GrogHeads Forum

If your interested in playing, send me a PM with your Steam ID. I live in (UTC-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada). I like to use Team Speak.

I am interested, long term.  Right now, very busy at work, so can't really predict my availability.

One thing I will do however, is that once the next major upgrade hits, I'll rent a server, and invite Grogheads to use it.

That sounds good!

I don't feel like I'd be any use to anyone yet, but like AT, I'm definitely up for this eventually.

Finally, Alpha 13...the big one is released.  All sorts of goodies in this release.

I was able to squeeze in a couple of hours this evening and it's pretty epic.

Finally got a new laptop so i can play 7 days to die again :), maxed out. I already died twice, the mo-cap zombies are cool. So far i like the changes, looks like a new world with the ability to turn the graphics settings up a bit

Quote from: -budd- on December 13, 2015, 02:44:03 AM
Finally got a new laptop so i can play 7 days to die again :), maxed out. I already died twice, the mo-cap zombies are cool. So far i like the changes, looks like a new world with the ability to turn the graphics settings up a bit

It freaked me out the first time I knocked a zombie down, I went over to loot it, and it got back up...run....

yea learned that also, just because there down don't mean there dead :) you can't engage them as easily at all. The harder the better i say, it was getting to the point where you didn't really have to sneak around. Put the setting on where they run the whole time, see how long you last :D I'm a zombie traditionalist i like them to walk all the time. It sure is freaky at night, can't see shit and with headphones its a cool atmosphere. 

The new body temperature feature is cool, but I think it needs to be balanced out more.  It's way too easy to overheat and it's never possible to maintain a constant temp. 

Now that Alpha 13 is up!!!

I set up a 7x24 server and welcome all Grogs. 

Find it as a modded server. The name: "Unofficial Grog Invitational".   

Password is "CambronneMerde!"

Zombies set to only walk, since I like a little more relaxed game....  60 min day/night cycle.

If it does go down for some reason, it is on autoreboot, so in theory it will never be down for more than 20 min.

There is also a teamspeak server
also named Unofficial Grog Invitational, same pass.

Hope to see you there.  Of course likely we will never see each other....:)

Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 13, 2015, 02:06:38 PM
Now that Alpha 13 is up!!!

I set up a 7x24 server and welcome all Grogs. 

Find it as a modded server. The name: "Unofficial Grog Invitational".   

Password is "CambronneMerde!"

Zombies set to only walk, since I like a little more relaxed game....  60 min day/night cycle.

If it does go down for some reason, it is on autoreboot, so in theory it will never be down for more than 20 min.

There is also a teamspeak server
also named Unofficial Grog Invitational, same pass.

Hope to see you there.  Of course likely we will never see each other....:)

May reinstall the game and check it out, Is it PvP?

I've joined, its dark :) Fu**ing bear killed me while typing here.

Quote from: AchillesLastStand on December 13, 2015, 02:13:30 PM
May reinstall the game and check it out, Is it PvP?

No, not PvP...  but not against it if there is demand for it.  But frankly, the survival part of the game has just gotten harder.  Now have to worry about freezing to death, and heat stroke.  Plus, zombie bears....   So there is enough out there that can kill you as it is...

Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 13, 2015, 04:55:35 PM

Quote from: AchillesLastStand on December 13, 2015, 02:13:30 PM
May reinstall the game and check it out, Is it PvP?

No, not PvP...  but not against it if there is demand for it.  But frankly, the survival part of the game has just gotten harder.  Now have to worry about freezing to death, and heat stroke.  Plus, zombie bears....   So there is enough out there that can kill you as it is...

I put it on a 60 min cycle, so hopefully you don't have to worry too much about spawning into night.  There is also a 5 game hour safe zone at spawn if you are under level 5.  I will make that longer...say 12 hours... and up the level so that you don't get whacked right away. 

The server now has a 12 game hour safe zone for players level 12 and less.  That should help if you spawn at night.

Let me know when you guys will be on tonight

May pick this up soon! -- finally got a headphone/mic setup.

died of thirst, couldn't find any water or puddles :) really cant go into any main settlements unless you have better weapons. You can take down 1 or 2 maybe even three with a bow but more are coming.

Quote from: -budd- on December 13, 2015, 06:21:12 PM
died of thirst, couldn't find any water or puddles :) really cant go into any main settlements unless you have better weapons. You can take down 1 or 2 maybe even three with a bow but more are coming.

Water has been harder for me to find as well.  I spawned in desert.  Cactus does not yield the bounty of yucca fruit it once did....and the yucca does not completely help with the thirst.  The water towers are also harder to break into now.  I eventually found a small pond, but drinking it gave me the runs...oh well...

How did u drink from the pond? I tried and couldn't get it to work. Bare hands, right mouse? I did fill up some jars.

I survived three nights on the server, hiding in a gas station at night, raiding a hardware store by day. Made it back from a water run late on the third day only to drop dead - from overheating I think. More painful lessons to come no doubt.

Just tried to join the "Unofficial Grog Invitational" server and apparently it hasn't been patched since there was a patch in the last hour or 2. We are up to 13.1 now.

Quote from: -budd- on December 13, 2015, 10:30:18 PM
How did u drink from the pond? I tried and couldn't get it to work. Bare hands, right mouse? I did fill up some jars.

Actually with jars.   I just started filling empty cans, and these I can put in the camp fire for boiled water.

Quote from: AchillesLastStand on December 14, 2015, 01:25:09 AM
Just tried to join the "Unofficial Grog Invitational" server and apparently it hasn't been patched since there was a patch in the last hour or 2. We are up to 13.1 now.

Damn....  The hosting provider doesn't do this automatically.  Guess it makes sense since the server has to be stopped and folks could be on it.

Anyway, a semi manual process.  But update is now complete.  I just tested it, working fine now.

Welcome to the wonders of Alpha software....

I'll try and join this weekend. 

They need to work or random generate worlds.   The terrain is...horrible.  Deep pits and Ravines that are impossible to get out of and generally just look bad.

I'm playing on high graphs and the game looks amazing however.

Quote from: Bison on December 14, 2015, 09:12:14 AM
They need to work or random generate worlds.   The terrain is...horrible.  Deep pits and Ravines that are impossible to get out of and generally just look bad.

There is a "smoothworld" command. I am a little reluctant to use it however.  But will do some more research.

I may have to pop in and die


PE

It is not an easy game.

Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 14, 2015, 02:09:34 PM

Quote from: Bison on December 14, 2015, 09:12:14 AM
They need to work or random generate worlds.   The terrain is...horrible.  Deep pits and Ravines that are impossible to get out of and generally just look bad.

There is a "smoothworld" command. I am a little reluctant to use it however.  But will do some more research.

I'll have to look it up too.

Quote from: Swatter on December 14, 2015, 07:58:35 PM
It is not an easy game.

Worst starting spawn locations are the desert and snow zones.  Pretty much instant death.

Quote from: -budd- on December 13, 2015, 10:30:18 PM
How did u drink from the pond? I tried and couldn't get it to work. Bare hands, right mouse? I did fill up some jars.

You got it right; bare hands - right click while near/in water. Haven't tried it with A13 yet...not a big fan of the runs. Worked in the past though.

just got fixed with update today.

Server is updated to .2 patch

Was online this afternoon and found a house in the desert that one of you guys was starting to build up with spike traps.

whats the coordinates? Ill be on this weekend i'll help build it up.

Quote from: Bison on December 17, 2015, 04:07:00 PM
Was online this afternoon and found a house in the desert that one of you guys was starting to build up with spike traps.

Are you sure? I'm playing solo and found a house that had spike traps around it. Might just be a new feature.

Pretty sure it's a players place because one of those claim blocks was there too.


I don't know the coordinates budd.

What happens to your character when you are not playing? Does it just disappear from the game?

yup. 

well i just died 5 more times. Fuc**ng zombies are quieter. Met the dogs finally and another death from thirst. I shared a waypoint on the map, it a cave....there's a bear.

Quote from: bbmike on December 17, 2015, 04:46:28 PM

Quote from: Bison on December 17, 2015, 04:07:00 PM
Was online this afternoon and found a house in the desert that one of you guys was starting to build up with spike traps.

Are you sure? I'm playing solo and found a house that had spike traps around it. Might just be a new feature.

Sounds like my place.  Feel free to use it.  So when you are off, and others are in the world, the clock moves on.  I haven't had a chance to play much, but everytime I have jumped back in, the game clock is a few days later.

I think at seven days things get more dangerous. 

I'm not sure but it makes sense about the time.  I also think you are right that the zeds get more aggressive after 7 days.

If the zed hoards get too tough...I can reset the game clock.

I was about to say, by the time I ever get in it, the Zs will be at Army of Darkness levels...  :P

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 17, 2015, 09:24:27 PM
I was about to say, by the time I ever get in it, the Zs will be at Army of Darkness levels...  :P

I don't think that is a concern Jason. The Zeds don't get tougher as time goes by.

The 7 day hordes do however get larger and meaner with each iteration. I'm not certain but expect that the 7th day horde your character attracts in MP will be built according to the level of your character, not that of others. That would be cruel even by 7DTD standards.

So far the zed in the area I have been in have been pretty tame.  But I expect that to change.

One interesting "realistic" touch in this new version is that I have to pretty much stay away from doing very much at mid-day in the desert.  Too hot, I overheat too quickly.  But if I do my work just before the sun, and a few hours after dusk, I get pretty far. 

Also, I was very hot one day, so I jumped into a nearby pond...cooled me off nicely.

Quote from: Rekim on December 17, 2015, 10:16:16 PM

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 17, 2015, 09:24:27 PM
I was about to say, by the time I ever get in it, the Zs will be at Army of Darkness levels...  :P

I don't think that is a concern Jason. The Zeds don't get tougher as time goes by.

The 7 day hordes do however get larger and meaner with each iteration. I'm not certain but expect that the 7th day horde your character attracts in MP will be built according to the level of your character, not that of others. That would be cruel even by 7DTD standards.

I think you are right about the hordes being built by your level in MP.  That would explain why on day 6, I am still pretty low level, and have not seen the massive hordes yet.

I am starting a safe house.  It is at 606N 918E.  I also shared the waypoint, so you should have that on your maps. Password to get in the door is "ace"  Feel free to stay, and help out building defenses.  There is a pond in a deep ravine to the east, just over the road if you need water.  Food is somewhat sparse.  I have been existing on cans of stuff dropped by zeds...also yucca.  There is grass land to the north with a bit of wild life if you want to hunt.  The house is in the desert, so it gets hot mid-day.

Eventually I will need to move elsewhere...somewhere more temperate. If you have any ideas where to go, leave a shared waypoint for everyone and/or post the coordinates.

If you want to keep your stuff in the house...no problem, just put down your own secure storage box.

I'll check out the house when I get back on. I marked that cave I found, might make a good fort. Haven't explored it yet have to kill the bear first. My bow skill is up to 6 I believe, gonna take out the bear next time.

I feel increasingly likely that I'll be meandering in sometime this weekend; and surely by next weekend.

Is the teamspeak area the same area (except with teamspeak active)?

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 18, 2015, 04:16:03 PM
I feel increasingly likely that I'll be meandering in sometime this weekend; and surely by next weekend.

Is the teamspeak area the same area (except with teamspeak active)?

TeamSpeak is active, same name and pass.

If I get time, I will pop in.


PE

Okay, but I mean if I go onto the teamspeak server will it have the same things as on the other server (except also teamspeak), or are they two different... um... worlds?

Dling now, btw.

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 18, 2015, 05:00:14 PM
Okay, but I mean if I go onto the teamspeak server will it have the same things as on the other server (except also teamspeak), or are they two different... um... worlds?

Dling now, btw.

Not certain what you mean.  But TeamSpeak is a separate server from 7 Days server.  So no effect on 7 Days if you use or don't use TeamSpeak

But I don't think anyone is on the TeamSpeak server anyway

Hm. Well, I tried to find the Unofficial Grog Invitational server (in the modded server list) twice tonight, around 9 pm and 10 pm (US CST), and never could find it.  :-[

Hmm...I had not done the server upgrade for the new patch yet.  So am wondering if it didn't show up because of patch differences?  But it is definitely there.  I am on it now.

Tried it again a minute ago (8:07pm CST), got no hits. I promise I'm checking the modded servers. Was it renamed or something? -- is there a space in front of Unofficial??

i had to search multiple times to find it, couldn't someone just send you the IP address, once you play it, it's in your history.

Hm, I'm beginning to suspect my ping rate may be too low, and that's why I've never seen it...  :-[

Okay, actually in this time.

Have died twice so far (once from falling off a water tower in the dead of night, I think.) But I've scouted and marked 3 water towers (I think) and a house with two locked doors and at least one unlocked one leading outside. Currently crouched in front of that door with a bone-splinter shiv (the only thing I've made so far), and a zombie horde outside that appeared around sunset -- but they seem to have lost my scent. Possibly despite my having the stomach runs.

Locations are shared on map, so far as I know. Be aware that I'm in a desert, and things are quite grim here; I'm overheating in the house at night, for example.

Quote from: -budd- on December 19, 2015, 09:33:13 PM
i had to search multiple times to find it, couldn't someone just send you the IP address, once you play it, it's in your history.

The IP address is:  216.155.140.191

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 20, 2015, 12:28:02 AM
Okay, actually in this time.

Have died twice so far (once from falling off a water tower in the dead of night, I think.) But I've scouted and marked 3 water towers (I think) and a house with two locked doors and at least one unlocked one leading outside. Currently crouched in front of that door with a bone-splinter shiv (the only thing I've made so far), and a zombie horde outside that appeared around sunset -- but they seem to have lost my scent. Possibly despite my having the stomach runs.

Locations are shared on map, so far as I know. Be aware that I'm in a desert, and things are quite grim here; I'm overheating in the house at night, for example.

If it is my safehouse, the pass code to get in is "ace."  Hold down the "E" key while facing the door to get the menu.

I haven't had much luck with getting into a water tower yet in this latest version.  The old ones had a walkway around them. 

Had a couple of bad run ins with hoards during my last session.  The worst was a pack of zombie dogs.  The only way I could get rid of them, was to run around my spike walls, and let them run over the spikes.  I think that might be a good way to get rid of bears.  Dig a pit, put spikes in the bottom.  Let them chase you, and carefully direct them into it.

Has anyone found a town yet?

I have a city about 1Km from my safehouse. Will send the lat/long tomorrow nite when I get the chance.

My character is pretty much fubar at this point do to attempting too much play when A13 was first released. My character suffered 5 glitch deaths in very short order, which has dropped health to nothing and lost all my good loot in downtown hub city. Not enough health/gear left to retrieve it. It's kind of a shame as I'd managed to pick up a quality pistol and good recipes in the early going (both shotguns & cement).

Is it possible to restart a character in MP?

I guess it can't be your house, AzTank, as it looks completely abandoned and one of the doors was totally unlocked. Where the two locked doors go, I'm not sure yet -- haven't been back to the game today, and last night I was stuck inside waiting for the horde to go away by dawnish.

I tried publishing the locations publicly to everyone (not just to allies, in case that ran into a trigger problem -- I don't know if we all start as allies or not). I haven't seen one other marker on the map yet, so I'm pretty confused and worried about whether I'm doing something wrong. I didn't try to even find the Teamspeak server; I can't imagine I got on there by accident...?

While on top of a water tower during my last playthru, I saw a plane going across the sky, over where I eventually found the abandoned house. I have no idea what that means. It seemed to leave behind a graphical glitch like a half-opened parachute that never went anywhere. Eventually I didn't see that anymore (maybe from having walked under it.)

Hmm, I hate multiplayer but you guys are making me want to check this out.

Jason - the plane visits every few days (default = 3) and para drops a crate of excellent loot. The crate issues orange smoke while it is dropping and for a short while one the ground.

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 20, 2015, 08:01:55 PM
I guess it can't be your house, AzTank, as it looks completely abandoned and one of the doors was totally unlocked. Where the two locked doors go, I'm not sure yet -- haven't been back to the game today, and last night I was stuck inside waiting for the horde to go away by dawnish.

I tried publishing the locations publicly to everyone (not just to allies, in case that ran into a trigger problem -- I don't know if we all start as allies or not). I haven't seen one other marker on the map yet, so I'm pretty confused and worried about whether I'm doing something wrong. I didn't try to even find the Teamspeak server; I can't imagine I got on there by accident...?

While on top of a water tower during my last playthru, I saw a plane going across the sky, over where I eventually found the abandoned house. I have no idea what that means. It seemed to leave behind a graphical glitch like a half-opened parachute that never went anywhere. Eventually I didn't see that anymore (maybe from having walked under it.)

The planes drop supplies.  Usually some good stuff, like anti-biotics, a good book or two, and some weapons.  When you see the drop...orange smoke, follow it and pick It up.

I have shared some locations as well, but I think you guys can only see when I am online.  Otherwise, the grid coordinate system should work.

If you want to try, you should find my place at 606N 918E.  I have put a log wall and spike ditch around it.  So you will need some wood frames to complete the bridge that gets you over the ditch.

As soon as I finish my basic defenses, I need to look for components for a forge. 

Quote from: Rekim on December 20, 2015, 07:19:08 PM
Is it possible to restart a character in MP?

I think I can allow that in the server config.  I will change it tonight.  Then in theory you can change characters.

You could also create and new profile or delete the old one.

So I changed the server config to allow for other characters, but I don't know how you change.

I'm doubtful I'll be able to do any more until Wednesday night at the latest -- too many Christmas things to do and prepare for after work until then. I will definitely start plotting a course to the safehouse (Zafehouse?) as soon as I get back in, although it may take me some game days to get there as I'm fighting desert conditions from a raw start. (And for all I know the zombie horde may still be outside the door. But I do have poo to fling now, which the game says will distract zombies.)

Best things to do at start
Collect plant fiber beat on the grass
Make set fiber clothes
2 small stones
Beat tree until get 2 wood
Craft stone ax
Chop tree
Collect feathers from bird nests
Build bow and arrows

Quote from: Bison on December 21, 2015, 02:12:27 PM
Best things to do at start
Collect plant fiber beat on the grass
Make set fiber clothes
2 small stones
Beat tree until get 2 wood
Craft stone ax
Chop tree
Collect feathers from bird nests
Build bow and arrows

Agree, but be careful of too many clothes in the desert, it can make you overheat.

Yup.  They also just patched in for a fiber cap that provides a cooling bonus.

Honestly you are better off finding a higher elevation plains or forest rather than sitting in the desert.  I generally like to make a "deer stand" base that is 3 blocks high with a small platform just to have a safe place to "hide" until morning the first night.  I just don't think the desert or winter biome are conducive to a perminate base. 

I haven't had a chance to boot up again, but I feel pretty confident I haven't found even one stone. In the desert. Of all places.  ::)

I did manage to shiv up some bone knives. But according to my menus, out of all the various junk I've picked up, those bones were the only thing I could use for now.

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 21, 2015, 11:25:35 PM
I haven't had a chance to boot up again, but I feel pretty confident I haven't found even one stone. In the desert. Of all places.  ::)

I did manage to shiv up some bone knives. But according to my menus, out of all the various junk I've picked up, those bones were the only thing I could use for now.

If you can't find a stone, you can always use your hands to "beat" one out of the large rocks strewn around the landscape.  Beat on it a bit, and you will get a small stone after a few hits.

The safe house....

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi29.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc255%2Flarizona55%2F2015-12-22_00001_zpspqeipefy.jpg&hash=30106d5ccecb9ad6f0acae4141eba704eaa75f7e)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi29.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc255%2Flarizona55%2F2015-12-22_00002_zpslieedfxd.jpg&hash=a2ebb1d1bdcc65b9434e02611cd356df6835f65f)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi29.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc255%2Flarizona55%2F2015-12-22_00004_zpskgcqykjs.jpg&hash=9bc1abc43e06421414f40f9e154975dcd21743ac)

Nice. 

Yeah that's definitely not where I'm at. That's like a legitimate hunting lodge!  :o :o :o :o

I feel pretty under-competent. Me and my bone shiv(s) and my diarrhea...  :2funny:

I arrived. I put the frames down to get across the ditch. I have a chest by the bed, help yourself. Your chests are locked and ace didn't work to unlock them. I put a chest on the roof by the chimney with some wood, stone and feathers for emergencies. Where's the water :)...I'm going to forage and look for a town, hoping to find an auger, i'm a tunneler ....O and i hung a picture.

Ok. done for now. Found some building's to the north a barn and a couple houses. picked up the hay and added to the wall at base. I found some jars and a little bit of water, we can't fill out of the toilet anymore? I don't have a cooking pot and i haven't made molds yet, need a glass jar mold. I put some stuff in the fridge and a bunch of resources in the chest by the bed and i left all my weapons and tools in the chest before logging out. There a lot of wood and scrap iron and rock, use it for what you will. I could use more feathers, i go through arrows fast. Got my archery up too level 9. I'll probable be back on later tonight. If you find the safe house make a sleeping bag and put it down so when you die you'll spawn there. There's cloth in my chest by the bed.

I picked this game up a while back coz some friends have it.  I've yet to install it though, and this vignette...

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 20, 2015, 12:28:02 AM

Have died twice so far (once from falling off a water tower in the dead of night, I think.) But I've scouted and marked 3 water towers (I think) and a house with two locked doors and at least one unlocked one leading outside. Currently crouched in front of that door with a bone-splinter shiv (the only thing I've made so far), and a zombie horde outside that appeared around sunset -- but they seem to have lost my scent. Possibly despite my having the stomach runs.

Locations are shared on map, so far as I know. Be aware that I'm in a desert, and things are quite grim here; I'm overheating in the house at night, for example.

...is not inspiring me to :buck2:

To be fair, I got a bad random spawn. Assuming AzTank's map even has anything other than desert, which for all I know it may not (I can't recall clearly if there was evidence up thread.) I got dropped with literally nothing but some underwear into a desert as night was falling. I'm amazed I only died twice.

Even so, I'm having a hell of a time. It's definitely a game that rewards shared teamwork and experience, but I could see someone making a real solo go at it.

Quote from: -budd- on December 22, 2015, 10:16:54 AM
I arrived. I put the frames down to get across the ditch. I have a chest by the bed, help yourself. Your chests are locked and ace didn't work to unlock them. I put a chest on the roof by the chimney with some wood, stone and feathers for emergencies. Where's the water :)...I'm going to forage and look for a town, hoping to find an auger, i'm a tunneler ....O and i hung a picture.

I like what you have done to the place...:)

Water is due East over the road.  There is a deep pit, and the water is down there.  You can find clay in the slope of the hill just North of the house.

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 22, 2015, 01:59:32 PM
To be fair, I got a bad random spawn. Assuming AzTank's map even has anything other than desert, which for all I know it may not (I can't recall clearly if there was evidence up thread.) I got dropped with literally nothing but some underwear into a desert as night was falling. I'm amazed I only died twice.

Even so, I'm having a hell of a time. It's definitely a game that rewards shared teamwork and experience, but I could see someone making a real solo go at it.

Here is my map, maybe you will recognize something and try to get there.  I really haven't done much exploring yet.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi29.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc255%2Flarizona55%2F2015-12-22_00005_zpszcwz2xtd.jpg&hash=6a9965cb9d203599118c040135978272fcae94b0)

You going to keep your chests locked? you got a cooking pot in there? What's with not being able to fill jars in the toilet anymore. I guess everyone has there own map, is there a server setting to share one common map. I put a ton of wood and rock in my chest for building, i'll be on later to forage some more. Need to handle the water situation, there some rabbit in the fridge to cook, i'll go look for some beer ;)

There's a town @ 166S/ 954W , house @1288N/266E ....did the server get the new update? its being glitchy.

Quote from: -budd- on December 22, 2015, 06:34:24 PM
You going to keep your chests locked? you got a cooking pot in there? What's with not being able to fill jars in the toilet anymore. I guess everyone has there own map, is there a server setting to share one common map. I put a ton of wood and rock in my chest for building, i'll be on later to forage some more. Need to handle the water situation, there some rabbit in the fridge to cook, i'll go look for some beer ;)

Chests are unlocked.  Cooking pot on the fire, anvil on forge

Yes, the server got the update.  But I noticed issues as well. So I stopped it, reinstalled the latest patch and restarted.  Working fine now.

I've been building up a temporary safehouse to withstand my first horde or two. It is located in a gas station roughly 1 Km SSE of the hub city (the centre of our grog-universe). I don't recognize any features for the map Arizona posted...so not sure where abouts that might be. There is a mighty cliff face many Km's wide in between my house and hub city, so will consider starting to build a concrete hording base with better access for raiding the city. Hopefully with good proximity to water/hunting. My favorite spot for setting up a safehouse is in a town where there are plenty or reasonable sized buildings to pick from for fortifying. A favorite trick is to completely surround a town house with sharp/explody objects, and create a sky bridge to it from an neighboring house for access/escape. Just have to remember to pull a block from the bridge whenever the bad guys decide to visit. I manage to forget this step a good percentage of the time.

One of the funny things about playing MP is that it's possible to miss many/all of the 7 day hordes depending on when you play. I've been playing since day 1, server is now > day 30 and still have yet to encounter a 7 day horde. Not sure what to expect when I finally do.

post your coordinates, maybe you'll get visitors. the coordinates to Arizona safehouse is a few posts back.

I wrote the coordinates down but forgot to bring them in to work with me tonight. Hub city is @ 0N,0W and my pad is 1Km SSW of that. I've raided everything within 2 Km (except the city) and need to move on to greener pastures, so there's really no point in tracking my hide down on purpose. If you happen to come a cross a gas station in the plains with a shit load of spikes you most likely have found it.

I will definitely send a Lat/Long when I start building a looting base next to the city. It is a difficult task as there is just so much more Zed traffic when close to town. Challenging conditions to build under.

were not to far from the main city, i just died there. I'm going back the next day, i need an auger and i want my backpack ..welll back. Fuc**ng dogs got me.

ya the dogz do suck now that they make little to no noise as they approach. Good luck getting your backpack back.

Here's Arizona's base.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-23_00007_zpsjog5hktm.jpg&hash=99b998e06649863ba375f4058be52bc533096574)

A solid looking fort. I assume the architect isn't a vegetarian judging by super-max like perimeter around everything but the corn field. What are the outer walls made of? Looks like dirt.

In front is hay bales, the rest dirt. There's a pit with stakes, Arizona dug it with a stone shovel. That took some time. I haven't seen a hoard yet but he said it survived well when the hoard hit the fort. I'm gonna hit the city to look for an Auger, I found a gun shop but there was too many zombies in the city, cops,dogs and some new zombie i haven't seen before, travels like a monkey on all fours.

Quote from: Rekim on December 24, 2015, 12:30:00 AM
A solid looking fort. I assume the architect isn't a vegetarian judging by super-max like perimeter around everything but the corn field. What are the outer walls made of? Looks like dirt.

Budd helped quite a bit.  Anyway, the last hoard managed to breach it....oh well....back to the drawing board.

But...it obviously got you through the night. Time to rebuild and improve. Next horde will be bigger and meaner. This really is one of the best aspects of the game...it provides real motivation for building a better fort.

Quote from: Rekim on December 24, 2015, 06:38:56 PM
But...it obviously got you through the night. Time to rebuild and improve. Next horde will be bigger and meaner. This really is one of the best aspects of the game...it provides real motivation for building a better fort.

Actually, a spider zombie crawled up to my walkway and killed me...then it was downhill from there.  But you are right, the game really forces you to constantly improve your fort.  So to stop spiders, I will put up barb wire and horizontal railings on the walls.

Looks like another update, says use saves at your own risk.

Quote from: -budd- on December 25, 2015, 10:07:36 AM
Looks like another update, says use saves at your own risk.

I was just on this morning.  But I was exploring to the east and saw some really extreme terrain.  Big cliffs, roads over cliffs, slivers of wasteland...big holes.  I wonder if it has been there, or is a result of the patch.

the pact notes said they worked on map random gen, why the saves might be funky. how this effects servers i have no idea, do you usually have to restart a server, i mean start over.

It's one of the minor irritants of 7 Days to Die.  You'll occasionally have to start your game world over due to patches doing funky things to your saved games.  I'd think the server game would be the same since it's just hosting the game client, unless the game client was held to an older version of the game.

I vote for zombies run at night  O0

Considering that I am literally at the bottom of a hole right now, I am 100% okay with the gameworld restarting.  :P :D

But I've learned a lot in my several deaths and respawns. Dangit, I almost got to the end of a burnt forest (note to self, flee burnt forests pronto before I overheat and die) and into water when a burning zombie got me. And the I respawned next to the most fascinating giant cliff face in the desert, near a huge source of water (and lots of shade.) I was working my way out of the pit pretty well and thinking, hey, didn't I pick up some cloth earlier? I CAN MAKE A SLEEPING BAG AND ALWAYS COME BACK HERE WHEN I RESPAWN! Then I ran into a fairly weak zombie who, unfortunately, cut me with a lucky strike and I bled out before I could get away and find if I had anything to tie up with.


Shortly afterward, while trying to work my way back there through the burnt forest again, I fell in an extensive little hole in the ground. Hmmmm... could I harvest enough stone to make some stone stairs out before I die of exposure...?

This game is not for the feint of heart. Watch some YouTube videos!

Btw, I think the burnt forest and areas with lots of stray bricks lying around denotes the edge of the map. These areas auto kill you fast.

OK, restarting.  Doing a full wipe, so may be down for an hour or so this morning.

Quote from: Swatter on December 25, 2015, 11:32:32 PM
This game is not for the feint of heart. Watch some YouTube videos!

Btw, I think the burnt forest and areas with lots of stray bricks lying around denotes the edge of the map. These areas auto kill you fast.

+1

+1

Quote from: Swatter on December 25, 2015, 11:32:32 PM
This game is not for the feint of heart. Watch some YouTube videos!

Yeah, I wasn't complaining; I've been having a ball.  O0

Quote from: Swatter on December 25, 2015, 11:32:32 PM
Btw, I think the burnt forest and areas with lots of stray bricks lying around denotes the edge of the map. These areas auto kill you fast.

That's pretty brilliant.  :coolsmiley:

I'm pretty sure the edge of the game world has been nuked and you are actually dying from radiation iirc.

If I got far enough that would make sense; my stats didn't show me dying of radiation, though, only from extreme heat.

Anyway, the world got rebooted. And dang, budd and AzTank didn't take long to get going! I managed to hike down to AzTank's fort-house, doing some minor refurbishing as I went -- dying once from a lucky zombie strike, but fortunately that teleported me closer to them. I'm about to go back in and do some work on AzTank's house, although we might move down to Budd's as I recall hearing that he managed to set up much closer to a water source. AT was scouting on that when I made it down to his house.

my basement is flooded, water on tap:-], i've got trees, rocks, pigs, deer, chickens,bears all near by and a bunch of caves in the backyard so don't wander in the dark. It actually a good spot. the door code is ace, the chests are unlocked, help yourself.

I'm gonna test logging in.

Dead. Shortest game ever! I'll try again in a bit. Thanks for help, Jason!

AzTank's server is acting weird. After a few minutes, no action is 'saved' by the system.

Only way past is to quit and re-enter game.

I'm seeing the same thing as Jason

I'm fairly sure part of the problem comes from trying to run long distances.

Btw, Budd, I thought we had decided all doors would be password locked with "ace"... got to your house, doors were open, I closed them to keep zombies out, opps locked in. Fortunately found another door out. Closed it to lock it, too, this time outside so that I wouldn't starve or something... also password locked not "ace".

hmmm thats interesting, i did lock 2 doors with the ace code. I also was having that problem stuff not being saved, i'd build reinforce and then the server would weird out usually my pickup key would stop working and i would have to disconnect and then all i had done wasn't saved when i'd reconnect.I'll be on later tonight and check it out. Don't wander out back at night, there's a lot of big holes.

Yep, same here, I know there's trouble when the "use" key (which usually picks up items or opens them for an inventory) stops working. I've lost a good deer kill that way, and some precious water bottles.  :tickedoff:

However, I do suspect the problem is running too far -- so far that the server loses track of the player and the player partially desynchs. I've had to "shovel" reality into existence in various places where the land ran out and there was only skybox. Every single time, I noticed eventually my use key had stopped working; whereas once I was the only one on the server and I quit and reloaded, I tried walking everywhere and never had a problem.

This seems related, as a fix.

Quote from: MahatmaGamer, on Steam 7DtD forumAlpha 13.6 Server Connection issues (potential fix)
After Alpha 13.6 update released we were having some severe connection issues i.e. not being able to connect, Only world chunk loading (you fall of the edge of the earth) we had this issue with our own hosted server and joining other hosts.

I re-installed the update to the server and its been running smoothly since.

Perhaps relatedly, perhaps coincidentally, the music doesn't play anymore during loading the game, since the new update back on the 24th.

well i foraged all day, plenty of wood and stone. Found someones base, green roof with some planted corn and cotton...ace wasn't the code to get in. I was running for the plane drop when i found it, never did find the crates. Next time i'll hunt all day for skins for a bellows. Thanks to whoever added to the supplies.

I added the supplies at your base, budd.

I'm pretty sure you found AzTank's house, from the sound of it. I got in there using "ace"; I don't think I changed the password doing so, but I did notice that the game treated the door as being only "locked" with me having permission to pass thenceforth. On the other hand, only the front door had been passcarded like that; the side door (which AzTank, aka Number42 or 41 or whatever, eventually came in) didn't seem to have any password, and remained locked for me.

Is this server closed? Real interested in this game but would be a total noob and would like to latch on to some brothers who will help instead of pk. I do have some experience with builders terria mostly.

Quote from: jamus34 on December 27, 2015, 02:03:04 PM
Is this server closed? Real interested in this game but would be a total noob and would like to latch on to some brothers who will help instead of pk. I do have some experience with builders terria mostly.

Don't think it's closed. The log in info is at the start of this thread. Don't worry about being a noob. I died within minutes.  ;D

Quote from: jamus34 on December 27, 2015, 02:03:04 PM
Is this server closed? Real interested in this game but would be a total noob and would like to latch on to some brothers who will help instead of pk. I do have some experience with builders terria mostly.

Come on it.  No, not closed at all.  It is cooperative.  No attacking other players.  Login info is at the beginning of the thread.  Highly recommend you watch a tutorial video first.  YouTube is full of them.

Just to recap, the password is: "CambronneMerde!"

All locked doors in the game should be passworded with "ace", but note that sometimes there may be an invisible space when setting them so make sure to backspace thoroughly before setting the password.

The server is called "Unofficial Grog Invitational".

Tap 't' on the keyboard to open the global chat window. Microphones kind of work, but sometimes need the 'v' key held down.

'M' brings up the map; then check the other players at the menu on the upper right. Send ally requests to everyone; accept from everyone.

This build is a little whacked on the server right now; if you get to a point where using the "use" key (originally 'e') doesn't work, or you see gaping skybox holes in the terrain, you should quit and re-enter.

Is this game worth buying into just to play with y'all?  This isn't something I'd play on my own, but this thread is intriguing me.   :idiot2:

Steam has it for $10 at the moment :coolsmiley:

Buy with confidence. Well, confidence and patience at some of the remaining instability as the dev continues trying to improve the random terrain generator.  ::) But work continues and as the Chinese say in English: progress is being occurred.  O0

Having helped set up AzTank's house earlier today with a giant spiky sea of spikes, I trotted down to Budd and spent the afternoon and early evening doing the same for his house; plus some hunting. The most interesting of which was luring a bear back to the house to see if I could get him onto the spikes. Unfortunately, he followed me to the wall gate and there the only bug I've seen in the game (aside from the general server goofiness after the latest update) happened: he teleported through the door. (In fairness, the code may have thought he went over the wall.) I almost didn't get the main door slammed in his face, and I can tell you I was pretty nervous about whether he'd beam through that one, too, but the surrounding doorframe read as "solid" and the bear didn't try chewing through the door.

More to the point, unlike zombies (so far) the grizzly was smart enough to generally avoid the spike field!

Scampering upstairs, I took budd's clever roof-hideaway escape hatch (which frankly needs a door before the spider zombies start to arrive); and stood on the roof with bow nocked pacing around as the bear raged back and forth on the deck (which I had been meaning to fill with spikes, but hadn't gotten around to it yet.) He stuck his butt out far enough at one point that I shot it, at which he ran to the wall far below and started trying (unsuccessfully) to climb it. Due to a quirk in how the porch had been built, he fell into a bit of a pit, and couldn't figure out how to turn around and climb out again -- but neither could he go forward with the spikes. All he could do was stick his nose out beyond the wall: and standing on the roof, I Legolas'd his head seven or eight times with my doofy little stonehead caveman arrows. Until he died.  :knuppel2:

Then I ran around the house so excited I went out the wrong dang door; hoping to get to him before the game disappeared him -- it'll do that with zombies before you can get their loot sometimes, but I haven't seen it happen with animals yet, but still... Due to how he died, I had to practically crawl up his ass afterward and flay his dead body with my bone shiv. We ate well that night on bear-bacon and eggs!

A lurker from Wargamer.com joined in as "Randall Flagg" (though oddly looking a lot more like a hot blonde woman than I recall from The Stand  ::) ), and got kicked around the map on bad spawn far away from the rest of us, but by luck he respawned just outside the house as night was falling (and I had gotten the bear nicely cooked), so spent the night and the next day helping housekeep the spikes and generally getting up to speed with the new character. Budd meanwhile has found a city (actually the second one, the first being in a snowzone and far too cold to travel or stay) about a day's travel out, which he has been looting and then coming back to the house -- also bringing meat.

In short, best $10 I've spent all month, easily. Actually best $20! -- I bought before the sale started, and then wasn't able to do much until after the sale started.  :buck2: Still the best $20 I've spent all month. Easily worth twice that, and still in alpha.

well i went back to the smaller city, fell in a hole on the way. Had to make a ladder to climb out, fell off the ladder and died :) it was a deep hole. Went back for my backpack and dogs jumped me to the tune of 5 deaths.  I labeled a safe house by the city it has some weapons and stuff, backdoor code is the usual. Finally got to the city and looted the bookstore and the tool shop, alas no auger. I left some schematics in the chests for anyone. the city still has a lot of loot left, i'll be going back. I found a coat so maybe i'll take a run at the freezing main city at 0.0 .Someone else was on didn't recognize the name and didn't respond to a greeting, no idea. I'll probably push on past the smaller city down where the road forks. I think the forge isn't working right suddenly i cant forge iron and still haven't found an anvil book. I was getting some low FPS numbers, usually run in the 70's but was going down to the teens. Thanks for shoring up the place Jason.

Quote from: -budd- on December 28, 2015, 12:22:08 AM
well i went back to the smaller city, fell in a hole on the way. Had to make a ladder to climb out, fell off the ladder and died :) it was a deep hole. Went back for my backpack and dogs jumped me to the tune of 5 deaths.  I labeled a safe house by the city it has some weapons and stuff, backdoor code is the usual. Finally got to the city and looted the bookstore and the tool shop, alas no auger. I left some schematics in the chests for anyone. the city still has a lot of loot left, i'll be going back. I found a coat so maybe i'll take a run at the freezing main city at 0.0 .Someone else was on didn't recognize the name and didn't respond to a greeting, no idea. I'll probably push on past the smaller city down where the road forks. I think the forge isn't working right suddenly i cant forge iron and still haven't found an anvil book. I was getting some low FPS numbers, usually run in the 70's but was going down to the teens. Thanks for shoring up the place Jason.

I left some schematics in the red cabinet in my place as well. 

I did not need a book to make the anvil.  Just lots of iron.

Yes, thanks Jason for the spikes, will come in handy.  They already stopped one horde attack...:)

Budd, my unlocked chest upstairs in the final saferoom of your house (though I need to make an escape route like you've got), has a great coat and shirt -- maybe that's what you found? The shirt should be helpful for the snow-city run, too.

I decided a while back to put all my skill points into scavenging.  ^-^

Oh, AzTank, have you tried reinstalling the Dec 24 update yet? One of the Steam users thought that this fixed the goofy desynch problem (where after a while the server partially loses track of you, even to the point of forgetting to plot the land nearby leaving only skybox).

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 28, 2015, 11:17:01 AM
Oh, AzTank, have you tried reinstalling the Dec 24 update yet? One of the Steam users thought that this fixed the goofy desynch problem (where after a while the server partially loses track of you, even to the point of forgetting to plot the land nearby leaving only skybox).

Yes, I reinstalled this morning.  I was on for about 30 min., and did not see any issues.

Regards
Larry

I'll be on in few days.  I have plans of an elaborate fort in the sky complete with fields and crafting stations.  I'd been working on the concept in my single player game.

Well, I'm not sure if there are literal spider zombies (there are literal hornet zombies), but the feral zombies dang well crawl up whatever they like. As far as I can tell from my admittedly limited experience with them.

That limited experience would be the 28th Night on the server recently, which Budd and I happened to be online for. No less than 2 hordes at Budd's house, possibly 3 or 4. Died multiple times. In hindsight I should have done what Budd did, and run off in the night with a pack of meat to draw them on and off the spikes.

The house still hadn't been completely refurbished when I had to sign off and go to work. In fact, I packed my bag and much of the tech and abandoned the house in case it was too "human hot" to feasibly camp out in for a while -- but I got killed while leaving, and spawned out far enough that I had to camp at AzTank's house for the next night. Still, I got the tech back to Budd's house before quitting for work this afternoon.

I wonder if fields work underground...? It's probably time (and past time) to be moving into the substrata.

Or, more tactically, until we can get an underground warren going, we should be trying to spread out to three or four bases more or less equidistant from each other (but at least a quarter day's walk away) so that we can be spreading out the 'human heat bloom' that accrues in a place.

Still, I can't help but like the idea of a skybase. :D

It's interesting to compare with Budd's AAR (here at the Digital AAR category) from a year and a half ago.

I was hiding out in a house with a forge on the bottom floor for the day 21 horde. It was tough going as I only had one day to prepare and the horde turned out to be much bigger than I expected. I thought it was going to be the usual 7-day sized horde as it was the first one I'd experienced on this map. It was definitely bigger than that. I had a couple of weak lines of defense in place, the last one being a wood frame stand up near the ceiling. The horde was so big I found myself hiding up in my loft quite quickly. Eventually cop spew undermined the wood frames and I came crashing down into a mosh pit of zombies. Luckily I was able to fight my way to a window and leap out into the night and run like hell. It was 3am and with 2 beer in my pack I was good to go until the sun came up. Not much left of the house when I came back, but the forge is still there. I left my anvil in the forge in case anyone is in need, but alas I forgot to jot down the lat/long once again. Am currently working on a safehouse not far away from it in a town about 3 Km north of the area where most players are camping out at the moment.

Eventually you really need safe bases in all of the different biomes and near the major town. 

Quote from: Rekim on December 28, 2015, 07:37:30 PM
I was hiding out in a house with a forge on the bottom floor for the day 21 horde. It was tough going as I only had one day to prepare and the horde turned out to be much bigger than I expected. I thought it was going to be the usual 7-day sized horde as it was the first one I'd experienced on this map. It was definitely bigger than that. I had a couple of weak lines of defense in place, the last one being a wood frame stand up near the ceiling. The horde was so big I found myself hiding up in my loft quite quickly. Eventually cop spew undermined the wood frames and I came crashing down into a mosh pit of zombies. Luckily I was able to fight my way to a window and leap out into the night and run like hell. It was 3am and with 2 beer in my pack I was good to go until the sun came up. Not much left of the house when I came back, but the forge is still there. I left my anvil in the forge in case anyone is in need, but alas I forgot to jot down the lat/long once again. Am currently working on a safehouse not far away from it in a town about 3 Km north of the area where most players are camping out at the moment.

This game makes for some great stories...  Of course most of them have us running around like frightened rabbits... 

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 28, 2015, 04:35:18 PM
Or, more tactically, until we can get an underground warren going, we should be trying to spread out to three or four bases more or less equidistant from each other (but at least a quarter day's walk away) so that we can be spreading out the 'human heat bloom' that accrues in a place.

Still, I can't help but like the idea of a skybase. :D

Underground works pretty well.  Just need lots of light.  Zombies spawn in the darkness...or at least they used to. I usually try to build an escape tunnel anyway.

Once we know how to build with concrete and steel, we can go back above ground.  Really hard for them to pound through reinforced concrete.

That city may be where budd and I were looting back around 7pm my time. (I may not be able to go back into the game for a little while, tho.)

Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 28, 2015, 08:07:25 PM
Underground works pretty well.  Just need lots of light.  Zombies spawn in the darkness...or at least they used to. I usually try to build an escape tunnel anyway.

Once we know how to build with concrete and steel, we can go back above ground.  Really hard for them to pound through reinforced concrete.

Your sleeping bag prevents zombies from spawning for a 30 block radius. Not sure what part light/darkness has to play with spawning.

Still looting the small town been holed up in the pharmacy for 5 days. Had a wandering hoard come by. Jason you were right about the bottoms, i didn't realize it at first. I have everything stashed in the cabinets on the wall opposite the roof hatch. Just not much food, been eating as i loot. Still need a forge and im looking for a water source. Broke into the power plant lots of metal, springs and cable, it would make a nice base with the fenced perimeter. Im not even half way done looting the town, if you see a door cut open on a house i've been there already. I started looting around the perimeter, nothing on the inside of town yet, i'm still not done with the perimeter. I've seen all the animals around so there's a food source, just need to find  pond or something. Wonder why they stopped getting water from toilets. The door code is ace if it works, if not the roof hatch is unlocked, i need to knock another rung off the ladder to help prevent climbers. I need to get some forged iron to repair my tools so i may make a run to base. I'm out of feathers so i had to resort to the 9mm to defend myself and my torch ;D burn zombie burn

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-28_00001_zpssbfwfnbw.jpg&hash=248536957d403f1e04f2926bca0937d68ff951ca)

anybody else having trouble reading schematics and then not being able to craft the stuff. I could make flaming arrows then i couldn't....no idea...i've read a lot of schematics and they don't always work.

I suspect the problem is that you have to have a certain crafting level in whatever basic category the book references before you can use the knowledge.

Whether that knowledge is wasted, or is sitting around latent to be activated once you level that skill up far enough, I can't guess.

I will add that the 7DtDWiki doesn't talk about items needing a certain crafting level of skill to be craft-able, so my guess could be completely wrong. But it also doesn't say that someone may fail to understand a book or schematic, so...  :-\

If I'm wrong, I would suppose it's a problem with the desynch tendency of the latest build.

So, since I can't get anywhere on my other multiplayer games at the moment {glare}, allow me to flesh out with photos some of the discussion y'all have been reading about in this thread.

With a typical day at Casa Del Aztank.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F910%2Fxt7Ap9.png&hash=f1351f59ab9b95f709f4ce471304c3b4aadaa6b6)

The day started a couple of 'hours' ago at midnight (days run 50 or 60 minutes per cycle on the Groghead Invitational Server), with me crouched in the bathroom chilling out when I heard something creeping up near the house; after which bloodcurdling screams began erupting around me, and I scurried undetected upstairs, pulling out and nocking my new crossbow to watch the windows and staircase somewhat paranoidly in case anything managed to creep up the walls into the remaining vulnerable places of the house.

