Do you expand your fort as big as possible or just a small fort of essentials?

[Shadow Glaive]

As the title asks, I'm curious of everyone's style of play, do you settle with a small fort of essentials or do you expand as far as possible (with or without conquering the other factions forts) and do you take in every survivor or do you have a cut off limit?

I personally like to expand across the entire map, take in all the survivors and usually form alliances with any faction that doesn't try to raid or attack me. The one downside to this is I've not figured out a way to maintain a positive happiness (it sits at around -1.8 to -2.2 decline, but it's never dropped lower than one 3rd of the happiness bar).

[Mickmane]

I play on kind of custom easy mode, with my own config tweaking a lot of settings.

First I want all the warehouses and gas and water works, (I have the option on to claim tiles without them being connected), maybe surround needed tiles like mall and motel so they don't get taken by others. Then I preferably connect them sooner or later, and even out the edges to be straight.

I want all the survivors, but changed the amount that is on a map (and maybe how many may appear, I forgot if that has a setting - been a while since I last played).

I ally with those I like or find tolerable, and crush those I don't like (always the same ones). I don't like pig farmers, chosen, last judgement, government. (Rotten are my favorite faction, sometimes I try to get a Dream Team of all Rotten survivors - too bad there are so few faces for them.)

I also demolish all churches and build a lot of bars (lesser of 2 evils). I make devout and chosen lose their faith by sending them to dangerous woodcutting missions in the forest (if they're not constructors), they get lonely, sad, and then come to their senses. :)

I also split the bigger farms. The smaller ones give more food per tile space taken.

I like to make clusters of buildings, schools here, farms there, apartment buildings there, lab and workshops over there, as far as possible.

[Shadow Glaive]

Originally posted by Mickmane:

I play on kind of custom easy mode, with my own config tweaking a lot of settings.

First I want all the warehouses and gas and water works, (I have the option on to claim tiles without them being connected), maybe surround needed tiles like mall and motel so they don't get taken by others. Then I preferably connect them sooner or later, and even out the edges to be straight.

I want all the survivors, but changed the amount that is on a map (and maybe how many may appear, I forgot if that has a setting - been a while since I last played).

I ally with those I like or find tolerable, and crush those I don't like (always the same ones). I don't like pig farmers, chosen, last judgement, government. (Rotten are my favorite faction, sometimes I try to get a Dream Team of all Rotten survivors - too bad there are so few faces for them.)

I also demolish all churches and build a lot of bars (lesser of 2 evils). I make devout and chosen lose their faith by sending them to dangerous woodcutting missions in the forest (if they're not constructors), they get lonely, sad, and then come to their senses. :)

I also split the bigger farms. The smaller ones give more food per tile space taken.

I like to make clusters of buildings, schools here, farms there, apartment buildings there, lab and workshops over there, as far as possible.

I just finished the story mode on easy, probably won't bother with the harder difficulties, but I might give quick play a go with custom settings.

I didn't know you could make devout lose faith in the church either! A useful tip to remember for my next play-through! I might actually do one where I only have bars and then another one where I try to become fully devout.

I didn't realise the bigger farms don't give as much food as multiple smaller farms... Another handy tip to remember for when I play again.

I should have done clusters of buildings... Especially workshops and labs, that would have made mass research and crafting so much easier than searching all over the fort for buildings I was after! *facepalm*

[Mickmane]

Originally posted by Shadow Glaive:

I just finished the story mode on easy, probably won't bother with the harder difficulties, but I might give quick play a go with custom settings.

I didn't know you could make devout lose faith in the church either! A useful tip to remember for my next play-through! I might actually do one where I only have bars and then another one where I try to become fully devout.

I didn't realise the bigger farms don't give as much food as multiple smaller farms... Another handy tip to remember for when I play again.

I should have done clusters of buildings... Especially workshops and labs, that would have made mass research and crafting so much easier than searching all over the fort for buildings I was after! *facepalm*

Hah, yes, I can imagine. :)

Nice that there was something useful in my ramblings. :))

I play the game again now and then, story mode, for good ending again. Though by now I cheat perks into my Dream Team, rather than taking ages to get the ones I want (and then some extras, hah). Search for Monkey Blood and rest is still as usual. :)

Debug mode is also quite handy, once you have seen everything in the game. :)

[Shadow Glaive]

Originally posted by Mickmane:

Originally posted by Shadow Glaive:

I just finished the story mode on easy, probably won't bother with the harder difficulties, but I might give quick play a go with custom settings.

