Multiplayer on 7 Days to Die

[-budd-]

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.

[BanzaiCat]

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.

[JasonPratt]

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.  )

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.  )

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. 

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.

[-budd-]

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.

[BanzaiCat]

Jesus, guys. I think I'd struggle making a stick in that game.

[JasonPratt]

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. 

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.

[ArizonaTank]

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. 

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.

[BanzaiCat]

I reinstalled it, though I haven't tried to play it in a long time. More than a year I think.

[-budd-]

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.

[bbmike]

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!

[JasonPratt]

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.

[ArizonaTank]

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

[JasonPratt]

Will try again tonight if possible.

[JasonPratt]

Huh. Tried to get on a minute ago, and the program froze while loading AT's server. Never seen that before...

[JasonPratt]

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!  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.