There are a lot of hints in this thread but it's difficult to track everything at this point since it started over 100 pages ago. I start from now if I can. Meanwhile I gathered some informations, mainly from whales' posts, on frequently asked questions or game mechanics. The wiki could be improved.
***GAME MECHANICS***
---If your morale is below zero, you don't gain any exp or learn anything. You might even commit suicide. Very low morale means no sleeping, crafting, reading, or eventually living.
The higher a positive number it is, the more your EXP Pool will fill up (which you can see below the time and date), allowing you to draw from that to train skills. Very low morale means no sleeping, crafting, reading, or eventually living.
---Reading a book once will give you around 25% towards your next level, depending on the subject matter, your intelligence, and a few other factors. Note that you won't see your skill level until it reaches 1. So yes, books are intended to be read multiple times (consider each reading session to be a single chapter).
---What exactly does negative encumbrance do?
If you check the @ screen, you will get precise information on what encumbrance does--hard numbers on what they make slower, and what skills they affect. Sneakers make standard movement cost 5 less action points (so 95 rather than 100); a skirt makes movement cost 3 less action points
---Wearing multiple pieces of clothing on the same body part will result in encumberment, even if the individual articles have 0 encumbrance each.
---Torso encumbrance isn't that bad; it's only an issue for players who melee a lot. In which case, a backpack may not be the best option.
---Mouth encumberance represents the added difficulty of breathing that wearing objects there has, and causes a minor slowdown in movement.
---Are the dead scientist locations completely random, or do they tend to be near certain areas?
Random. They won't appear in houses or other "solid" tiles, so on average I guess they're more common in forests or fields, away from town.
---"Run Mode" does not make your character move any faster. It is simply a way to prevent unpleasant surprises. Run Mode's ONLY effect is to stop you dead in your tracks if a monster enters your field of vision. This way, you can hold down a movement key when there's no monsters around, and won't need to react quickly if one suddenly shows up.
---If you have poor dexterity, perception, and throwing skill it's possible for your thrown items to deviate significantly from the line of shot.
---Does killing zombies decrase their population?
Yes, the more you kill, the less they'll spawn, at least in the area where you did the killing.
---Do guns have varying degrees of loudness?
The loudness of a gunshot is taken directly from the damage the ammo does. You can compare sound effects; from quiet to loud, they are "plink!" "bang!" "blam!" "kerblam!". Energy weapons generally make a "Fzzt!" sound, which is near silent, and crossbows are completely silent.
---Monsters track you by up to three methods: sight, smell and sound.
Sight works if they can see you; if you can see them, they can see you. Monsters who can see will use this above all other methods.
Smell is the second preferred sense. The player's scent slowly spreads outwards from the player. If you are traveling, your scent is like a comet tail behind you; monsters ahead of you can not smell you until you get closer, or you stand still long enough. This is why ants, for example, seem to ignore the player at first. Use this to your advantage. Also, the maximum range for scent is around 10 tiles.
Sound is a fallback, only used if a monster can not see or smell you (or if they lack both those senses). When you make any noise, a monster will move towards it for a while. How long monsters spend moving towards the sound is dependant on its volume. Running makes a quiet noises, and monsters will only move towards it for a few turns. Firing a gun is much louder, and most monsters will move towards it until they reach it (or can see or smell you).
Some monsters can not see, smell or hear. These monsters generally just move around randomly. Zombies can do all of these things. Plant-based monsters can generally only smell or hear you. Robots can generally only see or hear you.
---Zombies will try to get in through a window if they see you through the window--you don't have to climb through it yourself.
---Much like real life, abusing caffeine, cigarettes or stimulants such as adderall will make studying easier (by boosting your Intelligence)
---All items have melee combat stats displayed at the top; "Bash: 0 Cut: 0 To-hit bonus: -3" means that the item does no extra bashing damage, no cutting damage, and is more awkward to hit with than just bare fists.
---You can shoot monsters that are off-screen.
---Each season has its own table of weather probability--spring is quite wet and rainy (as you may have noticed), summer's sunny, fall is generally cloudy or clear, winter has snow. Warmth is very season-dependant, and in the winter snow will accumulate, making movement difficult if you do not clear a path.
---What defines death?
Head HP <= 0, Body HP <= 0, drug overdose.
---Minor pain reduces your intelligence by one, but does not otherwise affect stats.
***ENEMIES***
---Types of Zombies:
*Boomers shoot bile, which blinds you. They have a range of 3 tiles. Boomers explosion make noise, but less than a molotov.
*Screamers well scream, alterting zombies to where you are.
*Fast zombies are faster than normal ones.
*Spitters spit out acid, which when stepped on hurts you. They have a range of 10 tiles.
*Hulks are faster than the player and they are able to smash through a wall (or display rack, or fellow zombie, whatever)
*Dead scientists...
*Shocker zombies shoot thunderbolts. They have a range of 12 tiles.
*Skeletons...
*Necromancers...
---Fungaloids:
They're intended as a long-term problem due to their extreme fecundity, especially given the fact that they can infect zombies, insects, and humans with a cordyceps (wiki or youtube it)-like disease. Also, some factions may worship the fungus and willingly infect themselves and others.
Fungaloids can be easily defeated through the use of flame weapons, like molotovs or the craftable flamethrower.
---Triffids:
...
