Incline Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead - main thread - Fallout1/NEOScavenger older brother.

[Perkel]

I noticed only three ultra old threads so i decided to make new thread. It is crime that this game does not have proper main thread on this board.

Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead is RPG in which you navigate post apocalyptic earth where at the same time few huge fantastical and not events destroyed earth as we know it. Mushroom men, zombies, mutants and everything you can imagine in this world is there. You as survivor must find your own place in this new world. Be a survivor scavenging like in neo scavenger looking for bits of lore and find what happened exactly, be an evil mutant guy that raids last places of safety, group up with npcs to create safe heaven in this hell, nurture your inner OCD with bilions of items and crafting recipes, be astounded by complexity of game that seems to have endless well of new things to teach you daily.

It is free game made by dudes, hosted on github but if you want to support devs it is also available on steam.

LAUNCHER - imho is the best way to get into game as it comes down with all you need to run it in single .exe. Also it contains sound packs which is imho required for this game to truly feel special. Nothing feels better than crunch of zombie flesh when you treat it with buckshot from your trusty shotgun... And music heavily inspired by Mike Morgan goodness of Fallout 1.... yeah.


I recently started playing it after another run into Zomboid that always leaves me with "What if they had 10 more years to develop it" and no end game. Some good soul recommended me it but since i don't really like ASCI graphics i initially skipped. Well it turns out that it comes with tilesets these days and it looks very good. After diving into it i discovered holy grail of survival RPG. I really really really really recommend it. I have like 40 hours in less than 4 days which is enough recommendation from me as only select few games managed in my history of gaming to get me this hard into game to play it non stop day in day out.

The main purpose to make this thread is that game is really poorly marketed and me who is playing pretty much any game since 95 i only discovered it a week ago by chance.

FEATURES:
- sandbox world, essentially size of earth.
- but filled with interesting shit, places, people
- quests, npcs, mutants, stories,
- robust character creator. Play from suicidal clown to GI Joe WooHaa Terminator, how about cosplaying girl in middle of city full of zombies ?
- pretty much the deepest crafting system of any game ever.
- builds galore. Trapper ? Yup. Sword wielding barbarian ? Sure !. Military guy. Yes. The best part of it is that every build seems to have its own niche.
- for people who loved Fallout 1, NEOScavenger, Zomboid this is must play. Zomboid is closest to it but theme is more similar to NEOScavenger
- physical inventory, survival, sleep, shelter so on and so forth.
- and many many many more.

Currently I am playing as car mechanic dude who fixes cars and collects them, Do you know what is best in life ? To hear my shovel scream, to hear dumpster groan when i search for new muffler for my car in garbage.

Now excuse me, i have whole other half of landfill to dig out for parts...

and review of very old version by non other than SSETH:

 

[Perkel]

When i play it I get the same goosebumps i got from Fallout 1 back in the days. Yeah the setting is a little different but the bleakness, gameplay, builds etc. are activating my monkey brain in the same way F1 did. Other good comparison is Zomboid which feels like pre-alpha version of it but in normal non bleak (compared to F1 or CDDA). NEOScavenger is also really comparable to it with very very very similar theme in feel.

I feared at start ASCI designs that usually are pain in ass but apparently game got DF steam version treatment and they include tileset by default and they reworked A LOT controls so it can even be played with pad. I tried it and yeah it works on pad. Mouse support is also a thing. The inventory itself is still a pain and i would wish for proper grid one but this is small price to pay for complexity it has.

 

[lukaszek]

- builds galore. Trapper ? Yup. Sword wielding barbarian ? Sure !. Military guy. Yes. The best part of it is that every build seems to have its own niche.

dual wielding dagger+pistol?

 

[Serus]

Cataclysm Bright Nights - a fork game of the above - is something that I would consider to play instead. That is coming from a CDDA's long time fan.

BN has basically all of OP above minus some tedious autistic "realism" and other bullshit (including but not limited to SJW-ism that at some point was leaking into the game, not sure how it is now).
BN authors on the other hand are making some attempts at adding an endgame which always lacked from Cataclysm. However "attempts" seems to be the operative world for now.

Both are worth trying.

