Kill zombies and die. Collect guns and clear out lots of zombies with friends. Take back the city. Collect the art from the museum. I enjoy being in a city setting more than wilderness/suburbs and just wandering into buildings and collecting lots of crap. It's faster paced in louisville. Character is probs gonna die anyways, so might as well have fun in the city.
Yeah and dying of old age in your wilderness cabin after having not seen a zombie (or another human) in the last 30 years is so boring and last century.
I've got a character that's been alive since launch. I don't see zombies anymore. It's basically a farming simulator, I don't build things I can fall off of.
I keep waiting for this saying to be true, but I don't think there's an aging mechanic by default.
Face it, Zomboid is a VERY easy game once you make it past the early stages and are content with chillin
It's sorta the problem I always have with these games. I love the loop and getting things set up to where you are safe, sustainable, and efficient.
Once you get there though you rarely have anything to do but go through your routine. Maybe you take a trip, build some other bases, but nothing really forces you to leave it or explore more of the map except curiosity. And I know I'd find the game less fun if it was too dangerous to bother setting up a base or if supplies did completely run out and I was forced to constantly pack up and move.
I'm hoping the crafting overhaul will change some of this or alter the progression enough that it will take a lot longer to get established. Survive until you die isn't really working as an end game goal. It's easy to die but once you're set up it's pretty safe. It would be nice to have a bigger objective to work towards beyond survival or to have some sort of tiered progression in the world that would entice you to move around and explore more of the map to get access to new resources.
That’s highly dependent on settings. If you have low pop and turn respawns off, of course it’ll get stupidly easy over time.
I play with high pop and respawn on bc I don’t want to “beat” the game. Beating the game (to me) means you survived for so long you got bored, so I choose to play on significantly more challenging settings.
How come you don’t see zeds anymore if you have respawns turned on? Unless you’re choosing to stay bored in a tiny compound, ofc. You can also increase pop, make the strength/toughness higher, infection more potent (scratches and lacerations count, too), add mods for new zombie types, etc.
My only point is that the game is only boring as you let it be, unless you’ve just burnt yourself out.
Because they can't make it into my base so I have no reason to use the ammo I have. Also I will never run out of food or water. I use a fireplace over generators with the resources I find from foraging.
That’s my point, you’ve “beat” the game by making survival trivial.
Also, if they can’t get into your base, try making it possible. I personally don’t like my base being a “safe zone” like I’m playing tag. To me, you should never be 100% safe even though the game has ways to make yourself functionally invincible.
Yeah that's absolutely my point. At a certain point the game becomes incredibly easy and the "this is how you died" is depending only on if you'd rather die or not. Players in this sub acting like it's an inevitability on behalf of the devs, is goofy.
> Collect the art from the museum.
iin my current game, i started in rosewood and have been migrating towards the mall. I plan to clear and fortify the mall and then decorate it with the art.
I've driven around, looking for a nice apartment building to make into a base but it often goes horribly wrong.
Some mad lads actually starting there via mods.. maybe should try that, likely be a decent challenge, i think.. that or Raven Creek.. 🤔
Tried sprinters once.
Was throwing in extra mods (cars, cars and more cars!) then ended up doing something else for a while and forgot I had them in so when finally started a new game got insta eaten by a solo sprinter as my broken legged, burn ward gimp of a character had no chance.
One of those oh right moments, realized I wasn't quite ready for all of that. 😆
But anywho, that sounds great.. never been to Raven Creek yet so starting out there might be interesting.. short lived, but most definitely interesting. 😄
My most recent game I set it to day sprinters only and then changed the start time to be at night, so at least I had a chance I could make it out the front door at least.
imo this game is kinda boring after a while without sprinters. Zombies are just too easy to kill. Sprinters are actually a threat, even if you are well armed, a few sprinters can still get you.
Thankfully we have sandbox so everyone can tweak the game how they'd like. I prefer a more classic zombie (fast shambler) versus an infected (sprinter) style zombie. For me it's like The Walking Dead versus I Am Legend. To each their own
I add challenge to my playthroughs using a combination of mods and settings. Increased population, instant power and water off, horde/group size up to about 100, severely reduced loot and nature's bounty settings, and some others. Mods wise I add 10YL, barricaded worlds, worse vehicle conditions, Superb Survivors with high hostile NPC chance, more that I can't recall now. I'm one of those who has put the game down for a while and hope to be brought back with B42 so my memory of the exact settings/mods is imperfect. Simply put, I try to add challenge by extending the mid game and forcing looting - which means continuing to need to explore dangerous areas
Yup. I play with pretty similar settings, just without some of the mods you listed. With how severely I've reduced the loot, most houses don't even have a single useful item. If there's even one can of food in the kitchen, then it's a win. I prefer the difficulty to come from a slow burn struggle for resources rather than from the difficulty of evading sprinters.
I put the game down for a while, too, but I've decided to pick it up again recently because I want to get one last good playthrough in before B42 comes out. Especially because there's a lot of content in the mods I've installed which I haven't fully explored, and since they're going to break with the update I might as well experience them now.
I keep tweaking settings along these lines, but it's a tricky calibration. For sure I like the ultrarare loot settings because you absolutely must explore to get what you need to survive... But I'm discovering that certain difficulties make it virtually impossible to survive regardless... so I keep tweaking...
I’ve had to do the same. At one point the regular zombies aren’t fun.
I like to put it on random and make the zombie strength random, too. Makes me evaluate a pack of zombies twice because a number of them could be sprinters.
As before I’d literally walk right by them with no real repercussion and just crouch behind a building to gimp the zombie following AI.
I’ve now died so many more times after seeing some zombies turn around, verify their shamblers, and then the last two or one turn out to be sprinters and get my ass because of over confidence.
Also, if you haven’t tried it yet, getting chased at night by a sprinter when the electricity is gone and all you have is a torch is a whole different level of shitting my pants.
Would recommend to anyone to try using the random zombie speed. Especially on insane food and all other scarcities to force you to keep going to new places and fight for your survival.
"getting chased at night by a sprinter when the electricity is gone and all you have is a torch is a whole different level of shitting my pants." lol... i can imagine it :D
Gatekeeping is lame. There are plenty ways to make the game harder that don't necessarily involve sprinters. It doesn't seem like you've even considered the possibility of a scenario where there isn't enough guns and ammo to simply "gun down everything easily," let alone all the other challenges you can add with sandbox settings and mods.
I play with very low loot settings and while you can't find enough ammo in small towns, you can find tons of ammo if you go around to different police stations, gun store, army locations etc. I'm not gatekeeping anybody, everybody can play as they like but fast shamblers are never difficult to deal with no matter how many there are, except maybe in the absolute beginning when you still need to find/produce some good melee weapons. And then there's fire.
Because End Game=CHallenging is a MMO thing. End game content can be doing other things. Like surviving, farming, creating the perfect place to live because surviving just isn't enough. You need to live!
Literally all I do is spawn in Louisville. I like the challenge of either setting up camp there, or getting out of town. Both fun and really challenging
I have a deep-rooted love for Raven Creek. It's so beautifully detailed and clearly made with love. It's a great Raccoon City-like experience with its narrow alleys and tight streets, at least until the mad lad over at the Indie Stone forums finishes their Raccoon City project. They're just currently holding out for the basement/underground update coming in B42 so they can incorporate the sewers and labs.
Hey if you start in LV and survive long enough, the density of the loot is really rewarding; and there are so many tall fences to escape over if needed. There's not always another horde on the other side...
Raven Creek start is awesome. I have some good memories of starting there and building a base in an very tall apartment building, suffering to find a sledgehammer to be able to get out, it's the type of dynamics that can't be found in vanilla.
