Multiplayer on 7 Days to Die

[bbmike]

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

[JasonPratt]

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!




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.

[ArizonaTank]

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.

[JasonPratt]

GOOD GRIEF WHAT ARE THOSE WHITE SLUGGY THINGS??!

[JasonPratt]

A DAY AT CASA DEL AZTANK: INTO THE OUT

Dangit, let's just go outside already!

I open the front door and see -- !




-- 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.




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.




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...




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...




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.




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.




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...




...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.




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...




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.




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.




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.




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.




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?"




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.)




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).




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.




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...




...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.




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.




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.




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.




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)...




...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.




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!




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!




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





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




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




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.





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




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...




...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.

[JasonPratt]

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.




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.




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...



...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...




...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.




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.




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.




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)...




...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.




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.







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.




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.









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... ;)

[Bison]

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

[-budd-]

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




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.


Was going around to snap some pics when a wandering horde came around the corner.


The backyard




Night time at Casa del la Budd






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.


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

[-budd-]

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.

[bbmike]

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. 

[ArizonaTank]

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.   

[OJsDad]

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. 

[Bison]

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

[bbmike]

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.

[ArizonaTank]

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.