 

[deama]

How "fantastical" does it get? Cause I wanna start off as a human, but at some point become a super mutant, and then maybe even more? Is that possible?

Also, what launcher stuff have you got? Like there's 15 different soundpacks? Which ones are the good ones? And which build?

 

[Dadd]

Like there's 15 different soundpacks? Which ones are the good ones? And which build?

Use the Otopack soundpack. The latest stable release is 0.G. Newest experimental builds are going to be buggy.

 

[Perkel]

How "fantastical" does it get? Cause I wanna start off as a human, but at some point become a super mutant, and then maybe even more? Is that possible?

Also, what launcher stuff have you got? Like there's 15 different soundpacks? Which ones are the good ones? And which build?

Fantastical in sense of mutants, aliens, terminators, oversized scorpions, fungus spreading over city, etc. Fantastical in fallout-ish sense not in dragons and magic sense, though i am yet playing game.
Yes you can become mutant at start or become one due to exploration.
I am using @'s Soundpack which is great. I used this superior LAUNCHER which comes with everything you need including soundpacks.

Cataclysm Bright Nights - a fork game of the above - is something that I would consider to play instead. That is coming from a CDDA's long time fan.

BN has basically all of OP above minus some tedious autistic "realism" and other bullshit (including but not limited to SJW-ism that at some point was leaking into the game, not sure how it is now).
BN authors on the other hand are making some attempts at adding an endgame which always lacked from Cataclysm. However "attempts" seems to be the operative world for now.

Both are worth trying.

I saw it but i couldn't figure out what it was. CDDA is updated every day. Also i don't see any issues with the game yet. When i got some proper gear and npcs to follow me i still have huge issues as exploration goes deep. For example i felt cocky with group of npcs following me we all were sporting good gear and we got wiped out because i tried to open some stone chamber with some spidery looking huge terminators around it.

 

[Perkel]

From what i read Bright Days is fork of C:DDA from 5 years ago when C:DDA devs went into more systems/simulation game. BD instead focuses more on just kicking things with style rather than simulating something.

 

[Serus]

I saw it but i couldn't figure out what it was. CDDA is updated every day. Also i don't see any issues with the game yet. When i got some proper gear and npcs to follow me i still have huge issues as exploration goes deep. For example i felt cocky with group of npcs following me we all were sporting good gear and we got wiped out because i tried to open some stone chamber with some spidery looking huge terminators around it.

From what i read Bright Days is fork of C:DDA from 5 years ago when C:DDA devs went into more systems/simulation game. BD instead focuses more on just kicking things with style rather than simulating something.

Yes BN is a fork, that's what I wrote. Also DDA was made based on an earlier game called just Cataclysm made by someone entirely else. It isn't unheard in RL design world, forks are common. BN is updated often, sometimes even daily as well. However there are no reason to update any Cataclysm daily as a player - especially if you are not following the development itself closely. Do it from time to time. You can even use "stable" versions although they tend to be rarely done.

I played Catacysm(s) for a long time. In a way, every Cataclysm is, first and foremost, about "kicking things", building death mobiles (not always but close) and turning yourself into a silly cyborg/mutant. Also exploring. Occasionally LARPing. Supposedly about survival too but not really unless you tweak the parameters of the game very heavily. CDDA is still about all that, it just added a few systems that are tedious to play with and supposedly more "realistic". Mind you, "realistic" in a game that allows you to turn into a man-giraffe or man-platypus and a terminator... at the same time - while fighting zombies from other dimensions. The authors in last several years made Cataclysm DDA suffer from a bad case of schizofrenia. BN reduced this psychiatric game condition and removed some of the annoying stuff in the process. Stuff like the "realistic" inventory system. It adds very little to the game but is 100% more tedious to use, according to many. It's not "realism", the (codex) terminology you are looking for is "autism".

Game had and still has, more serious issues than "realism", for a very long time. One of the most important is lack of challenge in late game and lack of late (or end) game content in general. CDDA had a decade to do something about it. They didn't. At least BN is, supposedly, trying to. Supposedly. But so does DDA so probably we will never see anything substantial before we die of old age. However, considering past record, at least there is a chance with BN.
There are also issues with DDA developers being assholes and the existence of steam versions but those are not relevant to most people.
On the plus side for DDA it has a forum (with terrible layout) while BN only has a Discord.