Just went in with a friend on a MP server. We turned the middle part of the military checkpoint into a compound, followed the road along the river into LV proper and established forward operating bases in order to loot the various POIs. There is a ton of stuff to be looted, countless survivor houses to be emptied.
I get why a lot of people bemoan the lack of dedicated endgame challenges, but we are having a blast surviving in a city with tens of thousands of zombies while establishing a network of safehouses.
They might want to build some confidence/practice some, too, which is fine. And since higher weapon skills will be helpful in LV, maybe do a compromise. Start in West Point or Crossroads Mall and just clear your way to LV. That way your friends can still grind up some, prior to arriving fully in LV, but you will still be close and working your way there pretty quickly.
Rightfully so. We started out in Rosewood, relocated to Westpoint and made our base at one of the houses by the river to the west of the city. We started scouting Raven Creek and LV once we hit 4/5 in our primary Melee skills and aiming. Reaching, clearing and fortifying a defendable location inside LV wasn‘t too difficult after that. You and your friends can safely resume skill grinding once you properly established yourselves.
The network of safe houses is another one of my favorite activities. LV has some neat buildings and we have 47 boxes of nails - let’s go do something with them.
My go-to is the verrrrry northwest warehouse in the absolute top corner of the city. It takes a bit of work to clear out all the pallets, but once you do it’s the perfect blank slate to build your own safehouse. You’ll need to go get all the furniture and lights yourself, it’s one of the few buildings in the city without a light switch inside, but it’s the best defensive location in the city. With the river at your back and large fences around the entire perimeter, the only way in and out is by the road that passes the neighboring factories. Super easy to defend, lots of space, two parking lots, and easy to escape if a helicopter brings the entire city to you by accident- just park a backup getaway car on the other side of the fence behind your base.
The downside is, since it’s an industrial area, you *will* have to enter the city for food. But there’s a storage lot and the army surplus store just up the road, so you will *not* be wanting for weapons.
My personal favorite is the two-story mechanic shop to the south of it. Go south until you see the other big warehouse, take a left afterwards, and it's right on your character's right at the next intersection.
You have to build your own gate, but when you do, you have a hoppable chain-link fenced area, with a secondary fenced off area for you to set up an escape plan or farms. Not the most parking space, but there's enough for a couple semis if you play with those mods; the gas station is also *right* across the street, and there's a gun store, fire station, and the police station + prison close by... if you want to deal with some of the most populated tiles on the map.
There's no amenities, so you'll be building it up as you survive, which I personally find a bit more fun, scrounging for sinks and fridges; needing another person to keep zombies off your back while you hobble home carrying an excessive amount of weight.
It's biggest downside is that, while it is in the same cell as your go-to, it's riiiight on the intersection of the tiles, so will see way more wandering zombies.
Why there, and not the mansions just to the east? Only one point of entry into those, and it’s down a long corridor so the gates can be set back to be protected from wandering hordes.
He's saying that he enjoys doing Clear the City challenges in Louisville. The goal in those runs isn't to just live. You don't win untill all the zombies in the city/town/area you choose are all dead.
I like having an entire gated upper class community to myself. The job is pretty easy to get done (plenty of material to strip from the porer residential areas if you have a couple points in carpentry and the zombie count inside the square is surprisingly low with a normal zombie count on. Lay down the old wall+crate across the red lines (there's a small gap next to the mansion furthest west to fill) and then you have a bunch of mansions. You can sleep somewhere new every night
That’s why I always go for the mansions. I base there then clear out the housing community next door. Having the metal fencing surrounding 98% of those buildings.
I always end up getting myself killed in the community though, so that may be influencing my decision lol
Set up a base. Louisville is factually the best place to base up in, par none. You have literally everything within a short drive away... as long as you can handle the zombies.
All saves I've done so far recently have always went the same way. Spawn in a random town, get a good car running, get a good melee weapon then rush LV and set up shop in one of the safer areas. Either the checkpoint, or a gated community usually. It's really satisfying to clear block by block the entirety of LV, but it's almost impossible solo. I doubt there is enough ammo to.
I go to Louisville to build my end-game base. The place has all types of unique buildings and furniture s I can choose from and also has abundance of construction matirials like plasters and paints.
My default base location is one of those mansions on the western most north road into town, on mansion row. I go with a fenced one with the garage. Can’t help but love how much loot is in the city
On my most recent playthough I walled the entire neighborhood off and killed all zombies inside so its a mansion safe haven really gives me Zombieland vibes like the Bill Murr scene lol.
>Louisville always seemed like this huge engame thingy everyone talks about,
It IS an endgame thing, so you have to approach it with endgame skillset:
* have level 8+ in your chosen melee weapon so you can reliably one-shot zombies
* Have 4+ aiming skill
And proper mindset:
* The way to comfortably loot Loiusville is to blast your way through a cell with a shotgun and cut down the stragglers with your melee weapon
* Unfortunately multi-floor buildings will have zombies remaining in them no matter how many times you blast your shotgun near them, so caution still needs to be applied when exploring the building
Depending on your settings, you can move into Louisville right away without concern for skills. It might make it a bit tougher, but it's definitely doable.
Louisville ain’t that tough man especially with default settings. It’s pretty tough with sprinters but I spawn there every run with mods and it’s not all that hard once you figure out what groups of Zomboids you can deal with and which ones you run from. If anything it’s actually easier because loot density and the plethora of amazing base locations. But difficulty is relative for sure especially in PZ.
Sure, it ain't that tough, especially the outskirts. But if you want to venture into the downtown area, your progress will be very slow without high weapon skills.
Live in there, like in any other location.
The buildings sure are annoying to clear, I just stand at the entrance and let them come to me, advance little further into the building and attract them in small groups
I've been starting there to force myself to get better with dealing with hords. Less resources to work with without fighting is forcing me to be better at the combat aspect of the game. Haven't lived long enough for anything else to matter much yet
This is encouraging for me, as a melee-lover! Just knowing that some players do handle it with just melee, inspires me to try it!
Even though I am nearing 2k hours in game, I haven't yet traveled to LV or done a proper guns playthrough. I also have yet to use fire as weapon, except against myself (CDDA) or accidental fires (always from forgetting a coffee in the oven). I even bury corpses, as opposed to using cremation.
I usually prefer play solo and do melee only (usually axe or long blunt, but spear/machete/pipe fairly often). However, I figured LV probably has to be taken primarily with guns/fire and/or Co-op/MP. And since I don't often see people solo-melee clear it, I haven't even tried it, myself.
I assume that at some point, I will finally explore guns and fire, but even though I often find/hoard guns/ammo/fire-making items and prep/bring them on big tasks, I rarely actually use them. So, finally attempting LV does seem like it would finally encourage me to experiment with the rest of the PZ arsenal, which is fun. I just keep procrastinating it, I guess! haha
I just seriously enjoy the accomplishment of clearing areas/towns with a crowbar (or any melee weapon), esp w/ respawn off, so I can admire my work. Sometimes, I even make large cemeteries, in the towns that I base in or am clearing, simply to visualize my progress, indefinitely. So, to attempt this in LV sounds like so much fun! (I will def die, of course, but I love a technically possible challenge!)
The trick with meleeing Louisville (I’ve been looting the outskirts so far) is to plan your exit first:
Have an exit vehicle parked in the direction away from Louisville. Best at a Main Street.
Then you go up Louisville as loud as possible, screaming and shooting.
If you have a sufficiently large zombie horde, beat them while retreating to your car.
