Whats your guys favorite sandbox settings

[IronCoffins]

My opinion, but until survival is more difficult, i've been playing sandbox for a long awhile now. Fore most games i set the zombie count to insane, month to January, and loot count to normal. Zombie lore is the same. but every now and then i set things different. There hearing is pinpoint, sight and smell to poor. Would you say that be the most dominant stimuli for a zombie, sound right? anyways whats your guys setting you like most and why? 

[MafiaPuppet]

November -- cold for long enough that farming is a bitch. You don't deserve to farm until you've survived like a man. Plus, I hate running around naked.

 

Insane + Shambler + Long Memory + 12 hour infection -- Romero zombies are slow, relentless, and there are always too many to exhaustively kill. They personify the inevitability of death, and is why the original mythos is still so powerful. Also, if I'm infected, I want to know in a reasonable fucking time frame.

 

Weak -- I don't like how easy it is for large numbers of zombies to break through barricades. This is mostly a fix for the Insane number, and it doesn't seem to reduce chance of scratch/bitten, just the damage float that determines barricade damage and health pool damage.

 

Extremely Rare -- I don't like how easy it is to stay supplied. It encourages basing and discourages moving. With the zombie migration as shit as it is atm, the difficulty of the game drops dramatically once you clear an area and set up base. With this and the penalty of farming in winter, the player is forced to cover larger areas to maintain supplies. This penalizes basing by increasing travel times. I might change this back if hordes are reenabled, or zombies from non-inhabited zones are made to more likely wander into inhabited zones. Still, the only fun base defense is the kind of base defense that ends in you grabbing your Go Bag and leaving.

 

No starting power -- Because food should be scarce. Additionally, this encourages early looting sprees because the more non-rotten food you can find to dry/can, the longer you can keep your safe houses supplied until winter breaks.

 

No starting water -- Only because migration is shit atm, and I want to force myself to have to move to find water

[Suomiboi]

My favorite Sandbox setting is Survival.

 

It's much easier to see and follow how new stuff affects gameplay when you've got an exact reference point. I like it like that, so that it's easier to give more accurate feedback and make the game even better.

[IronCoffins]

November -- cold for long enough that farming is a bitch. You don't deserve to farm until you've survived like a man. Plus, I hate running around naked.

 

Insane + Shambler + Long Memory + 12 hour infection -- Romero zombies are slow, relentless, and there are always too many to exhaustively kill. They personify the inevitability of death, and is why the original mythos is still so powerful. Also, if I'm infected, I want to know in a reasonable fucking time frame.

 

Weak -- I don't like how easy it is for large numbers of zombies to break through barricades. This is mostly a fix for the Insane number, and it doesn't seem to reduce chance of scratch/bitten, just the damage float that determines barricade damage and health pool damage.

 

Extremely Rare -- I don't like how easy it is to stay supplied. It encourages basing and discourages moving. With the zombie migration as shit as it is atm, the difficulty of the game drops dramatically once you clear an area and set up base. With this and the penalty of farming in winter, the player is forced to cover larger areas to maintain supplies. This penalizes basing by increasing travel times. I might change this back if hordes are reenabled, or zombies from non-inhabited zones are made to more likely wander into inhabited zones. Still, the only fun base defense is the kind of base defense that ends in you grabbing your Go Bag and leaving.

 

No starting power -- Because food should be scarce. Additionally, this encourages early looting sprees because the more non-rotten food you can find to dry/can, the longer you can keep your safe houses supplied until winter breaks.

 

No starting water -- Only because migration is shit atm, and I want to force myself to have to move to find water

i agree 100% on all this, good pointers. 

Now that i've played this game for a long time, i too find new and exciting ways to challenge myself.

[Fryhizzle]

Insane amounts of fast shamblers with a shitty sense of smell and vision (their eyes are cloudy in the movies, not conducive for eagle eye) but excellent hearing (seems like the one sense that would decay slowest).  I usually start in April, loot rare, and no infection lethality, because there is nothing worse than losing it all to one scratch, and it always bothered me that people could be drenched in blood and be fine, but they get one bite and are screwed.  To some that might make it too easy, but I usually have no trouble finding a way to get myself killed regardless. 