In the end, as I said before, people should try both if they can. If not choose one but don't assume that one is better than the other just because one is better known than the other. If that were the case... oh, boy. The games are still 90% the same, anyway.

 

[deama]

Like there's 15 different soundpacks? Which ones are the good ones? And which build?

Use the Otopack soundpack. The latest stable release is 0.G. Newest experimental builds are going to be buggy.

I installed that pack, but there's no music, is there supposed to be music?

 

[Perkel]

Like there's 15 different soundpacks? Which ones are the good ones? And which build?

Use the Otopack soundpack. The latest stable release is 0.G. Newest experimental builds are going to be buggy.

I installed that pack, but there's no music, is there supposed to be music?

Otopak idk but @'s have music. Though i think in both cases it doesn't play at all times.

 

[Machocruz]

Whether you count the game as an RPG, roguelite, survival, or all three, it's among the best there ever was, certainly my favorite in each category. Possibly greatest RPG from character building standpoint and ways to play. Certainly most robust and detailed crafting system I've ever seen, and you can choose not to engage with it and just be a scavenger and it's still just as good. Or better, for those that hate crafting. No game can touch the vehicle crafting system, as far as I'm aware.

I played multiple characters and worlds for years and there is still a bunch of things I haven't done in the game, like any of the mutation lines, heavy cyber implanting (I've had 4 at a time at the most), explored all the locations, constructed even half of the constructions, tried all the vehicles, built a mobile base from scratch, etc.

Best of all, it's free and does things no AAA game will come close to delivering.

 

[luj1]

Still prefer ToME but respect for the opening post

 

[Perkel]

Nice, decided to star naked in wilderness scenario to test out crafting system from survival standpoint. Everything was fine and dandy. Made some clothes from straw, wicker etc. build some log cabin. Then i went to explore and got scared as shit by spider. AS my previous experiences with any bug in this game was horrid i decided to run away. Well it was faster than me. So i decided to either way run, unfortunutely i couldn't run away and i got hit from time to time by it mostly in legs which bogged me down.

So finally i decided to fight with it with my trusty spear and it died in one hit. lel.

Well after some time apparently poison or bleeding got my legs and i had to crawl to my camp for nearly 1.5 days. Got into it and barely survived drinking prepared clean water.

But i had then next problem. My legs were shot and without splint i couldn't heal them. And to make splits i needed cotton patches from some clothes i didn't have. It meant that from now on either i had to scout for some body in hope i get some clothes or just live as dude who crawls.

Decided to go with crawl. A week went by like that and it was honestly pretty good. Slow as shit but i got things done overall. Scavenging was tricky as those bird eggs required me to run around a lot but i managed to stay at positive food daily.

What got me was same type of spider that just wandered in my view when i was out of my camp. Couldn't run from it and instead of earlier hitting me in legs, it hit me in head. Dead.

Overall nice good run. Surprisingly survival mechanics are pretty good if you want to play recluse and make your own shit, hunt etc. Once you get around crafting system you quickly learn what to craft first where to get what etc. There are some kinks like need of cotton for split but overall it is pretty good system for survival type of challenge.

Still prefer ToME but respect for the opening post

ToME ?

 

[Serus]

TOME4 or Tales of Maj'Eyal. First link is to paid steam version, second to the base free version.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/259680/Tales_of_MajEyal/
https://te4.org

Completely different game though. It is a RL centered around combat and character building almost exclusively.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I've been playing with Bright Nights. It seems more focused on the things I like (surviving, fighting, adventuring) with less micromanagement and crafting redundancies. I guess some people play these games for exactly that, though, but I think I've had enough of that with other games and prefer things more streamlined now. I'm having a lot of fun with my spear build (picked Fleet Footed, of course). Nearly got done in yesterday after picking a fight with a Zombie Soldier, who I realized were much tougher than I thought and could run(!) faster than me. Dumb move. These games are always more fun when you're still kind of groping in the dark, though.

Like there's 15 different soundpacks? Which ones are the good ones? And which build?

