ladyterukiExcept Rainie hasn't eaten yet, what with the Zomboids being between her and the fridge. And she's also getting thirsty. That's a bad combo even for a well-rested character.
We try our best, try to separate the two zombies to not be overwhelmed, kill one... and the second scratched us us.
We end up killing the second one too, and I take care of Rainie's wound as fast as possible. Thank God for the detour through the medical office yesterday, by the way.
Ok, so at least it's not a bite, right ? Those have a 100% chance of dooming Rainie. But no, I tell myself, tis but a scratch.
We've lost almost two hours getting the day started properly, so now we need to make a decision for how we handle the rest. Back to the truck and we hope to make it to the gas station ? Or do we... look for another vehicle to drive home with faster ? That one could go either way, but given the luck Rainie's had so far, I don't like our odds.
We've lost almost two hours getting the day started properly, so now we need to make a decision for how we handle the rest. Back to the truck and we hope to make it to the gas station ? Or do we... look for another vehicle to drive home with faster ? That one could go either way, but given the luck Rainie's had so far, I don't like our odds.
Now would be the time to say that today, for the first time ever, I'm testing a new PZ mod.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3495906499
All of my mods so far are UI related (or framework related when needed), should I note. But this one I'm particularly interested in testing, because it has THIS :
And so far it has served me well, helping me get an idea of the difference between stamina and tiredness (which I was sort of understanding, or so I thought, but now I really see the difference better). Rainie's playthrough has also helped me understand that when the icon for food is orange, she's, like, 75% fed still, so you know, I'm learning.
But one thing I do notice, is that there's a weird icon I hadn't seen before.
And then I get it. The icon only appears if you have the Knox Virus.
Rainie's doomed. It's over. She's going to turn slowly, but surely.
Someday, when I play in sandbox instead of Builder Mode, I'll make it so that the infection kills me right away, because I feel like in singleplayer, it's really not a fun time not to know immediately whether you've been contaminated. You keep playing and sinking more time into a character who will never survive more than a couple more days, and since it's not multiplayer, there's not much to do in the meantime, I feel.
Like, if I was playing with someone, me being infected would present a gameplay opportunity. Even a RP opportunity if we wanted.
But solo ? It's like, ok, I lost, why would I stick around ?
And I've just discovered that the new mod helps me save my time if I want to. The mod immediately says that my character is 1% infected, even though none of the symptoms show yet.
So I do the only logical thing.
I keep playing.
Because I'm not consistent and now that I have the proper tool to quit a losing game, I don't wanna, for some reason XD
So Rainie crosses the street, back to the medical office... which is ALSO next to a bar. A fancy one, obviously, because Ekron only does fancy.
We loot all the food in the kitchen (including some shellfish, because hey, we're not going to eat fries on our last day), go to the main room, loot all the alcohol, and wait for death.
I had never had any character drink before. And certainly not two bottles of gin, three of wine and one of vodka.
The moodle for "Utterly sh*t faced" absolutely broke me.
After drinking for a few hours (death is slow to come for our appointment), I feel really bad for Rainie. She's been dealt the worst possible cards every time. She deserves better than to die in a f*cking bar, that's depressing.
I decide to take her upstairs, see if there's something more comfortable, like maybe a couch in some sort of break room or whatever.
Surprise : upstairs, it's actually not part of the stores. It's actually at least two apartments. I open one at random and...
It turns out to be a very fancy PURPLE apartment ! Where we find some more vodka to ease the wait...
So Rainie picked a nice room with a view on the Ekron street, sat there, finished all the drinks in her inventory, and went to sleep.
I did NOT expect to cry because of Project Zomboid today.
I've owned this game legally on Steam for ONE WEEK AND A HALF, by the way. Does it show that I'm falling in love with this game ? I can't tell.
I forgot to write some details about how unlucky Rainie was :
- for the entire duration of this run, I haven't seen ONE zombie with a duffel bag. Not one. We were using the kiddie backpack the entire time.
- the 2nd day after we got eggs from Ovo Farms, I cooked a batch but accidentally burned them. It made her sick to eat FOUR burnt eggs. Health was draining and everything. Had to park the truck and sleep with the doors locked to wait it out.
- the water was cut off while we were at the bar.
- for the entire duration of this run, I haven't seen ONE zombie with a duffel bag. Not one. We were using the kiddie backpack the entire time.
- the 2nd day after we got eggs from Ovo Farms, I cooked a batch but accidentally burned them. It made her sick to eat FOUR burnt eggs. Health was draining and everything. Had to park the truck and sleep with the doors locked to wait it out.