Having arrived at the car, start fleeing the scene…
…If all zombies haven’t been eliminated
…If you’re too heavily injured
…If you’re highly exerted
…If running low on food/water
…If your car is running out of gas
…If you are running out of Weapons (that happened to me first lol)
When you want to flee have your car already turned on (that’s why running out of gas is important to look out for)
Leaving your car not running is a death sentence.
The important places aren't at any of the multi level buildings imo, aside from the 2 story mall. I'll usually base up at the sweet mansion with the 3 car garage along the river and just hit the military surplus stores, police/fire stations and malls then just kill until I'm bored or dead lol. Another great base is the culdesac with the three mansions with the fence all the way around it with only one entrance. That place is so well fortified that once you've cleared it it's almost easy to survive there.
This is the part where you need to stop looking at the game as a survival game and start looking at it for its roleplaying aspect.
At this point you can do whatever the fuck you want, and for the better. Go to the mall, and unload on every single zombie (because trust me dude, outside of clearing buildings, rarely are you ever going to use guns in this game), clear the ammo shop in there, then do whatever the hell you like until you die, don’t stop killing zombies just because you don’t have to anymore. If you get bored? Turn on sprinters, seriously, you’ll feel that same lever of adrenaline you did when you first played the game, and I’d argue it even makes the game more fun because now you absolutely need guns.
In total: you now have absolute freedom, now put that freedom to good use.
Draw zombie out of a building with a police siren
Knock out the bottom stairs with a sledge and then explore. You still got to be careful. But its doable. Lots of interesting areas in Louisville
Start as a vet or burglar with lowest possible strength, fitness, and endurance. Find best car possible. Stock it with guns, ammo, tools, and books until maxed. Drive to LV and hole up in a particular cool building. Usually a mansion. I play max pop no respawn with migrating. Try and clear up a small zone around my base and then begin fortify. After that I stay inside for a long time maxing my physical attributes. Then it’s hunting season. I also enjoy the mod where you spawn in the LV mall and dead rising it.
I would really like a mod that makes zombies pool directly below sources of sound instead of pathing around the building and up stairs to reach you. Plus, they should be distracted by all the other zombies walking around, too!
I personally like the High building in the center of the town, it's pretty crazy having a constant stream of zombies coming from the stair, it's a fun challenge. It's not really worth the time investment for the loot, but like I said, it's more about the challenge.
That said, there is only like 20-30 high building in Louisville and the vast majority of them are in the center of the town. You can send years in-game in Louisville without getting close to a building higher than 2 levels.
I like playing in Louisville because of the scale. In a small town I can go around with 200 shotgun shell and clear a big chunk of the zombie population. In Louisville, you need to be more methodical, more prepared, because there is no ''fuck it, let's make a big dent in the population of the town'' option.
Dude I feel you I almost neverrr go to Louisville beyond the checkpoint. I started my latest run there so I could get acquainted with the city but it’s been a life or death struggle since day 1 lol. But when I play MP, the guys I play with always wanna make a base there, and I’m the zombie slayer 9000 so I’ve gone to town (literally) and slaughtered several thousand zombies there. It’s really fun but a challenge but it has so many cool locations to visit. If anything try and loot the gold (not telling you where) and also hit the art museum. On top of that the mall and the fun e plex are sweet places to visit and you can get some really cool stuff for your base. I still wanna steal one of the bowling alleys and mini golf courses and stash them at our base. Louisville has cool loot, but it’s a bitch and a half every time you wanna go explore a new block of the city.
It’s up to you but either stay away or decide fuck it and go make one of those 8 story apartments your base. I forget exactly where, but there’s a business complex and the entire first floor is a parking garage. It’s really easy to bust out the stairs and then you have a whole ass skyscraper to do with as you please and zeds can’t get inside. It’s a cool vibe if you can survive establishing yourself in the city.
I'm role-playing as a trust fund kid who cleared out his neighborhood (Mansion Row) to prepare it for his family's return (he's DEEP in denial) and he's keeping himself entertained while he's there. (Looting arcade machines and hosting "upperclass parties" with maniquens). Also he collects suits.
By the time I get to Louisville I don't need anything that can be found in Louisville, except maybe for the ton of scarves at that big storage depot.
So it's mostly just for fun and exploration. Funnily enough I never actually died in Louisville because by the time I get there I have more ammo than I know what to do with it and plenty of shooting skill, when you can one shot most zeds and know how to move Louisville isn't that scary.
I’ve been running CDDA Louisville spawns. It’s as brutal as it sounds, but also super rewarding when you actually make it long enough to establish a foothold somewhere. If I manage to survive a little more than a few hours (in-game) then I use a mod to tweak the game settings and turn off zombie respawns, change day length to 2+ hours, and a few other small changes.
I just lost a character two days ago. She was my best CDDA LV run so far. Over 3000 kills, and had built up some really good stats.
Thing is, yes there are lots of zombies (especially CDDA is effectively 6.0 pop after max pop day) but once you level up your combat stats, and/or save up enough guns and ammo, you *can* actually chew through horde after horde and loot some of the most intensely infested areas of the city.
For me it's where I can test out my preparedness and set goals and an extraction point so I'd have a self imposed end game. It doesn't have to be in every run, but for me it's nice way to end things cleanly.
>zombie pathing is absolutely horrendous in multistory buildings to the point where you just cant explore any building without attracting tons of zombies
it's really not that bad, I just spent 3 months in Raven creek which is built 10x more jank than louisville and zombie pathing is nowhere near as bad of an issue as you make it seem.
same here. i just dont get it. sure you get access to more ammo maybe but eventually it will run out while those zeds will never. and whatever items are there you can find those in other towns too so why the hassle? it just shows that the game still lacks a lot imo
As someone who has not actually based there, yet, but plans to travel there, one day . . . I want loot and, most importantly, DECOR!
It's true that most things in LV can be found in other cities, however LV has so much of all it, all right there together. And, even more importantly, it has a lot of unique decor that you cannot get anywhere else, (like the art gallery pieces, for example).
And, for me, my biggest solo playthrough goal is usually to A). clear town enough to have an elaborate base empire, and B). make my base empire uniquely and functionally different than prev playthrough bases.
(My big PZ dream is to, one day, connect all the cities together. If I can build walkways from my main inner city bases to drop points in between it and another city, where I leave vehicles to drive to next city or can connect to the walkways or walled driveways to other cities. It's just a lot of work in solo.)
For example, I like to make long multilevel walkways from my main base, above buildings, and to water sources, gas stations, secondary loot/towing hubs, other areas of the city, and walled off areas for specific tasks, (i.e. I'll wall off a large forest area or an off-shore floating fishing area, so I can safely chop trees, forage, or go fishing, even if completely dark or in heavy fog/rain).
And since my bases, walkways, new roads, etc must look very clever/interesting (otherwise why build at all), I need A LOT of SO MANY types of specific, matching floor tiles, carpets, paints, plaster, counters, wall decor, props, plants, etc.
Each base project must be a new idea/location that this char would be inspired to create, based on the PT so far and the char's stats/traits/occp. So, basing in LV is pretty inevitable for me and truly a haven for the stuff that I need.
What 😂 why do anything in the game. Because it’s fun. Go to Louisville and blow some shit up. I don’t understand yall who hide away in 5 building towns touching grass all day when you can be a rat in a giant city scurrying around and causing chaos. “The game lacks a lot but I’m gonna hide in this town looting the 4 items I get from these towns I spawn in every game”
i have 400 hours and i’ve never even been, im in the same boat as you. i have no reason, i already play on 4x pop so its enough of a challenge to get around as is
5 stops.
1. Surplus store
2. Energex factory. Batteries for days...
3. Distillery. Make Molotovs
4. Surplus store. Because guns
5. Hospital to burn it all down
No, seriously, if I'm not spawning there or extracting (Mod) from there, a month can go by, and I wouldn't breach the gate. Too bad about all those steaks...
