Is leveling skills really worth it?

[anti678]

I know a lot of veterans are going to say yes but I can't seem to survive longer than maybe a month maximum in this game. Every time I grind out these skill points and then go out and die to some random zombie is very disappointing and really ruining the game for me. Any tips?

[Armagenesis]

Embrace death and the loss. Use VHS tapes to recover some of the lost skill points. Or cheat your way using Skill Recovery Journal mod.

[anti678]

Originally posted by Armagenesis:

Embrace death and the loss. Use VHS tapes to recover some of the lost skill points. Or cheat your way using Skill Recovery Journal mod.

I don't want to cheat. So basically what you're saying is that this happens to everyone and I shouldn't spend so much time invested into reading books?

[Armagenesis]

Well, only read what you need. Carpentry and Mechanic are always my first go to since they are what I think necessary to have at high enough level. Other than that, Tailoring.

First Aid is really unnecessary. Cooking, Farming, and survival skills are easy to level. Metalworking and Electrical are just prerequisite for some things, which should already be available after your first few characters.

Combat skills are far more important than crafting skills IMO though. So I prefer characters with higher starting combat skill.

Or... you can just play multiple characters at once in a single save file.

[Puppers]

Originally posted by anti678:

I know a lot of veterans are going to say yes but I can't seem to survive longer than maybe a month maximum in this game. Every time I grind out these skill points and then go out and die to some random zombie is very disappointing and really ruining the game for me. Any tips?

This feature is what sets project zomboid from other games, it does no hand holding and it is something I find very special. You either grow to love it or maybe it just is not the game for you. I die a lot, i dont mind it I enjoy starting over, looting , making new characters. So again to each their own.

Regarding skills there are sandbox settings you could change in terms of skills; xp gain, etc and zombie settings that make the game more palatable to others who have a more difficult time surviving.

I do not see anything wrong with the skill journal mod at all and if you dislike losing your skills I highly suggest the mod, I do not see it as cheating? My friend enjoys games she can build skills but does not the dying and losing everything part of the game, so we use this mod for her and it makes her pretty happy. I think its a nice compromise.

[wawawiwa]

Not really, the only skill that important in my opinion are weapon skill, maintain, aim and nimble (you gain all that from fighting zombie) the rest are optional and depending on your playstyle

You don't need carpenter unless you making base from scratch
You don't need metalworking when zombie gonna destroy it in 3 second
You don't need cooking unless you want to cook rotten food
You don't need mechanic unless you suck at driving or want to collect cars

[anti678]

Originally posted by Puppers:

I do not see anything wrong with the skill journal mod at all and if you dislike losing your skills I highly suggest the mod, I do not see it as cheating? My friend enjoys games she can build skills but does not the dying and losing everything part of the game, so we use this mod for her and it makes her pretty happy. I think its a nice compromise.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with using it and I just said it was "cheating" because it's technically not meant to be a part of the game and it gives the player an advantage. I consider that to be cheating but I'm not bashing anyone for doing it. It's definitely not hurting anybody or ruining the game for anyone so by all means I fully support it. I just personally would rather learn how to play vanilla.

[dustbiter]

Just learn not to get caught by zombies. Usually I play a character for a month or two ingame, then I'll play a new game when survival isn't an issue. Reached 4 savegames recently, I haven't lost a character to zombies for a while.

[can’t vc (meowing)]

You will level up what you need anyway, you don't have to go out of your way to level up everything. That's just a waste of time. Why do you want to level up trapping if you don't use that mechanic? If you are fishing for survival, well level that up. It's quite simple, really,

[Ittrix]

I find a lot of skills are more about breakpoints than maxing or raising mega high.
Electrical 1 and Mechanics 2 lets me hotwire cars, for example. Electrical 3 lets me steal various appliances and move them. So, I don't really ever care about leveling electrical over 3.

Dying resets everything to zero, but if you grabbed books and VHS tapes you can raise it back to a good level.
With the angler trait, fishing books 1, 2, and 3, and exposure survival 1 and 2, I can raise my fishing level to 5 (almost 6) in a few ingame hours.

