TinnedEpic's Survival Guide - Contains traces of 'SPOILERS'

[TinnedEpic]

Just to throw in, since I've had a lot of time to watch youtubes while i'm away from my computer.. so I think it's a good time to compile some of my notes:

 

1. Don't Fight, Don't Run, Don't Risk it

Something people on the video scene seem to be doing right. They spend most of their time doing very well to not pop off zombies of opportunity. In fact, the more they avoid gaggles, the better their survivability. Running while in the commercial strip or outskirts is usually a pretty poor idea as well, as it attracts significant attention. Something I often fail at, resulting in very, very short lifespans where I think "I've got a spoon, I can take 1 or 2 on in a trailer bathroom..." <You survived for 4 hours>

 

2. Linens'n'Things

Okay, what is the preoccupation with hoarding sheets? They're useful, yes, but I don't see the point in carrying more than 4. If you've got to cover more than 4 windows, you're likely in a REALLY bad place to camp. Same with bandages. Tearing one apart for bandages yields 8 bandages. I have to tell you something.. if you need 8 bandages you are infected; unless you jumped out a window overlooking a cliff. You can probably easily keep half of them in a stash to save carrying space.

 

3. I Cut, I Saw, I Hammered

There's a pretty solid laundry list of 'must haves' to endure a long run, but I really can't say that there's much alternative to long-term play than accessing carpentry tools early. Living as a burgle-happy vagrant living off raw ramen and chips is a sure way to die, so pursuing tools is best done earlier rather than later.

 

4. Open a Window

If you've cleared out a house, it might be a good idea to open all the doors and windows so that migrating zombies don't break stuff, especially if you want to come back later and secure it.

 

5. We reBuilt This City On Boards and Nails

Having one home-base seems to be a bad idea, as the 'GM' seems to silently migrate hordes on top of your location after a couple nights. You'll want a periphery home to set up as 'home base' for farming/cooking/being sick, but also establish safe-houses and water barrels throughout town so you can hole up safely for a night while you look for ammunition, nails, and general mayhem. This also forces the GM to migrate hordes away from your strawberries.

 

6. Learn to Cook

Eating out is a losing battle. Eating fruits straight-off is usually a great idea, since they aren't used in recipes and will just go bad. Soups should be your ideal mainstay in the long run, as this can generally double the hunger-allieviating effectiveness of the ingredients. You're going to want regular access to a stove or microwave early, and make plans for building and shielding a campfire after the power goes off. I wonder if those fires can be set indoors...

 

7. Water Works

I've seen a lot of 'Lets Players' running around grabbing every mug, bottle, bowl, and pot and filling them up with water and stashing them. This, to be honest, is a pretty severe waste of carrying capacity in general. You should probably only need 1 mug, 4 bowls, 1 pot (although I'd get all I can find for storing soup), and a single can opener. Why, you ask? Those wonderful rain barrels. It doesn't take much (four nails, four boards), since you did remember to hunt down a hammer and nails, to build a couple rain barrels outside, and more throughout the city to refill your water bottles.

 

8. The Early Must Grabs

Survival:

1x Best melee weapon you can find. Leave ammo and guns for later.

1-2x Backpack, Duffel bag, or hiking bag

1x Lighter

4x Sheets

4x Bandages (shred some clothes and drop half)

1x Flashlight (for when you're dead tired and can't find your bed)

 

Food:

1x Can Opener

1x Kitchen Knife (For slicing watermelon, until they all go bad)

Any perishable food, preferably fruits

2x Orange Soda or water bottles (One on hand, one in a bag)

Leave non-perishables. They'll be there when you come back

4x Bowls (empty)

1x Cooking Pot (empty)

1x Frying Pan

1x Mug (empty)

 

Safehousing:

1x Hammer

10x Nails

4x Planks (for boarding safehouses or building a random rain collector)

 

Health:

1x Pen (to craft a journal)

1x Notepad (to craft a journal)

1x Sweater

1x Sleeping Pills (Pain pills are too rare)

 

9. Warehouse Stock

If you get a clean break-in to a warehouse, take the time to organize all the contents into a few, easily located crates for later. This can save you a ton of time looking for things you left behind like sledgehammers, nails, weapons, and ammo.

These are pretty good ideas, I mean some I differ from but overall I like your play-style. It's got me thinking of a few more sections I could expand on or include like 'Caught in the Dark' or 'Medical Knowledge'.

[Zourin]

I've spent the night watching Ecky's playthrough on a few builds. He did well, considering he spent a lot of time running around with 8 sheets, burning food, and poisoning himself.

