I think a key is paying attention to details that you just don't do the first few playthroughs. Like how I was avoiding some fights in playthroughs against guys who I could easily maul.. I just didn't pay attention to the status.
BTW, any know of a use for the laptops or cell phones?
Also, my best tip for someone starting out: might be considered spoilers, but not really...
Ignore the glow. It'll still be there later, don't worry.
Stay around the Cryo, it's your HQ for the first days/weeks.
Area's re-spawn loot. So there's no reason to go further out than needed, staying close to the Cryo with a set camp and bag is the easiest way to survive the beginning.
Don't bother heading for the Glow until you have at least full clothing, a good melee weapon, a good store of food and water, a good vehicle (cart), and a nice array of medicine. The loot seems stronger by the Cryo than the glow, so if you're aren't kitted up for the trek don't go.
Yeah, I think I got super unlucky the first times I tried to play this, randomness can really bite you in the ass there. Out of my 20 first plays, about 10 had the
crazy blue guy
spawn after taking the very first action after escaping the Cryo. That included me trying to get back into it so I never dared to try it the next times until I read a tip about doing so
About 5 had the same guy spawning within the first 3-5 turns and immediately hunting me to death. Let's say I didn't have a good time with the game.
But now somehow everything seems fine, must've went through all the bad luck, although now I'm standing in the Glow and can't get in.
Have the pass from the Hatter using Trapping, doesn't work no matter if in hand, in a bag or anywhere
. Well no biggie, doesn't seem like there's much to do there yet anyways right. Oh and I only had a single fight in this game, which was me going out of my way to pick one haha. Enemies might've been scared seeing the bow, well and many were busy chasing each other around the map, that was funny. One stranger ran by the Cryo chasing a Melonhead, then 2 days later when I was making my way to the Glow a stranger was running after a Melonhead and the spy info said starving, I like to believe it was the same poor guy chasing himself to death. The Scavenger life can be cruel.
The RNG can make things a bit frustrating but a cool game otherwise.
I think I'm out of stuff to do. I'm fully kitted out..
beat the wraith.. shotgun blast took it out!
.. being as it's flash, if it's updated probably got to start again.. but is the Wikia up-to-date? I had a look over at it to see if I missed anything.. but all the places I see there I've done... is there a reason to go to the NW part of the map?
I'm unsure how up-to-date the Wikia is, but I wouldn't be surprised if you exhausted all the major game locations. I think there are only 7-10, depending on how you count them. And the ATN is the northernmost one at the moment.
That said, there are two things which might warrant further play.
First, there are three encounters that are different each game, and it's randomly determined at the beginning of the game. If you met someone at one of those locations, they may not be there next time, while another of the locations now has someone it didn't before. This was designed this way to make replaying the game more interesting, and to add a bit of challenge, so players couldn't rely on the same encounter choices each game.
Second, the random events are placed all over the map, not just in the southern half. So if you want to see all the random events enabled for your game, you would have to explore the whole map.
Meat Doesn't Provide Much Benefit
It's true that the squirrel meat is pretty meager. That's by design, and I may leave it as such, since squirrels are not notoriously good eating
However, meat from deer, dogmen, enfield horrors, and your human brothers (!) can fill up the emptiest of stomachs. I'd also like to add more mid-sized creatures, such as feral dogs, which might tip the balance later.
However, once again, I was attacked during my sleep, and I tried to Roll Dodge about 8-10 times with no success of moving further away from my attacker. He was just constantly hitting me and the couple of occasions I attempted to Get Up, it was to no avail, and I just bled out. Still really enjoying the game, but I don't know whether I'm just picking bad places to sleep, or whether I'm doing something else wrong.
Alertness might be contributing to this issue. Noise traps, insomnia, certain campsites, and even sleeping uncomfortably can all help wake you before someone sneaks up on you in your sleep. If you can wake before they're upon you, your chances of winning/escaping will be much better.
Also note that noise traps stack.
Otherwise, it sounds like you're doing things right. Good cover (camps), hiding tracks, and enabling "Hide" before sleeping are the main things. You can also clear any valuables from the "ground" and move them into camp with you before sleeping. Some AI will come to the hex for the loot, and only stumble upon you later.
