Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - FUCK NO SPORTING GOODS STORES

[Jojje]

It's been a while since this was talked about and since it's been a bit expanded I wanted to start talking about it again.

Cataclysm is a roguelike all about surviving a zombie apocalypse. You, and a few people you sometimes run into, are the only ones left alive in the new harsh unforgiving world.

It sports a limb damage and encumberment system. The more you wear on a particular bodypart the less effective you will be in using that bodypart.
For instance wearing a t-shirt, kevlar and two backpacks will pretty much disallow you to dodge completely, which is fine for firearms characters but not so much for melee-oriented builds.
The game world itself is infinite, you can walk forever in one direction and still see something new.
Considering the skills are so wide and varied there are many possibilities to characters you can do.
A tanky strongman going around bashing heads, sure you can do that.
A smart survivalist building a cabin in the woods and living off of wildlife, you can swing that too.

There's also the odd vehicle that you run into in parking lots and garages you can drive to get places. If you're not skilled in driving you'll start steering left or right at random so you'll have to correct that.

There are a wide range of positive and negative traits that you can choose in character generation to add and deduce points for your character.

[B]Shamelessly stolen screenshots, I apologize:[/B]
[img]http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e214/Dochappy/Screenshot-9_27_20116_57_32PM.png[/img]
[img]http://horobox.co.uk/u/Jojje_1366342416.jpg[/img]
[img]http://puu.sh/KMD4[/img]

If you've [URL="http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1136542"]played this before[/URL], you'll be familiar with what the game has to offer.
However, Whales has decided to halt the development of the game to move onto other things.
Therefore, he's passed the torch to The Darkling Wolf and kevingranade and other contributors, and this new branch is named Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead.

It's a good idea to swing by the options the first time around and configure them to your liking.
Me personally I like to have the world wiped every time I die and have the zombies spawn a duration after the game starts.

[B]Tips for new players:[/B]
Try to find a sporting goods store and get a backpack, you'll need it. The utility vest has 0 torso encumberment as opposed to the backpacks 1, so if you're melee-oriented you may want to take a trenchcoat and a utility vest or two, but if that's not an option, backpack will have to do.
When you're there, get a hotplate, batteries, a flashlight and a lighter, too.
Eating a cooked meal is more satisfying and filling than eating something raw. Try to cook whenever possible.
Get some sort of weapon. Find a gun store if you're firearms, if you bludgeon things, get a baseball bat or something, if you cut things, a knife. On the other hand, if you started with martial arts, your deadliest weapons are your hands, congrats.
Military surplus stores are great. Often has good armor as well as non-perishable rations for food.
Pain can be debilitating. Be sure to get painkillers from pharmacies.
Get books! When you're hiding out in the evening waiting for nightfall so you can sleep, you might as well sharpen up some skills.
Guns are loud and attract the horde. Don't use them without silencers unless you're in a real pinch.
Take off your t-shirt whenever you wear at least two other torso items as it just adds more unnecessary encumbrance for nothing.
Like in real life, abusing stimulants, or even the lowly cigarette, can boost your Intelligence enough, temporarily, to study harder books.
Vehicles make a lot of noise. Driving through a large town can and will bring the entire towns now undead population crashing down on your head.
The trunks of cars are good storage spaces. One trunk space can fit 27 items of any size, but only 27 items.
If you're planning on reinforcing a house/building for lodging, try choosing a building on the outskirts of town, or as far away from towns as possible, as that's where zombies spawn.
The above tip isn't strictly true anymore. If you use the old legacy spawning system then yeah that's what you wanna do, but static spawning allows you to clean out towns so you can go there unharmed.
Only spend time in towns when you need to gather supplies. When you have all you need for a time, get out of there.
To lose zombies, go through the front door of buildings and escape through the back. If the building has a back door, that is. In case of panic, break window and go through there.

[B]Good to know:[/B]
If you want a 1280x720 viewport, go into settings and set the viewport width to 160 and the height to 45.