- the water was cut off while we were at the bar.
There has never been, and hopefully never again will be, a character as unlucky as Rainie XD
If at first you don't succeed, try plan B : the story of Lena.
To say that Lena got a bad start is no euphemism. She spawned in Riverside, could not find a single car. Sounds familiar ? Yeaaah.
(yes all my characters are redheads dressed in purple, who here is surprised ? XD )
So the thing is, this time there really was no vehicle with keys anywhere in the Lectrolux Factory parking lot, and again, no lockpicking. Since I really don't like Riverside other than for spawning, I decided that this time, we'd move our operations to Fallas Lake instead of Echo Creek.
All we needed to do was, oh you know, walk for two days.
And frankly, the walking part was fine. No need to run, especially in the woods where nothing really happens. In fact Lena leveled up her foraging quite a bit on the way.
Late at night, we reached a lovely little cabin in the woods that just HAS to be a reference to something because that bathroom is weeeird, we spent a very short night there, and then walked to Fallas Lake the next day, arriving in the afternoon. Honestly it was a good time.
Late at night, we reached a lovely little cabin in the woods that just HAS to be a reference to something because that bathroom is weeeird, we spent a very short night there, and then walked to Fallas Lake the next day, arriving in the afternoon. Honestly it was a good time.
Problems started, of course, when we arrived at the Gas Station : too many Zeds. Impossible to set up camp there.
It's fine, Lena's nothing if not flexible : plan C was to move into the diner, at least temporarily.
Except there wasn't a lot of food in the diner (there were stale burgers and fries on the counters, but having picked the "Weak Stomach" trait, I didn't want to risk it), and I quickly ran out.
Very carefully, Lena started to clear the gas station, one zombie at a time.
Every door was locked so she could not even take breaks upstairs or refill her water bottles between fights without walking back to the diner, which didn't make things easy (eventually she had to break a window to get in... only to kill a Zed upstairs who had the keys in their inventory <_< ). But eventually it was done.
Every door was locked so she could not even take breaks upstairs or refill her water bottles between fights without walking back to the diner, which didn't make things easy (eventually she had to break a window to get in... only to kill a Zed upstairs who had the keys in their inventory <_< ). But eventually it was done.
Then she set up camp in the gas station, moved the stuff she had stored at the diner (because it would have been too heavy to fight with), and started fixing up things best as she could. There were some snacks at the gas station, but they were not very filling, so the next day, we decided to explore the town a bit and see what we could find.
For the record I've played Fallas Lake in about 3 runs, though not necessarily long ones, and during a 4th run I stayed overnight at the medical practice.
So obviously I wasn't very clear on the layout of the town just yet. I just knew it had more stores than Echo Creek, which would make for a nice variation to my usual go-to.
Speaking of. The Echo Creek gas station is a luxury gas station, comparatively : it has not only gas pumps and a store, but also a diner and a garage which the Fallas Lake gas station lacks. So there was a lot less stuff to get set up with.
Lena walked in the main street a bit, passed a hardware store and made a mental note of looting it next, and found... not one, not two, but THREE food stores ! One with vegetables & fruits, one with breads, and one with meats and fish. That would definitely fill the fridge for a while.
Sadly, a lot of it was rotting already, since it was July 14th already by then, and food turns really fast (particularly veggies).
But sadly, outside the butcher's store, 10+ Zeds were waiting. Even trying to walk around through the back entrance alarmed them, and they rushed through the windows, putting Lena in a corner.
And that's how plan C became plan Z... u_u
My current run is going fine-ish (I might talk about it more when I do the eulogy, because let's face it, this character is not long for this world), but there's a big mystery I can't wrap my head around.
I HAD A PIPE WRENCH. I DID NOT LEAVE BASE. I NO LONGER CAN FIND THE PIPE WRENCH.
Where did the pipe wrench go ?!
I HAD A PIPE WRENCH. I DID NOT LEAVE BASE. I NO LONGER CAN FIND THE PIPE WRENCH.
Where did the pipe wrench go ?!
I used the pipe wrench this afternoon to connect a washing machine, so I KNOW I had one. The washing machine I stole from the neighbors' house wouldn't work otherwise. I didn't dream it !
And yet, it is nowhere to find.
...I did not even leave base since then ! What the ?!
And if there's one thing to know about me, it's that my storage is kuh-lean. I spend a lot of time organizing my stuff (years of ARK and Rimworld taught me that you can't be a loot goblin AND be messy, you gotta choose). So it makes zero sense.
I am honestly having an ulcer over this.
