What's the "ideal" group size?

[user1854669]

I'm still managing to keep my community happy but is there like a "best" group size? The more people you have the more stressful it seems to get. I wanna keep the most minimum people I can to save space on beds. I see the npc's usually all have no more than 3 people. You start out with 4 people. Any suggestions on community size and what skills they should have?

[Nordark]

personally id say the more the better. The more you have the bigger the base you can get for better stations and such. Skills are really up to you certain ones can make your life easier. I think theirs a skill wiki or something out there id recommend looking at to see what the 5th skill can do/benefit you.

[Klud]

It kinda depends on your needs and abilities.

If you are super good at avoiding damage and do a lot of scavenging, you want survivors focused on maximizing the efficiency you get from resources as well as keeping your base consumption low.

If you are not as good at avoiding damage, you probably want some viable follower survivors as well as base facilities that give extra health/stamina or some extra combat radio options.

I personally always pick somebody with munitions knowledge, so I get the most out of ammo crafting. Cause I like shooting guns.

[Klud]

As for size, just keep it manageable resourcewise. If you want a big community, you will probably want somebody with agriculture and you want to build some gardens.

[user1854669]

Originally posted by Millbrook:

It kinda depends on your needs and abilities.

If you are super good at avoiding damage and do a lot of scavenging, you want survivors focused on maximizing the efficiency you get from resources as well as keeping your base consumption low.

If you are not as good at avoiding damage, you probably want some viable follower survivors as well as base facilities that give extra health/stamina or some extra combat radio options.

I personally always pick somebody with munitions knowledge, so I get the most out of ammo crafting. Cause I like shooting guns.

I didnt think of them getting hurt and tired thats a good reason to keep my people high to switch them out. Right now my food is getting low cuz I just moved places and lost my farm and took in another follower that had utilities that I've been wanting for a while but had bad rng.

I do have some with agriculture so that was a plus. I'm still learning. Trial and error I guess. Thankfully none of my people have died yet but I did have to kick 2 people out already cuz one was wasting meds and the other was an instigator.

[Stardustfire]

well on a low difficulty, that you seem to use (you say you start with 4, what means you are in tutorial mode, not normal start) , all works. if you change to a higher difficulty you will learn very fast that you need more survivors to switch/make up for accident looses.

[Klud]

Originally posted by user1854669:

I do have some with agriculture so that was a plus. I'm still learning. Trial and error I guess. Thankfully none of my people have died yet but I did have to kick 2 people out already cuz one was wasting meds and the other was an instigator.

btw, if you keep their morale high, they won't waste resources or start conflicts. Only a problem if their morale is low.

[user1854669]

Originally posted by Millbrook:

Originally posted by user1854669:

I do have some with agriculture so that was a plus. I'm still learning. Trial and error I guess. Thankfully none of my people have died yet but I did have to kick 2 people out already cuz one was wasting meds and the other was an instigator.

btw, if you keep their morale high, they won't waste resources or start conflicts. Only a problem if their morale is low.

I'm still trying to figure out the whole morale thing. I'll get new red text every once in a while that freaks me out. Right now I got something called taking shelter and that wasnt their a few hours ago from what I remember. My people were complaining about beds and now I finally have enough.

Man I should have never moved bases lol. Everything was perfect in that second base they give you. Perfect spot and all. I'm too far in the lumber mill to turn back now. Might as well push on.

[Protectron]

Go for the maximum of 12, and for cancelling the base upkeep.

When you have a Lounge 3, you can go to Enthusiastic morale where no-one's complaining, and everything goes faster, including skill improvement. This at the cost of noise - you will get 3-minute sieges every time and therefore need to equip your NPC crew with good guns.

Edit: This for when you don't necessarily want to finish the Legacy mainquest quickly, or at all. If you do, then going to 12 and maxing out everything is a waste of time.

Edit2: If you go for Legacies and their Boons, I guess 7 is the sweet spot. Then all 6 NPCs will be active when you defend the base, and no-one is "hidden".

[user1854669]

6 felt right when when I was starting out and easier to manage. I'm not sure how everything works still I'm guessing each person eats one unit of food a day right? My food doesnt seem to go up quick enough despite having 2 farms and a rank 3 food post.

[Jackal]

8 Max imo

[Protectron]

Originally posted by user1854669:

6 felt right when when I was starting out and easier to manage. I'm not sure how everything works still I'm guessing each person eats one unit of food a day right? My food doesnt seem to go up quick enough despite having 2 farms and a rank 3 food post.

It's 2 food per person per day on Lethal. Not sure about the lower difficulties anymore.

A Garden 3 produces 3 Food. A Compost Bin spends 1 Food to double that. An Agriculture specialist can then sprinkle it with seeds to also double that, but each bonus is based on the basic production. So 3 + 3 + 3 = 9 (-1) Food. This should be enough to keep 8 survivors with Food. A Bag of Fertilizer produces 0,5 food less than this in practice.

You don't have to guess. Click on the base storage in the base menu and you should get a complete overview of the base's upkeep and production.

[Stardustfire]

forget the garbage bin, use fertilizer instead.

dont get confused about the ups and downs of your resources. the game dont does that ones a gameday but split the numbers to twice a day. what means when you have +2 food per day you get two times +1 at a gameday (noone and midnight)

[Gustuv Wynd]

Provided you have the builder boon and can dedicate your outposts to food and meds...I would say 6

Mechanic (fixing your vehicles)
Nutritionist (cooking feasts and health/Stamina bonus)
Munitions (makes more ammo for less)
Hygiene (with a hygiene standards hero bonus to get +150 plague resitance)
Surgeon (for health bonus)
Some survivor that helps morale. (Even better if they have sleep Psychology and give beds)

Though I typically go eight and have:
Sewing (for health and item stack size bonus)
Scrum Master (for speeding up some base actions)
...though these are more of a nice to have. The top six I deem necessary.


Then I start each game with some one with computer skills, but I send them to my pool or kick them after I have upgraded my command center. It is also helpful to temporily have some one with knowledge of gardening so that you can upgrade food outposts to level 3. Once that is done there is typically little benefit to keeping them around, though.

If I decide I want to use the heaven device I bring in recycling to cover the parts cost...but I rarely use it.

[Stardustfire]

real necessary is a hacker, the +1 Outpost is to big of a benefit to miss

[Gustuv Wynd]

Originally posted by Stardustfire:

real necessary is a hacker, the +1 Outpost is to big of a benefit to miss

If you bring Red Talon skills in...I would rate gut packing higher. It makes it so you can have less of a need for food outposts netting the same effect since you can use the outposts for something else and less of a worry if food did get low....and functions as a cook for feasts. The hacker can just to the relatively useless command center actions.