I didn't know you could make devout lose faith in the church either! A useful tip to remember for my next play-through! I might actually do one where I only have bars and then another one where I try to become fully devout.

I didn't realise the bigger farms don't give as much food as multiple smaller farms... Another handy tip to remember for when I play again.

I should have done clusters of buildings... Especially workshops and labs, that would have made mass research and crafting so much easier than searching all over the fort for buildings I was after! *facepalm*

Hah, yes, I can imagine. :)

Nice that there was something useful in my ramblings. :))

I play the game again now and then, story mode, for good ending again. Though by now I cheat perks into my Dream Team, rather than taking ages to get the ones I want (and then some extras, hah). Search for Monkey Blood and rest is still as usual. :)

Debug mode is also quite handy, once you have seen everything in the game. :)

I had the bad ending... Wiped out The Government but we already started turning.. oops lol.

Absolutely! I don't like reading in game text very often, as I'm a slow reader and the information in the messages rarely sticks in my head, so any useful tips are usually forgotten pretty quickly lol.

I may replay the story to try for the good ending at some point, but I'm not too bothered... Probably because I haven't learnt how to speed play completing any of the maps in less than 50 turns yet lol.

[Mickmane]

Originally posted by Shadow Glaive:

Originally posted by Mickmane:

Hah, yes, I can imagine. :)

Nice that there was something useful in my ramblings. :))

I play the game again now and then, story mode, for good ending again. Though by now I cheat perks into my Dream Team, rather than taking ages to get the ones I want (and then some extras, hah). Search for Monkey Blood and rest is still as usual. :)

Debug mode is also quite handy, once you have seen everything in the game. :)

I had the bad ending... Wiped out The Government but we already started turning.. oops lol.

Absolutely! I don't like reading in game text very often, as I'm a slow reader and the information in the messages rarely sticks in my head, so any useful tips are usually forgotten pretty quickly lol.

I may replay the story to try for the good ending at some point, but I'm not too bothered... Probably because I haven't learnt how to speed play completing any of the maps in less than 50 turns yet lol.

LOL.

I'm not speed playing at all. I like that it's turn based, and take my time. Digging the game out whenever the mood hits me again, maybe once a year or two.

I'm a slow reader, too, so I know the feeling. :)

Shame about getting one of the 3 bad endings (one ending is good).

If you have a save in Vancouver before wiping out the Government, and you have the 3 items necessary, and Jesse wandered off into the wilderness,you could wait for his return, then make a real cure .

I'm not sure how you could especially get the Monkey Blood without reading a guide, though. (More like biting your way through a pretty complicated chain of events, possibly listed confusingly, depending on guide.) The other two items can easily happen alongside befriending some Factions in whatever town(s) you meet them.

If you don't have all three items, but a save before leaving the town prior to going to Vancouver, you can load that save, leave town, pick any previous town on the path, delete -that- save (not the whole game, just delete the town that you want to repeat), enter it again, and redo it for getting something you can get there.

Then, redoing towns until you have the 3 items necessary, you can head to Vancouver and replay that city.

Could be quicker than playing over, and you might already have your Dream Team with you. :) (The 3 or 4 survivors that accompany you to new towns.)

[Shadow Glaive]

Originally posted by Mickmane:

Originally posted by Shadow Glaive:

I had the bad ending... Wiped out The Government but we already started turning.. oops lol.

Absolutely! I don't like reading in game text very often, as I'm a slow reader and the information in the messages rarely sticks in my head, so any useful tips are usually forgotten pretty quickly lol.

I may replay the story to try for the good ending at some point, but I'm not too bothered... Probably because I haven't learnt how to speed play completing any of the maps in less than 50 turns yet lol.

LOL.

I'm not speed playing at all. I like that it's turn based, and take my time. Digging the game out whenever the mood hits me again, maybe once a year or two.

