran it the first time in A21 (it's a house I like to make my starter base) there was a feral there, and all I had was a bone knife.  It did not go well.

 

Heck, there's a T1 POI (a funeral home) that was a guaranteed feral wight (admittedly, in a place that used to have a hidden stash, but now all it has is a backpack )

[Roland]

Okay, I missed that it appears to have been at night which explains the possibility of ferals but wandering hordes usually start out as 2-3 zombies for the first few and slowly grow in size as the days and your gamestage increase-- at least in the forest biome. A 10-zombie horde on the very first night would be a large horde in my opinion and abnormally large for vanilla day one--even at night.

 

He mentioned adding two of Khaine's mods but he only named one. I just am wondering if larger wandering hordes might be the other one he added.

17 hours ago, zztong said:

 

I assume we're talking about single-player, as multiplayer can complicate things with other players of different levels.

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen feral zombies on the first night. I know in A20 that was true and I want to think I've seen it in A21. I also want to say it depends on the settings of the game and how quickly experience can be earned on that first day. So a longer game day lets you get more levels on the first day, for instance.

 

He mentions avoiding fights due to headshots only and not spamming quests and his starting base sounded pretty humble-- a tree-house on a single pre-existing stilt....so I don't think he was racking up the xp enough to generate a 10-zombie wandering horde by the first night unless that is the second mod he downloaded from Khaine.

[Vaeliorin]

10 hours ago, Roland said:

He mentioned adding two of Khaine's mods but he only named one. I just am wondering if larger wandering hordes might be the other one he added.

This is possible (even likely) but I've seen instances where zombies seem to attract other zombies, so you get a larger group of them than you would normally expect from a wandering horde hanging out in one spot.