Sorry about that. It's an unfortunate side effect of building the game in Flash. Flash doesn't like giving access to the file system for security reasons, so it uses a cookie system instead.
There is actually a way to make Flash access the file system, but it involves converting the game to Adobe AIR, which breaks on Linux. So I'm afraid we're stuck with klunky saves for this version.
But now somehow everything seems fine, must've went through all the bad luck, although now I'm standing in the Glow and can't get in.
Have the pass from the Hatter using Trapping, doesn't work no matter if in hand, in a bag or anywhere
. Well no biggie, doesn't seem like there's much to do there yet anyways right. Oh and I only had a single fight in this game, which was me going out of my way to pick one haha. Enemies might've been scared seeing the bow, well and many were busy chasing each other around the map, that was funny. One stranger ran by the Cryo chasing a Melonhead, then 2 days later when I was making my way to the Glow a stranger was running after a Melonhead and the spy info said starving, I like to believe it was the same poor guy chasing himself to death. The Scavenger life can be cruel..
Hit 1 to put on the auto-transfer, and click it... it seems to go on your belt area or wrist.. or something.. not sure.. but try that. It seems to be the easiest way to equip guns and some other things instead of finding the right spot. It's one of the jankier parts of the game, but using the auto-transfer with hitting 1 put it on for me and I was in.
Absolutely love this game. It'd be great if you got a description of your previous deaths saved somewhere along with your longest time survived. Basically some stat tracking.
Hit 1 to put on the auto-transfer, and click it... it seems to go on your belt area or wrist.. or something.. not sure.. but try that. It seems to be the easiest way to equip guns and some other things instead of finding the right spot. It's one of the jankier parts of the game, but using the auto-transfer with hitting 1 put it on for me and I was in.
Ahh I see, I think it's because wearing hide gloves makes it pretty much impossible to see the wrists light up when you pick it up with the mouse. I was relying completely on that to see where stuff goes.
Thanks.
As far as strategy goes, My skills for this run where Ranged (to get to make some better weapons), Botany (It's almost too easy to get food this way and required for the start), Trapping (reliable fire starter and more loot), and well Tough (although without any fights so far that didn't do all that much).
That was a very good setup, maybe gonna switch out Tough for medic the next time and see how that goes,
Dang, this game throws up some really interesting variables sometimes and asks you to think about what you take with you at all times. You really have to be on your 'A' game, and I like that. For instance in my latest run (6 days, 4.57 hours), I was given 7 bullets but no gun until much later, which meant I had to keep 1 slot open for the bullets. Now granted, 1 slot doesn't sound like a lot, but the only space I had was in my med kit, and so I had to sacrifice some painkillers to keep the bullets because I wanted to keep another extra slot open. I found a cell phone battery and no cell phone, instead the game gave me a smart phone. Heh.
I also found a pair of binoculars which seem really useful, especially if you don't have the eagle eye perk. I found a secondary pair of binoculars which were in way, way better condition, and my old ones were about to be destroyed. But the new ones didn't have a strap, and I couldn't figure out how to make one, so I had to sadly let go of the new binoculars.
Small mistakes like forgetting to pick up your sleeping bag after using it in a camp, they come back to haunt you, as I found out. Because, once again, I managed to get attacked and killed in my sleep. I think it's now my speciality or something!
Glad I'm slowly making progress, and learning something new every time.
But the new ones didn't have a strap, and I couldn't figure out how to make one, so I had to sadly let go of the new binoculars.
Small mistakes like forgetting to pick up your sleeping bag after using it in a camp, they come back to haunt you, as I found out. Because, once again, I managed to get attacked and killed in my sleep. I think it's now my speciality or something!
Especially attachings strings to stuff can be a bit hard to figure out because it's often shuffled back in the the list of what you can craft, and many ppl (including me) couldn't figure out that you have to use the red arrows in the top right corner of the results window to cycle recipies, did you try that?
Also did you see the suggestions to use Noise Traps?
string, something small that can make noise like pebbles, something to put them into like a (pill) bottle
. They'll wake you up if somebody comes to your spot, you can put 2-3 into your camp to increase alertedness.