And in the game! :D

(This game lends itself to that kind of joke pretty well.)

So now it's a little after 2 in the morning. AzTank set up the server so that dusk starts at 8pm, but the serious darkness -- and the serious zombie spawns -- start at midnight, and only continue until 4 am. I haven't heard any dying undead terrors in a while. It could have been a lot worse; every seven days, extra large hordes spawn and spread across the land, drawn especially to human activity hotspots. I've heard talk of spider-zombies that can climb walls (I don't know about that yet firsthand, but I've seen giant zombie hornets firsthand); and I've been on the receiving end of a 28 day horde where feral zombies (which are all-purpose ass-kicking melee zombies) were able to jump and climb like players. (That night and the next morning also introduced me to the hornet zombies among other things. And a few clipping bugs. Not limited to the hornet zombies, ba-dump-tish.)

Fortunately, I dropped into the game tonight much earlier, soon after dawn, so I've already gotten a good stock of safe water (more on that later); and before he left, AzTank dropped me off a spare crossbow which I am now thinking of marrying it is so awesome y'all. Also, this is the apocalypse and I'm lonely and the hot blonde woman occasionally sharing my room at the other main house is actually a dude (with a wife), so...

Also, AzTank said he heard the other main house (Budd's) got rolled by the 35 day horde, which is a dang shame as it had a basement filled with water. Which in this game is a lot like having a basement filled with infinite meat but better because it doesn't draw zombies.

Right, but this is a tour of Casa Del Aztank, and a typical day in 7DtD. Well, typical if you live out in the boonies as I prefer to do. Several of the more experienced players are working on scavenging a main town about a kilometer east of here. This whole game-day, however, no one else dropped in, so it was me all alone. With my crossbow. And the zombies, sometimes.

But not at the moment. I can hear random creepy sounds and musical cues, but I'm pretty sure those don't really mean anything. Distant dogpack howling for example could theoretically mean an actual dogpack (by now probably of zombie dogs), but I suspect not really.

So, let me show you around before dawn. I'll rotate left from where I'm crouching. (Oh, crouching helps me not only minimize my 'human hotspot' bloom, but also greatly reduces noise adding to that bloom if I need to move around. But it's better not to move at all after midnight. Or do much of anything else, almost all of which makes some level of noise. Just to be safe.)


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2Fq7q8e3.png&hash=67291c9365e2242362a5674ce96b33bef2af350f)

Things are well lit in Casa Del AzTank, because zombies may or may not spawn in the dark, and besides it gets REALLY REALLY DARK at night in this game so having light around is handy. I'm not sure if zombies are drawn to light they can see, or to heat they can feel; but inside a house it's generally no problem. Or not on this server: a 'world' can be set so that zombies can sense humans through walls, but more to the point they're drawn to large blooms of human activity (in proportion to the bloom). I don't think lights add to that bloom, but I don't know. If so, it would be a static background blip that doesn't get larger. Or so I guess.

I'm about 99% sure AzTank didn't build this house but rather renovated an abandoned one. I don't know how much, but my guess would be pretty extensively. The walls and internal ceiling are all nice log, for example (and can be upgraded farther although we haven't done so), and that doesn't seem too likely; but then again most of the bottom floor is rockwall, and I haven't seen anyone using that tech in the game yet. Though since the last time I was on, someone figured out how to make brick.

Those red stairs are all mine; I built them the first day I arrived at CdelAT (about three game days in; I spawned quite far away, and needed to work to make some relative safe zones at night before I got here). They used to go up to a door-sized hole (probably a double window) in the wall there, which I'd often creep up to and look out at night earlier in the game before that was more like suicide. Since the last time I was in-game (last real-time night), someone put a reinforced door there, and that's good. The sleeping bag at the foot of the stairs is mine; and denotes where I'll respawn in case of death (or a hundred yards away in a random circumference, my choice). I can pick up the bag and take it with me, but I'm carrying another one instead which I'll be putting somewhere else eventually, allowing me to easily re-establish safe(ish) respawns at different places by picking up and setting down whichever bag is where I'm at. Bags are SUPER IMPORTANT, because without them (or some beds, activated by being assembled) you will respawn entirely randomly in the game world. Quitting (as I did for the night to write this report) and re-entering the server, drops you right back where you were (or close enough to never mind, within a few feet).

Okay, rotating left again...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2FL7UEH5.png&hash=d1dca23014db3bf59643253cc225df3c836c82e0)

You may have noticed now that the lamp doesn't actually work. I'm not sure if it can work in the game; certainly not without electricity, and there are better things to spend gas on generally. All light in the game so far (except in some city buildings) comes from torches or candles, which can be made or found and carried around and stuck on things. They burn forever, and only set zombies on fire (so far. If you're lucky.)

I boarded up those windows back many game days ago, when I first got here, but they could stand to be improved some more.

Left again...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2FMhNN9m.png&hash=04f1e3a41d544a0be19a712b3f3b387a4e1650bf)

That's AzTank's roost. He built it himself, and has got a couple of torches up there, at least two chests, a sleeping bag, a campfire, and a forge. It also has a couple of weak spots in the wall we haven't gotten around to fixing yet; something on the to-do list. The 'floating' block is my addition; I set it on the table (which no doubt came with the world-generated room) to look out that little nook. But due to the way the game deals with block geometry, it's "floating" above the table a little. To the left you can just make out AzTank's main door, which goes down an outer set of stairs; this is the way he prefers to enter and leave the house, but like (most) all doors currently made by players in the game (with some exceptions that still need fixing), it's locked with a passcode that we can enter once and the door will let us in. Locking a door is important, as some zombies can and will open unlocked doors.

Back left again (past a table and a rock chimney from below)...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F903%2FWUfdY9.png&hash=bee70cfa5ba3ebf07ee56f6c5ebb3e19122ab63a)

...and pre-dawn is approaching at nearly 3am. On this server, the ground is light enough to travel at 3am, although the zombies don't calm down entirely until 4. Possibly the worst ones stop spawning at pre-dawn, though. On this server, zombies don't run at night or at all, but that can be set up per game. And trust me, it is ENTIRELY possible to get murdered by a horde or two of shambling zombies. (Also, dogs and hornets move fast regardless.)

I made the firepit there on the ground, and the chest, when I arrived. Anyone can use any firepit though (or any forge), and I leave the chest unlocked. The small red cabinet to the right, and the red desk previously seen, can hold a number of things, too. AzTank technically leaves his chests unlocked up in his eyrie, and lets anyone take or leave things there as needed, especially to help house defense, but as a matter of courtesy I leave them alone unless absolutely necessary.

Okay, time to go downstairs...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2F6ioJFY.png&hash=c0b959a76a8955d4174a2bbd6574b1557a51c20e)

But I stopped for a nice photo op. Which reminds me that those windows dang well need boarding up soon. The paintings on the wall may or may not have come with this house; they can be picked up and moved.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F903%2FHOSzbd.png&hash=70092d211d20f543c2a3b690e57ea9408e9aab99)


From here we can see the front door, the fireplace (which in this game seems to be only decoration, although it can be repaired), and just beyond the fireplace the community forge (which is definitely useable.) More on that later.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2FF92Ynp.png&hash=f7ee38bad81eeabae7df588263f8bbb4e02b76f7)

Completely downstairs and to the right a bit, you can see the kitchen area. Those cabinets and the fridge are all usable, but there's no practical difference between them -- also nothing happens to be in them. At Budd's house we keep food things in the fridge, but we could keep them in any 'container' really. Note the REAALLY NICE stone walls. Much of this decor probably came with the house originally. (Although I and other people boarded up and repaired some windows andholes over there.)

Back around to the right...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2FDzWHm2.png&hash=692907c2256ff35982068048ce90a3b61a345e57)

And that hallway leads to a bathroom with a modern toliet (mainly important for finding human poo, although in earlier versions of the game water could be gotten there -- bad water naturally, but it still made things too easy) and a medicine cabinet, which I think was unsearched when I originally arrived; it had, or maybe still has, a couple of useful medical things. The tables are useful only for scrap really, although technically things can be 'set' on them.

Well, that's Casa Del AzTank -- from the inside. Next time, we'll be going out that front door next to the community forget.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2FmlSbjg.png&hash=01e11846f9c339cf44a17f669f03d45bb84047a7)

My house is still standing :D, still cant get in the front door. I've been coming back[read when i die and respawn] and grabbing some stuff. I've been spending my time at the pharmacy in town, got a forge up finally and am pretty stocked up with supplies. I just died trying to lead the 42 day horde away from the pharmacy, so i'll have to trek back. Think i'll just move my bag to the pharmacy. i'm toying with the idea of making a base out of the power plant, fenced perimeter is nice. plan is too have some rows of stake ditches and more rows of stakes outside of the fence and more stakes and landmines inside the fence perimeter and of course a roof escape and a tunnel if i can ever find an auger. Took a break from scavenging and went exploring beyond the town quite a ways down the road, didn't find anything of note yet. I've started staking the pharmacy and will plan other defensive measures and started grabbing soil for my rooftop garden. Az's house doesn't show on my map, maybe it only shows when he's online. I did find someones temp shelter with a bunch of wood frames inside.

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 29, 2015, 11:49:27 PM
So, since I can't get anywhere on my other multiplayer games at the moment {glare}, allow me to flesh out with photos some of the discussion y'all have been reading about in this thread.

With a typical day at Casa Del Aztank.

A great review of the house.  Glad you like the crossbow.  Happy to make you another when that one wears out.

So, what to do about spider zombies? I will build some barb wire barriers for the walls....kind of like nasty squirrel guards

Quote from: -budd- on December 30, 2015, 01:24:20 AM
My house is still standing :D, still cant get in the front door. I've been coming back[read when i die and respawn] and grabbing some stuff. I've been spending my time at the pharmacy in town, got a forge up finally and am pretty stocked up with supplies. I just died trying to lead the 42 day horde away from the pharmacy, so i'll have to trek back. Think i'll just move my bag to the pharmacy. i'm toying with the idea of making a base out of the power plant, fenced perimeter is nice. plan is too have some rows of stake ditches and more rows of stakes outside of the fence and more stakes and landmines inside the fence perimeter and of course a roof escape and a tunnel if i can ever find an auger. Took a break from scavenging and went exploring beyond the town quite a ways down the road, didn't find anything of note yet. I've started staking the pharmacy and will plan other defensive measures and started grabbing soil for my rooftop garden. Az's house doesn't show on my map, maybe it only shows when he's online. I did find someones temp shelter with a bunch of wood frames inside.

I think one of those brick buildings, or the power plant would make a great "next base".

Jason, I'm playing single player and just found that house in my game. Glad to discover it had a forge!
In other news, if you see a building on or very close to caves, be careful! I've had two crash in on me just trying to open the door.  :o

Oh, wow, that house spawns with a forge!  :o

Budd, I found that it's important to save shared waypoints, as if they aren't saved they'll disappear when I log out (maybe also die). You should take the main road west from the pharmacy; AzTank's house isn't more than maybe 30 game minutes down the road, on the left, out in the middle of a large grassland.

(There's at least one more house on the left up in the woods while on the way there, but it's abandoned.)

Quote from: bbmike on December 30, 2015, 08:30:17 AM
Jason, I'm playing single player and just found that house in my game. Glad to discover it had a forge!
In other news, if you see a building on or very close to caves, be careful! I've had two crash in on me just trying to open the door.  :o

Come join us on the server!  The server is configured so that low level characters create a "quite zone" for 12 hours when they first spawn in (I don't know if it moves with you however).  Then all you have to do is get to one of our "safe houses".  I'll make you a crossbow if you come. 

Bbmike spawned in at one point, a couple of real days ago, and was promptly killed; fastest death yet, he said.  :P

Of course, he may not have been a low-level character anymore. I don't know. My stats (such as they were) reset when the server reset; would his have reset when first entering a server he hadn't played in before?

I'm at work for a while, so can't continue posting the visual tour for a while.

LOL, I logged in for a bit during lunch.  A horde rolled through the house like a freight train.  They trashed the place... and me...:(

We might have reached the point where it's too late for new characters to join even if they're experienced players. :-[

Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 30, 2015, 07:38:45 AM
So, what to do about spider zombies? I will build some barb wire barriers for the walls....kind of like nasty squirrel guards

spider zombies can't get past a house with an eave...so look for them, or add a row of frames to create your own spider proof lip

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Farteroofing.com%2Finclude%2Fget.php%3Fnodeid%3D98&hash=1259ca6bb9d616cae54174a47262538791914376)

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 30, 2015, 02:22:44 PM
We might have reached the point where it's too late for new characters to join even if they're experienced players. :-[

Naw. There are sure fire ways of surviving hordes. Moving underground or building a stand => four frames are popular techniques. The 7DTD forum is full of good ideas

http://7daystodie.com/forums/

Yeah, I tried and died. I've demoted myself back to single player for a bit. I'll try again soon.  8)

A DAY AT CASA DEL AZTANK: YOU, I, THE UI

I suppose I should talk about the User Interface a little before going outside. Here's a shot of the front door leading out as a reference!


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2FIatKj8.png&hash=a291f4732613fc6cd1161cd7488fb63507f69172)

Starting from center top, running clockwise: There's the usual compass, with the game day and game time below it (in military time as we'll see later). I don't know about single-player games yet, but the clock runs on multiplayer servers regardless, so that's about 39 hours since AzTank reset the server (because he's doing either 50 or 60 minutes a day cycle. Maximum is two real-time hours.) The 42-day horde has long since passed at the time I'm typing this, and to be honest as much as I like seeing new people in the game it's maybe too late for new characters to start spawning in, even if played by experienecd players. God only knows how bad things will be by the time I'm finished with this and back in the game.

Okay, there's a usual waypoint system represented up there. The map icons are set by each player for yourself; icons can be shared, but the player must manually import the shared icons or they'll be discarded eventually. More on the map later; for now the important thing is that the size of the icon shows me roughly how far away it is. The red flag is the one quick waypoint allowed on the map, which can be reset anywhere; I've got that one set on a pond to the north. Casa Del AzTank is pretty great, but it lacks a nearby water source; that pond to the north and a snowline to the south are each just short of 400 yards away.

Clockwise right, the current build-number (otherwise useless ingame, don't know why it's there). Down to the lower right corner, shows how many bolts I have total for my crossbow and how many are nocked. Naturally that would be different for most guns, but I don't have one (yet). Also, guns are noisy and maybe stink.

Clockwise again, middle bottom, is my toolbelt. This is ENTIRELY DISTINCT from my backback, but both forms of inventory always exist on any character. Items must be manually moved back and forth from the toolbelt to the backpack and vice versa, from the inventory screen, and the game doesn't pause when that's happening -- worse, unzipping the backback makes noise! Sometimes so does putting something from the toolbelt into my hands. Essentially the only things I can hold are on the toolbelt; I can take things directly from the backpack but there has to be a slot for them open on the toolbelt first.

A specially subtle point about the toolbelt is that things that smell, smell stronger and farther away if they're on my toolbelt (or in my hand, same thing), compared to being in my backpack. Whereas, things in most other containers don't smell (unless the "container" is just the item itself dropped on the ground).

When a player sets up a game, or sets up a mp server, you can choose what happens on death: lose nothing (I think); lose everything on the toolbelt; lose everything in the backpack; or lose everything on both. All such things lost will be temporarily available as a special backpack on the ground at the point of death, until anyone manages to reach it -- or until the player who died there dies again. (It's possible the backpack -- which is always a backpack even if the toolbelt was only what dropped, btw -- still exists in the game, perhaps; I haven't tested that or asked more experienced players. But the game stops tracking it automatically with a special icon, and assigns it to anything you dropped that time instead.)

In this case, AzTank set things up so that only the toolbelt is lost at death. Anything actually in my backpack is permanently safe -- but neither can it be quickly used. This leads to a painful strategic choice, as the best weapons and tools can't be quickly remade (and so replaced on the fly) if lost. As long as things are relatively safe, I'm keeping my best tools on the belt; but on the other hand, if matters quickly deteriorate, it's easy to forget where they are until it's too late. But then I might have a better chance to survive with them at hand! Ack!

(Had AzTank chosen for the backpack to be lost and not the toolbelt, the painful strategic choice would be rather different, as you can see: what 8 items do I absolutely need to keep in case of disaster?)

The items can be put in my hand if I tap the relevant keyboard number, 1 to 8; or I can use the mousewheel to cycle through, which is often faster. I don't know if there's a special key to empty my hand(s) (there is only one 'hand' despite any art otherwise; I can't dual wield knives for instance) -- my impression is that if I want empty hands as an option, I need to leave one slot on the toolbelt open. Sometimes that's important, such as if I need to drink from natural water.

On my toolbelt left to right are a barbed wire club (the best basic melee weapon); my crossbow (bolts don't have to be on my toolbelt, and would be typically a waste of a slot there); one broken stake trap (which I can throw down in an emergency while backing up, although I have to remember not to walk back over it myself later!); my fireman axe (best manual tool for chopping down trees, and arguably a better melee weapon, but not as versatile as a stone axe or easy to replace if lost); an iron shovel (great to dig with, but hard to replace); and a stone axe (for repairing things since I don't have a claw hammer, but easy to replace and versatile).

Last, clocking around to the bottom-left corner, is my status. The blue bar is stamina, and drains when I do anything more strenuous than walking around (although fabricating things uses no stamina that I've ever noticed, come to think of it); but it also replenishes fairly quickly. When it's low, my ability to effectively 'do' things supposedly drops, although I've never seen results of that (I still get the same wood chopped on average with the same axe or whatever). At zero I can't do special actions at all until it replenishes enough points to 'do' the action; but in practice that just means a bit of pausing. At around 75% stamina, though, I start to puff and blow, and that makes noise, thus attracting enemies. Some drinks (like homemade beer) and other items can replenish a lot of stamina at once.

Health is duh. At 0 I die, and about 15 seconds later I'll respawn, either near the last bag or bed I claimed (directly next to it or randomly on a torus of 50 to 100 yards, my choice), or randomly in the world (which can be really good or really bad luck). One special point about health in this game, is that there are rarely (if ever??) any ways to instantly improve health. I can improve health recharge by various methods, but if there are items that instantly take me (say) from 4 points to 54 points of health I don't know about them yet. And health only recharges when you have some food to nibble on, although this happens automatically and I've never noticed a decrease in actual food. I cannot over-estimate how much of a significant tactical difference this makes in the game: there is (practically) no magical healing.

Now, a brand new character actually starts with an upper limit of 100 for both stamina and health -- those limits go up or down together in tandem, according to one's "wellness" (which is indirectly tracked there by the upper limit: I have a wellness of 60.) Going too long without eating or drinking; and going too long at extreme temperatures; and various kinds of illness; all reduce wellness at a slow but steady rate, which immediately reduces the upper limits of health and stamina by proportion. Dying instantly drops wellness by 10 full points. The lowest upper limit (so to speak) is 60; after that, or if the other conditions continue too long, I'll start taking regular direct damage until I die. Dying replenishes hunger and thirst, and all stamina and hp (minus any 10 point reduction).

The main way to improve upper limits is by quality eating and drinking, and (more rarely) by taking vitamins. A lot of players, even very experienced ones, stay around 60 wellness, though, simply because it's hard not to die often enough to erode any gains back.

The status corner will also show rolling icons alerting me to various potential or actual problems. There will usually be brief text messages above my toolbelt indicating status changes, too, but the icons will stay visible as long as they're in effect. I'll mention some as we go.

Are we ready to go outside now yet?!?

Next time.

Quote from: Rekim on December 30, 2015, 04:51:40 PM

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 30, 2015, 02:22:44 PM
We might have reached the point where it's too late for new characters to join even if they're experienced players. :-[

Naw. There are sure fire ways of surviving hordes. Moving underground or building a stand => four frames are popular techniques. The 7DTD forum is full of good ideas

http://7daystodie.com/forums/

This was a place I built last summer....it could stop anything.  One pic even shows the results after one horrendous attack.  I stood on the walls, dropped pipe bombs on them from the murder holes.  Also, they could not get through the elevated "draw bridge" door. I'll build something like this in the town next.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi29.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc255%2Flarizona55%2F2015-08-26_00005_zpssplqtrln.jpg&hash=04ebc17bb1c35e562adfc54e4fbd178271f4aa48)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi29.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc255%2Flarizona55%2F2015-08-29_00003_zpswfhq7tvw.jpg&hash=4ea3b199e78c5585f191635c5e4288f0bbaef025)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi29.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fc255%2Flarizona55%2F2015-08-26_00001_zpsh0sklrig.jpg&hash=dba6560f9d9fb870e8ad21afd694fe90c5256637)

GOOD GRIEF WHAT ARE THOSE WHITE SLUGGY THINGS??!

A DAY AT CASA DEL AZTANK: INTO THE OUT

Dangit, let's just go outside already!

I open the front door and see -- !


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2FlAMPoY.png&hash=369fd638343ea380c9b268e0732d1cef90a8304d)

-- another door!

That was pleasantly surprising.

No, really. Someone learned how to make bricks recently, and added a foyer hallway with another door, for extra security.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2F8iKMIG.png&hash=4b29c094c5270a39fc1d5988ae46a822000dece4)

Someone also decided it would be fun to put flanking log spikes on either side of the porch-path to the new front door.

In theory this isn't a bad idea. In practice, all spikes have a small effect radius outside their 'square' which can cause damage that really adds up fast. You'd think these spikes, not being a nest of bristly gangly things (like the ones on my toolbar), wouldn't have that problem, but you would be wrong and by 'you' I mean 'me': I had to learn this the hard way when I put those log spikes along a low hall-wall and nearly killed myself walking back down the hall. And they do more damage than basic spikes. (And can be upgraded, unlike basic spikes.)

This was super annoying, but I got around it by jumping past them.

Here's a better view of dawn from the front door looking north.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F910%2F9LxD2l.png&hash=1f2566ad0b146ec9d526e82640150ca92e17ade1)

The scenery in this game impresses me a lot, considering it's still just voxels.

While I'm not responsible for the basic path there (or the brick wall; that's new from whoever added the security foyer), I am proudly responsible for at least half the spikes you'll be seeing around Casa Del AzTank. I have also killed myself on them at least three times, repairing them in the morning or before evening or while passing by. (See previous comment about the effect radius extending beyond their 'block'.) This late in the game, though, it's time to start replacing those things with more of the log spikes flanking the front door.

Technically it isn't "dawn" yet; the game is still giving me creepy night sounds (and you may be able to see there are still stars in the sky beyond the clouds). Looking west...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F908%2FbWcF0e.png&hash=b7d38083f321b670984ac537a08cf3fc06a27d4e)

Wow, the horde got pretty far into the spikes -- and someone has expanded my spike nest at least 50% farther, thank goodness. (Zombies decompose after maybe 30 seconds realtime, unfortunately since they often have good loot if you can safely reach them without killing yourself on the spikes.)

Those frames are set up to hold torches and, in theory, to help guide humans running to the house at night from running into the spikes. They're just basic wooden block frames, easily broken, but the zombies usually ignore them. Their main advantage is that they can be picked up and moved again after placing them, unlike any 'solid' blocks.

Looking eastward...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F908%2FCLo6HQ.png&hash=260d4fd1b7d69bf8a3166deff2df942b0a2792b1)

Sun isn't up yet, but soon. That 'wood log' block was something I placed to help guide people around to the porch steps without hitting those spikes. Yep, that's a field of corn AzTank is growing -- you can collect seeds of various sorts and create 'fertile' soil by digging it with a hoe (although the hoe isn't easy to make, and kind of a rare find). Between the first spikes and the corn is the other main path to the door next to AzTank's perch upstairs; he made that (although I and some others helped flesh out the spike field beyond it). When I first arrived many game-days ago, those were frames but I could tell there was no reason to ever move them so I upgraded them to something much sturdier so a passing horde wouldn't accidentally ever eliminate AT's path markers.

After a few game-minutes of planning (especially to get rid of a pesky stake trap which could hurt someone going around the corner of the path -- namely me, though not this time, having barely avoided it -- the 'dawn' music cue plays; and I pause a second to get a shot of the dawn's sunbeams through an incoming overcast which has developed meanwhile.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2FVFanOQ.png&hash=e3620161f5e1245dcd2808e0cb8ba7402ffb53f8)

Also, to snicker at the floating torch; its original mounting frame having been destroyed by a zombie horde sometime in the past.

We could have chopped that tree down a long time ago for 1000 wood (and it is possible to replant and regrow trees, though naturally it takes a while), but I think everyone has avoided doing so for the same reason I have: because it's pretty and adds a nice visual touch near the house.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F908%2Fxbn5mB.png&hash=2070fb15594cfa95e04354e951d27d25c0dc5714)

With all the activity I heard during the night, its a good idea to not only check whether the spikes need refurbishing -- my plan is to knock down any damaged (bloody) spikes and put new, tougher, and more damaging log spikes -- but also to check whether any zombs are still lurking nearby. Plus it gives me a chance to get promotional photos of the west side of the house. :D

But I decide that (putting my four years of broadcast communications degree to use) I want a higher vantage point for pixing this side of the house, maybe looking a little downhill across the grassland to trees in the distance etc., so I turn to go up the nearby small ridgeline...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F903%2FZ73P6m.png&hash=24631349a46cd545d52182e49d23f19b46ee306e)

...ah, whoops. Hm.

See it? I might not have, except it was moving out where the ridge loops around again.

Here, I'll put it more dead center, so to speak.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F908%2Fjph2cj.png&hash=9546300db0e6ae2d02f4dd4b0c49ebbfc917e8f6)

This game is frequently atmospheric.

Well, he's easier to see when he's moving (and that photo isn't at 1080p or whatever I'm using in game).

I spend a moment judging that he's too far away to feasibly hunt, or to be much of a threat probably -- odds are at least 75% he'll never wander closer to the house, when...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F903%2FVm3qn6.png&hash=981542f78649910077f41a79aeb92a0dbea1ab79)

The mist lifts enough for me to notice some other shapes moving around.

A couple of those might be close enough to feasibly hunt, but not without aggravating everyone else nearby, whom I could still probably beat but I'd lose most or all the loot anyway (when the first ones dissolve before I can search them) at an increased risk they'd manage to catch me. And I decide they still aren't close enough to be a serious threat, for now, so I go back to my photo plan.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2FGzlBVA.png&hash=bb541ef0c6e4201c7b07ddbf79a26f32f379b9b5)

Which works reasonably well.

What you may not be able to see in that photo (due to lighting issues and similar coloring) is the ad hoc frame staircase leading over the western spike field to the balcony. It reminded me that when I'm near this house, it's a good idea to make a frame block so I can pull it out and drop it down to help get up that side of the house in an emergency.

Here it is again from directly in front, marked in Paint so you can see it better.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F910%2FuFYDLL.png&hash=e85b9f497e9f924b27e58d19af764b3e6cedc52c)

The way the slightly wonky physics engine (currently) works, once some of those frames are picked up again by a player, anything they were supporting continues to hang there, like it was nailed into place. Which is admittedly haxoring the game, but this game is tough even with (mostly) slow zombies. I pause to lash up a framework, which I put on my toolbelt (as shown in the previous screenshot actually, taken a little later), and continue the security walkaround.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F910%2FGXBOII.png&hash=9d4e1fa8f472749bd37c77a58e5e33abf0ca22f6)

Here's a nice shot of the house's south side; you can't tell from a static screenie, but the splotches on the wall are sunlight filtering through the trees a little right-of-behind-me as the sun rises over the hill far enough to get through the foliage a tad. Sure, this game isn't Skyrim or Far Cry 4, but for a voxel indie game it's often super-photogenic.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2F5rQ9Qg.png&hash=8f64b409952c39a260a8d7390176d2eb838b314e)

And last, here's the east side, or the back east side anyway.

I didn't get setup for a good photo here, because the back of my mind suddenly said, "Wait, I saw like five or six zombies over to the west, right?! Maybe perhaps I should go make sure they aren't wandering this way before continuing my screenshotfest for the forum?"


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2FKIy3L8.png&hash=4d642e4bf6b40bd8ddd6c8f93c834a55171642a8)

So, going back to the west side. Notice how the ridgline to the west is in sunlight now, while where I am (and the house behind me) is still in shadow? Nice.

Not so nice are the three or four zombies I see up past or on the ridgeline, but they do seem farther away. So I decide to walk closer.

(Note: walking closer to three or four zombies is not a good idea.)


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2Fk0QZ8p.png&hash=e6d207679012feb4c2da98f514d1dba22dcb923b)

Ah, crap, there's a crawler! I hate those things. Well, I hate all zombies -- even the weakest can kill a relatively armored human with two or three good hits if they get a lucky stun in -- but I hate these more than some. They easily get lost in ground cover, and can drag themselves along pretty quickly, but more importantly they're hard to hit (even with a ranged weapon like this) and so are hard to kill without taking damage or wasting ammo. They don't always snarl or whatever before they're on the attack. This one saw or smelled me perhaps, and is already on the way -- fortunately, I saw him flopping around. (Any zombie can become a crawler if it's legs are damaged, btw.)

Aim with the crossbow... if I score a headshot, I can often take out all but the strongest 'normal' (i.e. daylight) zombies with one shot... vipp, I missed. Reload (automatically but takes a moment).


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2FA89vD4.png&hash=5dcbfbf842277fa19b3fe4c27d63ac6d2b045e26)

Man, those things can be hard to see even in grass, when I know they're -- CRAP, THERE'S ANOTHER ONE IN THAT SHADOW!?

And other nearby Zs are responding to these two hunting me.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2FqEpdtn.png&hash=a93db4868a3a82c232d644d0e25e188325415ac7)

Great horneytoads, where are these things coming from?? There are at least nine on the way, not counting the previous two floppers!

Uh. Uh. Need some height to buy time for shooting... Maneuver left to get on top of the looping ridge to my south...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F910%2FCt0vwR.png&hash=088c68246d4158cc4f66d933350f949c0412e9c2)

...ack, they're close enough to start "waarss"ing at me. And zombies like to find out what zombies are mad about.

See, the thing is, they may not move fast, but they do move 'faster' the more excited they get, and while they sometimes lose their path through wobbling (which is a nice touch), they're ALWAYS (unless they get confused) on the move. Every second I'm not getting farther away, they're all getting closer.

Screw this. I have spikes.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2FQRnLwX.png&hash=2a36ec6592259f20d6a0eb2b2ead175678c7f8cf)

Oh crap, how did one get behind me!

Spack, headshot; first one down. Loot, oooh, nice some jarred honey. That can cure infection (and be food in a pinch).

Meanwhile the mini-horde of a baker's dozen zombies continues getting closer behind me. I can outrun them, or even outwalk them, but I don't want to back up into my spikes and screw it I'm running.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2FqAls9e.png&hash=f35c7295be0c0963a64353e489d4754b271dd4dc)

Mental note to cuss whoever left those two lone spikes out that far in the middle near the grasswhereImightscrapethemgoingbywhew...

I lost track of most of them when I crested the small ridge west of the house and got down into the dell -- mental note that the ridge might make a good place to start digging a hobbit-burrow -- but by the time I'm on the other end of the spikes, I can see two have crossed the ridge and are coming down.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2Feumha1.png&hash=9f5664cb8a1ae366329ace5faf5ef19cffb8ea55)

And unless they get bored and lose my scent (and sight), I can be pretty sure the others are being blocked by the house right now. With lots of spikes on that side.

The lead one goes down onto the spikes, flops a little as he tries to crawl forward, and dies. Score 2 me, Zs 0. Check rightward to make sure no one's coming around the house -- they shouldn't be there yet, especially with the spikes, but that infected nurse popping up from practically nowhere behind me has made me paranoid -- and when I turn back, I see that the Zs are getting a bit smarter, trying to walk around the spikes.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2F9FtW4k.png&hash=d5479ec6e1e045f7c9dcfbf6e9976ae9f57c0617)

Not only that, but they're making good time. And a lot more are working their way far around the spikes than I was giving them credit for; you can't see them here (neither can I), but they're just over the nearest ridgeline. By the time I've aggro'd that one with the arrow I've painted on the screenie, who has shambled to a stop to stare at the torch on that framework (maybe???), trying to get him to come straight at me, brah, (and across those spikes)...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2FedYHXU.png&hash=1e80ace9a881fef6d04c6a876ca24d21ee5fd52a)

...durn if six or seven aren't coming down over the ridge, one of them having a straight spikeless line to me!

I am not kidding when I say these screenies do not do justice to how unnerving this is.

After a little repositioning farther back to buy distance/time, my strategy finally starts working: the next three or four hit the spikes, and I decide to get close enough to headshot the female one who has missed the spikes.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F910%2FCbH3rp.png&hash=3ba80932135149db66cb74dcfb65c8d159693907)

Which works, although as I go to loot her body, one of the tougher enemies does manage to crawl close enough through the spikes to worry me a bit as I'm managing my inventory.

I grab some quality cat-food in a tin off her; back up some to let more zombies angle properly onto the spikes; open my bag again, spend a few moments eating the cat food (doesn't help my wellness and gives me gas, but I might need the slot later), and dang there are zombies coming straight down out of the forest from the south now!


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2FbtIX3U.png&hash=03a52095b9d7520b68d3528a1fd4cbe39b3de555)

I set up and land a nice headshot, and while I'm searching her remains (for nothing) -- {heavy excited creeping female breathing nearby!}

I scurry away, and whirl around, crap the ridgline was blocking my view and I hadn't really understood that zombies were coming from a different direction now...

Yeek, too close, shoot miss, too close, shoot missTOOCLOSE!


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F908%2FQkj3NO.png&hash=5ca4ae30175a2e891ee824df965e537ecac31128)

Enough of the crossbow, time to bring out the beater.



(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F910%2FBrhbED.png&hash=459a858c138f9383fa9ff66f0c023375f32aeefa)

Jeezarethereanotherfourorfiveorhowmanycomingfromthewoodsssaaahhh!!!

Time to run away through the corn, and get them angled through the spikes again. Assuming I don't run into the arms of another set... phew, no one on that side of the house. Yet.

I decide to try the west side of the house again, see how bad or good things are going there, maybe save some loot from their corpses, arrive in time to see several still dying on the spikes, start checking their bodies as the wing I was fleeing from are working their way through the south spikes at the front of the house and


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2FCFucay.png&hash=1897732a9619d3b4b1efc258a5ed668310c01552)

a brief rustle is all the warning I get from the left

I whirl around and scamper back and see some flopping down there in the shadow, freaking CRAWLER ARGH! But he (or I think maybe she) didn't quite get me, the grass gave it away at the last moment.

Spang for the head, nope got the back. Spang for the head, nope got the back, dang its head keeps weaving back and forth as it crawls, I pull out the spike trap on my hyperdimensional tool belt and I'm trying to line up a plant but the thing is crawling too fast i need to back up faster to get a


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2FmWi2bx.png&hash=88218dd444c29fd897b3fa742cba76fcb444db00)

That green outline is where the block of spikes would theoretically plop except there's a zombie in the way. Out of the corner of my eye I just happen to see a shadow on the ground.

I zip-run left away from the shadow just in time and spin around.



(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F903%2FOw8Y5y.png&hash=e99b9959142f081a691ece37a9ff4125cab8ed71)

Spack and a shoulder hit, the other thing is flopping toward me, too, aim carefuller and


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2FuJQWkk.png&hash=1b78e30caa81acedb90e0faec67bc9c402c3bae7)

BLORCH DECAP HEADSHOT!

The thing stumbles and staggers for a moment and I seriously wonder whether it'll keep trying to get to me (I suspect if it was close enough it could and would still land a few hits). Then it goes down.

The crawler still needs another couple of shots, but I finally land one on its weaving head. Nothing rummaging its body, but the one that almost got me except for the shadow of the rising sun has a pane of glass and some painkillers. Don't need them yet but still good.

...annnd that's it.

I do another sweep around the house; find a few last bodies which decay before I can loot them, and I'm clear.

Checking my inventory, I set up a craft order to tie together 25 replacement cross-bolts out of small stones, wood, and feathers...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F908%2FJfygi2.png&hash=fcd92a25696fd7a1b00618bfc5d0592dc08ef9c2)

...I promise, I won't try to explain what all that gear is...

...and it's finally time to try to get some work done.

Welcome to Casa Del AzTank.

A DAY AT CASA DEL AZTANK: LIKE, AN ACTUAL DAY THIS TIME

Two and a half hours later (gametime not realtime), I've dropped off much of the loot I got from the Zs inside some chests and in the forge of the house, and I'm off south to go hunt in the forest uphill.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F903%2FmTbQBD.png&hash=8e8f0b9bc9f7dc4e419a322310092a61bae7272c)

Notice I have my bow out, not my crossbow, just in case I'm jumped. I do have my shovel and fire-axe still on my toolbelt, though, because I'm stupid. But the game doesn't punish my stupidity this time -- I won't lose them today.

While I have plenty of water today, I won't necessarily have plenty of water tomorrow, so since I'm showing off the game, and I need food more than water (and ideally grillable food so I can pump up my wellness and thus my hp and stam), I decide I'll pick up some snow for water at the snowline and hunt in that area.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2FOHqghD.png&hash=7cf17b3aab488aeded8efe98ec6190db1e6fe5b5)

By about 10:35 I'm at the snowline but I haven't found any food. Note my little status icon on the bottom left above my stamina; that means my fullness is at 50%.

Stepping into the 'snow' area is always a bit of a kick; today...

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2Fo390GM.png&hash=a3d9efbf9526d281cf1aa3cca925f2319a320a13)

...it's because of the sun glare aaaaahh!

(There are sunglasses and I suppose night vision and things like that in the game but I haven't run across them yet.)

Note I'm now 1% umbrella. I mean wet. Wet will make me colder faster, too. Going farther south wouldn't be a good idea; better to stay near the forest line. But often it's easier to see deer or pigs or rabbits or chickens here if they're nearby.

But while I'm here anyway, I dig up some snow to put in the empty bottles I'm... uh.... .... not carrying.

Moron.

Fortunately, this is also where I remember that I've got plenty of safely boiled bottled water already. What I'm really missing is goldenrod berries, to make more goldenrod tea, which not only quenches thirst better than water but increases wellness a little. Also it cures dysentry, in case I ever have to drink murky water without treating it first.

What I haven't noticed yet, and won't until almost too late, is that I'm out of goldenrod.

My hunting plan kind of works as when I turn around to go back south and walk the snowline looking north...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F633%2FcUOrp4.png&hash=77dcf286df6dd2535155410476e6980ad60334d0)

...I see a buck heading for the snow. I didn't see for being in the snow, but eh close enough. Out comes the crossbow, and after a little work I land a bolt in him. And he runs away. But a shot deer nearly always dies from bloodloss later, so as long as I can keep following him (unfortunately not from a blood trail), I may be able to find him, or drop him more quickly with another shot.

As I track the deer, I can hear something walking around faintly up south of me more toward the snow. I keep looking that way, but don't see anything.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F908%2FPXxcHE.png&hash=f532d3ead3357d3341462f143439d536a47b3725)

Until out of the corner of my eye, something lurches.

Man, this game would make a great Bigfoot sim!

Eh, he or she may be far enough away not to bother me. I'm downwind, so it's less likely to smell or hear me. I creep away after the deer until I (correctly) feel far enough away to walk more normally.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F911%2FTpn0cG.png&hash=58d3d75b332d72ae31a595df7741db7d04613ca6)

And eventually, I find my deer. Dead and ready to clean.

(Note: I have never heard of zombie deer in this game, but that is something that needs to exist.)

I get out my bone shiv (made of an animal bone), since I don't have a 'real' knife yet, and start harvesting deer meat, deer hide, and the occasional new bone (which I don't really need except to make glue, which I don't "know" how to make yet. But I'll store it back home for anyone who does.)

This takes a few game-minutes, and once I'm done I'm carrying raw meat which will attract zombies -- although in my backback, it won't be so noticable as on my toolbelt.

It leaves behind a pile of viscera, which I'm not sure has any purpose but which can be destroyed with work -- maybe it also acts as a zombie attractor (or bear or dog), but in a static place so also as a decoy if I get away soon enough. Eh.

By noon I'm coming down out of the trees into the grassland near the house; there's an overcast mist. I'm not sure it actually "rains" yet in-game, but it does snow up in that climate so the dev(s) may have that possibility in mind.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2FBkgf9F.png&hash=77d639eecbf462fa63033815f8de804e3bc72ec7)

I crossbolt a lone zombie on my way downhill (nothing on him), then go into the house up Aztank's side stair entrance, which also leads nicely to my own firepit.

From 1:30 to 3:30 I cook up some grilled meat, and test what difference boiled meat has -- apparently nothing except that it doesn't take a grill (I found one long ago fortunately) but does use up one bottled water which is ridiculous. I mean it uses up THE GLASS BOTTLE ITSELF which is ridiculous; so does boiling corn on the cob. You might say, well, after that the bottle would be unclean maybe... but no, you aren't making it in the bottle (with the water), you're supposed to be pouring the water into a cooking pot (which I also picked up long ago) and cooking the food in that. Drinking tea or bottled water (whether safe or murky) or beer for that matter, leaves over an empty glass bottle with a sealable top -- so why not when cooking?? It's retarded, but maybe it's meant as a subtle balance issue. After all, I'm carrying more than twenty sealed bottles of water in my transcendental backpack which can also carry any number of anvils or, for example, 17 trap doors. A detail which will become annoyingly pertinent soon.

Well, it's mid afternoon, and I got my meat plan done; I've got time to go out and work on the stakes, so I get out my fireax and, going into my inventory, set up a construction queue for umpteen log stakes -- they require a lot of wood to make (and more to update) but I'm not going to replace all the stakes outside, only some of the 'wounded' ones which I start chopping away as I'm waiting.

Looking back over my gameplay footage, I see that I did nothing wrong; there was a legitimat bug, where I told clicked the queue-max button having already selected log stakes, and it flipped without me noticing (or expecting it, this being a bug!) to trap doors. By around 14:20, when I was ready to put my first replacement log pole, I went to my inventory... and there's a bunch of trap doors, and more being made!

All that wood, totally wasted.

I only have enough to make 14 log poles now, but before I can set them up a pair of zombies lurch in from the west, having gotten quite close before I happened to notice them out of the corner of my eye, yeesh... this game. Is made of paranoia.
It's about 5pm by the time I dispatch them (the second one being a bit touch and go -- I thought he might get a hit in after all), and they don't have anything useful. What's more, going back around the house to where I was working, I notice another four dang zombies have died on the spikes while I was dancing with those two! yeesh. (Also with almost nothing worthwhile.)

Now it's 5:20pm, and I'm starting to get nervous about how much heat I'll be drawing down tonight, if a mini horde is already meandering around. Tactically, it's a decision between chopping and dropping new stakes... where? The west had the most activity last night, this morning, and just now, but the depth of the stake field stopped them pretty well. The north also showed a lot of action, and those stake fields aren't nearly as deep. So I put my 14 new log spikes there after trimming out old bloody spikes.

It's 6:20pm now, and I suddenly realize I am completely out of wood. Hefting my fireax, I scamper northward across the road to the forest in that direction (closer than uphill)...


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2FBB2PYI.png&hash=54aa97290c5c630d091ba668aa61d8e71d3f3ea5)

...and start felling trees.

I'm able to chop down three full trees, for almost 1900 wood, by 7pm, and I'm starting to feel like I'm pressing my luck. So back to the house I go.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F908%2FISu9OH.png&hash=3437ecfd6f8d008c51ff08498ad092fa0e3e9380)

I should add that there's no rational reason for me to feel any different about right this moment -- as far as the game is concerned, this is about as safe as noon. I'm just nervous from the unexpected zombie activity near the house all day from last midnight. And ideally it's better to get the noisier chores done before sundown.

In my case that includes forging some iron to repair my fireax and crossbow, and then boiling some goldenrod tea. But I had forgotten to be picking up some more goldenrod.

Let's see. 7:50? Sure, time enough to go out and harvest some goldenrod from the field.

Plus I'm able to get some great shots going back to the house.



(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F903%2FykJmyK.png&hash=7e80e1a54771da4e403cdda519b52218c47c9cb7)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F908%2FstKYtO.png&hash=0a365568b886a573715fd235d5bee9581a5ebe55)

Zip inside, spend a couple of hours boiling some tea, also a corn on the cob (since I have a bunch of extra jars to unreasonably waste at the moment), and purifying some water; also rendering some tallow, and making some cloth armor since somewhere along the way my previous set got used up fighting zombies.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F907%2FMRcNTV.png&hash=378d4861c1d9f05de446146bf9db9ce52ebef81b)

Oh, haven't I shown you what I look like? This is how other players see me (if I'm wearing my cloth armor and other things). The more experienced players have much better kit already. But in my defense I'm not wearing my dark green shirt and coat right now, since the grasslands tend to be rather warm.

And so by 10:30, with the dogs howling far in the distance and the creepy night noises (and crickets) having started again at 10pm, I'm ready to end my day in Casa Del Aztank.

And to start the new day. Since at midnight, things... can come.


(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimagizer.imageshack.us%2Fv2%2F1024x768q90%2F905%2F50dkKX.png&hash=aa3569d63a24254ec7037b8cc6790f89f732ca89)






Postscript: I haven't logged in since I logged out that 'night' (and that real-life night), but AzTank says the 42-day horde steamrolled the house. :(

Glad I wasn't there. But I wonder what I'll find when I log in. Um, tomorrow... ;)

Budd's got a good fort going in the town.  I'm digging a hole.  A really deep hole.  :)

Casa del la Budd. Finally finished my wall and staking, next is stake trenches outside the wall. Pretty much picked the town clean, might of forgot the odd building or two. Found a water source not too far away and there's plenty of game around for food. I also have to start planting my crops. Managed to track down a supply drop for some goodies. Here's some pics of The home front.

Front side
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-31_00001_zps5oj07gzg.jpg&hash=ad83b61cf12b1aba564d616a3a31934fdae76e4a)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-31_00002_zpsmmbwljia.jpg&hash=becc9bd8ad226fd8a3d395466ed7f78332af7789)

This is the only way in, you jump from the roof of the other building and a couple more jumps to the roof and the entrance hatch.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-31_00003_zps3m5woxw3.jpg&hash=928dd78423bd5a154c98106f17eb29812b0cdc2a)

Was going around to snap some pics when a wandering horde came around the corner.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-31_00004_zpsz9dcwy8h.jpg&hash=217b253ac2bd3b9fef8584a9b551a22237bca221)

The backyard
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-31_00007_zpszpvr9qba.jpg&hash=ba8d3d041965684907841c762d4fda5bd522ead1)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-31_00008_zpssp10iqzu.jpg&hash=34f74d75b1771247a4276998291fbb4b4668ce34)

Night time at Casa del la Budd
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-31_00012_zpsd9yofhyq.jpg&hash=b6e98aba317e6eba6cd541fc3934381d1ea4c2ee)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-31_00013_zpsvz4t2rlx.jpg&hash=5862653db6d9d0e8935e0ede04f063bf33524d9e)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-31_00014_zpsji5mak52.jpg&hash=caa90362b973ef0b082ff8109281bd8e56108ba7)

Here's the hole i fell in while foraging for supplies, no way out. Luckily a zombie fell down there and finished me off, couldn't climb or ladder out.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-30_00002_zpsruzd8fx8.jpg&hash=b2391225414050cc3b891cf115059d49f44b5338)

This was a nice surprise. I'm looting the town and i go up a ladder to check the roof..... and i keep going up, this shot is when i started down......yea i died :D
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2015-12-30_00001_zpsvz89z8tn.jpg&hash=bcec64ee0e6200457eb426c0f4299c48cfd50e7d)

as a side note if you guys could save those blue metal tins and any hub caps you coma across i would appreciate it. Need them for some more land mines, thx. I placed some perches and have some pipe bombs to drop on the horde when they arrive.

