PC Early game difficulty

[theFlu]

Yes there is a dog wandering horde but they are based on GS not what day it is.

With the way the GS inches forward, it's pretty standard for a given player over the early game. Standard enough to land on a specific horde quite often. So, not necessarily a thing, but plausibly a repeated occurrence anyway.

 

[Krougal]

That's not a thing.... Hasn't been for a cpl years now. Yes there is a dog wandering horde but they are based on GS not what day it is.

With the way the GS inches forward, it's pretty standard for a given player over the early game. Standard enough to land on a specific horde quite often. So, not necessarily a thing, but plausibly a repeated occurrence anyway.

That would account for the fact that it seems to be a day early or a day late sometimes, but yeah, more or less it's still a thing.

I know they added some other hordes of more variety, but the dog and later dog & bear and then later it seems like dog, bear & vulture (or maybe it was 1 followed by the other) hordes are fairly weekly for me.

I haven't looked at the files lately, although I am about to since I am sick of desert & wasteland not being able to drive 10m without a vulture attack.

 

[Scyris]

Ok so I was looking forward to playing alpha 20 but first two times I started a new game I just rage quited. First time quest send me into T1 POI that ends with you jumping down into a trap room where you have no chance of surviving - 3 zombies and all i had for this first house was a club and a bow. Pretty @%$#ty early game design.

Second rage quit was encountering wolf in first 15 minutes of the game, that just completely obliterated me.

SO third time I managed to make it into the night and my hidey hole was under constant attack by zombies and wolves all night. Could not defend it cause a @%$#ing direwolf spawned, ripped through everything and owned my butt.

Seriously WTF?

Edit: So as soon as I wrote this, I ran around trailer and got eaten by a @%$#ing dog. So as I understand it, early game I have no proper weapons to defend myself and enemies I cannot defeat. Great, so the gameplay now consist of me running away from dogs and wolves during the day, and cowering in dark corner whole night withou doing anything. Fun

Git Gud is all I can say. I kill ferals at night on day 1 with a wood club on warrior difficulty. 3 slow walking zombies should be cake. As for direwolves, when u run away from them zig-zag a bit however if your encumbered at all, your pretty much dead. I am also out questing at night on day 1. Meleeing/Using the bow to kill things. Expect the first night to be rough. As it seems wolfs and such spawn the first night at night. If I am not questing on night 1, I usually am working on my shack on stilts, so I am not on the ground for anything to get at me

 

[warmer]

ya know I didnt have a single night attack till day 7 and I am pretty sure that is because I never use torches or candles at night. Kinda weird you got attacked at night day one. That almost never happens to me. Must be something specific you are doing to alert them.

 

[Scyris]

ya know I didnt have a single night attack till day 7 and I am pretty sure that is because I never use torches or candles at night. Kinda weird you got attacked at night day one. That almost never happens to me. Must be something specific you are doing to alert them.

There is a Day 2 night vulture/wolf mini wandering horde that seemed pretty consistant in terms of showing up on day 2 at night. Learned that my first game in A20 exp and now I prepare for it.

 

[Krougal]

There is a Day 2 night vulture/wolf mini wandering horde that seemed pretty consistant in terms of showing up on day 2 at night. Learned that my first game in A20 exp and now I prepare for it.

A wolf on day 2 seems consistent, although it might just be a biome spawn? Haven't noticed a vulture as well.

 

[Silverjohn]

Playing on Nomad I make a set of Padded Armor and Bone Knife as quickly as I am able.  The Padded doesn't have any stamina or movement penalties and the Bone Knife's stamina cost for power attacks is pretty cheap.  Back away as the dog attacks you and power head shot. You'll take some bites but the Armor will keep it manageable.

Also, if you're clearing a POI use the Primitive Bow with sneak attack head shots (remember the shots from the bows drop so aim a little high).  Those are nearly one shot kills and will be one shots once you put a few points in Agility and the Hidden Strikes Perk.

If you're still having problems pick Fetch rather than Clear missions and chop your way in from the side of the building closest to the stash.

 

[Cobretti_]

Preparing a POI on Day 1 is basically a hatch frame in every exterior door way. Then if something attacks they will try go through that hatchframe at which point you bash its head in and repair as necessary. I knuckle wraped a dire wolf to death on day 3 by doing this. There is always a risk that Z's will crawl through the 1 block gap but in my experience of A20 so far, this is rare.

The thing that kills me consistently every single alpha early game are the wandering dog/wolf hordes. I always seem to be at the wrong place at the wrong time for most of them but with the bicycle unlock guranteed as so early in the game, they are not as bad as previous alphas