***OBJECTS AND ACTIONS***
---To unwield an item press w-
---You can pour out containers by 'w'ielding them, and 'U'nloading.
---Lighter use: 'a', then select lighter, then select direction
---To dig, 'a'ctivate a shovel.
---Is it possible to unlock a door without smashing it?
Use a crowbar on the door. Or break in through a window, and open the door from inside.
---To disarm a trap 'e'xamine it.
---I have a bionic, called Aero-Evaporator. What does it do?
You can use it to condense water in the air into drinkable water, you can choose to drink it directly or store it in a container. With a reliable power source, you'll never need to carry water containers. It's supposedly unusable if you're in an exceptionally dry area (desert?), but I have yet to experience that.
---Items do not scatter or disappear if you leave.
---To barricade doors or improve defenses you need 3 two by fours (for doors, 2 for windows, and 6 if the door is smashed down), 4 nails and a hammer in the inventory. Press 'a' and select the hammer, then select the direction where you want to construct the barricade
---Chainsaw is very slow to hit with, periodically makes noise, and requires occasional refilling with gasoline to work.
---Fire extinguishers are quite capable of putting out small fires.
---On dangerous pits:
You can "disarm" pits the same was as other traps, but it still leaves the slowing pit. Of course, there is no visual difference between the two, so you have to remember your path. Good news is that in theory, you can use this to secure a personal house, since no one else will know the safe path.
---You can open Science labs by 'e'xamining the key bad with an ID.
***ZONES*** [Some places are partially implemented]
---Science labs:
...
---Banks:
Basically your standard reception/tellers area; lots of windows or glass walls and some counters. Perhaps a back office or two. If anyone has any ideas for items to put in these areas, I'm open.
In the back, a safe, possibly with a new item: gold bars. Rather heavy and not much good in melee, but can be traded at high value to NPCs.
The door to the safe in banks will be controlled by a computer, which requires intelligence/computer skill to hack into.
---Police stations:
I will also be expanding this to police stations; a central computer will control the doors to the cells, possibly the evidence room (the one near the front, with drugs and stuff in it sometimes). The computer skill is woefully underutilized (only in labs and missile silos, and even then it's not very important), and I'm going to try to expand the presence of computers in the future.
---Mines:
One entrance, located at the end of a road (it will be treated as a town when the overmap generation plots out roads). Easy to enter, unlike labs and missile silos. Underground, it will be basically one long tunnel, with one or more passages to lower levels. Mining tools (jackhammers, hard hats, flashlights, random trash) all over. Near the bottom, nasty surprises and fantastic rewards--I'll leave that for you to find out
***TRICKS AND SPOILERS***
---I think Hammers work better then Combat Knives. The do 17 bash with +1 to hit, vs combat knives 22 slash at -3 to hit. Plus, they never get stuck. Though, throwing the knives works VERY well.
---What's the best build for someone who wants to try and do nothing but hunt in the forest and survive without scavenging?
Biggest issue with being outside all the time is probably rain. Being wet can add up to some pretty horrendous morale penalties. You might be able to counter that somewhat by keep a varied diet of morale-boosting foods around (strawberries, apples, honey comb, etc.). Second biggest issue would probably be storage, especially if you're trying to do a complete no-looting run. I think you'd have to get at least a few volume-boosting things before you hit the woods, just to be able to hold enough things to craft necessities things with.
Well. The run will end the first day you get an outright acid rain, though. That melts limbs.
---I have to attack a beehive for royal jelly?
If you really don't want to try dealing with the massive swarms of bees in th'depths of a hive, you can make royal jelly out of honeycombs and, I think, bleach. They're craftable, in any case. So you can nab some honey and book before the whole hive comes down on you.
---On rifles:
Yeah, rifles > assault rifles. I have a Marlin 39a fitted with a barrel extension, sniper conversion, enhanced grip, and double clip. I'm one-shotting most zombies with .22 CB rounds, that come in stacks of 100. Assault rifles can deal loads of damage, but you don't get the accuracy bonuses, deal less damage per bullet, and eat up ammo much more quickly. Eventually, you're not going to need burst-fire since you get enough skill to consistently headshot zombies. Higher accuracy is better than more damage since more accuracy increases your chance of getting headshots. One .22 bullet that lands a headshot can deal as much damage as 3 .45's.
---Can someone explain to me where to find the stuff to craft even something really basic?
Hit up the library. Read "Under The Hood", "What's a Transistor", "Cooking on a Budget", "Sew What? Anything!", and "How to Trap Anything" -- this will give you a wide variety of craftables. To reach the really powerful stuff, you'll need a high enough intelligence to hit the textbooks!
Once you've got the know-how, ingredients and tools can be found in hardware stores, grocery stores, basements, and labs.
---On fight strategies:
Use bashing weapons over cutting ones, unless you're high strength or high in the cutting skill. Kill the zombies you have to, then retreat behind a door. Use windows to your advantage. Watch what you're wearing--an overencumbered torso makes melee much more difficulty. And above all, carry a firearm--just a handgun, with one box of ammo, for emergencies. And a couple molotovs. Molotovs are very, very effective. One or two can take out a pack of wolves at distance.
---Where do labs show up? Outside cities in fields and forests?
Generally along roads, outside cities, but occasionally in a city, near the outskirts, or if it's a large city closer to the center.
Author
Topic: Cataclysm: A Zombie-Survival Roguelike (Read 1317837 times)