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Glad to hear this is so great, just wish I wasn't working 16h days this week. Hopefully by the time I'm done with that, they'll have an update to these extra bugs and I can see how my Breakdown training helps in this DLC.
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May 31, 2014 17:49
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prussian advisor posted:Just picked up this game and the Breakdown DLC, can anyone link to a good general guide for people just starting out? I think I remember there being a number of counter-intuitive things about this game that the tutorial/early campaign doesn't really explain, like certain types of character traits being awful or the people in your base eating all your food even while the game is turned off. Basic stuff? - Cardio is king. If you have a survivor with low Cardio, you should probably take them out back, unless you have no other options. In the earlier zones level Cardio up as much as you can by running often. - Melee is second king. It's silent, has a good aoe to it, and blunt does knockdown/knockback. Your main fighting tools should be melee weapons, not guns. - Guns are useful in specific situations. You should never be using guns as basic tools. You can eventually make silencers to reduce the noise, but think of them as consumable items. Shotguns are good on hordes, rifles are good on unique enemies, etc. - Outposts siphon resources to your main base per turn, depending on what the major resource is in that Outpost. It's only ever like +3 though, so it's a bit pointless. The more important function of Outposts is creating a safe zone. Zombies will not spawn in an Outposts area, and if you lay mines around them ( can be done anywhere, and is free ), they'll instakill the hordes. Setting up a defense network of Outposts can make it so your home base will never have any real problems. In the home bases out in the middle of nowhere this is a bit less useful, but in the city bases, you can almost entirely clear out an area of Zombies for good. - People use supplies while you are gone, and you use supplies daily. Good thing a single rucksack can cover all of that and you'll probably collect about 20 a day. - You will get about 20+ side quests per day in the main campaign. The thing is, you'll lose reputation not doing these missions, but it's only ever in drops of -2/-3. But you get about +20/+30 rep per day just by bringing in rucksacks, doing other side quests, or doing the main quest. So you basically lose nothing by ignoring most of these missions. The only exceptions are the "a survivor is missing" and "we found a group of survivors" quests, because those are timed. If you don't find your survivor within the time limit of the quest, they have a 75%/60%/45%/30%/15% chance of dying, with the number going down with each Outpost you have. And if you don't meet up with the other groups of survivors in time, they'll get killed because they don't have a home base. This can be good though if you feel your group is already to big.
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May 31, 2014 18:03
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There's a list of traits here, for the most part they are as good or bad as they sound. Some are merely flavor text and don't really change anything. Any trait that will negatively effect that character will be shown in their description when you look at them via the character menu. As for how the base updating thing while you're not playing works - well, I want to say the devs have not completely detailed how it all works. Basically, when you close the game and restart your next session, the game checks if one "real world" day has passed (or I think midnight real-world time - if you save at 11:58 pm then restart the game after midnight, changes will take place) and makes the adjustments to your base and characters. These effects drop off dramatically after two or three real-world days passing. I know people have complained about people dying and having negative resources after these switches, but I've personally never encountered anything so drastic, even after a week of playing between sessions. That said, here's what you can do to minimize these effects: Keep your base's morale as high as possible. You can do this by completing missions, killing zombie hordes and doing things people request of you. You'll find the game will toss several missions at you simultaneously, all of which will randomly fail if you don't do them, and you may have no way to do them all - don't panic. You're not expected to do them all, so you'll have to decide what ones to take based on what you need. Generally, I prioritize missions that help out survivors already at my base and clearing out infested locations, and tend to ignore ones with neighbors (enclaves, three or so people with their own stash) or stranded people unless I need to recruit more people. Note that THESE people can die if you don't help them and enough time passes. Story