I'm a slow reader, too, so I know the feeling. :)

Shame about getting one of the 3 bad endings (one ending is good).

If you have a save in Vancouver before wiping out the Government, and you have the 3 items necessary, and Jesse wandered off into the wilderness,you could wait for his return, then make a real cure .

I'm not sure how you could especially get the Monkey Blood without reading a guide, though. (More like biting your way through a pretty complicated chain of events, possibly listed confusingly, depending on guide.) The other two items can easily happen alongside befriending some Factions in whatever town(s) you meet them.

If you don't have all three items, but a save before leaving the town prior to going to Vancouver, you can load that save, leave town, pick any previous town on the path, delete -that- save (not the whole game, just delete the town that you want to repeat), enter it again, and redo it for getting something you can get there.

Then, redoing towns until you have the 3 items necessary, you can head to Vancouver and replay that city.

Could be quicker than playing over, and you might already have your Dream Team with you. :) (The 3 or 4 survivors that accompany you to new towns.)

I'll have to check my saves. I have a few in Vancouver as I kept getting attacked by the super zombies and I'd unavoidably lose one of my OG team... Although one did seem to vanish and I don't know how, as she wasn't in my list of survivors, even as dead... So dunno if I mistakenly left her in the previous city or whether some event made her leave? *shrugs* :/ I have a save at the beginning of Vancouver so I can check that easy enough.

How do I know if I have any of the three items? As I said before I don't read the text so was totally oblivious about needing to actually find quest items, that weren't part of the main quests to progress to the next city lol.

[Mickmane]

Originally posted by Shadow Glaive:

Originally posted by Mickmane:

Shame about getting one of the 3 bad endings (one ending is good).

If you have a save in Vancouver before wiping out the Government, and you have the 3 items necessary, and Jesse wandered off into the wilderness,you could wait for his return, then make a real cure .

I'm not sure how you could especially get the Monkey Blood without reading a guide, though. (More like biting your way through a pretty complicated chain of events, possibly listed confusingly, depending on guide.) The other two items can easily happen alongside befriending some Factions in whatever town(s) you meet them.

If you don't have all three items, but a save before leaving the town prior to going to Vancouver, you can load that save, leave town, pick any previous town on the path, delete -that- save (not the whole game, just delete the town that you want to repeat), enter it again, and redo it for getting something you can get there.

Then, redoing towns until you have the 3 items necessary, you can head to Vancouver and replay that city.

Could be quicker than playing over, and you might already have your Dream Team with you. :) (The 3 or 4 survivors that accompany you to new towns.)

I'll have to check my saves. I have a few in Vancouver as I kept getting attacked by the super zombies and I'd unavoidably lose one of my OG team... Although one did seem to vanish and I don't know how, as she wasn't in my list of survivors, even as dead... So dunno if I mistakenly left her in the previous city or whether some event made her leave? *shrugs* :/ I have a save at the beginning of Vancouver so I can check that easy enough.

How do I know if I have any of the three items? As I said before I don't read the text so was totally oblivious about needing to actually find quest items, that weren't part of the main quests to progress to the next city lol.

Oh. How do you know what to do when you get some quest in a city? (I read slow, but I do read the in-game text. :) It's Story mode, after all. Plus, it's the way to get desired perks for your main char.)

You don't get told you need those items, you just (might, I guess, in your case) end up doing stuff in various cities, and then later someone asks you whether you have A., B., C., and you can click on what you have if you have it - missing stuff is grayed out. (Research, Data Dump, and Monkey Blood, I think.) It's not items you have in your inventory, game just saves whether you got it.

I tried to find it in the saves I copied to clipboard (you can do that in debug mode) and then put into a file (you can edit that, then copy it back into the game via clipboard), but no luck.

So, you'd have to remember whether you got the three items.

- Research comes early on, some quest with going to the school boy's dad's house.
- Data Dump comes after you meet the 1337 crew, I think.
- Monkey Blood is a complicated chain of events, with a woman named Gretchen turning up, who wears a facemask (like we did during covid).

I remember you get asked twice at different points whether you have the three things. Do you not remember anything like that?

