How to not die constantly

[Theolonius]

Before I ask I'll apologize if there is a thread like this, I would appreciate it if you can direct me there, if not please help me.

So to the point: I keep getting wiped out by dust bandits, groups of ninja, and eerything like that. I start out as freedom seekers, and I found a city and eerything is going good after 8 days I get wiped before I een try to do anything big.

If there are any tips for this I appreciate your time.

[Sawney]

Ok so heres the rub. As far as the game works the AI starts out at higher levels than you. So for instance bandits might start out around 1-10 or so and the friendly AI around 20-30 which means your a nooby newb and you cant do must beyond running into a battle already going on between friendlies and enemies and mopping up to level up. That said ive heard that you gain the most eperience from losing a fight so having your character go charging in and a medic in waiting to pick him up after he loses might be a good strategy. Myself I preffer the safety in numbers theory where I immediately spend 700c of the 1k you start with on a follower and then keep recruiting to eight or so by means of participating in fights already going on or chaining the enemies to a town or group of friendlies in the dessert until my group could fend for itself. As for going it all alone i'd reckon you'd end up doing a lot of the initial running into already going fights. But! even if I did do a solo gaming I might invest in at least one follower to leave in a town somewhere who could come help incase you get killed or knocked out or really crippled. Just a few thoughts.

[Someguy]

A key thng touched on there is that you can run, and even if you're not fast enough to keep distance between you and the attackers, they do plant their feet to take a shot at you. So you'd have to be pretty heavily laden to still be in range when they get the attack off. So run, run, run, and scrape them off into another group or drag them to a town or friendly patrol (recommended) If the numbers are in your side's favor, jump in and help, build some skill. As mentioned.

A feature I've recently been exploiting is those .02 damage sticks that some starving bandits carry, save those. If you succeed in defeating a group, grab their weapons and heal them up. If any of them get back up, check his stats, if he's not too powerful, drop your stick on the ground (A holy paladin will probably toast the whole group with a spoon, let alone a stick, so check stats). He'll likely grab it and have at you again. Put everyone on block mode, when his sparring partner gets a bit beat up have someone else smack the guy from behind, should get his attention, and then put him back on block mode. Heal your first guy, rinse and repeat to the mid twenties - low thirties in base defense skill. You will now not die constantly. But caution is still recommended.

A way to really work this at slightly higher skills is to get a skilled enemy group, like those yellow patrols, just a little angry with you, -10 permanant faction. Assuming you survive that process, drag the next group that aggros you first into a town with a police station (and survivng police, that's always important). The police will always go after the aggressor in a fight, so don't give any specific attack orders. Block mode is even better as the AI will put it's attention on someone actively hitting them over a defensive opponent. If they fight back against the police, and they will, the other group will now be enjoying a temp -20 faction with the police's home town, and get the stuffing kicked out of them. Take their weapons and heal them, and the temp faction timer may be gone by the time they get up. (You can check their faction ratings by selecting their guy and the diplomacy tab.) If so, drop your stick. Now they just want you so you can spar in the safety of town, with beds nearby.

Disclaimer: all information provided subject to hotfixes. Use at own risk.

[Theolonius]

Well that helps if I was a wanderer or something like that, but I like the freedom seekers and I want to build a town. I did see that the dev took out walls because of some bug issue, but that's not the point. I want to build a town and I thought I had some low traffic areas. apparently not, I tried about 4 different locations and I died all 4 times.

[Nesterus]

I started as the wanderer and built my money up by dragging bandits to brink and looting them, selling the loot and recruiting more guys, then I started a small town and kept recruiting and looting and building, now I have a small town and a great core of 20 guys who can defend themselves and our outpost.

you just have to be patient this game really isnt that hard

[Theolonius]

I started as the wanderer and built my money up by dragging bandits to brink and looting them, selling the loot and recruiting more guys, then I started a small town and kept recruiting and looting and building, now I have a small town and a great core of 20 guys who can defend themselves and our outpost.

you just have to be patient this game really isnt that hard

I ended up doing what you suggested and in under two hours I managed to make 45k cat and have 4 guys equipped with some good katanas (the last two were recent recruits and they are still in a bad shape) Thanks!

[Someguy]

Well that helps if I was a wanderer or something like that, but I like the freedom seekers and I want to build a town. I did see that the dev took out walls because of some bug issue, but that's not the point. I want to build a town and I thought I had some low traffic areas. apparently not, I tried about 4 different locations and I died all 4 times.

Think of the map as a big grid, as far as I've been able to determine, in every square there is a chance of a random platoon type spawning and wandering off in a certain direction. If you make your settlement public it seems you get spawns that are set to move directly to your settlement. On the up side, many of them of them are traders. If the pathing in the area is glitchy you can enjoy a large group of semi-permanent defenders. If you don't want to game the system though, you're going to need to train some soldiers. You're going to get hit eventually.

You might try the plateau chain directly south of Catan, you'll have to deal with the first couple groups but if you don't make your settlement public it should stay pretty quiet. It has a very limited access point and you'll see them coming if they do come. (view is spectacular btw.) It also has a great deal of building room, and painless access to the wealthiest city on the map. If you only build on or very near to the top tier the mobs get a bit messed up and have trouble getting to the top, they wind up slaughtering one another just inside the initial access point. At least with my last public settlement on that site, now I'm private with a mine down there that's been hit once so far.

Fort Simion has an excellent little bowl just up the mountain from their, I think, north gate. The space is rather small and the terrain is concave so building spots are limited, BUT there is no pathing to the site without first walking within aggro range of the town gate. So you'll probably never see a bandit there. I didn't with a private settlement. Moreover I enjoyed a regular patrol of three paladins wandering through. I think that may be a good spot to have what you are looking for while you get your squad established, if you don't want to get too gamey. Decent view there too.

Good Luck

[Newy]

Make sure you take off the trader packs as soon as possible. They give a 10 point penalty to attack and defence.