 

There are a lot of buildings with only 2-3 windows and a primary door.. these are the most easily secured buildings since most of its surface isn't destructible. It's very easy to identify an overnight safehouse by the boarded windows, and there's no expectation of establishing farms or storing items. It's just a place to dry off and crash for the night. Furthermore, you're not wasting outbound carrying capacity.

 

Building rain barrels outside makes them just as useful after the water cuts off, and easier to identify.

 

Once the power cuts out, cooking gets ugly because of the haphazard campfire recipes on top of zombie attraction. Busting out a second-story wall, and expanding an uncovered section (but walled) of 2nd floor for a campfire and 1-2 rainbarrels beats putting those resources at ground-level.

 

You can easily shore up small safehouses all over the town wherever there's a niche with a bed and a reduced chance for the tides to bump into a door or window. Locking down a place like Cortman Medical means lots of boards, lots of zeds, and lots of places for a zombie to bump into a door or window. Building a door frame and relocating a door on the second floor to block off the stairs means you can more or less disregard boarding windows downstairs.

 

Last food for thought: Bring a firearm with you when you make a run to the central areas. A few pistol shots or a shotgun blast should draw regional attention, hopefully to thwart the Troll Algorithm that has dragged the hordes overtop your main homestead. I suggest doing this around Pile-o-Crepes. If you believe what you're told, you can pat yourself on the back for depleting the population.

[doomblood66]

At the start I usually head to the police station break in and use the guns and ammo to clean up the few local hordes, I can then take the warehouse above by force

[Realmkeeper]

 

Ahh yeah, didn't consider that. Australians call curtains, blinds. Something I did overlook, I can change it if it's too confusing.

Americans call them blinds AND curtains. It's a matter of where you're from and personal preference in terms.

 

Over here in NZ, Blinds and Curtains are two very different things.

 

Curtains are (almost always) made of fabric or other flexible material, and slide along curtain rails (as in, slide open horizontally). Commonly, you'll have two per window which slide to each side when open.

Blinds are what is probably referred to as 'Venetian Blinds' elsewhere - inflexible slats linked together with strings, and stacked vertically on top of each other. They cover the window, and are pulled open by a cord which brings them closer to each other and stacks them at the top of the window (as in, bunched together vertically).

 

So where I'm from, Curtains would cover pretty much any window covering made of cloth or sheet plastic, while blinds would refer to a cover made of wood/plastic/solid slats and cord/string.

[PlasticandRage]

You should have someone edit that for you. It looks so professional and nice it's bothering me that there's grammatical mistakes in there. It's my field, so I can't help noticing and generally being a grammar nazi. I'd be happy to do that for you if you wanted. For free, of course.

 

And it's an awesome guide. I've already learned a few things from it that I didn't know and I've been playing for over a year.

[Alphalogic]

 

 

Ahh yeah, didn't consider that. Australians call curtains, blinds. Something I did overlook, I can change it if it's too confusing.

Americans call them blinds AND curtains. It's a matter of where you're from and personal preference in terms.

 

Over here in NZ, Blinds and Curtains are two very different things.

 

Curtains are (almost always) made of fabric or other flexible material, and slide along curtain rails (as in, slide open horizontally). Commonly, you'll have two per window which slide to each side when open.

Blinds are what is probably referred to as 'Venetian Blinds' elsewhere - inflexible slats linked together with strings, and stacked vertically on top of each other. They cover the window, and are pulled open by a cord which brings them closer to each other and stacks them at the top of the window (as in, bunched together vertically).

 

So where I'm from, Curtains would cover pretty much any window covering made of cloth or sheet plastic, while blinds would refer to a cover made of wood/plastic/solid slats and cord/string.

 

That's the differentiation, though the majority here in the U.S. seem to use them interchangeably. Also referred to as shades and drapes despite definition.

[EnigmaGrey]

I've never known someone from the States to use curtains and blinds interchangeably.

And I don't want to know such a creature!

[Alphalogic]

I know too many, and have had the displeasure of hearing it on innumerable occasions from those I'm not acquainted with. You can practically see the thoughts forming in their minds: "Close + (thing that makes the sun stop doing that thing that suns seem to do so well, oh what's the word...? Ah well, insert something nearly like it, good enough)"

 

For reference, I live in Florida.

 

I fear this thread has gone terribly askew. I tend to digress into tangents often. 

[ApolloDiaspora]

So! How's this project coming along? Any updates of late?