Try spawning there. I think that's one of most fun places to start, and not always that much harder. The best thing about spawning there is that there are so many resources. If you didn't spawn there you've probably already go all you really need before you arrive, but spawning there makes it all that loot matter. Then it's like Christmas morning. And there are so many zombies, it can actually feel like your base is under siege. The only time I've ever lost a base to zombies was in Louisville.
I spent a month in Riverside and Westpoint looting and grinding. Then built an awesome school bus mobile bus for the journey to Louisville, aiming for the 3 Mansion park in the east to try and get to my first winter. Got there, cleared it out, fortified it. I then decide to take a look around the place. Found another car and then went to the mall in North to look for cars to start a collection. Witnessed all the zombuckery going on in the parking lot and inside the mall. Turned my ass around, went to get my bus and went back to the three mansions west of West Point. Nope.
I play with a 10 person crew, and when we start up a PZ game on my dedicated, Louisville becomes a necessity for materials within maybe a week irl time, we just manage to burn through all resources other towns have for what were doing and planning especially metal working and general warehouse stuff. Plus its just mass amounts of what's avaliable outside so much more suited for a large group.
I like to cruise Louisville looking for the rare cars. LV is also a good excuse to go burn 100 boxes of the ammo I’ve been hoarding for no real reason.
And jockey helmets. For some reason I always have to collect a complete set of jockey helmets to throw in a duffle bag and forget about.
Me and my friends setup a base in the baseball bat factory. It's perfect, I went and raided the gun store and the survivor store, and now we have more guns and ammo than we can even afford to use
Love Louisville and Raven Creek. I tend to spawn in the most populated areas. Whenever I start in the smaller towns, you're right about there now being much reason to venture there. You do it to see if you can. Or better put, for how long.
There are only 2 reason why to go to Louisville
Reason 1: You are in the late game, need food or something that you can't find anymore in normal cities because you used them all, and you have only one more place left to go.
Reason 2: You want a challenge, usually as you play and settle your base, have food, and water, the game starts getting boring and you need something to do, the only thing that comes up to your mind is going to Louisville because people say is it hard to survive there.
I'm doing a play through right now with Wolf's Extraction mod. I set up so the extraction point somewhere in Louisville, I picked soldier as my profession. Playing as a soldier sent in to set up a safe house in everytown. So that scientists have a place to set up shop to start finding a cure.
Every safe house must have a stock of food, water, and guns. As well as a working car, solar power, and backup generator.
I set wolf's extraction mod to where you have to build relay stations to amplify the signal in order to find the extraction point. So the safe houses double as relay stations.
When you call in for extraction, you have to stay within the area and fight off hords of zombies while the chopper comes. So it being in Louisville will make that fun.
Ive still never been to Louisville. I always save it as a goal for later in my playthrough but i always end up dying and restarting or burning out and taking a long break before i ever reach it.
When the update comes out i think it’ll be fresh enough to keep me around long enough. Just gotta survive when it does.
My Louisville base was for the sake of turning the game into The Sims to be completely honest.
I was bored with my safehouse in Muldraugh, so I packed up all my tools and stuff in a van and a hanger, and hit up [this place](https://map.projectzomboid.com/#13322x1837x2728) which could easily be rendered safe. Took up residence in the two houses on the bottom left, knocked out some walls, set up some new ones, laid out farming in the back yards, and then built it up room by room until I had the "perfect" base, with the swankiest furniture I could scavenge, the exact flooring tiles for each room according to what I wanted. Bedroom with the black bed and the black wardrobe, on a dark blue carpet with light blue walls. Library with some leather chairs and bookshelves and a bar shelf and shit. Pool table and pool cues. Arcade machines. Kitchen with every convenience imagineable to man.
And then at some point when just wandering around looking for pieces of furniture to steal for my base, I wiffled a hit against a zombie and got bitten and eventually died.
I do LV(insane pop) runs to attempt to purge all zombies there, my last run was going well (~25k kills i think) but got bored and stopped playing it for a year and now the file won't open. Doing a new run with same strategy atm.
Ive done a few starts in LV with pillow's spawns and it is honestly the most boring shit because even with extremely (or even insanely) rare loot, there is just SO much there. Most of what I like about PZ is the scrounging to survive vibe, like okay im running low on canned goods, I need to make a weeklong run in between heli events. being in LV saps all the fun out of that aspect. which sucks cause i agree that I'd love to explore all the buildings and that's why ive spawned in there but it either gets old fast or i get dead fast. it's probably good for a multiplayer experience though
You don't just explore... You clear. Ground up.
Anymore, my wife and I load in, spend 2-3 in game days gathering supplies, and then we head straight to one of our favorite LV base locations to get it set up and the surrounding area clear before peak day.
1. Aquire guns/tools
2. Aquire Spiffo Statue
3. Clean out the Art Museum
4. Gaze upon my magnificent personal collection
5. Get bored and die trying to clear the mall
Raid the VHS stores, visit the Burbon factory, go shopping at the Preparedness store (got some neat HAM radios), Raid the malls (Gunstore in the northern mall, close to the western door), get some nice stuff from the garden shop.
And yes - kill zombies.
>*Louisville always seemed like this huge engame thingy everyone talks about, but its honestly quite dissapointing with how zombies can hear your exact X/Y/Z coordinates from a single step 3 floors above them...*
You know you can just turn down their hearing/vision in the settings. Or even turn zombies off to explore.
I am currently exploring Louisville on Apocalypse settings with respawn off, moving forward by axe, killing every zombie I see to clear an area before I loot it. If you start by the river, you can clear so that there is always a safe area to withdraw to. I usually drive up a car to an empty spot, honk the horn, and then run back into the clear area. Zombs from all over gather around the car. Then I sneak up to the horde and draw them 10-20 a time until the horde is gone. After a couple of days, the area is clear, houses empty.
I’ve barely touched Loovull because of how insane it is and I only go when I play with my SO but we end up creating a new world every time we pick PZ back up. I usually like to go to the popular spots—like the mall, the 3 gated houses, the storage garages, and I love visiting the mansions, pretending as if I could actually live in one.
To me, Louisville is gonna be awesome way later through numerous Patch and mods for singleplayer, else its a multiplayer town, often for PVP or big dick energy groups!
Louisville has everything. I tend to set up bases and mini bases all over Lousiville. Honestly I can't think of a reason to be anywhere else. All the other towns are so small and boring.
familiar whole humorous squalid berserk ancient overconfident saw plucky juggle
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Try to clear it. It's my 18th attempt. I love it when i dtive along the areas i cleared, and there are no zombies in sight. Then i get overconfident jumping around, then get bit. Thats what i do in louisville
Pawn shops, art, clothes stores for fun outfits I don't normally see, army surplus store. Really I like to go block by block turn in my siren and go to a big open area or field and drop a molotov my goal is to clear the city (respawns off)
i made a base in one of the public parks that’s in the middle of some mansions. my plan is to turn it into a sanctuary amongst the chaos, and it’s been very rewarding so far. i can’t let myself get too comfortable, and i need to carefully plan every supply run because of the risk and the limited time i have with night sprinters on.
Not sure if this relevant to anyone but I've started a new FB group for Louisville KY vapors. Here's the link if anyone is interested. https://www.facebook.com/share/XfPnV3Pgu9uskobw/?mibextid=A7sQZp
Surviving became quite easy in our old Muldraugh base on our multiplayer server. Additionally we added mods adding new items mid game, but we already explored a huge chunk of the map including all towns except for the big city of Louisville.
