Because it's so big, first I list Companion tips, then Tips in general and last my own thoughts for the future.
First off, I decided to come back.
ANYWAY! Great game! The longest (and on my fifth try) lasted about two weeks. I already uninstalled the game because it doesn't auto delete when you die (tsk, tsk). Course, not every RL is like that, I just don't like being tempted. I'll probably go back and beat my record later this week.
I forgot to screenie capture. :( So this is from rough memory.
Was Tony a black guy with a white sounding last name.
First day- Started with leadership, not the best start but it proved useful later on, grabbed a bat and holded up in a room with some other guy.
Second day- Met Esther Sanchez nothing of much interst happened untill day six
Third-Fifth- Consisted mostly of scavenging to get by.
Sixth Day- Found a gun shop in a business district, was mostly empty but had a hunting rifle (I gave it Esther) and a lot of ammo. Also replaced bat with shovel, best melee weapon IMO and took up a shotgun, not the best ranged weapon IMO. Army began coming in by the truckload.
Seventh Day- Ventured
alone to look for food.
Eighth Day- Found a grocery department, emptied out the old inhabitants, a few skellys and zombies.
Ninth-Tenth- Consisted of going back and forth from Gun to Grocery for food.
Eleventh Day- Decided me and Esther had to move to the Grocery, went quite smoothly
Twelfth day- Army started to drop like flies. Coincidentally I found me and Esther a lot of Army surplus supplies.
Thirteenth Day- Found another, larger Grocery depot, and about an army of Zombie Masters, ran like the dickens. Found some Black OPS, fun ensued. Esther died and so did apart of me.
Fourteenth Day- Killed black OPS who shot Esther, got cocky and thought I could kill the rest. Walked into a door and saw four Black OPS; got turned into swiss cheese. At least I got revenge and didn't turn into a zombie.
On CompanionsConsidering what a lot of people think, companions are not really entirely useless. There's really no such thing as bad followers, just bad leaders.
Tips for being a good leader for version Alpha 3.1Basics-First off you need at least a one skill point in leadership.
-If anything you need to find a companion very early on; the best time frame would be from day one to day three (any later and they
may become a burden to your higher level PC)
-I wouldn't recommend more than one really, because it just makes things way too complicated.
- Pressing 'O' gives them commands, remember this.
-Set their directives (O,1) right away, no taking items and no trading, it keeps their inventory tidy and efficient.
Managing their items-Abuse the trading system to properly out fit your companion.
-+Make sure you're in a safe area first.
--+Start by dropping all of your items
except what you want to give your companion.
---+This system can also be used to have companions clear out their inventory. Just make sure you give them usable stuff like planks, recovery items (if hurt), groceries (if hungry), cartridges (if their firearm needs it and if it's in usable amounts, not big enough for them to have some left over).
----+Planks are the best for clearing out inventory, you just 'O'rder them to barricade a door or window and once they have; an empty slot has opened in their inventory!
Preparing for the outside-Before going out to venture for items, make sure that one, your companion's directives are set right (no sleeping, no picking items up, trading ect).
-+Two see if they are fit to leave, if hungry take them with you, if hurt it's probably better to leave them in a safe area,
unless you're absolutely sure of your surroundings and know of a safe area for medical supplies. If hurt and starving, better to just take them with you to give them a chance of survival.
--+Three, if they are sleepy chances are you need to plan the day better. Make sure that when traveling with a companion you first have a safe house to come back to before evening when exploring. The best thing to do with a sleepy companion is just to have them sleep, if you're low on food you just have them sleep an hour or two. Starving, you either abandon them while they are sleeping or take them with you.
---+Four make sure their inventory has useful items, at least one weapon (keep in mind the AI does not switch weapons) and a one block of some extra ammo or two, one block of medical supplies (make sure it's band-aids, if you're lucky), and one grocery or two. If you're planning on making a new safe house, make sure they have atleast three planks with them (they stack). If you followed this (minus the planks) your companion should have four blocks full, this is a good setup.
BRAAIIINS-When confronted with zombies, decide if you're going to run or fight.
-+ Run, set your companion's directives to not fire.
--+ Fight, use the not fire directive to fall back when the zombies get closer.
---+ Emergency, your companion is dying, use the switch positions (Crtl-S) to get them away from the zombies, it will put you in danger for the record but better to take a hit for them and have both of you survive.
