cataclysm dark days ahead- You just cant win

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 2:29 am #136372

Bottom post of the previous page:

[e]xamine the shelves

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 2:54 am #136373

okay, I now have two bottles of salt water. how do I empty them and fill them from a water source

Takeguru · Post by **Takeguru** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:17 am #136375

"U", find a water source like a toilet or river, "e" the source, use the empty bottle

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:39 am #136379

My face is numb; if I wear the emergency basement and sleep in the shelter basement, will that fix this issue? Or do I need to go hunt down a hat?

Also how do I go to sleep

Also also why am I ending up wet in rain when I'm wearing a rain coat

Timbrewolf · Post by **Timbrewolf** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:59 am #136381

Might be a layering issue. Check your equipment and make sure the raincoat is your outermost layer of clothing. Could be the code just looks to see if any of your clothing is getting wet and applies the effect to you instead of looking to see if you have an impermeable layer between the wet stuff and yourself.

Sleeping is $ IIRC? It's been a long time since I played.

John_Oxford · Post by **John_Oxford** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 4:05 am #136382

Drynwyn wrote:My face is numb; if I wear the emergency basement and sleep in the shelter basement, will that fix this issue? Or do I need to go hunt down a hat?

Also how do I go to sleep

Also also why am I ending up wet in rain when I'm wearing a rain coat

Build a fire and stand next to it OR make a long patchwork scarf or a normal one, wear it and stay indoors OR make a balvacada and fur hat.
Your tailoring should already be high enough to build all 3 of those, or your doing it all wrong.

-

Shift+4, will prompt you the following:

1. Sleep
2. Save before Sleeping
3. Cancel

-
Is your raincoat damaged, is it a modded item that doesn't work, are you sure your wearing it, is it the last thing you equipped when you put on clothing, is it not covered in anything, are you not already wet.

If its none of those, then i have no idea, try taking it off and putting it back on again, or not wearing it and not going outside when its raining.

-

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 4:25 am #136384

Yeah, I was wearing compression shorts over the rain coat. Somehow. Fixed, and made a scarf.

Also, dumped salt water onto ground once, can't now- unload demands I select a thing to pour the water into.

Current status: Have several days of food and water, fit leather pants, fit leather jacket, fit rain coat, fit scarf, and the Razor Girl bionic set. (Also, know the Scorpion unarmed fighting style, and DAMN if it doesn't kick ass.) However, after a moose attack, my head is in yellow. Hope that fixes itself after a while.

EDIT: Oh hey I found a giant pile (50 units) of cocaine in this house. Should I engage party mode?

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 5:06 am #136394

When it promps you to select a container press escape, then select a direction to empty shit. You also may have been getting wet because your hat was not waterproof, you need both to stay totally dry.

Cocaine and other stimulants are actually great, use them in a pinch. If you have 50 you can go on a pretty sweet zombie slaying bender

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 5:09 am #136396

Nah, i'm good on staying dry now, the raincoat has a hood.

Updoot: Killed by shocker zombie on Day 3. Is going out during the day suicidal?

Update Update: Jesus, this screen size shit is obnoxious. Having to scroll around constantly to make sure I'm staying distant from zombies is very little fun.

Update update update: Noise very bad, huh. Like, VERY VERY bad.

Amelius · Post by **Amelius** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 4:25 pm #136475

FYI, go to options to change the terminal height/width and/or the tileset used. I like MShocked. In the 'Sheltered' start, they give you quite a good amount of starting resources and a safe location, hell, they even give you pipes and wire from the chainlink fence down there. The negatives here is that all the zombies will have evolved and much of the non-canned food will have long since rotted, since you're starting with 40-days past when you'd typically start, hence the benefits. On top of this, it's winter, and you always start in a remote location so you're basically hardlined into makeshift equipment until you can loot enough bookstores/libraries/etc. to increase your melee/dodging/weapon skills substantially.