Oh my god, that's awesome! Love the jump from another roof to get in idea.
Maybe I'll post a picture of my fort- a rock I dug a hole under.  :2funny:

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 30, 2015, 07:53:28 PM
GOOD GRIEF WHAT ARE THOSE WHITE SLUGGY THINGS??!

The game used to have "gore blocks".  Basically when you killed something, after about 5 min it turned into a nasty block of flesh.  The blocks would clog up stake fields and allow the zeds to actually walk over the bodies of their comrades to get over walls etc.  So after a big attack you had to go clean them out.  They took them out a few updates back.  I kind of miss them.   

So, it sounds like you guys are really liking this game, even in Alpha build.  I see a number of people on Steam not being impressed.  They think the latest build has taken steps back and not seeing any progress.  But it is on sale now and it sounds like from reading here that you guys would recommend jumping in.

Is this basically Mine Craft set in a zombie world with better graphics. 

It's worth every penny if you like open world, building and crafting, and zombies. 

Quote from: OJsDad on December 31, 2015, 11:03:18 AM
So, it sounds like you guys are really liking this game, even in Alpha build.  I see a number of people on Steam not being impressed.  They think the latest build has taken steps back and not seeing any progress.  But it is on sale now and it sounds like from reading here that you guys would recommend jumping in.

Is this basically Mine Craft set in a zombie world with better graphics.

I don't really get the "taken steps back" comments on Steam. And as far as Alpha status, this game (to me) has never felt like it's Alpha status. The only time it does it when a new update comes along and breaks all of my saves. So, +1 to what Bison said above.

Quote from: bbmike on December 31, 2015, 11:45:05 AM

Quote from: OJsDad on December 31, 2015, 11:03:18 AM
So, it sounds like you guys are really liking this game, even in Alpha build.  I see a number of people on Steam not being impressed.  They think the latest build has taken steps back and not seeing any progress.  But it is on sale now and it sounds like from reading here that you guys would recommend jumping in.

Is this basically Mine Craft set in a zombie world with better graphics.

I don't really get the "taken steps back" comments on Steam. And as far as Alpha status, this game (to me) has never felt like it's Alpha status. The only time it does it when a new update comes along and breaks all of my saves. So, +1 to what Bison said above.

+1, the game really feels complete as it is.

Here's the fort I setup for my next horde. I use the window to access my hideout in the attic. The front door/main floor is one giant spike maze, reinforced to the max as I welcome the zeds to come  spend the night playing hide and seek with me.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WoDxJz0LLUY/VoWNhfG9glI/AAAAAAAABs4/O6SwESxCgc0/s800-Ic42/2015-12-31_00005.jpg)

I stayed up head explodingly late awaiting the day-56, however, it didn't make an appearance : (   The boss came down at 6:20am to ask wtf I was doing up still...right as the horde should have arrived of course.

The town I'm camping out in is just about tapped. Trying to find my next hunting grounds. Would like to find a city to build a big assed fort next to. Still need to discover the secret to making concrete mind you. This about 2 Km north of where I saw Bison & Bud last night.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HB6epWg-Xz4/VoWPn3mEbEI/AAAAAAAABtI/fz6NC52FQGQ/s640-Ic42/2015-12-31_00003.jpg)

Dad had a small heart attack last night, so my time in-game will be spotty(er than usual) for a while.  :-\ He's stable and doing well, but the cardio doc wants to do a cath on him tomorrow sometime while he's in position to reconnoiter how things are going. (Personally I think they ought to check Dad's pacemaker/defib for vegetation, which was a near fatal problem for the last time he had one. If he's going to have that again, and there are small indications in that direction, we ought to be prepared.)


Meanwhile, last... night I think? (Time's been a bit loopy the past day in real-life. ;) ) I dropped into Casa Del Aztank briefly to see how things were going, and found myself on the mid-afternoon of the 49-day horde. My plan almost kind of worked.


Step 1.) Run out and chop a bunch of wood and start simultaneously making a bunch of log-spikes to upgrade the cheaper models. This led to the necessity of a new...

Step 2.) ...run back and forge some iron quickly to repair my fire axe. Which was delayed a little when I discovered the front door had been totally abandoned and bricked up. But I got that done.

Step 3.) Was going to be what is now step 4, except a minor horde wandered over the ridge from the southwest and I had to wait a while until they died on the stakes. Then I got too clever jumping down from the ersatz framework staircase, without plopping a proper frame (which I already had built and was already ready to go) to fill the hole, and fell on some stakes and died. Fortunately my bedroll remained only a few yards away, so I could get my toolbelt back quickly, but it still lost precious seconds. This will be important soon.

Step 4.) Worked my way around the west and south sides of the house, since by evidence of blood on the spikes they had seen the most action since (and during) the previous 7 day horde(s), axing down the bloody spikes I could reach and replacing them with log spikes which can be not only repaired but upgraded later.

Step 5.) Run back inside AT's main remaining door(s) to safety.

I waited literally 2 seconds too long to do step 5, and at 22:00 hours a swarm of zombie dogs promptly ran out of the forest down from the south ridge. I got past the first door and closed it barely in time to prevent more damage to me than a few nips; then got past the second door and closed it barely in time to prevent more than some more damaging nips as the things leapt around the first door. (The staircase outside hadn't been walled in because it's handy to open the door and step around on the first roof a little to check the ground.)

So with 16 health remaining, and the sounds of a 49-day thoroughly aggro'd horde already encroaching, I quit the server for the night like a scared little coward.  :2funny: Hope your house is still standing, AT!  >:D O0

Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 31, 2015, 03:25:57 PM

Quote from: bbmike on December 31, 2015, 11:45:05 AM

Quote from: OJsDad on December 31, 2015, 11:03:18 AM
So, it sounds like you guys are really liking this game, even in Alpha build.  I see a number of people on Steam not being impressed.  They think the latest build has taken steps back and not seeing any progress.  But it is on sale now and it sounds like from reading here that you guys would recommend jumping in.

Is this basically Mine Craft set in a zombie world with better graphics.

I don't really get the "taken steps back" comments on Steam. And as far as Alpha status, this game (to me) has never felt like it's Alpha status. The only time it does it when a new update comes along and breaks all of my saves. So, +1 to what Bison said above.

+1, the game really feels complete as it is.

All agreed. Um, Minecraft does have crawly things at night which swarm out, doesn't it? Basically zombies and variants? 7DtD doesn't have the wild extensiveness of MC, but it's only been out a year. Also, digging is a lot harder per se.

As I mentioned on the Steam review I gave it recently, it's only an Alpha technically because there are originally planned features which haven't been implemented yet. It's really more like a very late Beta with free subsequent DLC being occasionally released.


AT, I agree now that I've heard about them. They should be an option at least.

Quote from: bbmike on December 31, 2015, 10:16:59 AM
Maybe I'll post a picture of my fort- a rock I dug a hole under.  :2funny:

As long as it's well-lit (to prevent opportunistic zombie darkspawns), and has a system of escape hatches, I'm pretty sure an underhole is the best approach. Just hard to dig. But if you start early, and dig a little farther every day with some increasingly better tools...!

I'm seriously considering starting a hobbit tunnel under that steep ridge back of AT's house.

Jason, sorry to hear about your dad. I hope he is okay.

Hope yer dad fares better than you lot in this game. Thoughts with you Jason. O0

yes, best of luck to your dad Jason

Pray your dad makes a quick and full recovery.

Thanks; he's enjoying New Year football from his hospital bed -- actually a good thing for him as it never seems to mess with his psiatic nerve.

Quote from: Barthheart on December 31, 2015, 09:50:38 PM
Hope yer dad fares better than you lot in this game. Thoughts with you Jason. O0

Or in that... y'know... OTHER GAME!

That we're playing.

Sometimes.

>:D

If your dad's having his procedure today JP, hope all goes well.

Quote from: OJsDad on January 01, 2016, 01:00:27 PM
If your dad's having his procedure today JP, hope all goes well.

+1, hope all goes really well.

They're waiting for tests to decide whether to keep him a little longer for a cath, or send him home (for a cath later probably).

I'm in the hospital room right now, watching the Tennessee vs Northwestern Outback Bowl. Vols are walking away from NW, which historically this year means NW will probably lose (all their losses have been big ones; their crucial wins have all been close).

Of course, for the past several decades UT's chief weakness has been our rather prima dona psychology: if we think we ought to win, we fall apart encountering any serious resistance. (Our secondary is traditionally weak, too, but NW doesn't have a long throwing game so I'm not worried about that.)

Meanwhile, I was able to get on last night, for a bit of preliminary scouting toward the Central City which is in a cold zone and so largely untapped. In fact I don't think any of the area west of it has been slightly explored, and only a little north of it (including me by accident during a random spawn much earlier).

Spruced up Casa Del Aztank a little, and dug a preliminary tunnel system out back, where with a lucky hunting expedition I was able to camp out during the 63 day horde. My only problem was a couple of ferals (I think) that fell down the gap in front of my door, and then attacked it for a while out of principle until they got bored and wandered off. (I repaired it long distance.)

Depending on where things are when I log back in later today (not enough bandwidth at the hospital to try), I'll either be adding some brick walls around the cut to minimize zombies accidentally falling in next to the door, or (once any nearby horde-sabbath has passed) plotting a new base close to the central city where I can retreat if the cold gets too problematic. Oddly, I've read the leather book so I can make leather and a few leather things and do some repairs, but I can't make most leather items yet. Still, my clothes and cloth armors are decent enough to last a lot longer in the cold than before.

The other players are busy looting and basing at more temperate towns and cities meanwhile. ;) Which is just as well, since spreading out our activity helps reduce sabbath horde attack intensities (and nightly incursions). Even so, I've seen a definite uptick in wandering mini-hordes.

Jason i hope your father comes through everything with flying colors.

Meanwhile at Casa Del La Budd......we have achieved the mini bike :-] If you find the time to make to my abode i'll build you one, there pretty cool. I've moved my base back to the pharmacy and just about have the parts for another bike. i made Arizona one with a shopping basket so you can carry 25 squares worth of stuff. Helps for maximum looting ;D When i logged in last time at my temp base in the new town a horde was breaking through my door right when i spawned. I should of ran like a little school girl, but no i stood my ground...and died rapidly...they just poured through the door, dogs included, bastards. I need a machine gun, i have a shotgun[worthless], hunting rifle and pistol, need an AK or sub machine gun. Next time i'm pipe bombing there ass.

Budd, supposedly I can build AK-47s now if I have the parts, so if you get some parts let me know.

Dad's back home and seems flying in colors. ;)


Spent all tonight after I got home scouting a halfway hole between Casa Del Aztank and the central city. I may have been over ambitious, though: I built a small fort around the hole, and then built a log tower as high as I could reach (with some frames providing a temporary staircase with two torches planted up high to help me and others find it at night.

Around 10pm, a horde with dogs and I think maybe ferals promptly found my fort, broke through the door, and then dug through the snow around my reinforced hatch to plop a ton of undead bodies on me. Instant zombie pit of death. Fortunately I had put all my truly useful things in the pack. I made it back to AzTank's house without a problem (after the respawn -- I had put down a new bag in the hole), and ensconced myself there for the night.

I'm not entirely sure what to do, but I've decided to start by taking down the giant torchpole, see if that helps. ;) Maybe tunnel farther under the snow horizontally (I can't easily go down vertically any farther, as I've hit dirt -- although then again that might be best, and my stone shovel is pretty good now.) At the very least I should consider making a secondary escape hatch.

Needless to say, I haven't gotten to the process of looting Central City yet.  ::)

next time i catch you online i'll hook you up with a minibike, i believe i have all the parts, except a shopping basket. If you see one [there usually in a bookstore, shamway or the shotgun store] grab one, there the empty ones, you can pick those up.

Glad to hear about your father, good news.

A minibike may be good whenever I finally get to city looting (especially in the cold zone so I can get back to warmth faster), but I foresee at least two problems.

1.) It needs gas. In city looting not such a big problem, but what do I do with the bike when I'm out and not using it?

2.) It's noisy. Easy to run away from hordes I suppose, assuming I have somewhere to run to, but I would think it also draws hordes to wherever I'm running.

3.) What do I do with the bike when I'm on foot or out of gas? Leave it outside my hole for a passing minihorde to mangle? Can I put it in my backpack?? (Well, I can put a forge and God knows how many anvils in my backpack, and umpty-thousand wood... what are we going to do when the weight factors are finally activated!?? Not much of a problem for now, of course.)

Gas isn't hard to get so far, plenty of cars to siphon from or oil drums once you read the gas can schematic.I carry some spare on the bike besides it gets good gas mileage ;). I just park it out front of places and loot, I suppose if they mangle it I'll build another. No you can't put it in your backpack once built. With the speed and extra space it takes map looting to a whole new level, plus it has a headlight and a horn.

Well, I recovered my Deepbase1 near the Central City; and Budd has been to visit with his minibike. We're going to use it to start looting the central city.

Apparently the Sabbath horde spawned on Day 80 this time, which I thankfully missed but Budd has a story. ;) I stayed in the hole during Day 84, which should be the sabbath horde, and kept the gameclock running well into daylight, but didn't go out as I still heard things (plural) meandering around. Sometime between 1 and 2 am, a grievous number things shambled overhead (I'm well into the dirt now, not just snow, which they can dig and smell me through), and from the occasional blurble it sounded like a sabbath horde. But it's 11pm realtime tonight and so I don't want to hop out to pick off any stragglers. Time enough tomorrow.

It's probably a safe hole so long as no one is moving or doing much after 10pm -- non-detection beats tower defense  O0. I'll share coordinates with members online when I am. (And if I'm thinking about it, I'll alt-tab out to give coordinates here.) There are two unlocked chests, a firepit with a pot and a grill, and soon I'll be building a forge. (Budd discovered a highly secure but beat-up old house with only one metal door, and also a forge, but he got whomped somehow. Worth looking into, though, as I think it's on the 'suburb' of the main town and can follow a road southish into it.)

Well me dying repeatedly aint much of a story. But it went something like this. I'm all stocked to the gills with just about everything, im getting ready for 77 day hoard....right..every 7 days= a hoard...so lets see 7X11= 77 . I've got 90 rounds of hunting rifle ammo, 60 rounds of shotgun ammo and a good amount of pistol ammo with mines out front and pipe bombs at the ready. So I'm ready...bring it day 77, well it wasn't exactly nothing a small wandering hoard which my base defenses basically took out, no feral zombies. So  the next morning i repair the minimal damage to my base and get back to looting. So day 80 arrives, it is not divisible by 7 so no worries...wrong. I settle down at night on day 80 to do some smelting. I start the smelting and well i have to take a bathroom break, well apparently the shit hit the fan quickly, so to speak. I get back to the computer and im dead, i can see the hoard in my base and i'm thinking WTF, i wasn't gone that long. So i take the respawn on my bedroll, surely they haven't breached my saferoom with the vault door, wrong 0 to dead in half a second. I see feral cops and those big ugly feral zombies with assorted dogs, crawlers and others. So this time i choose the spawn near my bedroll...which turns out isn't far enough away, dead by dogs. So i finally spawn far enough away to not die instantly and stupid me i go back in to try to lead them away from shitcaning my base, i actually get stupid enough to get back in my base and its an orgy of feral zombies...death by spitting cop. So respawn again and manage to lure them out onto my spikes which eventually kills the cops but the big ones keep crawling around without legs and i eventually clear it out after dying a few more times. So i go and take a look at the damage which is considerable, worst of all the damn zombies kill my chest of weapons and my chest of armor and clothes, so day 81 was all about repair and some lessons learned. next time i either run or jump into Bison's partially dug tunnel.... Bison i'll be putting a vault hatch on that tunnel. After the carnage i head off to visit Jason's frozen tundra base and start looting the central town, Jason was kind enough to allow me to stage at his base to loot the central town from. So next plan is too loot central city since i managed to get some gas for the mini bike.

 ;D

I was pretty pissed when I wasted hours hanging around my hideout for the day 56 & day 70 hordes....which never materialized. Getting caught with your pants down sounds much worse.

I wonder what is going on with the arrival times?

I thought I read somewhere that the 7 day horde wasn't 100% every 7 days. It could vary in time around day 7 or not even show up at all. I do know that in previous builds I've encountered the horde no show on day 7. Anyway, entertaining story!

Well im currently alt-tabbed out of the game. 10 minutes after logging on...guess what.......day86 2300....i hear some loud screeching, i craft a vault hatch and a block and slap it on Bisons tunnel hole and climb down breaking my leg, no splint. Just in time as the ferla horde hits...WTF.....its now 0500 and there still up there and im still hunted. eventually im going to have to go up there...right. There's some terrible sounds coming from up there. Sorry Bison its a pain in the ass getting out now with the vault hatch...hope they dont break the vault hatch...to be continued.

sorry it was 0400, screeching stopped, im now undetected But there are still some ungodly noises coming from up top

H.E.L.P.   LoL

The top cooling fan on my main computer died this morning (ironically as I went to shower, letting the computer do any maintenance download; I come back and computer is burning up, never got out of BIOS.)

Computer itself is probably fine, just the fan is toast. Will have to get a new one from Falcon NW (should still be under warranty.)

I'll try logging in (later) and playing with the Surface Pro 3, but unsure how good it'll be. The wireless modem isn't anything like good.

here's my situation.hope the sounds come thru, just uploaded so its not HD

Well, crap, that isn't going to work: I might be able to get in, but only as a level 1 new character (since I'm on a different computer.)

I might be able to get you out of the hole, though, budd

0930 i hear cop puke, if you coming bring heavy weapons.....shit there beating on the hatch

Budd, I think your forum avatar matches perfectly with you situation.

Well, despite being required to make a new profile, the game somehow knew I was still my character (Sabreman) and spawned me... well, actually it spawned me above ground near my base, instead of down inside my base, which could one day be pretty problematic, but was more confusing than anything because I was expecting to need a whole new player (which I named TheDreadSacrifice, since I figured I was going to die horribly leading budd's horde away, and the random generator gave me dreadlocks. ;) ) So dangit I spawned in the cold somewhere!

But it was only me, spawning vertically above where I had quit.

Whereupon the lag nearly killed me, because I was running the game on ultra custom bling, and my Surface (it turns out) can only run smoothly on 800x600 and minimum bling. But I had to get somewhere safe first to test out workable gfx, since the game doesn't pause while I'm doing that.

Fortunately, I soon discovered I was sitting near Deepbase1's entrance, and I managed to sneak in without anything getting me. Fixed the gfx issues enough to work with, but I sure didn't want to try combat. Grabbed some splints and some Shame (which I also misspelled like that in the game when I told budd what canned food I was bringing for him  :2funny:), and started trotting cross country to the rescue.

Sort of. I had to dodge several minor zombies in the woods south of his pharmacy base as I got closer. But I didn't scope anything wrong outside the base, which allowed him to go up an ad hoc ladder/frame contraption to get out and start looking around.

Good news: I discovered a little slice of desert south of the forest south of his town! The slice gets wider as it goes east, but it narrows to a point there -- literally down to a point! -- which will allow anyone near Budd's base to easily grab any general desert goodies like sand and yucca fruit, without much risk of overheating. (I didn't check to see if a water tower was nearby, too, because my Surface's draw distance had to be nerfed, and I wanted to check more on Budd: I was only trying to get around some minor zombies in the woods.)

Bad news: I killed myself trying to Mario-hop my way into the base. Note to self, this is a bad idea on a Surface, even with a keyboard and a mouse.

Good news: I had enough sense not to put anything special on my belt, so it was all easily replaceable.

Bad news: I spawned back at my Deepbase, so I couldn't get my Sham(e!) to budd after all.

Good news: I found where Budd had parked my new minibike, gassed up and ready to take back to Deepbase1 so I can use it on city runs.

Bad news: I killed myself trying to Mario-hop my want into the etc. So I didn't get the minibike this time.

Good news: Essentially the sabbath horde (which no longer appears on the sabbath) vanished around 12 noon. So I didn't even have to go draw them off after all!

Bad news: I still died anyway and so eroded all my regained top-health-and-stamina back to 60, sigh.

Good news: I spawned on my bedroll, and the game did read that as spawning down in my hole instead of the nearest point higher.

Bad news: I couldn't go outside and do anything because a migrant horde was currently walking southward toward the Central City nearby.

Good news: deep down in my hole they couldn't sense me, and I had plenty of food and water remaining if I wanted to wait them out.

Bad news: I had to quit anyway to go help with the Christmas de-decorating.

Good news: Dad is back home and in reasonably good health (though didn't go to church today, but was out a lot yesterday pretty frequently).

Bad news: he has to watch Hallmark special romantic dramadies because anything interesting might stress him a little too much (so no catching up on Doctor Who, no watching Jurassic World, etc.)

Good news: I don't have to watch them with him, hah!

Bad news: we don't have any frogurt.

Good news: the frogurt is cursed! (Which is good news because we... don't have any...)

...

......

God help me, it's going to be a long howevermanydays until my new cooling fan gets here...

So, you guys are playing the same server/map but your not together.  You're doing your own thing. 

It's a big map, so we're working on bases each of us can visit and move between. I was taking care of Aztank's house while he was away doing other things, and Budd could use it going back and forth between his house and the city he's working in. Then I moved west nearer to the center of the map (we're all working in the right third of the map, north and south of center), and created a tunnel safehouse halfway between Aztank's house and the central city, which will usually be the largest city but on this map is also smack in the middle of a large cold zone. Early attempts at getting to it failed due to the extreme cold; now we're in a position to try again.

Plus, with extra people on the map, we can split up our multi-part efforts; Aztank is working with someone else north of his first main house for example. Other times people will drop in and work around AT's house on things.

So we're all still cooperating, but more spread out. That also helps prevent giant human-activity "blooms" which attract big hordes.

Note that I'm not sure how large the map is; I spent some time scrolling on the map one gamenight, and got out to 40 x 40 km (20 north and 20 east from the center). That may only be a map-engine thing. Some enterprising ranger could easily spend game-weeks hiking out to find and plot the effective map edges (where the nuclear radiation starts.)

(Or take a minibike with a ton of gas and sealed food and water. :) )

Are there any larger vehicles in the game?

Yes.

But they're all dead.

But they aren't undead.

So there's that.  :D

Too bad. A leftover MRAP would be nice but even a rusty old Datsun B210 could come in handy.

Quote from: -budd- on January 03, 2016, 02:00:54 PM
here's my situation.hope the sounds come thru, just uploaded so its not HD

Scary stuff

Well, I just purchased 7 Days to Die.  Downloading now, but won't get to it until tomorrow.  So you will probably see me pop in at some point in the not too distant future. 

Quote from: OJsDad on January 03, 2016, 10:44:27 PM
Well, I just purchased 7 Days to Die.  Downloading now, but won't get to it until tomorrow.  So you will probably see me pop in at some point in the not too distant future.

Excellent, looking forward to it.

Highly recommend you take in a tutorial, otherwise your first half hour could be very hard. Here is one that seems pretty good:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8LSC6buO3Q

well i was on for most of the day, enough to go through 3 hordes. One was still out front when i logged out, frankly i was running out of ammo. It was a never ending horde that started in daylight and pretty much kept coming and was still present when i logged off the next night. A lot of puking cops and dogs and those monkey running zombies plus add in about 10 hornets and a pissed off bear. Died 3 times and got infected and had to take AB's . When back to load up on ammo 3 times for my pistol and hunting rifle plus 10 pipe bombs, hell i just crafted a couple hundred rounds and i'm about out. If you can take out the cops before they explode they usually carry good weapons. I'm underground now so i dont have to worry about repairing my up top base. but i do have an idea for a wall defense i want to try.

another thing if any new players catch me online i can outfit you with some armor and weapons. i have plenty of food and water to get you started and if you want to base at my place i have plenty of supplies and when i find a few more parts i make you some wheels. I'm working on getting my cornfield up and running for cornmeal  to mix with biofuel for gas for the minibikes, so keep your animal fat and collect as much corn as you can.

I worked all weekend so haven't been on since Thursday night. Should be back in action Monday. Currently holed up in the cop shop in hub city. Not a very safe spot to spawn from with only a bow, beer and the shirt on my back. But I have plenty of beer...

Anyone else near the city? Where you holed up at bud?

You spawned in the cold central city, Rekim? Harsh!

I've been setting up a safebase (or two) north of the 0,0 city, from which to stage raids. Next time we're both on I'll send coordinates. One is a deep, long hole in the snow (though not as extensive as Budd's, which he started working on after mine, and yet somehow madly shoved dirt around with an iron shovel for some super-boss underground basing.) It has a small open-top wood fort around it, but that's mainly there to make it easier to find at draw-distance. There's a forge in it now -- I spent a whole game day playing with my new forge once I built it -- toward the back, and the better firepit is there, too, but the community chests and a quick firepit (and my spawn bag) are toward the front. Be aware that a horde can and will smell you through snow, and (if inadvertently) dig through it to get to you; that happened soon after I first dug the pit; so if night comes, get back under the dirt.

My second base I only recently made last night, north of Deepbase1, farther from the city but on a ridgeline with good eyesight on both the cold region (just a block or two northward) and the surrounding forest region (downhill to the north). It's a brick tower, which I'll eventually dig a further base under. Currently there's a ground floor; a secondary floor (nothing in either yet but torches); a third floor with shooting holes (which I'll soon put iron bars over), meant for scout-shooting deer and pig (I sure wouldn't recommend it hiding from zombies; and then a roof with a hatch. I fully intend to add as many more floors as the game will allow, mainly to see if I can get 'above' sabbath-horde sensing. And make the bottom walls at least one block thicker, with barbed wire on the ground and walls.  (Although this may aggravate hordes: when they start dying from tower defenses, other zombies start spawning in agitated states. It may be better for them to just take a couple of whacks at the walls as they walk by.) Finally, I mean to make a ladder chimney going from whatever-the-top-is, down to an enclosed hatch for tunneling; and to tunnel back to link up with Deepbase 1 (from where I'm slowly digging toward that tower.)

The new brick tower was made (along with, and by, my deepbase forge) while I was playing on my Surface 3 Pro, since the main cooling fan on my main computer went kaput Sunday morning. I tried to avoid combat as much as possible, since my Surface tends to get chuggy when the action starts (and I'm running things on minimum gfx with only one notch above 800x600 resolution).

My overarching plan to use the Deepbase as a forward launching point to loot Central City, has been delayed only by my new hobby of making secure bases nearby from which to safely hunt game and hide from hordes at night. ;)


Oh, and Budd gave me a minibike he built; which I lost back at his place soon afterward when the morning after his epic horde assault I zipped over to scout out the area. I tried to make it down a garage hatch to ask for some gas (and help him repel any remaining invaders), but a zombie dog tore me up good and while I did kill it (and got safely down the hatch, locking it behind me) I died from bleeding and infections before I could medicate. So I'll have to spend half a day hiking back east to that city to recover my new minibike again. Besides I'll want to bring budd some collected animal fat (from there and from Casa Del Aztank) to help him make fuel for our bikes, since I figured out last night he needs to combine biofuel with grain alcohol to create plastic gas tanks (presumably with gas ;) ). There's a lot of corn growing reusably at Aztank's place, halfway between our bases, so I'll bring some of that, too. (Make sure to snip off only the top, and the bottom will regrow.) Corn meal cooked with bottled water = grain alcohol + animal fat refined into biofuel (with a beaker on the firepit) = gas (if you've read the right book, which budd apparently has but which I haven't yet).

OJDad, the most important thing you can do in a co-op server (like the Groghead Invitational), is promptly hit the tab key to bring up your main user interface (and inventory -- alternately, tap 'm' to bring up the map and then go for the players list); mouse-click the "players" icon on the upper right (I don't know a keyboard shortcut to get there directly) for the players list; and send out invitations to anyone currently on-sever to be your ally. (Or accept requests if we've already made them.)

This will allow you to track us on the map (although you'll have to manually click a box on that players' page to do that -- and you'll have to do that each time you quit and reload), and will allow us to share waypoints with you and vice versa (using the map screen. Be aware that when you receive a shared waypoint, you have to accept it from the shared list to make it permanently part of your list. Otherwise it eventually disappears.)

The other, arguably even more important thing in a multiplayer game, is use 't' to open the chat window to type messages. This server does accept microphone inputs, so if you have a headset (and the game recognizes it) you can also hold down 'v' to open the voice channel. But sometimes that works better than others.

The game won't be paused while you do all that, and it is entirely possible you may die while trying to figure out how to connect with us, but you'll respawn somewhere else anyway. Dying early in this game (and to some extent regularly afterward) is expected. :) But because you'll be randomly spawning when you die for a while, it's super-important to get connected with anyone else in the game, so that (once we're in a safe place to do so) we can check where you are on our maps and guide you somewhere safer. Which could be extra-important if you spawn in a cold or desert zone. (So far we've found only one of those latter that I know of on this map, but we've only been scouting the east third of it so far.)


The next most important thing, is that whenever you get to making doors and chests, remember to hold down the 'use' key (nominally the 'e' key as in many first-person shooters) while facing it to open a little sub menu where you can set the community password which is "ace". (No quote marks, little letters. Make sure there are no invisible spaces before or after!) Chests will start locked automatically, but unless you don't want to share you should unlock them; no one but players will (or can?) open chests, so no reason to pass-lock them. Doors start out unlocked, and I've heard that only players can open unlocked doors, but I have trouble believing that -- everyone locks the doors, but since everyone is (so far!) on the same team we all need to be able to get inside each others' locked doors (and floor/roof hatches), so pass-lock them. If you forget, NO ONE ELSE CAN GET THROUGH YOUR DOOR, unless we break it down. Which could be disastrous for several people in several ways if a horde (or a bear, or a dogpack) is on our tail.


I guess the next most important thing is to punch grass.  ;D And punch trees, or woody brush. And punch rocks (or pick up occasional rocks from the ground using the 'e' / 'use' key.) Wood, rocks, and grass (in roughly descending order) are how you'll survive more than a day in this game. And e-search anything the game allows you to. (Most of the time this is obvious, as the game will label things "empty" or "unsearched" if you can.) Which is how you'll live more than a few game hours.

I have this game as well, but i havnt opened it it in months. I looked at the most recent alpha build, 13 i think and a metric ton of stuff was added, so I might pop in later today

Ready of not, here I come!

I saw two new people on tonight. What name did you use, OJ?

Welp I'm on the server, no idea what I am doing but im doing something

Say hello to my little friend

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Hv1IsHTPBg4/VoufL0zO3uI/AAAAAAAABt0/8hi8Lb3bdnA/s800-Ic42/rocketlauncher.jpg)

i have just one rocket at the moment. Still, should add some bang to my next horde encounter

JP, I'm mporwick, I think.  I was in the AT House with you.

I changed my Steam profile name to OJsDad.  That's how I'll show up now in 7DtD

Rekim, I don't know what the hoard day is now but if you want to help bring them your way just start up your camp fire and forge starting about 10 pm and keep them going. First you'll probably hear the screamer he's like the zombie forward scout looking for you, he'll scream and bring the others.

I fully support the horde visiting Rekim for a dang change.  >:D

It's a good thing you beamed out that next morning, OJ; when I ran outside to scout around the house on the minibike, I saw no less than two zombie dogs and two... things... (due to a graphical glitch I'm not sure whether they were ferals or what) ...trying to get in the east double door route. Many of the stakes on the southeastern side of the house had been simply wiped out by zombies dying on them. I did my best to snipe them, but while I killed one dog I got the attention of the other, and barely escaped. (In fact, one dog killed me before running up to that door. I managed to sneak out the west door again and back to my bike.) I have no idea whether they breached those forge-steel doors, but I've seen dogs leap around the corner of the first door to get to the second, so I don't feel entirely sanguine about the chances.

Hopefully surviving your second night with an unfightable horde wasn't too boring. ;)


Hoef, I signed out before you logged on, so I'm sorry I wasn't around to help you. I hope you weren't completely murdered: having no idea what to do on Day 1 is hard enough; on Day 100+, phew...!

My next plan is to make enough bricks (plus torches, and a steel door, and a scrap door hatch I can upgrade -- I can't make steel hatches yet), to run south and build a two-brick-thick single-floor tunnel entrance in the central city itself for better plundering opportunities. While cruising back to Deepbase1 last night on my recovered minibike, I tested a theory that the houses I run across on my left while going on a line between AzTankHouse1 and Deepbase1, are extensions of the main city -- a theory that I think was confirmed. I know the city is that way anyway, I just inferred it's a lot closer than I've thought while trying to walk south to it, and that seems right.

Also my replacement cooling fan arrived today, so I should be able to get my main computer running again, yaaaay! No more trying to fight and run while playing with the Surface! And I don't need to rush with sending a turn back to Barth on our DC3:Barbarossa mp game, because he won't be back (probably) until the 9th anyway.

I had a great session on the server last nite. Found three supply crates, one containing a sniper rifle and another with the rocket launcher part I was missing. I setup a small raiding base inside one of the hub city Shamway's (I stuck a candle above the entrance at the back of the building, no locked doors). I came across a brick tower on the outskirts of town - that you Bud?

WRT feral horde day; when I joined the server it was 1am on day 101. Jason told me the ferals had arrived that evening, making day 107/114/121/128 the next for dates. Was the morning of day 107 when I logged off. Would have loved to stick around but for the next night but was already past my bedtime.

I met up with Sgt. Steiner who had joined for the first time. Said he isn't registered on GH yet.

I didnt do much yesterday, all i really did was wander around, punch some rocks, punch some trees, punched some grass. Make an ax to hit rocks, hit trees, hit grass. Tried to find the city, then logged off.

Hof, that was about right for a first time play.  :D

Rekim, that brick tower was probably mine. Aside from some torches it's empty so far. I figured I could use it to sit around waiting to shoot food, but in practice that doesn't seem like it'll be practical. But I may be able to get it tall enough to get out of the sensing zone of a horde. (Except for the hornets, but in brick they may not be able to sense me.)

If you walk south back toward the hub city from the brick tower, about halfway to the outskirts you should find a wooden open-top one-storey fort, with log spikes on top and two doors. That's my underground base; there's a community chest and firepit at the front, and my sleeping bag (which I just realized I need to 'reset' so I don't respawn back at AzTank's place). The forge is farther down the tunnel, well under the dirt, with the better firepit. Feel free to use whatever you like.

Yay, my new cooling fan works!

Boo, I got my minibike to central city, and got killed by a frozen lumberjack. Now I'll have to hike on foot all the way back (game-tomorrow), sigh, at least to retrieve the mini.

In my defense, I have no defense -- I knew there were zs around hunting me, and gambled on checking a filing cabinet even though it put me in a corner. Well, nothing in the cabinet, and it put me in a dang corner where I couldn't maneuver.

I dont think the feral hordes stick to the 7 day thing. Once i was on and off line for 6 to 7 hours and there was 3 hordes and 2 were defiantly feral.  I dont know if it was because i smelt and cook a lot at night. I'm aiming to get my tunnel to my water source done and my new wall design idea in place and my corn operation up and running for the corn meal to make gas.

One way to tell; at 22:00 on feral horde nights the usual musical chime plays at nightfall but ALSO includes the sound of a feral zombie screaming.

I have yet to experience a feral horde with A13, so this could have changed with the new build, but I doubt it.

My mission last night, mostly successful, was to recover my minibike from the hub city, and then to get some repair kits and gas from Budd (for which I brought him some other loot, and did some digging on his new tunnel to the nearest water source). This plan was broken, several times in fact, only by a bug in the system which empties the mini's shopping basket if I ever log out and respawn. Which I necessarily have to do when the game desynchs me. Which happened several times last night. And which tends to happen more often when I or other people are running around a lot. Which the minibike NECESSARILY DOES AT SPEEDS SO HIGH THE GAME WAS WARPING!  :buck2: I mean the game was stuttering where it would teleport me back in time a second or two while I was on the bike. It's a freaking miracle I didn't always desynch. But I learned, to my annoyance (having lost well over a hundred bricks and some other things), never ever ever to put anything in the basket, which between that and the exacerbation of the desynch reduces the bike's current utility for me a lot. Maybe in an emergency.

Plus Rekim says he already looted the hub city. Argh?

Having zipped around the map somewhat more, recently, I'm increasingly surprised how few water sources I'm finding for a map that doesn't have much desert. I did find a huge pond (not quite a lake) in the hub city, but I'd have to build some stairs and/or other things to reach it as it has sharp cliffs all around it. Not tall, maybe three blocks, but unclimbable.

Oh, and I helped OJ by FedExing him some things to help him survive this late in the game at AzTank's first house. OJ, Budd sent you a schematic on making crossbows, which I dropped off. Just read it and you can make your own, although you may also have to read something else to forge iron bars at the forge; not sure. Crossbows definitely need a forged iron bar, including to repair it (although the other materials are so easy to come by it's usually better to make a new one at better quality, if you have a game-minute or two.)

Thanks JP.  I found it.

Since I'm still feeling my way around, I'll probably stay around AT's house.  Since I'm there, what do you guys need.  I can get the corn and make both food and fuel.  And I can get the materials to make crossbow bolts.

To make gasoline requires three things; well four things. (Well, five or six things since there are books involved...)

1.) Corn. Budd has a crop of that coming in, but AzTank's crop is larger. Harvesting it and carrying it to Budd will be useful. Grinding it to cornmeal first will save a step. Be sure to snip only the top half or block of the stalk! -- that way it'll regrow. I'm not sure other plants regrow if picked.

2.) Bottled water. Water isn't something easy to get at AzT's house, but budd can get it pretty easily (and more easily soon when the new tunnel is finished. Helping him dig the tunnel would be good, OJ, and you'd be safe underground while doing so.) But bottled water also requires bottles, and one of the most super-annoying and pointless things about the game engine is that if you use bottled water for anything other than drinkable items, you sacrifice the bottle. Basically if you boil an egg, you need the cooking pot to pour the water in (which itself requires forged iron to make), after which you SMASH THE BOTTLE ON THE GROUND COMPLETELY DESTROYING IT FOREVER! Or if you boil corn on the cob in your pot. Or boil meat. Smash that bottle. The same goes for making grain alcohol, which is corn meal + bottled water on the fire. That doesn't destroy the bottle, it's still there holding the alcohol, but make gas with it and you shatter the bottle.

Consequently, gas requires a constant stream of expendable bottles, and those things are a little uncommon to find and are super important for making other things (such as, most importantly, drinkable water!)

So a hidden cost to making gas is:

3.) Sand. I'm not sure what else is necessary, but you need sand to make glass bottles. This side of the map is pretty thin on desert so far, including near AzTank's house, but Budd has a very handy sliver of desert not far south of his main base. So he can get as much sand as he wants almost at will.


The other main ingredient is biofuel, and that's made with a beaker on the fire and...

4.) Animal fat. This comes from one place (as well as occasionally off dead zombies), namely dead animals. Budd has a lot of canned food, but that supply runs out eventually so he needs fresh meat; and fresh meat happens to come with animal fat as a bonus.

So if you go out hunting, OJ, and bring Budd some of your meat, and all your animal fat, and the top half of AT's corn (he's far south on the map now and doesn't come back this house much, so he rarely needs any), maybe already ground to corn meal, that'll be hugely helpful. :)

As for crossbows, I can make regular bolts whenever I want, but prefer to make iron bolts, which require iron arrowheads, which I can make but which requires scrap iron. Which comes mostly from digging on dark rocks (and to a much lesser extent, mining normal rocks). Budd and I can both use as much scrap iron as you can find or mine. The tunnel behind AzTank's house is a great place to hide, and features lots of rock (but not much iron rock) which incidentally makes it a pain to try to expand.

Budd can also use all the lead you find (already scrapped or not), which isn't easy to locate. I've run across some veins while tunneling but those aren't large, and I don't know what they look like above ground. He can also use any bullet casing (I don't know if he has found a schematic to make those yet; I think they're made of brass, and that's terribly difficult to find), and just as importantly any potassium nitrate and coal you can dig. Those last two show up on the map itself as you scout, as black and white marks. Put together they make gunpowder.

JP, sounds good to me.  Couple of thoughts/questions;

1.  Would it make more sense for me to relocate to Buds base.

2.  The whole out back of AT's base, does that have any real purpose except staying safe.

3.  If I'm staying at AT's base, then would it make sense to put up an outer wall to bring the corn fields inside of it.

4.  If I stay at AT's base, I may look at building a new storage box, probably in the basement.  Keep any raw materials or spare parts down there and any items ready to be used upstairs.  Help keep everything organized.   

1.) Except for purposes of harvesting corn, quite possibly yes. His base is a lot more secure (as long as you can get down the hatch and close it before the zombie dogs rush you.)

2.) Not yet, although I've dug some good mineral resources out of the ground there. Don't knock "staying safe", though. That's arguably priority number one! If I ever got deeper and/or farther away from the door, I would have put a new firepit and (eventually) a forge there.

3.) No, the zs don't care about the crops, they aren't in danger. And unless you go out to harvest crops in the middle of the night (in which case you deserve everything that happens to you consequently  :P ), you're in more danger from those spike fields while trying to get to the crops.

Of course, in theory you could build a very large wall around the perimeter, put a spike field inside it (to protect players traveling nearby and to punish z's getting over or through the wall) on the far side of the crops, and then eliminate more of the nearby spike field to provide a safe path to the crops. But that would take an insane amount of effort. A better plan would be to build a strong path over the spike field (from the roof maybe) to to the crops, add railings to it for better human safety, but leave, say, a five block gap over the spike field. Any zs getting on it to go over the spike field will not be able to jump the gap; while human players can keep some simple wood frames in the backpack and drop them down, then turn around and pick them back up, to cross. (I was working on something like this over the western spike field, but made a mistake and lost the bridge; by the time I got things back to where they originally were, I needed to move along and do something else.)

4.) I recommend putting the new storage box nearby instead, so it's near at hand. Time management in this game can be important. In fact, you have a two pretty empty storage boxes near that one (near the firepit) already: a cabinet and a desk drawer! No need to build anything, just use them. I can reach the red cabinet from the firepit, I think, and the desk drawer is only a couple of steps away. (AzTank's chests up in his overlook are locked; I don't know if that's on purpose, though probably not: it's easy for players intending to share chests to forget they start off locked. Also we suspect the game sometimes locks chests again. In Budd's house, where you camped that first night, there were a set of four chests near the fridge which only I could reliably get into even though I hadn't built them, because they tended to spontaneously lock, even for Budd who built them! I suspect that problem is related directly to the occasional desynch. Remember, in passing, run as little as possible, so the server code has time to keep up.)

4.)

OK, I'll be logging on tonight.  When I do, I'll grab all of the corn, animal fat, and seeds that I can and head for Buds place. 

Made it back to Budds.  Killed a few Z's on the way.  I also killed a pig and a deer, but thanks to the Z's I couldn't find them afterwards.

I was only able to get into one of the locked chests.  I also placed a number of items into the refrigerator.  Then O kicked me off of the computer so she could play Sims for a little bit.

Oh, and I almost drowned in the basement!

There's at least one Walker in Budd's house. 

It's night, and I was up in the back bedroom.  I stayed logged in and walked away for a few minutes.  When I came back, I was all but dead.  When I respawned, I was outside.  I started walking back to the house and fell in deep hole.  I logged out.   

you must be in my old house OJ with the water in the basement. I moved out awhile ago, take it over if you want. It has the benefit of an on site water supply.If you look on the map my base is the pharmacy now, well under it actually. The chests have been weird, there were times i couldn't get into them, i also cant get in the front door. Like i said if you want to take the place over, help yourself. I've gone back to work so i wont be on as much.

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 06, 2016, 09:23:51 AM

Plus Rekim says he already looted the hub city. Argh?

I've put a dent in hub city, but haven't finished looting it by a long shot. I made a comment to Sgt Steiner that I'd cleaned up the town where my sleeping bag is located (his now too). Must be what you were thinking of Jason.

I won't have time to play before the weekend. I finally learned the recipe for cement and plan to strike off towards the northwest to start on a new base. Don't think anyone has been up that direction yet.

I have been in the south...frankly slim pickings so far.  So if you guys want to harvest the corn, go for it.

Oh, gah, I totally forgot that no one had shown OJD where Budd is currently camping. It isn't at his first house (actually it's a lot closer to AzTank's house).

Of course on the shared map point, Budd's house is listed as "Budd's". So that's naturally where he tried to carry the supplies. I am so, so sorry. (And not surprising a z is in that house, the place was wrecked by several hordes in a row.)

I have to do a turn for my multiplayer game with Barth (and get the AAR written up on that) tonight, but whenever I get back on I'll try to give you a better map location, OJD. Meanwhile, if you have an opportunity, you can load up on water in Budd's basement -- it's so close to fresh that I don't recall ever getting dysentry from it, but I don't recommend taking that risk unnecessarily -- but trek back to AT's house.

If you want to find Budd's new digs before I get on, go north to the main road in front of AT's house (it isn't far in front, easy to see from the house, don't mistake it for the driveway of course), and follow it west. It'll loop north and then south again around some woods, which you could otherwise cut through directly if you already know where to go, but take the road the first time. Not much more than 1.5 km (I guess) you'll come to the corner of a town, with an extensive little farm growing outside it like at AT's house (but bigger). The Pharmacy will be on the corner, and that's the main base. You can only get in from underground, or by Mario jumping over from the roof of the garage next door where the minibikes are parked. (If you see a backback on the spikes there, you're free to take it if you want and if you can get to it -- that was mine, and should serve as a warning about trying to get in that way with a lack of 3D platforming skilz.  :P ) The first hatch is in a (rather inconvenient) hole in the back corner of the garage. I know where at least one more outside hatch is, but I don't know how to tell you where to find it. (In a room on the bottom floor of the house across the street from the garage, basically.) Unless Budd has made another one, you may only find one minibike in the garage. The garage is the first building on the left past the Pharmacy (also on the left) if you keep on going straight down the road you took to get to the town.

LOL. No problem JP.

No sure I'll get on tonight or not.  If I do, I'll at least make it back to AT's place.  I'll pack up as much as I can.

On those chests that won't open, if you break them open, will their contents be destroyed or can you get them then.  Just curious.

OJ Just make another chest and maybe Jason can move stuff over, think he was the only one who could get into them last time this happened. My new base should be a shared waypoint on map, labeled the pharmacy. My plan is to get my tunnel to the next house on the way to my water source and take a break from tunneling and do some map exploring once I make enough gas. I'll keep going north like I have been. I do have that temp base in the town north of me where I have been doing some mining, there's a forge and camp fire and some supplies there. The entrance is a vault door in the back of a shotgun messiah store. I've explored a ways north of there, no new towns yet. I'll keep following the road.

