What's your favourite play style?

[contrabored]

Do you adopt the "we will attack everything that lives and breathes" or "all are welcome" perhaps? Do you study and expand? Do you research and reserve? Do you drink or do you pray? Ally to all or there can be only one?


Curious to know what style you use most or find the most interesting! :)

[Mickmane]

All are welcome, trade and prosper, turn all churches into bars (the lesser evil), allying with those I like or are harmless.

I also turned off fog of war and head straigth for walling in the others with my own buildings. (Not the only tweak I did with private mod.)

[Zassa]

I change it up each time, to keep the game fresh. Some games I just want to be friends and unite the city, even hated rivals like the Last Judgement and the Riffs, and some I want to murder everybody. Some I pick factions from a hat and become their friends and fight everybody else, some I just become a recluse and don't talk to or trade with the other factions. Sometimes I'm a benevolent leader, who cares about his charges, and sometimes I'm a brutal dictator who lords over his subjects and commands them to do the unspeakable. Sometimes I'm a man of science, sometimes I reject it outright and farm like the Luddies. Sometimes I am President Charlie, sometimes I am Overlord Bob, and sometimes I am Papa Smurf. It all depends on my mood.

[Mickmane]

Originally posted by Zassa:

I change it up each time, to keep the game fresh. Some games I just want to be friends and unite the city, even hated rivals like the Last Judgement and the Riffs, and some I want to murder everybody. Some I pick factions from a hat and become their friends and fight everybody else, some I just become a recluse and don't talk to or trade with the other factions. Sometimes I'm a benevolent leader, who cares about his charges, and sometimes I'm a brutal dictator who lords over his subjects and commands them to do the unspeakable. Sometimes I'm a man of science, sometimes I reject it outright and farm like the Luddies. Sometimes I am President Charlie, sometimes I am Overlord Bob, and sometimes I am Papa Smurf. It all depends on my mood.

Sounds like fun. :)

[Auri the Ethereal]

I almost always endeavour to conquer every faction on the map, ultimately reclaiming the entire city.

As far as I am concerned, my rule is the last bastion and hope for humanity, and as a result I must eliminate any threats to the revival of humanity, ensure unity between people and prioritise the stability/security of my realm above all. This forms the basis of my main character's ideological motivation.

Of course, I don't straight away attack any new factions I meet, for that would be stupid. I play the "diplomatic" game and suck up to or even ally factions until I have accumulated enough strength to annihilate them. (And if my Main Character hasn't already full on special perks I complete the questlines for each faction before I kill them off)

You could say I'm welcoming and suck-up to other factions in the short run but attack them ruthlessly in the long-term.

Once I've taken a faction's final city block, I typically invite them to join me (to bolster my ranks). The only faction I would outright kill off in a genocide would be the Chosen ones (who are usually the first to face my warmongering wrath due to my ideological opposition to them)

I try to expand and build in a strategic fashion, although not necessarily quickly (unless I can afford the materials/builders). For example, I will rush reclam operations in the direction of Important buildings such as the Power Plant and Water Treatment Plant (or Pumping Station?), seek to prevent the other factions for reclaiming bridges, or closing the gap between me and a faction/edge of the city to eliminate the Zed threat.

My playstyle also has me focus on research and technological pursuits (I am very keen to recruit engineers or build/find laboratories). Again, the need to dominate the other factions drives the technological need.

And since I encourage stability in the long-term, I also promote a balance between drinking and religion. (although I persecute the Chosen Ones as their existence threatens this stability)

My policies generally boil down to: -
-Military or Wealth Generation (security and to fund wars)
-Retention of Private Wealth (Encourage autonomy/Capital generation/Applease the people)
-Assigning luxuries to skilled workers (My imperial ambitions require skilled human capital)
-Throw people in Jail (Must not waste Human Capital or allow defection to other factions)
-Isolationist Nationalism (Don't waste resources on pity projects that I require to achieve my goals)
-Dictatorship (I require a firm and steady hand in managing my affairs)

Any other policies I choose must compliment my ideology, for example: -
-Children go to school. (so I can indocrinate them)
-Mandatory Night duty.
-Everyone does Chores and Guard Duty (Increase military manpower)
-Encourage families (More young people to indocrinate)

The ultimate endgame goal for each new map I play boils down to:
-Complete dictatorship.
-A government that conforms to my character's Ideology.
-Eliminating the factional threat.
-Completing all research/Questlines where possible.
-Eliminating the Cultist Threat.
-Reclaim and refurbish the entire city.

