In this segment, we learn why reach attacks kick ass, level our strength up to 9, raid a megastore for welding equipment, and steal a military Humvee.
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Thanks to a Large Tactical Backpack I found as a random drop off a zombie—I know, I couldn't believe it either, freaking 66 liter capacity—I'm able to go looting in earnest. Trying not to nick
too much stuff as I want to be self-sufficient on my own terms, though. Remember that
Wal-Mart Megastore south of my shelter? Those places tend to have
everything. Especially shopping carts. Carts are 1-tile vehicles that can store almost 3 times as much loot by volume as you could ever hold on your own, and can easily be pulled or pushed with you, though it slows you down a bit. Foremost on my shopping list is welding equipment. If I have that, I can do some truly advanced crafting, and also reinforce my shelter with spot-welded sheet metal.
Before that, though, we have a parking lot of zombies to kill. To whittle them down, I get my spear out, take cover behind some bushes, and use the "Yell" command to make a lot of noise to attract them from roughly two dozen tiles off.
As you can see, they had no chance! Bushes take 4x the time to move through as flat terrain, and some are even bristling with thorns that can damage and bleed zombies. I always fight my enemies over them if I can, especially with a reach weapon like my Knife Spear, which lets me poke and stick them several times before they ever get close.
Similar principle applies to vehicles. Car interiors, like the inside of this Road Roller
(an improvised vehicle with 200L steel drums for wheels) also take 4x the time moving through, so if I set up right, I can easily force enemies into a terrible position.
Ding! I've killed my 100th zombie. With a certain mod active, I can use the XP gained from kills to improve my core stats like Strength, which I need to do ASAP because my character is really physically weak. Leaving dozens of dead zombies behind me, I move into the megastore.
In no time flat, I find an acetylene welding torch kit and several canisters of oxyacetylene gas.
Perfect. The only thing I'm missing is welding goggles, but I can improvise those by taking tinted glass from sunglasses and layering those into more glare-protective lenses. I take the cart around for a bit, and find a few decent crafting books.
This one seems to show how to reload bullet casings. I could do that, if only I had a hand press and some gunpowder. I could improvise a press out of a can lid or hockey puck, but that's really a low-end concern right now. I also managed to loot a fireman's axe from a Feral Human, a nasty enemy that throws rocks at range and then closes with pipes, crowbars, axes or whatever else they have in hand. Luckily I killed it before it had a chance to do real damage. Fire axes are
devastatingly powerful, and can be used very effectively as crowbars for prying open doors and crates. I had to repair the axe
(using a Misc Repair Kit I found on the shelves) so it had its full damage capability, but when I did...
Oh, yeah, baby.
I went up two floors to the roof, next, to take a look around the area.
Farms & silos far to the west. Campgrounds southeast, and a... Triffid Grove, hoooo boy. Triffids are nasty plant monsters I'd need specialist gear to kill reliably. There's a Slime Pit (
~) southwest of this town which could be worth hitting, if I ever need materials for superglue.
Done here for the day, I head out to the parking lot to find a Humvee in working condition, still with its mounted M240 machine gun. And it's
loaded. The only problem is the vehicle has no working drive belt, which means the engine can't turn the alternator to charge the battery. I can replace the drive belt if I had one, which I can find in garages or make one myself.
Still, it's good enough to drive it back the short distance to my shelter and park it in the lot. I could repair it, but I need a supply of rare JP8 fuel to make it viable; I might just strip the military composite armor frame down for parts and make my own thing out of it. I could make a solar-powered electric motorcycle with a lithium-ion battery, even. Now that I have welding equipment, and a Humvee to strip down, I'm pretty much set for days! I just need to really secure my food supply, which is why the next couple weeks are likely gonna be all about hunting big game, starting a proper farm, and getting a windmill to process flour
(if I can manage it).