[B]Links:[/B]
[URL=http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=Main_Page]Wiki[/URL]
[URL=http://en.cataclysmdda.com/]Homepage[/URL]
[URL=http://assets.cataclysmdda.com/downloads/windows_binaries/cddasdl-current.zip]Download latest stable Windows executable[/URL]
[URL=http://dev.narc.ro/cataclysm/jenkins-latest/Windows/Tiles/]Download latest [B]experimental graphical[/B] Windows executable[/URL]
[URL=http://dev.narc.ro/cataclysm/jenkins-latest/Windows/Curses/]Download latest [B]experimental console[/B] Windows executable[/URL]
[URL=http://assets.cataclysmdda.com/downloads/mac_binaries/cddasdl-current.dmg]Download latest stable Mac executable[/URL]
[URL=http://assets.cataclysmdda.com/downloads/linux_binaries/cddasdl-current.tar.gz]Download latest stable Linux executable[/URL]
[URL=http://dev.narc.ro/cataclysm/jenkins-latest/Linux/Tiles/]Download latest [B]experimental graphical[/B] Linux executable[/URL]
[URL=http://dev.narc.ro/cataclysm/jenkins-latest/Linux/Curses/]Download latest [B]experimental console[/B] Linux executable[/URL]
[URL=https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/]Github source. Compile it yourself, make modifications if you wish.[/URL]
[URL=http://www.wiki.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?title=How_to_compile]Compiling guide[/URL]

[URL="http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1262384&p=46861231&viewfull=1#post46861231"]Wanna play "multiplayer" with us on Facepunch?[/URL]

[Leg of Doom]

Love the addition of vehicle I found a garage with a 90% finished vehicle and was converting it to a huge truck of death with spikes but i lost the save

[b]BTW if you want square tiles[/b] (easier to judge space and distances):

Go inside the /data folder and using notepad or notepad ++ edit FONTDATA and change the 8 to 16

Also in FONTDATA you can change Terminus to the name of another font you have eg Courier if you want but some will look highly deformed as square.
Terminus looks fine for me in square but not everyone You can search 8x8 fonts on Limewire or something

[Jojje]

[QUOTE=Leg of Doom;40339811]Love the addition of vehicle I found a garage with a 90% finished vehicle and was converting it to a huge truck of death with spikes but i lost the save

[b]BTW if you want square tiles[/b] (easier to judge space and distances):

Go inside the /data folder and using notepad or notepad ++ edit FONTDATA and change the 8 to 16

Also in FONTDATA you can change Terminus to the name of another font you have eg Courier if you want but some will look highly deformed as square.
Terminus looks fine for me in square but not everyone You can search 8x8 fonts on Limewire or something[/QUOTE]

Cool I might just do square tiles because cars look really odd when you turn 90 degrees

[Si`Sik]

Is there any texture packs?
I can only see one on a quick search of the forums, but it's apparently outdated.

[Jojje]

[QUOTE=Si`Sik;40339913]Is there any texture packs?
I can only see one on a quick search of the forums, but it's apparently outdated.[/QUOTE]

As far as I can tell there's no tile version for DDA, just ASCII.
After an hour or so of playing with it you get used to it and it really just helps with the style of the game.

Also just found this: [URL=http://www.cataclysmdda.com/smf/index.php?topic=253.0]A guy puts together a bike that goes 1280MPH[/URL]

[Celcord]

God, I remember playing this.

I tried playing an asthmatic who had a curse where he had to constantly run everywhere.
Good times.

[mikester112]

This looks pretty cool, I guess it's as good a time as any to start playing it.

[Jojje]

Apparently if you run into an NPC with a fighting style like some form of martial arts and you kill them, you can cut out their heart and eat it to gain their power.
Neat.

[B]EDIT:[/B] Set myself up with a little safehouse on the outskirts of a town. Went back in for a supply run and got swarmed with a shrieker and a spitter and such but I clobbered them and escaped on a bicycle I found on a parking lot.
The image of me biking and slowly getting away from a horde of zombies is pretty entertaining.

[WarRage]

Did anyone find a way to increase the 'game screen' yet, anyway last time i played this is became half duck half pony mutant. Eat mutated babies its good for you.

