survivor mode or sandbox?

[Diogenes Horrigan]

so i do have 50 hours on project zomboid, but i have never gotten far on any character and i was more or less trying to find a good gamemode/difficulty to start with. Is survivor mode or sandbox better? With sandbox all i really wanna do with it is make the loot rarity common and then put the starting population multiplier at 0.5x, and then late game 2.0x

[Drizzt]

you could try the presets in the drop down menu at the bottom of the Custom Sandbox page - Initial Infection is good to start with if you want to survive a bit longer and get used to the game mechanics (it starts with fewer, weaker zombies, lots of loot, vehicles in better condition, and your character gains XP quicker) - you might also want to enable Multi Hit (can hit multiple zombie with a melee weapon strike) and set Rear Vulnerability to Low (less chance to get bitten from behind) in the Character options

[Diogenes Horrigan]

Originally posted by Drizzt:

you could try the presets in the drop down menu at the bottom of the Custom Sandbox page - Initial Infection is good to start with if you want to survive a bit longer and get used to the game mechanics (it starts with fewer, weaker zombies, lots of loot, vehicles in better condition, and your character gains XP quicker) - you might also want to enable Multi Hit (can hit multiple zombie with a melee weapon strike) and set Rear Vulnerability to Low (less chance to get bitten from behind) in the Character options

thank you. do you think it's okay to be playing this game on easier difficulties and such?

[Drizzt]

Apologies for the very long post - i think i got a little carried away lol :-)
(also - sorry if i wrote like you are newer than you are - i forgot you said you have played for 50 hours and so you probably know the mechanics of the game, and the ramifications of getting scratched or bitten - but i did also want to avoid spoiling some of those surprises for any newer players who are reading too :-))

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

Originally posted by Drizzt:

you could try the presets in the drop down menu at the bottom of the Custom Sandbox page - Initial Infection is good to start with if you want to survive a bit longer and get used to the game mechanics (it starts with fewer, weaker zombies, lots of loot, vehicles in better condition, and your character gains XP quicker) - you might also want to enable Multi Hit (can hit multiple zombie with a melee weapon strike) and set Rear Vulnerability to Low (less chance to get bitten from behind) in the Character options

thank you. do you think it's okay to be playing this game on easier difficulties and such?

yes - i think i understand what you mean - not wanting to discover the game's secrets or that kind of thing at an easy level, and therefore robbing yourself of the satisfaction of doing so at a harder difficulty?

well i would say the only "secret" like that would be discovering all of the places on the map - e.g. there are only 4 towns you can spawn in (unless you use a mod), and only 5 for which you can discover in game paper maps for (thereby showing you the entire town on the main game map) - but these are only a fraction of the map - there are all sorts of other "settlements" (for want of a better word) on the map that can only be found by exploring, including a military base and an entire other large town (neither of which i have yet discovered) - and the more places you know about, the more of an advantage you may have when you increase the difficulty, since you will know about good places to head for in terms of loot, or protection, or vehicles etc

that is even true for the early locations - e.g. once you find a place that is stocked with medical supplies or weapons, you will always know where to go to find that stuff - although on the harder difficulty levels there will be far less loot - making these places even more valuable (since there is less loot everywhere, and so many places will have barely anything, while these places will have at least a few useful items), but also far less well stocked (so they can't be your only supply)

and so the only thing i would suggest is that you maybe don't go too crazy on the exploration if you are playing on a difficulty level that you feel isn't challenging - maybe just get used to the game mechanics on very easy settings, and then add a little more challenge and embark on a longer game, but maybe only aiming to survive in the starting towns - even travelling between them - but maybe not uncovering big areas away from those 5 mapped towns - and then if you decide that actually that difficulty is challenging enough, then you could continue and explore everywhere - or crank things up a little higher before you do

personally i haven't discovered much of the map in my 300 hours of playing - i did get very distracted trying out dozens of mods - but also was just playing various games at varying levels of difficulty - and some long games where i was setting up bases - but still never went too far away from those 5 main areas - in fact i have barely even visited March Ridge, which is the one mapped area in which you can't choose to spawn

but the point is this - the main focus of the game is survival - so even on the Initial Infection settings - and even if you enable Multi Hit and set Rear Vulnerability to Low - it is still possible to get surprised by a zombie, or make a small mistake and get scratched or bitten

