>> Original game post <<This is a Let's Play of a poorly-known but extremely proficiently-made survival horror roguelike RPG, called
Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead. Most human life has been extinguished in major cities, zombies run rampant, and several interdimensional forces from Lovecraftian abominations to plant-like Triffids vie for control of Earth. I started doing this on this forum about 3 years ago, and I actually reposted with it recently, but realized I should probably make a new topic rather than keep necro'ing the old one. Bad form, that. You can find a link to the original post above. So, here goes!
New world, new character,
No Hope. That's the mod conditions—massively reduced item spawns and 50% more enemies on average. Aside from given set pieces, finding things I need in towns and locations is gonna be much harder, and I must rely more on improvised tools and equipment. I'm doing a standard
Survivor start for now, which means I start with basic clothes, a messenger bag, pocket knife, bottle of water, smartphone, and a matchbook. Not much, but it's enough to survive the first day or two.
This is actually pretty good for a start—I can see the highway in two places, which means I can follow it to find certain structures for loot, or I can find abandoned vehicles and supplies along the way. It's also far enough from any major towns that I don't have to worry about huge hordes just yet. North of me is a motel—staying away from that. Those are thick with zeds. Northwest is a scrapyard—a boon of a set piece structure, as you'll see in a bit! But for now, I need to set up with some tools and a weapon, fast. Luckily, there is a
Derelict Shed close to my start, which is a good find early on. Solid shelter, hidden from prying eyes, and tends to have a lot of decent wood.
I break down the already-damaged door by (S)mashing it with a rock. This gets me some 2"x4' planks and a few nails. I fashion a club for now, just in case I run into something, though I expect to get a better weapon soon. In the little corner there are a couple sheets of 4'x8' plywood; good if I'm actually building a house, or if I want to cut them up for smaller projects, but useless at this stage.
After traveling northwest a bit, I happen upon the scrapyard on my map. This is a suspiciously well-fortified junkyard with steel walls and barbed wire all around it except the front entrance. And there's a survivor here, too—the scrapyard owner, who effectively acts as a shopkeeper. You can buy things from shopkeepers by trading for other things, which are assigned a given $ value. Scrappers only tend to sell raw steel spare parts, which are common enough, so I don't find him that useful to buy from. However, the man was nice enough to let me use the little 3x3 shack in the corner of the junkyard, which is already outfitted with a
sleeping bag. This'll be a decent safe location to stay in for a while as I gather supplies and make more tools. Also, he gave me a quest to go find 25 Magnetrons
(key component in microwave ovens). I dunno what I'll get for it, as he didn't say, but I assume it's gonna be extra inventory, a lead to a supply cache, or maybe him joining my party.
Also, can I just say... the sound of rain pouring outside goes amazing with the ambient music. They even modeled the sound of rain hitting the roof instead when you go indoors!
I spend midday taking apart a couple pieces of scrap furniture. Scrapyards have ovens, consoles, broken vending machines etc., all of which are good for parts. Sheet metal is used to make a
Brazier for safe fires, and a
Makeshift Pot for cooking and boiling water. I craft a
Simple mace out of a window curtain dowel rod and some scrap metal, which I can improve later if I find or make a drill to fasten it more securely, turning it into a
Trench mace. Maces are brutal 22 bash damage single-handers that effectively deal with most zombies.
While foraging for food from the nearby forests, I happened upon these newspaper articles. You can find things like this all over the place, and they paint a stark picture of what went on behind the scenes before the Cataclysm occurred. Great stuff for those who are interested in piecing the story together, because I don't think even the developers themselves truly know.
When you're foraging for food, the single best thing you can find are
cattails. You only find these in swamps or along riverbanks, of course, and swamps are especially dangerous because they're spawning areas for giant insect monsters—any of which can be hostile and extremely dangerous to an early game character. Cattail rhizomes can be roasted into 280 kcal servings apiece, and when you consider that meat is 400 kcal, that's a pretty sweet deal. The second best thing is to luck out and find
eggs from underbrush. Eggs are calorie-dense and can be boiled to greatly extend their shelf life.
I would argue that finding food is actually not that difficult—it's getting proper water containers and food prep equipment that's tougher. I was able to mold some plastic tupperware using my fire + some scrap plastic chunks from furniture & electronics in the scrapyard, which store 0.75L apiece, but it'd be much more convenient to have a proper tank or canteen. My best bet early on would be to make a waterskin out of leather, because making a wooden canteen is an exhausting process requiring sealant like wax or rosin, and I need chemical knowledge or luck for that.