I'm able to open the middle chest in the row of three next to the frig.  So he can use that one.

Managed to get a couple hours in last night. Finished another segment of my tunnel, only one block away from my water source. It's all cleaned out and fixed up. I have pockets of ore in my tunnel so ill mine those out. Expanded my garden so the corn should start rolling in to make fuel. So next ill focus on making fuel and get back to exploring the map to the north with the mini bike. Another feral horde hit while I was on, I estimate around 40 plus dogs and hornets. Started after 2200 and pretty much kept coming until I desynced and had to rejoin around 930 the next morning, when I rejoined they were gone. Managed to not die and kill quite a few, used all my ammo and arrows. The hunting rifle was pretty effective against the big uglies, the feral zombies usually carry good stuff especially the cops if you can kill them before they explode. The cops usually carry weapons or gun parts. The bad news was I couldn't get into my med chest to get healing stuff, all the other chests worked fine. If I still can't get in maybe someone else can come over and get my med stuff out for me. I'll probably shore up my outside defenses a little to take some starch out of the feral ones, it helps. I like to build underground because get tired of repairing the up top defenses, my tunnels are wide spread enough now to escape their range when they sense me or I'm hunted, just run to different part of my tunnels pop out and start picking them with the hunting rifle and try to keep them away from beating on my vault hatches to my tunnels.

I won't be able to get back on until, very probably, around noon tomorrow (Saturday) at the earliest.

I moved a ton of things out of the mystery-locked chests in Budd's first, southern house, over to three new chests I left in the same kitchen on a different wall (opposite the counters next to the fridge). They may all be destroyed by hordes now, but as far as I know anyone could use those.

One of these days I'll spare some extra wood on... actually, come to think of it, I made a spare chest outside Deepbase1, about 50 feet east-ish, when I needed to kill a minor horde but didn't have room to search their bodies and didn't want to lose them before they dissolved. I'll punch some grass nearby, put that in the chest, make sure it's locked, ax the thing to death, and see what happens. Mental note to experiment on that...

I made it back to AT's place, after dying twice.  From there I tried to hike to the Pharmacy.  Sgt Steiner had given me some coordinates, but I think I read them wrong.  I ended up dying outside of a gas station across the road from a bank on the edge of a frozen zone.  I'll try again later to get back to Budds new digs. 

BTW, I cannot get the chest open at AT's place next to the fire pit either. 

Yeek, I think you went left from AT's house instead of right?? I gave you the clearest directions I could: go to AT's house, go north down the driveway to the main road, turn right (east) onto the main road, follow the main road about 1.5 km or so, until you get to the pharmacy which will be the first building of the town on the left (on the corner). The first hatch is in the next building down the same main road on the left (a garage which may have a minibike or two in it), and is in the back corner of the only room in that building, down in a bit of an inconvenient hole in the dirt.

I saw something interesting I hadn't seen before...a militarized base.  Sand bags, barbed wire, and tons of mines around it.  Unfortunately it was in a cold area, so not much actual use, unless you want to freeze to death.  But looting the mines was good.  Got about 50 of them.

Strangely not much real loot in it however....

JP. Totally my fault. I had left at the road in my brain.

i have 3 hatches now or you could just use the ladder on the front wall and go in the front door, hatch back left in the floor.

Budd and Aztank: whatever the problem was, as I was leaving the theater at nightfall I started hearing walking sounds. Got outside, found a pig in the street. before I could shoot and skin it (and throw stuff away to keep its meat etc.), had to deal with a frozen lumberjack. (Pig escaped.) Minibiked back to my base, and around 10pm a burning horde decided to visit with apparently hornets. Anyway something that could sense and hunt me down underground! I put out all fires, crept down the tunnel -- they followed, but didn't seem to be digging (hope the devs never introduce zombie badgers!) -- and after putting everything but a couple of stone tools in my backpack I quit the game to let AzTank try rebooting the server. Hopefully rebooting the burning horde, too, since I know for a fact that when I load back in, I'll be above ground outside my base!

Server rebooted.  BTW, I could let the zombies run, or make them feral....  if we think we need more of a challenge...

I like them to walk otherwise they'll be no going out at night. I'm fine if you want to adjust the amount of zombies, horde wise i'm fine with it, i've seen a fair number of feral and wandering hordes.

I'm fine with the challenge as is.

OK, will keep as is.

Some pics from my travels

There's a couple mini bikes somewhere up north, i lost one on this glich. Drove off the map. I found one of the ones i lost but then lost it in another glich and didn't find it.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-08_00001_zps0hnowydw.jpg&hash=f69bd57d152551c237b3da4b0dc0df723436d20e)

Headed up north before daylight..spooky

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-10_00001_zpsidvfytrm.jpg&hash=c9adc2bf2bfb3c561f7924f2301db1d0a70ce003)

Took the right fork, found a couple POI's, the road dead ended a little ways down.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-10_00002_zps6finawax.jpg&hash=6e9b65df0c64f061ea3ae66e682c8375c3a3ac04)

Went back to the other road and kept going north. Found a couple buildings, a book store which happened to have a shopping basket so i could add it to my mini bike to add 25 more carry slots. I like to clean out the area before i search. A horde was moving through town, no problem for the 44 mag.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-10_00003_zpsfahsnfep.jpg&hash=bdcfdfd81c19080b4fd9d49f09566fe06264c726)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-10_00004_zps0bxujkdl.jpg&hash=4a44ae4933f068ceee9d7b67231bd78dd114ba51)

I burned a couple of tanks of gas exploring, luckily i found 2 gas stations for extra gas. Found another big town way up north and on the way back found another town that showed some base building activity. Some frames on the road with candles and a house with some spike defenses.

^And that's why I'm going to stay on single player for a while longer. Guns and minibikes!?  :o

We don't shoot other people with them.

Although, the more people (literally) running around the more unstable the current server code gets; and the minibike makes that worse. So in that sense, single-player is certainly better.

Quote from: bbmike on January 10, 2016, 07:03:18 PM
^And that's why I'm going to stay on single player for a while longer. Guns and minibikes!?  :o

come on in....I'll outfit you, you can hang your hat at my place im pretty stocked up.

So after my last post i jump back into the game and i'm immediately hunted. So i scurry thru one of my tunnels and come out the garage where i store my mini bike.
Yup wandering horde hitting my place. You can see them coming out of the woods on the left.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-10_00005_zpsg5drahzc.jpg&hash=6cec38dac7c538a73d14dbaadd24dbf9e8822ec7)

Again, no problem for mister 44 mag.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-10_00006_zpsfnllrp9u.jpg&hash=e400d4f1da702c2dfe4f80665fb611b33008ae1a)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-10_00007_zpsm1bakwpy.jpg&hash=55ab9086da574759a0d7d7279368eb20df5d1c37)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-10_00009_zpst1j93m6d.jpg&hash=08ff4bb5ce7a3dce530773b383eefa755d2c30e0)

And we're clear
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-10_00011_zpskf3lkyqt.jpg&hash=06c1ce8685ca87c39a4cfdcf40cfbe8b5a9abbdf)

After clearing the horde i managed to finish my tunnel to my water source. As luck would have it my tunnel came up in the bathroom of the pool house with a bathtub of water right behind the hatch, easy fill up.   Added a couple more spot lights for night illumination and built another mini bike, there both in the garage. One of the mini's doesn't have a shopping basket so if anyone comes across one i could use it. The trick with the mini's is try not to outrun the map pop in, usually that works although one time i gliched into the landscape and had to dig the mini out. think i'm done tunneling for awhile going back to exploring the map some more up north.

I've glitched into the landscape twice on the mini, and I wasn't trying to rush the map pop-in at all. Sometimes the bike works fine, other times it doesn't matter how slow (but faster than running or else what's the point) I'm trying to go, the bike will pop back in time a few second on a regular basis.

Both times I worried I'd have to dig it out (or it would be just gone), but both times the bike zipped ahead to ground level.

I never put anything into the basket anymore anyway. The server is a little too unstable, and I've lost almost everything I've ever put in a shopping basket. A total wipe three times at least, maybe four (but after a point I learned never to risk putting anything in the shopping basket).

You're tempting me hard on that magnum, man. Doesn't help that I saw an ad yesterday in the Sunday paper for a commemorative edition 25 unit run of a 24 karat gold-plated 44 mag longbarrel revolver, fully functional, decorated with Jackson, TN memorablia in a 19th century style. Super gorgeous. Dad asked how much, I laughed and said if you have to ask you can't afford it, but they'll work with payment plans!

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 11, 2016, 09:25:09 AM
Both times I worried I'd have to dig it out (or it would be just gone), but both times the bike zipped ahead to ground level.

I never put anything into the basket anymore anyway. The server is a little too unstable, and I've lost almost everything I've ever put in a shopping basket. A total wipe three times at least, maybe four (but after a point I learned never to risk putting anything in the shopping basket).

It would be interesting to see if this happens in solo-play

True. BBmike, you're doing solo right now, are you seeing any world-glitches? Places the world hasn't popped into place yet, only skybox beyond? Times when you suddenly can't use-key things until you quit and reload?

If not, getting a minibike might trigger it; but if so, I'm betting a minibike makes it worse in single-play, too.

I've had terrain glitches in solo play.  I think it's tied more to the randomized world generation then anything else.

If so, it would only affect areas that hadn't been generated yet. Which admittedly I think I've seen more serious problems in, but I haven't been near a non-generated area in a long while.

On the other hand, maybe other players are entering such areas and causing problems for everyone. But I suspect it's some kind of difficulty for the code in keeping track of players and what we're carrying. Whatever is happening, what we use from our pack or our belt we use, but we can't use-key anything -- so when we quit and respawn, we're back at the last 'physical' place the game was able to fully track us, in the state of whatever 'usage' we used since then but with nothing gained from anything we used. (Ah, that's a wrinkle I had forgotten: it isn't that we can't use-key anything and so gain anything; we can't permanently gain anything at all, only permanently lose it by menu-using it.)

I think the game is continually rendering.  I'm not sure, but it doesn't happen too often and a exit/enter the game fixes it.

Rendering yes, generating no. But as multiple players expand into new areas (including by digging), the server code may have trouble keeping up with the generation.

It just occurred to me that the planetary features on Akua, the Earth-like planet in Empyrion, have already been generated and given a light rendering, since they can be seen from the surface of Omicron! Presumably the same is true, but less noticeable, for the other planets in the solar system.

Which makes me want to pee a little.  :coolsmiley:

Since I've been praising Empy by contrast with 7DtD to some degree, allow me to weigh the scale back the other way a moment: one of the (many) great things about 7DtD (although really it's true about many such survival games, from Minecraft and Don't Starve onward), is that from the very first moment you're on a ticking clock with literally nothing to start with other than what you can pick up (or punch) with your bare hands. And your foraging has to be somewhat widespread, often under great hardship, in order to make it through one night with any plausible chance. And the next day after that, and the next week for a while.

By its nature, even on the Mars-like Omicron where you will definitely smother not long after sundown, Empy isn't like that. I hiked for two minutes to where I could easily set up my oxygen extraction device, which has to add an implausible complication to increase resource tension (i.e. the oxy bottles generated have to be converted to other oxy bottles in order to be used by the suit), and I've moved more than 50 steps away for an actual purpose maybe once so far. And the other times I got even 20ish steps out, if that far, it was simply to set up snapshots for the AAR. The game not only gives me literally everything I need to survive 5 days, aside from oxygen (and that's only a problem on an Omicron start), but trying to gather any significant amount of anything else on the way to start my first base is practically counterproductive, since I can barely use any of it for a long time. Letting it rot by accident allows me to make antibiotics (later), but there are somewhat easier ways to deal with that, even! Nor, even on Omicron, are the indigenous life-forms a pressure-threat for a while; and the suit gives you warning when the raider drones launch, with time to get ready at the base -- but for the first days some half-smart FPS tactics and your opening pistol are good enough to use them to pretty safely level up and scavenge some parts you won't have to spend time and resources building.

7DtD is much more constantly edge-of-your-seat from the word go. 120ish days into the game, and I'm still bolting up in a hole at night because I can't deal with the threats the game escalates at me. (Admittedly other players are doing somewhat better about that, but they're also dying a little more often, so... ;) )

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 12, 2016, 01:58:18 PM
Since I've been praising Empy by contrast with 7DtD to some degree, allow me to weigh the scale back the other way a moment: one of the (many) great things about 7DtD (although really it's true about many such survival games, from Minecraft and Don't Starve onward), is that from the very first moment you're on a ticking clock with literally nothing to start with other than what you can pick up (or punch) with your bare hands. And your foraging has to be somewhat widespread, often under great hardship, in order to make it through one night with any plausible chance. And the next day after that, and the next week for a while.

By its nature, even on the Mars-like Omicron where you will definitely smother not long after sundown, Empy isn't like that. I hiked for two minutes to where I could easily set up my oxygen extraction device, which has to add an implausible complication to increase resource tension (i.e. the oxy bottles generated have to be converted to other oxy bottles in order to be used by the suit), and I've moved more than 50 steps away for an actual purpose maybe once so far. And the other times I got even 20ish steps out, if that far, it was simply to set up snapshots for the AAR. The game not only gives me literally everything I need to survive 5 days, aside from oxygen (and that's only a problem on an Omicron start), but trying to gather any significant amount of anything else on the way to start my first base is practically counterproductive, since I can barely use any of it for a long time. Letting it rot by accident allows me to make antibiotics (later), but there are somewhat easier ways to deal with that, even! Nor, even on Omicron, are the indigenous life-forms a pressure-threat for a while; and the suit gives you warning when the raider drones launch, with time to get ready at the base -- but for the first days some half-smart FPS tactics and your opening pistol are good enough to use them to pretty safely level up and scavenge some parts you won't have to spend time and resources building.

7DtD is much more constantly edge-of-your-seat from the word go. 120ish days into the game, and I'm still bolting up in a hole at night because I can't deal with the threats the game escalates at me. (Admittedly other players are doing somewhat better about that, but they're also dying a little more often, so... ;) )

True, I never feel safe in 7DtD

i feel better since i got the 44 mag  :D  I've been being a little more careful to try to get my health and wellness up....hey i'm up to 120. I do like to wander at night though.

Quote from: -budd- on January 12, 2016, 06:59:37 PM
I do like to wander at night though.

your first night with running zombies will put an end to that  :buck2:

its why i like them to walk, otherwise not much going out at night.

Well, today I had the pleasure of watching my minibike randomly teleport, after I disembarked, into my little wooden fort over Deepbase1.

So, after getting its things out of the basket (I was on my way back from looting around shotgun messiah, not in it yet still, and I made sure to put only somewhat expendable items in case I lost them), I hopped back on it to try to finagle it out the door.

In the process of trying to get on it, I accidentally opened the hatch beneath it.

It dropped straight down into the secondary stairs of the tunnel. The ones I couldn't feasibly drive back out.

Now my minibike is sitting in the tunnel.

{smh}

At which point I suddenly realize how addicted I've become to the minibike despite its buggy quirks. I should have been thinking of finishing my stack of bricks and some forged iron doors and scrap hatches and ladder pieces, so I could build a safety tower near Shotgun Messiah.

Instead I was thinking of digging back up through the snow at an angle, filling it with stairs as I go, to get the bike out.

And then filling the corridor with bricks, to keep anything from getting back in that way.

But I wasn't going to try that at night, which was falling, although I ran out and chopped some trees (and found a nice second-deer to shoot and chop up -- found the first one semi-trapped in a small cul-de-sac in the city near ShotMess) for putting this plan into action later. Got back tucked in safe and sound, a quiet night, so I decide to try excavating some iron, and maybe digging a deeper tunnel-hole to hide in on another night to come.

Whereupon, instead of digging at an angle like a sane man might, so I could easily stair back up, I accidentally dig a hole too deep to climb out of, and fall in.

Fortunately, I had plenty of wood to build ladder pieces with.

Unfortunately, my hole was too narrow for ladders to work right, and at too much of a corner to the surrounding voxels for them to be placed right.

So I spent the rest of the night frantically digging my way out of that hole. I never did get any ladders I placed to work right, but I did excavate enough to make some stairs to get out.

The next day I didn't spend carefully digging out the bike and blocking up the hole; I spent it starting a hike to budd's, and then feeling bad that I might be taking his only remaining bike (because he wasn't there to ask), even temporarily, and then hiking back. Into two minor hordes.

Fortunately, I did pick up quite a bit of canned food this way. And some infections. And I got back safely before sundown, and got my cooking and forging done for the night.

Unfortunately, I had the bright idea to harvest some clay for more bricks, since things seemed quiet again, rather than hiding back down in my deeper hole (and maybe expanding that, this time safely.) By the time I realized dogs had found me, it was too late.

But fortunately, I could go hide in the deeper hole anyway, far enough away from my fort that I didn't have to worry much about them tearing at it to get me. From past experience, I know it's entirely possible for them to get into the fort (I ought to damn well make that a brick tower first, like I have on the ridge-edge leading down into the forest, north of there), and then to dig through the snow around my scrap hatches! So the tunnel is meant to help keep them away by luring them off if they smell me. In my experience they can't dig through dirt, even though they can smell me sometimes.

Unfortunately, this was one of the times they could smell me, thanks to a zombie dog pack (at least). So I had the charming prospect of waiting the night out listening to their horrible growls, or signing out. But I wasn't sure if I signed out there that the computer would know to drop me underground. In past experiences, the only safe place to sign out is on my bedroll where there's enough vertical room to drop me -- signing out in the tunnel can be a death sentence, if it drops me above ground in the middle of a problem!

So I put everything safely in my backpack, crept as quickly as I could over to my bedroll, and signed out. But not before I could hear the horde banging at my fort, having followed me over thanks to the dogs. sigh.

Hopefully they'll be gone by the time I sign back in tomorrow (or whenever). How much damage they'll have done, who knows? Going back to ShotMess before someone else loots it, seems more distant than ever...

In my solo game, I need to build a forge.  But to do that I need a bellow.  And for that I need leather.  How do I get leather.  I killed a deer, but didn't get any.

Thanks.

I thought you only needed hides to make a bellow? And an iron pipe and something else more basic.

Leather comes from refining hides, which you can do anywhere at any time, but you have to read a book on leatherworking first.

(Rather more annoyingly, this will only open up a few of the wearable leather items, the boots and gloves and hood if I recall correctly. You'll need at least one more book, maybe more, to unlock leather armor things.)

Right, 8 wood, 1 short iron pipe, 12 animal hides

OK, hides.  How do I get those.  I've killed a pig and a deer and didn't get any.  After I kill them, I whack them with my stone axe and get some meat and bones.  No hides though. 

One more question.  I've found a gun safe.  Of course it's locked.  Is the only way to get into it to break into it or is there another secret to getting into it (and locked doors)

OK, for the hides I need a knife, like a bone shiv it looks like

Quote from: OJsDad on January 13, 2016, 03:09:08 PM
OK, hides.  How do I get those.  I've killed a pig and a deer and didn't get any.  After I kill them, I whack them with my stone axe and get some meat and bones.  No hides though.

In order to gather hides from a dead animal you must butcher it using a straight edged tool/weapon, ie a knife. Using a axe or blunt weapon will gain you a small amount of meat and bones only.

Quote from: OJsDad on January 13, 2016, 03:11:20 PM
One more question.  I've found a gun safe.  Of course it's locked.  Is the only way to get into it to break into it or is there another secret to getting into it (and locked doors)

brute force is the only way to gain access to a locked safe, which typically means beating the shit out of it with something. I guess explosives might be an option, but not without risks

Quote from: OJsDad on January 13, 2016, 05:14:48 PM
OK, for the hides I need a knife, like a bone shiv it looks like

I guess I should of read further before answering  :))

Quote from: OJsDad on January 13, 2016, 03:11:20 PM
One more question.  I've found a gun safe.  Of course it's locked.  Is the only way to get into it to break into it or is there another secret to getting into it (and locked doors)

grab a wrench they beat them open quicker, i have a few in the tool chest.

I think OJ is playing solo right now.  :)

Yeah, basically the first time you cut anything up with your axe the moment you see a harvested bone stop immediately, go to your inventory, click on that bone, and recipes for the bones, and get that shiv. Then go back to work on the animal with your shiv a few second later.

Try not to get killed by zombies meanwhile, if possible, but you knew that already.  :))

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 12, 2016, 10:21:52 PM
Unfortunately, this was one of the times they could smell me, thanks to a zombie dog pack (at least). So I had the charming prospect of waiting the night out listening to their horrible growls, or signing out. But I wasn't sure if I signed out there that the computer would know to drop me underground. In past experiences, the only safe place to sign out is on my bedroll where there's enough vertical room to drop me -- signing out in the tunnel can be a death sentence, if it drops me above ground in the middle of a problem!

So I put everything safely in my backpack, crept as quickly as I could over to my bedroll, and signed out. But not before I could hear the horde banging at my fort, having followed me over thanks to the dogs. sigh.

Hopefully they'll be gone by the time I sign back in tomorrow (or whenever). How much damage they'll have done, who knows? Going back to ShotMess before someone else loots it, seems more distant than ever...

What other game has the player cringing in dark holes all night, waiting for the bad things to go away? 

I'm jumping back and forth between the online game and a solo game.  You guys are so far ahead of me that I need to go solo to learn the basics. 

BTW, this game is awesome.  As AT just said, sitting there all night listening to the sounds, not knowing if the dead really know where you're at or if they're just passing is nerve racking. 

The game cheats in that regard, because it'll make them sound a lot closer than they actually are, when you're hiding. Mainly to screw with your nerves. :knuppel2:

Oh, and I was fine when I logged back in briefly tonight, although oddly it's hard to say if I would have been. I didn't drop in where I dropped out, on my roll; I dropped in back at the top of my new little pit in the tunnel, which is where I had secured all my things in my backpack and then crept forward to drop out before the horde followed me over to start attacking my little above-fort -- apparently unsuccessfully!

I don't know if I desynched or not. But I didn't complain!

(Well, I complained about signing in right before sundown again when I wouldn't have time to work on upgrading my little fort, but that was a random problem.)

I load up and go horde hunting at night, my scavenge is high now. One hoard I get a lot of good supplies. I have a machine gun now, the sneaky bastards  manage to get behind me sometimes. I come across a horde I throw a bunch of torches on the ground and go to work. The feral hordes are a bit different, the cops suck. I'm seeing a lot of wandering hordes now.  Going to go to the new town in the north and start looting, I've explored a ways north and haven't hit the map edge yet. Think I'm done digging, calling my underground base done except mining the ore veins in my base.

I think one of the reasons I stopped playing this is that it's just so damned overwhelming. I couldn't keep up with defenses and scrounging and such and would get overrun fast.

I had no idea you could dig an underground tunnel system though. I'll have to go back and read through all the pages in this thread.

I very much recommend the tunnel route; although I would like to try hiding 'above', too, by building a proper tower. I've got a good start on one at the ridge-edge of the snow and forest zones north of my main base, but I haven't visited it to try pushing higher in a while (much less tried camping in it overnight -- there are still portholes left in some of the walls, and I'm doubtful it's safe to move in yet. Plus it isn't as close to the hub city I'm trying to loot but keep getting distracted away from.  :buck2: )

I go for the hiding strategy at night, without even passive base defenses -- I mean damaging ones. I think they draw needless attention by aggravating whatever horde or mini-horde wanders by and bumps into them. As long as the things can't dig (or not feasibly so anyway, accidents in snow notwithstanding), I actually sort of like being not quite deep enough in my main long tunnel to keep the zombie animals from smelling or otherwise sensing me. Because that way I can lead the horde off safely from my ground-floor fort.

Naturally, the hiding defense strategy can't work very well in most buildings, so I understand the need to do that early in the game -- maybe. Stone shovels work pretty well for digging a decent dirt hole, as long as you have skillz enough to put an upgradeable door or hatch on it.


Budd, do you have an AK47 now, or a smaller SMG? I kind of desperately want to loot ShotMess just to fill out parts for my AK47, which I've read the schematic to know how to build.


I'm no closer to raiding ShotMess now than I have been for the past several real-days (and who knows how many gamedays), but I did spend a fair amount of time last night (while fending off a ridiculous number of wandering mini-hordes on game-day) upgrading my fort over Deepbase 1 to a fully brick exterior with no less than two layers of brick ceiling on top. (I figured I needed that not only for the zombie hornets, but because I ran into a spider zombie at last, who was traveling with a minor horde.) I also made some convenience upgrades to the interior of the fort to make it a little easier to get in and out of the hatch, although I can't figure out how to properly get around having to jump up to my stairs (leading to my hatch now on either end). I've got to have headroom beneath the hatch to get below the (now brick) stairs. But it isn't really a problem, just a minor annoyance, and I have other more important things to work on.

Still to do at Deepbase 1 (before even seriously considering going back to hub city):

0.) I'm kind of running out of food and need to hunt more during the day. The top of my fort makes a nice platform for spotting game in the grass, and I can quickly jump down without much damage to run over and clean the kill. Unfortunately, there are a maximum of 50 animals active at any time on this server, and those tend to be scattered around a 40 x 40 kilometer play area. Sooooo yeah. I need to walk around more. Or minibike around more.

1.) Consequently, I desperately need to dig and stair a trench out of the first part of my snowbase, so that I can get my minibike out from where it fell in. (Not my fault! -- it teleported through the fort walls while I was trying to park it, and when trying to get on it so I could at least try to turn it around to go out a door, the game mis-read my target and I opened one of my hatches underneath it, spilling it down into my base. The offending hatch no longer exists, btw.  :buck2: )

2.) But I can't just leave a snow tunnel (with stairs!) leading back to my Deepbase foyer, so I've got to decide what to do about that.

2.1.) Option 1: build a brick tunnel around the stairs, tall enough for me to ride in, and use it as my Prattmobile chute in and out of my Prattcave. In other words, instead of parking my bike outside, I set things up so I can ride my bike in and out (up and down the stairs, which I've tested is perfectly feasible on a bike). For safety's sake, this would require building a sturdy (ideally double-wall) small brick building to guard the exit. Which means I would pull up next to that, get off, open the door, get back on the bike, roll it in, get off it again, close the door, open the hatch, and ride the bike down. Possibly getting off (having designed and built room to get off!) so I can close the hatch, then getting back on. And maybe getting off to open a door at the bottom, from a small garage, just to be safe. All of which will take me several game days to do, possibly in rather non-secure ways (if temporarily so), and that's assuming I make no mistakes in construction or design requiring me to hack away at any number of brick blocks!

2.2.) Option 2: I build a wooden stair out, and then plug the tunnel with bricks going back. Maybe not all the way, just a few blocks down. This requires the minimum work. The bike could still be parked, somewhat feasibly, inside my fort at night, without risk of falling in the hatch. Without much risk anyway.  :uglystupid2: :crazy2:

2.1.5.) Option 1.5: I keep the path, bricked just in case things get down in the snow, maybe even with a small brick keep at the end, as an escape route out of Deepbase 1. I currently lack this anyway, and it's on my list of things needing doing.


3.) Make an escape route out of Deepbase 1. (See plan 2.1.5.!) My original plan was to dig a tunnel to my Ridgetower, which I still occasionally work on, but I'm only about 1/3 there. Since I have to dig a path to get the bike out (through snow, which is MUCH easier to dig -- thus why it needs brick-securing afterward one way or another, as enemies may not actively dig snow but they can accidentally damage it trying other things and fall into areas), I might as well make use of that. But having a tunnel to Ridgetower would be nice. Much lower on my priority, though.


4.) I didn't get rid of my original upgraded-scrap doors, which would have taken too long with wandering mini-hordes being endemic for most of that game-day. (See also the remaining log fort in plan 5.) I only added forge-iron doors on the outer surface of the new second brick wall. The iron doors themselves should ideally be upgraded, but I either need to take down the scrap doors altogether or perhaps replace them with forge-iron.


5.) At the moment, my brick fort has an internal log fort. (Fun history note: not altogether unusual in real life, even here in West Tennessee! My high school history teacher had a pet project of finding log cabins buried in otherwise normal looking houses slated for demolition, and then volunteering his history class to help with the demolition if we could have permission to recover the log cabin and take it back to the campus grounds for re-assembly. My class got to do this from just about step one -- some demolition on the house had already been done. I found and claimed some Arizona water rights hidden in the walls, but lost them again at some point afterward before being able to check if they were even worth the paper and ink. This was back in the days before the internet would make checking such things a lot easier. uh... where was I...?) Two blocks of thickness are certainly better than one, but ideally I'd like to chop those down and replace them with brick. I've already even dug snow out from under the original walls to brick them down! I did that first actually last night (again with the idea of sealing against accidental snow-damage incursions).


6.0.) I'm not planning to do any major fighting from the roof -- there is no point aggro'ing the enemy if I can't harvest their loot; I can get xp other ways without risk of losing any of my hard-regained health/stam (which happened once last night btw, much to my annoyance). But I do want to use it as a convenient hunting stand (however feasible that is). So.

6.1.) Currently, access to my roof involves me laying down six wooden frames to hop up into a notch from which I hop up again. These can be taken down fairly easily, but spider z's (and hornets) are going to get up there anyway by this time in the game, so I'm wondering about making a more permanent access, although one with a door on top to discourage less agile things. A brick stair-path (open on the bottom to allow me to run to the door from any direction, and to quickly survey the area when exiting, maybe also for shooting), would stand up best to random rage-damage out of the things I can currently make -- although this opens the question, which I'm not sure I recall or know the answer to, about whether and/or how to repair brick... Anyway. That would be somewhat quicker to make than 6.2, but would require me to expose myself outside for roof access, and would make an emergency retreat more dangerous.

6.2.) I could hack through two layers of brick ceiling and make a ladder (or stairway maybe? I think I have room) up to a roof hatch. This would take a lot longer, but would be more secure in many ways -- except for having an upgraded scrap-hatch leading past my double-brick roof into my fort. Maybe I can get Budd or someone who has read the Riddle of Steel to make a steel hatch for me... (Or two. Or three, for my Ridgetower's second-floor access at least...)

Either way, I probably ought to add some quick crenellations to the roof, just in case I need to crouch for cover in an emergency. Or some tall crenellations so I have options whether to crouch or not.

I have an smg. I've read the ak47 schematic, only have 1 part, same with the sniper rifle. Jason just make a food run to my place and grab some... And a 44 ;) central city isn't looted out yet? Maybe ill make a trip there to see what I can find I still need another shopping basket for the second mini. Jason if u need me to craft some base material for you, just tell me what need. If I've read the book ill make it for you might save you time. I've just had the time this week to pop in and tend the garden, harvest and replant.

Jesus, guys. I think I'd struggle making a stick in that game.

BC, it isn't as hard as it sounds. But the crafting is pervasive from the first moment. Craft or die. Keep crafting or die.


I am admittedly leaning toward a 44 Mag after all, Budd. But I shall have a Kalish yet. SHOTGUN MESSIAH PROMISES ME!

I am ashamed to say that your place seems needlessly far away now without the bike, which is why I dang well need to dig it out. I'm beginning to wonder if it's something like a Warhammer40K demonette: you want it, but riding it fractures reality and shall lead someday to the destruction of all and to your unending grief rather sooner.  :buck2:

Once I dig the temptress out from her snowy grave, and once I have secured her exit afterward one way or another, I shall certainly come by for a visit (and some food, and a Mag). You have a ton of clay and I've used up most of mine already, although I can easily dig more.

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 14, 2016, 04:40:37 PM
BC, it isn't as hard as it sounds. But the crafting is pervasive from the first moment. Craft or die. Keep crafting or die.


I am admittedly leaning toward a 44 Mag after all, Budd. But I shall have a Kalish yet. SHOTGUN MESSIAH PROMISES ME!

I am ashamed to say that your place seems needlessly far away now without the bike, which is why I dang well need to dig it out. I'm beginning to wonder if it's something like a Warhammer40K demonette: you want it, but riding it fractures reality and shall lead someday to the destruction of all and to your unending grief rather sooner.  :buck2:

Once I dig the temptress out from her snowy grave, and once I have secured her exit afterward one way or another, I shall certainly come by for a visit (and some food, and a Mag). You have a ton of clay and I've used up most of mine already, although I can easily dig more.

I'm partial to shotguns myself.  Only because building shells for them is pretty basic, paper, buckshot and gunpowder.  Until I get calipers, I can't make casings for anything else.

I reinstalled it, though I haven't tried to play it in a long time. More than a year I think.

I deliver Jason ;D besides i might take a crack at the main city. I have found shotguns pretty weak so far, one thing i dont have an extra of is calipers.

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on January 14, 2016, 06:53:55 PM
I reinstalled it, though I haven't tried to play it in a long time. More than a year I think.

A lot has changed since then. But it is still an awesome game!

Man, AzTank's server seems to be highly volatile tonight. He and I quit and logged back on maybe six or seven times before I decided to wait until after dawn to risk being thrown outside in resynch reload. ;)

He should probably re-install or something.

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 14, 2016, 07:31:31 PM
Man, AzTank's server seems to be highly volatile tonight. He and I quit and logged back on maybe six or seven times before I decided to wait until after dawn to risk being thrown outside in resynch reload. ;)

He should probably re-install or something.

Reebooted, reloaded latest mod....tested, looks good so far

Will try again tonight if possible.

Huh. Tried to get on a minute ago, and the program froze while loading AT's server. Never seen that before...

The server was still kind-of clunky last night -- disastrously so toward the end -- but I got a lot done, which wouldn't have been possible (or not so soon) without help from Budd.

I logged in just in time for sunset (again!!), but things were quiet so I spent most of the night on my brick roof looking for game. Budd had been looting the hub city (including the bookstore and SHOTMESSAAAHHH!) so I got to hear him puttering around a lot. While I was being all quiet and hunty on my roof, he murdered a pig and a deer on the way back with his minibike; a habit which, thankfully, keeps him and sometimes the rest of us well-stocked with grilled meat! (And bones to boil for glue which then makes duck tape which then makes other things like heavy armor and repair/healing kits.)

The next morning with things quiet, and Budd offering to bring some raw meat for me to cook (which I gladly accepted), I decided if he also brought some extra clay he has lying around I could feasibly make my bike garage as well as dig the thing out from under the snow in the Prattcave. So I started the forge back to working on as many bricks as I had clay for, and asked him to bring the meat, and started shoveling my way out and laying stairs and some horizontal pathing (to get out from under my fort's brick wall), and by the time Budd arrived with the meat I had just dug my way out and was ready to lay my first brick blocks and to put Budd's clay that I had completely forgotten to ask him for on the forge to...

....


....dangit!!

But Budd was nice enough to roll back to, and then fro, to bring me three full blocks of clay (500 units each). And complimented me on bricking up my fort so far. Meanwhile ciphered out I was going to need a longer garage for various reasons, and laid out the first groundwork. (Any room with a ceiling needs to be a minimum of three blocks tall, players taking up two of the blocks while standing up.)

As I went back downstairs to put his clay on the forge, and to make some more forged iron meanwhile for creating a hard iron door, Budd departed to scout around more between AzTank's (first?) house and the hub city. I listened for his bike puttering off and around, which underground carries a long way, and -- well this game makes me nervous about sounds, and I had already been spooked a couple of times that night and morning hearing something that turned out to be his bike, so when the sound was suddenly different I knew it wasn't his bike anymore.

An extensive minihorde was arriving from the west.

And I had a direct line open down into my base that I was in less than no position to seal yet. At best I had a low brick wall, and as I verified experimentally (somewhat by accident, arriving topside in time to intercept them) even low-level zombies can climb right over that.

I desperately held off the horde until Budd returned, not knowing what was going on as I didn't have time to type it. (Around the time they arrived, OJ'sDad logged back in and did some work at Budd's Pharmabase for a while; sorry I couldn't say hi while you were there! OJ was showing his son around earlier, too.) Finally I had a moment free enough to type for help, and Budd arrived... just as I put paid to the last of the shamblers, but also just in time to intercept another horde coming in from the south!

I seriously would not have made it without him: I needed time to make more crossbolts, and to get enough bricks to finish securing the entry.

But by sundown, the exit to the Prattcave was done, with my new garage extension to secure the bike in at night, and an extra door and wall to guard access to the new ramp down. (And a few candles to light the place.)

I was worried that with so much activity, the two or three wandering minihordes in the area foreshadowed the arrival of a sabbath horde; but again the night was quiet. (And again I had no luck watching for game on my main fort's roof. Budd meanwhile went out jacklighting zombies and food-animals with his mining helmet!  :coolsmiley: O0 )

At dawn, I loaded up with biofuel and a few other things to bring to Budd's base, and hopped on my minibike, locking my garage double-securely behind me, and carefully zipping down to the road, looking to roadkill some game myself: I had about a day and a half of meat remaining, plus some other good canned food Budd had brought, but I wanted to bring some meat back to his base if I could.

However, I had recently run out of goldenrod, so as I approached the road I hopped off to pick several in a patch.

And I couldn't get back on the bike. I had desynched somewhere recently and the use-key wasn't working.

Taking a look around and on my map to fix the bike's location in a worst-case scenario, I quit and logged back in.

No bike.

Never found it.

This was especially annoying as Budd himself had had the same problem on the road back to his base a couple of nights earlier, and had miraculously found the bike again. No such luck or miracle for me. I even turned my grassspawn range back to minimum so that beyond that range I could see world objects unobscured by grass. Nothing.

Fortunately, I had had enough sense given the thing's glitchiness not to put anything important (or in this case at all) in the shopping basket. But I had lost the bike, and also the precious gas in the bike. It MIGHT still be there in the forest near the road north of my Ridgetower (which I passed on the way, and it looks boss as hell even though I've done literally nothing there except build it). But who knows when if ever I or anyone else will find it again.

I had gone to all that trouble to rescue it from my tunnel base, to lose it three minutes later. By a bleeping game glitch. sigh. (Which was also how the thing had gotten down in my base's foyer to begin with.)


By now Budd had signed off for the (real) night; but I hiked to his place and did harvest a deer on the way. I also nearly died, because I didn't have room in my inventory to take off my winter armor, and I was approaching heatstroke and could barely do more than toddle forward.

But down into his base I finally got, as sun was setting. And soon I had my biofuel delivered and so also had room to store my clothes and cool down.

At which time a wandering sabbath horde arrived. I had just barely missed meeting them on the road, too wiped out to run away much less fight.

I logged out somewhere short of midnight, as I could hear them tearing themselves up on (and tearing up) Budd's passive damage defenses. Budd, I don't know what you'll find there when you log in next, but if no one else logs in meanwhile I suppose it'll be a horde you can go make your day with! (Also the biofuel is on the fire, as well as some grilled meat.) I'm almost entirely sure I closed the hatch behind me: I'm religious about that, but it doesn't close immediately and the lag makes me forget and worry whether it's closed or not in hindsight, but I'm pretty sure I heard the foomy sound it makes when sealing off.

Mini bikes are definitely still a work in progress software wise.

Nice write up Jason, damn sorry about the bike. There's now 3 minis out there in the world. I'll need engines and batteries to make more, everything else is readily available. I'll wrench some cars to try to get engines and batteries. Engines are usually found in the undamaged cars when you wrench them. You never mentioned the sweet sound the 44 makes as i dispatched the zombies ;D. I made a bunch more ammo before i signed off so im ready to go off exploring. I've thinking about building a really tall tower in the middle of my town with an entrance from underground and then maybe put some spots on top, a little sniper nest. When i'm finding my way home at night the spots on the pharmacy can be seen a long way off. I'll be on later tonight.

Oh yeah, true! -- due to the way the devs make sound work in this game, I could hear his 44 Mag wiping the southern incoming minihorde waaaay off, from down underground hastily forging! I don't know who it sounded sweeter to either, considering at the moment I had a giant hole in my defenses I literally could not plug yet!

I have wrench capability now, including to make new ones as old ones wear out, so I can hit cars on the road and in hub city (or wherever); help find some batteries and engines.

The next time I log in (won't be tonight), I'll be down in your base near the forge and firepit, btw.

The server was pretty laggy tonight, finally gave up after dying 3 times with climb a ladder to the sky and then fall to earth death and after having to redo work i'd done 3 times. I started my new tower like structure, its across the street from the pharmacy. Don't think im going to build it as high as i planned, maybe 7 to 9 blocks high with some spike trenches around it.

Quote from: -budd- on January 16, 2016, 03:12:27 AM
The server was pretty laggy tonight, finally gave up after dying 3 times with climb a ladder to the sky and then fall to earth death and after having to redo work i'd done 3 times. I started my new tower like structure, its across the street from the pharmacy. Don't think im going to build it as high as i planned, maybe 7 to 9 blocks high with some spike trenches around it.

Think I'm going the tower route as well...  Reinforced concrete.  Probably a secure route from the main base to the tower...maybe underground....maybe bridge...maybe both....

Seeing as how I already have a head start on my tower, I had better get cracking if I'm going to compete! >:D

Though I honestly don't know what a supertall tower is for, other than to try to hide above the sensing of hordes (which will fail when hornets arrive).

Well, I took a mini bike out for a spin and lost it within a couple of minutes.  I head north of Budd in town fort and the map just ended.  I stopped before I got to the end, got off the bike and was walking around.  I look back, and bike starts moving.  Then stops.  Then moves.  After a couple of more times, it went off the map.  Then started to come back, then fell.

Budd, I started to make some cement, but didn't get a lot done.  Kept getting issue when I would hit E to open the forge.  A lot of times it wouldn't open until I went up to your new horde fort and opened the hatch there.  I'll try again later.   

It's possible we've been so long on this map that the game has gotten unstable?  ???

Budd and I worked a lot on the map today -- although mostly I kept base while he explored, and occasionally I ran out supplies on the bike and picked up loot.

It is not very conceivable how BIG the map is. 40x40 km may be roughly the size of the Arizona county the standard map is (no doubt roughly) based on. Budd ended up in a (snowy) city a little under 3.5km from his main base; maybe around 5 km from the hub city (I forgot to check).

By comparison, the maps for Just Cause 2 and 3 (don't know about 1) are 20x20 miles, roughly about the same size. Those are the largest maps in a AAA sandbox game that I know of (except probably Lord of the Rings Online by now; whether that counts as AAA or not.) They're large enough to fly a jet around feasibly (if not very feasibly, due to the terrible jet controls in that game. Helicopters are always the way to go. Maybe 3 is better.)

In 7DtD, though, the map necessarily feels much bigger, because the fastest speed is the minibike which frankly varies based on how loaded it is (as I found out almost to my dismay tonight). Otherwise the fastest speed is your run -- for however long your stamina holds out. (Or until you glitch the map by running.  ::) )

And unlike the JCause series, this map is randomly generated (unless you're playing the stock map for the game).


Note, now that I think of it, the random landmap for Empyrion is almost surely bigger, and a lot bigger, although spread out over several planets and moons. But again, once you've made your hovercraft (much moreso anything bigger) the distance gets eaten nicely. In 7DtD, I really get the feel of how pre-auto (and pre horse!) people must have felt going from settlement to settlement at distances we'd cover on the road in half a minute.

Anyway, I forgot what I was going to post. ;) I took some video of Budd's base, with the new expansions he (and I and OJDad, but mostly Budd) has been working on; and I'll have snapshots tomorrow.

Or maybe Tuesday. It's my turn on Barth's DCamp3 game, and I may need to coffee up and physically run out to the city Budd is looting and back tomorrow night.

Well i hate to tell you this Jason. After making a couple of runs bringing stuff back i went and checked out your new edition, nice....until it collapsed on me, i mean on me :). That must of been what you meant by the bridge collapsing. It took a few blocks of the main structure with it also. There's about 4 trips left to get everything, maybe 5, but i dont think everything needs to come back.

wut

....

WAT??

How is that even a thing that's possible?? It held up fine for several gamedays!  :'( :'( :tickedoff:

The physics engine on this thing is either borked, or a lot more sophisticated than I've reckoned it to be so far. Or both.

Next time I'll try adding extended 45 degree block joists under it. Or words to that effect.

Oh, and don't forget to post the snaps you took from the top of the apartment building you were on.

Well time spent today was running the loot back from the city and restocking material. I ran all the stuff back from the city but left stocks for future looting i.e. weapons, ammo, food,water, some wood and iron and looting tools. There still a lot left to loot, i hit the stores i.e bookstore, shamway, tool store and shotgun messiah and the gas station. The only other thing i looted was the 5 story apartment building, all other buildings i didnt touch. Be prepared for freezing temps if you venture there. I restocked the building material and made a bunch of ammo and restocked the water supply. I mined the rock from the collapse and left what was standing standing, didn't know what your building plans are Jason. There is plenty of material for your next build. There's 200+ rebar frames and i made some concrete so if you wanted to go that way, rebar>wood>concrete>steel bars or you could back to the flagstone. I thought maybe it collapsed because maybe it was built on clay, not sure about that. Most of my build is on the pavement. I'll post the pics after i get my test vids recorded, i made some exploding crossbow bolts and flaming arrows so i'll record the test results. Base is well stocked. If anyone goes down into my mineshaft bring wood and torches, wood to make frames and ladders to get out, getting stuck is a possibility if you have no wood, i'm pretty far down at this point and there still a bunch to mine.

So, do you guys have a 24/7 server you're running yourselves around in, or is it just one of you hosting a game? Just curious where this is, if it's an active server.

BC, it's a server that ArizonaTank has.  The connection information is on the first page of this thread.

Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 13, 2015, 02:06:38 PM
I set up a 7x24 server and welcome all Grogs. 

Find it as a modded server. The name: "Unofficial Grog Invitational".   

Password is "CambronneMerde!"

Zombies set to only walk, since I like a little more relaxed game....  60 min day/night cycle.

When he says "a modded server" that means look in the second tab from the left, not the first (I think). Once you've ever found it and signed in the first time, the game will remember and add it to a smaller list in the middle of the multiplayer tabs where you can always easily find it. In my experience, it doesn't always show up when the game polls for modded servers, so keep refreshing! -- and once I got in, the game always knew where to look for it.

Quote from: OJsDad on January 18, 2016, 05:19:05 PM
BC, it's a server that ArizonaTank has.  The connection information is on the first page of this thread.

*derp*

thanks, OJD

Here's some screenshots and the vids of my arrow testing, exploding crossbow bolts and flaming arrows. Just so happens a bear walks along and i figure why not test on the bear.


So Jason was kind enough to run the minibike out to off load my pack and bring me some supplies while i'm exploring the map. He gets there and a horde of dogs jumps us, Jasons backpack is just off screen where he went down under the zombie dog attack.The bulk of the pack went at him first then turned on me.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-17_00002_zpsrrosvshi.jpg&hash=9f6044c59a76a051f9fc174a080673f225e6696d)

Here's the new city i found while going on walkabout. I climbed the elevator shaft to get to the roof, i'm on a 5 story apartment building.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-17_00003_zpsvz0kivri.jpg&hash=d36db126f0d6727ab4b2fc4b8ae2dfc38d286f4c)

A wandering horde stopped by to visit, Mr.44 didnt want company.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-17_00004_zpsvrxkee8g.jpg&hash=01c2c96b2d42a34ac477b7c74a449a2c47385791)

It's always nice when the supply drop shows up, drank some coffee and ran down the crate. A lot of medicine and gun parts with a fully operational smg in the crate this time.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-17_00005_zpsm1i0n79c.jpg&hash=20f000ce718bbd129a67ae5b797cf069f78d4c3d)

Trying to get to base, its getting dark, bad things happen at night. Its one of my runs bringing the loot from the city.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-17_00009_zpsk3ucuq97.jpg&hash=76bc1bdbbab586c9a61c29bf6127f9da4594f207)

Here's the vid of the arrow testing, haven't used these before.