I bought this from the Blue Bottle Games site directly last night (I love to tip hardworking small developers doing interesting things) and I intended not to even look at it until the weekend. Several hours, a mildly burnt dinner and an annoyed wife later I can attest fully to the distracting nature of this game.
I'm glad to see an pretty active thread here at Neogaf as I think I'm going to fail to survive a lot in the next few days. I'll need somewhere for comfort and solace.
Now where's my sleeping bag and what is this stranger doing charging towards me...
Especially attachings strings to stuff can be a bit hard to figure out because it's often shuffled back in the the list of what you can craft, and many ppl (including me) couldn't figure out that you have to use the red arrows in the top right corner of the results window to cycle recipies, did you try that?
Also did you see the suggestions to use Noise Traps?
string, something small that can make noise like pebbles, something to put them into like a (pill) bottle
. They'll wake you up if somebody comes to your spot, you can put 2-3 into your camp to increase alertedness.
I didn't think of that trap idea, thanks! I found one pre-made trap made from a can or something, and I used that until it broke.
Ted said:
I bought this from the Blue Bottle Games site directly last night (I love to tip hardworking small developers doing interesting things) and I intended not to even look at it until the weekend. Several hours, a mildly burnt dinner and an annoyed wife later I can attest fully to the distracting nature of this game.
I'm glad to see an pretty active thread here at Neogaf as I think I'm going to fail to survive a lot in the next few days. I'll need somewhere for comfort and solace.
Now where's my sleeping bag and what is this stranger doing charging towards me...
ok,found the best setting ,at least for me,it helps that now i can save since i copy and paste the save in another folder to avoid whatever program was canceling them
anyway,the build is: strong,medic,melee,trapping and botany,with the trait metabolism
strong and melee together,with a good weapon like a meat cleaver,makes you almost unstoppable in battle,killed 7 dogmen in this run.also,melee gives you access to spears,a good early weapon
metabolism makes you eat more but heal faster,and it's balanced by botany that makes you scavenge forests for food (also ,if you don't care being a cannibal,you are badass enough to hunt men).
medic gives you access of the infos about your health,so that you can act quickly..also,with botany already saying what food is poisoned and what isn't,your only problem are wounds from combat and the occasional gastroenteritis/infection....cholera is also an option but didn't get it as long as i was crafting lakes and rivers..only got it once from a bottle of water i stolen from someone.
trapping is useful to
get the dogman's coat early
,but it's also useful in many ways,especially if you become an hunter and you have to cure meat to make it last longer,also
it makes you get the access to detroit without paying or making any mission
with this at the moment i'm totally packed,crowbar with straps,meat cleaver,sniper rifle with bullets,clothes in perfect state (only thing i'm missing is a sleeping bag,forgot that in a camp).I also usually don't use either carts or sleds...i want to be perfectly able to move in combat,without hindrances..even if it means scavenging for what i need ATM,especially when i need wood for fire
do marshes have a bigger chance to give you cholera?
The noise traps were a good idea, managed to get a small lighter and create some fires, as well. This time, guess what? I didn't die from being attacked in my sleep!
i died of diarrhoea ;_;
I guess next time I'll need those water purification tablets.
The noise traps were a good idea, managed to get a small lighter and create some fires, as well. This time, guess what? I didn't die from being attacked in my sleep!
i died of diarrhoea ;_;
I guess next time I'll need those water purification tablets.
you can fight diarrhea with lots of water and maybe some antibiotics,as long as your immune system is high,it will eventually fade off
if you have the botany skill,you can also make bark tea (just put a campfire ,a fireproof container,two drops of water and some bark in the crafting screen,it should help
Was only able to play this for about an hour over the weekend, but that hour was fun once I figured out the menus and commands.
Definitely like the music and game world. Interface took some getting used to. Entered in combat with a bandit and was winning but there didn't seem a clear cut way to close it out. Either forcing surrender or just bleeding the guy out.
Really enjoying this game so far and I've barely been more than 5 hexs from the first spawn!