Use the Otopack soundpack. The latest stable release is 0.G. Newest experimental builds are going to be buggy.

I installed that pack, but there's no music, is there supposed to be music?

Did you unpack it in the sound folder and select in the settings?

 

[deama]

I've been playing with Bright Nights. It seems more focused on the things I like (surviving, fighting, adventuring) with less micromanagement and crafting redundancies. I guess some people play these games for exactly that, though, but I think I've had enough of that with other games and prefer things more streamlined now. I'm having a lot of fun with my spear build (picked Fleet Footed, of course). Nearly got done in yesterday after picking a fight with a Zombie Soldier, who I realized were much tougher than I thought and could run(!) faster than me. Dumb move. These games are always more fun when you're still kind of groping in the dark, though.

Like there's 15 different soundpacks? Which ones are the good ones? And which build?

Use the Otopack soundpack. The latest stable release is 0.G. Newest experimental builds are going to be buggy.

I installed that pack, but there's no music, is there supposed to be music?

Did you unpack it in the sound folder and select in the settings?

year turns out you need to select in settings in the game also.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Why bother with sounds when you can have some post-apoc game soundtrack (Fallout, for example) playing on background?

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I've been playing this one off and on for a while, and I've found the recent dev versions have a lot of annoying things in them you can't easily remove. Some of the more annoying creatures like the fungal ones or the triffids don't come with a blacklist mod by default. It's not that they're hard, just that dealing with them is just so tedious. In other departments you can apparently no longer disable skill drain or dirty items. I get why it's an option, but I just find both things to be tedious as hell to deal with.
However, I do like some of the recent changes:

Spoiler

I like how the labs are now actually secret as opposed to right next to random truck stops, and how there are different interiors. I found one that was a giant meat place, full of weird amalgations and some kind of centaur thing that emits poison gas. Hopefully they continue on this until they can make a decent endgame.

 

[Cologno]

Skill rust on by default is one thing, dirty stuff too. But a permanent setting not toggable in world gen is dissappointing. Then again, I'm still two full official stable releases behind, E, cuz it's the last one I could successfully compile on my Raspberry Pi. Maybe its just buried in a setting. Weirdly also one of the luckiest runs I've had and this guy won't die.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I've been playing BN a lot, to the point where I'm starting to find the early game easy except for a couple of scenarios. I just completed a lab start with a weakling non-combat character who ended up quite good at combat by the end(the cudgel is OP). I'm unsure if I should increase the difficulty by tweaking the settings or play around with No Hope (which comes together with BN). I'm pretty much an early game player who likes to try every build but gets bored as soon as he gets powerful.

I've tried going back again to mainline DDA but unsuccessfully. Item length? Applied sciences? Skill rust? It's like there's an additional layer of abstraction to everything, but I'm unsure how, and if, this adds anything to the gameplay. Too bad, as I think I'm coming around to the idea of separate containers for loot. I like putting loot in bags and moving the bags instead of having to sort items individually every time after a loot run, which has become the most tedious part of my playthroughs. It's a bit sad that in open-sore projects like this people can't work together to make one game with features that could be toggled on and off by the player, instead people with separate visions end up going their own separate ways.

Some loose observations:

- The Otopack has some great music tracks but quite a few annoying ones. I think you're better served with the vanilla CC-Sounds, although you may decide to mix both packs at your leisure.
- Monsters can't follow you up and down stairs. More than once this saved my life. It's different from Zomboid, where stairs are usually a death trap.
- The lab start is great, it plays like a more traditional roguelike, only you start in the "final dungeon". Some of the tougher areas are secluded and optional, but you may go in too deep unawares. One of my runs nearly ended when a Zombie Hulk suddenly crashed through the door and punched me all the way across the room into a wall. I barely had time to sprint away with my body broken and might've been saved by the ceramic plates I'd just collected from the locker in that same room. This tough early game will, of course, translate into a much easier mid game, as you'll emerge from the lab with a bunch of skills, high quality gear, late game books and maybe some bionics.
- The prison start I wasn't able to complete yet. It seems to rely on a very specific solution--get inside the workshop and craft lockpicks, then somehow use them on the doors outside that are crawling with zombies. That's a tough proposition. The lab is more expansive and allows more variety of gameplay.
- The Migo start is the one I haven't seriously attempted. Just tried it once and died.
- Weird monsters like Migos are the thing that set it apart from Zomboid, which is a more conventional Romero style fantasy. From a gameplay perspective, you can do a lot more things without those conventions because, frankly, Romero zombies aren't very interesting. CDDA doesn't need to artificially limit the things you can craft just because zombies aren't able to deal with them. Logical things like traps and defenses for your car. Even the zombies have a lot of variety. Some are very strong, others have special powers like electrocution, screeching, etc.
- CDDA monsters are engaged in a perpetual GTA style turf war which you can exploit/cheese to your advantage by kiting them around (works best with a vehicle). A single wasp can take down some 10 regular zeds reliably and a pack of migos can lay devastation to entire blocks of zombie infested urban landscape. This leads to a lot of silly, random moments that help reinforce the game's ATTACK OF THE MONSTERS! b-movie madness atmosphere. Post-apocalyptic games often make the player feel like he's alone against the world and that there's no hope. Here the world feels ripe with opportunity, you just need to avoid getting killed while taking advantage of it.
- I've avoided interacting with humans so far, as their presence seems kind of jarring. The lone NPC squatting in the evacuee shelter is just a newbie quest giver and it's weird to interact with him outside of that context. The refugee center really took me out of the game, though. Everyone will tell you their life story, which is always a huge reddit post about some struggling POC with some weird inner monologue or grievance. The quests are ridiculous, like finding a Koran for some lapsed muslima with a lesbian sister who took up welding to piss off her parents. Some post-apocalyptic adventure. This made me want to play as a weird mutant who eats humans.
- At least in BN, days are way too long. You can do a lot of things in a single day, which is cool in a way, but it throws the survival mechanics out of whack. For starters, getting enough food and water becomes trivial. Therefore, there's no reason not to pick Fast Metabolism and High Thirst as negative traits. The same goes for Sleepy, as you already have enough hours in the day(or night, if you have Night Vision). Like in Zomboid, you're unlikely to see the change of seasons, and days pass relatively quick there. That means you don't need to prepare for it by, say, taking clothes that are warmer/lighter than what is currently comfortable.
- Overall, survival is quite easy in default settings. There are plenty of relatively isolated cabins or farms with nearly all the supplies you need. Except for big buildings, most interiors tend to be unoccupied or have a trivial zombie presence. I guess most veterans play with wandering hordes or tweak the item/monster settings, at least the ones who like to make survival the core of the gameplay. I suppose that's what I should do as well.

Take all of this with a grain of salt. I've noticed a lot of people, if not most of them, prefer to focus on late game where you can become immensely powerful with bionics and a kitted out death mobile that looks like the cover of a Voivod album. That's indeed a very unique aspect of CDDA that sets it apart from everything else. As a balance sperg, though, it's hard for me to engage in such things unless the game is constantly pushing against me in proportional fashion and I get bored quickly when I'm just left alone in the sandbox.

 

[Dadd]

I turn off NPCs and use the No Hope mod to make the game feel more desolate. Nearly all NPC dialogue is poorly written, and most quests are broken and/or of low quality. The only reason I'd consider playing with NPCs on is if I want items that I wouldn't be able to get without quests. Mods like Arcana and Magic Items add early-game difficulty without changing the atmosphere of the base game too much.

 

[goregasm]

It works VERY well in those initial discovery phases, where these types of games either shine or fizzle out.

I don't necessarily disagree with OP's praise for the game, it is mostly a wonderful game IMO, one of the best with what it does, with some caveats for me.

From a pure survival/dropped in the shit, type of game I think I prefer Unreal World over CDDA.

For pure zombie madness, I definitely prefer Zomboid (and after all these years still have hope for it)

CDDA for me has always existed in this comfortable and weird middle ground for me, it HAS enough options or mods to turn off all of the shit I find goofy, or mods to add in goofy stuff like dinosaurs or something.

I think if played as a pure zombie game it's shelf life shortens, but I also despise some of the day of the triffids/scifi channel type additions

I agree it scratches that type of sandbox/craft/survival/apocalypse itch quite well overall, has enough options to cater it to your own view which is nice.