Man, budd wasn't kidding about that airtunnel's collapse -- it tore down the whole top side of the tower. And yet left its own two support stanchions still standing unharmed. Crazy.

I wasn't able to get back started on that tonight (I have a blinding headache from the local coldsnap so I didn't get any DCamp3 done either), but I did fix Budd's tower, and set up the position for the new top door (to the eventual airtunnel) again.

Then, as I was back down trying to figure out whether I could make a new minibike from scratch (answer, I can -- I forgot to make a seat or minihandlebars but I did make the frame, budd, and the other things can be made), I heard a horde arrive topside and... odd sounds. Eventually I walked under the road in the tunnel, came up inside budd's new tower, climbed to the top... couldn't see where the horde was smacking things around, but I could definitely hear things breaking. What had convinced me at last to go look topside was some debris clipping through several levels of ground into the tunnel itself!

Turns out a minor horde -- not a minihorde but a significant horde without any feral zombie support other than a zombie hornet, which I promptly shot when it surprised me -- had gotten into the garage, budd! I seriously don't know how. I don't know how they could have even seriously begun to get into the garage. The main vault door leading outside was gone, as were all the flagstone blocks to the 'outerwall' side of it. (And yet the wood trim from the original garage which I hadn't bothered to remove because it happened not to be in the way of my upgrading that side of the garage still stood. Go figure.)

They had about banged through the secondary vault door on the west side, and some of its flagstone surroundings, too. I Mag'd them down, but not before one or two climbed the vestigal ladder to get up to the upper entrance to the garage, giving me some tense moments as they landed a few good stunning hits.

Before I logged out tonight (this didn't help my headache any, but I felt responsible to go fix budd's tower asap), I repaired the garage, and every flagstone or vault door nearby that had been damaged (inadvertently upgrading a random block or two to concrete, I think). I also upgraded all vault doors leading outside somewhere to full 3rd level where they weren't already. Things were quiet nearing sundown when I logged out.


Edited to add: oh, and I thought you had found a book for making gas?? Did it disappear, was it lost in the lag? It wasn't in the book box when I arrived.

I'd probably figure out a way to destroy the everythings in that server's world since I don't have a clue where to begin.

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on January 18, 2016, 08:53:04 PM
I'd probably figure out a way to destroy the everythings in that server's world since I don't have a clue where to begin.

Just head on over to Budd's will get you outfitted for survival ;) 

Jason i had the gas schematic on me, its now in your chest by the stairs, i had 2 one is still back in the city. I made the last few parts for the mini and went and found better tires, its parked in the garage. I forged some stone for your future building efforts. I think i shall head east on walk about, i want to find a military camp and some batteries for more spotlights. I think there will be another city toward the east.

Jake loved the video Budd.  Couldn't stop laughing at the bear getting blown up. 

Quote from: OJsDad on January 18, 2016, 09:11:48 PM
Jake loved the video Budd.  Couldn't stop laughing at the bear getting blown up.

Glad he enjoyed it, least i could do for him saving me from the zombie ;) Left a few exploding arrows in the chest give them a whirl. I'll make more, but there resource heavy for what you get.

BC, I had literally no idea what I was doing when I first started either. NOW I BUILD COLLAPSING AIRTUNNELS, BWA HA HA HA HAAAA!

So there's hope.  :)

(I'm passing through on my way back to bed. I'll try to provide a more helpful idea of what a new player should be doing tomorrow.)

Quote from: Banzai_Cat on January 18, 2016, 08:53:04 PM
I'd probably figure out a way to destroy the everythings in that server's world since I don't have a clue where to begin.

As a fellow newbie, let me share some words of wisdom.

1.  Jump on the server as Budd, JP, and AT are all good at helping out and teaching.  Also, they're far enough along that you can get to a secure location and get your head wrapped around a few things.

2.  At the same, start a solo game.  Be prepared to delete and restart multiple times.  Expect to not make it past your first day. 

3.  In the beginning you can never have too much wood or stone.  You'll have to use your bare hands at first to get some wood, stone, and plant fibers (grass).  You need 2 wood, 2 stone, and 1 or 2 plant fibers to make a stone axe.  Once you have that, getting wood and stone will go a lot faster.  Also give you your first weapon. 

4.  This took me awhile to figure out, but once you have enough wood, you can start building wood frames.  You use these to start a building.  But they are just frames.  If you use your stone axe and right click on the blocks, they'll get wood on them.  I think you can do this 3 times to each block to upgrade them so they are stronger.  However, each upgrade takes 10 wood.  Did I say you need lots of wood.

5.  If you can find a building to clear and start to fortify, you'll be in ahead of the game.  Preferably a stone building.  My first day 7 hoarded literally torn through the wood walls of the house I was in.  Luckily I was in the attic and they couldn't get to me. 

6.  Us the night time to look at what you need to build various needed items, bows, arrows, forge, etc.  If you find a bone, it may seem pointless at first, but you can make it a shiv, which you need to skin deer and pigs that you kill.  I didn't know that and wasted those kills. 

Like I said at the beginning, don't be afraid to restart. 

Oh, and if you start in a frozen zone, and you walk into an area that is raining, you'll start getting hurt.  Not sure why, but that rain will kill you. 

It's freezing rain / sleet. If you have enough cold and water protection, it's okay.

To OJ's many good recommendations, let me add:

Step 0.) Crouch the moment you drop in. Your center-target recticle, which is normally a broken X, will turn into an eye. Give it a few seconds to tell you whether you're in a danger zone and are being hunted or sensed. Use the sound cues pretty religiously in this game, and if you hear something alive moving around in the trees or grass or whatever move away from it while crouched unless it's already sensing or actively hunting you. Then stand up and run away from it. (This game is often rather like submarine warfare.) Every once in a while crouch again to check if you've cleared contact. If so, verge off left or right by 45 degrees, or whichever direction looks (or sounds) safest, and keep going a while. The z's (depending on server settings) will track you for a minute and/or until they reach the spot they lost contact, and they may be moving faster than you while you're crouched.

Of course if the dogs get you, you'll just have to run and keep running until you run out of stamina or can find a building to get into. The controls are standard WASD, hold left shift to run, left-control to toggle crouch, space to jump, 'e' key to pick up things or open doors or search objects (the game will give you print hints center screen. But don't search while being hunted.)


Step 1.) once you're in a safely quiet area (assuming you join the Invitational, otherwise skip), tap the 'i' on the keyboard. That doesn't start out as (I)nventory in this game (which is the tab key), but (I)nformation, specifically about other players currently logged in. If you see any in the list, find the column for inviting them as allies and mouse-click the + button on-screen for each one. You can still talk to us (and hear us chatting) anyway, but this will allow us to track you and for you to track us, and we can send you map instructions.

Relatedly, the 't' key opens the chat window. Note that doing anything on the user interface will prevent you from taking actions otherwise, but doesn't pause the game, which is why I put Step 0 first: get safe somewhere. It may take us a moment to accept your ally request for the same reason. (The window will automatically close and slowly fade out once you hit 'return'. It won't post anything if you do that without typing, and you can open it with 't' again to see if you missed any chat after you logged in.)

You can also try holding down the 'v' key for voicechat, if you have a headset or a good console mic, but the program is a bit whiffy about this.

We'll probably see a notification (if we aren't busy being distracted) when you drop in and will be trying to contact you with reminders. Let us know who you are on Grogheads, because the game will probably try to use your Steam id instead.

Last but not least, once we've accepted your ally invitation (or you accepted ours -- this has to be done manually for each person, not as a group alliance), the two columns to the right of the alliance buttons will allow you to track us on your HUD and, if you click "show" will open the map and center on whoever you clicked "show" for.


Step 2.) 'm' key for map. Hold mouse-left and drag to move the map around; middle scroll key up and down for zooming. You'll mostly see grey fog, but you may start seeing us sending you map locations on the bottom left menu. The top left button of that menu will accept those locations permanently into your maplist, which is a good idea. The game does not share mapping otherwise between players: what any of us reveals on our maps doesn't get shared to other maps. If you find a crazy little sliver of a desert (likes south of Budd's main base), we won't be able to see it on our maps unless we go there ourselves.

But you may be somewhere one or more of us have been, and so we may be able to guide you to shelter and/or out of super-hostile environments (like cold, desert, or burning).

Right clicking on the map opens up a menu for a quick or standard marker. Quick drops a red flag kind-of-near where your mouse is (but the game is a bit dotty about that). You can have one of those at a time, and whenever you drop a quick flag it'll erase the old one. Standard will open a new list for icons of different kinds, which are only a handy visual reminder for your benefit. When in doubt use X at the bottom. Once you choose one of those a final small window will open for you to type a brief text (I think maybe 12 characters) if you want. Return plops the new icon permanently on your map, and adds it to your upper left list. (There are icons up there for erasing, centering on the chosen icon, sharing with other players.)

Okay, on the top edge of your map somewhere you should find a set of map-grid coordinates in meters (or steps), which will shift as you move your mouse over the map. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND TAKING A MINUTE TO FIND 0,0 AND PERMAFLAGGING IT AS SUCH!

This will not only give you a frame of reference for finding us and generally navigating, but also will tell you somewhere to avoid: there's always a city at 0,0, and cities have more zombies than average, and that one's smack deep in a cold zone which will straightup kill you.


STEP 3.) Get the hell out of any cold, desert, or burning zones. Time to start moving anyway, but especially if you're in one of those zones. The game will probably drop you semi-randomly within 1.5 kilometers of one of us or our recent activity, so probably not near the map edge which is where the main burning zones are. But if you found 0,0 on your map, you can easily figure out which direction to walk to be sure you're going away from the map edge. Going toward it will not only increase your chance of fatal heat stroke but will start adding radiation damage.

All our activity, so far as I'm aware, is well within 2 km or so east of the hub city (aside from exploring, which may be farther away but still on that half of the map.) Mostly a little north of east, but also some south. At this late in the game, you should start heading toward our normal activity area asap. I don't usually go exploring, so if I'm on I'll likely be at one of our bases (including a deep warm tunnel not far northeast of 0,0).

Supposedly zombies cannot open unlocked doors, but not all of us trust that so we often lock doors after we make them and then (assuming we remember) we'll add a code to them. Holding down the 'e' key on a locked door will open a small icon submenu which will give you the option to enter a code if so. That code will be 'ace' (little letters, no quotes). Once the door recognizes you it'll always open for your action ever afterward, without need to enter the code again.


STEP 4.) While you're traveling toward us and/or out of danger environments, start punching things with your bare hands. You'll pick up grass that way, maybe the odd bit of wood. Punch cotton and goldenrod if you see any. (You can also 'e' key those.) If you see a rock nearby, go punch it a few times to get some small rocks. (They can also be 'e'd off the ground if you happen to see any lying around.) If you see a tree, ditto. DO NOT PUNCH CATCUS! Duh.

'b' key opens your inventory which also shows your character and any wearable slots open or filled. 'Tab' key also opens most of your inventory but replaces your character with various crafting options. Left clicking on any item (whether in your backpack or on your belt, or wearing it) will bring it up in a window, with buttons for dropping or using or building or whatever.

As OJDad says, the stone axe is your best friend and general all-purpose tool early in the game, and it's always very easy to remake if you lose it. You can build a wooden bow out of the same material, which will be even handier for hunting and fighting (generally you want to shoot zombies before they get close, because even the weakest z can and will kill you with a couple of hits, or fatally wound you with even one). But you'll have to build arrows using feathers (as well as small stones and wood), and those mainly come from nests on the ground which are not always easy to see. (You can get eggs searching nests that way, too, but don't eat raw unless you're desperate.)

A NOTE ON YOUR BELT AND BACKPACK! -- while this game allows you to use many items directly from your backpack, you can't put them in your hands unless they're on your toolbelt slot (the horizontal row of squares at the bottom of the screen). Ammo is fine in the backpack, but if you want to use a bow or an axe or a club or whatever (clubs are better than axes, at least at the beginning, btw, for fighting with), that has to be on your toolbelt. The center mousewheel will scroll through them, or you can tap their appropriate number on the keyboard. (But the squares aren't numbered and there are less than 10, so that can get a little confusing.)

Depending on the server, or on how you set up _your_ singleplayer game for testing things, the difference between backpack and toolbelt can be even more crucial. At the Invitational server, whatever is in your backpack is immune from your death penalty. But you will lose whatever was on your toolbelt when you die -- which was probably your most immediately useful items! But the game will generate a bright-light-blue backpack where you died, and you (or anyone else) can recover it later. The game will also track your last dropped backpack for you (on map and compass both). If you die, the previous packs will still be wherever but it'll track the new one instead.


STEP 5.) FOOD AND WATER -- the game tracks your hunger and your thirst, and you'll take damage if these get too low. (Sometimes eating will worsen your hydration, btw.) You can eat raw food, but if it's raw meat you'll almost surely get infected with a disease which can be hard to get rid of.

At any water pool, you can right click with bare hands selected (an open square on your toolbelt) and drink directly from the source. But this is a good way to get dysentery, which will eventually kill you.

Canned food is fine to eat (though it may give you gas, which will cause noises when you select from your inventory!) Bottled or canned water is NOT necessarily good to drink yet, though. (Cans can be found through normal scavenging, or be left over after eating canned food.) If it's "murky" you still run a high chance of dysentery (depending on the source. Budd's original house had a flooded basement that I had to drink directly from two or three times, and I never got sick from it.)

Eventually you'll need to build a fire, if only to keep warm at night. That'll require small stones, and then wood (or maybe coal) to burn. Water can be boiled at the fire if in a can (maybe not in a bottle yet until you have a pot, I'm not sure). To get water into a can or bottle (or any number of them in a stack), put it on your toolbelt (in a stack is okay), select it to hold, and then right click like you're drinking. It'll look like you're drinking it, but don't panic you aren't. (The game's targeting for picking up water this way can be a bit picky though.) A fire will keep wild dogs and bears away (probably?) but not zombies, which can and will sense fire and come over to see if there are squishy humans. That includes zombie dogs and zombie bears.


STEP 6.) DIE!

This will almost surely happen a lot. Try not to sweat it. If you had something important on the toolbelt that (unlike a bow and stone axe or stone shovel) can't be easily replaced, make sure you're safe where you spawn back in, and find it on your map (as a blue backpack icon) and put a permanent marker of your own there to pick it up later someday.

The game will semi-randomly drop you somewhere else on the map, maybe better, maybe worse.

When you start a new game, you'll get a 12-hour safety zone without hassle, but I was running into zombies immediately on both the new games I started on AzTank's server (he had to generate a new game with the new patch/update). You could easily drop in at night-time, too, which gets superdark starting around 22:00. At 3:00 the sky lightens, but the ground is still pretty dark. Dawn at 4:00 will bring the ground light slowly back to normal, with sunrise around 6. Zombie activity picks up at night (and in the dark); which is also when the worst zombies spawn. Depending on whether they're hunting anything, the worst z's will disappear around dawn. But a lot of relatively minor zs will stick around, wandering the countryside randomly.

Whenever you die, you will lose 10 points off your maximum health and stamina. You will earn those back slowly with consuming good food and drink (and vitamins if you find any). The game won't let you have a worse maximum than 60. Your best maximum is 200. Even experienced players will often hover around 60 to 70 for a long time, so don't feel bad about that. It's quite expected.

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 19, 2016, 02:04:36 PM

Step 0.) Crouch the moment you drop in. Your center-target recticle, which is normally a broken X, will turn into an eye. Give it a few seconds to tell you whether you're in a danger zone and are being hunted or sensed. Use the sound cues pretty religiously in this game, and if you hear something alive moving around in the trees or grass or whatever move away from it while crouched unless it's already sensing or actively hunting you. Then stand up and run away from it. (This game is often rather like submarine warfare.) Every once in a while crouch again to check if you've cleared contact. If so, verge off left or right by 45 degrees, or whichever direction looks (or sounds) safest, and keep going a while. The z's (depending on server settings) will track you for a minute and/or until they reach the spot they lost contact, and they may be moving faster than you while you're crouched.

Great recommendations. 

When you first come into the server, you should have a "safe" zone created around you, up until you are level 12.  This is a server setting.  I am not certain how big the zone is, but you shouldn't be harassed by zombies right out of the gate.

I know you said so earlier, AT, but I'm wondering if that code is broken -- starting new games on your server (before and after the most recent update), I had trouble with zombies almost immediately. I couldn't possibly have been level 12 either time. I doubt I ever got to level 12 on the first world, before the update required a restart!

Plans tonight:

1.) Ride minibike back to where I lost a minibike in the forest north of my ridgetower. Status: accomplished.

2.) Use micrograss and minimum trees to find my lost minibike, whereupon i would mark it on the map and come back with coffee. Status: failed.

3.) Fix door to Ridgetower after frozen lumberjack managed to batter down an iron door, replace it with a vault. Status: still to do.

4.) Pick up AK47 parts from Deepbase1, see if I have enough to make a whole gun. Status: picked up.

5.) Make an AK-47.

Now I have a machine gun.

Ho
Ho
Ho

Jake was playing solo the other day, and figured out how to turn on cheat mode.  He was loading up with sniper rifle and machine guns. 

They are nice! We have a spare 10mm smg. I don't think we have a spare sniper rifle yet, or another AK47, but we have three or four 44 mags and aside from their terrible reload time they do the job. And Budd swears by his smg I think. (I don't know what model it's supposed to be... what's a 10 mm submachine gun??? Kind of looks like something from WW2.)

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 19, 2016, 04:39:28 PM
I know you said so earlier, AT, but I'm wondering if that code is broken -- starting new games on your server (before and after the most recent update), I had trouble with zombies almost immediately. I couldn't possibly have been level 12 either time. I doubt I ever got to level 12 on the first world, before the update required a restart!

oh well...I guess the only advice then is...when you see zombies, run like hell....

well i made it back from burning town, cured my infection. Brought the engines and batteries back and all that gas and oil drums.Didn't get the chance to circle the town but looked like the gas station and info center was the only highlight. I need to go back and loot the info center or maybe leave it for another time, place is 110 degrees so you over heat rapidly and burn through water. I think i'll head east next time, think another city is around there somewhere. I made a bunch of ammo 100 rounds of 7.62 and some 9mm, left some bullet tips and cases in the chest also.

I was just logged on.  When I logged on, it was about 7am.  I did some mining, and looking around at all of the improvements that have been made.  I stayed in the fort for the night and the next morning decided to go exploring a little.  I headed south up the forested hill to see what was that way.  It started to turn to desert, but the map never generated, just stayed blue.  I worked my way east and came back into town, but the map was missing there also.  Then, all of the sudden, the map disappeared under me.  I fell some, but not far, then stopped.  I logged out at that time.

Ouch! Yeah, if the map isn't generating, you're desynch'd. You need to quit immediately and log back in.

For what it's worth, before I discovered that, I discovered that if you get near the 'map edge' and punch the ground or hit it with a tool, the map will fill in some random amount!

That little sliver of desert south of Budd's Pharmabase is hilarious. And useful since it features pretty much everything you could want from a desert, and if you start to overheat you can zip immediately into the forest trees to the north.

I tried hard to reach Budd in the new burning town, but the game kept desynching under me. One result being that it teleported my minibike directly into a large rock (where, last time I was there, it still lived an undead death of its own sort, making weird noises). I marked it on my map to return with a sledge to try to set it free, and also marked it with a staircase of wood frames and torches. I guess I should count myself fortunate I was only a long par 4 from Pharmabase, and so didn't have any trouble making it back before dark.

Budd, did the burning town look like it was on the true map edge? Or is it only a local burning area? I noticed something north of hub city (not near where you were, much west of that) once when I was defending your original house base and thought it was lost so picked up as much as I could including my bag to evacuate the material safely -- and then got killed (but didn't lose much of anything important on my toolbelt, this being early game) and so randomly respawned up there. Looking around I saw a patch of smoke like from a burning area to the northwest of where I spawned, which I took to be a burning area but I didn't think it could be the map edge already and it seemed localized. Logically I couldn't go exploring in that direction, needing to hike back to somewhere safe (namely AzTank's house) before sunset.

Also, that little sliver of desert is the only desert I've heard of on this map yet (much less personally seen). I don't think even half the map has been explored yet, though, so there may be more and a lot more elsewhere.

Generally a desert is only good for harvesting sand (to make glass) and Yucca cactus (to eat yucca fruit or make yucca tea from it).

No don't believe burning town was map edge.

Finally fired this up and thought I'd poke around, but I can't see an "Unofficial" or "Grog" anything listed under Modded Servers. Is it down? Sorry if I've missed some change listed in the thread, here...

you can filter the list by typing 'grog'.  Once you connect to the server the first time, everytime after that it'll be a the top.

I did...I searched for "grog," "invitational," "unofficial," and short combinations thereof. It's not showing up for me for some reason.

When searching for a server, there is a row of icons.  The first looks like a planet, the second a light bulb.  Click on the light bulb.  The type 'grog' into the search.  Give it a bit.  You'll notice the numbers in going up.  I think the first time I found the server it was in the 2000's. 

Ok...maybe I didn't give it enough time. It was only three-hundred-some-odd servers listed, though I gave it about 5-6 minutes and the number of them didn't increase. It's been a while since I've played multi on a server, so I'll give it more time next time I log in. Thanks.

I finally reached the map edge, the radiation zone at 9950 degrees east. Found a couple of big towns and a small town, and various POI along the way. It was a 3 day trek, ran into 3 hordes and a feral  horde which came up on me in the dark, i ran my ass off as my ammo was starting to get low. I started with about 300 rounds and was down to a few in the 44 and about 40 in the SMG, the 9 was empty when the feral horde scared the shit out of me, can't hear shit when your upgrading. I was on my way back to base from the map edge and after having just crossed a desert and overheating and since my food was gone i was surviving on yucca fruit when i found a house right on the edge of the desert but in a tree zone. I figure to hole up for the rest of the night as i could only travel in the desert at night because of the heat. So i craft a door and i was upgrading it when i hear this terrible scream and get hit and i  turn around and their coming in the back door right on top of me, that door was reinforced metal on the back. I quick switch to the smg and hold the trigger down and back away. Luckily i had remembered to put my armor back on after taking everything off in the desert, only thing that saved me, then i ran. I keep making my way back to base when i come upon a big ass lake and i start to circle outline around it and ............................ i get jumped by a bear and die....i held down the trigger of my smg but only had a few rounds left, death by bear. I frigging hate leaving my backpack out there, only thing i really lost was my smg as i had put my empty 44 and 9 in the backpack. All the engines [6] and batteries [5] and the med supplies i had looted form the a couple pill places i came across were all in my backpack. I'm determined to go back so i build a bike, gas up and start taking off when i supply plane comes by and drops a crate pretty much right on top of me. Well guess what was in it, SMG baby. I figure there was a small chance of getting there and back without gliching out, so i retire for the night. I marked the towns on the map, 2 are burning towns and 1 is not. If you get out that way get my backpack will ya its right on the lake shore.

So, huh, the mapedge is at 10km? So 20 km x 20 km.

That's still very respectable, but makes me wonder why the map function allows scrolling out at least as far as 20km from the center (thus 40 x 40).

BC, yeah it's a modded server so it's in the second or third list, not the first one. And even then sometimes it wouldn't list for me at first, even doing searches.

I'm on the server right now.  There's someone here named Number 41  Any idea who that is.

That's Aztank.

Thanks for showing me around, OJD. You guys have a hell of a fortress there. Hope I didn't f-up that tub. I can't believe that happened. I crouched down and heard a pop and boom, part of it was missing.

If I did, most extreme apologies for doing that. I better get some side experience. This game takes up a lot of my system's resources (which isn't much) - it takes about 10 minutes to load and about 5 or so to come down after exiting. And there was some lag, but I think that's my weak processor and not the server at all.

Good to see you too, JP, if briefly. :)

I don't think you broke the tub.  When JP and I went to look at it, water was at bottom of tunnel but not filling the ladder area.

Too bad you couldn't stay around, got hit hard with a hoard attack at night.

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 22, 2016, 07:48:24 PM
That's Aztank.

Number 41 is from the movie Ben Hur...  "row well and live number 41"

Yeah, I very much do not understand what happened with the tub. Although, I did notice that that house had been hit hard by some kind of horde; many of the walls were damaged and the vault door was almost breached. (I had sealed off the bathroom area for better security a few gameweeks before, but the rest of the house is quite open.) I'm wondering if a clipping issue resulted in some cops getting in a position where they could puke constantly in a direction for a while, and that block ended up taking most or all of the damage.

If so, then the minor amounts of usually invisible stress created by players by being near blocks, could have caused the rupture. It's the only explanation aside from sheer bugginess that I can guess at from what I've seen (and still relies on a clipping bug). Fortunately, water is hard to destroy -- back before the most recent update, I was even able to spread it out by punching it! (Something I haven't tried again yet in this game, because there was no need.) So most of it is down the ladder under the vault hatch, and it doesn't run out. Essentially, the end result is that we can get water a little faster and more securely, as it's hard for hordes to attack a vault hatch.

I might even consider taking a wrench and/or a steel pickaxe to that vault hatch, getting rid of it entirely, and then sealing up the whole area with brick.

Relatedly, I have a suspicion that the cobblestone we've been using for the fortifications outside the Pharmabase, isn't as sturdy as brick. But unlike brick, the cobble can be upgraded to concrete. I also have a suspicion that my air-tunnel collapsed, not because of some inherent stress problem, but because it took a ton of damage somehow at a key point and when Budd got near it or on it, his localized stress was enough to tip the balance.


Meanwhile, actually BC I'd say you're lucky you left when you did. That sabbath horde was unendingly bad. It didn't help that...

(1) The only people who can make both ammo tips and ammo casings (or even one of them) are Budd and (maybe) Aztank, and Budd was off looting a city near the map edge. So once we started running out of ammo, we were increasingly screwed. (I can make any ammo, not sure about OJDad, but I need fabricated material to work with. I can fabricate the gunpowder -- and did, a lot of it -- but not the casings and tips. I made what I could out of the lead tips available.)

(2) The food chest has gotten borked. Neither I nor OJD can open it now. Possibly only Budd can, who knows? (It isn't locked, of course, it's still unlocked. Just bugged.) Suddenly instead of having tons of food, we have practically none. This is a grievous loss.

(3) Somebody picked up my bag off the floor, so when I eventually died as the fort was overrun (the corridor leading from the garage to the fort, specifically), I randomspawned a huge distance away. And then got murdered by a minihorde before I got very far. Fortunately the second spawn allowed me to trod back to Pharmabase by noonish, but it took practically that long for OJD to heroically finish off the horde. I ran into a TON of zombies on the way back.

I have to say, I'm feeling a bit realistically suicidal from all that. ;) There is no game goal (in multiplayer anyway) other than survival and being able to survive better, and the interest of exploring the nicely generated worlds. The game may have finally beaten me.  :P :'(

If you haven't run the experiment yet, Budd, that answers the question we were wondering about when I logged off last night: the game only remembers the immediate last place you dropped a sleeping bag. If you pick it up, the game doesn't look back to the previous bag you dropped -- otherwise I would have spawned at Deepbase1.

I suppose it's possible that you yourself picking up your own bag might make a difference in the code, but I kind of doubt it. It would be easy enough to test, though, and you may have done that already.

(Budd was thinking about sacrificing 10 health/stam to teleport back to Pharmabase by killing himself, but he had already laid down a new bag at the new city.)

JP, after you logged out u was able to open the food chest.

I don't know about you guys, but I am getting attacked by hordes on a daily basis, most of them quite large.  Probably has to do with the fact that I am running two forges to make concrete...  I can hold them off from my perch on the roof, but using lots of ammo...  Will run out soon....  Need lead and bullet casings....

i think it might have to do with a players level with hordes attacking. I'm getting hit way more often, feral and otherwise. I'm away from base and im down to arrows for ammo, i need to find calipers for casings. I've started a base down here, temp basing on a powerstaion roof and have started tunneling. Big lake in this area with a land bridge across, so water isnt a problem, couple of big towns close by to loot. I usually move bases to get at different parts of the map, i'll probably go along the map edge and work south after looting the area.

I'm not leveled that high, but I was getting hit with mini hoard's when I ventured out the two days before big rush at night.  JP, that's what happened to the water house.  I'd taken BC to show him where the water supply was and while there three Zed's showed up and attached the door.

I did add something around 867 units of fuel to the trunk that you guys had your fuel in. I first spawned in winter conditions between a building and a gas station, and the gas station gave up a lot of gas. Tried to break down the door of the gas station but my stone axe wore out fast and I was dying of hypothermia, when zombies jumped me. I couldn't run and died pretty ingloriously. I was surprised the gas was still with me when I respawned in a much warmer area, close to your base.

I made it to Budd's new digs.  So I'll be there for awhile.  Budd was talking about exploring.  I'll head to the lake tomorrow and see about setting up a better base there, not that he has a bad one where he is now. 

I'm camped in one of Budd's old digs that he affectionately dubs "the pharmacy".  Great fun being asked, as you slowly make your way to a location, "so, do you see the searchlights yet?"

And then you see them.  And the rest of the fort, including the elaborate network of underground tunnels.

Good stuff.

INTENSE.....all i can say....INTENSE.......just had the most massive horde battle.......5 hours of game time and 500 rounds of ammo and 70 arrows and 100 nails[yes i have a nail gun now, thats how desperate it got...WOW. Sorry OJ had to use all the ammo except for the 7.62. 100+ zombies i'd guess, they just kept coming...know why......those Fuc*ing screamers, as long as there alive and have a bead on you and keep screaming they just keep coming. 5 damn screamers in this group, finally got a close up view of one, look just like Alma from the F.E.A.R games, you hear that bitch scream.....YOU RUN. Funny thing is i was doing alright, the last half dozen got me after i got the last screamer. Dogs. hornets, those little monkey running ones, thing is it wasnt a feral horde, no cops and no big uglies....there was just too many. I 'm just down in my tunnel base filling the forge after moving everything from the roof, already made all the ammo. Got one escape tunnel opened up so i'm good or so i think. Suddenly the screaming starts, if you've heard it you know what i mean.I run to one of my hatches above ground and i can see them pounding on it so i go to my other hatch and just open it up, big mistake, big, big, big mistake, soon as the hatch opens they start dropping in. This tunnel is sloped down from the surface, no stairs down just a slope. So i start going to work with the 44....i'm feeling fine, all ammo'd up banging away. They just kept coming down the hatch, so i have to start backing down my tunnel banging away with the 44, funny thing is as there dropping the bodies are sliding down the slope past me, more on that later.This is close confines, no missing going on here. All i can say is i had 70 rounds of 44. that ran dry switched to smg, still backing down the slope, fuc*ing thing breaks, switch to the 9 and keep banging away. What i didn't know was the bodies sliding past me weren't all dead, so guess what there getting up behind me....its O shit time. I have my miners hat on with the light on, that thing gets knocked off my head, didn't know that was possible. There's torches so its not completely dark and i turn to bang away at the ones behind me and clear a path. This is a long slope to the surface, so I run down to my chests grab ammo, repair my smg, grab health and a dose of AB because i'm infected. The zombies have trouble with the slope so it buys me time. I reload and go back to the slope, im banging away with the SMG working upwards to try and close that damn hatch.......No way...too many ... and too far. My SMG breaks again and i'm down to crossbow bolts and nails from the nail gun. I say screw this and go check the other hatch, cant hear anything because of the screaming and i dont see and arms banging on the hatch so i open it...yup.....down they come...I manage to shoot the first few as when i ran by my chests i repaired the SMG again, i get that hatch closed. Plan C time, i use one of the doors to the building to get outside. i go over to the hatch thats open and try to get it closed, im down to just crossbow bolts at this time and almost 4 hours of game time has passed. I've capped a few of the screamers and i dont hear any screaming, so i think its mop up time....haven't died yet. I start leading them off and shooting crossbow bolts into them. I clear that group up and go for the hatch to close it......the bitch senses me and the screaming starts again....i capped her right quick. I'm feeling good, the worst is over, i start checking the damage. I run up my slope tunnel  checking things out and the little zombie bastards had themselves a tunnel. Must of had trouble with the slope and to get to me they started banging away at the dirt and made a tunnel. So once i run up the slope past the tunnel of course they start coming after me, this is where the last half dozen kill me. I managed to keep a couple screens i'll post at the end. That was one intense gaming moment.

OJ everything is moved to the tunnels, i didn't repair everything yet but it is closed up. I moved all the supplies from the roof and i put a new bag for me down in the tunnel so you can pick up both from the roof, again i couldnt remember which one was mine so i left it.I'll have to make some more ammo.

Here a few screens from the tunnel battle, wish i had my video program running that would of been good. Looking at the screens time stamps guess it was closer to a 12 hour battle...WOW. You can see in the 4th screen down im getting close to the hatch to try to close it and then in the 5th screen im backing down again, the bodies were just sliding past me. The last 2 screens are when i was checking damage and ran up the slope and they come out of the tunnel they made, you can see it at about 1 o clock, i'm trying desperately to get out of the hatch, didn't make it. You can also see in screens 1 and 2 the light from my helmet and then in the rest no light, damn thing got knocked off my head sometime during the battle.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-24_00001_zpsfvnevsxd.jpg&hash=980dac459106a3b97ceb7d637456849538309358)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-24_00002_zpslk2wjmoj.jpg&hash=cb9f144be6e09c5a9fddeaa7761f1749f832d014)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-24_00003_zpsm7guufe2.jpg&hash=b322b6cbb24343c5b1fb9ab9ba41b8c8d679a9f0)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-24_00004_zpsflf1sw9b.jpg&hash=2331a106eaf4bb064e97fcf15c3f7dcb0c1c565a)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-24_00005_zpsrwjbnt97.jpg&hash=8e1e987e517201c1d2da46ca351d049349ba8ea8)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-24_00006_zpskhzoe6lf.jpg&hash=fab5752098b300f76256ea812b087ab9aaff1eab)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-24_00007_zpsihg0pynn.jpg&hash=67089b2516d9502ca5f94ce2745b9839ad6058d0)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-24_00008_zpssvvgulzk.jpg&hash=6c0aecfb2da9b998380487c3f4f53e9acfb63a2c)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-24_00009_zpscx6ah4ar.jpg&hash=59fa50bee8ec53bf646bbd01e63d475b4860556a)

The hordes have been pretty much non-stop for me.  When I finish one...the next one starts.  My only defense now is escape.  Pretty scary running through the woods in the pitch black, pursued by a pack of zombie dogs....

Eventually my reinforced concrete tower will be ready, and I will stay and fight.   

Going to try to turn off my forges based on the old idea that they are drawn to heat and activity. 

WOW, looks like I had to signoff a little too soon.  I'll be on sometime later today.  I'll grab both bags from the roof and bring them down to the cave.  I'll lay one out an put the other in a chest for whoever else may come down this way.

Hey Budd.  I was on for about 10 minutes just now.  I grabbed both sleeping bags that were on the roof and laid one out in the tunnel.  The I've still go, as all of the chests down there are locked.  I wasn't sure if you wanted me to start making brass and lead, so I left it be for now.  I home to get on later and try and find the lake. 

I think if your going to base, spread out. This base isnt as spread out, i couldnt get away from being sensed and hunted. I've already had hordes spawn inside the fence perimeter of the power station, and the hordes have come day or night, the night ones have been a lot bigger. The heat signature is the thing ,the exit they came pouring in was closest to my burning forge, just never thought there would be that many. 5 screamers, if you hear the scream i believe your being hunted and she will keep screaming and they will keep coming.I think stout defenses will buy you time but depending on the numbers and if you can get the screamers quickly is how long until your breached. You can see by the shots how deep my tunnel is, didn't matter, as soon as i heard the scream i was hunted. I'll try to get a screenshot of the screamer.

sorry, keep forgetting the damn things start locked. I'm jumping on, but OJ might not be safe hanging out with me ;)

BUdd, I was hit with some mini hoards when I was by myself at the Pharmabase, and my level was only 5 or 6 at the time.  I'm wondering if the game just getting harder as the days go on.  So I'll stay close for now.

My thoughts are I'll go discover the lake area and if I think I can, I'll start to fortify it.  As you asked before, can the walkers come across the lake somehow or can we bottleneck them on the land bridge.  I'll go with the assumption that they cannot come across the lake, and start with fortifying the land bridge.  Then starting a tunnel down.  Once down, I'll get a sleeping bag, forge, and fire pit in there.  If I start an underground facility there, how far down should I go, 15 blocks or so. 

Also, I can make concreate, but I cannot make cement.  So if you can either make some and stock it up for me and or find me a book on making cement, I'd like to fortify the land bridge from the beginning with concrete. 

Question, the forge in the tunnel under the power plant, do you want me to start making scrap brass and lead.  Where do the raw materials for making those items come from.

The game definitely gets harder as it goes, and this server has been cooking for over 200 days of gametime now.

I'm not sure my hide-until-dawn strategy is even valid anymore. I feel pretty confident that our big mistake the other night, OJ, was still being outside trying to finish repairing things when 22:00 came. And then we should have hit the tunnels and hatched up and let them rampage around. All we did was make them mad killing them off actively, so more kept coming. They were never going to stop spawning until dawn. In the long run, they ended up doing more damage for us to repair, than if we had ignored them, and we used up all our ammo; whereas if we had waited until after 4am (or maybe after 6 am) to go out clearing the base, we could have finished them off fairly easily.

But if screamers arrive, constantly hunting and screaming, do they go away at dawn as long as they aren't aggro'd? I've seem some evidence (at Deepbase1) they might, but I'm not sure I didn't have to log out to go do something else, and so then the zombies wandered off without me around (and/or the server disbanded them to respawn the zombie limit to harass other players elsewhere). Logging out to defuse a horde attack seems like cheating.

(I was off at nieces for the weekend playing cards and watching some Star Wars movies, so I couldn't even log into Grogheads to see how things were going, much less into the server.)

Me, OJ and Jake had a fun bout today with the game. Got hit with another screamer horde, i counted 3 screamers this time. The power station base up top got jacked up, the zombies were all up in our house, don't think there is a door left standing. Pretty much an all day battle, the underground stayed pretty safe. After about 12 -14 hours game time just as were about done clearing the screamer horde, another horde hits... o boy did we die :) My new sniper shacks held up pretty well.  We kept going to in to clear and get our backpacks ...well...back, think we got everything back at the end. We must of killed a couple hundred zombies if i had to guess, i could see them spawning from my sniper shack. I dont think they were going to stop spawning, so we logged off. Used up all the ammo again, most of the medical supplies and all the material to make gunpowder. The battle was so long i had time to make more ammo and go back into the fray.

I was thinking about anew underground base design. A center room with 8 tunnels out from the center. 2 tunnels, one on either side would be really long to get out of the sensed, hunted zone. The rest of the tunnels would be shorter and they all would have built sniper shacks on top of there hatches. Then tunnels connecting all the short sniper shacks, eventually a tower to be built over the center room with layered defenses going out toward the sniper shacks i.e spike ditches, walls, mines ect. We build in the general area we are once we find good ground. Keep our sleeping bags where they are while we build close by, i'll scout out some ground to start on, need a big level stretch close to trees, water, the tunneling will give us all the rock and ore we should need. We have 2 forges where we are so should be able to churn out some material.

Just logged off.  I never ventured back up, just stayed down mining and crafting.  Over 600 gun powder waiting for you Budd.  I also made some cement mix.  Coal is the one thing we could use more of.  I did find some more before I logged off.  Need to keep an eye on wood, food and water.  plenty of each right now.

Budd, make a shopping list of what you want and post here.  If I have time while traveling, and my laptop will before well enough, I'll do what I can to make it.  Perhaps we should make a new chest to place all of the items that are ready to start construction at the new base.

Oh, and isn't one of our forges on the roof, the roof that we need to go outside to get too.  Might make sense to make a second forge in the tunnels. 

Jake had a blast mining and crafting.  He says we need to make an auger.  Not sure we have all of the pieces for that.  I didn't see it in my crafting list so not sure what we need.  But if it works, then may be able to dig faster.  We made some steel pick axes to mine with.  Used them until the needed repaired.  He thought if we used a repair kit we could repair them.  I told him to save those for the guns.

All in all a great time. 

Quote from: JasonPratt on January 24, 2016, 06:33:04 PM
I'm not sure my hide-until-dawn strategy is even valid anymore. I feel pretty confident that our big mistake the other night, OJ, was still being outside trying to finish repairing things when 22:00 came. And then we should have hit the tunnels and hatched up and let them rampage around. All we did was make them mad killing them off actively, so more kept coming. They were never going to stop spawning until dawn. In the long run, they ended up doing more damage for us to repair, than if we had ignored them, and we used up all our ammo; whereas if we had waited until after 4am (or maybe after 6 am) to go out clearing the base, we could have finished them off fairly easily.

That's a good theory.  I was wondering something along the same lines.  If they don't detect us, do they have a need to spawn and destroy. 

Quote from: OJsDad on January 25, 2016, 10:55:24 AM
That's a good theory.  I was wondering something along the same lines.  If they don't detect us, do they have a need to spawn and destroy.

Until yesterday I would have said the zombies have a limited "memory", less than 2 min I believe. 

However, yesterday, after three attacks, I was out of ammo and I just escaped to the nearby woods.  I watched from a distance as the horde continued to trash my place. I clearly wasn't there anymore, but they continued to "attack". 

its why i choose to go underground. Get tired of the repair. I do like building, but i'll do an underground liar and some defenses first and then a structure. I'm just not sure anything is defendable at this point, but its fun to try. I think the constant hordes have to do with player level, i wonder if lower level players off on their own are getting hit as much........the games is out to get us ;D. like i said they just kept spawning and trashing the power station, i was watching from off a ways. Its a lot more cops and those monkey crawling ones. I know they keep coming as long as the screamer is around and sensing you. How you doing with the screamer AZ, got to get to her quick. One things for sure....there never is enough ammo.

Hey Budd.  Jake was on earlier, and he told me he made ammo.  I logged on and I had 30 each of 9mm, 10mm, 44, and Shotgun.  I got to looking around, and I didn't see any brass in the chest.  I also looked in the forge, and looks like it is all gone there.  Did you log on and make a bunch or did he somehow use it all up.  I didn't even know my character could make bullets.

havent been on today, there was some brass waiting to go into the forge. if the forge is empty and there's none in the chest were out. no idea, thought there was more, might have to scrounge some. I think all i have is some 7.62 for the hunting rifle. Check the list when you open the forge look for the solid book, if its transparent you cant make the casings.

Just went on and checked things out. OJ the brass is still there, i made some ammo and left it in the chest for you, about 200+ rounds of 10mm, 9mm, and 44. I repaired the door to the close in shack i built and loaded some brass and lead in the forge. I'm on like for less the 10 minutes and i hear some noise up top so of course i go to check it out............pop up in the shack out in the woods and first thing i see are some dogs heads sticking through the door. So i start shooting them when big boy feral zombie comes popping over my 3 block high with a layer of wood spikes on top and drops into my lap and then monkey boy gliches through the door, this shack on the inside is about 5X6 blocks. I'm trying to avoid big ugly, i decide to throw open the door and blast my way past the zombies with my 44. Well after 6 shots and im still not out its time to change plans, so i head to the ladder on my back wall where i left an opening thru the wood spikes on top. It is freaking amazing i survived to get out.Those big feral zombies look pretty big up close. This is one large feral horde which of course starts chasing me, so im backing down the road shooting as im going and as per usual a dog gets me from the back, so down drops the back pack with all the weapons. Well when i respawned the game gliched and i had to rejoin, of course the horde was gone. I went back to get my back pack and started forging some ammo just a few minutes later i hear the screaming, i run back out to the shack to get outside to locate the screamer, if you get to her quick you can avoid the horde, so i offed the B*tch. Back down again to make ammo, few minutes later...screaming again, so i run out again to locate the B*tch and again i cap her quick so no horde. go back to forging cement and ammo and guess what.....wandering dog horde..shit...so i cap the dogs and log off. Man i was on for less than an hour. I did get a screen of the screamer this time. you hear her get her quick.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-25_00001_zpsbv01vjir.jpg&hash=7e130217a9bf9a3fdca61d4cc01b73cc2ac524e0)

OJ.. things we need. There is a lot of stone on the roof in one of those chests i've been starting it and churning out cement for later use. just put it in one of the chests on the roof, i cleared the building so hopefully its still clear. We need coal, surprised Jake didnt get more when mining, it burns longer than wood in the forge. We need more brass and need to do some hunting for meat. I made some bandages and managed to get a supply drop with a few first aid kits. I didnt have time to scout out for the next base yet, basically any scrounging is good. I'm carrying my ammo so take what you want from the chest, eventually were gonna need more brass. The only place besides searching stuff is car radiators for brass. Thank Jake for all the mining he did.....O we also need feathers, need to kill some chickens.

Note: steel pickaxes need forged steel to repair, not a repair kit. I don't think the game will let you waste those on a pickaxe, though, so trying won't hurt, but don't set it aside to try in an emergency!


Feral zombies practically ignore even spike logs. I watched a feral the other night, during the disaster at Pharmabase, walk completely all the way down a trench filled with spike logs. Not just spikes, spike logs. (Admittedly, I don't think anyone had upgraded those spikes any.) And then climb out at the end and start attacking a door. He must have taken some damage, but I still needed plenty of shots from the best guns (Mag, AK, 10mm SMG) to finish him. One of his legs went first (maybe not surprisingly), and EVEN THEN he was able to stand up quickly and hop around. A hard shot would knock him off balance and down, but he'd just get up again quickly.

Feral zombies are the worst. Except maybe for zombie bears, but I don't have any experience there. Zombie bears are certainly faster.


Zombies will pound at things until the things break, and then may start up again on nearby things or not. I've seen and heard zombies breaking rocks near Deepbase1, purely out of meanness. Including zombie dogs.


Lots of player activity in and around an area will draw the hordes, even if forges and firepits aren't being used, but their usage makes things proportionately worse. I've kept Deepbase1 small topside, and rarely do any actions up there, so I've had very little problems even when sabbath hordes show up. In fact, I'll use their ability to sense me underground to troll them away from the bunker and garage. And zombies dying makes zombies more hyper, too, so since I have no passive damage defenses upstairs anywhere, they eventually get bored around 6 am and disappear, leaving some scattered minihorde elements I can much more easily deal with.