Fortunately, you can knock up your tailoring and fab skill to 4~ in a day or two easily by destroying 3/4s of your bed (deconning being superior to smashing, but either being viable) (leaving the last to sleep on, along with all but one of the blankets. Oh yeah, did I mention you can sleep in blankets? Just stand on a bed with a blanket below you and hit $. Regardless, then you just have to move the crap ton of rags upstairs and open the door to craft and a ton of 2x4s, nails, pipes, scrap metal/steel you can salvage (by mashing them with a weapon wielded, a regular 2x4 works) from the metal equipment upstairs. Don't haul ridiculous amounts, just the amount that you think you need presently. Rags let you train your tailoring whenever and improve/add on to your meagre starting equipment, which includes zero mouth and hand protection, long underwear tops working well to increase your warmth. By the way, to see how warm each body part is, press @ or +, it's the bracketed number beside the encumberance. Positive is 'warm' and negative is 'cold' green entails it's in an tolerable range, and yellow/blue means you'll start receiving very reversible penalties if that status in maintained for a long period. Nearby fires will warm you, obviously, but aside from very long-lasting fires you don't need to adjust your equipment.

Make yourself a weapon if need be, start prepping a fishing rod if you can see a nearby large body of water for infinite food (fishing traps help alot too), infinite water just requires you to use those wood stoves and obtain two plastic bottles - one to hold clean water, one to hold the dirty water, which is obtainable from the small stream going through the LMOE hideout, alongside any object with boiling 1 - a stone pot works fine for this purpose (keep in mind rocks themselves count as hammering 1 and can be used to make a stone hammer!). However, ridding yourself of both major problems is not the primary difficulty here, the zombies and machines left behind are, alongside improving your situation so you can explore more dangerous areas, such as science labs, military bases, triffid groves, otherworldly locations (arcana mod), old mineshafts etc. Once you think you're 'gud' at static spawn mode, you've gotten reasonably far into the game, and you've fortified a semi-permanent base - turn on hordes. This mode is normally utter bullshit early in the game, especially in 'loud' starts (burning building, mallcop, etc.) but it adds heft and risk to mid-late game, and a reason to build all those defenses.

Regardless, once you're confident in your equipment head out to the nearest farm if you can see one. These will provide you with a sustainable food source, digging tools, and seeds to get started on your own farm - I haven't messed around with farming yet, but theoretically you should be good planting potatoes and carrots even in the winter right next to your shelter. Cooked food almost always increases overall nutrition and enjoyment marginally, but the spoiling rate substantially increases as well, so cook what you need as food comes in, you can seed some of it I believe since I could net myself rhubarb stems in my most recent game, but I'm not 100% sure if that extends to potatoes and carrots. Probably uses survival skill so focus on leveling that, I suppose - keep in mind that only the items of your current level or above give any experience, and the amount you get is directly related to how 'focused' you are, with 100 being baseline.

Regardless, if there's shitall in your area, no stream, no water, no resources, head to the nearest city in the mid afternoon, following a road or, failing that, heading a random direction while carrying enough supplies to get by, multiple improvised lockpicks from the scraps (5~ is best) and any properly layered set of clothing that you've made (with a backpack). Bonus points for fashioning two wooden frames and putting a wooden box on top of it to tug along another 120 vol worth of crap around with you for looting purposes. Grab what looks useful from the fringe houses/stores in the dead of night, making as little noise as possible (crowbars WILL let you break in through locked doors, but it'll make some noise - you're better off with the improv lockpicks if they're accessible to you). Once you're full, haul it on back or make a temporary 'dump' base in one of the better set-up houses. Close all the blinds, etc. etc, and sort everything into piles. Once you think you have enough resources, take your shit and run back to your shelter if it wasn't obscenely far, otherwise you can choose between staying and going. Go from there.

Short like, 3 second tutorial to how3live in sheltered mode.