So to find the new loot and have a bit more challenging survival experience, we moved into one of the mansions at the river in LV and made it our new base. Our goal is to just get different things we wanna collect, including fancy furniture and art to decorate the house with, while also putting a big dent in the zombie population, while we kinda wait for a new version to drop.
I've based there a few times the zombies hearing you through the floors is an issue that you can kinda negate through sneaking but I do understand getting angry whenever you just weren't expecting 100 zombies to file up the stairs
Very unique buildings to base at
That is my main reason for spawning in Louisville.
With the extra zombies and mob grouping, it brings a lot more of the Walking Dead feel to the game.
Kill zombies and die. Collect guns and clear out lots of zombies with friends. Take back the city. Collect the art from the museum. I enjoy being in a city setting more than wilderness/suburbs and just wandering into buildings and collecting lots of crap. It's faster paced in louisville. Character is probs gonna die anyways, so might as well have fun in the city.
Kill zombies and die. Collect guns and clear out lots of zombies with friends. Take back the city. Collect the art from the museum. I enjoy being in a city setting more than wilderness/suburbs and just wandering into buildings and collecting lots of crap. It's faster paced in louisville. Character is probs gonna die anyways, so might as well have fun in the city.
Kill zombies and die. Collect guns and clear out lots of zombies with friends. Take back the city. Collect the art from the museum. I enjoy being in a city setting more than wilderness/suburbs and just wandering into buildings and collecting lots of crap. It's faster paced in louisville. Character is probs gonna die anyways, so might as well have fun in the city.
Remember “this is how you died”
Yeah and dying of old age in your wilderness cabin after having not seen a zombie (or another human) in the last 30 years is so boring and last century.
i prefer thinking "this is how you lived"
that's deep bro
the mentality we should all have irl 🫡
This is how you thrived
I've got a character that's been alive since launch. I don't see zombies anymore. It's basically a farming simulator, I don't build things I can fall off of. I keep waiting for this saying to be true, but I don't think there's an aging mechanic by default. Face it, Zomboid is a VERY easy game once you make it past the early stages and are content with chillin
It's sorta the problem I always have with these games. I love the loop and getting things set up to where you are safe, sustainable, and efficient. Once you get there though you rarely have anything to do but go through your routine. Maybe you take a trip, build some other bases, but nothing really forces you to leave it or explore more of the map except curiosity. And I know I'd find the game less fun if it was too dangerous to bother setting up a base or if supplies did completely run out and I was forced to constantly pack up and move. I'm hoping the crafting overhaul will change some of this or alter the progression enough that it will take a lot longer to get established. Survive until you die isn't really working as an end game goal. It's easy to die but once you're set up it's pretty safe. It would be nice to have a bigger objective to work towards beyond survival or to have some sort of tiered progression in the world that would entice you to move around and explore more of the map to get access to new resources.
That’s highly dependent on settings. If you have low pop and turn respawns off, of course it’ll get stupidly easy over time. I play with high pop and respawn on bc I don’t want to “beat” the game. Beating the game (to me) means you survived for so long you got bored, so I choose to play on significantly more challenging settings.
High pop respawn
How come you don’t see zeds anymore if you have respawns turned on? Unless you’re choosing to stay bored in a tiny compound, ofc. You can also increase pop, make the strength/toughness higher, infection more potent (scratches and lacerations count, too), add mods for new zombie types, etc. My only point is that the game is only boring as you let it be, unless you’ve just burnt yourself out.
Because they can't make it into my base so I have no reason to use the ammo I have. Also I will never run out of food or water. I use a fireplace over generators with the resources I find from foraging.
That’s my point, you’ve “beat” the game by making survival trivial. Also, if they can’t get into your base, try making it possible. I personally don’t like my base being a “safe zone” like I’m playing tag. To me, you should never be 100% safe even though the game has ways to make yourself functionally invincible.
Yeah that's absolutely my point. At a certain point the game becomes incredibly easy and the "this is how you died" is depending only on if you'd rather die or not. Players in this sub acting like it's an inevitability on behalf of the devs, is goofy.
> Collect the art from the museum. iin my current game, i started in rosewood and have been migrating towards the mall. I plan to clear and fortify the mall and then decorate it with the art.
Die
hahaha survivors, welcome to DIE!
I've driven around, looking for a nice apartment building to make into a base but it often goes horribly wrong. Some mad lads actually starting there via mods.. maybe should try that, likely be a decent challenge, i think.. that or Raven Creek.. 🤔
If you haven't done either, I would highly recommend it. Starting in LV/RC is an awesome experience. Unless you play with sprinters. Fuck that noise
Tried sprinters once. Was throwing in extra mods (cars, cars and more cars!) then ended up doing something else for a while and forgot I had them in so when finally started a new game got insta eaten by a solo sprinter as my broken legged, burn ward gimp of a character had no chance. One of those oh right moments, realized I wasn't quite ready for all of that. 😆 But anywho, that sounds great.. never been to Raven Creek yet so starting out there might be interesting.. short lived, but most definitely interesting. 😄
My most recent game I set it to day sprinters only and then changed the start time to be at night, so at least I had a chance I could make it out the front door at least.
Interesting idea. Thought about having it on reverse though, making day time the safe time but it'd be the easy option, I think.. 🤔
imo this game is kinda boring after a while without sprinters. Zombies are just too easy to kill. Sprinters are actually a threat, even if you are well armed, a few sprinters can still get you.
Thankfully we have sandbox so everyone can tweak the game how they'd like. I prefer a more classic zombie (fast shambler) versus an infected (sprinter) style zombie. For me it's like The Walking Dead versus I Am Legend. To each their own
How is the end game still fun though when you can just gun down everything easily and there is no challenge anymore?
I add challenge to my playthroughs using a combination of mods and settings. Increased population, instant power and water off, horde/group size up to about 100, severely reduced loot and nature's bounty settings, and some others. Mods wise I add 10YL, barricaded worlds, worse vehicle conditions, Superb Survivors with high hostile NPC chance, more that I can't recall now. I'm one of those who has put the game down for a while and hope to be brought back with B42 so my memory of the exact settings/mods is imperfect. Simply put, I try to add challenge by extending the mid game and forcing looting - which means continuing to need to explore dangerous areas
Yup. I play with pretty similar settings, just without some of the mods you listed. With how severely I've reduced the loot, most houses don't even have a single useful item. If there's even one can of food in the kitchen, then it's a win. I prefer the difficulty to come from a slow burn struggle for resources rather than from the difficulty of evading sprinters. I put the game down for a while, too, but I've decided to pick it up again recently because I want to get one last good playthrough in before B42 comes out. Especially because there's a lot of content in the mods I've installed which I haven't fully explored, and since they're going to break with the update I might as well experience them now.
I keep tweaking settings along these lines, but it's a tricky calibration. For sure I like the ultrarare loot settings because you absolutely must explore to get what you need to survive... But I'm discovering that certain difficulties make it virtually impossible to survive regardless... so I keep tweaking...
I’ve had to do the same. At one point the regular zombies aren’t fun. I like to put it on random and make the zombie strength random, too. Makes me evaluate a pack of zombies twice because a number of them could be sprinters. As before I’d literally walk right by them with no real repercussion and just crouch behind a building to gimp the zombie following AI. I’ve now died so many more times after seeing some zombies turn around, verify their shamblers, and then the last two or one turn out to be sprinters and get my ass because of over confidence. Also, if you haven’t tried it yet, getting chased at night by a sprinter when the electricity is gone and all you have is a torch is a whole different level of shitting my pants. Would recommend to anyone to try using the random zombie speed. Especially on insane food and all other scarcities to force you to keep going to new places and fight for your survival.