At one point in the Pharmabase, I spent a couple of game hours trolling a moderate horde by using their detection of me in the tunnels to run them back and forth across spikes and related ditches. Soft-killed the whole horde: while some may have spawned from their anger at dying on the spikes, it wasn't nearly as much as from active resistance, and I kept them distracted from beating on the fortifications upstairs. OJD and I should have done that during the disaster at Pharmabase the other night, but...  :buck2:

Question on hanging tourches. Buds, how did you get tourches to hang on the wall. Right click doesn't work and it doesn't look like your using a frame.

Right click, just make sure your not to close to where u want to place it.

The big feral zombies don't seem to beat on anything, the spikes damage them it just takes a bit. Seen them walk the spike trench and lose there legs and end up crawling. Ill shoot them in the legs or head, my weapon skill is up so it doesn't take nearly as many bullets or arrows to kill them. I swear most of my deaths are from the dogs, the 9mm or smg are the best for dog hordes because rate of fire and capicity.

The feral zombie was DEFINITELY beating on the western garage vault door; I caught another one beating on the mid-hall vault door, too (and clipping through it, so I shot him in the head). At least one more feral went after the western garage vault door later.

My first major horde, when we (almost?) lost your first house, the ferals beat the utter hell out of the upstairs rooms, where no one was around except me and I wasn't where they were attacking the walls. Eventually a feral got out onto your roof escape path, worked his way around to my room, and dug through the dang ceiling to drop in on me. Those were my first exposure to the big feral zombies.


Candles can be thrown onto walls (or anything else) like torches, too; but either way, you can run into some odd results in caves or tunnels where your lights end up attached to surfaces you can't see. The light still shines in the area, somewhat, but the light source itself won't be visible. BUT it can still be targeted for picking up again, and you can damage the source accidentally (or on purpose) with digging tools or whatever.

Going on a business trip.  Will be out of pocket until Friday evening, East Coast time  Hopefully no server restarts will be needed.  Been pretty stable for the last few weeks, so crossing my fingers.

Quote from: ArizonaTank on January 26, 2016, 01:31:07 PM
Been pretty stable for the last few weeks, so crossing my fingers.

...no. No. No. No. No.

No.

It's as stable as... as... .... as

{trying to come up with a carefully nuanced and balanced simile}

...as Olivia Munn.

Went on for bit, about 2 game days. First day didn't see a zombie or animal all day. Second day....well...a  little busier ;D

I got up on the roof in time to see them spawning, right where that clump is.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-27_00001_zpsnmcsh9m7.jpg&hash=d04e6c2b438a8ee08cc745e058e2c16b3c5af97a)

Thats my little sniper hut top right. I didnt hear a thing just went up to the sniper shack to place a spot light and low and behold a dog face in the door. Went back underground and came up my other tunnel and went on the roof for some sniping.Hoping to knock off the dogs and cops.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-27_00002_zpsrdsiw4qw.jpg&hash=70bde2328bba896f4a4179cff06eccc32f1cafe7)


Eventually like the Doobie brothers sang....."Takin it to the streets" ... had over 100 rounds of the 9mm when it started, ran out and had to finish with the 44.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-27_00003_zpsp7xpupft.jpg&hash=05edbdca55f16131f3954e6e0e8453e4f1ec20f5)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-27_00005_zpsbm2o2p8z.jpg&hash=c6db1c0ee3d507b20a00b2be26829093dcb9c980)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-01-27_00004_zpssjroaeyd.jpg&hash=d1c858a58499fa89cff088ea99ea026ad0fc1f0c)

Total clean up...about 80 zombies..... about 150 rounds.....over 4 hours game time, no screamers this time, just one large horde.

I just got back home and tried thought I'd jump on while eating lunch.  My desktop version upgraded to 13.7 while I was gone and the server is at 13.6, so I can no longer connect.  Looks like it was just released today.

probably happen to me too once i open steam unless i stop the update. Az will update it when he gets a chance.

My update has loaded in, so I have an excuse not to come back for a while, yay!  :D

(Posting Day 4 for my Empyrion AAR...) (http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=15863.0)

From the Dev's about Alpha 14

Quote
We're working hard on Alpha 14 and it has some great new content. Here are the highlights: Navezgane has gotten a lot bigger and better with a brand new improved height map with higher mountains and deep water, a new smoothing algorithm that makes the land and water much more natural, a multitude of new locations including the largest city in the expanded plains, and a bandit like shanty town and a huge lake with islands just to name a few.

Alpha 14 also has many new perks and improvements to our skills system, a great new damage and death system where zombies feed on your corpse, an introductory basics of survival quest, repeatable quest note challenges, a radiant buried treasure quest system for infinite digging for treasure fun, many new improved world textures and block shapes, a major rebalancing of block damage, leveling and XP, some good optimizations, random gen improvements, and so many bug fixes. We're making great progress on it folks so expect it to drop in February.

Even with all this going on we took some time out to fix the most important user reported bugs from 13.6 and have an Alpha 13.7 patch ready. Tip of the fedora goes out to Gazz and Clockwork Orange for their xml fixes. You guys rock! [/you]

I wonder what it means for zombies to be eating your dead body after you die. Is that just a cute graphical bling? Is it a gameplay factor of some kind? Get back to your body before the zombies consume it, if you want to recover your dropped back/belt/both?

sounds like a save breaker though, might have to wait before investing the time in a new build. OJ we should probably wait on a new build and maybe stop stock piling stuff and hit the road and explore. We could use what we have made and secure the powerstation and build some stuff around it. What do you think?

Do the zombies go through the water? Just wondering if a base on an island would be a good thing. If the bastards swim, I suppose that won't work.

I figured that the next Alpha release would require a game restart.  So, I think your suggestion is excellent Budd.

What do you think of this plan.  Since they're spawning in the plant courtyard, seal up the plant.  Place the concreate up against the plant walls.  No doors.  We have the two tunnels out to the sniper shacks already.  I started moving a tunnel toward the Working Stiffs building.  I can continue that for a third out.  We can then fortify the Working Stiff.

Sounds good OJ, theres a bunch of cement for concrete mix on the roof. It was weird last time I was on, the forge would only produce when I had it open. thinking about securing the fence wall with blocks and bars to shoot through. I want to scrounge some more batteries for more spots. Not sure about the shack safety if there going to glitch thru the door.

Banzai Cat... They walk right thru water after you. A few alphas ago they had problems, and you could also make a moat with one bucket of water because the water would just spread.

The punch-spreading water was true about the build we were on when we first started, too (not the build with Pharmabase etc.) I haven't tested that in this build. But then, my program upgraded so I don't know that I can even sign onto the server anymore.

Version mismatch until AZ updates.

Jake got home from school yesterday, happy to see me.  Got his homework done with no procrastinating, and then was ready to jump on the server for some 7DtD.  The look on his face when I explained to him why we couldn't was priceless.  I could see the wheels in his head spinning trying to comprehend it all.  I can just about guarantee the first thing he'll ask me tonight is if the servers been upgraded yet.  LOL 

Tell him to practice on single player. My daughter likes to watch me play,,she spots the zombies, and animals for me. When I brb she watches to make sure I don't get hunted and she'll move around as long as its in base or inside somewhere.....it has to be daytime too. She's always telling me I'm gonna die when a horde shows up, as she covers her eyes.

Is Jake using your account character?

Yes, Jake is using mine.

Budd, yes we can play solo.  He needs some help getting through the first few days, and we just haven't had the time to do that too much.  Last night we wouldn't have had a chance to get on line as we went to the HS Girls BB game and a Boy Scout meeting for him.

Eh, I'm almost sure high school girls will be more important for everyone in the long run anyway.  :coolsmiley:

Server has been updated.

Tested it this morning...Good to Go.

Thanks

Thanks AT!!

OJ i owe you an apology.....i'm pretty sure i screwed up your spawn. I was horde battling and went back down to resupply and was mucking around in my inventory and i was facing the sleeping bags and hit the wrong key and picked up your bag, sorry, i put it right back down but i dont think its going to matter. I hope you dont spawn on the other side of the map, again sorry about that.

CRAP!! CRAP!! CRAP!! CRAP!! CRAP!! CRAP!! CRAP!! CRAP!! CRAP!! CRAP!! CRAP!!

Did I say CRAP!!!!

Budd.  I logged in, first thing I did was pick up the left hand bag, as you have our back to the fire pit, and placed it back down.  That was my bag, if I remembered corrected.  I also turned it.

So, I did some mining.  Then I decided to go look around.  Wow Budd, you did a lot of work.  So, I went back to do some mining.  Took a little break and decided to through the uncooked meat and the eggs.  While this was going on, I started to hear sounds.  Dogs.  Maybe a screamer.  But I didn't hear them at the beginning.  Was letting food cook while getting kids to bed.  So, I store the food, and head for the sniper tower to see what it looks like outside.  I poke my head up and a dog and one Zed are breaking the door down.  I take a few shots, realize that I don't have much ammo and decide to head back down.

Up out of the tunnel comes a Zed.  I get him but more are down there.  I was able to get the hatch shut but died quickly thereafter to the two cops that came up first. 

I don't know if they broke through the other hatch or if I forgot to shut it when I was up.  I logged off after I died.  I'm no where good enough to try and get the tunnels back.

So be warned, they tunnels may be full of Zeds. 

Did I say CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew, I'm just glad your spawn didn't get messed up. Ill deal with them next time I log in, but there probably gone, left when you logged out.I just finish the base remodel, how do you like it. They kept spawning inside the fence line, especially that low part that's why I spiked it up. There's a another path off the roof and 2 vault doors to get outside the fence and ladders to get on the wall. I pretty much get hit with hordes constantly now, I run around shooting them thru the bars or from the wall, lead them off when there is too many. I gliched out died and lost all my guns....made a bike and went to get more from the old pharmacy base, actually made it there and back on the bike. I found someone's missing bike just sitting on the road, marked it with a waypoint. I wasn't having much luck with our mine especially finding nitrate. I desperately needed it to make gunpowder for more bullets. I started another mine in the working stiff store down the street, tunneling back towards base. The hatch is by the bathroom, there's a chest of odds and ends in the bathroom and a chest at the bottom of the mine ladder with the ore and mining tools. I parked the bike under the tree by the sniper shack in the woods. If you do log on we need to dig clay ( plenty around base, red looking dirt, you can see where I dug) , and mine coal and nitrate. The walls as they are are easy on resources to repair, it's why I'm not upgrading to steel, too many steel bars needed. I wonder if the update made the bikes more stable.

I hadn't had a chance to check out everything, but from what I saw, it was looking good.

I was pushing the one tunnel towards the Working Stiff store, as I figured it would make a good additional base.  I'll head over there and see what I can dig up. 

OH, and the mini bike you found was probably the one I lost when I first tried to join you down at the power plant.

I jumped on for few OJ and there's no visitors in the tunnels. I did find how they got in, the spikes trenches around the shack were without spikes, so they fall in and beat the earth to get to you and made themselves a tunnel into the underground. I'll probably fill the trenches and put spikes around the outside instead of in the trenches, in the trenches is fine but you have to keep them up. I already filled the tunnel entrance thy made, i also picked up your backpack and will put your guns into the chest. I'll share the location of the minibike on the map if someone wants to get it, its pretty close to the pharmacy.

Here's a little tour of where OJ and I hang our hat. I call it....... "THE ALAMO" It was an all brick power plant with all brick walls and brick perimeter fence. I started with a temp base on the roof. All those spikes inside the wall on the lower part is where the hordes like to spawn inside the perimeter, surprise zombie bastards. I've been pretty successful defending the base. I usually start on the roof and snipe the dogs and spitting cops and then move down to the yard or on top of the wall depending if there are those damn climbing zombies, then  just start blasting through the bars and fall back if needed or go through the tunnel to the shack and shoot from there.

The little bird nests randomly spawning on places you yourself built are great.

I may not be playing it much at the moment, but I love this game so much y'all.  :smitten:

I see a new update queued on Steam (behind my download/install of XC2.) Hm.

13.8 downloaded.  121.5 mb update.

I was checking out the dev blog and alpha 14 sounds huge.

Server is synched to the latest build.

BTW, from Tuesday, I will be on the road for a few weeks.  I will have a laptop with me and should be able to track updates.  But I may be slow at getting them done.

No worries AT just glad to be able to play on your server, thanks. What do you think of the powerplant upgrade? I'm not upgrading the cobble to steel, too many steel bars needed to make and repair it. The cobble  and bars are pretty easy and quick to build and maintain.

Any one else been on lately.  I'm on now.  Day 236; midnight. 

Haven't been on since last time you saw me. Hows the place holding up? Judging by the day nobodies been on lately, wasn't it the same day last time we were on. I'll be on sometime this weekend just cant say when.

Yea, I don't think anyone else has been on since we were last.  Everything looks good.  I was working on the tunnel heading back to the Working Stiff, but some how broke my leg.  I really need to work on making tunnels, I get a good straight shot going and then get off some how.

Made some more gun powder, scrap iron, and gravel.  If I hadn't broken my leg, I would have taken some empty bottles and tried to find the lake, but didn't want to get too far away being hobbled.  So if you log on, you'll want to make a water run.  It was about 11am when I logged off.

Jake, O and the wife have gone snowmobiling this weekend at the in-laws place, so I'll have some time.  That is when I'm not playing Distant Worlds.

splint your leg if you havent already. Just dig toward the base icon on the compass, should keep you straight. I'll probably see you online sometime this weekend then.

Budd, forgot to tell you, I planted a couple of corn seed to the west of the sniper building.  Looks like they're starting to grow.  I'm also making repairs and replacing spikes around the plant.  I got the crate from the latest plane drop, took out several walkers.  Then I went up the hill to scout out straight west of the power plant.  Quite a few walkers that way, but I don't think they followed me.  I did get hit by a mini horde coming up the road of the working stiff though. 

And, I managed to fall and break my leg again LOL.  Damn ladders. 

Oh, and I found the lake, so I can make water runs now. 

I was on yesterday. Restocked the water and did some hunting and got hit with horde after horde. I made some more bullets tips and grabbed some material from the other mine. Looked around didn't see any big damage and i ran down 2 supply drops,  we have a rocket launcher now, but i cant make one of the parts to make the ammo until i read the casing book apparently. I explored south again, on foot, next time i take the bike, we are short on gas.

My tunnel is about half way to the Working Stiff.  I've hit a large vein of coal, Potassium, and lead, so mining what I can.  Also, those first two corn stalks were ready so I harvested them, converted the corn to seeds and planted it, so we have about eight going now.  I plan on converting half of all harvest going forward to seed and the rest to fuel and or food.

There was a plane drop, and the crate landed in the middle of the lake!  But I did get a pig. 

Dont think anyone else is using the pharmacy base, one of us could make a run there to get the fuel/barrels.

Yeah, I'm working on other games at the moment. And don't really need the fuel anyway. Besides, either the game will be wiped with Build 14, or I'd be looking to set up some kind of feasible halfway base between you and Pharmabase (or help you expand down there, whichever.) Pharmabase is just too hot right now.

Well that was an interesting session. Went out scavenging up north at dawn, got stun gliched and died. The worst part was i didnt respawn at my bag, no idea why, spawned the other side of hub city. Well F**k, time to take the long trek back. All good though i stopped by the pharmacy and picked up a few things, the building up top looks like it got ripped up pretty good. Picked up the other mini on the way back so i made good time. drove to go get my backpack with all my weapons and went back to base right at the time a massive horde hits. Well i gassed up the mini and played zombie road kill with the mini, that was fun. Hopped off the bike and went behind the walls to defend, the walls and bars hold up well. They just don't stop coming, there needs to be a cap on zombie hordes that increases as the days progress, otherwise your only choice is to run once you run out of ammo or log off. OJ i didnt get a chance to repair the walls, there's damage but no holes, the new mini needs repair after my zombie road kill session. I made some bullets tips and casings and loaded the forge with material. Think we might need another row of blocks on the walls might help keep those climbing monkey zombies out. Thought about putting spikes up top but i like to defend from the top of the wall.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-02-15_00001_zps5px4tijy.jpg&hash=60f16bd5adc928079d91d19cd22ba206a34ead45)

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F2016-02-15_00002_zpsyjjwjvgi.jpg&hash=fb19952fe4ad0caf20eb7553fcfd9398752ab7e2)

Thanks for the update Budd.  I'm traveling all week, so not sure I'll have much time online.

I haven't been on for quite awhile, but jumping on now.  See if I remember how to play.

Working on my solo game.  I'm currently working on mining down below a building I'm in.  How far down do you guys usually go, 10, 15, 20 blocks?

For ore's sake it doesn't really matter in this game -- I don't mine for ore anyway, I mine for security. Ore is just a side benefit.

The better question is, how far down is safe security, and there are several factors for that. Can the Japanese spirit girls detect you regardless? What's the detection power of zombie dogs? Does cooking and/or forging create blooms through any depth? (I know they do somewhat deep, as at Budd's Pharmabase.) Do you care about whether a horde ruins your upper base over night? How much escape access do you want or need? Being deep affects how easy it is to create surface re-access points.


My impression is that most zombies can't dig, although they can accidentally damage ground blocks trying to get somewhere else. If you tic them off enough they'll go after hatches, and then you can have zombies crashing into your tunnel (maybe on top of you!) The less there is up top, the less aggravated they'll become sometimes, and the more easily you may be able to lead them away from your base entrances if they can still sense you down there (like dogs on a mole!) But then unless they go away at daylight, or calm down enough for you to go up top and zap them reasonably, you haven't gained anything.

Similarly, if you have a strong spike defense, you can troll them over that by moving around underground -- I took out a couple of horde remnants that way at Budd's Pharmabase -- but night hordes and especially sabbath hordes tend to keep coming all night regardless of how many die, and dying on defenses ticcs them off, too, although my impression is not as much as active defenses (players fighting them).

Ideally, my goal would be to have a connected set of a few small but tough accesses, able to shrug off opportunity attacks yet easily reparable, each over a tough small entry to limit enemy action against it (maybe on a raised area inside the base foyer, so that enemies won't "fall into" the hatch area and get kind of stuck there), and beneath that, a cave with two or three accesses (for escape routes in an emergency) deep enough that I can cook and forge in peace at night without making horde aggravation worse if possible. Or if that isn't possible then where I can huddle down away from sniffy things like dogs, bears, or hornets until they despawn at dawn.

If I can't get away from the sniffers no matter how deep (I truly haven't sussed out the mechanics on that), then I'd want a few tunnel lines to troll enemies away from my base hatches and outer forts; maybe with internal reinforcements in case any of them turn out to be capable of digging or get lucky while beating upper objects. (I've seen zombies, even zombie animals, beat at rocks and trees out of boredom or spite.) Ideally I wouldn't have spike sets, even for trolling enemies across, in case that just aggravates a horde, although they can be handy to get rid of horde remnants after daylight. So maybe one tunnel to troll them away from hatches at night, and another tunnel under reinforced spikes to troll them back and forth across during the next morning. (I might carry some log spikes to throw down in an emergency tunnel retreat, too.)


Skytowers are another possibility, but the physics in the game might cause them to collapse, and I'm not sure it's possible to get above their sensory range. The test tower I built north of my central Deepbase on AzTank's game, was five stories tall or maybe six, and eventually a horde found me there and beat their way in; once that happened they were somewhat slowed down trying to get up the wall ladders through hatches, but they could have beat down the lower walls in a fury and collapsed the whole thing (I came down to fight them before that happened -- and got killed). Even if I had built sky tunnels, I couldn't have trolled them away from the access point without exposing my supports to attack. I think this happened with the sky-tunnel I tried to build (twice) across Budd's west spike pit set into his outer defensive fort at Pharmabase: they attacked the supports and the thing collapsed, twice. Besides, towers are harder to make than tunnels, because even in the toughest stone you only have to dig, while to make a tower you first have to dig (for and through tough material exclusively, since dirt is useless for building things) and then make blocks and then place them. (And then maybe fill the blocks and/or otherwise upgrade them. With more material. That you have to dig and maybe refine first.)

Thanks JP.  I think I'm down about 15-20 blocks now.  I'll probably make sure I'm down 20 and call it good. 

I actually got a good start.  I spawned in a forest and quickly walked out to a plains area with 5 two and three story buildings.  All had general stores on the first and apartments on the upper floors.  I've setup base on the roof of one of the buildings.  A river isn't far from me, a nuke zone to my west, and some houses to the east, with a B&N store between my base and the houses.  I also need to get back into the woods.

I went behind the counter of the building I'm in and started to dig down.  Once I'm down far enough, I'll tunnel to a center point between the 5 buildings.  There I'll setup my underground base.  From there, I'll see about tunneling to each of the other four buildings and then tunneling up for additional access points. 

It's sunrise of day 7, so need to finish getting some defenses built first.

I go down till the dirt runs out, i usually stay right above the rock and mine when i uncover a vein. Digging through the dirt is way faster and i dont want to spend all my time sledgehammering rock.

This is reasonable; Budd was lucky the dirt went down relatively far at Pharmabase.

Man, OJ, I don't think gold actually exists in the game, but you struck better than gold with that placement! Find somewhere safe to throw a sleeping bag, quick!

Has anyone got a clear idea what the 'win' condition is supposed to be, or if there even is one? I suspect you're supposed to build a scooter and gas and metal armor with enough cooling and radiation protection to get outside the nuclear map edge, but I haven't been able to confirm it yet. The single-player description talks about learning what happened and why.

Yep, about the first thing I did when I realized what I had was make a sleeping bag and got it laid down.

Doing my single player game, I'm learning a lot.  I'm kind of looking forward to when the server has to be reset (sounds like it will with the updates planned on release 14).  I'm getting better with a bow and crossbow.  Yes, I'm on the easiest setting at the moment.  I'll probably do this game for a month or two then keep up the difficulty.  But right now on the current server game, I fell over whelmed without having some of the advanced skills at the moment.  Hoping to get a mini bike in my single player game so I can learn how to operate that better.  Don't want to use the one in the multiplayer game and the few times I tried I trashed them within a few seconds :)

Jake was playing around yesterday in creative mode on his single player game.  He setup a bunch of oil drums in two rows and tried to get them to blow up.  They wouldn't, until he got some exploding crossbow bolts.  Even then though, it was only one at a time.

Yea i'm kinda waiting for 14 to drop before i jump back in. I actually expected it before now.

I almost feel that after a certain point, it's almost too easy.  No challenge.  Probably not quite right with what I'm trying to say, but I think you guys get it. 

I used to play single player in the original Star Craft, taking on 7 AI opponents.  Lost a lot more than I won, but it was the challenge. 

Wandering out at night is still a bit of a challenge, if you want some challenge play with running zombies :D. then wandering too far out and not making it back by dark will be a challenge. My frustration is with the never ending horde spawning, its either run or disconnect to have it stop. Don't mind really large hordes but there's got to be an end just for ammo making sake. One of my favorites ways to play is no base building, you just wander the map using forges you find or build but you keep moving, no chest to store things only have what you can carry. I still have a goal of uncovering the whole map, this last go around was the most map i've uncovered so far, of course this is probably the longest between updates.

Quote from: OJsDad on March 15, 2016, 04:00:31 PM
I almost feel that after a certain point, it's almost too easy.  No challenge.  Probably not quite right with what I'm trying to say, but I think you guys get it. 

I used to play single player in the original Star Craft, taking on 7 AI opponents.  Lost a lot more than I won, but it was the challenge.

Happy to turn on running zombies if that will help get the blood pumping....

I like zombies running at night. I love the tension it adds when your hide depends on paying proper attention of your hide...cause you can't just log roll your way out of danger when you F it up and they bash their way into fort knox.

The reason i have a problem with the running zombies is that the feral ones zero in on you no matter how quiet you are. I like to range around at night but with the feral zombies its mostly a death sentence when they can run. Plus i think they run too fast, hope they make the speed adjustable in the future. your right though when they run it does add a certain tension, it just needs some balance.

Pretty sure feral zombies only appear as part of a 7-day horde.

Late in the game ferals come out at night more randomly. So when Budd is going out at night to jacklight zombies, this becomes a problem.

According to the official wiki "The Feral Zombie is usually found in Day 7 hordes and sometimes in wasteland cities"

I've yet to see one randomly spawn.

http://7daystodie.gamepedia.com/Feral_Zombie

The 7 day thing didnt hold as the days went by, especially when we got up past 200. Also the normal hordes seemed to be able to sense you more as the days past.The ferals aren't really that bad once you level up your weapons, the dogs are still the major danger. The ferals and the screamers are a different story, especially if your going to defend in place, they just keep coming. Of  course if they run it would be a different story, which i'm fine with but early on you will be stuck in hidey holes every night. Looking forward to jumping back in when 14 releases, a bunch of new POI's should be in.

With zombies set to run at night leaving the hide becomes a calculated risk. It is still possible, however, you must be ready to deal with any zombies in the area, including a safe ingress back into the hide for you alone. Doors aren't much good for this, except possibly to delay while you reach your safe place.

Early game with running zombies isn't much harder. Any POI will do once the local Z population has been culled. I typically build a small hide up near the ceiling where I can't be reached in case I am detected. While it may not be safe to scavenge outside while dark I usually keep busy with fort building/crafting/mining until the sun comes up.

Normal node (Nomad) in 7DTD = zombies walk during day & run @ night. So it's not like we are talking about one of the difficult modes. I'll participate regardless. I'm just making a case for what I consider to be the more fun way to play.

I'm good with them running at night or all the time. there really isnt much danger when they walk, you can always out run them and your pretty safe underground. You could play it safe and really not be in much danger of dying when they walk only except for the random horde or dog death.Wish they would have a setting when they only ran when they were locked onto you, there should be a setting between walk and run all the time.

I'm such a dumb arse.  It was the night of day 7.  I had my defenses ready.  I had a good set of weapons.  I hear the walkers banging away and dying on the spike traps.  So I decide to stand on a ledge and look over, and I fall.  Right on to my spikes.  Of course, forting up for day 7 horde, I couldn't get back in without going through spikes.  I died.  And I had almost no weapons in my chests.  So I start crafting a new on, up on the roof.  While I was screwing around with that, two walkers got up there and killed me.  I quit the game to clear them. 

Quote from: -budd- on March 18, 2016, 09:16:45 AM
I'm good with them running at night or all the time. there really isnt much danger when they walk, you can always out run them and your pretty safe underground. You could play it safe and really not be in much danger of dying when they walk only except for the random horde or dog death.Wish they would have a setting when they only ran when they were locked onto you, there should be a setting between walk and run all the time.

OK, while we are waiting for the upgrade, I'll turn on running Zs at night.  But I'll also tone down their frequency....  Let's see what happens....

I won't have time to try it out this week but am hopeful that A14 will drop before the long weekend. Fingers crossed for this as next week I should have plenty of time off.

I suffered many glitch deaths with both the first and second Grogheads MP sessions. Usually, I'd die the instant I logged in...for no apparent reason. I sure hope this gets better. Anyone else have this problem?

I haven't had the problem Rekim.

I never died from glitch deaths logging in, on either this or the previous MP server (which I was only active on a few days admittedly). I did occasionally fall through the world and have to log out, although as things progressed in the 2nd world (perhaps thanks to an occasional patch?) that happened less often although things could still glitch pretty badly. I recall one of my last sessions, I was going to take Budd some supplies on the last bike remaining at Pharmabase, and it desynched into a boulder. I could even still hear it making some Godawful sound inside the boulder! I built a large, torch-lit stone arrow pointing at the boulder, so someone could come dig it out later, and hightailed it back to base just before nightfall.

I exaggerated a bit. I probably had 2 glitch deaths with each session. I was pretty annoyed though.

Funny glitch with the minibike. Wonder what would have happened if you took a pick axe to the bolder.

As long as your careful you can dig it out. Had one glitch underground with just the handle bars showing, dug it out and continued on. Play with the last update don't believe I had any bike glitches like that.

I don't recall if I've played since the last update, but that glitch was quite late in my career, and I don't clearly recall whether there has been a point upgrade since then or not.

I remember the incident Budd's talking about (which was much earlier in our play). Definitely the same glitch mechanic in involved both times: the server and/or the program desynchs the bike and plots its position increasingly far ahead of where the player and, apparently, the bike actually is. If the player catches this early, you can minimize problems by stopping the bike, getting off, and getting on again. After getting off, the bike will warp straight ahead to catch up with its plotted position -- which can be seen by a sharp eye as disturbed dirt on the ground ahead of you while riding, thus alerting you to stop and dismount while you can still control where the bike will 'land' and how far away it'll be -- but the program won't plot vertical difference or account for anything in the way.

That's how the bike can end up inside a hill or inside a rock; and/or 50 yards beyond where the player stops, if the glitch has been going on long enough, perhaps off in an unexpected direction if the player turns slightly during the stop before dismounting.

Very much a "glitch in the Matrix" moment when it happens.  ::) :P

Alpha 14 dropped ;D

Wow, a 777 mb update. 

And the list of updates.   http://7daystodie.com/alpha-14-hits-the-streets/

Gonna hit some SP until AT updates the server. Think i'll check the NAV map instead of random, to see the new stuff.

Server updated....  have at it....  BTW, sounds like plenty of people getting crashes / freezes, but turning down the graphics a bit seems to help.  However, I jumped in a bit myself, and didn't have any trouble.  Enjoy...

Thank you sir.

Sweet. I'll jump on for a while tonight if I get the chance.

Did you do a reset AT?

Thanks!!

Quote from: Rekim on March 27, 2016, 05:50:02 AM
Sweet. I'll jump on for a while tonight if I get the chance.

Did you do a reset AT?

Thanks!!

Yes, the release notes recommended not using a saved world from previous big releases.  The only problem I have with these mega releases is that we lose all of our work.   But we probably have about three months before the next big update.  So plenty of time to tunnel.

Popped on for a bit. Spawned in the frozen tundra, found a good size town/city already. Police station, diner, power station, i'll probably hit the book store and move to right outside the frozen zone so i dont freeze to death.I'll base just outside the frozen zone and go back to loot. Don't have  the weapons/warm clothes to clear the town and there are a lot of lumberjacks. I've traveled a fair bit and i'm still in the frozen zone, did cross a weird small strip of desert while traveling. The FPS seems more stable, i'm pulling 70+ FPS on near max settings. I did desync once. Is this random or the NAV map AT? In my little bit of SP i found a pier and a structure out in the middle of the lake on stilts, if you hold the jump button you can walk on water. The bears are faster and the zombies move faster than you in the water it seems or im not swimming right. You can knock the zombies back now so going hand to hand is more of an option. I'll post my base coordinates when i land at a temp base, when i logged out i was freezing on the roof of a shotgun messiah store nearing dusk, might camp in the bookstore overnight depending on the time of day when i log back in.

This is Random Gen world

Perfect

thanks again

my biggest problem now is that I worked 36 hrs this weekend and need to get some sleep tonight or won't be feeling too hot tomorrow. Not sure how I'm going to be able to hold off playing into the wee hours though...

I got a temp underground base up, right outside the frozen zone by the city. Found a lake and a desert biome also, picked up a supply drop so i have some meds, short on food though. Here's the coordinates 666N 1706W .... there's a torch on a boulder, the hatch is right below. the area is pretty active.

LOL.  Sorry Budd, but I think I spawned the same place you did.  I'm not far from you and the town I'm in looks like has been partially searched already.  I got beat up already by one zombie. 

I jumped on with my laptop, but it's not the best, so will get back on later when I'm home.  If I can make it past the rest, I'll try and reach you tonight, when I get back on. 

Well spent some time looting the town. Got an above base started, still using the temp underground base not far away for our sleeping bags. Here's a pic of the tower base me and OJ are working on, it held up well when the first 7 day horde hit. Still need another alternate escape route. i think were going to give it a go, i'm usually an underground dweller. We got a forge up now just need to load it, im going to see how high this thing will go.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F20160327193243_1_zpsfa647gwk.jpg&hash=9ed025fcc43ea899b815dd90ed68c06a3c817ddd)

view from the top
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F20160327193334_1_zpsfosgjsaq.jpg&hash=19068a6f9c4037f64c4eccac48b9a21574eaf7ee)

Quote from: -budd- on March 27, 2016, 09:44:11 PM
Well spent some time looting the town. Got an above base started, still using the temp underground base not far away for our sleeping bags. Here's a pic of the tower base me and OJ are working on, it held up well when the first 7 day horde hit. Still need another alternate escape route. i think were going to give it a go, i'm usually an underground dweller. We got a forge up now just need to load it, im going to see how high this thing will go.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F20160327193243_1_zpsfa647gwk.jpg&hash=9ed025fcc43ea899b815dd90ed68c06a3c817ddd)

view from the top
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F20160327193334_1_zpsfosgjsaq.jpg&hash=19068a6f9c4037f64c4eccac48b9a21574eaf7ee)

Wow, you guys are fast....

That's almost all Budd.  I didn't join him until almost day 7, and he had most of the tower done, plus a tunnel about a kilometer west.  I just got lucky that I spawned in the same place as he did. 

When the 7 day horde hit, we were up on the tower roof.  I'm looking one way when I hear Budd shooting.  Imagine my surprise when I turned around and say that a zombie had climbed up there.  It's the only one that did.

I spawned on the outskirts of hub city. I'm camping out in a forge house just to the SE. It's tricky going to town at such a low level but the loot is great.

I noticed an exposed rock face at the extreme south side of town and am considering building a bunker complex into it. Not sure how smart that will be considering the high volume of traffic in the area with only one way in/out.

Server updated with latest patch

I just signed off. It's day 21, 0423. 

Budd, I made a water run and tried to get to the plane drop.  The drop looks to be in the middle of the large lake.  Got jumped by dogs and hurt pretty bad.  While heading back to the tower, I got hit by a lumber jack. 

I did finally make it back and dropped off a bunch more coal, boiled water.  I also made a grill grate for the campfire, but I couldn't get it do place.  It's in the box beside the forge.

I also crafted the animal fat into talon and made some torches, in the same box as the grill.

I hope to be on later tonight.

Wow day 21 already, i was on last night for day 14 and the horde. No ferals, just a big horde everything but ferals and cops. Things on the to do list: keep filling forge, need to dig clay. Cant remember if we can make those metal strips yet, but will need to soon. The horde did more damage to the base supports so need the strips for repair. I did some add on to the base, new escape route to the building on the other side, door inside. I had to chop the bridge across to the roof because the damn zombies blew through the secure doors i had to that building and got up on the roof., so i had to defend the bridge. So i chopped a block so you have to jump a one block gap, may need to make it 2 blocks, but they got up there and fell through the one block gap to the ground.There'a a platform on the other side of the lower building to get outside the fenced perimeter, if we need to run.Need to pound some stone and load as much iron in the forge as we can for repair and upgrades. I'm gonna wait to build the tower higher until we get some better defense in place. I thinking going higher wont take us out of the zombie sense zone like it does when your underground and move off a bit in the tunnels but i'm gonna build it higher anyway ;) I moved some stuff from the underground base to the tower. We need to find another good sized town, we need the calipers and tool set for the forge and hopefully a mini bike book. I already read the handlebar book so once we can make the frame we should be good or do we need a book for the seat? cant remember. Next time on i will probably go exploring for towns, i cleaned out all the buildings in our town except the safes which we can get once we make wrenches. I left all the cars for salvage once we get mini bike capability. I think i will make a series of walkways and a hollow tower with a ladder down that leads to a tunnel complex, probably before i raise the tower higher.

yes, we can make iron strips.  I did and made a fire axe for felling trees and an iron pick axe that'll work for breaking rocks for scrap metal and stone and for breaking into those safes.

I did see your improvements. 

I'm traveling this week, so I'm having to use my laptop.  The ping times are good, but my laptop is a little slow, so not looking forward to hordes at the moment.

Can you make a crossbow yet. 

I'd vote for each of us exploring out in a different direction to cover more ground faster. 

Quote from: -budd- on March 29, 2016, 07:14:05 PM
Wow day 21 already, i was on last night for day 14 and the horde. No ferals, just a big horde everything but ferals and cops. Things on the to do list: keep filling forge, need to dig clay. Cant remember if we can make those metal strips yet, but will need to soon. The horde did more damage to the base supports so need the strips for repair. I did some add on to the base, new escape route to the building on the other side, door inside. I had to chop the bridge across to the roof because the damn zombies blew through the secure doors i had to that building and got up on the roof., so i had to defend the bridge. So i chopped a block so you have to jump a one block gap, may need to make it 2 blocks, but they got up there and fell through the one block gap to the ground.There'a a platform on the other side of the lower building to get outside the fenced perimeter, if we need to run.Need to pound some stone and load as much iron in the forge as we can for repair and upgrades. I'm gonna wait to build the tower higher until we get some better defense in place. I thinking going higher wont take us out of the zombie sense zone like it does when your underground and move off a bit in the tunnels but i'm gonna build it higher anyway ;) I moved some stuff from the underground base to the tower. We need to find another good sized town, we need the calipers and tool set for the forge and hopefully a mini bike book. I already read the handlebar book so once we can make the frame we should be good or do we need a book for the seat? cant remember. Next time on i will probably go exploring for towns, i cleaned out all the buildings in our town except the safes which we can get once we make wrenches. I left all the cars for salvage once we get mini bike capability. I think i will make a series of walkways and a hollow tower with a ladder down that leads to a tunnel complex, probably before i raise the tower higher.

you guys are so far ahead of me...  I am pathetic..:)

Budd, I logged out and tried to log back in to see if I could get up the ladder.  When I reentered the game, I saw a dog heading for me so I quit out again.  I'll log back in tomorrow and see if I can get up then.

That was a big horde pretty much all zombie types joined the party even feral's. No screamers seen yet though. Another update dropped 14.2 . I think ill move my bag back, they seem to go for where your bag is at. I snuck out and watched they just kept spawning and going for the tower. I cleaned them out , 5 health kits, 1 dose of AB and a couple hundred arrows later, damn dogs. I repaired the damage to the tower base and reorganized the chests. Probably need to stock the underground base better I.e. health and materials to make arrows . Thank god there was health at the underground base. The spitting cops did some damage buts it repaired. Gonna need to metal all that wood so it will stand up better. Ill probably hit the road to look for a town to find calipers, toolkit and schematics.  With current weapons probably better too fight the 7 day horde outside the base fence or hide , but they don't seem to wander off for a long time. Thanks for all the help OJ. O yea one tower base is a ladder short , I have trouble with ladders also, go up and hit the jump button rapidly, keep hitting it till get up. Works in a pinch. Remember the tall building has access from the roof, short jump.

Server updated to 14.2 patch.

I finally got up the ladder.  But later, I was having trouble again.  I ended up putting up another section.  I'll try and to remove it later.

I was able to assemble a rifle.  Not sure if you know how to yet.  It's in the gun box, but we dont' have any bullets for it yet.

I was able to break through the vault door in the bank and into a few of the small lock boxes in side.  Mostly paper and gun parts so far.  I hope to finish cleaning those out tonight.

We really need some food.  I'll try and get back to the camp and see if the crops are in yet.  If you can hunt please do, I'm lousy at it.

FYI, respawn has started for loot.  The junk yards have been good.  And the B&N is restocked.  I didn't get everything out of the B&N as I didn't have room.  Should be back on late tonight. 

Need those calipers :) I'm waiting on any major building until we can defend properly. I'll probably go wandering in the hub city looking for some calipers and for a cliff side for lead deposits. Thinking about upgrading and securing the fenced perimeter to somewhat keep the Z's away from the tower supports. I can make 9 and 10 mm bullets but cant make the casings until we get some calipers and i'm 7 points short of making the 7.62 for the AK ;D I put a workbench down up top not sure what it does but its new.

We need to get a mine going for metal. Are you thinking going through floor of one of the buildings.

I went to hub city but think Mike picked it pretty good, ran into a pack of dogs and got killed. I'm currently way, way, down south holed up in a shotgun messiah. Went all this way and only ran into one town. Marked and left 3 stashes of goods on the way . But I finally got some calipers., ill start working my way back but it took 3 game days to get here. If you want to tunnel pick a spot and go for it. I usually dig until I hit rock and then expand, dirt is quicker to dig thru and it's usually at least 10+ blocks down.

update 14.3 is out, mismatch version until AT updates.

I was just on and didn't have the problem.  However, I think it downloaded while I was playing, so didn't force the update.

Budd, I have a cement mixer up on the roof.  It works great.  I did a little bit of cement work.  Wasn't sure what all  you had plans for, so didn't get too wild, yet.

If you go down below the four towers, I've started to mine down.  There a hatch over it.  A couple of chances in release 14.  Not as much stone produced when mining and not iron ore.  You do get a couple of iron scrap but that's it.  Really need to find some batteries to start building search lights.

Don't worry about my plans, knock yourself out. Tunnel, build, whatever. tunnel down thru the dirt until you hit stone then go horizontal looking for ore veins. No bookstore in this town, i just have the powerplant to loot.....there's working stiff crates in there, then i'll head back with the calipers. Got a half rack of beer and ill cook up some coffee for the run back.

This game is so great even when I'm not playing it. At all.  :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: O0

Quote from: -budd- on April 02, 2016, 08:37:31 PM
update 14.3 is out, mismatch version until AT updates.

Updating now.  So should be good to go shortly. 

BTW, I have to go on a business trip starting tomorrow through Friday.  I should be able to update the server in the evening if necessary.  But I won't be able to get on Steam, so I won't know when I have to do the update.  So drop a note on the forum if update needed.

Thanks AT. 

Budd, I've got a tunnel established.  I'll be working that, making cement and upgrading everything to cement that I can.  BTW, the towers themselves cannot be upgraded.

Oh, if you find any potatoes, bring them back for the garden. 

I've got a couple of friends I'm introducing to the game, using AT's server; Budd and OJD saw one of them on with me last night. They're young and kind of immature, but I've been playing with them on Dawn of War Soulstorm and they can behave when the situation calls for it. Liam did good last night, and I have good hope Sy will, too.

We're somewhat north of the current Buddtower base, in a house of the model of AzTank's original base in the last alpha. No water nearby though, and Liam's already dying of thirst, so we need to find somewhere with water quickly. I plan to go scouting around better while he isn't logged on, since (having died once already) my thirst isn't so bad.

Of course we could hurry down to Buddtower, but right now the zombies aren't throwing ferals at us, and I think the guys will appreciate the game better if they have to work for their (relative) safety. Though no doubt we'll be around to see the awesomeness eventually.  8) (And also there's no telling where Sy will spawn at first.)


Meanwhile, I learned how to finally get rid of those dang potato chips on the floor! -- and without having to dig up the floor block and replace it! (Although that's a viable option, too.) It turns out that the game cannot place anything on the chips, only above the chips. So if you plop a cheap wooden frame there (10 wood), it will hang for a moment, and then collapse into a wood-debris block. Hack that up with whatever to recover most or all of the wood, and voila: THE CHIPS ARE GONE!

Since I have an irrational fear of food on the floor, this is important to me.  :-[ :P :crazy2: :D

JP, to the NW of the Tower of Budd (his name is on the tower) are a number of lakes.  One is very large.  If your on again with Budd or me, we can send you a way point.  I don't remember exactly where you were last night so not sure how close.  Budd and I are in a snow biome, not sure how far north it goes, but you can use the snow for water also. 

True, I totally forgot that! We have a sizable snow biome nearby, maybe two. (Heck, where I spawned, I found the longest, narrowest sliver of biome I've ever seen: a strip of snow in some hilly forest scrubland! It was all kinds of hilarious.)

Patch 4 is out for Alpha 14.  Anyone that updated their client won't be able to connect until AT has a chance to patch the server.  He's traveling this week, so it may be a few days before he gets a chance to do this. 

The tower of budd is not ready for public viewing yet we are in construction phase. There shall be platforms and ramps and wonders as yet unseen, well something along those lines anyway if we can stop getting visits from the hordes. We really need a lead source, didn't get any from that mine. The base held up well on the last hordes, OJ did a good job securing it while I was wandering the country side.

I don't think Jakes pipe bombs did too bad. I think I just need to get better with them.

Wow...

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F7daystodie.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F04%2F7D2D_ConsoleVersions-980x551.jpg&hash=1486d59ce2764326fd3845097ba9a150c49e0a58)

So... either this is a belated April Fool's joke being played by The Fun Pimps, or Telltale Games is bringing an alpha to console for a $30 list price, or the Pimps think the game will be in beta in less than two months and TTG will be bringing a beta to console for a $30 list price, or... wow...



I mean, if this is a prank, someone made a really nice (low budget) fan film for the FPs to use in their marketing. Well done!

If this isn't a prank, I guess I'm glad to see the FPs scoring the indie dev dream. But I can't wait for commentary from various internet reviewers on the propriety of doing it.

Really, this is not an alpha game. I don't know why they call it that unless their plans for the final version are way beyond what I've seen so far. This game is better than a lot of beta games in its current state.

Quote from: bbmike on April 07, 2016, 05:28:45 PM
Really, this is not an alpha game. I don't know why they call it that unless their plans for the final version are way beyond what I've seen so far. This game is better than a lot of beta games in its current state.

What he said^

update 14.5 is out

From the 14.5 post

QuoteAnd for those of you haven't heard the news Telltale Publishing in conjunction with The Fun Pimps are bringing '7 Days to Die' to both consoles!

Sorry guys, left town and forgot my passwords.  Back now, the server is updated to the latest. All tested and ready to go...  Enjoy

Thanks AT.  Hope you had a good trip.

Thank you sir

They're calling it an alpha because they're being honest about (1) still adding new content and (2) still doing a lot of bug hunting, and relying on players to help with that. (Example: the servers are still desynching players from getting into boxes; still desynching the use key; and still generating skyholes in the ground.)

I fully support the team's honesty on that. And no doubt the gameplay at this point, even with the ongoing bugs and still-missing features, rivals many full releases. But I'm trying to figure out how the current situation is going to translate onto PS4 and XBone -- two somewhat different system architectures at that! Will they come with clear markers warning buyers the game is still a late alpha?  ???

What I'm worried about is that the game will be shat upon by console owners who will be getting still a quite buggy and feature-missing game. The FPs don't need an Arkham Knight-ish public relations disaster.

On the other hand, the topic should provide some grist for commentary on the state of the industry. Batman: AK was, after all, essentially released as a late alpha, too; and it seems like an increasing number of AAA games have been pushed out the door recently in less-than-honest states of development. Here's a darling indie game, beloved by many (myself included), who has been honest about its developmental process -- and now, before completion, it's going to console.

Quote from: JasonPratt on April 10, 2016, 10:16:25 AM
They're calling it an alpha because they're being honest about (1) still adding new content and (2) still doing a lot of bug hunting, and relying on players to help with that. (Example: the servers are still desynching players from getting into boxes; still desynching the use key; and still generating skyholes in the ground.)

Its amazing to me to see how not only the industry has changed in the last eight years, but also the expectations of gamers.  I remember when Stardock released Elemental: War of Magic, they were eviscerated by the gaming public over bugs, and clunky gameplay.  Eventually, Stardock fixed everything, and now there is a good solid game there...but Stardock was whipped badly over the release. 

These days Stardock would just call it an alpha, and everyone would be cool with that.