180+ hrs and I hadn't seen a single sledgehammer other than in videos on Youtube. I thought they were an urban myth at this point.
My current run allowed me to find TWO sledgehammers !
Still no pipe wrench though.
I am extremely surprised to see that the Steam Workshop doesn't seem to have mods for new animals based on the existing ones. I fully expected geese, goats, etc. and maybe some more "out there" animals.
Did I check for dinosaurs ?
Maybe.
Maybe not.
You can't prove anything.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
You can't prove anything.
Also it doesn't seem to be possible to tame & raise rabbits, which is such an oversight because building rabbit hutches would be so cute ! In general there are very few mods for animals beyond QoL stuff.
Maybe it's a bit soon, I'll look again in a few months.
Maybe it's a bit soon, I'll look again in a few months.
Ok, one month and six days is the one to beat.
https://mastodon.social/@ladyteruki/114632847366184598
So far it's August 6 in my game, so I'm getting pretty close ! (game starts on July 9th)
Things are going surprisingly well in my current run so clearly I just jinxed it and next time I fire up the game my character will die.
Nonetheless I got set up pretty nicely this time around.
I have three generators (two on a rotation for the house, since you can't refill them while they're running, and one for the gas pumps... yes I live at a gas station, though not the Echo Creek one this time !), I have filled every container with water will I attempt to level up my carpentry to build water collectors, I have freezers full of food (that's right, PLURAL !), and I've even started building an expansion to the house upstairs -
I have three generators (two on a rotation for the house, since you can't refill them while they're running, and one for the gas pumps... yes I live at a gas station, though not the Echo Creek one this time !), I have filled every container with water will I attempt to level up my carpentry to build water collectors, I have freezers full of food (that's right, PLURAL !), and I've even started building an expansion to the house upstairs -
- because I'm running out of place for my tools & materials storage. Plus, I've heard it's better to not have stuff downstairs so I'd like to empty the ground floor at some point). I also have SEVERAL vehicles and...
...a chicken ! It has given me ONE egg so far XD
I feel more confident in my survival skills now. I still made some rookie mistakes (ran over a fence while tired to lure a Zed, and scratched my shoulder pretty badly...), but so far no infection.
Well. As the prophecy foretold I didn't quite make it further than a month and 6 days.
But I'm really happy with this past run, I did a lot more things that the previous times.
But I'm really happy with this past run, I did a lot more things that the previous times.
So I think that for at least the next couple of runs, I'll set Echo Creek aside and try setting up camp in Fallas Lake. It has a lot more stores to loot, is very central, and I felt like I could handle things pretty well here. Of course I'll miss my egg loot from Ovo Farms, as it kept me fed pretty nicely when I lived in Echo Creek, but what's the point in having food for months if I don't make it past 2 weeks for other reasons ?
One thing I wish I figured out, and it's minor but it's going to get more and more important as I survive long enough to build, is that I don't understand how to destroy roofs. With my sledgehammer (excuse me : one of my TWO sledgehammers !) I took down a wall but it did not take down the roof that was attached to it.
I do like living at gas stations, though. Saves me a lot of time, plus when you have only one generator, with good placement it can cover both some pumps and your home. So for now, until I get better at this, I'll stick to living in gas stations.
Even though the Fallas Lake one is really tiny !
Even though the Fallas Lake one is really tiny !
In this latest run I had 4 different cars (the Lectrolux truck I started with, an ambulance I found on my way to Fallas Lake and that only needed a fill of gas, a car in one of the houses nearby, and a second truck with more carrying capacity but that made beeps when it was going backwards XD ) and I can't imagine juggling several vehicles without the gas pumps on site.
And so far I have only seen gas pumps at gas stations. Not at factories or anything.
And so far I have only seen gas pumps at gas stations. Not at factories or anything.
I've seen some mods with bigger truck sizes, but I'm not ready for that yet. However I can't imagine they're less greedy in gas.
The video I'm watching : "Normally I wouldn't spend time sorting and labeling my storage, and would be out there killing zombies, but since I was nursing a wound anyway..."
Me : "What do you mean, labeling storage ? What do you mean ?"
Me : "What do you mean, labeling storage ? What do you mean ?"
(all I can find is a mod, so I have to conclude the guy is playing a modded save)
I still haven't been able to beat my record, but my latest character Lia lived until August, so on average I feel like I'm improving. My characters oftentimes live AT LEAST three weeks now.
However I've noticed that I do better when the electricity and/or water don't shut off right away, because then I have things to work towards in the beginning. Meanwhile if the water shuts off in the first week, or worse, the electricity, I almost always lose my motivation and end up starting a new character.
