Adventure mode + Skill Tree

[willixx]

Started a new game, this time with "skill tree activated, no scripts available, normal difficulty (as always)". Got to the point where I should recover some scripts from a dungeon.
Now there seems to be an extreme difficulty spike in this mandatory dungeon. I set 3 sentry 01 (cannot craft more for no script) and filled them with ammo. Now the very first opponent could only be brought down to 50% life with all 3 sentrys unloading their ammo into the foe. My own additional gun 01 did not help much. In all my other games with same difficulty (but no skill tree) this first dungeion was quite manageable, if not easy - but this time it seems close to impossible.
-> Is this just RNG-behaviour or has it to do with the skill-tree ? So e.g. to force the player to to a lot more grind first to find scripts etc... ? Traders in the first two towns only sell wood and leather stuff - if I remember correctly in my other games the second town already sold copper stuff (tools, armor...).

[evilauthor]

Having played through adventure mode, AFAICT, anything that uses bullets isn't worth the ammo they use, whether it's a Sentry or a gun you looted. The damage done per shot isn't worth it.

You're better off using a good sword. The wooden sword is useless, but a better one (say with ~100 attack) will let you kill most stuff in the game. I managed to loot one in early game, but you might be able to make a good sword by buying a hilt from a vendor and making a sword in the Creation Editor.

With a good sword, you'll be able to solo kill damn near anything that doesn't put an orange dot on your minimap. At least in one on one combat.

[willixx]

I agree, bullet stuff is not very good in damage. Still I wanted a ranged character. Now changed to bow (as arrows are so cheap) and upgraded my base damage - so it's ok now. Still I wondered if the experienced difficulty spike is related to the skill-tree thing or not. Maybe I just recall it wrong...

[icegriffon]

In my Adventure game I also came across a difficult enough Dungeon for my starting character. I had to extensively use AI-fooling tactics and bow to win. I later payed attention that prior to entering the Dungeon you are prompted about its "Level", and presume it's RNG (maybe with some conditions but RNG), because I tend to see Dungeons levelled 2-11 since.

I hope to get some thoughts from you about the Skill Tree. I did not use it so far.

[willixx]

Those dungeons with level information (when you are next to its entrance) are "free" dungeons, spawned by the game now and then. Level is dependant on distance from starting village as I believe. Low level dungeons closer to the starting village, higher level dungeons farther away.
The "quest" dungeons do not give level information. In my earlier games they still where not really hard - but my latest game (the first one with skill tree enabled) gave me 2 of those quest dungeons with extreme bullet-/arrowproof foes . But maybe it's really just rng.

[icegriffon]

Actually, that difficult Dungeon I was talking about was quest too. Maybe that's why it was so difficult. Regarding distance-to-difficulty basis, not sure. It seems to me I could sometimes find easy dungeons pretty far from starting village.

[MARRA92]

Sell meat 4 credits each and buy everything :D

[willixx]

Originally posted by MARRA92:

Sell meat 4 credits each and buy everything :D

This is what I (and possibly most players) did the first runs. This time I want to "earn" everything by dungeon runs for the extra game experience.

[evilauthor]

Originally posted by willixx:

I agree, bullet stuff is not very good in damage. Still I wanted a ranged character. Now changed to bow (as arrows are so cheap) and upgraded my base damage - so it's ok now. Still I wondered if the experienced difficulty spike is related to the skill-tree thing or not. Maybe I just recall it wrong...

I went to the online ISO library looking for a good starter bow design.

I found one that uses the simple bow part and does 200 damage per shot. You'll need 1000 Marble or so to make it though.

Yes, I said Marble. I did a simple select all and fill operation in the Creation editor to change the material, but for some reason, that resulted in the weapon's damage dropping to 50 or so when I tried the same design made out of iron and gold.

It's a good starter weapon, except for some reason, Marble seems to be in short supply in Adventure mode whereas in the Story campaign, I get more Marble than anything else just from standard mining.

[MARRA92]

yeah you need to dig rocky textured ground, there is a skill giving you little of it i think, but look for rock-lookin gray surface.

I usually arm my whole colony of gold bows and arrows, so sound doesnt glitch like when using blasters or gunpowder rifles.

Tier 3 assault rifle can pack quite a dense damage from short due to bad precision, blaster2 and particle are great too

keep in mind if you care of terrain voxel design if your fellows use grenades (or with rocket turrets) they will damage the terrain on explosion

[dtt.scanner]

The Adventure World is 99% Dirt. You can find or purchase 2 of (stone, marble, limestone, sand) and place it as a voxel, then dig it back up with a pick, and you will pick up more resource than you placed. (You first have to unlock natural terrain in the build section of the skill tree, if you are using the skill tree.) Keep placing and pickax the voxels in a tower, mining down toward the ground, for the fastest mining, until you have what you need. An Iron Pick is OP for its level, and is one of the best you can use until you get an energy pick. Build your stacks of resources 2x2 (dimension of the Iron Pick) by however high you can build it. Climb up and mine straight down. Repeat as necessary. You can also get Sulfur/sulfates from placing and mining grass blocks (a texture of the dirt voxel). You get other trace elements from mining the other voxels as well. Marble contains traces of Iron, and Limestone contains traces of Copper (and less of Iron).

Dungeons are leveled. If you are using skill tree, the best thing you can do is purchase a silver sword and shield and give it to a follower (level 2 town should be close to the start town). You can easily do level 1-3 dungeons with the follower, have him do the killing and you pick up the loot, and I believe you still get exp from the follower's attacks. When you are skilled enough to do it yourself, you can take the sword/shield back and do the fighting yourself. If you practice dodge rolling, you can take on most of the hostile creatures in the wild with a silver sword/shield. If you pick up decent armor for yourself and your follower (iron, steel, guard), you can probably do level 4-5 dungeons with the follower as well. Once you have decent armor and can use the silver sword/shield, you can successfully venture out anywhere on the map to find the level 4 NPC towns. This is where you will get the highest level armor/weapons/tools. Level up your skills as you go, and you should have no trouble equipping and using the energy weapons/tools. i usually do this before starting on a colony build. When you have Aluminum2 or SC4 armor and an energy sword/shield or Blaster2 (make sure you have extra batteries, especially if you have a personal shield), you can do level 8-10 dungeons to pick up all of the colony equipment and scripts, without doing the Adventure Quests. I usually only do the first introduction to get the wooden tools and sleeping bag, then ignore the rest of the quests. Colony equipment can also be purchased from level 3+ towns and wandering vendors.

After unlocking any weapon type (range or melee) that you are using, you want to improve the strength training under the melee tab first. It improves damage with ALL weapons much quicker than doing weapon training. It applies to any weapon you use, since it increases your basic attack value, which is independent of the weapon type.

[dtt.scanner]

One last thing (after editing my last post). All of the "wandering" colonists will spawn within 4km from the center of the map, regardless of the map size. There will still be NPCs in NPC towns throughout the map. You should also be able to find level 3 and level 4 towns somewhere around this radius. If you start at 4km from the center and work your way around, you may find some useful towns with a minimum of search time. If you are using an 8km map, then that is the entire map size... but you may find high level towns faster by starting at the edge and working your way toward the center layer by layer. If the start town is on the edge of the map, then the highest level dungeons and towns will be (probably) close to the opposite side of the map. If you can build a boat, you might get there faster by exploring by boat around the periphery. I have found it a fun and different way to explore, once I have a boat, to just follow all of the waterways that connect to the edge of the map. You can often uncover many towns on the water's or river's edge. The higher the level of the town, the higher the level of skills that you will find on the NPCs. If you want to train skills onto your colonists, that is also where you will find most of them.