PC A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!

ricp

ricp

Refugee
Ok, so I may have just trolled people into thinking this is about horses. It's not. I mean it could be, but it's not just now. No, the topic of discussion is "things that we need". Let me explain...

I am on day 46 ish and have yet to find a beaker, not one. As you can probably tell that by 46 I have explored quite a lot of the map. I've not looted everything but anything close by (within a 5km radius of my base) that looks even remotely like offering up a beaker has been searched thoroughly. My map is random gen and at this point I've only found 1 trader (rather nicely 11km from my initial spawn point, thanks RWG!) who has never had one in stock. In a late 80's pop reference that no-one will get," I've been around the world and I.. I.. I... still can't find my beaker"

My pile of coal and nitrate grows ever bigger and I'm just too tight to waste it on gunpowder when I know with a chem station I'll be able to make double!

As you can't craft beakers, and I can't buy beakers and I can't find beakers... what's a boy to do? A beaker, a beaker, my kingdom for a beaker! (or two for that matter)

What things have you struggled to find in your game?

-- btw, if anyone is unsure about the title of the thread it relates to Shakespeare's "Richard III".

 
The cruelty of RNG.

So far, I've been pretty lucky save for mods, mod schematics, and sometimes iron tools in the early game. Book stores and book shelves tend to give me nothing but the 30 minute magazines and the traders (even when I have more than 1) keep carrying the same mods over and over again. Sure the serrated blade mod is nice, but I don't need a hundred of them.

This is why I'm not fan of RNG.

 
I guess you haven't found a working chem station in any POI either, then.

Since I just got offered a beaker as a quest reward (on the 4th day) my advice is to skill up daring adventurer and do lots of quests.

This also has the advantage that in a reset poi a working chem station could be found eventually. Obviously a working chem station is twice as good as ONE beaker :cocksure:

 
I guess you haven't found a working chem station in any POI either, then.
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No, and the one in the trader isn't working. As I said I've only found one trader (and I have "unlocked" quite a lot of the map). I could drop to the XML and find out where the others are (if there are!) but that sort of goes against the spirit of things. In a previous RNG I spawned almost in the middle of 3 traders, all of which had working forges, cement mixers, workbenches and chem stations. I even posted on here about how OP that is, and that traders should only be traders and not provide other ancillary services - of if they do they should charge you for them.

Didn't think about doing quests for the beaker mind. That said I've only just started doing quests (I've built a new base to be closer to the one trader I have) but the problem is that with a game stage of ~180 which means all those simple fetch or clear quests you get at tier one are not packed to the gunnels with radioated and feral zombies. Good for the XP, less so for the frame rate and or ammo cost!

Still it's possibly an avenue to go down, so thanks for that.

 
I could drop to the XML and find out where the others are (if there are!) but that sort of goes against the spirit of things.
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You could simply search the file for traders and find out how many traders are on the map. You don't have to write down or remember the coordinates. Then at least you would know if there are other traders hiding on the map.

 
You could simply search the file for traders and find out how many traders are on the map. You don't have to write down or remember the coordinates. Then at least you would know if there are other traders hiding on the map.
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Certainly could, but as I say it sort of goes against the spirit of the game, imo.

 
I've gotten a beaker as a quest reward every single playthrough.
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Which is interesting as I never have. Now I'm not saying I've done loads of quests; they are a bit redundant once you get past the first couple of hordes but on most playthroughs since they were included I think I've maybe done 10 or 12. This was more "something to do" than needing something specific from the trader.

However you are now the second person to recommend this, so clearly it's a route I should investigate. Even if doing basic quests at a high game stage is, er... fun. ;)

 
Which is interesting as I never have. Now I'm not saying I've done loads of quests; they are a bit redundant once you get past the first couple of hordes but on most playthroughs since they were included I think I've maybe done 10 or 12. This was more "something to do" than needing something specific from the trader.
However you are now the second person to recommend this, so clearly it's a route I should investigate. Even if doing basic quests at a high game stage is, er... fun. ;)
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Naturally the law of cruel fate will ensure that you will never get offered a beaker as quest reward now :distrust: :fat: .

 
Never seen one as a reward either.

I don't think the trader sells beakers anymore either. Never had a particular problem with finding a beaker though.

 
Since I just got offered a beaker as a quest reward...
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I've gotten a beaker as a quest reward every single playthrough.
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Naturally the law of cruel fate will ensure that you will never get offered a beaker as quest reward now :distrust: :fat: .
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Never seen one as a reward either.
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After punting points into more rewards for completed quests, and doing about 10 of them (mix of tier 1 and 2) I've finally been offered a beaker. Just the one mind, but in another 80's musical reference that few people will get...

♫ "Oh-oh, we're half way there..." ♫

I've also found another trader, quite off the beaten track (it's like 6000,4000 coords on the map) so maybe the quest trick will work with that one too.

Not that this should be the end of this thread, the beaker issue has been my own personal nadir in my current playthrough but I'm sure there are many stories from others equally struggling to find a resource.

 
After punting points into more rewards for completed quests, and doing about 10 of them (mix of tier 1 and 2) I've finally been offered a beaker. Just the one mind, but in another 80's musical reference that few people will get...
♫ "Oh-oh, we're half way there..." ♫

I've also found another trader, quite off the beaten track (it's like 6000,4000 coords on the map) so maybe the quest trick will work with that one too.