[IL PALLINO]

Favorite policies:

Trading and prospering - I figured it worked well for the Phonecians and the Dutch. Besides, the trading bonuses always stay with you.

Policy making - I always go dictator here. People have churches and bars to take their pent-up feelings to.

Everyone shares stuff - So what if communism annoys survivors? The fact that it results in more stuff being found can be essential in the early stages of a community.

Nationalism - Help anyone who needs it. I like the idea of making recruiting easier.

Luxury distribution - Early on I favor skilled survivors because it helps bring in more talented survivors, but once I get a group of survivors to stick with, I'll start keeping this policy at "randomly assign luxuries" so it keeps people happier. (Yeah, I know what I said earlier about churches and bars. They're only two other ways of keeping people happy.)

Crime and punishment - Kick 'em out. It keeps the crime lower, plus I don't recall ever seeing any criminals get kicked out from committing crimes in two complete playthroughs.

Gender roles - Everyone does what they want.

Rations - I always go with increased, no matter how dire the need for food may be.

Children - Kids help their guardians at work. I've actually seen this one periodically provide benefits in the forms of extra food from farms and extra supplies from crafters.

Water and electricity usage - I always make these unlimited.

Scavenging risks - I always take everything at the expense of going slower, because it doesn't affect speed that much when you have good scavengers!

Stranger policy - With open arms... Always! The risks don't seem to off-set the rewards at all.

Ammo usage: I never take anything but spray & pray. But it doesn't matter since my four permanent party members (five with the politician trait) carry melee weapons, unless I feel one should have a peashooter for whatever reason.

Playing favorites with survivors:

The three survivors I take with me are the most skillful, unless one has the half-rations trait, then those poeple get priority, which helps immensely given that new communities start out unsustainable.

The survivors I favor the most to take with me, are Chuckling Chuck Taylor and other ex-Rotten survivors, as they don't consume any food at all, and it helps that ex-Rotten are all immune, which means a +1 for defense.

[Mickmane]

Originally posted by IL PALLINO:

Favorite policies:

The survivors I favor the most to take with me, are Chuckling Chuck Taylor and other ex-Rotten survivors, as they don't consume any food at all, and it helps that ex-Rotten are all immune, which means a +1 for defense.

How do you get more ex-Rotten? I only got Jenkins, the butler, in my one play-through of the campaign. Now playing free play, would like more of them, and Jenkins back if possible. :)

[IL PALLINO]

Originally posted by Mickmane:

How do you get more ex-Rotten?

I got two at about the same time in Spokane! First was Chuckling Chuck Taylor after getting freed from The Government. For some odd reason, Chuckling Chuck didn't get the ex-Rotten trait when he defected.

Sometimes survivors can be gained through rescuing them for other factions, and with a high enough of a leadership attribute, you can select the option of "we want him," in which a faction will agree to let that survivor defect. (At the expense of not gaining any points with the faction who's member you rescued.) This came up for me through dumb luck with The Rotten!

[Mickmane]

Originally posted by IL PALLINO:

Originally posted by Mickmane:

How do you get more ex-Rotten?

I got two at about the same time in Spokane! First was Chuckling Chuck Taylor after getting freed from The Government. For some odd reason, Chuckling Chuck didn't get the ex-Rotten trait when he defected.

Sometimes survivors can be gained through rescuing them for other factions, and with a high enough of a leadership attribute, you can select the option of "we want him," in which a faction will agree to let that survivor defect. (At the expense of not gaining any points with the faction who's member you rescued.) This came up for me through dumb luck with The Rotten!

Ah. I've gotten that mission, and some folks rescued, but never a Rotten.