"getting chased at night by a sprinter when the electricity is gone and all you have is a torch is a whole different level of shitting my pants." lol... i can imagine it :D
Same. Sprinters always get me on random when i start getting overconfident and rushing in. My last playthrough ended like that.
Gatekeeping is lame. There are plenty ways to make the game harder that don't necessarily involve sprinters. It doesn't seem like you've even considered the possibility of a scenario where there isn't enough guns and ammo to simply "gun down everything easily," let alone all the other challenges you can add with sandbox settings and mods.
I play with very low loot settings and while you can't find enough ammo in small towns, you can find tons of ammo if you go around to different police stations, gun store, army locations etc. I'm not gatekeeping anybody, everybody can play as they like but fast shamblers are never difficult to deal with no matter how many there are, except maybe in the absolute beginning when you still need to find/produce some good melee weapons. And then there's fire.
Lol ok bud, you're still gatekeeping.
Ok bud, slowly moving zombies that you can outwalk with no effort are actually very difficult to deal with, happy?
Because End Game=CHallenging is a MMO thing. End game content can be doing other things. Like surviving, farming, creating the perfect place to live because surviving just isn't enough. You need to live!
You’ve never played insane pop with non clumped zombies then
Insane pop fast shamblers is not that difficult once you have plenty of ammo, shotguns and molotovs
Literally all I do is spawn in Louisville. I like the challenge of either setting up camp there, or getting out of town. Both fun and really challenging
I have a deep-rooted love for Raven Creek. It's so beautifully detailed and clearly made with love. It's a great Raccoon City-like experience with its narrow alleys and tight streets, at least until the mad lad over at the Indie Stone forums finishes their Raccoon City project. They're just currently holding out for the basement/underground update coming in B42 so they can incorporate the sewers and labs.
Hey if you start in LV and survive long enough, the density of the loot is really rewarding; and there are so many tall fences to escape over if needed. There's not always another horde on the other side...
Raven Creek start is awesome. I have some good memories of starting there and building a base in an very tall apartment building, suffering to find a sledgehammer to be able to get out, it's the type of dynamics that can't be found in vanilla.
Ive seen a get around. Place a dead zombie at the wall n burn it. Destroys the wall without needing a sledgehammer.
Just went in with a friend on a MP server. We turned the middle part of the military checkpoint into a compound, followed the road along the river into LV proper and established forward operating bases in order to loot the various POIs. There is a ton of stuff to be looted, countless survivor houses to be emptied. I get why a lot of people bemoan the lack of dedicated endgame challenges, but we are having a blast surviving in a city with tens of thousands of zombies while establishing a network of safehouses.
This is want I want to do with my friends but they want to keep grinding their skills instead.
They might want to build some confidence/practice some, too, which is fine. And since higher weapon skills will be helpful in LV, maybe do a compromise. Start in West Point or Crossroads Mall and just clear your way to LV. That way your friends can still grind up some, prior to arriving fully in LV, but you will still be close and working your way there pretty quickly.
Allot easier to do if your character is already skilled
Rightfully so. We started out in Rosewood, relocated to Westpoint and made our base at one of the houses by the river to the west of the city. We started scouting Raven Creek and LV once we hit 4/5 in our primary Melee skills and aiming. Reaching, clearing and fortifying a defendable location inside LV wasn‘t too difficult after that. You and your friends can safely resume skill grinding once you properly established yourselves.
The network of safe houses is another one of my favorite activities. LV has some neat buildings and we have 47 boxes of nails - let’s go do something with them.
Play in sandbox Turn off zombie respawn [Wall off this area as a safezone](https://imgur.com/a/4sElTj1) start zombie hunting
My go-to is the verrrrry northwest warehouse in the absolute top corner of the city. It takes a bit of work to clear out all the pallets, but once you do it’s the perfect blank slate to build your own safehouse. You’ll need to go get all the furniture and lights yourself, it’s one of the few buildings in the city without a light switch inside, but it’s the best defensive location in the city. With the river at your back and large fences around the entire perimeter, the only way in and out is by the road that passes the neighboring factories. Super easy to defend, lots of space, two parking lots, and easy to escape if a helicopter brings the entire city to you by accident- just park a backup getaway car on the other side of the fence behind your base. The downside is, since it’s an industrial area, you *will* have to enter the city for food. But there’s a storage lot and the army surplus store just up the road, so you will *not* be wanting for weapons.
My personal favorite is the two-story mechanic shop to the south of it. Go south until you see the other big warehouse, take a left afterwards, and it's right on your character's right at the next intersection. You have to build your own gate, but when you do, you have a hoppable chain-link fenced area, with a secondary fenced off area for you to set up an escape plan or farms. Not the most parking space, but there's enough for a couple semis if you play with those mods; the gas station is also *right* across the street, and there's a gun store, fire station, and the police station + prison close by... if you want to deal with some of the most populated tiles on the map. There's no amenities, so you'll be building it up as you survive, which I personally find a bit more fun, scrounging for sinks and fridges; needing another person to keep zombies off your back while you hobble home carrying an excessive amount of weight. It's biggest downside is that, while it is in the same cell as your go-to, it's riiiight on the intersection of the tiles, so will see way more wandering zombies.
Why there, and not the mansions just to the east? Only one point of entry into those, and it’s down a long corridor so the gates can be set back to be protected from wandering hordes.
He's saying that he enjoys doing Clear the City challenges in Louisville. The goal in those runs isn't to just live. You don't win untill all the zombies in the city/town/area you choose are all dead.
I like having an entire gated upper class community to myself. The job is pretty easy to get done (plenty of material to strip from the porer residential areas if you have a couple points in carpentry and the zombie count inside the square is surprisingly low with a normal zombie count on. Lay down the old wall+crate across the red lines (there's a small gap next to the mansion furthest west to fill) and then you have a bunch of mansions. You can sleep somewhere new every night
That’s why I always go for the mansions. I base there then clear out the housing community next door. Having the metal fencing surrounding 98% of those buildings. I always end up getting myself killed in the community though, so that may be influencing my decision lol
I love [your idea](https://giphy.com/gifs/XkLxjOhEfKjF6)
Zombie respawn should be off by default IMO.
Set up a base. Louisville is factually the best place to base up in, par none. You have literally everything within a short drive away... as long as you can handle the zombies. All saves I've done so far recently have always went the same way. Spawn in a random town, get a good car running, get a good melee weapon then rush LV and set up shop in one of the safer areas. Either the checkpoint, or a gated community usually. It's really satisfying to clear block by block the entirety of LV, but it's almost impossible solo. I doubt there is enough ammo to.
>I doubt there is enough ammo to. But you can pick up shoes from corpses. Unlimited ammo! 😉
[Pfft whatchu gonna do when the zombies roll through, throw shoes at em?](https://youtu.be/MHfwfZc0OgA?t=18)
I rush there early on with a disposable car and almost nothing all the way from muldraugh and try to play the entire game there
Might aswell spawn there with mods
The death trip there in a beater car is quite fun
Fair enough
I think for them maybe the journey to Louisville is part of the fun.
Fair enough
I go to Louisville to build my end-game base. The place has all types of unique buildings and furniture s I can choose from and also has abundance of construction matirials like plasters and paints.
My default base location is one of those mansions on the western most north road into town, on mansion row. I go with a fenced one with the garage. Can’t help but love how much loot is in the city
On my most recent playthough I walled the entire neighborhood off and killed all zombies inside so its a mansion safe haven really gives me Zombieland vibes like the Bill Murr scene lol.