I'm on my third attempt now and am playing it safe, slowly collect kit from the surrounding area to the cryo lab, making it my base for now. I hadn't found anything to interesting until I was scavenging a run-down apartment block, found a sled and a stranger appeared. I got into cover and started to retreat but he kept coming. We exchanged melee actions and I got the better of him eventually (melee and strong as skills but he was tough), stealing his clothes, water bottle and some pills before going back to trying to work out how to make a strap for my new sled. Now it's night time and I'm back at the lab ready to start scavenging again.
First encounter spoilers:
As your first move did any of you choose
to dump a cryotank
? If so did you choose
the CEO or the reality TV star to become dogman meat
?
After some deliberation I went for
the CEO, the reality star may be a reality star but I remembered from my first play through that they had a real next of kin listed on the records system whereas Lloyd only had a law firm
. Funny how this game makes you think the weirdest things right from the start.
I think the lack of boots, particularly right footed boots, is really what is causing all the angst in this world. Was the apocalyptic event in NeoScavenger-land in fact a nuclear explosion next to the planets largest but only boot factory?
Really enjoying this game so far and I've barely been more than 5 hexs from the first spawn!
I'm on my third attempt now and am playing it safe, slowly collect kit from the surrounding area to the cryo lab, making it my base for now. I hadn't found anything to interesting until I was scavenging a run-down apartment block, found a sled and a stranger appeared. I got into cover and started to retreat but he kept coming. We exchanged melee actions and I got the better of him eventually (melee and strong as skills but he was tough), stealing his clothes, water bottle and some pills before going back to trying to work out how to make a strap for my new sled. Now it's night time and I'm back at the lab ready to start scavenging again.
First encounter spoilers:
As your first move did any of you choose
to dump a cryotank
? If so did you choose
the CEO or the reality TV star to become dogman meat
?
After some deliberation I went for
the CEO, the reality star may be a reality star but I remembered from my first play through that they had a real next of kin listed on the records system whereas Lloyd only had a law firm
. Funny how this game makes you think the weirdest things right from the start.
the reality star, because I figured that maybe the CEO might end up in something more interesting story wise
. In the end, it was a moot point, because I barely lasted a couple of days.
But I've done both now.
Playing it safe seems to be the way to go. Love seeing these stories. It's the kind of game that inspires this kind of player-driven narrative, even if the game's own narrative seems actually quite interesting. I think it's also a testament to the developer that everyone here seems to have different beliefs in which skills to pick. Some people recommend x, others recommend y. They both seem to work which is a credit to the balance and the flexibility of the game.
I didn't play any more today, sadly, but I'm gonna give it another shot tomorrow. We'll see if I can beat my previous 6 day record!
the reality star, because I figured that maybe the CEO might end up in something more interesting story wise
. In the end, it was a moot point, because I barely lasted a couple of days.
But I've done both now.
Playing it safe seems to be the way to go. Love seeing these stories. It's the kind of game that inspires this kind of player-driven narrative, even if the game's own narrative seems actually quite interesting. I think it's also a testament to the developer that everyone here seems to have different beliefs in which skills to pick. Some people recommend x, others recommend y. They both seem to work which is a credit to the balance and the flexibility of the game.
I didn't play any more today, sadly, but I'm gonna give it another shot tomorrow. We'll see if I can beat my previous 6 day record!
Well, the thing about skills.. is that you can't learn them.. so if you don't have them to start you can't get them later. There is certain things tied to certain skills that you can only do in a play-through if you have those skills, which is kinda cool.
I still think the combo of Botany, Melee, Tough, Strong and Lock-picking pretty much will assure you to survive quite some time. It makes it easier to survive the earlier encounters as long as you can score a decent weapon, which is easier now that you have Strong and Lock-picking to help secure more loot. Just make sure you craft lockpicks, which are super easy to get the stuff you need for them. Once you score a crowbar, you are in super-loot land.. and screw making noise, because you can probably win the fight.
Botany ensures you won't want for food, and once again with abundance of loot you can secure with the Strong/Lockpicking/Crowbar/Lighter you'll come across enough drugs to pretty much ignore purifying water.. just drink when you need. Tough seems to make getting sick not as bad.. so you have more time.
To get that many traits take Insomnia.. which will be easy to overcome later with sleeping pills.
