14 blows with a baseball bat per zombie

[Bullwinkle]

I just played the IWBUMS test build for several hours and I have to say that the "fun" factor seems to have gone down quite a bit. This build is definitely more challenging, but not in a totally good way.

With the old build, I could reliably clear out the area around my house on day 1 (not necessarily a good thing). In this version, I ended up attracting a horde before I could clear out a safe area, and ended up needing to run.... and run... and run and run and run. It was quite an experience! I kept running into more and more hordes, until I finally found a semi-wooded area that didn't have a lot of zombies and I was FINALLY able to stop running. This was very challenging, and required some skill because I knew I couldn't sprint forever, and choosing when to walk with 75 zeds chasing me and when to sprint was fun and challenging.

But once things calmed down 4 blocks from the start of my sprint (goodbye starter house!) I started to clear out an area. Even with a baseball bat, it was taking roughly 14 swings to kill a zombie, 13 of them with the zombie lying on the ground motionless. Doing this a hundred times to clear out an area got boring and repetitious very quickly. It seemed more of a slog than a game. Eventually I reached level 1 with Blunt, and I was very glad to see it took fewer swings to kill a zombie, but it still seemed a little too hard for my taste.

Then came my death. I whacked a zombie with my bat and it fell to the ground, turning into a crawler in the process, and it immediately flipped up and one-shotted me. This wasn't fun. I mean, crawlers have been the most common way I have died in previous play throughs, and I have come to respect them. But they have always seemed to have a bit of an unfair ability to flip up and one-shot me too fast. It is inconsistent with every other movement I've seen proper zombies make. This one move is like 5 times faster. When it happens there is no defense. It is like playing a game where a random number generator decides when I am going to die, and what is the point of playing a survival game with such a mechanic?

The game definitely needs to be more challenging than it was. But it is hard to do that right. It would be easy to make the game harder, just increase the hp on every zombie X20. And make your weapons break X20 faster. That would definitely be more challenging, but it wouldn't be very fun. The problem is how to keep the fun factor while making the game more challenging. And for me, this current build does have some cool points, but overall just makes me want to go play a different game. Too much of a frustrating slog needing to hit every zombie 14 times and then die from a RNG. Getting chased halfway across WP was cool, though.

[0ero the Hammer Slayer]

It's the tip of the bat in the game's case. Basically as far as you can be while still hitting the dang thing, also the angle of where you come at a zombie helps too. best to have them left or right of you, gets you a clearer shot at their head.

[0ero the Hammer Slayer]

I've got a lot of problems trying ot kill them when they come from above or below me, it usually takes a lot more hits than when they're left or right of me.

[Bullwinkle]

Well, I certainly appreciate the tips! Still, I've killed over 5000 zeds in this game so far, and the techniques that have worked well for me in the past seem to result in much less fun in this IWBUMS build. I think something in the game changed, and not wholly for the better.

[easterngames]

I agree something has radically changed in this build. Every single zombie takes me 30 or more hits now with a golf club or any weapon for that matter. never did find a baseball bat, i got fed up long before i could find one. I've killed thousands of zombies in my various play throughs, and killing one is now about exhausting for my real life clicking finger.

I even started out with a character build that had pips in blunt already. I literally leveled up the skill more on two zombies i had to swing and swing so much. Really not much fun.

[Farshot]

One shot? Like, it bit you first try one shot? Or you have been bleeding for 20 minutes and had a spec of HP when it hit you one shot? Or you was 100% HP untouched and got poked and died one shot?

[Bullwinkle]

ONE SHOT. 100% health to dead in under 1 second. Essentially the same as being killed by a random number generated bolt of lightning.

[Axelord1942]

I've been one-shotted by a zombie before, just not a crawler. I always figured that one shot was the zombie getting lucky and taking my neck out in one bite (like, my whole neck...critical hit type stuff)...14 seems a bit excessive...I've had similar results with the golfclub but never the baseball bat...what condition was it in? The baseball bat and hammer that the "starter kit" give you aren't at full health, if that's where it came from...if not, then *shrugs*

Idk what to tell you...pick weaker zombies?

[Bullwinkle]

I don't use starter kit. It was a normal, full condition baseball bat. Actually I went through two baseball bats and had the same experience with both.

[Farshot]

Hmm.. Move dirt on roof and live of worms will be my build 30 strategy I suppose.. Goodbye zombie killing T_T

[Axelord1942]

Also: this game is not primarily based around combat, maybe they are tweaking it to discourage us from getting into the habit of clearing out whole towns by ourselves like some sort of superhero? It's a little far fetched to imagine one person being able to kill 5000+ zombies without injury or death....

[Bullwinkle]

Well, my personal 5000 involves many deaths.

[Axelord1942]

lol I meant in general, since both town's populations combined is around 10k.

[Farshot]

I will admit in terms of combat build 29 is rediculusly easy in terms of melee combat. Slap a zombie, it stumbles back 5 feet, falls over, waits for that killing blow.. next!!

[Axelord1942]

This. As they move cloer to 1.0 they're going to keep tweaking evertything until they find the balance they're looking for...gentlemen, I expect many more shenanigans to come.

[Bullwinkle]

Increasing the zombies' health by some small amount was probably needed, but over all, I have to say this IWBUMS build does not inspire me to want to play this game as much as the last build.