OK, I’ll try to keep this brief. This is not criticism, but I will say if I found things, well, frustrating for a new player.
I’ve been playing now for a couple of weeks. At first I used the solo server (is it a server?) and found CE to be a fun looking game with lots of possibilities. The main problem though was the vast amount of gathering of materials needed to craft even the simplest thing. All the time trying to stay alive of course. I solved that by moving to a non-official server that had a 10X multiplier on gathering, which felt about right to me and removed the most boring feature of the game. Oh, and it was set not to lose everything when you die, another great improvement.
I then spent some time building a nice, but small, house with armor bench and other stuff. I learned how to cook meat and didn’t have to eat grubs any more (ptah!). I made a couple of water skins so I didn’t have to stay near water all the time. I equipped myself with stone weapons and leather armor. I thought I was doing so well …
Then I discovered that I wasn’t going to get any further without iron. So I set off to look for some. What a disillusionment! Of course I had been operating in the beginners’ area where stone weapons are good enough. And where there is no iron!
And then the “catch 22” became apparent. I wasn’t going to survive long enough to find and harvest iron without equipment that needed iron to craft. So I formed a cunning plan. I set out on my quest for iron and every so often put down a bedroll, so when I inevitably died I didn’t get sent all the way back to my home in beginners’ land. This worked fairly well, but due to the abominably slow health recovery, I would kill a critter but be left with so little health that the next one would wipe me out in two bites.
What to do? Look it up … I can make bandages with aloe and hides. As I had lots of supplies back at my original camp, I set off back there, only to find that everything but the foundations had disappeared. I’m still not sure what happened. My guess is that setting another bedroll as my recovery point unprotected the original one. The server is PVE only, but maybe a purge?
OK. So I need a new approach. Seeing the “Trump Towers” in my travels, I conclude there must be a way to get past this. All advice is welcome.
Watch some youtube videos, it will help lots. Build a small base near the iron nodes you found, not too close because they will not re-spawn. Build a furnace there and start making iron. When you have some iron built, get a blacksmith bench and start making iron tools. You will grow faster at this point, don’t worry about having a main base in the beginning. Have little bases where you need to work and gather, with just enough room to start making all the bigger and better stuff.
Hmmm, yes that sounds like a reasonable approach. As far as having multiple bases is concerned though, will the bases that are not my current revival point survive? What do you think happened to my original base?
you would have to check the event logs to see what happened to the base. Purge most likely.
The purge will only attack one spot, it will be marked on the map. the reason you want to build small right now is so that if a purge crushes your base it does not matter. Keep a location with your important stuff in chests (I like to build near water so I can put chest inside the water on foundations.) this removes the chance for a purge to touch those chests. make sure if you build on water that you make a “bridge” or path to the shore so purges don’t spawn inside.
If you’re having problems killing things and you’re in a suitable area for your level, you could try a different weapon, maybe a spear or something that will help you keep mobs from getting too close. You can’t tank in this game unless you’re a rhino or an elephant so unless you have a weapon that can stun critters, you’ll need to learn to dodge and/or block effectively.
Interesting. When you say “inside” the water, do you mean off-shore on a base raised above the water, or actually under water? Sorry for so many questions, but you are being really helpful.
I’m OK in the beginners’ area where the critters are pretty wimpy. The problem arises when I move into areas where they get more dangerous. You’re right though, I should certainly work on my dodge/block skills!
I build my starter home base in water, with door access under the water and a floor above the water. foundations in the dirt and build like you are on land. may take a couple tries to get the height just right. Some stuff cannot be placed in water but sometimes I get it just right where I can have a fish trap collecting right beside my blacksmith bench.