[Shadow Glaive]

Originally posted by Mickmane:

Originally posted by Shadow Glaive:

I'll have to check my saves. I have a few in Vancouver as I kept getting attacked by the super zombies and I'd unavoidably lose one of my OG team... Although one did seem to vanish and I don't know how, as she wasn't in my list of survivors, even as dead... So dunno if I mistakenly left her in the previous city or whether some event made her leave? *shrugs* :/ I have a save at the beginning of Vancouver so I can check that easy enough.

How do I know if I have any of the three items? As I said before I don't read the text so was totally oblivious about needing to actually find quest items, that weren't part of the main quests to progress to the next city lol.

Oh. How do you know what to do when you get some quest in a city? (I read slow, but I do read the in-game text. :) It's Story mode, after all. Plus, it's the way to get desired perks for your main char.)

You don't get told you need those items, you just (might, I guess, in your case) end up doing stuff in various cities, and then later someone asks you whether you have A., B., C., and you can click on what you have if you have it - missing stuff is grayed out. (Research, Data Dump, and Monkey Blood, I think.) It's not items you have in your inventory, game just saves whether you got it.

I tried to find it in the saves I copied to clipboard (you can do that in debug mode) and then put into a file (you can edit that, then copy it back into the game via clipboard), but no luck.

So, you'd have to remember whether you got the three items.

- Research comes early on, some quest with going to the school boy's dad's house.
- Data Dump comes after you meet the 1337 crew, I think.
- Monkey Blood is a complicated chain of events, with a woman named Gretchen turning up, who wears a facemask (like we did during covid).

I remember you get asked twice at different points whether you have the three things. Do you not remember anything like that?

I just click on the red exclamation mark and it just says the objective that way lol. I've lost my patients with the stories in games, I just want to play the game lmao xD

Oooh fair enough, I usually just chase all of the red exclamations marks and do as many of the faction requests as I can to make them have 100% respect lol.

Hmm interesting.. I'm trying to think if any of those instances happened for me, but I have a terrible memory, so I may have got at least one of them without realising it... Karma for being too lazy to read if I did miss them all I suppose lol.

Who asks you? The main three characters I recall having regular non-faction related interactions with were (I'm terrible with names) The Rotten Leader, The Rotten Scientist, and The Government Woman...

[Mickmane]

Originally posted by Shadow Glaive:

Originally posted by Mickmane:

Oh. How do you know what to do when you get some quest in a city? (I read slow, but I do read the in-game text. :) It's Story mode, after all. Plus, it's the way to get desired perks for your main char.)

You don't get told you need those items, you just (might, I guess, in your case) end up doing stuff in various cities, and then later someone asks you whether you have A., B., C., and you can click on what you have if you have it - missing stuff is grayed out. (Research, Data Dump, and Monkey Blood, I think.) It's not items you have in your inventory, game just saves whether you got it.

I tried to find it in the saves I copied to clipboard (you can do that in debug mode) and then put into a file (you can edit that, then copy it back into the game via clipboard), but no luck.

So, you'd have to remember whether you got the three items.

- Research comes early on, some quest with going to the school boy's dad's house.
- Data Dump comes after you meet the 1337 crew, I think.
- Monkey Blood is a complicated chain of events, with a woman named Gretchen turning up, who wears a facemask (like we did during covid).

I remember you get asked twice at different points whether you have the three things. Do you not remember anything like that?

I just click on the red exclamation mark and it just says the objective that way lol. I've lost my patients with the stories in games, I just want to play the game lmao xD

Oooh fair enough, I usually just chase all of the red exclamations marks and do as many of the faction requests as I can to make them have 100% respect lol.

Hmm interesting.. I'm trying to think if any of those instances happened for me, but I have a terrible memory, so I may have got at least one of them without realising it... Karma for being too lazy to read if I did miss them all I suppose lol.

Who asks you? The main three characters I recall having regular non-faction related interactions with were (I'm terrible with names) The Rotten Leader, The Rotten Scientist, and The Government Woman...

Maybe read a bit more, some of it is funny. :))

I have a terrible memory too. One game I forgot one of the easiest things, the research I think, and had to redo a prior city for that. :)

Jesse asks you, I think. The Rotten leader. At least the 2nd time. Hm... See terrible memory. :)

Back to reading, you can skip the survivor stories and just grab one of the perks they offer, though they're sometimes funny too, and can give some hints of backstory (not needed, just can be interesting).