missions in vanilla SoD, I think, are untimed - the major problem with them is sometimes they don't pop up which can screw your game. Resources - Food and construction materials are very important, the former so people don't starve and the latter for building facilities, making items and for not getting you hosed by random events that require their use. Medicine is not super useful, until someone at your base gets sick or wounded, then it's very important. Ammo is important, but not in the way you might think - mainly you can use it to build stuff. I want to say it was confirmed somewhere that NPC survivors do NOT actually use up individual ammo in the stash, but if you have no ammo resources, they won't be able to defend the base walls. Fuel is important for one major thing - keeping your outposts supplied with mines, and also for building items. Facilities - these are not hard-and-fast rules, but you should build a medical area, at least a basic workshop, and someplace to sleep ASAP. Increasing supply room for your resources is also important. I read online where people are like "I'm constantly running out of resources and everyone is tired and sick," and then they off-handedly reveal they have like over 20 people at their base, which is ridiculous and totally unnecessary. I never recruit more people than I have sleeping space for, but that's just me - and again, using that metric, I have never come back to a game finding everything in utter disarray. Outposts - look at the map, see what streets zombie hordes will come down to reach your base, and build outposts on key corners and streets to catch them with your mine traps (again, fuel is important for this, but it costs very little and is a MAJOR help to defending). How many outposts you have depends on the size of your base - generally if you have at least one outpost for each resource, you should be fine (although if I can put more than one each, I do extra construction materials). I think they recently changed how outposts do supplies, so you may want to read patch notes to see what's up with that. Survivors - make sure to bring survivors on missions with you (approach and talk to them, they give you a button prompt - think it's Y on the 360 controller), and if Lily alerts you to one of your survivors needing help somewhere in the city, help them. Both of these things increase a survivor's trust in you, and when that's high enough, they become "friends" and you can switch to them when your character becomes tired. This is critically important in another way - don't rely on using just two or three super characters, because if you do that and they get killed, you're gonna be in a difficult spot (I'm lying, you can do this pretty easily in the vanilla game, but it's harder to do in Breakdown). Make friends, switch off and let good characters get rest, take unexperienced people out on random missions and such to build their skills up. Generally, if you finish a session with a) your morale bar at least 3/4 of the way to full (preferably totally filled and b) not less than 10 of food, construction material and medicine (and possibly ammo), you should not be totally screwed when you come back. If you have more survivors than your base can reasonably support, you might have issues. If you have sick people, make sure you have a medical area built and at least more than 10 medicine - I have always done this and no one who was sick at my base when I came back to play again ever died. I want to say the resource tracker, which shows how much you use on a daily basis, is not exact and possibly hosed up - just make sure your actual supply is larger than what it says is being consumed. There's a guide here that talks about a lot of this and has some decent advice. ^^And I also agree with stuff Rookersh says above, good advice (and he said what I was basically trying to say about consumption much better). Bruteman fucked around with this message at 18:22 on May 31, 2014 |
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May 31, 2014 18:14
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Excellent advice from both posts, I appreciate it. Is there any real reason not to immediately jump into Breakdown? That's the mode I'm primarily interested in.
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May 31, 2014 19:11
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prussian advisor posted:Excellent advice from both posts, I appreciate it. Nope. As a matter of fact, I put nearly 20 hours into Breakdown before I started the vanilla game. Just play a Level 1 Breakdown game for as long as you like to get used to stuff - actually, the first hour or two of Breakdown is a lot more difficult than vanilla (and a lot more satisfying), but if you survive you will learn enough to breeze through the story mode. If you want something a little more safe, play story mode - it slowly introduces all of the game elements and is really like a big tutorial. It's really, really hard to completely screw yourself over in story mode.