----+ If worst comes to worst, they make for a good distraction. Make sure you avenge their death and don't remember the good times when they're trying to eat your brains.
ECT-Some ect tips.
-+Companions can help block those pesky NPC vultures if told to guard a spot.
--+Pack mules don't make for good companions, best to give them a weapon a firearm is the best choice.
---+They will use Medkits on small scratches, so it's better to give them band aids.
----+They will not sleep when one guard or patrolling.
-----+They don't complain ;)
------+Pray they pick a useful skill to level up every morning.
Now, tips in general for difficulty at 100% (Normal)Gender- Males are traditionally slightly stronger, females are traditionally more flexible.
-+Translation, guys can break stuff more easily, women can hit more often and dodge slightly better.
Your first skill-AGILE Helps you fight better. Increases your Melee Atk and your Def.
-+ Translation, can help you dodge that first zombie attack, running should be your first priority on the first day.
--+Usefulness, high but it doesn't make you faster.
-AWAKE Increases your maximum SLP points and HP regeneration.
-+ Translation, it will take slightly longer for you to feel sleepy and you regen more HP.
--+Usefulness, low, on the first day, high in the long run.
-CARPENTRY Helps build stronger barricades. Increases barricading value of barricading items you use.
-+ Translation, takes less planks to fully barricade a door or window.
--+ Usefulness, medium, large furniture is just as useful if not better than plank barricades.
-FIREARMS Improves efficiency with firearms. Increases the Atk and Dmg value when shooting firearms.
-+Translation, that 60HP zombie or Char official takes less time to take down.
--+ Usefulness, Medium to High depends on RNG, you need a firearm first.
-HAULER Helps your carrying more items. Increases your inventory slots.
-+ Translation, really self explanatory.
--+ Usefulness, high, makes survival a little more easier, you can carry more ammo, food ect.
-HIGH STAMINA Helps you running and fighting longer. Increases your maximum STA.
-+ Translation, also helps you to keep on breaking furniture for planks and moving larger pieces of furniture.
--+Usefulness, high, you can't do much but walk when you're tired.
-LEADERSHIP Allows you to get more followers. Increases your maximum followers.
-+ Translation, let's you have one companion for every level you have, max is three.
--+ Usefulness, medium to low, it takes a while to learn how to handle the AI and not to mention it's never really a good idea to have more than one companion.
-LIGHT EATER Helps you ignore your stomach. Increases the nutrition value of food items you use.
-+ Translation, those groceries fill you up more and it takes longer for you to go hungry.
--+ Usefulness, high, you eat to live, zombie live to eat you. Extends your supplies.
-LIGHT SLEEPER Makes you more alert to noise in sleep.
-+ Translation, you hear noises from further away and you recover slightly more health from sleep.
--+Usefulness, high to medium, you can hear noise further away and you are more vulnerable when sleeping.
-MEDIC Improves the benefits of medicine. Increases the values of medicine items you use.
-+ Suddenly you know how to bandage a gaping wound better with just a band-aid
--+ Usefulness, high, it makes band-aids (technically it should be adhesive strips) more useful than med kits when fully stacked, if you're careful you shouldn't need to heal a large amounts of health in one turn.
-STRONG Helps you kick ass. Increases your Dmg for Melee attacks.
-+ Translation, also helps you break down furniture and makes skellys or weak zombies from wasting one of your cartridges.
--+ Usefulness, medium it may help you hit harder but doing so puts you in harms range. You're better off attacking small furniture pieces for planks than attacking zombies close range, especially on your first day.
-TOUGH Helps you stay alive a bit longer. Increases the maximum value of your HP.
-+ Translation, gives you more health.
--+ Usefulness, medium more health is one thing, but zombies tend to claw at you close range, not fire upon you. Course you do always start at full health first day; picking it at sunrise leaves your upgraded health points empty.
My humble ratings of skill usefulness. Note, this is subjective and simply opinionative.Light Sleeper
Light Eater
Agile
Hauler
High Stamina
Fire Arms
Medic
Leadership
Carpentry
Strong
Tough
Awake
Surviving your first day of Apocalypse.-If you're lucky there should be no one but you in your room. On one hundred percent difficulty don't expect to find a hunting rifle next to your bed.
-+Make sure that no one is trying to break open your door, if someone is run.
--+Your first priority should be defense, your SLP, HGR bars should be full, a bat is a good weapon for normal people. A shovel is better, hammers take a lot of STA to wield, crowbars and truncheons stack but aren't as strong as bats. Remember, that around fifty to one hundred swings your offense weapon may break.