Hey OJ I put all the stuff in the chests. Thanks for upgrading the support posts. I'll mine some more iron and stone for you next time im on. Brass is becoming scarce, radiators are the best source i know of. The forges you put up were going to have to relocate, sorry i wasnt clear but i was talking about putting them where i  mined to the map bottom, you run them where they are and you will get horde after horde. The heat map will go crazy and the spawning will be continues i believe. I think if we put them at the map bottom we can run them all the time, i ran the tunnel out and then deep so it wouldnt be under our base. I made some more guns out of the parts and brought the complete ones below. Tell Jake thanks for the help and still no sniper rifle yet but i did make him a ROCKET LAUNCHER :D and 6 rockets, tell him to go blast a bear or some zombie cops, there's some more parts to make a few more. I'll start on the outer wall soon, going with the cobblestone and iron bar about 4 blocks high with an overhang, i wonder if they will spawn inside the walls again, i'm gonna make another wall around the tower and the 2 buildings down the road and tear the existing walls down for resources.

It used to be that the sleeping bag would prevent zombies from spawning for a certain radius around where it was placed. Believe it was a 30 block radius or so. I just check the 7DTD wiki and it seems this feature has been removed!! That is harsh...but love the way that they keep the wiki up to date, even with minor updates.

I have to drop by and visit your fort one of these days.

Jake will love the rocket launcher.  He plays will it in creative mode. 

To move the forges, we'll have to destroy them and rebuild, as I don't think we can just move them.

I plan on reinforcing the support columns all the way up and the walkways, just wanted to get the first 3 rows first.  BTW, if we have forged steel, we can upgrade at least one more time past concrete.  You have the vision for what you want to do.  I'll let you place the initial defenses, and then I'll upgrade them.  I think we need to get the outer defenses first, then the inner.  Got killed once yesterday while working on upgrades when I got hit with a couple of dogs.  Couldn't get away fast enough.  Died on top of the hatch of the old house. 

Think we need to move all forging operation to the map bottom. We keep running the other ones we'll keep getting hit with hordes and it will slow the build to a crawl. Counted nine hordes yesterday, seems like they go for the heat location of the forges. I'll mine a bunch next time, either at map bottom or over where your bag is so I can get lead too. We get a bunch of forges going at map bottom and just keep them running, see what happens with the hordes.

Wonder if I can tear the cement mixer apart and haul it down to the map bottom.

Next time I'm on I'm moving my bag to where you's is. I don't think there is reason to leave it at the original location any longer.

I sat out the horde at map bottom while mining. I put some chests down at map bottom for the resources. I mined a tunnel all the way out of the frozen area into the tree zone so lead is available, it a long tunnel but once i go out of the frozen zone the ore was abundant. Getting low on food and water. i'll probably hunt some next time and maybe get some snow for water, should probably store some snow down there to refill the jars. No idea if the horde did any damage up top.

Hey OJ, got a  lot done. Ran the forges on the tower and the ones were going to tear down out of stuff making concrete mix, so there is some on the tower and underground. I setup 4 forges at map bottom and started loading them, there's a workbench and campfire too. I mined a lot of ore and put it the chests at map bottom, i made 2000 flagstone blocks to start the wall and i will start making the iron bars for the wall next. I ran the forges and went up top to see about the 7 day horde, even with the 4 forges running underground about 2 blocks away they still came toward me, so i went to map bottom to get out of the hunted zone. a cement mixer will help down there, you cant tear the other one apart. I left feathers and buckshot in the chest where my bag is, were still light on food, i did refresh the water supply with snow. I'll have to glance at the wiki to see what are all the sources of brass, which were running out of. I scrounged up some glass in the bank to make more jars for water, i tried to hunt but the screamer brought a horde on me so never got much but 1 deer. Once i forge the bars i'll put the wall up real fast and add a door to each side for escape purposes.

Sounds good Budd.  I was going to get on last night, but I've been having internet problems, so couldn't.  I'll try again tonight.

Budd, I tried to tear down the cement mixer on the roof.  Ended up destroying it and losing the motor in it.  I used the motor in the box and built a new on at the bottom of the map. 

I made a run to the farm and got a good bit of food.  Also got a deer.  Used it to make some meat stew, that fills you up.  That's all in where our bags are at. 

We may want to think about mining up to your original base, just as an emergency exit. 

I'll probably mine a tunnel out and up from where the long ladder goes down to the map bottom. It would be a long way up from the bottom, no problem if we had an auger but it took a bit of time to get down there, ill mark the original base with a waypoint and aim for that.

There is a new mining skill in A14 that turns you into a human auger if you bump it up to level-3. With a pick axe I can get through pretty much anything with a single swing now.

The mine connected to my bunker complex is insanely big now. I often have a tough time finding my way back out again from mining excursions. wish there was a way to post signs. I have well over 10,000 units of gun powder ready to go. Too bad brass is so hard to come by.

I'm just about at the one swing level but not quite. I've been using my points lately to up my level so i dont need as much food or water or my stamina to run farther. I use torches to mark my way to keep from getting lost, you can make letters now maybe put some on your walls to guide you, don't know if making arrows is an option. I looked at the wiki, looks like radiators are still the best source of brass, there's brass faucets too apparently.

Budd, what all do you wanted upgraded on the defenses.  You said last night not to upgrade the cobblestone walls.  You don't want them upgraded at all, or just not until we get everything else upgraded.  Do we want a trench around the wall with spikes. 

I wasn't impressed with the rocket launcher.  I'll have to load a single player game and have Jake show me how to work it better. 

Hey, AT, I cannot find your server this morning, is it down. 

Server connections may have been broken with the weird global Steam update last night.

Quote from: OJsDad on April 14, 2016, 07:02:41 AM
Hey, AT, I cannot find your server this morning, is it down.

Yes, strangely it is down.  I tried to restart several times this morning... no luck.  Unfortunately, I have to run off to work.  When I come back this evening if I still can restart I will have to get the server provider's tech involved.

Sorry..

No problem AT.  I didn't know if you were aware or not and just wanted to give you a heads up.

Your good AT, it looks like it's back up

The rocket launcher sure did look impressive, maybe there's a skill you can upgrade. It was funny when blasted the zombie cop made a big hole and the zombie gets up and walks out. I was thinking since while were low on brass we can make a shitload of pipe bombs. Plenty of coal and nitrate and we have pipes, can't remember what else is required. I would keep upgrading the supports all the way up, the cobble walls are light on resources and time to repair, just need the cobble rock so its not a priority. Probably gonna build some sniper platforms on the upper corners think those will be high enough so the cops can't puke that high. Not sure about the trenches the zombies end digging toward you might undermine the supports if they dig close to them. I'm thinking rows of  ground level log spikes upgraded, not blocking the doorways. I'm gonna make some ladders to go from second level to the top, probably 2 per side. Next time ill probably go get a bunch of wood and wrench some cars for brass, batteries( for spot lights) and some engines. I will be scraping the stuff inside our walls I.e. cars, wall parts, ect. I still want to build the tower higher also, just because. I thought the base held up well during the feral horde although a couple gliched through the barriers.

I just on for a bit to see what the damage was.  The day was 57.  I know last night we were on day 91/92.  Everything we had built was there, but the day was wrong.

I noticed that there was at least one cobble stone block missing on the north side.  I did repair/upgrade all of the doors.  Next time I'm on, I'm going to place torches outside beside the doors so they're easier to find.

Those candy/mint tins that you find can be used to make mines, so we may want to try that.  We can also use carburators for mines. 

Got some good work at lunch.  About 25% of the supports are fully upgraded.  I went out and tried to do some hunting and didn't see a single thing.  Only saw a few z's. 

I get a plane drop and there were a lot of meds. 

On the roof, in the box by the workbench, there is a spotlight.  I found a battery while I was out.  I'll be back on later tonight.  When I spawn back in, I'll be on the roof. 

One ore thing.  I found a book on chainsaws the other day.  Have we found any parts for one. 

We have a chain for the chainsaw, can't remember what else it needs besides a motor. My plan is too chop a bunch of wood, wrench some cars and hunt. If you have wood you can make some ladders that go up the supports from 2nd level to the third, you'll have to chop an opening at the top. I was going to do 2 per side. Once those are done everything on the platforms, ramps, tower can get upgraded.ill work on another tunnel exit also.

I jumped back for a few to look.  You need handlebars, chainsaw parts, chainsaw chain, and motor.  We have all but the parts. 

Yep, you hold to your plan and I'll work the base.

Found something strange yesterday.  I was scavenging around the backyard of a house.  The yard was surrounded by a sheet metal fence.  I'd been there before, but had returned to see what was new.  I noticed at the back of the yard there as a 3x3 cement area with a piece of sheet metal over the middle square.  I removed the sheet metal and there was a drop down through an air duck.  When Budd got on line, I took him back.  He'd never seen anything like it before.  We removed the metal frame, and dropped down in.

Turns out it was some kind of bunker.  There was a kitchen, bunk room, bath room, store room, and a bunch of control equipment, along with two or three bodies.  We have no idea what it was.  There were stairs that led back up into the house.  The stairs were covered over by 1x4 of sheet metal.

 :o

I jumped on for a few minutes at lunch.

Budd, I made about 10 exploding bolts for my crossbow.  Don't know if I'll be on when the day 7 horde hits, but I'll be interested to see how they do against the cops and ferrals. 

Also, and you guys probably know this, but you can load crushed sand into the forge.  When it loads, it loads a glass.  So running out of glass jars won't be an issue any time soon. 

Before I logged off I cleared the courtyard of all the broken down stuff. I started laying log spikes outside wall. I built one of the platforms for the wall corners but I don't like it so ill tear it down and go with all stone. Ill build one on each corner and put a chest up there with pipe bombs and a rifle with 7.62 for zombie action. Next time ill probably build the corner towers. I want to make about 100 pipe bombs and put 25 per chest once I build the corner towers, I think we have enough rifles to put one per chest and maybe a little med supplies in.each chest. At this point OJ anything that's wood can be upgraded. Probably gonna need more iron, that tunnel at map bottom that goes to the green zone has been ore rich. Don't if you've been down that tunnel but dig at the end where it opens up and you'll be in green zone so should get some iron also.

Sounds like a good plan Budd.  A couple of suggestions though;

If we can get sniper rifles built instead of hunting rifles may be better.  If there are going to be chests up there, I agree with putting some meds.  I would also suggest some water and food.  We have plenty of jars for water, and can make more.  I would probably go with blueberry pies.  They have 10 fullness and I don't think hardly any smell, so should be good for those locations.  If the exploding bolts for the crossbows work as I hope, I'd like to start building a stash of them in each chest also. 

The sniper rifle parts have been hard to come by, we still need the parts for our first one. What about flaming arrows, the exploding ones are resource intensive. We probably should organize our chest better, centralize them in the upper underground except the resources at map bottom.still have a lot in the tower and tower top. Should have enough flag stone to build the corner towers , ill use wood for the roof for a little hornet protection, ill also build them a little jutting out to maybe be able to shoot under the wall overhang. I kept seeing those dog packs go by after you logged out, I putting the log spikes down and I could see them spawn and trot by except for one would always go for the same wall door. I'm going to have to adjust that wall/ door u can't shoot them from inside. It's the wall door on the road side in the middle, you cant see what's at the door, I had to go outside to deal with them. Also I figure we' ll need about 10 spotlights to do it up right.

Yep, I understand about the sniper rifles.

Agree, we need to get the chests organized better.

I don't think you can have flaming bolts for the crossbow, that's why I'm trying the exploding.  If they don't seem to do a lot against the cops, then I'll abandon them.  They use the same about of gunpowder as them as the pipe bombs.  You also need steel arrowheads, duct tape and wood. 

OJ i got everything i think we want moved down below, left some meds, weapons[no ammo], tools in the tower chests. Didnt think we need another dozen guns below. I scraped everything on tower top and built it up a couple levels and hung torches everywhere. Next time i want to finish with the corner towers and get the chests stocked for each tower. I'll start on the new exit tunnel, probably toward the bunker you found after i finish the towers. We still need to upgrade the log spikes and add more layers of spikes outside the walls. The wandering dog hordes started again, just trotted on by. I did refresh our water supply.

I finished the the corner huts. Well after 5 collapses and 3 broken legs i went with a less ambitious plan and threw up some simple towers on the corners. There's chests in each one with food, meds, rifle, ammo and a bow and some arrows and pipe bombs. I finally got a sniper rifle, its in a corner tower. I planted a forest outside the walls, ill keep replanting after harvesting. I'm gonna start the tunnel to the bunker next time. If you want to upgrade the flagstone now i'm done building for a bit. They get through the flagstone pretty quick, its next upgrade is concrete mix. were pretty much out of brass after i made some 7.62 for the corner chests. I still cant use the lower map bottom forges to make bullet tips or casings, no idea why, can only make them at the upper forge.

I was on a little before you last night Budd.  I saw the first two towers.  The chests were locked though. 

I'll keep upgrading everything as quickly as I can. 

Damn i always forget they start locked, sorry about that.

A little tour video of the base OJ and I call home. Its starts in our mine at the bottom of the map. Our base is located in the snow biome which has no lead so had to tunnel to another biome, a long tunnel. We have a forging setup at map bottom for the foraging for all the upgrades to the base. I run through the various escape tunnels and up to the tower top. There was no forest around our base i planted the trees on all 4 sides about 7- 10 game days ago. I just finished a little repair after the 84 day feral horde. the weapon im carrying is the blunderbuss i just made [OJ there's one in the weapons chest for you and ammo in the ammo chest]. Still a lot of upgrading to do and finishing outside the wall defense on the to do list.Its held up really well so far and the last horde was pretty big. If your in the neighborhood stop on by were pretty well stocked up, except for brass.

OJ i did the repair and got another row of log spikes down and upgraded them to metal on 2 sides. I used all the scrap iron so we'll have to mine more.

I put the sniper rifle back in the SW sniper tower.  It worked well yesterday.  I was able to take out a couple of cops.  I took two shots each, but it took them out.  The pipe bombs also worked very well.  They didn't always get kills, but the did take out the legs of some.  I saw a couple of feral z's missing at least one leg.  Dropping them on a group under me worked very well.

I'm traveling this week, so not sure how much I'll be on.  I see you started a garden inside the compound.  I planted a couple of corn and 1 potato.  If they grow, then that will save us from having to travel to the old site. 

 :smitten: :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:

JP, quit gawking and get your butt over to Casa de Budd!!!

Dear Abbey

I'm at a customer site today.  I'm working my way out of the parking garage, and I notice duct work.  My first thought was to wonder how much iron I can get from it.  Do I play 7DtD too much.

Dear OJsDad

Not until you start wondering what you can wrench out of a car.

We could of used the metal OJ ;)  .... I had a little time to jump on...it was day 91 21:00 ...like clock work 22:00 horde starts coming.Loaded up on 7.62 for the sniper some 44 and some pipe bombs and went to work, i fought from the fort this time. I'm pretty sure the horde runs from 22:00 until 11:00 so 12 hours of spawning. They breached the fort by tunneling under the road through the snow, figured that would happen when i put that spike ditch on the other side of the road. There was quite extensive tunneling when i went down there, i walled up what i could, you'll see the new floor by the door in NW corner. I didn't get to repair everything, the door and the log spikes need repair or replacement. Might have to dig up and replace the snow on the ground that runs outside the walls. Going to have to mine next time for iron and cut some of our trees and replant.yesterday i spent the time hunting and picking blueberries, there was plenty of game so were good on meat for a bit, also found a new town i will exploring. I expanded the garden a bit more, any dirt that has green in it wont grow anything, dig it up and place it back down and then plant.

Budd, I was able to get on for a little while today.  I've got all of the spikes upgraded on the west wall.  I've also got all of the ground row blocks upgrades to concrete.  In the North wall chest that you have above ground, there is over 8k iron.  There is also more cement in there.

We got hit with a wondering horde.  I stood on the first walk way and took out several with the blunderbuss.  Very nice.  A couple did manage to get in, though I don't see how. 

It's 1900 on day 102. 

I havent used the blunderbuss on anything yet, saving any heavy guns and ammo and my flaming arrows for the feral hordes. I need to brew up some 44 and 7.62 ammo. I 'll be on later tonight and see if i can find how they got in, sometimes they gliche thru the doors. I made some dynamite and land mines i put them  in the ammo chest. Not sure if i'll bother walling off the garden or not yet, i might just start upgrading everything, starting with the spikes, unless you have plans for the iron. I cleaned the main stores out in that town i found, may go look for another town or go back to that one and wrench the cars for brass, and batteries. I 'm sure you saw the spot lights, what do think of the placement? We can always move them, i wasnt on at night to see how effective they were for lighting the street on those 2 sides.If you have any ideas for expanding the fort go for it i'm feeling a little burned out on building and might start hitting the road to explore the map a little more.

Got on for a bit. Finished upgrading the spikes and upgraded some platforms up top also.Made more cement mix and left some iron in the yard chest. I placed some barb wire in front of the spikes on spot light road as a test case, if you see it get some action let me know how it works. Picked more corn and potatoes and replanted.Made some 7.62 and put it with some dynamite in the sniper rifle chest. Day 105 0800 when i logged off.

Sounds good.  I know what you mean about wanting to get out and explore more.  I did that yesterday day a little.  Went over to the car dealership and did a little looting.

Budd, I didn't stay on much longer.  I did go down to the map bottom forges and got 500 iron strips going in each forge though.

Thank you sir, i'll get started on the rest of the barbwire, then go brass hunting, probably wrench some cars. I looked at the wiki and it seems undamaged cars are most likely to have brass radiators, it also said brass faucets were pretty available but ive only found one. Think our garden is big enough or should i expand it or just expand certain ones.

I'm not sure I see a need to expand the garden any further.

Jake claims that since thearly horde was lite themail next one will be mostly cops and ferrals.

Got on for a couple hours this morning. Finished the barbwire and spiking the trench. Went looking for brass after that, went to the town to the north and hub city and wrenched a bunch of cars. About 600+ brass for now. I'll probably mine for iron next time. Wonder why the corn isnt popping up, i harvested the golden rod and cotton and went back on and it had already regrown. There;s now another sniper rifle in the tower kiddy corner from the other one. I brought all the gunpowder and concrete mix from map bottom to the other forge, looks like were low on stone also. I tried to put another row of spikes in front of the barbwire but it wont allow it. A wandering horde hit the fort, looks like the barbwire is effective, nice row of dead zombies.

(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F20160424083503_1_zpssklnelip.jpg&hash=94a8b603bb8662c58e13e7094e8a336c05727606)

I was having trouble with the corn before also.  I think we may just need to harvest it all and then replant, like with the berries and potatoes

Well i ended up staying on for a couple more hours..where did the time go :) . I used up all the iron, the place 99% metal, the upper deck, the ramps, the house, pretty much everything. So its all pretty much concrete ready, whatever you feel needs it. more ammo in the chest for you about 100 rounds 10mm, 50+ 7.62 and about 70 pipe bombs. If you kill any animals i need the fat to make tallow for my flaming arrows, forgot we were out. I'll probably do another mining run to get some stock of iron and a lot of stone, then pull the corn and replant. I also  repaired the spike trench and put a bit of barbwire in front of the trench spikes, need more to finish.Once that barbwire is up in front of the trench we should get a good idea how good it is.

Day 125 ...massive horde hits. I had just did some hunting and taking care of the garden and was about to log out i go up top to drop some stuff in the yard chest and there was visitors in the courtyard, dogs, cops, monkey boys, hornets, pretty much everything but the big ferals, even 3 zombie bears. They must of spawned inside because i couldnt find a hole anywhere, a monkey boy followed me up to the top. lucky there was guns and ammo in the tower chests because i didnt have my war kit on me. 22:00 it started i cleaned it out about 04:30 , thats the most cops ive seen in awhile counted 10. Along with being inside they hit the south side. I didnt get a chance to repair anything, i just did a quick around the inside before logging off. i had just made 100 9mm rounds, now im out :) I can confirm the cops cant spit to the upper level. I killed them from up top and then finished the rest on the south side through the bars. It was kinda funny i had my back turned because i was into the yard chest and suddenly i'm getting the crap beat out of me. I turn around after the stun wears off and there's a dozen zombies inside the courtyard, i barely made it up to the towers. After the disappointing last hordes, this one was pretty massive but it didnt run until 11:00. Should be a 7 day horde on day 126.

Survives the day 126 horde without so much as a scratch. Dies in the morning tending to the potato patch  :buck2:

here's a view out the portal of my safehouse, situated on the nice side of hub city

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ZcitB_sbqFCaB8_cBbBW2BW8WLseS_Yv-aHAgP2c18jySMpPiV_RSUEwC7KvnaCTT_tbbxZKR4kpKmHSd1BCNJrD4ocOrgS39-_vfFJ6EkMFwyzo53leGsD8W8LGtPUjflDfp_P-0KEnMA-7oGDYe1ae2cYhWpd8BRmCl4ujyZDtP21IcTFrmNaCrj6u1X06QWMI2qmEDkgnDSFNsQS1CNgxxa5vvtawvyojyer8kNPc4f8AZ0eNyJoVg2z1fWUjexPN5WO7B-H7MXSDHWxYJb30qkY9ySTvS2j7hm9w02KkBFy45qGA-U3vv-NIVuPcdipE-zjjoBwk-7mtMvgWILvO-U14A_7lJvP4hpoIHI58BxIltF4LWCxOUtOpcrzcLUrX0xlSkuxkEvTmxZ3nq69tP6qkh_lUpNf5UGhfOqb1maO5_Ut38xGrRmH3CKRrXu7glmqA2tyH7aCNplOR9-yfZY48iad8Z_B-HlwidTcCQSCv4oJi4yS2ifuLMZZgvw6U_Z-cPBUOqvnZFQzebGExuePaphfF68ZalwEYIri2-fYkZ3YZZXnOdpsCgmpXOSPX=w1504-h846-no)

well, maybe a small scratch. I see my health was down to 38. nothing an asprin couldn't fix. Beer for breakfast might not have been the best choice.

How big was the horde, did it spawn until 1100 the next day. Last 2 me and OJ went through were kinda small and ended sooner than expected. The day 125 horde for me was pretty big. Was in hub city a few days ago wrenching cars for brass, nice base setup. You would think the hub city horde would be pretty good.

Difficult to say how big the horde was. I let them fall into my pit mine. 200 blocks deep in places. Spent the night dropping pipe bombs down on them. I had to log off at 4am. I was only gone a few minutes and took the screenshot when I logged back in. Zombies were all gone. Leaving the game causes the horde to go away unfortunately.

AT, when you got time, there was a new patch released today.

Thanks.

OJ i was on this morning. Have about 10000 concrete mix ready for you, in yard chest. I went on a 2 day map trip along the roads, found auger parts[finally] its at map bottom uses a lot of gas and takes 2 repair kits when it breaks, its for speed mining ;) New tunnel to the bunker there's a yard entrance and it connects to a tunnel down below. There's the hatch at the bunker house in the yard as you know and i upgraded the bunker house 2 vault doors and vault hatch inside. So we have three ways out of the tower complex. replanted the garden again, food is not a problem. Picked up a bit of brass when on the  road and loaded the forge. When AT upgrades ill probably hit the road for gas and brass, we should probably start making biofuel to start making gas for the mini's and auger.

Quote from: OJsDad on April 30, 2016, 08:54:23 PM
AT, when you got time, there was a new patch released today.

Thanks.

updated this morning

Thanks AT.  Now I just need to find time to play,

played a little SP to check out the changes. 2 things i learned, those coins you find u can put in the forge as a brass source now and the screamer, get to her quick she screams every 20 seconds and the horde gets bigger.

The 140 day horde hits south side, defenses hold.
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F20160501152901_1_zpsgqs0di8t.jpg&hash=e99dda4b0d752d171cc58445e79d346bea563674)

I was on for a bit at lunch.  I'm not sure the auger is that great.  you go through 200 gas for less than 2000 stone.  Yes, it only takes a couple of minutes, but it seems like a lot of resources to run it.  It also requires 2 repair kits, that it needs pretty often also. 

Also, a wondering horde killed itself on the spikes along the road to the west.

Yea it does chew the gas but i got that tunnel to the bunker done pretty quick. How much more you think we need to finish and some stock for repair. Time to hit the road and be done building and upgrading. I did have a weird urge to tear the whole town down and plant a forest in its place, block by block....but then the urged passed and i came to my senses. I do have a plan for next time we restart. Maybe next time we can play the stock map instead of random gen, theres some things ive seen in the stock map that i have yet to see in random gen.

I don't think much more.  Depends how much we want to upgrade everything to concrete.  Less than half the lower level and most of the upper level. 

I was on a bit last night, and 6 dogs killed themselves on the spikes.  I got the animal fat off of them and used it to make biofuel.  Then converted it to fuel.  Also wrenched a couple of cars by the campers site to the south west of the fort.  Build up the fuel stocks to a few barrels and that should help put a dent in the stone we need.

I also hit the bank again yesterday day, got more coins that I loaded into the forge.

Budd, looks like I signed on not too long after you had been on.  I was thinking we were past a 7 day but we weren't.  I had the forge going under the tower making cement when the horde hit the SE corner.  I don't think they got in, but they did some damage.  I was busy upgrading the top floor when they hit was about to sign off, so I didn't have time to inspect the damage or repair, so you will want to check it.  I won't be able to get on tomorrow most likely.

Didn't get much time this weekend but popped on a couple times. I'll check when I get on. We needed more rock so I made 2 new tunnels to the other dumpsters and planted some trees around them. I did lose a mini when I fell thru the map a few days ago, I came out of it but not on the mini anymore, I had an FPS drop prior to losing the mini I also noticed a  FPS drop with horde activity.

Hi guys,

The wife is on me about the server subscription cost...  So to maintain domestic tranquility, sadly will only do one more month.  But should be good until mid-June.

Understand that reason ;D ... if you don't mind me asking what does it cost per month? I'd like to contribute, should of offered a awhile ago. Either way I appreciate it, thank you.

Quote from: -budd- on May 15, 2016, 12:14:55 PM
Understand that reason ;D ... if you don't mind me asking what does it cost per month? I'd like to contribute, should of offered a awhile ago. Either way I appreciate it, thank you.

Hi budd, I just checked the server page, and we actually have some options.  It is with Gameservers.com   Server cost is $12.33 / month.  There is an option to set up "clan pay".  Also I can add alternate server admins.  Happy to do that, if there is interest.

Sir i'd be interested in keeping it going.  I could paypal to you[if you use it] or what ever you suggest.

AT, sorry, I never looked into what was needed to host a server, and just figured you were lucky enough to have one at home that you were using.

I'm willing to help with the cost also. 

No problem, I'll get it set up.  Actually, you just pay direct to Gameservers, no need for me to be in the middle.

count me in too.

how does it work AT?

Hey, I'm willing to pay for a few months, even though I'm not even playing it right now, just out of gratitude for a month or however when I was playing it!  :smitten:

Hey guys.  Here is the "clan pay" link.  It goes directly to the server provider, not to me...:)

http://www.gameservers.com/clanpay/?clanid=d7fad245b12b629fd89fe1e208312a84

If any of you want to be server administrator (ie. shut down, install updates, reset the world, zombies running etc.), get a gameservers.com userid, and PM me with it.   

payed for 2 months via paypal. I'm guessing only administrators can see how many months are payed for. I dont know how everybody else feels but id like to play on the stock map at the next reset. I been playing stock in SP and there's POI's in SP i havent seen in MP.

I also added two months to the pot.

Don't mind trying the Navezgane map next time around. I am still interested in having the Zed's run at nite.

Ready for a reset any time now too.

OK, I will reset to stock map on Monday, unless someone wants me to keep the current map.

I'm good about a reset. Don't think ill go for as big a build the next time. I'm also fine if they run at night if thats how people want to roll. I am thinking about building on the water this next time, theres a fishing platform in the stock map thats out on the water, if its not to deep might build, expand there. AWW i am gonna miss the complex though, never would of got as far along without OJ's help. Any info on the next big update, hate to start if there's a map wipe coming soon.

Hey, I'll need to create a PayPal account, then I can help support the server.

There is a posting on the 7daystodie web site about Alpha 15, but I don't know if there is a release target date yet.

I'm fine with a server reset.  Whatever setting are fine with me.

My only thought is this.  If we're separate, then the 7 day horde only hits one person.  I'm wondering if we would get bigger meaner hordes if we based together.

Budd, I liked the fort we have now, but I wouldn't put the second floor on the outer wall, not sure it was beneficial, but required a lot of resources to build. 

I hear ya OJ, my thought was high enough to shoot them but not have the cops spit reach you. I'm thinking water platform this time, unless you have any idea you want to do. I'll be happy to help you with any build plans.

I'll leave the architect work to you Budd.

Did you notice on the current fort that I placed some fire pits up on the top platform.  I was going to try and light them sometime to see if that would help attract more Z's. 

any idea how the zeds will react to a water fort? I don't imagine the water will keep them at bay...and expect they are a bitch to shoot when submerged. It sounds like there must be some up side to it though.

Kinda wondering myself what they'll do. In SP didnt see any get on the land part. In SP there's a fishing shack of sorts out on the water on block legs might go looking for that next time.

could be a long swim to shore if things go pear shaped come horde night  >:D

If you guys are interested, there is a map on the website with the current stock map.  I won't say anymore until I know if you want to look at it or not.

If you just post the URL OJ everyone can decide for them themselves

https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/7daystodie.gamepedia.com/f/f7/7_Days_to_Die_Alpha_14.3_Map.jpg

There you go.  I figure it's not a major issue as some or all of us also have SP games going also using the stock map.

OK guys, reset to the stock map.  Enjoy.  Zombies run at night.

Woo hoo. Thanks AT.

Gonna have to wait until the weekend to get started.

Thanks AT, like wise i wont get time until the weekend...hopefully.

Thanks guys.

I logged in and I'm located at 212S 1655W.  I'm just into a burned zone, but I've already found a decent house to hold up in.  It's day 3 13:40.

I was on for a bit earlier in the day. Had a hell of a time too. Died on day two of all things. A dog got me. A pair of dogz were waiting for me at my backpack...died again. Also died on the second nite from a massive horde that bashed its way through two walls. I escaped out a window and ran for 50 mins thanks two a couple of beers. The dogz never gave up and got me eventually. Seems to me they got a bit faster recently. It used to be that you could run backwards and stay out of reach. Not any more.

Be careful of what you ask for with difficulty settings.

I usually play on 'nomad' which is the easiest level with run at night, walk during day. In SP I probably average 30-40 days between deaths.

then again, this is also my first time playing on the stock map.

Do you know where, on the map, your at.

I'm in Diersville. That's where I've been running into trouble. Dogz arrive at most encounters it seems.

I've move my base.  I found a house like the one I was in, except it's mostly made of stone.  It wasn't far from where I first based at, so I was able to move everything there quickly.  And the bonus is that there's a forge there.  It's also by a river and just outside of the burn zone.

Your dogz have gotten me twice Rekim.  I also died once the first night from dehydration.  I also just died when I swam out to what I think is an island and two zeds got me there. 

New base is at 97S 1435W

I probably wont be around until sunday, i'll look you up OJ. I'll be looking for the lake with the fish shack or what ever that is out in the water on stilts.

Let me know if you want me to lower the difficulty setting.  It is independent of the running switch on the server.  I was on a bit as well.  Found a store...but couldn't get in because it was swarming with lumberjacks.

I was holed up in the upper floor of my house last night, and I dang bear broke in.  Ended up dead once, then hid in the bathroom until day light when I could move around outside more freely.  Finally managed to get the bear away.  Turned out there were two of them. 

Just got through the day 7 horde, and I didn't die!  Man, they broke in quickly though.  And, they were crazy fast, even after they got in.  Budd, you're not going to be running around outside very much on day 7 :)

Quote from: ArizonaTank on May 28, 2016, 08:52:44 AM
Let me know if you want me to lower the difficulty setting.  It is independent of the running switch on the server. 

I'm liking it.  The Z's are faster but not running on the higher setting.  Loot is also harder to come by at times.  The 7 day horde that hit had almost no loot. 

Quote from: OJsDad on May 28, 2016, 05:14:56 PM
Just got through the day 7 horde, and I didn't die!  Man, they broke in quickly though.  And, they were crazy fast, even after they got in.  Budd, you're not going to be running around outside very much on day 7 :)

Depends on what weapons im packing :D ....beer and coffee are premium items. I cant help but wander, i just cant hole up every night.

Budd, I got one load moved to the new temp base.  I'm at the old temp base, loaded and ready to go.  Just waiting for day light.  I'll be back on later tonight. 

I got everything moved from the old temp base to the new one.  The only thing I left behind was a cooking pot in the campfire and our sleeping bags.  I made myself a new one and placed it upstairs.  I made one for you and placed it in the fridge.  Foods in the frig and meds in the beer cooler.  Nothing else is really sorted.  If you want to start prepping the wharf, I'm gong to setup some defenses around the new temp base. 

Stayed on for the 14 day horde. The place held up OK, they hit the west side . That walkway from the balcony we'll have to get it one block short, i left a frame on the end.We'll pick it up on horde day. The dogs and crawlers went up the rock and onto the balcony and breached the house. I died once, damn hornets, they seem way more aggressive, dive bombing constantly. There are two walkways out now and i replaced most of the spikes the horde took out. I'll start working on the wharf next time on.

found a new place to base. Waypoint on map check it out and tell me what you think, minimal construction to be secure ;) . Got a forge and campfire up and couple chests, there's food/water there. It's not far from temp base.

I'll check it out.  May be awhile today as we have a couple of graduation parties to attend.

Keep in mind that, unless they've changed something in the code, sharing waypoints on the map only works for whoever is in the same game with you at the time. If you're alone it's useless, or used to be. You'll have to manually share the waypoint when someone else is on -- and they have to import the waypoint manually into their permanent list or it'll be lost when they log out and you'll have to share it again!

Hey OJ i finished the tunnels to the islands but havent tunneled to the surface yet. I cleaned up the tunnels and lit them up. 2 tunnels left, connect the islands and one or maybe two to the mainland. Then i start my walkways. I finished the platforms around the base and there are now ladders to get up from the water on all sides. I'll connect the one tunnel to the mine on the small island. I started reinforcing the bottom 3 blocks on the stilt legs, figure thats all the zombies can reach. whoever gets on next it was 21:00 on day 28, an hour to the horde.

Hey OJ, tunnels complete with access to the surface. Finished one of the walkways toward big island. I upgraded at least 3 blocks high on the walkway supports and also about half of the skinny house supports, still need the other house supports upgraded. I only drowned twice. Have 2 more tunnels and one more walkway planned. Tunnel to connect the islands and one to the mainland and last walkway to the small island. Mike was on last night and he got hit with the horde, glad because the supports weren't all upgraded yet. Probably should keep extra of everything by tunnel ladders in case the zombies bring the base down into the water. I'll take a break from building and go wander looking for calipers and schematics, still cant build a crossbow. I left all the guns and bullets in the chest up top,3 pistols, 1 rifle, cant repair yet so I only use rifle for hunting and pistol for dogs at night when wandering.

Sitting at midway airport waiting for my connecting flight. Cannot wait to get home and check everything out.  I also want to get to mainland and start exploring.

I'll probably see if I can survive an over night trip in the city, ill head for 0,0, We need a bookstore and calipers. Wanna take a break from digging and upgrading. I cleaned out the small town ( 4 buildings)due east. I used most of the med kits while deep diving to upgrade the supports, so ill be looking for crates. There's ladders to get up on walkway, about 4 blocks from edge both sides. As long as the supports hold horde can't get to us, well maybe the hornets who are a lot more lethal now. Invited Mike to base in our area, kinda share the horde thing, don't think he's done any major building yet.

Good luck with sleep over in town Budd. I received all sorts of attention from the locals for the couple of nights I spent in town. They were at me all night long. Tons of dogz and spiders in the mix too. And that was on day 2 & 3. I decided it was time to move on when a dog somehow got me on the roof of the hospital near the end of night 3. I died twice more attempting to get the hell out of dodge. I found that it is no longer possible to outrun the dogs with the current setting, making it very tough in urban setting where there are lots of them around.

I'm working through the weekend so won't be able to partake until Monday...which is also HOI4 day...so not sure. In the mean time, kill some zombie dogs for me...

Hit 2 cities, died twice without any real gain[damn dogs] spent most of the time running away and into zombies.. Last time i had time to move everything to my backpack so i didnt have to run back. Not a good time to hit a city with no bandages or medkits, i'll have to plan better. I'm looking for a bookstore and calipers, i believe there is a bookstore in the last city i died in, will have to go back when better prepared.I can outrun the dogs and bears it seems, i've been upping my stamina with my points and my melee.The dogs are just too quiet, you dont know whats, what until there on you and your bleeding. I did find a sniper rifle in a shotgun messiah i managed to loot, i think its the city by you. i'll go back when i have some medkits, ill make some bandages. I'll circle and pick off what i can from the hills surrounding the town with the sniper rifle.

I was reading the dev blog, roving bandits in Alpha 15 that should be cool, up the danger level a bit.

ref speed of dogz; I find that they are the same speed as me when running forward, but cut corners and are do not slow down when going up hill, so often they will catch me. They are definitely faster when I'm running backwards. My usual tactic with dogz is to run backwards and shoot them till they drop. Now this tactic only works if I'm lucky enough to hit them with the first shot. Sometimes not enough time even for that.

I hope this games stays in alpha for a very long time. They keep adding such cool stuff.

Quote from: Rekim on June 03, 2016, 11:59:08 PM
I hope this games stays in alpha for a very long time. They keep adding such cool stuff.

I am wondering how the console port will affect the timeline. There is so much they can add, its grown by leaps and bounds. An alpha...my most played game...go figure :)

Well i am currently holed up in Perishtown .....hahahah...funny. It's a good sized town/city. Going on day 2 in town, decided to drop my bag and have committed to looting this berg. Being a little more careful and thoughtful in my approach, circle town, pick off any out lying zombies. I'm in probably the most secure place in town.....bank vault ;D ... slapped a door on the vault and we got a nice hidey hole. I'll centralize the loot here in the vault. I've seen a shamway and a powerstation, the powerstation is next on the loot list. I've got to be out of this place by day 42, the bank wont keep the horde out being mostly glass walls and all. Got to be a bookstore in town somewhere, i hope, hoping for the full meal deal a shotgun messiah and working stiff tool shop. So I'm sitting in my vault sucking on yucca fruit waiting for the night to pass. Nice that its by the desert, all the yucca i can eat....man its dark.

Hi Guys.  Going out of town on a business trip next week.  If one of you wants admin rights to manage updates, get an account with gameservers.com then IM me.

Happy hunting...

just jumped on and it seems its back to day 1, the map didnt reset just the days it seems.

I haven't been on all week.  But that was an issue I saw a couple of times the last game we had going.

Mike and I were on (he was still on when I left).  I made up some more cement, shotgun shells (yes, I can make them now), did some mining, and cooked up some food.  Also made a bunch of wood frames and placed them in the walkway chest, since you said you were maybe going to extend the walkway some more. 

I won't get much time until probably the weekend. Think I've looted most of the map, except individual houses and half of the western town. I've hit all 4 borders of the map that touch the radioactive zone. Where's Mike holed up? Came across some partial builds in a couple of spots. The stock map is small, I'm about ready for a map reset. I have an idea for the next base, I'd like to make it in the western town, although I've never seen one in random. Think I'd like AT to bump up zombie activity settings next time if everyone is OK with it. I ran into a horde of all lumberjack in the snow biome, first time I've seen that. A couple more trips and the map will be explored out for me, ill go back to building.

I started moving towards your hideout on the lake. I setup a temp shelter on the roof of the book store, which is what I expect you found budd. While playing over the weekend I also noticed that the map seems to be well looted at this point. The stock map does seem rather small compared to random gen. I'd be happy for a restart with a random map as well.

Next time I will try to do better about getting setup in the same vicinity as you guys. In our current game I got distracted with just trying to survive. Don't know why the zeds turned came out so mean this time around.

Anybody take AT up on being an admin? I've about given up on the search for calipers, the wiki says there only in working stiff crates. I'm still holding out hope for a pair in the supply drops crates. Come on down to the island base we got everything but calipers, there'a also a house nearby with a lot of stakes we based in at first. There's a couple of mini's on the dock and about 40 barrels of oil for gas if you want to travel. I'm also looking for some more pieces to the radioactive suit so i can venture into the radioactive zone.

I did not.  I'm open to resetting the server whenever you guys are. 

I didn't either.

I setup in a Working Stiffs store with the hope of one day finding some calipers. The navezgane map is obviously too small if we managed to scavenge the entire map without finding a single set.

Didn't the major upgrade set up new character xp choices which allow making various items previously unmakable? -- maybe also requiring a book, not sure, but my impression was that in some cases a book was no longer required, just a choice on spending the xp. (The book now being another route.)

Also, I was hoping that building the radiation suit was the effective endgame -- you win if you survive and thrive long enough to build the suit and leave the area.

Yes Jason. Build 14 added new skills which replace the need for finding some books. Concrete and steal are a couple. Calipers and crossbows, are not on the list.

Quote from: ArizonaTank on June 08, 2016, 11:31:27 PM
Hi Guys.  Going out of town on a business trip next week.  If one of you wants admin rights to manage updates, get an account with gameservers.com then IM me.

Happy hunting...

AT, I'm looking at the gameservers.com web site, but I don't see how to create and account without ordering a server. 

i had to open an account to pay for a couple months so its possible.

I see the server is back to day 1 at 07:00. Still Navezgane map, so probably happened on its own again.

Hi Guys, I'm back. 

Let me know if you want me to do anything to the server.  Go back to random map?  Make zombies harder?

Hi AT
What settings are there to make it harder? Is it like single player increasing the volume of zombies. Either way my vote is for yes increasing volume and going back to random, the stock map is way small. There still is some FPS drops with large hordes sporadically though.
Thank you sir.

Quote from: -budd- on June 17, 2016, 06:18:10 PM
Hi AT
What settings are there to make it harder? Is it like single player increasing the volume of zombies. Either way my vote is for yes increasing volume and going back to random, the stock map is way small. There still is some FPS drops with large hordes sporadically though.
Thank you sir.

Here is the config file (blanked some of the password info).  It is pretty easy to tweak.  Just need to stop the server, then make the changes to the config file.  Gameservers.com has a nice utility to let you do that easily.  For the FPS problem, I can drop the max number of zombies.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<ServerSettings>
  <property name="ServerPort"                           value="25000"/>                         <!-- Port you want the server to listen on. -->
  <property name="ServerIsPublic"                       value="true"/>                          <!-- Should this server register to master server -->
  <property name="ServerName"                           value="Unofficial Grog Invitational"/>          <!-- Whatever you want the name to be. -->
  <property name="ServerPassword"                       value=>                                      <!-- Password to gain entry to the server -->
  <property name="ServerMaxPlayerCount"         value="8"/>                                     <!-- Maximum Concurrent Players -->
  <property name="ServerDescription"            value="All grogs welcome"/> <!-- Whatever you want the description to be. -->
  <property name="ServerWebsiteURL"             value=""/>                                      <!-- Website URL for the server -->
 
  <property name="GameWorld"                            value="Navezgane"/>                     <!-- Navezgane, MP Wasteland Horde, MP Wasteland Skirmish, MP Wasteland War, Random Gen -->
  <property name="GameName"                             value=/>                       <!-- Whatever you want the game name to be THIS CONTROLS THE RANDOM GENERATION SEED -->
  <property name="GameDifficulty"                       value="3"/>                             <!-- 0 - 4, 0=easiest, 4=hardest -->
  <property name="GameMode"                                     value="GameModeSurvivalMP"/>    <!-- GameModeSurvivalMP, GameModeSurvivalSP (MP has land protection) -->
 
  <property name="ZombiesRun"                           value="0" />                            <!-- 0 = default day/night walk/run, 1 = never run, 2 = always run -->
  <property name="BuildCreate"                          value="false" />                                <!-- cheat mode on/off -->
  <property name="DayNightLength"                       value="70" />                           <!-- 40 minutes -->
  <property name="DayLightLength"         value="18" />            <!-- in game hours the sun shines per day: 18 hours day light per day-->
  <property name="FriendlyFire"                         value="false" />                        <!-- Can friendly players damage each other (PvP) -->
  <property name="PersistentPlayerProfiles"     value="false" />                        <!-- If disabled a player can join with any selected profile. If true they will join with the last profile they joined with -->
 
  <property name="PlayerSafeZoneLevel"      value="12" />                                <!-- If a player is less or equal this level he will create a safe zone (no enemies) when spawned -->
  <property name="PlayerSafeZoneHours"      value="12" />                                <!-- Hours in world time this safe zone exists -->
    <property name="AdminFileName"                        value=/>       <!-- Server admin file name -->
 
  <property name="DropOnDeath"                          value="1" />                            <!-- 0 = everything, 1 = toolbelt only, 2 = backpack only, 3 = delete all -->
  <property name="DropOnQuit"                           value="0" />                            <!-- 0 = nothing, 1 = everything, 2 = toolbelt only, 3 = backpack only -->
  <property name="EnemySenseMemory"                     value="50" />                           <!-- Time, in seconds, that a zombie will pursue something that has been sensed. -->
  <property name="EnemySpawnMode"                       value="3" />                            <!-- 0 = Disabled 0%, 1 = Very Low 50%, 2 = Low 75%, 3 = Medium 100%, 4 = High 125%, 5 = Very High 150% -->
  <property name="EnemyDifficulty"                      value="0" />                            <!-- 0 = Normal, 1 = Feral -->

  <property name="BlockDurabilityModifier"      value="100" />                          <!-- percentage in whole numbers -->
 
  <property name="LootAbundance"                        value="110" />                          <!-- percentage in whole numbers -->
  <property name="LootRespawnDays"                      value="30" />                            <!-- days in whole numbers -->
 
  <property name="LandClaimSize"                                                value="7"/>             <!-- Size in blocks that is protected by a keystone -->
  <property name="LandClaimDeadZone"                                    value="30"/>    <!-- Keystones must be this many blocks apart (unless you are friends with the other player) -->
  <property name="LandClaimExpiryTime"                                  value="7"/>             <!-- The number of days a player can be offline before their claims expire and are no longer protected -->
  <property name="LandClaimDecayMode"                                   value="2"/>             <!-- Controls how offline players land claims decay. All claims have full protection for the first 24hrs. 0=Linear, 1=Exponential, 2=Full protection until claim is expired. -->
  <property name="LandClaimOnlineDurabilityModifier"    value="4"/>             <!-- How much protected claim area block hardness is increased when a player is online. 0 means infinite (no damage will ever be taken). Default is 32x -->
  <property name="LandClaimOfflineDurabilityModifier"   value="4"/>             <!-- How much protected claim area block hardness is increased when a player is offline. 0 means infinite (no damage will ever be taken). Default is 32x -->
  <property name="AirDropFrequency"                                             value="24"/>    <!-- How often airdrop occur in game-hours, 0 == never -->
 
  <property name="MaxSpawnedZombies"                                    value="80"/>    <!-- Making this number too large (more than about 80) may cause servers to run at poor framerates which will effect lag and play quality for clients. -->

 I'm for bumping up the spawn mode to 4=125% and increasing the sense memory to 60 and leaving the max spawn at 80. I'm ready to roll with the map reset any time everyone else is.