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May 31, 2014 19:26
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prussian advisor posted:Excellent advice from both posts, I appreciate it. I've got a good post on weapons you should read, let me get it. Okay, so here is some information about weapons, durability, and so on. All your melee weapons in SoD have three factors; Type, Weight, and Durability. Type can be Heavy(Big swings), Blunt (Knockdown chance), and Sharp (Insta-kill chance). Weight is self-explanatory. Durability governs how tough the weapon is, and how many Zed skulls you can crack open with it before it becomes damaged (turns yellow) and then finally breaks. One of the best weapons is shown here:  The Wrench has 5 Durability, the maximum, and weighs only a single pound. A 5:1 Durability/Weight ratio is very nice. So, how can you find weapons and keep them from breaking? First, maintain your weapons. Build a Workshop at your Home Base. This will automatically repair and refresh the amount of damage your weapons can take over the course of every night if it is stored in your locker. It can be easy to remember if you swap weapons every time a fatigued Survivor returns to base - put the weapon they were using in the supply locker (with your loot) and equip them a new one before switching to another character. Never leave a character unarmed, in case their AI sends them on a mission! Maintaining weapons is very important, as the valley is a closed system and if you break every weapon no more will spawn. Secondly, find yourself more weapons. Houses can be very random, but many good tools will spawn at locations in Spencer's Mill. Construction Sites and Warehouses are likely to contain Blunt Weapons like Crowbars, Nail Pullers, Pipe Wrenches and Prybars. You can also check Garages and Industrial Stores. There is a Construction Site right outside the church driveway, and a Warehouse behind the church across a field. I hope this helps you! LeJackal fucked around with this message at 19:53 on May 31, 2014 |
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May 31, 2014 19:50
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LeJackal posted:I've got a good post on weapons you should read, let me get it. This is also excellent advice. I always try to carry two one-hand blunt weapons (one for backup if I can't make it back to base) and one silenced pistol. The melee weapons are for the regular zombies; the pistol is great for head-shotting Screamers and Bloaters. Ferals are a little more tricky, but if you get the drop on them, they're easy for head-shots too. Juggernauts are a different story; you can slowly beat them or shoot them to death, but they go down quick with explosives or fire. The problem is survivors are immune to melee and gunfire damage but die real quick to explosives and fire. I just bring people I don't like on those missions  If you find someone with the Powerhouse skill, throw all your two-handed heavy weapons at them, because the skill increases their ability with those weapons and to instant-kill enemies. These characters are supremely awesome in fights against hordes or in other special missions that toss a lot of zombies at you, you can cut through them like butter. There's also been advice in this thread on what kind of characters are good with edged weapons, but since those weapons are not durable on their own without the right skills for it, I've barely used them. Their advantage is they are also awesome at one-hit killing.
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May 31, 2014 20:21
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I'm getting real tired of trying to rescue a survivor only to have the stupid fucker die. There's nothing I can do if the second I show up he gets downed and won't even get up if I get zombies off him.
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May 31, 2014 20:23
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Acquire Currency! posted:I'm getting real tired of trying to rescue a survivor only to have the stupid fucker die. There's nothing I can do if the second I show up he gets downed and won't even get up if I get zombies off him. Or maybe I'm just bad at the game. 
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May 31, 2014 20:31
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Rookersh posted:Basic stuff? So what you're saying is… It's Rule #1?
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May 31, 2014 20:31
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Well, I tried my first Breakdown game and got my whole base killed extremely fast. Started out as a random character, wound up scavenging for supplies in a random house until I realized that I probably should find a base. Figured out how the map worked and where the bases were, stumbled onto an abandoned taxicab and drove out there. When I arrived there were five survivors there myself, but only one of them was considered a friend. By the time I got there I was already hurt, and somehow before long three hordes converged onto the base. I couldn't figure out how to rally the rest of the survivors to fight back, and trying to fight seven zombies at once with a rolling pin, well, that ended about how you'd expect. I'll take the advice of what to build initially to heart for sure, but we actually wound up getting swamped by several hordes almost as soon as I set up in a community. Any advice for taking care of that first assault, or stopping/delaying it, assuming I did something to cause it myself? EDIT: Oh yeah, is there every any reason NOT to create an outpost out of a building you've cleared? Like, do they require survivors or supplies to man them or something? Also, the base I set up in is the farmhouse, which seems super isolated. Is there a more "newbie friendly" one you guys would recommend?
