Do a blind, random NB start!

Zombull · July 10, 2018, 12:34:58 PM

Hold your hand before your eyes blocking your view of the globe as you click the "Select random site" button a random number of times and click "Next" without seeing what was selected.

Then continue to block your view of the colonist selection screen and just click "Start".

Then make it work!

Share your experiences.

I've been doing this for a long time, since well before NB was a thing. NB just makes it more of a challenge.

Note: Non-violent isn't the game-ender you think it is. I've made it work several times.

Grimelord82 · July 10, 2018, 02:19:05 PM

I land in a wide open forest on a chilly morning, sheathed in cryopod grease. I shouldn't be here! This was supposed to be an operation to fix up my scar.

I squat in the dirt, analyzing how I got here and my options. Society hates me and I hate society. Looks like I'm on my own if I want to live.

Strange this forest has the remnants of walls here and there. I examine one to the southwest more closely and realize...it's steel sheet/fiber composite... Tearing half of it down to raw materials, then bending some into a decent knife doesn't take long. I even strip a sapling down to branches for a lean-to door. But there wasn't enough for a branch bed. I strike a fire off the composite and sleep on the floor.

Small critters...and larger...abound. Best not try my luck, rabbit leg it is.

These rabbits, squirrels and raccoons have TEETH. But I'm versed in first aid and found herbs here and there. There's enough sinew to make a shortbow, but an atlatl or slingshot might have been more efficient in hindsight. Three days in and I still don't have enough for even a loin cloth. It irks.

I try my hand at some deer. It secures my food supplies, but they turn out harder to skin than I thought. I can still make no clothing.

Late at night I hear..caterwhauling. Screaming. Birdlike shrieks. I stalk toward to source of the noise in the morning and find a dead, partially eaten, turkey. And a slightly less dead bobcat. Life here is brutal.
Food is secure, but the disparate pieces still can't be clothes. I need an actual workbench to hammer out sinew and sew...DAMNATION...the bench collapsed, despite my efforts.

At least I managed to put together a bed of sapling branches, awful as it may be, it is still better than cold ground.

I could swear I heard people stomping around and whispering last night...but I stayed within my little shack. No good could come of interacting here, now.

Life here is indeed brutal. A rabbit CHARGED me this morning, like it saw a defensless carrot. I slapped it with my bow, but it still managed to bite me. I patch my wounds and watch the embers in my first fire die. It made it too hot in here. Perhaps a rabbitskin and fat torch? At least it's getting warmer.

I've put up a stick in the dirt at which I throw rocks or shoot sticks. With my campfire out, it brings a different sort of solace..and helps me practice with the bow, if only a little.

April...May? 7 days after arrival. This world has a strange year. I'm not sure on the specifics. It's still getting warmer. I built the bench, finally. Time to patch together enough leather for something. I make a loincloth and a hat to keep the sun off. Much better.

This forest is interesting. Geothermally active. One vent in particular seems to have enriched the area around it. It might be time to move, though the labor to do so will be ruinous. I watched the sun rise today, and checked again hours later. A stick in the ground at midday has a distinct shadow pointing north. It's neither long nor short, but the fear of cold and starvation compels me. I spend the entire day moving limestone blocks.

NO NO NO. Someone with a revolver and a lot of ammo shows up. We take potshots at each other for a while before he nearly shoots my nose off. I retreat and patch up. He advances. I grab my knife at the hut, and try to deal with him that way, but he's even more dangerous up close. Despite multiple slashes wounds to him...I'm crippled and he's dragging me away after lighting my hut on fire.....fade to black. Jugust 1st.

I might continue this, Twitch has no combat skills but is otherwise not bad at all.

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Grimelord82 · July 10, 2018, 02:38:07 PM

4 save scums later...Ma'am levels her shooting skills from 0 to 3 on me while I try to patch together a trap.
The raid always happens, and they're always too dangerous. Without combat skills, you have to have construction to make a few deadfalls. Without either, it's going to be game over.

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Zombull · July 10, 2018, 03:02:45 PM

I've started non-violent with 0 construction. Have to quickly build stuff to get it up to 3 before the first raid. It can be done. It's just kind of crazy.

Eat berries to stay fed while you focus on leveling construction. Build an ][ shape set of walls to funnel the raider.

Sirsir · July 10, 2018, 03:38:16 PM

Incapable of skilled labor. Well that was mercifully brief

Zombull · July 10, 2018, 08:07:58 PM

PleaseBro · July 10, 2018, 08:23:42 PM

My one rule when doing NB is unable (none) and then my second goal is good traits / young.

I really think you need to pick your starting pawn with NB.

Zombull · July 10, 2018, 11:54:35 PM

Quote from: PleaseBro on July 10, 2018, 08:23:42 PM
My one rule when doing NB is unable (none) and then my second goal is good traits / young.

I really think you need to pick your starting pawn with NB.

On the hard modes, sure. But I don't play those, so I can have more fun.

sadpickle · July 23, 2018, 08:19:38 AM

Skill restrictions are nothing. Try going blind and winding up with an alcohol addiction.

On day 2, the beer (4, I assume she smuggled them onto the pod) ran out. On day 3, the shakes set in.

On day 4, a raider came, and my colonist was carted away. I'm going to wait a while and see if anyone finds the hobbit hole she dug.

EDIT: On day 7 a pod crashed nearby, and I got a notice that "This story is over." But I watched the new arrival wriggle around for a bit, then stop wriggling. Then her story ended too.

Zombull · July 23, 2018, 12:34:26 PM

Well, that's...a story, I guess.

I only do blind NB runs now. Probably about half are doomed - and I suspect so from the get go. But in the half that work, it's quite often with starter pawns that most people would immediately reject outright.

It's fun just to see if I can strategize a way to make it work.

sadpickle · July 23, 2018, 02:24:16 PM

Quote from: Zombull on July 23, 2018, 12:34:26 PM
Well, that's...a story, I guess.

I only do blind NB runs now. Probably about half are doomed - and I suspect so from the get go. But in the half that work, it's quite often with starter pawns that most people would immediately reject outright.

It's fun just to see if I can strategize a way to make it work.

Well, I gave it another whirl since the previous effort took about 15 minutes. I was much more succesful the second time. It wasn't technically a blind run, but I got lucky with the initial random site and first colonist on the roster.

Literally the hardest thing starting out was her Gourmand trait. I spent way too much time foraging berries to satisfy her voracious appetite. Things got really hairy when I walked past a gazelle just as it went mad. She managed to kill it with her bare fists, no clothes or anything, and somehow didn't get downed. I even had 3 healroots I had picked up when foraging, and thankfully most of the traps you see here were already set. The raid came a couple days later and she was still recuperating. Traps, even wooden traps are absurdly deadly right now.

I finally got a wanderer, chased by another single raider who also got popped by wooden traps. Overall it's been a comfy experience. Neither of them is much of a fighter, but they can point a weapon and shoot, which is a start.

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