[ArchimedesAgain]

Reposting the best randomly generated character name I ever got:

[img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/SamJ.png[/img]

I wandered into a cave, crippled my hand in a fight with two bears, and then spent the rest of my days hunting squirrels with a throwing spear before I poked my head into a small crevice in my bear cave and got attacked by the sewer systems automated security roombas.

[Jojje]

I found a build that works pretty well.
But I'm not so sure whether to put points into melee or bashing weapons.
I use a nail bat so...
I mean, I guess melee points counteract the encumbrance penalties but, other than that I guess it's best to max out bashing weapons.

[Robbobin]

I love this game. My strategy is to get 14 int, everything else normal, with fast learning, fast reading, fleet-footed, night vision and the genetics buff (forget its name), then go around raiding all the libraries I can, hopefully finding science IDs and tools to help you be fairly sustainable while you collect all the mutagen/bionics you can and raising all your skills. Since you have fleet-footedness and night vision, chances are within a few mutagens you'll have full night vision and road runner, at which point you're pretty much able to escape anything as long as you raid at night. Also, find 3 or so bear traps asap. It means you stand absolutely nothing to lose in one-on-one encounters with zombies and they're completely reusable.

[editline]20th April 2013[/editline]

If you get road runner, it's not even particularly efficient to use a car since you move so quickly anyway. A few times I've even got the light bones mutation which makes you a lot less resistant to bashing damage, but even faster still. At this point you move a lot more than twice as fast as you do when you spawn.

[Tosti]

O, I just recently played this. Too bad there are so many corruptions in the map atm. Here have some screenshots of my current game.

Actually managed to clear that entire town, maybe with exception of the south east area.

[img]http://s4.postimg.org/r9sqq64kt/clearedtown.png[/img]

My tiny little base and pimped cars with super alloys.

[img]http://s4.postimg.org/u5afarxyl/mylittlebase.png[/img]

Woops, a little big.

[cdr248]

After playing this I can't get into any other roguelikes.

[chainsauce]

If you wield anything which uses batteries and press the unload button, you can take the batteries out of it.

[Jojje]

[QUOTE=lord0war;40357697]If you wield anything which uses batteries and press the unload button, you can take the batteries out of it.[/QUOTE]

Cool. That way you can just clean out sporting goods stores if you only find hotplates and flashlights and such.
No sense in carrying around 5 flashlights and 5 hotplates.

[B]EDIT:[/B]

You don't even need to wield it you can just hit I and then the item you want, and then u in the menu that pops up

[MuffinZerg]

I will just leave this here
[img]https://photos-6.dropbox.com/t/0/AADAbM5v7zYCYyI0zj33BHZmLHds7_bDWev3BjQGjNrDDA/12/14273442/png/32x32/3/_/1/2/nap.png/BrROyAJoefLN-u5rfvlcU1hgURMefMB671vWIc1fvuQ?size=1024x768[/img]
A quick guide to Cataclysm
[img]https://photos-5.dropbox.com/t/0/AADJedH8HfVncQdA0pmvhAVBxJ6vT1lPHFO9gn_A4P7jfg/12/14273442/png/32x32/3/_/1/2/a-quick-guide-to-ctrl.png/P6gjch03dDG2lgftt8RwdPYwZdTzaBSZLRWoQSgxeS0?size=1024x768[/img]

[Jojje]

[QUOTE=MuffinZerg;40357938]I will just leave this here
[img]https://photos-6.dropbox.com/t/0/AADAbM5v7zYCYyI0zj33BHZmLHds7_bDWev3BjQGjNrDDA/12/14273442/png/32x32/3/_/1/2/nap.png/BrROyAJoefLN-u5rfvlcU1hgURMefMB671vWIc1fvuQ?size=1024x768[/img]
A quick guide to Cataclysm
[img]https://photos-5.dropbox.com/t/0/AADJedH8HfVncQdA0pmvhAVBxJ6vT1lPHFO9gn_A4P7jfg/12/14273442/png/32x32/3/_/1/2/a-quick-guide-to-ctrl.png/P6gjch03dDG2lgftt8RwdPYwZdTzaBSZLRWoQSgxeS0?size=1024x768[/img][/QUOTE]

You're not linking that correctly, copy public link. It needs to be in your public folder too of course

[Nutcake]

This game is so hard.
If I even so much as touch the outskirts of a town with my pinkie-finger, I get instantly swarmed with a wide, colorful variety of zombies.