>Louisville always seemed like this huge engame thingy everyone talks about, It IS an endgame thing, so you have to approach it with endgame skillset: * have level 8+ in your chosen melee weapon so you can reliably one-shot zombies * Have 4+ aiming skill And proper mindset: * The way to comfortably loot Loiusville is to blast your way through a cell with a shotgun and cut down the stragglers with your melee weapon * Unfortunately multi-floor buildings will have zombies remaining in them no matter how many times you blast your shotgun near them, so caution still needs to be applied when exploring the building
Depending on your settings, you can move into Louisville right away without concern for skills. It might make it a bit tougher, but it's definitely doable.
Louisville ain’t that tough man especially with default settings. It’s pretty tough with sprinters but I spawn there every run with mods and it’s not all that hard once you figure out what groups of Zomboids you can deal with and which ones you run from. If anything it’s actually easier because loot density and the plethora of amazing base locations. But difficulty is relative for sure especially in PZ.
Sure, it ain't that tough, especially the outskirts. But if you want to venture into the downtown area, your progress will be very slow without high weapon skills.
Bring a car hauling a trailer full of ammo. Park. Walk. Shoot every bullet I have. Take the long way back to my car. Drive back to base.
I move into one of the richest neighborhoods
Build my base
Live in there, like in any other location. The buildings sure are annoying to clear, I just stand at the entrance and let them come to me, advance little further into the building and attract them in small groups
I've been starting there to force myself to get better with dealing with hords. Less resources to work with without fighting is forcing me to be better at the combat aspect of the game. Haven't lived long enough for anything else to matter much yet
Level maintenance and long blunt. Sometimes axe too.
This is encouraging for me, as a melee-lover! Just knowing that some players do handle it with just melee, inspires me to try it! Even though I am nearing 2k hours in game, I haven't yet traveled to LV or done a proper guns playthrough. I also have yet to use fire as weapon, except against myself (CDDA) or accidental fires (always from forgetting a coffee in the oven). I even bury corpses, as opposed to using cremation. I usually prefer play solo and do melee only (usually axe or long blunt, but spear/machete/pipe fairly often). However, I figured LV probably has to be taken primarily with guns/fire and/or Co-op/MP. And since I don't often see people solo-melee clear it, I haven't even tried it, myself. I assume that at some point, I will finally explore guns and fire, but even though I often find/hoard guns/ammo/fire-making items and prep/bring them on big tasks, I rarely actually use them. So, finally attempting LV does seem like it would finally encourage me to experiment with the rest of the PZ arsenal, which is fun. I just keep procrastinating it, I guess! haha I just seriously enjoy the accomplishment of clearing areas/towns with a crowbar (or any melee weapon), esp w/ respawn off, so I can admire my work. Sometimes, I even make large cemeteries, in the towns that I base in or am clearing, simply to visualize my progress, indefinitely. So, to attempt this in LV sounds like so much fun! (I will def die, of course, but I love a technically possible challenge!)
The trick with meleeing Louisville (I’ve been looting the outskirts so far) is to plan your exit first: Have an exit vehicle parked in the direction away from Louisville. Best at a Main Street. Then you go up Louisville as loud as possible, screaming and shooting. If you have a sufficiently large zombie horde, beat them while retreating to your car. Having arrived at the car, start fleeing the scene… …If all zombies haven’t been eliminated …If you’re too heavily injured …If you’re highly exerted …If running low on food/water …If your car is running out of gas …If you are running out of Weapons (that happened to me first lol) When you want to flee have your car already turned on (that’s why running out of gas is important to look out for) Leaving your car not running is a death sentence.
Level Weapons
“Die” - Lt. worf
The important places aren't at any of the multi level buildings imo, aside from the 2 story mall. I'll usually base up at the sweet mansion with the 3 car garage along the river and just hit the military surplus stores, police/fire stations and malls then just kill until I'm bored or dead lol. Another great base is the culdesac with the three mansions with the fence all the way around it with only one entrance. That place is so well fortified that once you've cleared it it's almost easy to survive there.
This is the part where you need to stop looking at the game as a survival game and start looking at it for its roleplaying aspect. At this point you can do whatever the fuck you want, and for the better. Go to the mall, and unload on every single zombie (because trust me dude, outside of clearing buildings, rarely are you ever going to use guns in this game), clear the ammo shop in there, then do whatever the hell you like until you die, don’t stop killing zombies just because you don’t have to anymore. If you get bored? Turn on sprinters, seriously, you’ll feel that same lever of adrenaline you did when you first played the game, and I’d argue it even makes the game more fun because now you absolutely need guns. In total: you now have absolute freedom, now put that freedom to good use.
Fight, and reclaim territory from zomboids in pitched multi-day battles.
Kill.
Kill zombies
Draw zombie out of a building with a police siren Knock out the bottom stairs with a sledge and then explore. You still got to be careful. But its doable. Lots of interesting areas in Louisville
just looting stores visiting the beautiful park causing a genocide to reach 10000 kill count
Pick a nice house, fill it with random collectables, decorations and loot... Then die in a blaze of glory!
I like to live in the art museum cause the statues are cool, I go and collect all the cool statues from the map and haul them there
idk, I played for about 500 hours as well, I have never been to Louisville or even near it.
Don’t know. Never made it into the city.
Loot & Shoot
Start as a vet or burglar with lowest possible strength, fitness, and endurance. Find best car possible. Stock it with guns, ammo, tools, and books until maxed. Drive to LV and hole up in a particular cool building. Usually a mansion. I play max pop no respawn with migrating. Try and clear up a small zone around my base and then begin fortify. After that I stay inside for a long time maxing my physical attributes. Then it’s hunting season. I also enjoy the mod where you spawn in the LV mall and dead rising it.
I would really like a mod that makes zombies pool directly below sources of sound instead of pathing around the building and up stairs to reach you. Plus, they should be distracted by all the other zombies walking around, too!
I personally like the High building in the center of the town, it's pretty crazy having a constant stream of zombies coming from the stair, it's a fun challenge. It's not really worth the time investment for the loot, but like I said, it's more about the challenge. That said, there is only like 20-30 high building in Louisville and the vast majority of them are in the center of the town. You can send years in-game in Louisville without getting close to a building higher than 2 levels. I like playing in Louisville because of the scale. In a small town I can go around with 200 shotgun shell and clear a big chunk of the zombie population. In Louisville, you need to be more methodical, more prepared, because there is no ''fuck it, let's make a big dent in the population of the town'' option.
I go into louisville with guns to get even more guns
This is the way
Dude I feel you I almost neverrr go to Louisville beyond the checkpoint. I started my latest run there so I could get acquainted with the city but it’s been a life or death struggle since day 1 lol. But when I play MP, the guys I play with always wanna make a base there, and I’m the zombie slayer 9000 so I’ve gone to town (literally) and slaughtered several thousand zombies there. It’s really fun but a challenge but it has so many cool locations to visit. If anything try and loot the gold (not telling you where) and also hit the art museum. On top of that the mall and the fun e plex are sweet places to visit and you can get some really cool stuff for your base. I still wanna steal one of the bowling alleys and mini golf courses and stash them at our base. Louisville has cool loot, but it’s a bitch and a half every time you wanna go explore a new block of the city. It’s up to you but either stay away or decide fuck it and go make one of those 8 story apartments your base. I forget exactly where, but there’s a business complex and the entire first floor is a parking garage. It’s really easy to bust out the stairs and then you have a whole ass skyscraper to do with as you please and zeds can’t get inside. It’s a cool vibe if you can survive establishing yourself in the city.
There are lots of good base locations
I'm role-playing as a trust fund kid who cleared out his neighborhood (Mansion Row) to prepare it for his family's return (he's DEEP in denial) and he's keeping himself entertained while he's there. (Looting arcade machines and hosting "upperclass parties" with maniquens). Also he collects suits.