However I've noticed that I do better when the electricity and/or water don't shut off right away, because then I have things to work towards in the beginning. Meanwhile if the water shuts off in the first week, or worse, the electricity, I almost always lose my motivation and end up starting a new character.
But at the same time, I've noticed that my preparations are so good now, that when the electricity and water shut off after a few weeks, I go through a fleeting moment of "now what" because that's what I've been preparing myself for and, well, now what ?
And then I find new goals, of course, but there's always that little "hm, the fun part is over". Early game struggle is my drug in any survival game, it seems XD
And then I find new goals, of course, but there's always that little "hm, the fun part is over". Early game struggle is my drug in any survival game, it seems XD
Speaking of meta events... This time around, Lia had issues during the helicopter event. All my windows had curtains or sheets obstructing the view, I was staying put in one room, and yet the helicopter would not leave me alone ; when it was gone, I went outside and it was Zombie Central out there, even though I had previously cleaned up the immediate base's surroundings. I spent the next day killing the Zeds. Very strange. I thought the helicopter was only reacting to spotting me visually -
- but now I wonder whether it can hear the oven and/or the TV (even though the first time it flew above me, there was no show on) ? I know Zeds react to sound, but maybe the helicopter does too. In any case it's a good thing I was able to clear the area a second time without dying, but close call.
This time, I decided to change my plan a bit with Lia. Instead of spawning in Riverside and getting my usual Lectrolux van, I spawned in Rosewood and looked for any vehicle on the abundant parking lots in the commercial area. I even found a trailer which largely improved the scavening situation ! On Day 3 I left Rosewood and drove North to Fallas Lake, and set up camp in the gas station again. And it truly seems to be a good spot to settle in so far, my runs there are on average better.
I'm split on this as a base spot. On the one hand, I don't like leaving generators out of my sight, so I prefer to set up a base at a gas station (this largely limits where to live !). The Fallas Lake one has the same advantage as the Echo Creek one, in that there's also a private source of natural water nearby, which helps for crops and fishing. BUT ! The Fallas Lake gas station is tiiiny, and as a loot goblin the time I spend playing Storage Tetris drives me a bit crazy.
My goal was to try and expand it by building, but I didn't get that far and in fact caught myself being kinda stuck because where the hell am I supposed to store my planks and nails if there's no way to store things ?!
But Fallas Lake also has a great advantage : there is A LOT to loot nearby, while Echo Creek doesn't have much beyond the auto shop factory and Ovo Farms.
So yeah, choices.
But Fallas Lake also has a great advantage : there is A LOT to loot nearby, while Echo Creek doesn't have much beyond the auto shop factory and Ovo Farms.
So yeah, choices.
I did briefly consider the Rosewood gas station (I *think* there's only one, in the Northern part of town ?), the size is great, the location offers a lot of scavenging opportunities, and it has 4 pumps just like the Fallas Lake gas station. But I couldn't find easy access to any kind of pond or stream there ; although maybe there's something to the East, I couldn't tell, a horde was in the way and it was, like, Day 3. But the basement is a great feature the others don't have.
...Maybe there's a mod out there to dig up a pond ?
Oh speaking of mods, a few days ago I decided to install some non-UI related ones. Not many, just adding bikes with bags, more trailers, the ability to carry more bags at once, small stuff like that. So yeah, basically stuff to fill my pockets even more XD The bath one is also nice for mood improvement, as long as there's still running water.
There's no going back to vanilla ever again :P
There's no going back to vanilla ever again :P
MUST. GET. ALL. THE. LOOT.
Honestly I've been tempted to try a run with the zombies disabled, and just me trying to loot the entire map XD
Honestly I've been tempted to try a run with the zombies disabled, and just me trying to loot the entire map XD
(but for now I'm still learning too much in the game to start playing with parameters like that ; maybe later when I need a fresh challenge)
Speaking of learning, one thing I need to do some research on is : how the hell do you get away from base for more than 48hrs once the electricity is gone ? Is there a magical generator that can sustain my freezers at base for more than just overnight when I travel ? There's no way I can explore the map if my generators only have 2 days in them.
For Lia's run, I ended up having 3 generators, but that ended up being no help because, well, you can't add a timer to generators.
Or can you ?
Starting a new run.
Day 1, I'm in Rosewood looking for a ride...
...and see this purple truck next to the gas station. I repeat : THE TRUCK IS PURPLE.
Once I've gotten rid of the Zeds around it, I hope I find a key because come on, it's even the best shade of purple XD
If in the future you wonder what kind of purple I mean when I talk about the perfect purple, this is it.