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May 31, 2014 20:42
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prussian advisor posted:Well, I tried my first Breakdown game and got my whole base killed extremely fast. Started out as a random character, wound up scavenging for supplies in a random house until I realized that I probably should find a base. Figured out how the map worked and where the bases were, stumbled onto an abandoned taxicab and drove out there. You have limited number of outposts which can be placed, when they run out of consumable supplies left in the closet there, they'll give you one ammo per in-game day, iirc. You can have a max of 8 and I think it's tied to which safehouse you're using. I usually will make one "roving" outpost where I start in the middle of an area with an outpost, and then bring all the dross items back to that locker as I explore. The traps are also a must-use. Buy those ASAP, and every time you start the game up check to see if they're still up (they won't be.) If you have enough ammo your survivors will generally deal with crap on their own, but traps and just flat car-dooring every attacking horde to death is the best/easiest. Some safehouses it's easy to set up outposts along every approach that hordes approach via, others like the farmhouse, not so much (and that one in particular is prone to big fatties wandering by from the orchard). coyo7e fucked around with this message at 20:54 on May 31, 2014 |
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May 31, 2014 20:51
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The only reason to not make everything into an outpost is that materials outposts are the best generally. You should definitely, very quickly make outposts that cover the entrances of your current homebase so you don't get overrun by hordes immediately after getting your first homebase. Its pretty much a fixed event in breakdown that you get attacked by a few hordes at the start.
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May 31, 2014 20:53
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FrickenMoron posted:The only reason to not make everything into an outpost is that materials outposts are the best generally. You should definitely, very quickly make outposts that cover the entrances of your current homebase so you don't get overrun by hordes immediately after getting your first homebase. Its pretty much a fixed event in breakdown that you get attacked by a few hordes at the start. I rarely carry spare ammo unless I'm bringing it home or working on shooting skills though. I prefer a 17-shot glock or 30-shot .22 SMG, which is ample for blowing up propane tanks and headshotting one horde before it reaches me. The more space in your clip, the more space you can save in your rucksack for nice melee weapons you're looting, and piles of drugs/snacks.
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May 31, 2014 20:55
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I hope some of the unique survivors you can rescue as VIPs in Lifeline will show up in Breakdown. I really want to get Freak in my community.
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May 31, 2014 21:02
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If you're in a pinch and need to clear some hordes the quickest option is to run a few down with a car. I don't know if it's been patched out but it used to be the case that cars took far less damage backing into zombies than hitting them dead-on. They still seem to take less damage when beamed with the driver's side door (and if you're an achievement chaser doing so in Breakdown brings you closer to a very difficult goal that nets you a pretty great survivor). Note that if you're camped out at the Church you'll still have to deal with woods-bound hordes the old-fashioned way. But road-wandering hordes should really never threaten your base.
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May 31, 2014 21:05
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coyo7e posted:The main thing I'd suggest early on is hoarding construction materials, medical supplies, and ammo in that order. I usually accumulate a couple piles of supplies before building a base because I would rather go to a superior safehouse over a stop-gap. You said build a safe house--do you not have to join one of the three existing communities, you can just found your own? I just went straight to the nearest one and joined up. Also, how exactly do you horde supplies in the "pre-game?" Aren't rucksacks only able to be carried one at a time? Also, are you saying that if you plant an outpost in the middle of nowhere and take items back to there, that they'll be available in the home base as well? Is this like old school Resident Evil games where each storage chest has the same inventory regardless of where it's located.
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May 31, 2014 21:06
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prussian advisor posted:You said build a safe house--do you not have to join one of the three existing communities, you can just found your own? I just went straight to the nearest one and joined up. This only happens if you dont start a new breakdown game, basically from level 2 on you just start with your survivor + the few you brought from the last round. I think on level 1 you always get 3 places you can join. You dont have the resources to take over any other home-site yourself. And yes, outposts have the same inventory as your homebase so you can make one in a strategically good position to put items into and then tear it down later. You can store resource backpacks in car trunks now. Before that update was out you had to get them one by one.