---+Once you have your weapon you may only want to engage skellys that are in your way, don't go out bashing zombies, remember, you are trying to survive. You are not Duke Nukem, a Marine or Chuck Norris.
----+ You should be on the look out for band-aids, pistols (or rifle) and groceries. Band-aids stack and pistols hold more ammo than a shotgun. Also make sure you carry a stack of three planks, yes, they stack.
-----+ When you feel safe enough or pressured enough, your first shelter should have a bed in it. The only reason it should not is if one the spot you found is super safe or two you're dead tired. Anyway, break all the windows, they don't provide good protection to begin with and make you viewable from outside; you can still barricade them and block the outside-in view. Go around breaking small furniture for planks, start with chairs, then to tables and last desks. Close all the doors, don't bother with doors outside your safe-room, and barricade only the doors near you.
------+ For a beginner it takes about four planks to fully barricade a door or window. You'll want to only use three or two to save time.
-------+ Understand the moving mechanics of this game. You can 'P'ush furniture in all directions, just not back and you can stand from any angle to push large furniture items.
You survived your first day!-By now, I hope you know that no help is ever going to arrive.
-+Depending on your skills, you should probably go look for a companion. If you hover your mouse over NPCS you can see their skills and general status. Don't pick some who has been roughed up.
--+You can hover your mouse over zombies too to see their health and if they're following a zombie master, if yes, run away from them.
---+Understand when it's about to turn day or night.
----+Remember where your first safe house is.
-----+Know where other survivors are huddled.
------+Decide if you're going to stay at your safe house for another night.
Tips Ect!-I'm not sure, but doubling over your tracks in certain areas when fleeing from zombies may help trick them, just don't double over your entire day's trip.
-+When entering a shop or house, many planks of wood strewn about are good indications of zombies.
--+Never try to engage a Zombie Master's hoard.
---+Zombies get stronger over time.
----+Kite when necessary, it's been explained in this thread many times.
-----+Being hungry is double whammy, you can't go to sleep on an empty stomach.
------+Shotguns are best used at very close range and only when a zombie is at least half its health.
-------+Sometimes it's a good idea to avoid body armor, as it still takes up space in your inventory.
--------+Using large furniture is a good way to stockpile your items, simply seal it away in a corner and place three large pieces of furniture in its way.
---------+Zombies seem to hate large pieces of furniture, leading a zombie into one is a good way to distract it.
My own personal thoughts.That's about all I have for in tips, maybe next version I'll write a guide of some sorts. As for the future, I'd like to see more than simply surviving. Maybe if you stay in one area that is relatively safe, it will eventually be set up as a safe zone for where the military can send in choppas to rescues civilians.
I'd imagine that when it happens your PC can decide to leave the zombie hoard or help the military round up civilians. It'd be nice if other people help too, you know other civilians help the round up process and become center pieces for other events. I'd like to see bigger relationships form with survivors. Maybe even having them dish out quests to rescue or find a lost relative in return for some useful item.
It would be nice to have more skills or a more complex tree of skills. In terms of more skills one that could predict events and their location would be useful, another could be one that helps you find certain buildings, or how about one for recognizing where zombies may be in the district (zombie blood, zombie gunk, zombie smell).
As for a tree, maybe if you advanced far enough into a skill, like say hauler than how about at the end of that tree you get a mega skill that defines your play style. Such as the mega skill for hauler would be something that let you stack items more effectively. The hook is that you can only pick one mega skill and doing so locks all the others. You can still upgrade other skills, thing is you can't pick the mega skill anymore.
More items would be nice too. Radios that could transmit messages would be a nice add. Batteries, please and also wouldn't it make more sense if your phone lasted longer than a day and took power only when making calls? Backpacks, where else if your guy keeping that stuff? Also why does it take space to wear body armor?
In long term, wear should be something that should show on all items. Although, maybe I just didn't live long enough.
Zombies, new events such as "The dead have converged on this spot!" that has zombies swarming from all sides would just be... FUN! I'm sure you don't need to hear the "Continue after dying thing." Maybe the dead should migrate in groups, you know, zombie hoard moves to the west, leaves east side alone stuff. Poison and infection would be a fun add. Smarter zombies, they by now should know that humans need groceries to live. Smart zombies, zombies that use guns or tricks to lure people to their hungry hoard.
That's about all I have on this subject.