i don't want to give too many spoilers - but suffice to say if you have watched The Walking Dead or that kind of thing, getting bitten does not end well..... and depending on your settings, other wounds may have a chance to end up just as bad

and so you may well find yourself respawning with a new character multiple times even on easier settings - in which case you may be happy to explore everything at that difficulty level

and then you can use the higher difficulties as a challenge - seeing if you can survive till the Autumn for example - or until some other things happen that i don't want to spoil - but by default on the Initial Infection settings these things won't happen for at least 6 months - but on Apocalypse, Survivor or Builder they will happen within the first game month

ok - i will try to wrap up here - since i am going on a bit :-)

but suffice to say - i think whatever level you decide to play at is fine - since the challenge is to survive - and if you find it easy to survive at the level you are playing at, you can make it harder - and like i said, the only real stuff that you might "spoil" by playing for a long time at very easy settings is discovering all the cool locations - but even then, the map is massive - and may be getting bigger in the future if i read the devs' latest post correctly - and there are also mods that can add loads of new places or replace vanilla locations with whole new ones

so just start easy and learn how to play - and then play around with the settings and see how it goes - find the sweet spot for yourself of fun and challenge - and you can have multiple games on the go at one time - an easier game for exploration, and to try and get your character to higher levels and to see all the game mechanics - and another harder one just to see how long you last

For me - Initial Infection started to feel like there was just too much loot - and so i moved to the One Week Later preset - and that was a big step up - still ok amounts of loot, but much less than Initial Infection - and there were more zombies and they were tougher - and you don't start with a weapon, tools, water bottle or backpack - and you have normal XP gain, instead of 2x

in fact i may well now start a new game at that level - and turn on Multi Hit and Low Rear Vulnerability, and see if it feels challenging enough to go and find the big city - and i am sure it will be

anyway - i hope you have fun :-)

[Puppers]

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

Originally posted by Drizzt:

you could try the presets in the drop down menu at the bottom of the Custom Sandbox page - Initial Infection is good to start with if you want to survive a bit longer and get used to the game mechanics (it starts with fewer, weaker zombies, lots of loot, vehicles in better condition, and your character gains XP quicker) - you might also want to enable Multi Hit (can hit multiple zombie with a melee weapon strike) and set Rear Vulnerability to Low (less chance to get bitten from behind) in the Character options

thank you. do you think it's okay to be playing this game on easier difficulties and such?

Yar , play however you want. I started with initial infection when I first played then graduated to the other difficulties and eventually just started using sandbox and tailoring the settings to my playstyle.

If you need any more help or want to just talk with other players new and old join the official discord, if you arent already in there. We love halping the new players. :3
I been playing since 2015 and I love multihit lol.

Just remember there is never a wrong way to play, regardless you will always learn something.

[Diogenes Horrigan]

Originally posted by Puppers:

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

thank you. do you think it's okay to be playing this game on easier difficulties and such?

Yar , play however you want. I started with initial infection when I first played then graduated to the other difficulties and eventually just started using sandbox and tailoring the settings to my playstyle.

If you need any more help or want to just talk with other players new and old join the official discord, if you arent already in there. We love halping the new players. :3
I been playing since 2015 and I love multihit lol.

Just remember there is never a wrong way to play, regardless you will always learn something.

thank you

[Diogenes Horrigan]

Originally posted by Drizzt:

Apologies for the very long post - i think i got a little carried away lol :-)
(also - sorry if i wrote like you are newer than you are - i forgot you said you have played for 50 hours and so you probably know the mechanics of the game, and the ramifications of getting scratched or bitten - but i did also want to avoid spoiling some of those surprises for any newer players who are reading too :-))

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

thank you. do you think it's okay to be playing this game on easier difficulties and such?

yes - i think i understand what you mean - not wanting to discover the game's secrets or that kind of thing at an easy level, and therefore robbing yourself of the satisfaction of doing so at a harder difficulty?