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:43 pm #136497

writefaggotry incoming

Diary of a Razor Girl (Part 1)

Peeking out through the curtains, I survey the situation. The area outside the shelter looks clear of zombies, but suddenly a moose wanders in front of the window, staring at the curtains with one huge eye. Horny bastards will try and hump anything that isn't covered in spikes- and even then, it's a toss up.

I elect to leave the shelter through the south door. I really don't feel like fending off an amorous moose today.

Creeping along the southern wall of the shelter, I've just passed the corner when the wired reflexes take over and my arms jerk up in front of my face like a puppet on a string. Good thing they did, to, because a moment later something crashes into them and I go flying backwards. I look over at what just hit me, lowering my arms.

"Jesus christ. At least buy a girl a drink first."

Staring me down with it's oily black eyes is a bulging zed that looks like it's taken all the steroids in the world and then some. Musta just been standing around by the corner of the shelter where I couldn't see it through the windows.

I take off running like a bat out of hell. My claws have popped, but those little bastards were always too eager for a fight. I dunno if the surgeon goofed or if my body chemistry's just fucked, but after the fifth time you sprout a set of finger razors in the bedroom, you start to regret going to a cyber shop with a "No Refunds" sign.

Out of the corner of my eye I see what I'm looking for- a nice big patch of torn-up asphalt and steel. Mentally thanking fate for a misspent youth, I dive through a tiny gap in the wreckage. A nasty-looking steel spur rips across my face as I do so- but it's just the skin. Based on the sudden air flow, I'm guessing a nice big flap of my face is now missing, showing off the dull gray subdermal mesh underneath. Wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

I spin on a dime and stand waiting as the hulk clumsily lumbers through the wreckage. The moment it's face peeps up over the wreckage, my hands are on their way- I jam my thumb razors through it's eyes, and oily black fluid sprays onto the pavement. Meanwhile, my fingers shred it's cheeks, exposing it's blackened, rotted mouth. The thing bellows and tries to take a swing at me- but I've already hopped over another piece of wreckage and am waiting for it to come closer.

It's a good thing the hulk was so damn stupid. If it had any sense it would have waited for me to leave the wreckage or thrown something at me. It's just a big, dumb, animal, though- so after a few minutes of this dance, it collapses onto the wreckage, dripping black gunk from the dozens of gashes I tore in it's flesh. I check over the body real quick, and see a flash of something grey and metallic. A pistol, maybe? Wouldn't object to that at all.

Hopping down from my perch, I reach into the corpse's pocket- not a gun. Something round and thick (heh). I pull it out, and laugh, kicking the corpse as I pop the tab on the aluminum can of Bud Light.

"See, buddy? That wasn't so hard. Got to treat me right if you want things to end well."

Amelius · Post by **Amelius** » Fri Nov 27, 2015 3:56 pm #136659

> Lightstrips.

Holy shit these are amazing. They last weeks, use relatively cheap parts, and give off the same amount of light as a terminal would. If you aren't in a church, radio station, or other area with a terminal, this is a godsend.

I mean, I was using a lantern for a long while, and that *worked*, but it ran low much quicker than a lightstrip. Sure, you can't turn em off, but they last several times as long and you don't need tallow or anything.

Also, I've essentially cleared my first town, at this point I'm just getting some essentially skills up and building a small car. Maybe I'll search for a science lab or military base afterward. Of course, I'll turn on wandering static spawns the moment I leave my first town for 1!1!challenge1!1!.

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Fri Nov 27, 2015 5:45 pm #136676

I have the Robust Genetics trait and there's a Hazardous Waste Sarcophagus near my starting area. Should I go there and try to mutate Y/N?

Additonally: Having a tailor's kit and Tailoring 3, how do I actually refit clothing? (I have an MBR vest i'd really like to refit.)

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Fri Nov 27, 2015 6:08 pm #136682

Use the tailor kit and select repair when the clothing you want to fit is already fully repaired. you need rags/leather to do this. You can also reinforce some clothing once it is fitted.

