Darkness Falls Mod

[Ash vs. Himself]

I've slowly come around to installing the Darkness Falls mod--the big thing I want are other survivors who can join you. The list of significant changes this mod makes to the game has kept me from downloading, but I've almost fully gotten on board. ]

There's just one specific change I'm still worried about--trader bases not being invincible. I feel like this could really mess up a fun game. Have any of you tried this mod? What are your experiences?

[Bourbinski]

Well, before you get in and get disappointed, the other survivors that spawn in the game have ai about as complex as the boars. You can't interact with them in anyway. They just run from zombie to zombie and smack them until they end up getting themselves killed. There is absolutely 0 interaction with them.

The traders are also not a big deal. If you just don't stay next to them they won't really exist so nothing can happen to them, and if the trader does get killed, they just respawn a week later.

[Khissi]

Make a trader base your home... upgrade each one you find and be sure that their guards have a clear line of sight. Doing this as you work on your personal skill trees (especially laborer) is easy and fun and gives you a bit of comfort about what could happen in the early days. Rekt is annoying, but his base is very easy to upgrade to make home if you can stand his attitude. Jen's base is easy, as well, but her guards are placed too high to really be effective. Just make sure her walls are VERY strong. Take care when upgrading Joel's base. Be SURE you've supported his little tower house thingy from underneath. It WILL fall if you're not careful. The hardest base for me to upgrade is Bob's, the one with the storage rooms. His guards are placed so strangely that they often are unable or too high to be very effective. Hugh's base is easy to upgrade, but it's so large that zombies often spawn INSIDE no matter how well you've upgraded the outside. It's a crapshoot... anyway, it's kind of fun trying to make them safe, though, just let Caitlyn be herself and spend as little time as you possibly can inside her base. DO NOT TRY TO SPEND THE NIGHT THERE. And, if she dies, she will respawn eventually... hopefully.

Have fun in the mod! It's an amazing overhaul. I think it's the best one out there, but then, that's only MY opinion. Also... do NOT be a big brave strong player and think that you'll do better by turning up the difficulty. It ramps itself up pretty darned fast. First playthrough... just learn the mechanics, learn how things work, then next time you do it, make it harder if you think you want to.

[Jork]

If you're super paranoid about traders being vulnerable, just be far enough away from them so the chunk that contains them isn't even loaded.

It's really not a big deal though. I've done two DF runs and not once did I ever have any traders get screwed over. Had a few bits of the walls break, but it's easy enough to just fortify whatever gets damaged.

Another tip is to not do bloodmoons at a trader, unless you want to go all in on fortifying a trader base as your own base like Khissi suggests.

[briancourt2]

be very careful on higher difficulties. Random hordes can easily wipe you out, and if you progress too quickly you will have demons before you have laser weapons, or anything with enough DSP to handle. But I wish to god, the fun pimps would take a look at the 7 day hordes. Way more of a challenge than vanilla. First time i played with my two sons, and my killing corridor was overwhelmed. We went through all of our ammo, and they were still coming. Absolutely fun. Game stage above 200 is when life gets real hard.

Looking forward to Alpha 20, but ironically will probably still fall short of DF mod. Sure 100 new POIs, but DF has way more. Pipe weapons, DF was already there.