well i would say the only "secret" like that would be discovering all of the places on the map - e.g. there are only 4 towns you can spawn in (unless you use a mod), and only 5 for which you can discover in game paper maps for (thereby showing you the entire town on the main game map) - but these are only a fraction of the map - there are all sorts of other "settlements" (for want of a better word) on the map that can only be found by exploring, including a military base and an entire other large town (neither of which i have yet discovered) - and the more places you know about, the more of an advantage you may have when you increase the difficulty, since you will know about good places to head for in terms of loot, or protection, or vehicles etc

that is even true for the early locations - e.g. once you find a place that is stocked with medical supplies or weapons, you will always know where to go to find that stuff - although on the harder difficulty levels there will be far less loot - making these places even more valuable (since there is less loot everywhere, and so many places will have barely anything, while these places will have at least a few useful items), but also far less well stocked (so they can't be your only supply)

and so the only thing i would suggest is that you maybe don't go too crazy on the exploration if you are playing on a difficulty level that you feel isn't challenging - maybe just get used to the game mechanics on very easy settings, and then add a little more challenge and embark on a longer game, but maybe only aiming to survive in the starting towns - even travelling between them - but maybe not uncovering big areas away from those 5 mapped towns - and then if you decide that actually that difficulty is challenging enough, then you could continue and explore everywhere - or crank things up a little higher before you do

personally i haven't discovered much of the map in my 300 hours of playing - i did get very distracted trying out dozens of mods - but also was just playing various games at varying levels of difficulty - and some long games where i was setting up bases - but still never went too far away from those 5 main areas - in fact i have barely even visited March Ridge, which is the one mapped area in which you can't choose to spawn

but the point is this - the main focus of the game is survival - so even on the Initial Infection settings - and even if you enable Multi Hit and set Rear Vulnerability to Low - it is still possible to get surprised by a zombie, or make a small mistake and get scratched or bitten

i don't want to give too many spoilers - but suffice to say if you have watched The Walking Dead or that kind of thing, getting bitten does not end well..... and depending on your settings, other wounds may have a chance to end up just as bad

and so you may well find yourself respawning with a new character multiple times even on easier settings - in which case you may be happy to explore everything at that difficulty level

and then you can use the higher difficulties as a challenge - seeing if you can survive till the Autumn for example - or until some other things happen that i don't want to spoil - but by default on the Initial Infection settings these things won't happen for at least 6 months - but on Apocalypse, Survivor or Builder they will happen within the first game month

ok - i will try to wrap up here - since i am going on a bit :-)

but suffice to say - i think whatever level you decide to play at is fine - since the challenge is to survive - and if you find it easy to survive at the level you are playing at, you can make it harder - and like i said, the only real stuff that you might "spoil" by playing for a long time at very easy settings is discovering all the cool locations - but even then, the map is massive - and may be getting bigger in the future if i read the devs' latest post correctly - and there are also mods that can add loads of new places or replace vanilla locations with whole new ones

so just start easy and learn how to play - and then play around with the settings and see how it goes - find the sweet spot for yourself of fun and challenge - and you can have multiple games on the go at one time - an easier game for exploration, and to try and get your character to higher levels and to see all the game mechanics - and another harder one just to see how long you last

For me - Initial Infection started to feel like there was just too much loot - and so i moved to the One Week Later preset - and that was a big step up - still ok amounts of loot, but much less than Initial Infection - and there were more zombies and they were tougher - and you don't start with a weapon, tools, water bottle or backpack - and you have normal XP gain, instead of 2x

in fact i may well now start a new game at that level - and turn on Multi Hit and Low Rear Vulnerability, and see if it feels challenging enough to go and find the big city - and i am sure it will be

anyway - i hope you have fun :-)

I'm not sure if what I'm at is easy, because so far I make it past the first 2 or so days, but that's it. Should I try to play through an entire good run first on a sandbox mode I'm making, and then once I do, switch to survivor then apocalypse?