Speaking of traits, they're a big deal. If you start with one point in a skill from your traits or occupations, you'll notice it says +75% exp. It's explained poorly, but this means additively you gain 75% more experience, and by default the game only gives you 25% exp for skill activities.
So, with one point in a skill you gain levels in it 4x as fast.

[Puppers]

Originally posted by anti678:

I just personally would rather learn how to play vanilla.

Yar I understand where youre coming from, outside of mp i dont use it.

I would try some sand box settings and see if any potato mesh well with your playstyle preferences.

Good liuck!

[Riktor87]

It's a sandbox, look through settings, tune it to what YOU want to play, not what "veterans" think is normal or "required" play style. The more you play, the more you fail, the more you learn. My first 24 hours with the game I died.... and I died A LOT... Now I can reliably survive through the first year even with higher spawn settings, reduced loot, etc. Skills are just a way to open more options for your survival but none "not even fighting is required".

I would however say fitness is by far the most important and necessary skill for anything as it dictates how long you can fight, and more importantly how far you can run when things go sideways. I've on multiple occasions used sound "either shattering nearby windows, setting off alarms whether from clocks or cars to direct zombies away from where I want to go etc", or even the simple shout, and running into the tree line. But yeah, like I said it's a sandbox play it how you want and what you find enjoyable, don't like scratches turning you into a Z, set it to only bites, or play it like your one of the select few that are just immune to zombification "left 4 dead survivors". There is no "wrong way to play". Same philosophy applies to modifying your game environment set it how you enjoy it. Good luck, and may you survive to see another sunrise.

[Blaster]

I was 500 hours in when i decided to try out tailoring and it made a huge difference for me.From surviving a month to almost a year in my curent save.
After food and water prioritize good armor like military/firefigher stuff and tailoring.At higher levels you can reapair holes completely and get a huge bonus to defenses.Rip every denim and leather item and keep them until you find books and then level up.After you got that going you can level up whatever you want,2 mechanic and 1 electric is my next go to,to hotwire cars so i can easily move around
But yeah everyone dies at one point,it's a matter of when

[SaMay Haidary]

Skills are worth leveling yes, if you die to zombies often I think you should make a character that has lots of strength and fitness to practice killing all the zombies you see. Don't worry about dying, use this build to learn the playstyle of killing entire hordes all by yourself by carefully pushing them and attacking them at the right timing.

[Gilderoy Lockhart]

Originally posted by anti678:

Originally posted by Armagenesis:

Embrace death and the loss. Use VHS tapes to recover some of the lost skill points. Or cheat your way using Skill Recovery Journal mod.

I don't want to cheat. So basically what you're saying is that this happens to everyone and I shouldn't spend so much time invested into reading books?

I wouldn't call skill journal cheating. Playing this game with full reset upon death is like taking a cheese grater to your testes. They make this game give you random BS death on purpose so you are forced to keep playing by leveling up all over again. One missed swing (despite the last 1000 swings hitting just fine) shouldn't be the undoing of 100 real hours survival time. I know the point of the game is that death is inevitable, but the setbacks are far too harsh for anyone who wants to do anything other than make PZ their sole free time game

Hardly anyone has the time or the patience to just sink hundreds upon thousands of hours in this game, or any game at all. Don't let the 4k hour no lifers dictate stuff for you or spread their sweaty min-maxing biases, at the end of the day it's a game, not an 8 hour job

[DON COCAINE]

The author's problem is not in leveling the skills of a character but leveling the player's skills of character usage. If you die of random zombie often then you don't know how to act during combat and how to plan the combat design generally, your movement generally and the logic of the game situations.

I would suggest creating a test save with lot of zombies, creating characters for combat only, not expecting them to survive long. That'll be a sandbox to study the situations during the fight and the ways a player can act to survive and defeat all the enemies.

But that plan sounds odd, maybe you just need to buy a normal mouse, keyboard and monitor?