Also, be sure to spy targets... sometimes you find out you have easy kills that you're running from.. and sometimes you can just wait them out... good chance they die on their own.
I am starting to get the hang of the game and in my current playthrough I have survived for almost a week. If you use Melee+Strong+Trapping as traits you can make a dogman fur coat in the start of the game and not have to worry about Hypothermia that much.
I also turned my character into a cannibal, when I ran out of animal meat I began ambushing wandering scavengers and after killing them I slashed their corpses with a cleaver and cooked their meat. To my surprise a message popped up that described how tasty the meat was (lol!)
Now I have reached Seattle and
the Hatter dude gave me a pass to the city. There isn't much stuff do outside of buying things and visiting the clinic, but I'm pretty sure that part is still WIP. I also don't know what to do next, maybe I'll have to return to the Wasteland
So yeah, this has the potential to become one of my favorite indie games of all time. I'll definitely drop a good word to my friends and convince them to buy it.
So yeah, this has the potential to become one of my favorite indie games of all time. I'll definitely drop a good word to my friends and convince them to buy it.
Currently playing with Ranged and I like it a lot. You can make a sling almost right away and a bow and arrows early on. I use a couple arrows to injure and hopefully cripple the enemy, then finish him off with the sling. The big benefit of ranged combat is that you don't get hit, it also requires only one trait, and later on you'll be more accurate with firearms. The downside is that you have to keep making arrows and carry them.
I seem to have failed to
get any information from the bank so I'm not sure what I should do now. Guess I'll just head back out and explore.
Yeah it's real. Well I was sleeping and then all of a sudden an alien came in, I didn't know what it was at first but after I saw it, it started to scream for help and all of a sudden I was surrounded but they all wanted to talk I agreed at first buuuut I didn't feel like backing down so I tried to fight them, I died shortly after from bleeding in my lungs.
I have a rucksack, a first aid kit and a sled (with a strap) for storage. Is it safe/OK to leave the sled and other assorted larger items at my campsite (cryo lab) in the actual campsite storage area not just on the ground at the hex?
Earlier in the thread the developer said:
dcfedor said:
You can also clear any valuables from the "ground" and move them into camp with you before sleeping. Some AI will come to the hex for the loot, and only stumble upon you later.
I have a rucksack, a first aid kit and a sled (with a strap) for storage. Is it safe/OK to leave the sled and other assorted larger items at my campsite (cryo lab) in the actual campsite storage area not just on the ground at the hex?
Earlier in the thread the developer said:
Which I took to mean that it was safe/OK to do this but I wanted to be sure.
While you're camping I'm pretty sure it's safe. When you're away there may be a chance that they will get looted. However, people can still rob you (or even murder you) in your sleep if you don't use any noise traps or they don't wake you up
That's what I'm kind of assuming but I feel like I have left stuff there for a good few moves now and it never gets stolen. Perhaps the cryo lab is a special case? Or perhaps my perception of time is disorientated by the game?
I'll leave some treat there when I am fully kitted out for the world at large and head back at some point - if I don't die in the meantime - and see if it is still in situ.
Really simple crafting requeggestion. Right now you have the top window that lists all your materials you're attempting to use to craft stuff out of and you have the bottom window that lists what the active recipe will yield. How about highlighting the items in the top window that will be used to make the active recipe? And furthermore highlight them green if they will be used but not consumed and red if they will be consumed. Finally perhaps some sort of indicator in the recipe box whether it will be reversible.
Made me sad to accidentally turn my wrench into a torch... a nice torch no doubt.... but...
Another interesting perk would be arms expert who can give you a ballpark of a weapon's damage effectiveness.
And thanks to whoever suggested trying out ranged. I'm loving it. It also gives a lot more flexibility in perks since feeble/fragile are more acceptable. Opens up some fun options.
Absolutely love this game. It'd be great if you got a description of your previous deaths saved somewhere along with your longest time survived. Basically some stat tracking.
What exactly was in the update some days ago? Any new content.
Also is there any tribe/bandit AI in the game? I met some schmuck, we circled each other, but I talked to him, he seemed neutral, so I paid him no heed.
I camped down for the night, and he went and brought his leader who proceeded to attack me while I was asleep.