[Drizzt]

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

I'm not sure if what I'm at is easy, because so far I make it past the first 2 or so days, but that's it. Should I try to play through an entire good run first on a sandbox mode I'm making, and then once I do, switch to survivor then apocalypse?

not sure what you would consider a good run - since the game is almost intentionally designed so that you will eventually die :-)

but i assume you mean a run where you survive for long enough that you feel like you want to play harder? - or where you die but having survived for much longer than before?

either way i think the settings that you are currently playing on are significant - the 2 day survival - what settings is that with? is it with this sandbox mode you are making? since if you only changed a few settings, then all of the others will be at Apocalypse settings - since that is the default - any setting that is different from Apocalypse will be highlighted in yellow (but not in the Zombie Lore menu - this is a bug they are fixing for the next update)

so if you have been playing Sandbox, but only switched the loot to Common and modified the starting zombie population a bit - you're still playing somewhat hard mode - the zombies are still gonna be pretty tough and fast and alert

so maybe try the One Week Later preset, but with Multi Hit enabled. and Rear Vulnerability set to Low - and if that's still hard - i would go with Initial Infection with Multi Hit enabled. and Rear Vulnerability set to Low

as i mentioned - apart from the zombie settings - you will be able to see the settings which are different from the default highlighted in yellow as you switch through the presets - just not the Zombie Lore settings as i mentioned - so you will have to look more closely at those to see the differences

is also important to note that Initial Infection and One Week Later both have Environmental Attacks enabled - so zombies will attack doors even if they haven't seen the player - which they won't do in Apocalypse or Survivor - so you may want to disable that

also - the only difference between Apocalypse and Survivor is that in Survivor you have Multi Hit enabled and Rear Vulnerability set to Low, zombies set to Weak, no Drag Down, and you can use the mini map - there are still loads of zombies, and they are fast and alert - and not much loot - and cars are mostly trashed

but i would suggest playing around and seeing the differences between the presets - and tweaking some of the settings and seeing how that affects things

if you want you can play on Sandbox using Apocalypse settings but boosting your Character in all sorts of ways - that's pretty close to cheating since you can become pretty much god like - but it is a good way to run around and see how the zombies behave and how quickly they would swarm you if you couldn't run super fast or beat them like a superhero :-)

but yeah - a decent run on Initial Infection can lead to playing on One Week Later - to playing on Survivor etc

but you may well find a happy place in the middle

or like i said - have two games - one for fun, one for challenge

also - if you die, you can start a new character in the same world - so on your challenge game you could keep restarting if you die, while aiming to survive and explore for a long time on your other game

etc

loads of ways to play - but i definitely got a lot out of starting on Initial Infection - and then when i moved onto One Week Later the difficulty spike felt good - and now i feel comfortable playing around at any level - since i know where to find some decent stuff, and how to stay safe for a bit etc - but still, it is easy to get killed

so for a fun time i will probably start my next game on One Week Later with Multi Hit enabled and Rear Vulnerability set to Low - and see how it goes

hope you find some good settings :-)

[Western Civilization]

Sandbox all the way.

Respawn hours = 0
All loot = normal
Transmission = none

My time in real life is worth too much to die to infection. My character is cursed with being the last man alive, immune to the virus

[Diogenes Horrigan]

Originally posted by Drizzt:

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

I'm not sure if what I'm at is easy, because so far I make it past the first 2 or so days, but that's it. Should I try to play through an entire good run first on a sandbox mode I'm making, and then once I do, switch to survivor then apocalypse?

not sure what you would consider a good run - since the game is almost intentionally designed so that you will eventually die :-)

but i assume you mean a run where you survive for long enough that you feel like you want to play harder? - or where you die but having survived for much longer than before?

either way i think the settings that you are currently playing on are significant - the 2 day survival - what settings is that with? is it with this sandbox mode you are making? since if you only changed a few settings, then all of the others will be at Apocalypse settings - since that is the default - any setting that is different from Apocalypse will be highlighted in yellow (but not in the Zombie Lore menu - this is a bug they are fixing for the next update)

so if you have been playing Sandbox, but only switched the loot to Common and modified the starting zombie population a bit - you're still playing somewhat hard mode - the zombies are still gonna be pretty tough and fast and alert

so maybe try the One Week Later preset, but with Multi Hit enabled. and Rear Vulnerability set to Low - and if that's still hard - i would go with Initial Infection with Multi Hit enabled. and Rear Vulnerability set to Low

as i mentioned - apart from the zombie settings - you will be able to see the settings which are different from the default highlighted in yellow as you switch through the presets - just not the Zombie Lore settings as i mentioned - so you will have to look more closely at those to see the differences