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May 31, 2014 21:09
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FrickenMoron posted:This only happens if you dont start a new breakdown game, basically from level 2 on you just start with your survivor + the few you brought from the last round. I think on level 1 you always get 3 places you can join. You dont have the resources to take over any other home-site yourself. Okay, this is starting to make a little more sense now. Is the town map always the same, by the way? And if you put down an outpost before you join a home base, can you stash things in there ahead of time? Assuming that you even can, of course, since I haven't tried.
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May 31, 2014 21:13
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Haha, well i finished Lifeline, one of the endings anyway i presume. I armed a tactical nuclear warhead in the tunnels that blew up the city after a timer, stood on top of the watchtower during the final siege with a 50cal sniper rifle gutting everything that came near in one shot. All while there were nonstop landmines going off and body parts flying everywhere, drat this is what it must feel like to be american.
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May 31, 2014 21:13
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prussian advisor posted:Well, I tried my first Breakdown game and got my whole base killed extremely fast. Started out as a random character, wound up scavenging for supplies in a random house until I realized that I probably should find a base. Figured out how the map worked and where the bases were, stumbled onto an abandoned taxicab and drove out there. I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but using cars to kill hordes can be really effective, and is almost necessary in breakdown at the start of a game. Just remember to back over the zombies, it causes less damage to the car. You probably need to use a car to deal with the initial onslaught of hordes, until you get some outposts set up.
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May 31, 2014 21:14
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prussian advisor posted:Okay, this is starting to make a little more sense now. The town map is always the same in vanilla SoD/Breakdown. You can't put up an outpost until you've joined a home base. Sorry, I know I said "yep jump right into Breakdown" but that first start is real hard; some great advice for that was already posted (get one outpost up ASAP covering the street your base is on, that will help with hordes, mow 'em down with cars, etc.) The first hour or two of a level-one Breakdown is always a mad scramble for supplies, but if you can survive the first group of hordes, it will get a lot easier on you.
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May 31, 2014 21:21
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Also another useful tip is giving someone in the watchtower a bigass gun like a grenade launcher; it never uses actual ammo, so they'll just rain down abstracted fire all day long.
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May 31, 2014 21:27
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Breakdown is the game most everyone wanted (given that the OC was truncated and incomplete) but it does actually help for new players to work through the OC up through, say... the point where you're asked to change bases. It's a solid intro to the gameplay. Breakdown is pretty rough on new players by comparison.
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May 31, 2014 21:29
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sebmojo posted:Also another useful tip is giving someone in the watchtower a bigass gun like a grenade launcher; it never uses actual ammo, so they'll just rain down abstracted fire all day long. An upgraded watchtower manned by someone with a grenade launcher is basically an artillery emplacement, you'll never have to worry about zombies approaching the base again. If you use the 'snipe zombies' ability to increase the tower's range, they'll rain down pinpoint-accurate high explosive fire from blocks away, it's hilarious and awesome. Heavy machine guns in the watchtower are also great fun.
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May 31, 2014 21:47
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EDIT: Nevermind. 
Azran fucked around with this message at 22:30 on May 31, 2014 |
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May 31, 2014 21:55
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Is there any mods that make the survivors react to stuff in a bigger radius? During zombie raids in Lifeline I constantly have soldiers just standing around doing nothing while zombies are 20 feet away  edit: Also a 'Shut up Lily!' mod for Breakdown. Danith fucked around with this message at 22:12 on May 31, 2014 |
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May 31, 2014 22:09
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Lifeline still suffers greatly from my biggest complaint of the series that nobody seems to do anything unless you tell them to. I really wish they would automatically forage or do something other than just stand around waiting. Something to make the camp feel a bit more alive than it does. Also gun emplacements. I want to make sandbag bunkers or something. It's a crime you can't upgrade your defenses in this DLC
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May 31, 2014 22:18
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explosivo posted:Lifeline still suffers greatly from my biggest complaint of the series that nobody seems to do anything unless you tell them to. I really wish they would automatically forage or do something other than just stand around waiting. Something to make the camp feel a bit more alive than it does. Considering the decisions those idiots make when they DO get to choose something, I would prefer they do less. If I didn't have to spend half my time rescuing my only doctor who decided it would be a great idea to look for some Doritos when there are 3 people needing medical attention back home, I would be much, much happier. Also, sandbags are useless against zombies... they aren't shooting back. You want tall walls and spike traps. Don't turn your base into a Yonkers...