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Fri Nov 27, 2015 6:48 pm #136687

Wyzack wrote:Use the tailor kit and select repair when the clothing you want to fit is already fully repaired. you need rags/leather to do this. You can also reinforce some clothing once it is fitted.

Good know, what tools will I need to refit an MBR vest?

EDIT: Doesn't matter anymore, dissasembled it and used the parts to line everything I own with kevlar.

Also, after a trip to the radiation sarcophagus, I now have the Rough Skin mutation and shit webs everywhere. I'm also not slowed by webs, which is good, because my base is now covered in webbing.

Takeguru · Post by **Takeguru** » Fri Nov 27, 2015 10:36 pm #136720

Stuff made of plastic and shit needs a soldering iron.
Same method as tailoring, IIRC

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Sat Nov 28, 2015 12:15 am #136725

Apparently I lost my kevlar-lined leather pants at some point during that last scavenging run. I'm... just not gonna dwell on it.

EDIT: Nevermind, it was under some webs.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Nov 28, 2015 5:31 am #136752

Wiznard you got me hooked on Rycon's stream. He is such a rad dude, every time i comment i get a response from him like within the hour

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Sat Nov 28, 2015 6:05 am #136754

Where can I find the tainted meat/tainted veg/fetuses/limbs I need to craft mutagens?

Takeguru · Post by **Takeguru** » Sat Nov 28, 2015 6:07 am #136755

Labs.

Have fun

EDIT: Meat is from any zombie you butcher, veg is from any mutated plants you butcher

TheWiznard · Post by **TheWiznard** » Sat Nov 28, 2015 6:43 am #136756

Wyzack wrote:Wiznard you got me hooked on Rycon's stream. He is such a rad dude, every time i comment i get a response from him like within the hour

Smaller youtubers are the bomb

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:12 pm #136803

I think I got the cold or something, I keep coughing and feeling tired. (I hit the wrong key and drank some swamp water before purifying it.) How can I get rid of this

EDIT: Waited for a while and it worked itself out. Thankfully I had enough supplies that I didn't need to forage.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sat Nov 28, 2015 7:48 pm #136807

Might also be a parasite from dirty water

EndgamerAzari · Sat Nov 28, 2015 8:41 pm

Found out why it wasn't running. Apparently Avast was stopping it and not telling me. Setting up an exclusion let it run again.

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 2:45 am #136860

okay, i've wasted enough time dicking around with bionics and mutagens.

how do I car

Like, two main things. 1, how drive car. I press one keyboard key and it doesn't turn in that direction? Bikes, cars, whatever, cannot get them to move in the way I want. How do car controls even work.

2, how build car. Obv the mechanics skill, an acetylene torch, etc are necessary, but what do you actually DO?

Takeguru · Post by **Takeguru** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 3:46 am #136868

Okay

Make sure you're in control of the vehicle.

Using the numpad, pressing 8 will throttle up, pressing 2 will throttle down.
4 and 6 will turn you a few degrees each time you press it.
5 is "idle", it's basically passing a turn, the car will continue on in it's current heading at it's current speed for a turn.

Try to find a bike or something, it's easier to learn on that so you don't immediately die.

BUILDING:
To start with, you need a frame
There's several kinds, from shopping cart/bike light frames, to wooden, to steel and then the military grade stuff
You can find them in garages, you can strip them from existing vehicles, or you can craft them
Examine the frame.
You now have the option to (i)nstall things.
A vehicle, at bare minimum to move, needs a frame, wheels; generally at least 2, this increases with weight, a seat and controls.

EndgamerAzari · Sun Nov 29, 2015 4:02 am

I've survived surprisingly long on my current handyman character, despite not cheesing traits as much as I usually do. But the houses I keep holing up in keep getting slowly swarmed by nearby fungus and getting metamorphed into fungus walls. Annoying.