[IronCoffins]

Insane amounts of fast shamblers with a shitty sense of smell and vision (their eyes are cloudy in the movies, not conducive for eagle eye) but excellent hearing (seems like the one sense that would decay slowest).  I usually start in April, loot rare, and no infection lethality, because there is nothing worse than losing it all to one scratch, and it always bothered me that people could be drenched in blood and be fine, but they get one bite and are screwed.  To some that might make it too easy, but I usually have no trouble finding a way to get myself killed regardless. 

IMO after enough play though i like having the hearing setting at pinpoint, and everything else shitty, as well as slow zombies. Having the hearing at pinpoint plus the vison at poor makes for a very interesting game. I've had times where hords of zombies are headin around back and forth all over the place. A huge horde gets near my house, then a window breaks afar and they all shuffle that way. Plus making noise are killers, killin a zombie in a house, starts the clock for the undead to come to your door.

I like setting the strength to super human, but them being very easy to kill. So a few arnt shit, but you get them all racked up and hungry, more then  3 to 6 can take your little safe house apart in no time. Only problem i have with the super human option is I frequently see zombies, run for a quick sec them back to normal,anyone else have that issue?

[Jeffear]

Whenever I play sandbox, I like to make it an isometric Left 4 Dead.

 

Insane zombies.

Instant water and electricity shutoff.

Abundant loot.

Sprinting zombies.

Weak and fragile zombies.

No infection transmission.

Normal navigation.

Long Memory.

Perfect senses.

 

It's a bit of a mixed bag with difficulty, on one hand the zombies die quickly and there's a lot of loot, but on the other there's a ton of them who sprint at your face and will do so at the drop of a hat.

[Equilibrium_Wolfe]

Insane Zombies - Everyone is dead so there should be a challenge to getting loot

0-1 Month for water  - Just to help build up water supplies

Instant Shutoff for Electricity - I don't use ovens and only grab non-rotting food so power is pointless

Normal Loot - To help with base building, gotta find those nails

Shamblers - Gives me a chance to escape the insane amount of zoms, plus they are rotting so they are slow

Superhuman - Zombies feel no pain and the human body is an amazing thing so Zombie SuperPunch away!!!

Fragile - Rotting Flesh is not the best defence

Blood and Saliva - Need a way to create more zombies

Normal Navigation - They are not stupid but not brilliant either

Short Memory - Easily forgetful

Normal Vision

Bloodhound for smell - I don't smell dead, they do

Poor Hearing - Constant moaning makes for deaf zombies

 

I have this set up to make it so that I can deal with a few of them at a time and can run if a horde finds me but if I'm surprised by those sneaky around the corner zombies I'm dead meat.

 

Also IronCoffins I have noticed that as well. As far as I can tell as long as they don't sense you they will sometimes sprint around to another location but the moment they start coming for you they go back to the setting you put them on.

[WTFBrutus]

I like to have a large number of fast-moving but weak zombies.  I want them to be everywhere, but I want to be able to kill them with a couple swings of a bat.

[Ace]

My sandbox settings is most of the time on hardest possible.

[Tsukune117]

when every thing is at its easiest. zombies dont infect, power and water outage till ages, loot a lot etc.

[JensTheViking]

What exactly are the default options in survival mode? Or are they the same as in when you open the sandbox window for the first time?

[Vonholtz]

I don't make a lot of zombie changes. I leave them mostly the same other then I like the Romero night of the living dead slow zombies. But I up the numbers so i will run in to lots of them.

 

As for other settings I up the power time. This is mostly do to not having any other power items in the game at this time like generators.

 

The biggest change I like to make is the 3 hour game day. I am old and I like to have more time to do what I need to do in game so I put it on 3 hours.

 

Oh BTW early on I tried setting the game for more rain. Boy was that dumb I will never do that again. It rained for days on end and I could not get much done at all.

[Footmuffin]

What exactly are the default options in survival mode? Or are they the same as in when you open the sandbox window for the first time?

