Ammo Shortages

[ChrisChross]

First of all, congrats on the launch of Chapter 2! Feels amazing to be back in Cultic again!
I'd love to continue playing, however I'm facing huge ammo shortages, which basically soft stop me from playing. Im playing on normal difficulty, and the shortages started to get severe in the basement of the mall, and after that it has been getting worse. Im currently facing waves of enemies in the large open area of the mall, with exactly 0 ammo of anything.

Does anybody else face the same issues, or am I just bad, lol?

[Hey Sonny]

Experiencing the same. Chapter 2 seems to have less ammo, making it difficult to keep up with the waves of enemies.

[Deadite]

you are not alone, some enemies take multiple shotgun rounds to the face (7 or so) and drop two when they die... im looking at you helmeted cops, also that area you are talking about spams a "boss" enemy or two, after several attempts i funnelled them all while behind a door, literally cheesing them down with the C96 pistol, which rocked in the first chapter but lacks... power.... in this one, or since the 2.0 update - it even sounds weak af

[Damien Azreal]

The sound of the C96 was updated (which, you can turn off the new sounds in the options menu), but the C96 was unchanged stats wise.

[Mixed Herbs]

Originally posted by Damien Azreal:

The sound of the C96 was updated (which, you can turn off the new sounds in the options menu), but the C96 was unchanged stats wise.

Not in the ND server anymore but just wanted to say congrats to you, Jason and the team for Chapter 2. Been a long time coming.

[Damien Azreal]

Thank you.

[Jasozz]

There's certainly enough ammo to get by - I just did a full Extreme run a couple of days ago for a final test and was full on nearly everything pretty much the whole time (which yeah, skewed data cuz I'm the dev), and there was a lot of playtesting and QA time thrown at feeling out ammo balancing, skipping secrets, skipping upgrades, etc.

That being said, there's still a significant focus on using resources wisely in CULTIC. You can get away with a lot more on lower difficulties, but especially on the higher difficulties, really important to use all of the tools the game gives you!

• Always go for the head! Some enemies are particularly tough against body damage but shots to the dome deal significant bonus damage, and nearly all "soft target" enemies take even further damage bonuses from blade headshots
  
  
• Use the hatchet! It was strong in Ch.1, and has actual upgrades now making it borderline busted. One-shots nearly all regular cultists and infected enemies with a fully charged headshot up to Hard difficulty, and up to Extreme with the damage upgrade.
  
  
• Use the environment! Explosive barrels are great for wiping out a cluster of trash enemies for free. Lanterns are basically free molotovs and are excellent against enemies that are tanky but weak to fire, which is nearly all of the tankier enemies. Physics props in general deal heavy damage, especially if you can get a headshot with them.
  
  
• Use their own stupidity against them! Most cultists won't stop an attack once they've started even if other enemies are in the way, so getting Grenade Launcher cultists to nuke their friends, or Shotgunners to throw TNT into crowds of enemies, or just circle-strafing to lead shots from a Pistol Cultist into his friends can save tons of ammo in large fights
  
  
• Use Molotovs wisely! Nearly all fleshy enemies are susceptible to being burned, and on lower difficulties a single lantern or molotov is enough to toast even the Peacekeepers (armored cops) and Harvesters
  
  
• Explore explore explore! There are ammo caches and secrets tucked away in all corners of the map. If you have the lighter out, the flame will flicker when near secrets, so you can use this to help pinpoint their locations and score some extra loot. CULTIC's secrets are more akin to exploration rewards than "DOOM hump-every-wall-and-hope-for-the-best" secrets, and most can be uncovered with a keen eye and some extra time poking around your surroundings

[Deadite]

your view might be a bit skewed, you made the game - but tbh would a bit more ammo dropping really harm how the game plays? dude, i and many others love your game, info like if the lighter flickers when close to a secret, as well as other things ...... tell us that in loading screens or something, many of us are dumb .... especially me! i mean i never used the hatchet in the first chapter if i had a choice, so i thought it was redundant and/or last ditch, like it was in the first chapter LOL

[Damien Azreal]

This isn't just Jason's view point.
We had multiple people QA the game and playtest various difficulties.

Ammo balancing was a big part of the QA/playtest process.

[Jasozz]

Right, I'm not saying ammo adjustments are off the table, but for launch day, I want to make sure that a potential ammo buff is justified by a trending lack of resources despite using the tools the game provides, vs. playstyles that are incompatible with the higher difficulties or CULTIC's design overall

[Fatality]

I'm desperately short on shotgun ammo. I have plenty of other ammo, yes... But still.
To conserve ammo, I've started using the hatchet more often, than I did in the first chapter.
I think it was unnecessary to reduce the shotgun ammo supply so much.

[PrediN@ter]

Interesting. I am replaying Chapter 1 right now and I feel like they upped the ammo as I seem to have a lot more than what I used to and came here to see if anyone else thought the same of Chapter 1.

[Jasozz]

Chapter One does absolutely have you rolling in Molotovs lol, I was really surprised at how many there were when I replayed it recently - but ammo counts overall haven't been changed much in Ch1 in quite awhile

[Korzodin]

Not a dev/QA, currently on my first playthrough, running blind, on Extreme. I've been pretty good on ammo. Had some shortages on map 7 (my kingdom for some magnum ammo, oh the irony), but I finally upgraded the damage on the axe and was able to make do.

I try to upgrade the damage on at least one variant of every weapon, helps a lot with efficiency. You're also going to want to try to use the appropriate weapon for each situation, getting as much use out of the axe, the environment, and your handgun as you can.


And, personal opinion, increasing the amount of ammo in the game *absolutely can* harm how the game plays, considering a pretty big part of the combat depth is resource management.

[Venator]

I honestly think the shotgun ammo shortage hurts the game it just means im going to use a different weapon more. everyone has their favorite weapons and I think ammo should be decently plentiful,

[Super Loutre]

Originally posted by Jasozz:

If you have the lighter out, the flame will flicker when near secrets, so you can use this to help pinpoint their locations and score some extra loot.

Damn that's good to know, genuinely had no clue this was a thing.

And regarding the ammo there's definitely enough, I'm currently in the swamps chapter in Very Hard, I don't always have ammo for the weapons that I want when I want but I do have a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of ammo nonetheless.

And yeah like Chapter 1 I'm absolutely loving the game, GG for making this masterpiece.