Amelius · Post by **Amelius** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 5:39 am #136878

> Make my own minicar for general adventuring, intending to bring loot back to my main hive after looting 2000~ from a nearby city.
> First driving experience, read my way to level 3 driving at least, thank god.
> Decide to YOLO my way into the second town. > Acidic zombies fucking everywhere in one of my intended quickdrop zone (foldable cart quick grab on a gun shop).
> Get rekt by my own quick-play strategy, acidic zombies can fucking grab too.
> Legs both broken after fighting my way through swathes of zombies. Cornered in a gun shop by a gajillion zombies.
> Abuse the five guns I managed to put on my person to narrowly escape into my vehicle waiting in the back.
> Drive off into the sunset.
> No splints on-hand, have to drive all the way back home.
> Decide to take a shortcut through the fields.
> Drive into the middle of a fucking minefield.
> Mines take out my tires, zombies see a tasty treat and enclose.
> Barely survive by using several grenades, shooting through the windshield, and letting them funnel in one-by-one into the sole car door.
> Car basically totalled. Now I sit admist a pile of corpses, half-dead with most of my equipment on the ground because of the strength penalties.

I have to either abandon almost all my gear and try to find safe shelter (which should have some rags/wood salvagable for splints), or find a new working car. On top of this, the rest of the horde is probably en-route, and I don't have much water left (though I have plenty of preserved food). I believe it's finally time for Emily Ranger to pull our her third miracle this game.

TheWiznard · Post by **TheWiznard** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 6:56 am #136884

EndgamerAzari wrote:I've survived surprisingly long on my current handyman character, despite not cheesing traits as much as I usually do. But the houses I keep holing up in keep getting slowly swarmed by nearby fungus and getting metamorphed into fungus walls. Annoying.

Anywhere remotely close to a fungal tower is an instant no living zone for like a radius of 30 map tiles for me. Have you been wearing anything covering your mouth by chance? Like a dust mask?

Spoiler:

EndgamerAzari · Sun Nov 29, 2015 6:57 am

Been wearing a scarf since before I started having problems with encroaching shrooms.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 12:56 pm #136916

That is definitely not good enough. You need to a) get the fuck out of dodge far and away from any fungaloids and b) raid pharmacies and labs for an antifungal drug or royal jelly because there is a really good chance you have acquired a lethal fungal infection. You will know for sure if you vomit Grey goop

TheWiznard · Post by **TheWiznard** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 1:58 pm #136920

Wyzack wrote:That is definitely not good enough. You need to a) get the fuck out of dodge far and away from any fungaloids and b) raid pharmacies and labs for an antifungal drug or royal jelly because
Spoiler:
there is a really good chance you have acquired a lethal fungal infection. You will know for sure if you vomit Grey goop

but the !!fun!!

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:50 pm #137007

I've been living 27 tiles from a fungal tower and haven't had any issues. I've been wearing a survivor mask and have Poison Resistant, though. I checked my pile of chemical supplies, still, and I can make an antifungal if I need one.

EDIT: Torso started hurting and became nauseous 3 turns after I made this post. Mixed and ate antifungal and it went away. GG game

Zilenan91 · Post by **Zilenan91** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:51 pm #137008

So can you actually make use of fungal towers and make them a good thing for you? It'd be awesome if you could make them helpful and start spreading the fungus everywhere.

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:58 pm #137009

Zilenan91 wrote:So can you actually make use of fungal towers and make them a good thing for you? It'd be awesome if you could make them helpful and start spreading the fungus everywhere.

Spoiler:

Unrelated: How can I pick up components that I remove from cars? Are they just destroyed?

Takeguru · Post by **Takeguru** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 12:07 am #137010

They drop under you, last I checked, though they might be under the car itself.

Oh, and as this is something I didn't learn till I was a few weeks into playing, Shift-G lets you pull almost anything.

