What difficulty do you play on?

[Atheta ｜アセータ]

I will preface this by saying I am terrible at this game. I have never even survived to the point where I needed to worry about gathering water and trying to get a generator. Also I'm referring to SP, as MP has some ridiculous things in it (you can undo infection if the server closes and re-opens. Found this on a private server with a friend, I closed the server accidentally, reopened it, and his character lost all negative moodlets from infection, and showed no signs of being bitten on health tab).

I feel like Survivor honestly isn't much different from Apocalypse because even though Survivor says it's more combat friendly, fighting >1-2 zombies at once still proves almost impossible early game. I find with Zomboid it's always feast or famine in terms of action/peace. I'm either shidding my pants running from 30k zombies in West Point or in Riverside the zed population is pretty low and you can take it easy, but the reduced risk makes the game feel less exhilarating.

Does everyone really play on Apocalypse without tuning anything in Custom Sandbox to be more enjoyable? Sometimes I turn on Easy Vehicles, and I find that it almost breaks the game being able to find a workable car instantly, and pretty much all cars have gas. That said, without Easy Vehicles, it seems too far in the other direction (most cars are fugged, if you find a car that you could drive it's surrounded by zeds, etc.)

I struggle to find a happy medium with Zomboid, but maybe it's just not that type of game. It genuinely is stressful to play, but it's also one of the most immersive and enjoyable games to play.

[SwampDragon]

I am not very good at the game and I tend to roleplay more than meta, but I always play apocalypse mode with no respawns. I read somewhere that apocalypse mode is the devs recommended version of the game, or how it was intended to be played. I enjoy working within a set of rules like that. The gauntlet is thrown and the challenge is accepted. The fact that it is often brutally hard (sometimes unfair) just adds to the appeal. Call me a masochist.

I think people should find what they enjoy though, and that's the great thing about having all these options.

[H4xX]

First off, you gotta know that you progress heavily on player experience regarding battle and more (at first I had died every 3 kills, now I have 8000 still rising). As a very advanced player, I used this config 2 times without the need for any change. It's very balanced for me regarding game goals, though the difficulty varies a lot on the town you start in. 4x zombies was more balanced, but in some cities you can't find a starting point for your first weapon, as you can't shake them off.

I got custom settings:
spread out zombies with no distance to each other instead of leader based packs - and 3x as many, zombie respawn off.
Maximum sound events and high range and sound follow time.
This way they naturally gather up into giant hordes sometimes and with spawn and redistribution off, they still appear in unexpected swarms where you were done. This makes battles more dynamic, realistic and fun.
Regular redistribution (teleportation) of zombies is off. Supposedly they don't teleport next to you, but ever since I got it off, it stopped happening and it feels better to know that once the increase of zombie amount has spawned in, a cleared room is realistically safe, as expected.
Each town got about 8000 zombies for me. After looting everything I either move to the next or build a house myself with 100% self supply, walled off from the world in a forest.

Zombie speed is normal (fast is said to be have been added as a joke). Instant death by being near too many zombies is off (must have imo due to bugs and boring maximum amount of zombies you may fight, especially in multiplayer, altho these are my single player options).

!!Minimum food to be found and gathered/fished/farmed (I recommend this as beginner, too or the Winter challenge is just imaginary. By default you find 200x the food you need)
Ammo amount is increased by one level to make up for 3x zombies.
Maximum coldness (means my Winter lasts until June). But it's pointless besides from that it removes rain and causes many snow storms. No matter how cold, I'm always warm and heating from ovens / cars has no use.

2x game speed (means 2x food and calorie consumption etc)

I start at the beginning of Winter, so first I have to survive by looting houses, as you can't fish or gather properly.

Multi hit is on

Only mods I got are clothes and cars, vanilla stats editions. But one cheaty mod is on: cures. But disabling infection is basically the same, as 1% drop chance while only being infected every 3000th kill is 30 antidotes vs 1 infection. I couldn't go without, because I don't want random bugs to kill me.
I try to avoid mods like cancer, as they also cause bugs and most are basically cheats.


I recommend Rosewood as newbie. Most of it has low zombie amounts and it's pretty protected by fences and has a lot of weapons and generators.

