PC Another Screamer complaint, or "Why artificial difficulty is poor game design"

[ScarredScholar]

Maybe related: I took my first Buried Treasure quest, week three or so--I forget, but early, early game--it was on the border of the burnt biome and the forest biome, and I was rushed by a pack of zombie dogs and two zombie bears. Like, there was damn little I could do. I've got over 800 hours in the game, so I kind of know how to handle myself, but wowzer, how the heck am I to deal with that?  

Now, I'm not day 49 yet, and I took my first quest from the Medical Lady and ran into many radiated and feral zombies, like a lot. I'm running around the building, trying to pick them off, but eventually, I had to abandon the quest. I didn't expect so many irradiated zombies in week six. Am I advancing too fast? Too many perks gained? Maybe my build is too wonky (Strength, Fortitude, Agility, Intel).

 

[RipClaw]

Maybe related: I took my first Buried Treasure quest, week three or so--I forget, but early, early game--it was on the border of the burnt biome and the forest biome, and I was rushed by a pack of zombie dogs and two zombie bears. Like, there was damn little I could do. I've got over 800 hours in the game, so I kind of know how to handle myself, but wowzer, how the heck am I to deal with that?

That sounds like you had a Zombie Dog / Bear wandering horde. I had some in the past. Late game they are a good source of bones and rotten meat but early game they are a nightmare if they surprise you.

Now, I'm not day 49 yet, and I took my first quest from the Medical Lady and ran into many radiated and feral zombies, like a lot. I'm running around the building, trying to pick them off, but eventually, I had to abandon the quest. I didn't expect so many irradiated zombies in week six. Am I advancing too fast? Too many perks gained? Maybe my build is too wonky (Strength, Fortitude, Agility, Intel).

Sounds like normal progress for day 49 to me. No matter if it's a T1 or T5 quest, the zombies always match your gamestage.

 

[Javabean867]

Maybe related: I took my first Buried Treasure quest, week three or so--I forget, but early, early game--it was on the border of the burnt biome and the forest biome, and I was rushed by a pack of zombie dogs and two zombie bears. Like, there was damn little I could do. I've got over 800 hours in the game, so I kind of know how to handle myself, but wowzer, how the heck am I to deal with that?  

Now, I'm not day 49 yet, and I took my first quest from the Medical Lady and ran into many radiated and feral zombies, like a lot. I'm running around the building, trying to pick them off, but eventually, I had to abandon the quest. I didn't expect so many irradiated zombies in week six. Am I advancing too fast? Too many perks gained? Maybe my build is too wonky (Strength, Fortitude, Agility, Intel).

I had an early zombie bear/dog hoard with 1 of my runs pretty early on also.  I was near a watch tower that i scrambled up on, and fortunately had enough ammo to take them out. 

Everyone's build is going to be different.  I recommend trying different runs where you main 1 stat and add in other stats as you need them.  Str and End are 2 that i will bring up to 5 on any run because of just how useful they are.  Agility and Int only get points late game. unless i am doing an int or agi run.  I don't really feel that any 1 weapon is the goat weapon, all of the weapon categories are well balanced.  Some of the individual weapons are not keyed in right for damage(i'm looking at you knuckle wraps), but there isn't a weapon that i don't find useful. 

that being said if you are spreading your points out pretty evenly, you would be playing sub-optimally for the combat encounters.  You are probably pretty well balanced everywhere else though, so you probably are better off in a lot of different scenarios.

Stupid tip of the day: Always use a cigar.  no matter the build.  it works with all other ai stat modifiers.  
Stupid tip 2: the moment you can make purified water, make it.  It turns the hydration of 1 jar of murky water into 6 jars, plus it adds a ton of other bonuses.

Stupid tip 3: yucca juice smoothy.  make em once you can make them.  a ton of hydration for snow, blueberries and yucca.  plus it gives you some food and other bonuses.

 

[ScarredScholar]

I had an early zombie bear/dog hoard with 1 of my runs pretty early on also.  I was near a watch tower that i scrambled up on, and fortunately had enough ammo to take them out. 

Everyone's build is going to be different.  I recommend trying different runs where you main 1 stat and add in other stats as you need them.  Str and End are 2 that i will bring up to 5 on any run because of just how useful they are.  Agility and Int only get points late game. unless i am doing an int or agi run.  I don't really feel that any 1 weapon is the goat weapon, all of the weapon categories are well balanced.  Some of the individual weapons are not keyed in right for damage(i'm looking at you knuckle wraps), but there isn't a weapon that i don't find useful. 

that being said if you are spreading your points out pretty evenly, you would be playing sub-optimally for the combat encounters.  You are probably pretty well balanced everywhere else though, so you probably are better off in a lot of different scenarios.

Stupid tip of the day: Always use a cigar.  no matter the build.  it works with all other ai stat modifiers.  
Stupid tip 2: the moment you can make purified water, make it.  It turns the hydration of 1 jar of murky water into 6 jars, plus it adds a ton of other bonuses.

Stupid tip 3: yucca juice smoothy.  make em once you can make them.  a ton of hydration for snow, blueberries and yucca.  plus it gives you some food and other bonuses.

That's nice, having a tower nearby. I was caught out in the flat, running into some Burnt Biome mountainish, craggy, rocky stuff. Hilarious hopping around with a zombie bear on my tail! Like, zero hope. 

Yeah, I didn't have any Intel points week 3, but added them week 5, I think, because I found a sledge and mounted it to the right at the top for horde night on a typical stair and covered tower I built with hatch opening I Zombies had to beat on. I just had to have that 10% of robotic sledge damage. Probably a bad idea. I'd found a lvl 5 stone sledgehammer really early and so went into Strength. The hammer and the robotic sledge make defending the top of the stair base pretty easy. Just Adventurer level. That's what surprised me about these early super challenges with zombie bears on the loose. I'm still kind of shaking my head. Like, wtf?

Point taken about the Smoothies and Purified Water. Good stuff! 

That sounds like you had a Zombie Dog / Bear wandering horde. I had some in the past. Late game they are a good source of bones and rotten meat but early game they are a nightmare if they surprise you.

Sounds like normal progress for day 49 to me. No matter if it's a T1 or T5 quest, the zombies always match your gamestage.

Thanks for your replies. Good points on both counts. I think I need to focus on more crowd control. That's what a lot of the YouTube streamers seem to have going on.