is also important to note that Initial Infection and One Week Later both have Environmental Attacks enabled - so zombies will attack doors even if they haven't seen the player - which they won't do in Apocalypse or Survivor - so you may want to disable that

also - the only difference between Apocalypse and Survivor is that in Survivor you have Multi Hit enabled and Rear Vulnerability set to Low, zombies set to Weak, no Drag Down, and you can use the mini map - there are still loads of zombies, and they are fast and alert - and not much loot - and cars are mostly trashed

but i would suggest playing around and seeing the differences between the presets - and tweaking some of the settings and seeing how that affects things

if you want you can play on Sandbox using Apocalypse settings but boosting your Character in all sorts of ways - that's pretty close to cheating since you can become pretty much god like - but it is a good way to run around and see how the zombies behave and how quickly they would swarm you if you couldn't run super fast or beat them like a superhero :-)

but yeah - a decent run on Initial Infection can lead to playing on One Week Later - to playing on Survivor etc

but you may well find a happy place in the middle

or like i said - have two games - one for fun, one for challenge

also - if you die, you can start a new character in the same world - so on your challenge game you could keep restarting if you die, while aiming to survive and explore for a long time on your other game

etc

loads of ways to play - but i definitely got a lot out of starting on Initial Infection - and then when i moved onto One Week Later the difficulty spike felt good - and now i feel comfortable playing around at any level - since i know where to find some decent stuff, and how to stay safe for a bit etc - but still, it is easy to get killed

so for a fun time i will probably start my next game on One Week Later with Multi Hit enabled and Rear Vulnerability set to Low - and see how it goes

hope you find some good settings :-)

with the settings i basically just put all loot on normal, starting pop multiplier is 0.5, and the late game pop multiplier at 2.0. The furthest I've gotten is 2, and I haven't really progressed further other than that

[Diogenes Horrigan]

Originally posted by Western Civilization:

Sandbox all the way.

Respawn hours = 0
All loot = normal
Transmission = none

My time in real life is worth too much to die to infection. My character is cursed with being the last man alive, immune to the virus

thanks, do you change the spawn rate of zombies at all? they kinda spawn a lot at the beginning and its very difficult, including if im stealthy

[Drizzt]

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

with the settings i basically just put all loot on normal, starting pop multiplier is 0.5, and the late game pop multiplier at 2.0. The furthest I've gotten is 2, and I haven't really progressed further other than that

have you tried using the Custom Sandbox presets in the dropdown box at the bottom?

[Diogenes Horrigan]

Originally posted by Drizzt:

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

with the settings i basically just put all loot on normal, starting pop multiplier is 0.5, and the late game pop multiplier at 2.0. The furthest I've gotten is 2, and I haven't really progressed further other than that

have you tried using the Custom Sandbox presets in the dropdown box at the bottom?

yea

[Western Civilization]

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

thanks, do you change the spawn rate of zombies at all? they kinda spawn a lot at the beginning and its very difficult, including if im stealthy

I disable respawn, I appreciate the way you can actually "clear" areas in this game. It's one of the things that makes it unique among other survival games. I think that some zombies will spawn until the 30th day due to the "peak pop = 1.5" setting, but I haven't ever confirmed if they will still appear if you have the respawn hours = 0

[Drizzt]

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

Originally posted by Drizzt:

have you tried using the Custom Sandbox presets in the dropdown box at the bottom?

yea

ok :-)

well like i said, the Initial Infection preset has fewer, weaker zombies - if you're still having trouble surviving on that setting - then you might want to make your character stronger using the Character settings - maybe give yourself some trait points so you can select a stronger character type and some good traits - and maybe increase your XP gain so that you level up quicker

you could also nerf the zombies more - make them less able to see and hear etc

[Diogenes Horrigan]

Originally posted by Drizzt:

Originally posted by Arch Horrigan:

yea

ok :-)

well like i said, the Initial Infection preset has fewer, weaker zombies - if you're still having trouble surviving on that setting - then you might want to make your character stronger using the Character settings - maybe give yourself some trait points so you can select a stronger character type and some good traits - and maybe increase your XP gain so that you level up quicker

you could also nerf the zombies more - make them less able to see and hear etc

honestly i tried survivor, and im actually doing pretty well on it. i just wanna do survivor with the "normal" setting for loot