[Gargoyle's Bite]

Apocalypse is a good difficult for most players, I still play it every once in a while for a change

[Nacalal]

I always spend a good hour poking with my sandbox settings to get the right feel.
Survivor is a good place to start if you're really new, but once you kinda have a feel for the game, 100% recommend poking with the different sandbox settings to figure out what feels best for you.

One thing to remember about combat, it's about being smarter than the zombies you're fighting.
If you're tired or don't have a good weapon, you probably should avoid getting into any fights.

[Armagenesis]

Custom Apocalypse.

I lower the initial population to 0.3, peak population to 2.5, extend the peak day to day 180, extend respawn hours to somewhere around 3 months, and change the game day/hour to 2 hours day.

[DivineEvil]

Originally started figuring out the game on Survivor. It is well balanced experience. The game really appear difficult to new players because its a nuanced experience in terms of the viewpoint and controls.

Now I usually just play Apocalypse with a preferred character setup starting in West Point. It is a bit more difficult, but in many little things, which doesn't make it obvious. Its a natural progression from Survivor in that way.

Given that Apocalypse isn't really provide enough challenge, I'm thinking about sandboxing something extreme, but really I'm just in anticipation of a future update, because something getting more difficult at this point won't make it any different or more interesting.

[snK]

My games are like 10x harder than whatever Apocalypse is.
The game's fairly simple, you just have to play more to get better.
You can customise the game with mods however you like don't forget. It is a true sandbox game after all. If you don't like melee weapons as much then mod in some guns and up the spawns.
This is what I'm currently playing with;
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2888040344

[tf2 pomson enjoyer #FIXVACPLS]

How to Win:
Rosewood
Survivor
You're fine
If not, you REALLLY suck

[I know i'm shit but..]

Mods are fun, but I always find them unbalanced, so I like to play the game as it is, the way dev designed it. I find CDDA most enjoyable.

[I know i'm shit but..]

Originally posted by Atheta ｜アセータ:

I will preface this by saying I am terrible at this game. I have never even survived to the point where I needed to worry about gathering water and trying to get a generator. Also I'm referring to SP, as MP has some ridiculous things in it (you can undo infection if the server closes and re-opens. Found this on a private server with a friend, I closed the server accidentally, reopened it, and his character lost all negative moodlets from infection, and showed no signs of being bitten on health tab).

I feel like Survivor honestly isn't much different from Apocalypse because even though Survivor says it's more combat friendly, fighting >1-2 zombies at once still proves almost impossible early game. I find with Zomboid it's always feast or famine in terms of action/peace. I'm either shidding my pants running from 30k zombies in West Point or in Riverside the zed population is pretty low and you can take it easy, but the reduced risk makes the game feel less exhilarating.

Does everyone really play on Apocalypse without tuning anything in Custom Sandbox to be more enjoyable? Sometimes I turn on Easy Vehicles, and I find that it almost breaks the game being able to find a workable car instantly, and pretty much all cars have gas. That said, without Easy Vehicles, it seems too far in the other direction (most cars are fugged, if you find a car that you could drive it's surrounded by zeds, etc.)

I struggle to find a happy medium with Zomboid, but maybe it's just not that type of game. It genuinely is stressful to play, but it's also one of the most immersive and enjoyable games to play.

How many hours at the game do you have? Keep playing, and you will eventually get better.

[Gargoyle's Bite]

Originally posted by Ocular:

Apocalypse is a good difficult for most players, I still play it every once in a while for a change

Not sure why someone gave me points, uh I mean a clown emoji haha I was just making a general statement, but I'd love to hear what was wrong about it. Most players don't play 16x sprinters.. apocalypse is generally a good difficulty for most players and if you don't acknowledge that 🤷‍♂️

Not everyone has to be superhuman ultra mega tryhard.

[Cake for Mumm-Ra]

I like to adjust the speed that you learn skills. I've had some long runs, but having to grind out carpentry over and over again for hours is a chore I like to alleviate.

[Pumpkin]

Population x8 + wondering zombies and no respawn for zombies https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2983905789

i tweak mod settings so hordes only wander in daylight and is all random where they going

[IEATDIRT]

Survivor, but with infection transmission turned off and 10x skill learn rate

[Death]

I don't play any of the defaults. I play sandbox with 5 multiplier to XP gains and a few other options tuned higher or lower depending on how I feel at the time.