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May 31, 2014 22:44
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Soldiers not attacking the zombies literally ripping chunks out of their butts is a little annoying. And holy cow trying to get survivors back up after they go down is I'll save someone some day, but for now that radio chick's bitching really chaffs, deserved or not.
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May 31, 2014 23:34
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gently caress that radio chick Jesus Christ.
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May 31, 2014 23:40
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explosivo posted:Lifeline still suffers greatly from my biggest complaint of the series that nobody seems to do anything unless you tell them to. I really wish they would automatically forage or do something other than just stand around waiting. Something to make the camp feel a bit more alive than it does. The Ops Center lets you select activities for your inactive soldiers to perform. You can either have them continuously forage small amounts of supplies, kill zombies around the base, or search for survivors to bring in. That way they aren't just standing around being useless.
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Jun 1, 2014 00:07
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God drat. This survivor hit a zed with a prybar and she's the one that goes down? She wasn't even touched!
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Jun 1, 2014 00:10
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Mister Bates posted:The Ops Center lets you select activities for your inactive soldiers to perform. You can either have them continuously forage small amounts of supplies, kill zombies around the base, or search for survivors to bring in. That way they aren't just standing around being useless. Really? THANK GOD, finally, I can micromanage these muppets like I always dreamed.
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Jun 1, 2014 00:19
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Basic Chunnel posted:If you're in a pinch and need to clear some hordes the quickest option is to run a few down with a car. I don't know if it's been patched out but it used to be the case that cars took far less damage backing into zombies than hitting them dead-on. They still seem to take less damage when beamed with the driver's side door (and if you're an achievement chaser doing so in Breakdown brings you closer to a very difficult goal that nets you a pretty great survivor). Note that if you're camped out at the Church you'll still have to deal with woods-bound hordes the old-fashioned way. But road-wandering hordes should really never threaten your base. 
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Jun 1, 2014 00:41
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One downside to sending your dudes out on search and rescue or zombie-hunting duty is that the only people actually on the base most of the time are the sick and wounded, so there's no one to take on missions with me.
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Jun 1, 2014 00:48
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I think they seriously broke the AI on allied units. Characters I bring with me as backup literally do nothing except get eaten. They do not fight at all. And survivors seem way too sensitive to damage sources. I watch one guy go down because I threw a molotov at some zombies that were twenty feet away. He was completely in the clear, not a zed in sight, and suddenly he goes down. That cannot be working as intended.
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Jun 1, 2014 01:08
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Yeah, there's a bunch of people on the Steam forums (lovely as they may be) who have pointed out the same thing, and I've witnessed it as well. The hysterical part is this is behavior that Undead Labs said they corrected a few patches ago since survivors at a base would do the same thing. You'd think they'd have noticed it developing Lifeline, seeing as how base attacks are a major part of the game now...
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Jun 1, 2014 01:16
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Yep, I've had high-value assets sitting safely on the helicopter pad suddenly fall the gently caress over for no reason during sieges. There were no zeds within fifty feet in any direction and down they go anyway. Soldiers and survivors standing around doing jack poo poo has happened to me several times as well, although it seems to be inconsistent. Sometimes the AI works fine and sometimes it has a brain-fart and the guys I bring along as backup stand stock still and stare stoically at a wall while fifteen zombies tear chunks out of them.
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Jun 1, 2014 01:39
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| # ? May 30, 2024 20:39 |
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I just feel like the babysitting has been turned to 11 and it's just a bit too overwhelming given the extra challenge already present in the DLC.
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Jun 1, 2014 01:41
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