PC The no-trader challenge

[8_Hussars]

Me too. I have bottled water (the variety coming from boiling and normal dew collectors) as having a chance of dysentery -- enough that Iron Gut can eliminate. Only the game's "mineral water" is what I consider to be drinking water and it is made at a chemistry station which I assume includes a still.

In one of my earlier drafts I had the Advanced Water Filter creating Mineral Water (without coal, and the plants).  I eventually thought that was less useful as one of the biggest player complaints is mass producing glue for duct tape.  Maybe better water make more glue?

BTW (trivia), I recently designed a POI where the entire POI is one giant Dew Collector. See below...

View attachment 30060

Love your POIs.  How big is the filter in this one

 

[zztong]

How big is the filter in this one

It's a 13x13 funnel of cloth blocks (meant to be a bit tarp) that leads to a pipe that leads to a single Dew Collector. In a good rainstorm, there would be a lot of water running into those blue barrels -- though the game doesn't work that way. In game terms, a dew collector would be 3x3 = 9 blocks of surface area. The 13x13 construction is 169 blocks of surface area, so (if it really worked) would be like 18.78 dew collectors putting out 56.33 jars of water a day.

 

[zombieron]

i have been playing no traders for a long time now, no dew collector or water filter mod either and dead is dead. it helps draw out the early game experience of survival  which for me is where the fun is, once water and food are no longer a problem and im geared up the game is kinda boring usually around day 22 after the 3rd blood moon its over.

 

[zztong]

I've been playing no-traders lately and am approaching the day 21 horde. I do like the way it plays without quests and having to either find or make everything. It really slows the game down and it has some of that feel of the earlier alphas. I need to slow down the loot and zombie refresh. They're happening too fast which would make me range farther from base.

 

[Rotor]

I use the zombie no respawn mod and loot no respawn.

I need to slow down the loot and zombie refresh. They're happening too fast which would make me range farther from base.

 

[zztong]

I use the zombie no respawn mod and loot no respawn.

I kind of like zombie respawn, as if zombies are moving about and keep infiltrating the area, though I'm not sure what frequency would give the desired feeling. Of course there are always random spawns and wandering hordes, so maybe that does make sense.

Maybe no loot respawn makes sense. I'd not really thought about it, but with no defending zombies I guess that makes sense too. I suppose that means the feature to respawn chunks (or whatever they're called) should be off too.

 

[Rotor]

I kind of like zombie respawn, as if zombies are moving about and keep infiltrating the area, though I'm not sure what frequency would give the desired feeling. Of course there are always random spawns and wandering hordes, so maybe that does make sense.

Maybe no loot respawn makes sense. I'd not really thought about it, but with no defending zombies I guess that makes sense too. I suppose that means the feature to respawn chunks (or whatever they're called) should be off too.

No so sure what chunks do or dont.  If it means you are getting something that you got before then I would turn it off too, but havent delved into that.

It really forces you to relocate after you clear a town.... and why I dont like current water implementation, so enter "bucket mod" as well .

 

[zztong]

In my current no-trader playthrough (which I love) I've gathered some gold and silver. I've no use for it and I've been trying to think of a recipe I could make that would give them a purpose. The best I've thought of is to let them scrap into Brass. Admittedly, that's not really what you could do to gold and silver.

Do you have any ideas?

 

[8_Hussars]

In my current no-trader playthrough (which I love) I've gathered some gold and silver. I've no use for it and I've been trying to think of a recipe I could make that would give them a purpose. The best I've thought of is to let them scrap into Brass. Admittedly, that's not really what you could do to gold and silver.

Do you have any ideas?

I would have them be ingredients in higher end electrical/electronic items; craftable Solar Cells, drones, sledge or junk turrets, etc.

Then again I prefer that the electrical tiers were flipped. 1 Solar > 2 Batteries > 3 Gen Set.  Solar with restricted low power output is only good for one or two items or trickle charging batteries.  To run massive trap factories you need gen sets and fuel, that sound more end game to me.

Maybe use gold and silver in a Mod for the bicycle;  An E-Rover Mod that provides an electrical boost (speed boost/stamina reduction) to the bicycle.  

 

[Roland]

You can also choose to only use the trader on horde night days or on airdrop days. Ignoring the trader completely and spamming quests daily are two choices but they aren't the only choices.

 

[doughphunghus]

In my current no-trader playthrough (which I love) I've gathered some gold and silver. I've no use for it and I've been trying to think of a recipe I could make that would give them a purpose. The best I've thought of is to let them scrap into Brass. Admittedly, that's not really what you could do to gold and silver.

Do you have any ideas?

Maybe:

Make "solder" out of it. Maybe silver for tier lower tier things, gold for higher.

like...

- make a forge recipe to use the smelted lead with a silver chunk to fabricate a "bar of solder".? Maybe reuse icon for forged steel and recolor it a little

- use workbench to turn it into ... strips of solder. ReUse any thin long object as graphic.

- make "tree sap" a drop from chopping trees. Reuse fat graphic, color it orange

- use chem station? To turn solder strips and tree sap into solder wire? Or "soldering kit"? Not sure of icon to reuse for this. Maybe "repair kit" ?

then make that final part an ingredient to craft things.

 

[zztong]

I would have them be ingredients in higher end electrical/electronic items; craftable Solar Cells, drones, sledge or junk turrets, etc.

Then again I prefer that the electrical tiers were flipped. 1 Solar > 2 Batteries > 3 Gen Set.  Solar with restricted low power output is only good for one or two items or trickle charging batteries.  To run massive trap factories you need gen sets and fuel, that sound more end game to me.

That's an idea. I like the solar angle and have a modlet for similar that oddly enough modifies the traders... which aren't in my game.

You can also choose to only use the trader on horde night days or on airdrop days. Ignoring the trader completely and spamming quests daily are two choices but they aren't the only choices.

I could have if there were traders. There aren't any traders on the map. They've all be replaced with the "overrun traders" POI variant in my POI pack. Other than melting down Dukes for brass, they're only useful in vending machines -- which are largely empty as I've modding down their inventory to be really low and basically never reset. -- Or maybe you were responding to something else? If so, sorry for the confusion.

Make "solder" out of it. Maybe silver for tier lower tier things, gold for higher.

I'm not sure I want to add more objects to the game, but I could. I'd be tempted to just assume silver is solder, though why it drops when mining would have me wondering. But considering silver and gold to be a stand in for "rare earth stuff" kind of works... not that I think wasteland survivors will be making things like solar cells, but there's other game oddities like that, so okay sure maybe.

 

[Roland]

I could have if there were traders. There aren't any traders on the map. They've all be replaced with the "overrun traders" POI variant in my POI pack. Other than melting down Dukes for brass, they're only useful in vending machines -- which are largely empty as I've modding down their inventory to be really low and basically never reset. -- Or maybe you were responding to something else? If so, sorry for the confusion.

I was responding the the thread in general. Without needing to mod you can just use the supply drop event as “the dinner bell” to go and do a quest. Otherwise maybe you could mod the trader to only open when the supply plane drops its load and then close 24 hrs later. 

 

[avalonnn]

Personally I play on easy mode with loot and XP multiplied, but I'm playing on a small map and maxed out traders' level up quests and I'm not upset. Here are some ideas:

1. I really like the custom map generator. If you were able to set it so it generated only one trader, then I think the level quest would bug out and you could only ever do level 1, which would be fine for some people
   
2. A modder could reduce store hours and even give shop owners days off. I think that days 6 and 7 would be best because you might need a trader on day 1. Traders get the "red sabbath" off