Faction stuff, however, is useful. Plus, do you want cannibals and complete loons to respect you!? ;P

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643691174 is very useful for getting perks you like for your leader, and not ending up with those you have no use for.

There are also guides for how to get the good ending. From brief summaries with screenshots, to lengthy elaboration. I guess you might not want to read through the latter. :)

I totally understand not wanting game with story, but here it's not drowning you in it, most is decoration, some is necessary, and overall there aren't that many things to read. (Unlike some games, where you end up reading more than playing the game.)

[Shadow Glaive]

Originally posted by Mickmane:

Originally posted by Shadow Glaive:

I just click on the red exclamation mark and it just says the objective that way lol. I've lost my patients with the stories in games, I just want to play the game lmao xD

Oooh fair enough, I usually just chase all of the red exclamations marks and do as many of the faction requests as I can to make them have 100% respect lol.

Hmm interesting.. I'm trying to think if any of those instances happened for me, but I have a terrible memory, so I may have got at least one of them without realising it... Karma for being too lazy to read if I did miss them all I suppose lol.

Who asks you? The main three characters I recall having regular non-faction related interactions with were (I'm terrible with names) The Rotten Leader, The Rotten Scientist, and The Government Woman...

Maybe read a bit more, some of it is funny. :))

I have a terrible memory too. One game I forgot one of the easiest things, the research I think, and had to redo a prior city for that. :)

Jesse asks you, I think. The Rotten leader. At least the 2nd time. Hm... See terrible memory. :)

Back to reading, you can skip the survivor stories and just grab one of the perks they offer, though they're sometimes funny too, and can give some hints of backstory (not needed, just can be interesting).

Faction stuff, however, is useful. Plus, do you want cannibals and complete loons to respect you!? ;P

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643691174 is very useful for getting perks you like for your leader, and not ending up with those you have no use for.

There are also guides for how to get the good ending. From brief summaries with screenshots, to lengthy elaboration. I guess you might not want to read through the latter. :)

I totally understand not wanting game with story, but here it's not drowning you in it, most is decoration, some is necessary, and overall there aren't that many things to read. (Unlike some games, where you end up reading more than playing the game.)

Yeah, maybe I should at least skim the text lol.

It is Jesse, I just replayed Vancouver and he comes asking about the cure (I don't have any of the 3 parts lol).

I'm sure I'll go for a cannibal play through at some point, maybe I'll make that my devout play through, cannibal cultists haha!

I'll have to check out that guide so I can get the good ending! :)

[Mickmane]

Originally posted by Shadow Glaive:

Originally posted by Mickmane:

Maybe read a bit more, some of it is funny. :))

I have a terrible memory too. One game I forgot one of the easiest things, the research I think, and had to redo a prior city for that. :)

Jesse asks you, I think. The Rotten leader. At least the 2nd time. Hm... See terrible memory. :)

Back to reading, you can skip the survivor stories and just grab one of the perks they offer, though they're sometimes funny too, and can give some hints of backstory (not needed, just can be interesting).

Faction stuff, however, is useful. Plus, do you want cannibals and complete loons to respect you!? ;P

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=643691174 is very useful for getting perks you like for your leader, and not ending up with those you have no use for.

There are also guides for how to get the good ending. From brief summaries with screenshots, to lengthy elaboration. I guess you might not want to read through the latter. :)

I totally understand not wanting game with story, but here it's not drowning you in it, most is decoration, some is necessary, and overall there aren't that many things to read. (Unlike some games, where you end up reading more than playing the game.)

Yeah, maybe I should at least skim the text lol.

It is Jesse, I just replayed Vancouver and he comes asking about the cure (I don't have any of the 3 parts lol).

I'm sure I'll go for a cannibal play through at some point, maybe I'll make that my devout play through, cannibal cultists haha!

I'll have to check out that guide so I can get the good ending! :)

Lol at cannibal cultists. Maybe I should do that, but so far I can't resist the urge to crush those I don't like. :)

With the cannibals and complete loons I meant other factions though. :)

Good luck with the next attempt! :)