Sure it gets easy or has no end game after you get powerful, I can't think of many survival games that don't become trivial eventually.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I just finished my most rewarding playthrough as a Defective Cyborg(called Prototype Cyborg in DDA, I believe) with the Abandoned Start. That was substantially different from my other playthroughs. You only have 50% health from Frail and every faulty bionic installed(as well as a few good ones), which certainly makes the game harder, but more importantly gives you a purpose that can last you well into the late game. I'm playing with 0.75 loot, which seemed reasonable. No Hope isn't working as intended for me, so I didn't have it enabled.

Every bionic can be removed at the autodoc, although it's an extremely risky endeavor and requires sky high skills and high INT to have a good chance of success. For starters, autodocs are only found in underground labs and hospitals, the latter being always located in cities; you are KO during the entire surgery, which means you will DIE if a zombie chances upon you; furthermore, you risk dying(reduced to infection in BN) or severely crippling yourself if the surgery fails, which can still happen even if you have 14 INT and maxed out skills. Meanwhile, Frail can be cancelled out by a certain positive mutation, which pretty much requires you to raid secret labs.

Oh, and one of your faulty bionics is constantly leaking contaminants into your system, which will decrease your MAX HEALTH and eventually kill you, so it's a timed challenge.

The Defective Cyborg has one thing going for him, though, that is the alloy plated armor which lets you tank regular zombies somewhat, as long as there's only one of them and they're not grabbing you.

The Abandoned start(hospital spawn with Frail) can fuck you just with RNG. Hospitals are crowded and a wrong turn can spell your end. There was also that one time I spawned inside a sealed room with a Giant Wasp. Thanks! Your character can also spawn in a house adjacent to the hospital which increases your survival chances dramatically. That's what happened to Charles Knutson, who I had given Quick and Indefatigable at the expense of some character points. Hopefully 10 INT would be enough, I thought.

I managed to escape from town with only a few zombie dogs nibbling my ankles. Indefatigable gave me that little extra stamina to outrun the slower zeds as I entered the forest, while the dogs I managed to lead in the direction of a rattlesnake. Could've been a lot worse. My priorities were now to find a library, school or bookshop so I could find books to get First Aid, Electronics and Computers as high as possible, then scout around for a place likely to have an Autodoc that wasn't in the middle of a city. It must've taken me at least 20 IRL hours and about two weeks of game time until I had a character with 8 First Aid and 6 Electronics/Computers, a good armored car and enough guns and ammo to start a war. First Aid was the easiest to level up, as you must constantly be treating your character due to acidic discharges. They also don't let you sleep.

I'd found a hospital that was at the edge of a city and saw that as my chance. I just hoped that the autodoc wouldn't be on the ground floor where zeds could come in from anywhere. In any case, fully prepared I made my way to the city. The armored car was necessary to plow through a couple of streets until I could approach the hospital from the outside. I shot all the zombies in the vicinity and stealthily entered from the roof. The hospital was entirely ground floor, sucks. I was able to sneakily made my way into an autodoc room using only an axe. There was anesthetic, perfect! I moved some tables in front of the bed, so I won't be seen through the glass door in case anyone passed by. First priority was Leaky Bionic, which is the one that can kill you. Only 28% chance of failure. 2 hours later and voila, removed without issue. Next was Acidic Discharge, but that was tougher. 4 hours of surgery and 48% chance of failure. Alas, I didn't make it to the end--a tough zombie entered the room for some reason and started munching on my character. He died in his sleep, but still a hero. RIP Charles Knutson!

I guess it was my Noisemaker bionic that attracted the zombie. Although the room was closed, so I thought I was in the clear. I don't think he saw me and scent supposedly doesn't work through doors. Anyway, I could've just taken the anesthetic and scouted for another, safer location, but I was getting burned out from so much preparation. If I started a new character, I could've maybe gone about it more efficiently, but I'm gonna let the game rest for now. I've been playing an unhealthy amount. All in all, this was one of my best experiences in games.

 

[CHEMS]

I'll bite. Installed the laucher, gonna try the OG build, bored as shit looking for something new to play, tried getting into Siralim Ultimate but i didn't like it.