Cars are pretty much the upper limit, even with 20 strength, but it's possible.

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 12:27 am #137013

They should drop under you, but if the part is greyed out then all that will drop is scrap metal and bits of steel

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 12:32 am #137014

Yeah, it was dropping under me. Problem solved!

EndgamerAzari · Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:44 am

>New character
>Manage to get set up in a decent house after a few close scrapes, slowly clearing the surrounding area
>Go out to fight a couple zombies that bumbled into the wreck of a truck in front of my house at night
>Kill them
>Mugger approaches
>Run, extinguish my light, climb back in through my window
>Close curtains, hope he doesn't see me
>He breaks the window and starts to climb in
>Hit him with my nord
"Dickass McShitneck blocks a little of the damage with their simple flamethrower!"
>sothisishowidie.png
>He fires it
>Shit starts exploding
>Die in one turn

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:05 am #137024

Fucking flamethrower NPCs are the worst.

Amelius · Post by **Amelius** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:17 am #137027

> Recovering from my injuries with a leg splint on.
> Oh look NPCs on the map! Let's go investigate!
> Jump out of my car, met with bullets. Sprint around the back of my car and take them out one by one.

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:24 am #137028

I've finally manged to get some high skills on a character. Running around with Dodging 6, Melee 11, Unarmed Combat 10, finger razors, and Scorpion Style kung fu, beating zombie bears to death with my bare hands.

Got far enough into a lab (Had a science ID) to find serum recipes- about to try for a Spider threshold breach. Have a lot of positive mutations without too many negatives thanks to careful use of purifiers. (Carnivore is a obnoxious at times, but meat generally isn't hard to find.)

Wyzack · Post by **Wyzack** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:28 am #137029

Herbevore is likewise easy to deal with if there is a triffid grove around

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:44 am #137033

I'm also probably fucked if I ever meet an NPC who wants to talk rather than just opening fire.

EDIT: Threshold break was a success, I am now a spider!

The Web Weaver mutation says it costs "RU" when it is active; what is an RU? Nutrition?

TheWiznard · Post by **TheWiznard** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:14 am #137076

Drynwyn wrote:I'm also probably fucked if I ever meet an NPC who wants to talk rather than just opening fire.

EDIT: Threshold break was a success, I am now a spider!

The Web Weaver mutation says it costs "RU" when it is active; what is an RU? Nutrition?

I dunno, RU sure it doesn't stand for resource units?

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 6:28 am #137077

TheWiznard wrote:
Drynwyn wrote:I'm also probably fucked if I ever meet an NPC who wants to talk rather than just opening fire.

EDIT: Threshold break was a success, I am now a spider!

The Web Weaver mutation says it costs "RU" when it is active; what is an RU? Nutrition?
I dunno, RU sure it doesn't stand for resource units?

Doesn't seem to make me hunger any faster, and doesn't drain my bionic power, so I have no idea what it is.

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 8:22 am #137087

In the unlikely even the wiki isn't outdated as fuck, it won't cost you anything.

TheWiznard · Post by **TheWiznard** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 8:52 am #137091

playing along the refugee center missions they decided to

Spoiler:

DemonFiren · Post by **DemonFiren** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 8:56 am #137093

I am tempted to be a disgusting autist now and start as female.
Get plate mail.
Get the Fish mutation.

Yeeeah...

TheWiznard · Post by **TheWiznard** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:40 am #137108

DemonFiren wrote:I am tempted to be a disgusting autist now and start as female.
Get plate mail.
Get the Fish mutation.

Yeeeah...

What RU doing here ssssir
you can also get a a spear

Drynwyn · Post by **Drynwyn** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:19 pm #137126

TheWiznard wrote:
DemonFiren wrote:I am tempted to be a disgusting autist now and start as female.
Get plate mail.
Get the Fish mutation.

Yeeeah...
What RU doing here ssssir
you can also get a a spear

if you don't do this i'm making this happen