Not that this should be the end of this thread, the beaker issue has been my own personal nadir in my current playthrough but I'm sure there are many stories from others equally struggling to find a resource.
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Because fate loves to give me a hard time, the VERY next quest reward after my post gave me a beaker lol.

Then, because fate can't be nice either - my entire game crashed and is now unplayable :(

 
♫ "Oh-oh, we're half way there..." ♫
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"take my hand.. We'll make it, I swear..."

My latest game, I went 3 days without finding an Iron Axe. Enough Iron Hoes to build a cabin, maybe a half dozen Iron Pickaxes, but chopping with my lil stone axe became tedious after day 2. RNGesus just wasn't in my corner til day 3 hehe

 
Have traders be able to sell beakers but at extreme premium prices.
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You can buy the beaker from a trader already but as it is with RNG you can be lucky or unlucky.

I have already visited the hospital 5 or 6 times for tier 5 quests and completely looted them. There the chance for medical items is very high. During the last run I found 3 beakers and the trader offered me a beaker as a reward. Before I had never found a beaker in the hospital and also never got a beaker as a reward.

That's how it is with RNG. In one playtrough you are covered with beakers and in the other playtrough you can search the whole map and find nothing.

Here would be the question if the player should have the possibility to make a beaker in the late game. This could be done for example by a perk as one can also make high-quality weapons which are actually rare. Since you have everything in the late game anyway, I see no reason to restrict the player here. The late game is also the time when the players start painting their base. And for that they need a chemistry station.

 
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I don't mind if traders don't offer everything, so long as it's possible for those things to be crafted or looted elsewhere. Beakers can't be crafted, so it needs RNG to play nice. The option for it to be a perk (like steel smithing) or for it to be unlocked when you unlock the chem station itself seems an eminently sensible idea.

Personally I think that traders are massively OP. Not only can they provide (depending on luck) a working forge, workbench, chem station, vending machine (both for use and for hire), or a cement mixer. Aside from the vending machine, these are all mid game items. You could argue a forge isn't but it's certainly not available to you at the start unless you are a bit lucky with your looting. Not only that, these items are indestructible due to the nature of the way the trader works.

I would actually remove just about everything except for the trading and questing elements from them, or if you use the facilities you need to pay the trader for that privilege. After all, if you spawn next to a trader with all it's facilities in working order, and near a decent boulder field (for iron) then you are effectively at a 2nd or 3rd horde stage of capability within minutes of starting a new playthrough.

I could go on but I think that gets away from the point of this thread.

 
Personally I think that traders are massively OP. Not only can they provide (depending on luck) a working forge, workbench, chem station, vending machine (both for use and for hire), or a cement mixer. Aside from the vending machine, these are all mid game items. You could argue a forge isn't but it's certainly not available to you at the start unless you are a bit lucky with your looting. Not only that, these items are indestructible due to the nature of the way the trader works.
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The disadvantage is that these workstations are not accessible at night. That the stations are not destructible I don't see as a problem because this risk is rather low at the own base if you just secure it with a few spikes. You just must not make the mistake of using your own working base as a horde base at the same time. This should always be separated.

Also, you can't make everything in the stations. For example, I had a working forge at the trader and produced forged iron in it at the beginning until I could build my own forge. But first I had to find iron tools. I couldn't make them myself up to level 20.

In the beginning in A17 you needed the workbench of the trader to build wheels and a bicycle. Without a working workbench you had to go everywhere on foot until you could build the workbench and at that time you could build the minibike so you could skip the bicycle right away.

I would actually remove just about everything except for the trading and questing elements from them, or if you use the facilities you need to pay the trader for that privilege. After all, if you spawn next to a trader with all it's facilities in working order, and near a decent boulder field (for iron) then you are effectively at a 2nd or 3rd horde stage of capability within minutes of starting a new playthrough.
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Since all the POIs are now stuffed with pallets of concrete mix and cobbleston, you don't even need a working cement mixer to build a concrete base. Simply create flagstone blocks and upgrade them to concrete. In addition, the trader sells cobbleston so cheaply that you don't have to mine any resources for the first two weeks. So I don't see a big problem here.

 
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You can buy the beaker from a trader already but as it is with RNG you can be lucky or unlucky.
I have already visited the hospital 5 or 6 times for tier 5 quests and completely looted them. There the chance for medical items is very high. During the last run I found 3 beakers and the trader offered me a beaker as a reward. Before I had never found a beaker in the hospital and also never got a beaker as a reward.

That's how it is with RNG. In one playtrough you are covered with beakers and in the other playtrough you can search the whole map and find nothing.

Here would be the question if the player should have the possibility to make a beaker in the late game. This could be done for example by a perk as one can also make high-quality weapons which are actually rare. Since you have everything in the late game anyway, I see no reason to restrict the player here. The late game is also the time when the players start painting their base. And for that they need a chemistry station.
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I know some will protest what I'm about to say but setting airdrops to daily until you get a beaker or two (airdrops are a good source) then cancel airdrops.

You could roleplay that several ways.

 
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