How far have you gone this playthrough?

[Uncle Al]

I got irked about still not being able to buy a Drone, so went and crafted all the Scorcher Stew I could make (7 of them), and decided to try the Snow Biome even though I am level 72, not 100+ like I had wanted. The game is far more challenging when you need to go out at far lower levels than you are used to, so the 2 years that I played with Loot 200% and XP 300% is very telling. I don't remember if I have run through the Snow Biome on this map before or not, but I was surprised by the location of the 4 Trader Hugh's, so either I have in fact not been in the snow before, or it was so long ago that my feeble mind cannot remember anything about previous playthroughs.

After meeting all 4 Trader Hugh's, though, I am still without a drone.
I have no points in lucky looter, is that the problem? Is my gamestage/lootstage just too low for drones to be unlocked at levels below 100? I am used to having my level 5 drone by HN 5, and usually (with the Loot bonus on) I can get them at Trader Jenn/Bob. Can anyone verify, with Loot bonus OFF, and no points in LL, where/when the Drones start to be for sale?

My obsession with my drone has had me focusing on not doing quests, but Beer Runz instead. My levels are coming in way to slow, so I think I will just build a slab of concrete somewhere, and start stockpiling Learning Elixirs, and start wearing a Nerd Helm.

Once I hit level 100+, I plan on switching to HNEN, and perhaps 12 hour days, instead of 18 hour days, so a 1 1/2 length HN, every night. That should get the XP rolling in.

My little digital dude has himself decked out in the Enforcer set, all but the gloves are lvl 6, gloves lvl 2 (Those bonuses don't work for a guy without power tools/vehicles), and I have built various Farmer/Lumberjack/Miner sets as well, but none are lvl 6.

I could just turn loot bonus ON again, and instantly get my drone, but I want to play all the way through without that crutch.

Lucky looter and loot settings don't affect trader inventory.

The things that do are:

• Your level
• How many quest tiers you've completed
• Daring Adventurer perk

You were most likely seeing much higher stage items earlier in your old play throughs due to playing with 300% xp, making your level much higher which in turn increases trader stage.

The actual trader stage formula is:

(Level x (1+Quest Tiers Completed)) + (10 x Daring Adventurer Ranks)

Drones are considered end game items. I'm not sure of the exact required trader stage to have them in stock, but I believe it's around 250. At level 70 odd like you are in your playthrough, completing your current quest tier may well bump your trader stage high enough for them to start showing up.

I don't know if any traders specialise in robotics, but if one does I'd be almost certain it will be Bob. That doesn't make drones unlock any earlier, but it makes them more likely to be in stock once they are unlocked.

 

[FenixMatariki]

What improvement(s) would you like to see, if not recourse to cheat mode? More than one quest at a time, restriction on how far away they can be, or perhaps an upgradeable LCB, that when fully upgraded could have a teleportation function built in, perhaps?

There are a multitude of issues rather than any single.
I believe that the primary problem is simply that there are too many infested tier 5's that i wont even consider running. Because the buffs only last 9 minutes, can only be stacked twice and are not easy to source in bulk, it heavily incentives me to choose certain POI's.
Namely those with high zombie density and easily accessible spawn triggers to activate multiple at the same time. If i have to choose between two POI's one of which sends 5 zombies at a time 20 times, or another that sends 100 zombies all at once, i will obviously take the 100 at once. If it has two 100 zombie triggers right next to each other even better.
However at the same time i do not believe that this is a design flaw, everyone has different play styles and not everyone wants 100 zombies at once, let alone 200. I will touch more on this in point 3.

Obtaining the quests is more time consuming than running them would be the second problem, and is a problem in both ways.
Traders only allow one quest at a time, are limited by default to 4 per biome, are not guaranteed to be anywhere near a players POI's of choice, and might not even offer the desired quest at all.
Secondly TFP buffed zombie health substantially a while back because players were running through quests too quickly for their liking, creating what the community refers to as bullet sponges. With the addition of high power ammo to caches this problem has returned with a vengeance. I do not even use guns and still clear several tier 6 quests with sub 7 minute times.

Three, there are simply not enough tier 5 POI's and no reason for me to visit lesser tier buildings. Roughly speaking, during quest progression you run 10 of each building tier, with the exception of tier 5 buildings due to both trader tier 5 and 6 requiring them. This makes tier 5 buildings the most frequently visited in each playthrough at 20 visits plus repeats if you keep playing after trader completion.
However tier 5 buildings are not only likely the most difficult to create, but it would be unfair to expect TFP to create every POI with my preferred style in mind. This means that even should there be 100 tier 5 buildings, perhaps only 10% would be desirable to me.

Fourth problem, POI spawning. The game does not allow duplicate POI's within a certain distance, might not spawn a POI in the players preferred biome or even spawn the players desired POI at all! With the excellent addition of new higher scaling for biomes, it means a POI in the wasteland will be far more enjoyable than the same POI in the forest, therefore why would i ever leave the wasteland to do quests elsewhere?


To summarize my long winded opinion, there is no one size fits all solution. Creative mode teleportation is the ONLY method at the moment. It will certainly be a difficult problem for TFP to solve, if they solve it at all. It could be an issue localized to myself after all.


Finally...
Previous:
Day 30/31 Second wasteland horde complete: Level 103, Gamestage 837, 6618 kills, quest progression 200/210
Current:
Day 35/36 Third wasteland horde complete: Level 119, Gamestage 958, 7120 kills, quest progression 200/210

As stated i spent the week digging holes. It was horrible. However the base and farm are now complete and rockets are rolling in at a steady pace. This next week will probably be my last and it will be... a blast.
It truly amazes me that you guys play till day 229, with 120 minute days no less! If i really forced myself i suspect i could last till day 100 at 60 minute days, i cannot imagine what you guys do to keep yourself busy and not get burned out.