I ran, leaving some scraps. I came back after they had left and they had taken.
Really simple crafting requeggestion. Right now you have the top window that lists all your materials you're attempting to use to craft stuff out of and you have the bottom window that lists what the active recipe will yield. How about highlighting the items in the top window that will be used to make the active recipe? And furthermore highlight them green if they will be used but not consumed and red if they will be consumed. Finally perhaps some sort of indicator in the recipe box whether it will be reversible.
Made me sad to accidentally turn my wrench into a torch... a nice torch no doubt.... but...
Another interesting perk would be arms expert who can give you a ballpark of a weapon's damage effectiveness.
And thanks to whoever suggested trying out ranged. I'm loving it. It also gives a lot more flexibility in perks since feeble/fragile are more acceptable. Opens up some fun options.
That's a good suggestion, and I've added it to my list. I'm rapidly approaching that point where most of the list is too much to do before launch, but I consider it a list for future sequels, too. And quite often, UI tweaks tend to win out over others, so it may yet happen!
Re: Game Over screen info, I'm also on board with providing more stats there. It's one of those lower priority things that I may end up "just doing" even after launch, because I think that kind of stuff would be interesting to see and share with other players.
What exactly was in the update some days ago? Any new content.
Also is there any tribe/bandit AI in the game? I met some schmuck, we circled each other, but I talked to him, he seemed neutral, so I paid him no heed.
I camped down for the night, and he went and brought his leader who proceeded to attack me while I was asleep.
I ran, leaving some scraps. I came back after they had left and they had taken.
The 0.986 update was mostly about bug fixes and UI, so you'll notice new options in the main menu, more stable play, and some minor gameplay tweaks (re: shivering/sweating).
As for AI behavior, yes, there is a sort-of tribal behavior. Each AI has a few factors that affect behavior, and faction, morale, and leadership are some of them.
Leadership means that non-solo AIs will tend to follow the greatest leader of their own faction that they can see. Where the leader goes, the followers aren't far behind. They also share a "home" hex, where they prefer to sleep and gather loot.
Morale will dictate fight vs. flight when confronting potential hostiles.
And each faction has an initial predisposition to be peaceful vs. not when encountering other factions. These standings will change over time per-AI, and AIs of the same factions will "share their opinions" each turn they share a hex. So if you piss off an AI, you can kill it before it tattles on you to keep your standings.
Seriously, this is as much a surprise to me as it may be to you. I've been exploring different ways to bypass Flash's security limitations, but haven't had much luck. However, in the past week or two, I found a way to make the downloadable versions load external data from the file system.
It turns out that Flash's projector format will allow limited loading of local files. It has to be packaged a certain way, and I had to do some voodoo to make it work across all three platforms. However, the game now loads data from an XML text file, and images from a folder. No more flaky editing of EXE files!
"Now what?" you ask? Well, I'll have to write some documentation to help intrepid modders understand the data format. For now, though, just poke around. Some of it should be pretty intuitive.
In addition to the above:
- Added code and condition to hide clothes/item sprites on certain creatures.
- Changed terrain resources to drop their resources directly onto ground isntead of inside the river/marsh/etc.
- Changed dodge/parry language to say "move" instead of "attack," since that was confusing if player didn't attack.
- Changed sleep button to hide "unconscious" and "fallen" messages when clicked, since they confused some players.
Great stuff, so does this mean it can be my GOTY 2014?
I'm still loving it and despite playing for fifteen minutes or so pretty much every day while making dinner since ~April I still haven't even bothered to push on to the glow or explored everything/everywhere I want to. And I haven't even updated since like 0.98n so have loads to look forward to!
Late a bit to the party but this game is tremendous. It mixes the mundane with the fantastic without breaking a sweat, and if offers that classic roguelike sense of small victory when you just find a freaking shopping cart.
Late a bit to the party but this game is tremendous. It mixes the mundane with the fantastic without breaking a sweat, and if offers that classic roguelike sense of small victory when you just find a freaking shopping cart.
Coming off of playing The Pit for two straight weeks on Hard mode, it's pretty mellow. It will RNG doom you off the bat pretty often, but once you get a decent run going you'll be OK.