[hugg]

What's the best way to clear out a town? I'm thinking of making a gun nut and just and clear it out with raw firepower

[Nutcake]

Wow, really?
Having a good run in a town, awesome gear from mil. surplus and gun store.

look around next corner, see 40 zombies, get hit by lightning from everywhere, dead in two seconds.

Fuck you too, game.

[DeathDoom]

So did anyone else get into the game by watching jefmajor?

In other news, my survivor of one week got capped by a wolf spider. Which I guess is fitting since spiders are fucking everywhere in this version

[editline]20th April 2013[/editline]

also fuck being cold

[hugg]

[QUOTE=DeathDoom;40361990]So did anyone else get into the game by watching jefmajor?

In other news, my survivor of one week got capped by a wolf spider. Which I guess is fitting since spiders are fucking everywhere in this version

[editline]20th April 2013[/editline]

also fuck being cold[/QUOTE]

his playthrough is fun to watch but sometimes it's fucking frustrating because he misses things. one time his katana got stuck in a zombie and he didn't notice it, he ended up killing 5-8 zombies with his fists.

[binkow]

I love this game. I haven't played this new version though.

[QUOTE=FlashStock;40361857]What's the best way to clear out a town? I'm thinking of making a gun nut and just and clear it out with raw firepower[/QUOTE]

Depending on what gun you're using, wouldn't that just attract more and more zombies? I can't remember how the game works out mechanics like that.

[hugg]

[QUOTE=binkow;40362160]I love this game. I haven't played this new version though.

Depending on what gun you're using, wouldn't that just attract more and more zombies? I can't remember how the game works out mechanics like that.[/QUOTE]
There are static zombies now meaning they spawn when the game starts and don't respawn afterwards. In older versions of the game they spawned when you made noise.

[cdr248]

[QUOTE=binkow;40362160]I love this game. I haven't played this new version though.

Depending on what gun you're using, wouldn't that just attract more and more zombies? I can't remember how the game works out mechanics like that.[/QUOTE]

Its possible to clear out towns.

[PaxMayne]

So I decided to play this, I spawned at an Evac Center, Looking around. Go outside, A fucking cougar. A GODDAMN COUGAR. So I decide to kill it, Running after it, While it keeps leaping away. Then it turned around.

I ran like fucking crazy and it kept attacking me. I threw 2 rocks at it and a pocket-knife, Didn't do shit.

Also how do I punch things?

[editline]21st April 2013[/editline]

Also how do you save?

[ZCaliber]

[QUOTE=Blockhead;40363783]

Also how do you save?[/QUOTE]

"S", case-sensitive.

Honestly my best runs in Cataclysm DDA have been karate masters. Run into town, Hot gates the horde at a window after scavenging what I need (Usually at least hard arm guards) and proceed to sweep the leg.

I've been thinking a lot about the bare minimum supplies needed to be acquired before wilderness survival can be achieved. Honestly a frying pan, or even better a pot and two water-tight containers are really all you need now that I think about it.

On an unrelated note on either of those though, screw the hot/cold system in this game. Conceptually it's a great idea, but man does it not work in practice unless I'm missing something... I seriously don't see how you can be cold when sleeping on a bed. Built fires, unless you burn down a building, never last long enough to stay lit throughout the night if they even warm you at all. The most reliable warming thing I found to sleep near is a lava [/vent].

That being said, time to play s'more C:DDA.

[Resto]

I really have to get back into this game. I was tempted a couple of weeks ago, but now that there's a new thread, it's encouraged me even more.

[Twistshock]

Someone tell me why i can't cook this meat, I've both a hotplate and lit a nearby door on fire.

[IMG]http://puu.sh/2EcMk.png[/IMG]

nvm, 3 arrows, I need something to put the meat on.