Yupperooni, everything's on the stock sandbox settings in survival!

 

I leave everything the same except for their memory, which I raise; the time until the sickness kills, which doesn't really change anything anyway but I'm prepared if it gets fixed when I'm not looking; their speed, which I lower to shamblers since I have a lot of trouble managing the faster ones in hordes; the date, which I usually set back to some time in spring, usually May; the water settings, which I extend to six months; and the electricity, which I sometimes reel back to one month, to make the luxury foods that little bit more luxurious, or extend to six months if I'm cranky and don't expect it to actually get past a week or so.

[Blasted_Taco]

I been having fun for the first time in a while with sandbox settings, i have used sandbox like only 3 times in all the time i have played Zomboid and those were to test only stuff.

 

Now i been playing for real and finally i can get some of: This is how you died expirence.

-Fast Shamblers

-Pinpoint hearing

-Bloodhound smelling

-Long memory

-Superhuman strength 

-The best vision

-Normal endurance for them

-Insane amount

 

Is a lot of fun getting some zombies to bang my doors for once, i would put zombies on sprinters but holy shit you cant do anything with them with those settings, so fast shamblers help me out a lot.

 

Romero zombies are good but fast shamblers give me a cool challange.

 

Also i always make my character unemployed with no traits, i thorw powergaming build out of the window to have some fun for once.

[mads232]

Wow! What a great thread! I'll follow this, and try each of these sandbox settings that you've suggested!

 

Oh, my Sandbox settings are 2 hours instead of 1. And maximum water and power. (I don't like losing ma water and power! D: Yeah.. I'm a pussy.. )

 

 

[Viceroy]

I go for:

 

2 hour days.

Urban centric zombies.

Default start month.

Instant power and water failure.

Superhumanly strong zombies.

Fast Shamblers.

Tough zombies.

Longest memory setting.

High number of zombies.

 

And the rest I leave as default. No particular reason playing like this beyond keeping it "normal" when it comes to lore but enhancing difficulty a tad. I find sandbox a bit too easy TBH. 

[mads232]

My settings

 

So I've played your settings. I like it. Rare loot, but you're still able to survive. It creates a lot more difficulity than my typical sandbox. The zombies may be a little too easy though. Still pretty nice! I still like it.

 

Overall difficulity: 6/10

Surviving needs dificullity: 7/10

Zombie difficulity: 5/10

[IronCoffins]

what's your favorite settings you like to use at this point?

 

I tried a lot of the ones on here suggested and it does create some different gameplay aspects of the typical norm, im used to. But i'de have to say my all time favorite as of now, since im a fan of GR zombies

 

Zombie Count- Insane

Strength- Normal- or-Superhuman

Defense- Weak(there rotting flesh after all)(not Nazi zombies)

Memory- Long

Speed- Shamblers

Sight- Poor

Hearing- Pinpoint

Smell- Poor

Navigation- Basic

Loot- Normal

Power & Water- 6months

 

So far in all my trails with these settings that I've messed with over time, I love having the hearing to pinpoint. That alone makes it hard as shit to do really anything, one zombie you fight or start running brings tons & tons to you. But then after a ways your can start sneaking away from the soon to be horde an they all miss you and move right on by, for some reason I love that part. It don't really take long for all hell to break loose. Another is the navigation, with that I love setting it to basic. See if you run behind a house from a zombie, the zombie will then bust though the house to continue its trek for flesh. Its cool having a whole horde coming for you and like 3/4 of them clobber up at the house, and then keep going some more. Like a mass riot that will smash anything in its way to get some food. In the end its all about what you like for zombie lore, I personally never liked running zombies. I mean there dead after all, rotting pieces of meat, how are they running again? Some do like it and that's fine, this game has the ability for your zombie dreams to come to, and that's awesome.

 

Why the loot is normal and power & water is 6 months as well as zombie defense to weak, is to counter act some of the handicap for the player, for instance the zombies are at insane count and super human so there very strong in numbers, but a few arnt shit. For me I like a 3/4 hard difficulty, but when im feeling up to it, its balls to the wall hard as hell when I want, everything up)except running zombies)