What is Hardcore?

[vgifford]

What combination of the game's settings do you consider "Hardcore" ?

I am saying difficult, but not impossible. I am considering this from a solo player game view.

Less loot? Higher difficulty? More zombies? What is the best combination for a game that is challenging but not impossible?

[Brevan]

A friend of mine has been enjoying an all-Badlands map he made with the Nitrogen map generator. It's a rough biome to play in, and the loss of other biomes adds a little extra challenge since you can't rely on stuff like Oilshale, snow, or abundant trees.

For me, adding extra Z's for Horde makes things pretty challenging. I'd gotten use to the rate at which I'd remove some of them and then repair stuff, so more Z's made me work harder to compensate. I figure more work for the player means Hardcore.

[vgifford]

I was thinking more along the line of game settings.

[JimmyIowa]

You pretty much need mods for a "hardcore" experience.

With the current in game settings, even 24-hour nightmare run speed, blood moon every night, blood moon count 64, 300% blood moon damage, is quite doable. You progress slower since you have to spend every night defending instead of mining or whatever. But it's not hard.

[systumseng]

The answer is going to depend, in part, on what you are "good" at. For example, if you're amazing at smacking zombies with a club, then more zombies isn't really going to be that much tougher.

You want to try something that feels "hardcore"?
-Lower the loot to 25%
-Lower the animals to about 25% of normal
-Lower player block damage to somewhere between 50 and 75%
-Set the zombies to FERAL
-Set the zombies to WALK during day, RUN at night
-Set zombies to SPRINT when you poke them with a stick.

You want REALLY hardcore, commit to living in any region EXCEPT the Green/Forest Biome.

And if you want over the top hardcore----NO vehicle. Ever.
You can build a base, but you can only travel with what you can carry in a NORMAL SIZE backpack. None of those ridiculous 200 slot packs.

Give that a shot and Good luck!

[Khissi]

You don't need mods.. and challenging but not impossible is easily doable if you're willing and able to discipline yourself to make adjustments to the game on the fly and QUIT if you die... start again. Use whatever map you wish, but do set it for NO loot respawn, and put the loot on no higher than 100%. This will force you to explore but won't cripple you as doing 25% can easily do in early game. If you do these things, then determine that, as you progress and manage to get weapons that make breathing easier, then CHANGE your settings as you get higher in gamestage. Increase zombie run speed, up the difficulty a bit, or, if you're having ammo issues and making the zombies into bullet sponges is not fun, then determine that you're only going to go melee when doing POIs... NO guns.

Discipline is the hard thing. But, in the end, it will be YOUR decision and it will be determined by the way you enjoy playing the game. None of us play like you do, so whatever we tell you may not fit your image of 'challenging but not impossible'. Best way to do that is to experiment. If you're not enjoying the experience... if your heart is not pounding, if you've not gotten a jump scare... change the settings. Be evil to yourself until you find that point where fun and excitement meet. Let us know how it goes!

[↯Zindy⛦]

25% loot is doable, but not challenging imo, but more annoying more than anything else. it just forces you to gather more core resources and rely more on base construction. But this is just my thoughts.

[RasaNova]

I would imagine settings set as suggested by others, plus no loot respawn, no traders, no crafting complex equipment (guns, vehicles, machinery etc,) no magic repair kits. Then lower your gamma, and of course, permadeath.

[Crater Creator]

It’s a tough question, because it’ll be so dependent on the individual player’s ability and attitudes toward playing. For instance, take lowering player block damage. Some might find that more hardcore, while others might only find it more tedious. The same can be said of many settings. But one thing I’d consider hardcore is permadeath, aka ‘dead is dead’ mode. The devs have talked about adding this as a feature, but for now it has to be self imposed.

[JimmyIowa]

Originally posted by RasaNova:

I would imagine settings set as suggested by others, plus no loot respawn, no traders, no crafting complex equipment (guns, vehicles, machinery etc,) no magic repair kits. Then lower your gamma, and of course, permadeath.

I find no loot respawn to be meaningless because of trader missions resetting poi's at will anyway.

I tried a no traders game before, but they are the only way to get solar power. Plus I found it just makes a game plain old less interesting, because traders add variety of things to do (selling things to them, trader missions, and paper quests).

[Blitz4]

Hardcore means if you die it's gg. I only play Hardcore Nightmare, so if I die, I always delete my save.

Settings I use:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2356865688
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2356865741


Maxing blood moon count or disabling air drops would be added difficulty, but it's already hard enough for me. I sometimes switch from warrior, survivalist and insane. Sometimes it gets rough and going from Insane to warrior really shows me how easy I have it and lets me be faster & try new tricks. My sandbox is a roguelike aka hardcore

edit:
hardcore usually means, in most video games, what I said above. If you die it's gg. If a game redefines the term hardcore to mean something else, then they are confusing players.

[vgifford]

Originally posted by Blitz4:

Hardcore means if you die it's gg. I only play Hardcore Nightmare, so if I die, I always delete my save.

Settings I use:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2356865688
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2356865741


Maxing blood moon count or disabling air drops would be added difficulty, but it's already hard enough for me. I often switch from warrior, survivalist and insane. Going from Insane to warrior really shows me how easy I have it and lets me be faster & try new tricks. My sandbox is a roguelike aka hardcore

edit:
hardcore usually means, in most video games, what I said above. If you die it's gg. If a game redefines the term hardcore to mean something else, then they are confusing players.

Wow. I commend you on that. That's Maxed out combat settings in my opinion. Those are primarily combat settings in my opinion. Speed, Difficulty. No loot respawn, I've never really tried that, how does that affect a single player game? I guess I'm trying to gauge how each setting affects the game.

[Blitz4]

I think it's fun. I thank the pimps. I got the idea from a youtuber and it made me play the game A LOT more.

Like you said, combat settings. My style is to get lots of loot from buildings, which tends to have enemies. I did create the elevator for zombies on horde night, so they can't hit my base, and it was cool to test for one night, it's not fun and I aim for sturdy bases with a strong defense or open area combat, which I still suck at lol.

I'm just worried lots will change before release and I'm not super excited to spend hundreds of hours on learning exactly how to do melee, to have that taken from me.

Edit: (judging the distance for melee attacks is difficult in A19 - I still don't get it)

Originally posted by vgifford:

Wow. I commend you on that. That's Maxed out combat settings in my opinion. Those are primarily combat settings in my opinion. Speed, Difficulty. No loot respawn, I've never really tried that, how does that affect a single player game? I guess I'm trying to gauge how each setting affects the game.

For the no loot spawn, You get more loot up front. those birdnests, destroy them. That container, salvage it. If I get to a point where the loot is all gone in the map, I've won. You learn Nightmare. But Insane sux.

[[-=O=-]^FightinCock]

for ultra realism / hard core.... play with your hud turned off.

lol. sadly this is not an option you can play with. :(

[vgifford]

Originally posted by -=O=-^FightinCock:

for ultra realism / hard core.... play with your hud turned off.

lol. sadly this is not an option you can play with. :(

F7

[[-=O=-]^FightinCock]

Originally posted by vgifford:

Originally posted by -=O=-^FightinCock:

for ultra realism / hard core.... play with your hud turned off.

lol. sadly this is not an option you can play with. :(

F7

Yes i'm aware.... but it can't be played with.
you can't open anything or get in anything with hud off. =(