Go for it!

anyone know if you can turn off the tutorial stuff?

I do not.

I'm ready for the reset.

Won't be able to join in on the festivities for a couple more days. Zeds better watch out next weekend when my summer vacation starts though  :knuppel2:

Quote from: -budd- on June 18, 2016, 04:06:05 PM
I'm for bumping up the spawn mode to 4=125% and increasing the sense memory to 60 and leaving the max spawn at 80. I'm ready to roll with the map reset any time everyone else is.

Server reset...happy hunting everyone....

thanks AT O0

Temp base up, damn forgot to write the coordinates. Hub city at 0.0 base is north west of hub about 10:00, it's in the snow biome but right on the edge of the wastelands, on a hill. It's about a beer from the hub city. Well lit, but I planted trees around the base.

I found what looks like a prison on the good side of the dead zone border.  Never seen that construct before.  Ready made for defense.  Thick walls, guard towers.  But no water nearby as far as I can tell.  As a matter of fact, having trouble finding water in general...

Quote from: ArizonaTank on June 20, 2016, 08:54:59 AM
I found what looks like a prison on the good side of the dead zone border.  Never seen that construct before.  Ready made for defense.  Thick walls, guard towers.  But no water nearby as far as I can tell.  As a matter of fact, having trouble finding water in general...

Nice, never seen that before either. where's it at, using the hub as reference. OJ and I arent far from the hub in the snow biome, so water's no problem, there's a crap load of lakes close by also. There's 5 different biome close by. I'm currently on walk about holing up quite a ways north west from our base in the desert, im looking for the western town to base in. Nothing like being on walk about and dying and having to go all the way back for your backpack :tickedoff: .... i drop a bag at suitable locations along the way, well if i remember too.

server updated

Thanks AT, Dont know if i found your walled military camp, its on the edge of the wastelands. Didn't see that anyone cut there way in and nothing was searched so i dont know if its the same one. If it is you'll be able to tell i replaced the fence with walls and a door. I dropped my bag in the watchtower, didnt get any time to fortify much. if its the same one there's water just south a big pond.

Budd's going to have the whole map explored before I get back home!

Got to have the calipers :D .... Went through the desert i found no western town. It was a damn tragedy, i had a chest and my bag up in the watch tower and i was reinforcing it and guess what..........collapse... guess it couldnt handle the weight of a metal upgrade, lesson learned....sh*t, wouldnt have been so bad if the chest didnt have everything from the fort in it...damn.... 80 rounds of 7.62, 40 rounds of 10mm, shotugn and 20 shells, and assorted stuff i collected in my travels, all gone. I'll probably leave a bag there as a jumping off point to keep wandering the map. They need to add more POI's, there wasnt squat in the desert just some single houses and one 3 building junction, still havent seen a book store anywhere. Have seen wandering packs of dogs, managed to hide, crossbow aint gonna do it against a pack, lucky i saw them coming.

Well made it to 10000N by 3500E, 10000 in any direction is the radioactive zone.I'm currently 8600N 6200W, im heading for 10000W. I left drops along the way, some better than others. I don't know if we have a bad map seed or what but i've only come across 1 good sized town and a city thats looks like the same size as hub, just left that, it was too hot. Luckily i had a 9mm and some rounds for the dogs as it had been awhile since i dropped a bag. didn't get to map it out before i had to bail but did see 2 book stores and a shotgun messiah, probably a working stiff there too but i didnt see it. I would of risked it for a working stiff  and a chance at calipers, no toolsets yet either. My crossbow broke awhile ago, i'm down to a bow and few rounds for the 9. Forgot iron strips so couldnt repair the crossbow, remembered steel for looting tool repair though.Left the crossbow at a drop with about 90 bolts.Still have some beers for running.

When I logged on for the first time Monday night it was 21:45h on day 14. Just in time for a blood moon. Lol.  Fortunately, I was spared from suffering a horde in the opening minutes. Was expecting the worst. Still, it was a very long night with nothing more than a can of chilly to protect myself with. Shortly after first light I met my first zombie dog of the campaign...no need explaining how that worked out : )

I spent my first few days up in the north east corner of the map, which appears to be big lake country. Not many POIs up that way. I found three stores at a crossroads near by which had been sacked. Have been camping out in a cave that I've been mining. There is another cave nearby that is loaded with ore that I may not be able to resist. Once I have a good quantity of cement ready I plan to strike off towards hub city and start building a looting base. May be influenced by where others decide to setup camp.

we have a temp start base, meaning reinforced, with lots of spikes and tunnels[no outlet yet], and platforms around the house. you could setup there. Snow biome on edge of wasteland, hub city is close by. From 0,0 were about 10:00 if you reach the edge between wasteland and snow biome and follow it you should find it, its well lit on a hill, but i planted trees for wood all around it. I'm up north bunked in a town that is split between green zone and radioactive zone. I'll share the waypoints next time i see you on. Still no calipers or toolset, ive left stashes all over up here and marked them. This map seems to be short of POI's , so far 2 towns, 1 city and that walled miiltary camp. Wonder if that camp is the one AT found.

is the walled military camp of the variety with sandbags and mines, or something new?

It sounds like the southern half of the map is unexplored. Maybe more towns and the like down there. Or have you visited the lower half too Budd?

Not sure when we'll link up. I hope to scope out hub city when I head in your direction to see if there are any choice spots to setup in like the last time I camped out in the city. Not a single Zed ever breached my bunker that I build into that wall of stone. Don't expect I could get that lucky again...but you never know.

Haven't been much south of hub. Seems like I was wrong about the map edge it's not always at 10000, I'm currently at the edge at 8600W.
The military camp has walls and guard towers and barbwire on the walls.

Oh Budd.  I was out scouting around and searched a tree trunk.  Found 62 bullet tips.  Their in the chest with the 110 casings in there :)

I found a crate and got a sniper rifle and 5 rounds of 7.76.

I also found a good vein of coal and iron in the tunnel you had started.  So I've got the first floor walls upgraded.

The garden is going good.  Really need some corn seed though.

Dropped about 100 or so corn in one of my drops in my travels, but damn if i can remember which one. Planned to go back with a mini, but haven't found the mini book yet. Maybe i should risk that city with 2 bookstores, man was that place busy with dogs and hornets and cops and me with a bow and a club.

We need to get back online at the same time.  There is a shotgun and a few shells at the temp base that may help getting in and out of the city.

The military base you found, would that make a better base then where we have one now.

depends on what you want to do build wise, it has concrete walls all around, water close by north and south and good hunting and a couple of guard towers. It's also on the edge of the wastelands. I did a hasty fortify replacing the chain link entry  fences with walls and a door. Next time i see you on i'll share all my waypoints. There's no loot as i looted and then the roof of the guard tower came down and destroyed the chest losing everything. I still wonder if it the one AT found or are there more than one. I had about 100+ mines too from 2 military camps, cant remember if i still have those one me or lost them in the collapse.

Well i was on with OJ day 28, got my ass kicked by the horde. I was holed up in another walled camp on the edge of the radioactive zone, in fact a corner of the fort was in the radioactive zone and off limits. Well it was close to horde time and didn't have anywhere else to hole up. I managed to get down 2 rows of spikes and some ladders over the walls just in case, yea, that didnt work out to well. The spider monkey zombie punks pretty much climbed right over the walls and barb wire on top, which i could deal with and then the hornets came, still doing alright with my bow and 40 rounds of 9mm. Then the 9mm ran out. once the bodies started pilling up outside the walls of course the rest of the gang could get over, cops, ferals, ect. Counted 3 feral and i dont know how many cops as i was running around inside with my spiked club trying to stay alive, yea that didnt work out to well. Those spider zombies climbed right up on the roof of the house i was trying to survive on, ran to the guard tower with all manner of zombies chasing me and the ferals climbed the ladder, perhaps i should of taken the bottom rung out. That plan was fubar, i could of just tunneled but sitting it out underground gets old. I thought i was doing alright till about just after 2400, once the bodies piled up and spikes were gone, along with the 9mm and the whole gang was getting over the walls that little voice in my head "budd your Fuc*ing dead" and i was......repeatedly.

 ;D

Budd and I were on at the same time debating who was going to get hit with the day 7 horde.  A few seconds after 2200 he's says 'Yep'.  I zoomed the map in a close as I could on him, and watched him running in circles. 

That's some funny stuff alright. Too bad there isn't a convenient way of sharing our death vids.

Last time I was on I made a trek down to hub city. There was an air drop just as I got there, which I found. As I returned to outskirts of town I stopped to read the flaming arrow book I'd just retrieved from the crate. Just as I started reading it I hear the Grrr of a bear at my 6. Next thing I know the bear is snacking on my corpse.

A thought occurred to me as the horde was smacking me around. What I want to do is build a spike pit, I don't know maybe 5 ,6 blocks deep. Then build walls funnel shaped, then build maybe a 3 block long walkway with a ramp on the end, lead the horde on a mini and jump the gap, the bastards fall into the pit. I think it could work. I call it my Evel Knievel plan. O0

that's kinda what I do to protect my underground hideouts. I have a one block wide tunnel going in (must be rock) and create a one block wide trapdoor in the middle of it. I make the shaft 5-10 blocks deep and empty into a room of at least 5x5 (or more) full of wood spikes upgraded to the max. Zed's can't make it across the 1 block gap, and never come out of the pit. The tunnel leads to my safe room. I usually have an escape route out the back with the same defense build into it. Once setup like this the only worry is them coming in from the top.

I got totally rocked on the day 35 horde.  I think I died 6 times.  The first time I took one too many steps to the roofs edge and fell.  Right into the middle of multiple ferrals.  There must have been over a dozen ferrals and just as many cops.  They actually burrowed down and got under the house and into the mines.  I'm reworking the Northern defenses and will probably do the same on the other three sides.

I would like if Mike or Budd can find a good place to base close to or in Hub city.  Day 7 hordes would rock with 3 of us there.  Not to mention all of the fun of having the city hordes around.

I found another hub type city up north. We could base and clean out the one by you guys than move up north and pillage that one. We need some calipers and a mini book. Maybe you guys will have some luck in the hub bookstore and working stiff's, god knows i havent had much luck. I'm coming back for some new looting tools mine are wore out and its taking way more hits to crack stuff. I have a 100+ bullets tips, but all the brass is scattered in my drops all over the place, there all marked though if i could just get a mini book to build a bike i could get all that stuff quickly.

Well OJ bad news.....i made it back to base by night and the roof had collapsed. All but one of the chests got destroyed, the only one left is the resource chest with all the stuff you mined. I laid down a couple more chests and left you some schematics. No food, no water, i dont remember what was in the chests but its gone. I put a little food and water in there. Mike and I made a run to the hub looted 3 places, picked up a tool set[in the forge] and not much else exciting. I;ll repair a bit and then head south to explore, need those calipers and a perm base.

WOW.  How did the roof collapse.  There was no damage there.

So lost all of the food and meds in a chest nest to the mined items.  Weapons and tools chest, clothes chest, weapon parts chest, and a chest with items like batteries, tires, motor, etc.   

Wow.

you guys are welcome to camp out at my underground dwelling. Unfortunately you wont see a marker on the map for it unless I'm online, however, if you stay on the road heading NE from the four buildings at the crossroads West of your camp it is easy to find as I have a three woodframe tower with torches marking it at the side of the road (~2Km). If any of the chest are locked the combo is 'vvv'. Help yourselves. Excellent water/hunting/mining in the vicinity. There are mines at the back door but don't expect you'll stumble that way.

Logged off at 2130 so if you get backon the horde should be coming.OJ got a bit done, got some food and water stocked. I reinforced what could defense wise didn't have a bunch of time. Got a lot of log spikes and spikes down, pushed the tunnel out and it exits to the surface now. There's a shotgun and pistol there, not a lot of ammo, left some feathers also. There's a bunch schematics, there yours.

Thanks Budd.

I was thinking about the roof collapse.  I'm wondering with the added weight of the gardens and no pillars from the second floor to the roof it was too much.

Next time I'm on, I think I'll head down to Hub City and see if I can find a place that would be a good place to fort up. 

Mike was talking about forting at Hub, maybe you guys could hook up. I'm going north to the other city, there's got to be some calipers and mini book there.....right :)

Well, Budd found his mini book in Hub City, but didn't have time to build one as we were getting ready for the day 49 horde.  Budd had the whole building surrounded with 2 rows of spikes, 2 rows of log spike.  The building is brick with a vault front door.  I was on a second floor balcony that Budd had built around the building. 

We had a ladder going up a the way up to the roof into a small room up there where are bags and most of our loot is.  The campfire, forge, and work bench are 1 floor below in an apartment, 5th floor.

Well, the horde hits, and rolls right over the out defenses.  Next thing I know if Budd's yelling there's a feral in the building.  WTF!?  He was yelling for help.  I get downstairs and there's the feral trying to get through the inner metal door.  With the settings, feral's take a lot to kill.  Well, mister feral gets through and in about two hits kills me.  I respawn on my bed roll, grab a couple of weapons and head back down.  Run into the feral half way down the stairs.  Yep dead again.

So I respawn again grab the last weapons out of the chest open the hatch to go down and guess whos there to meet me.  Yep, mister feral.  I shoot him with an arrow, and slam the door shut, but he glitches right on through.  So now we have a feral on the roof at our bed rolls.  So I spawn outside.  I'm about a block away.  Not bad.  Nothing chasing, so I'm good for a little bit.  I decide to get into the tunnels, and head for one of the entrances outside the apartment building.  As I get close, I'm surrounded by 5 cops, a feral, and a dog.  I take off back down the street.  Run right past Budd.  If you had been watching from I'm sure it would have been comical.  With no weapon, I was trying to run around to allow Budd a change to take them out.  A dog got me though.

So I decided to take a change and spawn back on my bed roll, hoping the feral was gone.  As soon as I spawn, he comes back in from the roof.  I used my fists and actually did well against him for awhile.  I spawned next outside, and barely made it into the tunnels.  I ran down to the spike area to draw them into the spikes, when I run into mister feral again.  This time he had no legs.  I got away.  Eventually he died from his wounds. 

Eventually Budd got the building cleared and a bow for me.  The last feral, cops, and others we killed with the help of the spikes.

I'm thinking we need a trench around the apartment building.  Two deep, two wide, with sides and floor made of concreate blocks.  Fully upgraded wood log spikes on the floor.

We need nitrates to make gunpowder for pipe bombs and exploding crossbow bolts.  Let the Z's fall into trench and use pipe bombs and exploding bolts on them.  Especially the feral's. 

The snow biome to the west doesn't go very far south, so we can look there to mine.  Need an auger. 

Budd.  I sealed the breeches around the front door.  Upgraded the frames I placed to concreate.

I made a mixer, its in with the forge.  I took out the skylight in that apartment and placed a hatch and ladder to make an alternate access to the roof.  I also placed a door on the crafting room. 

Expanded the garden quite a bit.  Still want to expand more, but it's a good start.

I also put a basic defense plan in place on the steps on the top floor.  take a look.  I didn't upgrade anything so if you don't like and we remove it not much lost.

Flaming arrows for you in the weapons locker.  I also used all of the nitrates to make gunpowder.

Repaired the ladder going up the elevator.

concrete for you in the chest by the forge.

There is a grass/wood biome just south of the snow biome to our west, not far.  It's where I spawned the first time you saw me on line.

It's about 9am day 51.  I stuck my head out once at the snow hatch in the middle of the night to plant some tree seeds and got hit by a cop.  Never saw him.  Barely escaped. 

That day 49 horde was fun :D ...what 12 ferals, the most effective weapon was luring them onto the spikes. Man they F**ked up the place bad, all 6 floors i think. Here's a little from my perspective. So we didnt have a lot of days to get ready for the 49 day horde, some vault doors and 4 rows of spikes, 2 log, 2 regular all the way around, its not great but im feeling OK about it. So day 49 22:00 the scream always starts it, then it just a matter of finding out which direction there coming from, east, west, maybe north or south. I'm on the ground outside confident behind my 4 rows of spikes, i mean they should buy a little time to do damage. OJ is up on the platform that surrounds the buildings 2nd floor on the outside. OK nothing out front, i can hear the screams but see nothing. So i go around the corner to the west side, all i see is a mass of zombies and feral and dog already past the rows of spikes running at me about 10 feet away.....that was an O shit moment. So i turn around and start running for the front door, i'm thinking the vault doors open slow, the vault doors open slow i'm never gonna make it, i can hear them behind me practically feel there breath. I get to the door and open and get inside and shut it, there's barely a crack in the door and feral gliches through. I mean im face to face with this thing, so i shoot it which stuns the zombies for a split second. I take that opportunity to head to the door at the first floor landing.I make it through the door and close it, its not a vault door its one level down from vault. So the feral starts beating the crap out of the door, thats when i let OJ know we have a problem, i believe it was "feral in the building, help"OJ gets there and the feral is almost through the door,  you can see it through the door. Were trying to shoot it but it aint working. Its gets through the door and it was a coin flip who he goes for, OJ won that lottery. Pretty much one shot and OJ is down. The feral was kind enough to get on him and start eating him, so i'm pumping crossbow bolts into the feral's head. It finished with OJ and turns to look at me and starts coming at me, well i ran like a little school girl. My options were limited, eventually it all deadends. I run around the room still shooting bolts into the feral. I run up to the second floor circle the rooms still shooting the feral, i think OJ came back to help and got whacked again. Ok time to bail, i go out the second floor window to the landing and move around the corner and crouch. The feral loses me, so i take a look at whats outside on the ground. Zombie bodies every where, zombies without legs crawling around, dogs, hornets the whole buffet. i start shooting the cops as they can do the zombie spit, i'm moving around on the walkway and..... i fall, break my leg. Of course the zombies start running at me, no choice gotta jump my spike rows. Well i didnt make it clean, bleeding and damaged i use my last bandage and medkit. On this side of the spikes seems to be the safest place there all on the inside of the rows. there's a lot of ferals but most of them are legless and crawling after me, it was one big damn horde. I never got killed out right, i bleed to death from wounds 4 or 5 times, sometimes from getting to close to the spikes. With bleeding out i got time to move everything to my backpack from my belt. It was a good 12 game hours until they were disposed of and we had to lure them onto the spikes to kill them off. man that was crazy fun, the place was wrecked. Wish i would of recorded it.

OJ not sure how much time ill get this week. If you build a trench they will dig when they land in trench, we can try the concrete with spikes I've never tried that. i'd make at least 3 deep though, once the bodies build up they'll jump out. How about spikes on the walls too pointing in the trench.If i get time i'll make a mini and go pick up my drops i stashed every where. If we dont get calipers we need to start dumping our points into shotguns, thx for fixing up the place. Mike you should pop on down and bunk here for the next horde. Even though we got our asses handed to us it was fun.

Server just updated to the latest version.

Thanks AT

Yes indeed Budd. Would be awesome if we could triple team a horde some time.

Quote from: -budd- on June 27, 2016, 09:57:43 PM
OJ not sure how much time ill get this week. If you build a trench they will dig when they land in trench, we can try the concrete with spikes I've never tried that. i'd make at least 3 deep though, once the bodies build up they'll jump out. How about spikes on the walls too pointing in the trench.If i get time i'll make a mini and go pick up my drops i stashed every where. If we dont get calipers we need to start dumping our points into shotguns, thx for fixing up the place. Mike you should pop on down and bunk here for the next horde. Even though we got our asses handed to us it was fun.

I haven't had a chance to get on yet this week either. 

One other thought on the trench, I was going to put 1 block wall on the inside perimeter of the trench to give us a walkway.  It would also add 1 block height to make it harder for anyone to get back out. 

I just jumped on for a few minutes to check something.  I could not figure out how to get spikes to hang on a wall.  So I don't think we'll be able to do that in the trench.  With that, I'm thinking that the trench needs to be dug either 4 or 5 wide, with the two outside blocks being lined with cobblestone blocks.  We need to then go 4 deep with the bottom block also be cobblestone.  Cobblestone can be upgraded to concrete if we want, just need clay with cement. 

Line the bottom of the trench with log spikes fully upgraded.  That means we need a lot of iron.  Wood I'm not as worried about.  I've started a short tunnel from the snow biome heading south toward the grass biome.  Hopefully find a good vein. 

BTW, when I logged on, it was almost 2200 on day 55.  It's now day 56 at 0025.  So we won't have any work on the trench done by the time the next horde hits. 

At some point I gather the horde gets more random anyway.

Re putting spikes on wall: obviously this is what barbed wire (and related items?) are for. ;) But you may be able to stack spikes on each other, depending on whether the engine has been updated to prevent this. Spikes damage on block proximity, not on vertical drop reaction thrust.

In that sense I would suppose a ditch cross section would look like this:

dirt conc conc
dirt conc spike
dirt conc spike
dirt conc spike
dirt conc spike spike spike spike

And then the same pattern in reverse on the other side going up. The three block stretch in the middle would allow you to safely place some small hanging wood-frames (or scrap frames? -- something you can pick up again, strong enough to hold you up and hold together in the increasing physics engine) off the edge of the concrete overhangs in order to get down for repairing spikes more safely. But for wall spikes maybe read barbed wire and related articles.

OJ i'm cool with anything, as long as i can fight from the street O0 . I've been thinking about some obstacles to put down to help me escape when needed. Definitely need some barb wire to slow them down, i've never been to successful jumping the barbwire though. Right now though our firepower sucks, need to up our shotgun skill, our best weapon right now is running them into the spikes ;D When i get back on and its not near horde day im thinking of building a mini and going to the other city up north to look for calipers and pick up my drops i left all over the place. I kinda like trying to defend the apartment building, been thinking about inside defenses also, there bound to get in.

running them into mines is tops in my book

I had a visit from the day 56 horde. Very mild for some reason. No more than 50 and zero ferals...unless the mines took care of them. They were all dead within an hour, and no more for the rest of the night. Never seen the likes of it.

I seem to remember that some 7 day hordes weren't always as bad as others. 

here some video's on alpha 15. Madmole will be putting out regular videos.






Grab some seed and build a treehouse base anywhere, I'm thinking a not too deep lake, plant the trees, once they grow build a treehouse base.Keep planting trees, keep expanding your base. Wonder if the zombies can beat the trees down, hope so.

Well i made the run to pick up my drops, took about a full game day on the mini. Nothing really good, a bunch of medical supplies, brass and a lot of gas and barrels. The mini is parked at snow tunnel entrance, gas in the chest at snow tunnel end. I got the pillars up in front and upgraded a lot of them, 4 blocks high. Fixed up the spikes up front all in time for the horde. Wasn't going to stay on but wanted to see how the plan would work. Works good, but will have to make one adjustment, they still got over. The bodies piled so high that 4 got over the pillars, i started the fixing that but ran out of stuff. I didn't see any get or glich through so thats good, not even dogs. Big horde but no ferals or cops that i could see. I hit 3 working stiff shops while on the road, no calipers, i'm giving up on that, shotguns it is. We need a source of lead real bad. I made a couple of blunderbusses but no lead to make shot. 

Here's the laundry list: 600 pillar 50 and concrete to upgrade. The pillars can upgrade again with steel bars after the concrete. 300 barb wire, 300 iron bars roughly. The front is pretty solid/safe to go out.

May have to dig a ground block out and replace with iron. The ground block right inside the pillars, we'll have to see if they dig, the log spikes will have to go down first before they can dig.

Here's a few horde pic's. once they get high enough they can get over 2 blocks but i put an overhang up after these pics but didn't finish it. luckily they came from the front .
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F20160703005426_1_zpsb0mavv26.jpg&hash=26cc6697ef6f8d603f17cdfe5eee4a454b37ae20)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F20160703005419_1_zpsayg4ukp4.jpg&hash=3281964fab78d10ad8c0214ff72271018fbc932b)
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1144.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fo484%2Fronnie8691%2F20160703005454_1_zps9pxc89fw.jpg&hash=0b81c8ab1327e1bbd83c2022edfb67323a84f9be)

It was a pretty massive horde but no ferals or cops. You can see they get on top of the bodies and the barbwire,once there 3 blocks high they could get over the 4th block. 4 got over, 2 monkey boys, 1 nurse and the big boy. They fell through somewhat when they died but nothing got through, i thought the dogs would but not so far, most of them died on the spikes. you can loot and melee through the pillars so thats good.

Glad you idea worked Budd.

You didn't mention the ambush you got walking out the door on the night of what, day 58.  Three ferals and a couple of dozen others.  I don't think I've seen a feral outside of day 7. 

That was weird, ferals on a non-horde day. Its like step out the door, O shit, this feral is just running at me. Didn't notice the dogs at first, those ferals are fast.

Got a bit done. Got the pillars put up all the way around,not upgraded. The overhang is up all the way around and there's doors to the yard and ladders from the overhang to the walkway around the building. I made barbwire put didnt get a chance to put it up or get the log spikes and spikes placed all the way around. I finished the tunnel you started, its at the green zone and as soon as i hit the green zone i hit lead so there lead in the forge and the chest along with a bunch of material. There's about 100 shotgun shells, 70 pipe bombs and a blunderbuss with ammo waiting for you, also i hit a military camp and we have about 70  mines. It was late morning day 70 when i logged out. There was another small feral horde that hit while i was securing, must be more common in the city. If you get online load up and look around, i'd wait out front, its the most prepared side.

You can keep the shotgun shells for now, I don't have gun to use them with. 

It'll be tomorrow before I get a chance to log on again.

Glad the defenses worked. 

Budd, I grabbed you bedroll by mistake so you'll need to pick it up and lay it down again.

I like the work you've done.  Need to stay on the ground to make sure the Z's die close enough to the pillars to reach them. 

I did loot the power plant that you tunneled to on the North side.  You had secured the green shack but there were a couple of placed the Z's could enter in the brick building so I sealed those up. 

Ok on the bedroll. I was going to make an above ground entrance but decided 4 tunnel entrances were enough. You can get out by hopping down at certain places[dont hit the spikes], i have without breaking my legs yet. Still need to upgrade the walkway around the building and i started upgrading the pillars to steel in front, i'm only going to do the bottom 2 as i dont think the Z's will damage the upper 2 and it takes a lot of steel. There's some doors that probably need upgrading also. I cut the walls to make traveling to each side of the building quicker on the outside and on the inside. I didn't get to finish upgrading the spikes and adding that other layer of log spikes around the outside. I think were ready no matter what side they hit. With another layer of log spikes i believe a lot will die without reaching the pillars, dogs especially. I'm thinking about beefing up that brick wall to that other building in back. the one with the chainlink fence on brick. I filled some of the holes already, if they come that way they will have to get by that wall before they ever get to our spike layers and barbwire.Got a 2 screamer horde last time, they barely made it to the pillars, the random ferals have been coming pretty regular. Also haven't built the shack at the snow tunnel entrance for protection and mini parking, its a busy side and i have been getting jumped a lot coming out of the tunnel.If your going to take the mini for a spin there is plenty of gas in the chests at snow tunnel end. We still need iron and concrete, thinking about popping a hatch for the tunnel that goes to the green zone as there is a clay field right by there, also one of the tunnel has snow for water you can see where i started digging it. I'll be on it and miss until the weekend.

I had found the other tunnels.  Nice.  I had seen you'd upgrade some pillars to steel, but wasn't sure if you wanted them all upgrade or was just trying things out.  I'll work on getting them upgraded. 

where you building your lastest Budd/OJ?

I dropped by the old place located on the edge of the snow biom with a bunch of building supplies but couldn't locate the new fort.

In the hub, you can't miss it ;D our pillar of humanity in a God forsaken zombie wasteland, come on by, 6  stories so there's plenty of room. If there's anything left of use in the old base help yourself, don't remember what we left. If you do come by there no above ground entrance, 5 underground hatches , 4 are in the nearest
buildings across the streets at the points of the compass.

Hey guys, got most of the repairs done. I made some guns and ammo and organized everything. Brought everything down from the upper floor except the clothes, schematics, gun parts and tools. Made more crates and got rid of the chests. The guns , ammo, and explosives are all in there own crates as well as the food and water and medical supplies. There are 3 supply crates on the other side of the forge, raw materials, ready to use and odds and ends.

The 98 day horde was a bust, all dressed up with pipes and nothing to blow up. only saw 2 Z's ,AT was on and he didnt get the horde either. I heard the scream  but zippo, nothing. I  did lose a mini, was getting horrible FPS drops. Got off the mini and it went underground, could still see the headlight shining from underground but damn if i could find it. It was a second mini i was putting at the green zone. I made a hatch out and a shack on top at the green zone, comes out on top on a hill overlooking the hub. i wasn't going to add a shack but kept getting jumped coming out of the tunnel. zombie bear whacked me. Got some engines and batteries to make another mini, put a chest at the bottom of the ladder in the green zone, it has some gas/barrels in it. Were pretty well stocked up on stuff, OJ there;s an SMG in the weapons chest and about 300+ rounds, also some 44's in there for you guys.

This has been a really interesting thread to read. I am pretty new to 7 Days, but when I am a bit better I will come onto the server full-time rather than single player. I might come on for a look round and judge my survival chances later today though.

Quote from: Flywheel on July 15, 2016, 05:33:12 AM
This has been a really interesting thread to read. I am pretty new to 7 Days, but when I am a bit better I will come onto the server full-time rather than single player. I might come on for a look round and judge my survival chances later today though.

Come on in....try it out.  I don't play as much as the other guys so my character is pretty low level.  Once you know a few things (you probably do because of your experience single player), it is very possible to thrive as a low level player on the server.  Also, I set the server with a generous "safe" zone.  When you first log on, level 12s and below have a safe zone around them for a half an hour I believe.  This just means you won't get jumped right after you come in....you can still find plenty of trouble outside of the "zone" however.

Quote from: Flywheel on July 15, 2016, 05:33:12 AM
This has been a really interesting thread to read. I am pretty new to 7 Days, but when I am a bit better I will come onto the server full-time rather than single player. I might come on for a look round and judge my survival chances later today though.

I'll look for you, I'm probably will get some time tonight PST . if you can make your way to the hub we can outfit you with some goodies. Coming into the hub will be difficult for a lower level it's a busy place, if you work around to Southwest of the hub there's a shack right on a road on a hill overlooking the city with a tunnel entrance to the base. Hub city located at 0,0 .

A video tour of our base in hub city. It was a bit rough going at the beginning the first horde pretty much ripped it up and breached our defenses in about 5 minutes and was chasing us over various floor levels. Hub city is pretty busy with zombies most of the time but were pretty safe now except for the spawn inside the perimeter every now and then. I think were calling it done. The repair is actually pretty minimal after a horde,  spike repair and some concrete repair. First time i've used the iron bars as flooring, works pretty well 2500 hit points and you can shoot through it and it holds at a span of three. time  to finish looting the hub and exploring the map. Already have an idea on my next base build. The video starts on the roof, its 6 story apartment building we took over. not shown is 2 tunnels out of the hub one to the snow biome for water[this was before we walled off the pond in the hub] and the other to the green zone for clay harvesting both have shacks over the hatch and minis parked in the shacks.

                                                                                                       

Quote from: -budd- on July 24, 2016, 11:11:10 PM
A video tour of our base in hub city. It was a bit rough going at the beginning the first horde pretty much ripped it up and breached our defenses in about 5 minutes and was chasing us over various floor levels. Hub city is pretty busy with zombies most of the time but were pretty safe now except for the spawn inside the perimeter every now and then. I think were calling it done. The repair is actually pretty minimal after a horde,  spike repair and some concrete repair. First time i've used the iron bars as flooring, works pretty well 2500 hit points and you can shoot through it and it holds at a span of three. time  to finish looting the hub and exploring the map. Already have an idea on my next base build. The video starts on the roof, its 6 story apartment building we took over. not shown is 2 tunnels out of the hub one to the snow biome for water[this was before we walled off the pond in the hub] and the other to the green zone for clay harvesting both have shacks over the hatch and minis parked in the shacks.

Excellent, really nice work guys.  I have been using bars as well, but not nearly as well as you guys have. 

Well....
On and off over the last few weeks I have hunted all the servers, even going through the list manually ONE-BY-ONE! and not any sign of the grog server. How on earth you've all found it I don't know.
Maybe an ip and port would help.
I'll stick to my single-player methinks :)

Flywheel, you're not the first to have problems with this. I can't recall exactly how I found it but eventually managed to track it down using the search feature. I'm stuck in an endless cycle of work until Thursday. If you're still having problems Thursday night I will make a point of figuring out exactly what to search for.

I have no idea how it can be so problematic to search something with grogheads in the title. Crazy.

IP 216.155.140.191  port 25000    name: Unofficial Grog Invitational ....come on in

Quote from: Rekim on July 26, 2016, 05:56:31 PM
I have no idea how it can be so problematic to search something with grogheads in the title. Crazy.

I don't either. It's an easy enough name to spot.
If I put 'grog into the search window it only comes up with 'Grogers Fun Times'
If I put the ip and port that has been given...nothing at all.
What build do you all have, mine is Alpha  14.7. (not that this should make any difference.)

Quote from: Flywheel on July 26, 2016, 10:46:51 AM
Well....
On and off over the last few weeks I have hunted all the servers, even going through the list manually ONE-BY-ONE! and not any sign of the grog server. How on earth you've all found it I don't know.
Maybe an ip and port would help.
I'll stick to my single-player methinks :)

Also, check that you are looking under modded servers.  It is the tab with the light bulb I believe on the server list screen.

Yep, always looked under modded. I made sure to do that. How the hell can you have a server in stealth mode?

I don't remember how many times I loaded the mod list until I found the server originally. Even waiting for the list to fully load (which is important) only worked the final time (of course, since after that I didn't have to do it anymore. ;) )

Quote from: JasonPratt on July 27, 2016, 05:43:08 AM
I don't remember how many times I loaded the mod list until I found the server originally. Even waiting for the list to fully load (which is important)

I shall keep trying. I haven't played MP on this game so it'll be a new experience - eventually.
But I am really puzzled as to why even the IP and Port isn't showing anything - you're not all playing on PS4 by any chance?  :2funny:

It took a few times but searching by exact name under modded worked for me. Even now I have to refresh the list for it to show in my favorites from time to time.

Quote from: Flywheel on July 27, 2016, 06:23:39 AM

Quote from: JasonPratt on July 27, 2016, 05:43:08 AM
I don't remember how many times I loaded the mod list until I found the server originally. Even waiting for the list to fully load (which is important)

I shall keep trying. I haven't played MP on this game so it'll be a new experience - eventually.
But I am really puzzled as to why even the IP and Port isn't showing anything - you're not all playing on PS4 by any chance?  :2funny:

No, not PS4.  Also assume you are using caps as follows:  Unofficial Grog Invitational

I tried it caps and uncaps, just nothing. I am just giving that up as a mystery. I even went through EVERY server name one by one, over 3000 of them. It isn't showing to me.

Maybe latency is too high?  :-\

I did a search on the support forums, and it seems that this problem occurs somewhat often.  Did not see a solution however.  Except that most people seem to work around the server not showing on the list.  Most people seem to be able to connect to the server using the IP and port info.

Well....
Don't ask me, I have no idea. It just went into the server with no problem. I logged out to test it and I logged straight back in. I don't know what the problem was and I have done nothing different from this last two or three weeks of attempts. but thank God for Gary Grigsby teaching me unlimited patience and perseverance.

Quote from: Flywheel on July 29, 2016, 04:30:35 AM
Well....
Don't ask me, I have no idea. It just went into the server with no problem. I logged out to test it and I logged straight back in. I don't know what the problem was and I have done nothing different from this last two or three weeks of attempts. but thank God for Gary Grigsby teaching me unlimited patience and perseverance.

Excellent!!!  See you out there....

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 30, 2015, 02:22:44 PM
We might have reached the point where it's too late for new characters to join even if they're experienced players. :-[

I'm well late onto the server, but I'm going to give it my best shot.  O0

If you come down to the hub city, we can outfit you. Circle the hub and look for little shacks, there's two of them. Ones on a hill , ones in snow biome, there lit with torches so should be easy to spot. Take the hatch into the tunnel , follow to the main tunnel hub which you'll know because the tunnels are labeled with letters, there's a main ladder into the building. Top floor is where the crates are, help yourself. Don't forget to drop a sleeping bag in case you die, in fact if you have to come from along way drop a bag in places along the way again in case you die.

What co-ordinates?
I have been looting today so have some starter gear, plenty of water, antibiotics, etc. So am kitted reasonably well. But will come have a look at what you have, perhaps leave some of my loot in exchange.

Quote from: Flywheel on July 29, 2016, 09:28:52 AM
What co-ordinates?
I have been looting today so have some starter gear, plenty of water, antibiotics, etc. So am kitted reasonably well. But will come have a look at what you have, perhaps leave some of my loot in exchange.

Center of the map is Hub city, 0,0.  Our base is on the NE side. 

OK, will find it when next on.

Quote from: Flywheel on July 29, 2016, 08:15:32 AM

Quote from: JasonPratt on December 30, 2015, 02:22:44 PM
We might have reached the point where it's too late for new characters to join even if they're experienced players. :-[

I'm well late onto the server, but I'm going to give it my best shot.  O0

I really haven't spent much time in the cities yet...and am fairly low level.  Outside the cities, you should not have trouble surviving.  Just always have a good escape route, and some coffee so you can run like hell....

On my single-player I have spent quite some time in the city, actually. I drop a whole bunch of spikes grouped on the road and encourage them into it. I have despatched as many as 8-10 in one go that way. Just keep manouvering because some try to walk round them until they get frustrated and lunge for you - impaled :)

I have cleared an entire district like that, just keep an eye for any sneakies creeping up behind you.

Maybe it is a well-known trap, but I kind of thought it through for myself. Why not do practice single-player and test it out? Any refinements let me know :)

Quote from: ArizonaTank on December 13, 2015, 02:06:38 PM
Zombies set to only walk, since I like a little more relaxed game....

And who taught them to walk? Usain Bolt?
I came online at 23.30 game-time and immediately torn to shreds after they turned my temporary hovel to matchwood. Fine, respawn - the buggers were all over me at Olympic speeds! Died 9 times during this night!

Damn! I need to get something built before nightfall

The server settings are set to a harder level.  Budd and I thought we had a good defense in place with a few rows of spikes.  Yea, they blew right through them. 

I have managed to stagger to Hub City. I need to go in for a rest before deciding what to do. There'd better be coffee, I'm tellin  ya!  ;D

There's coffee.  Top floor in one of the crates you'll find some.  If not, up on the roof you'll find some growing. 

Thanks. took a couple of bandages, water and a few items of food, replaced by gunpowder and shell casings

Hi AT.  When you get a minute, can you reboot the server.  Neither Budd nor I can do anything.  We've both logged out and back in a couple of times and it's not helping. 

Thanks

Is it lagging, OJ? I couldn't play at all this morning because of it.

Yep, lagging is the issue.

Quote from: OJsDad on August 06, 2016, 03:52:31 PM
Hi AT.  When you get a minute, can you reboot the server.  Neither Budd nor I can do anything.  We've both logged out and back in a couple of times and it's not helping. 

Thanks

OK, rebooted....

FPS still dropping, even tried lowering my settings more, they still slowly drop until unplayable. How is it for you guys?

I just logged in for the first time since last week and it seems fine to me. 

Yep, slowed down on me also

I went back in as soon as I saw it rebooted and it was still impossibly slow for me, and the same again yesterday. So I'm just waiting to hear when any of you guys say there's an improvement. In fact I might need to start over again because I had to reinstall Windows and I seem to have lost my profiles.

I was on today, no slowing for me.... 

I was just on and it was very sluggish to the point of not being playable. 

Quote from: OJsDad on August 13, 2016, 09:53:19 PM
I was just on and it was very sluggish to the point of not being playable.

I will not be able to do this evening, but tomorrow morning, I can reduce the number of zombies and animals the server tracks, that might help speed it up.

not sure whats going on but dont think lowering the zombies will help. Last couple of times i tried there were no zombies/animals in sight, as soon as i get on the FPS steadily drops until its under 10 and unplayable. Worth a try i guess, post when you get to it and i'll log on and try. Thanks  AT.

OK, I changed the parameter below.  See if that makes a difference.  It was at 70

<property name="MaxSpawnedZombies"                                    value="50"/>    <!-- Making this number too large (more than about 80) may cause servers to run at poor framerates which will effect lag and play quality for clients. -->

I have restarted, and played a bit.  I did not notice any major issues.  Every once in a while framrates dropped a bit, but nothing serious.

No luck AT same routine. I started and just stood still and my FPS starts at about 60 and it slowly drops to 3FPS and then it flashes back to the 50's and immediately goes back to 3fps.I tried twice and stood still in base both times, i even lowered my game video options from my usual. No idea whats up, it just started recently.

I went in around 20 minutes ago and likewise, my frame-rate started OK for a few seconds and then dropped way down as well, it did that a few times and then remained as slow as turning pages in a book.

hmmm...a little radical, but I could reinstall the server.  I am not certain if the world data is saved or not....so might accidently destroy our good work...but I am willing to try if you guys want to....

Also, I wonder how far away we are before the next major update...

From what i read alpha 15 is approx going to be out by months end, but that could change. When it does drop i'm not sure we play random, seems like some of the new stuff wont be in random i.e. traders, some POI's not sure about this yet, we'll have to decide later. As far as reinstalling the server, well can't really play now anyway so its fine with me. Is there any tech support for their servers? Its weird that it happened all of a sudden, I dont remembering it happening after an update...did it? hasnt been one in awhile.

Don't reinstall the server and risk losing all the hard work the guys have put in. Anyway, I am in-game at the moment and it seems to have stabilised itself, so lets see how it goes for now. as for Alpha 15, there's all sorts of speculation going on, the suggested ETA is between now and late October - in other words no one knows and the dev's aren't commenting.

Went back to the game after my previous post to find the lag had started again.

tried it again a few minutes ago, same routine after about a minute it steadily drops until it bottoms out.

Quote from: -budd- on August 23, 2016, 07:44:19 PM
tried it again a few minutes ago, same routine after about a minute it steadily drops until it bottoms out.

Sorry guys, was on a business trip.  So unless someone has any hard objection, I'll try to reinstall the server tomorrow...at the risk of losing our game....but I will try to keep it.

Don't know about the others but I'm cool with it, thx AT.

It would be a shame for all their effort being lost, but in it's present unplayable state I suppose it is already, so yes, give it a shot.

I may pop back in this weekend if the server is being reset, and see what the new build looks like!  O0

I hope the server gets sorted because I simply love this game  there's so much more life in 7D2D than NMS...and they're DEAD!

Hi guys, server has been reinstalled.  It kept our save. 

Hope this helps.  If not, only next steps are:  full wipe then look at another server provider.

Well..it seemed OK for about five minutes and so went on the roof for some air and died of a bee sting. respawned on my bed and from that moment the lag kicked right back in.
See what the other survivors think when they come on.

Hoping A15 will drop soon, which will require a restart.

Go for it AT.

I'll try it out tonight let you know. Wonder why it changed all of a sudden.

I just logged into the server. Everything was peachy for the first minute or two. Then lag set in.

Just tried, same story took about a minute longer but FPS bottomed out.

Next thing to do is a full wipe...but that definitely takes out the save....

I am wondering if the size of the save is an issue.

are you thinking of trying a reset first? im fine with a wipe or reset, its unplayable as is.

I already did the reset. 

Strangely, I am not having a problem myself...running OK, with only occasional slow downs.

i mean a reset to kill the save, new game. Dont think thats the issue as we've had longer games covering more days. It's weird my FPS in SP stays around 70.

Did a full wipe, changed the seed and restarted the server.  Try it now.

Was on for 5 minutes FPS stayed over 70, logged out and put my settings back up a little higher, still staying over 70 FPS. I'll be on more later, if it holds im heading toward the hub, i'm a long ways off. Thx AT.

I've been set at the beginning AGAIN! the map is FOW so all my waypoints have gone and I am having to start over. Is this just me or has the game restarted from scratch? I ask that because it is now Day 1 on the clock. Hell of a long way from where Hub should be so wont be able to trek their for a while. On a more positive note I spent about 15 minutes in-game and the frame-rate stayed perfect.

Just noticed my friends list is empty so it must be a clean start, this is a good opportunity for any survivalists who want to join up.

I'm been playing for a couple of hours holding steady over 70FPS, think were good to go. I'm at 340N X 2700E spawned at the corner of 3 biomes, snow,desert,green. Spent the day collecting yucca, corn and other resources, come morning im heading toward the hub. Here's a tip get a bunch of wood and grass and stone and during the night craft a bunch of wooden clubs and stone Ax's , just toss them, it ups your skills faster, i made about 30 Ax's and clubs so far. See ya at the hub.

Quote from: Flywheel on August 27, 2016, 02:13:26 AM
I've been set at the beginning AGAIN! the map is FOW so all my waypoints have gone and I am having to start over. Is this just me or has the game restarted from scratch? I ask that because it is now Day 1 on the clock. Hell of a long way from where Hub should be so wont be able to trek their for a while. On a more positive note I spent about 15 minutes in-game and the frame-rate stayed perfect.

Yes, it is a "clean wipe".

Quote from: -budd- on August 27, 2016, 08:22:00 AM
I'm been playing for a couple of hours holding steady over 70FPS, think were good to go. I'm at 340N X 2700E spawned at the corner of 3 biomes, snow,desert,green. Spent the day collecting yucca, corn and other resources, come morning im heading toward the hub. Here's a tip get a bunch of wood and grass and stone and during the night craft a bunch of wooden clubs and stone Ax's , just toss them, it ups your skills faster, i made about 30 Ax's and clubs so far. See ya at the hub.

I found two things to up skills last round.

1.  When mining, if you have the materials, make gunpowder while mining.

2.  If you have something going in the forge, if you open it you'll get points. 

Quote from: -budd- on August 27, 2016, 08:22:00 AM
Here's a tip get a bunch of wood and grass and stone and during the night craft a bunch of wooden clubs and stone Ax's , just toss them, it ups your skills faster, i made about 30 Ax's and clubs so far.

If nothing else I craft wooden spikes, lots of them as they are always useful to have in quantity.

Quote from: -budd- on August 27, 2016, 08:22:00 AM
I'm been playing for a couple of hours holding steady over 70FPS, think were good to go. I'm at 340N X 2700E spawned at the corner of 3 biomes, snow,desert,green. Spent the day collecting yucca, corn and other resources, come morning im heading toward the hub. Here's a tip get a bunch of wood and grass and stone and during the night craft a bunch of wooden clubs and stone Ax's , just toss them, it ups your skills faster, i made about 30 Ax's and clubs so far. See ya at the hub.

So the problem is not the server then.  If it was, we would have seen the problem again.  The problem must have been related to our "saved" game somehow. 

I think the fortress in Hub city was overbuilt. Every room was illuminated, and that place was humongous. Too much lighting causes lag. This issue is noted in several threads on the 7DTD support forum, so is at least a possibility.

should clarify; by overbuilt I mean in terms of what the game can handle..

Quote from: Rekim on August 27, 2016, 12:55:54 PM
I think the fortress in Hub city was overbuilt. Every room was illuminated, and that place was humongous.

Now that could easily be the case, the place was vast!