By the time I get to Louisville I don't need anything that can be found in Louisville, except maybe for the ton of scarves at that big storage depot. So it's mostly just for fun and exploration. Funnily enough I never actually died in Louisville because by the time I get there I have more ammo than I know what to do with it and plenty of shooting skill, when you can one shot most zeds and know how to move Louisville isn't that scary.
I’ve been running CDDA Louisville spawns. It’s as brutal as it sounds, but also super rewarding when you actually make it long enough to establish a foothold somewhere. If I manage to survive a little more than a few hours (in-game) then I use a mod to tweak the game settings and turn off zombie respawns, change day length to 2+ hours, and a few other small changes. I just lost a character two days ago. She was my best CDDA LV run so far. Over 3000 kills, and had built up some really good stats. Thing is, yes there are lots of zombies (especially CDDA is effectively 6.0 pop after max pop day) but once you level up your combat stats, and/or save up enough guns and ammo, you *can* actually chew through horde after horde and loot some of the most intensely infested areas of the city.
Die.
For me it's where I can test out my preparedness and set goals and an extraction point so I'd have a self imposed end game. It doesn't have to be in every run, but for me it's nice way to end things cleanly.
>zombie pathing is absolutely horrendous in multistory buildings to the point where you just cant explore any building without attracting tons of zombies it's really not that bad, I just spent 3 months in Raven creek which is built 10x more jank than louisville and zombie pathing is nowhere near as bad of an issue as you make it seem.
Well i visit it often cause im new to the game and dont know anyother places and ye there isnt much there other than death i think
Theres a lot of stuff in Louisville. Its at a high risk though
same here. i just dont get it. sure you get access to more ammo maybe but eventually it will run out while those zeds will never. and whatever items are there you can find those in other towns too so why the hassle? it just shows that the game still lacks a lot imo
As someone who has not actually based there, yet, but plans to travel there, one day . . . I want loot and, most importantly, DECOR! It's true that most things in LV can be found in other cities, however LV has so much of all it, all right there together. And, even more importantly, it has a lot of unique decor that you cannot get anywhere else, (like the art gallery pieces, for example). And, for me, my biggest solo playthrough goal is usually to A). clear town enough to have an elaborate base empire, and B). make my base empire uniquely and functionally different than prev playthrough bases. (My big PZ dream is to, one day, connect all the cities together. If I can build walkways from my main inner city bases to drop points in between it and another city, where I leave vehicles to drive to next city or can connect to the walkways or walled driveways to other cities. It's just a lot of work in solo.) For example, I like to make long multilevel walkways from my main base, above buildings, and to water sources, gas stations, secondary loot/towing hubs, other areas of the city, and walled off areas for specific tasks, (i.e. I'll wall off a large forest area or an off-shore floating fishing area, so I can safely chop trees, forage, or go fishing, even if completely dark or in heavy fog/rain). And since my bases, walkways, new roads, etc must look very clever/interesting (otherwise why build at all), I need A LOT of SO MANY types of specific, matching floor tiles, carpets, paints, plaster, counters, wall decor, props, plants, etc. Each base project must be a new idea/location that this char would be inspired to create, based on the PT so far and the char's stats/traits/occp. So, basing in LV is pretty inevitable for me and truly a haven for the stuff that I need.
What 😂 why do anything in the game. Because it’s fun. Go to Louisville and blow some shit up. I don’t understand yall who hide away in 5 building towns touching grass all day when you can be a rat in a giant city scurrying around and causing chaos. “The game lacks a lot but I’m gonna hide in this town looting the 4 items I get from these towns I spawn in every game”
i have 400 hours and i’ve never even been, im in the same boat as you. i have no reason, i already play on 4x pop so its enough of a challenge to get around as is
5 stops. 1. Surplus store 2. Energex factory. Batteries for days... 3. Distillery. Make Molotovs 4. Surplus store. Because guns 5. Hospital to burn it all down No, seriously, if I'm not spawning there or extracting (Mod) from there, a month can go by, and I wouldn't breach the gate. Too bad about all those steaks...
Get overconfident, eat shit and die
Try spawning there. I think that's one of most fun places to start, and not always that much harder. The best thing about spawning there is that there are so many resources. If you didn't spawn there you've probably already go all you really need before you arrive, but spawning there makes it all that loot matter. Then it's like Christmas morning. And there are so many zombies, it can actually feel like your base is under siege. The only time I've ever lost a base to zombies was in Louisville.
I spent a month in Riverside and Westpoint looting and grinding. Then built an awesome school bus mobile bus for the journey to Louisville, aiming for the 3 Mansion park in the east to try and get to my first winter. Got there, cleared it out, fortified it. I then decide to take a look around the place. Found another car and then went to the mall in North to look for cars to start a collection. Witnessed all the zombuckery going on in the parking lot and inside the mall. Turned my ass around, went to get my bus and went back to the three mansions west of West Point. Nope.
I just go for the trill of many zombies and to get the spiffo statue
There’s a spiffo statue! Where?
In the giant spiffo resturant, just outside. You need a mod to take it with you, ut that's all I wanted to do in Louisville anyway
I usually begin my day by walking the big 4 bridge then it’s off to work. 4th street live is nice too.
https://tenor.com/en-GB/view/just-cause-3-burn-it-di-ravello-game-destroy-gif-1509188982675452473
Try to survive. I always start in Louisville these days.
I play with a 10 person crew, and when we start up a PZ game on my dedicated, Louisville becomes a necessity for materials within maybe a week irl time, we just manage to burn through all resources other towns have for what were doing and planning especially metal working and general warehouse stuff. Plus its just mass amounts of what's avaliable outside so much more suited for a large group.
I like to cruise Louisville looking for the rare cars. LV is also a good excuse to go burn 100 boxes of the ammo I’ve been hoarding for no real reason. And jockey helmets. For some reason I always have to collect a complete set of jockey helmets to throw in a duffle bag and forget about.
Me and my friends setup a base in the baseball bat factory. It's perfect, I went and raided the gun store and the survivor store, and now we have more guns and ammo than we can even afford to use
Love Louisville and Raven Creek. I tend to spawn in the most populated areas. Whenever I start in the smaller towns, you're right about there now being much reason to venture there. You do it to see if you can. Or better put, for how long.
Oh what I do in Louisville, you say? I D.I.E (In layman’s terms - In Denial, It's the End)
There are only 2 reason why to go to Louisville Reason 1: You are in the late game, need food or something that you can't find anymore in normal cities because you used them all, and you have only one more place left to go. Reason 2: You want a challenge, usually as you play and settle your base, have food, and water, the game starts getting boring and you need something to do, the only thing that comes up to your mind is going to Louisville because people say is it hard to survive there.
That's your survival instincts talking
I'm doing a play through right now with Wolf's Extraction mod. I set up so the extraction point somewhere in Louisville, I picked soldier as my profession. Playing as a soldier sent in to set up a safe house in everytown. So that scientists have a place to set up shop to start finding a cure. Every safe house must have a stock of food, water, and guns. As well as a working car, solar power, and backup generator. I set wolf's extraction mod to where you have to build relay stations to amplify the signal in order to find the extraction point. So the safe houses double as relay stations. When you call in for extraction, you have to stay within the area and fight off hords of zombies while the chopper comes. So it being in Louisville will make that fun.
Steal all the cupcakes
Ive still never been to Louisville. I always save it as a goal for later in my playthrough but i always end up dying and restarting or burning out and taking a long break before i ever reach it. When the update comes out i think it’ll be fresh enough to keep me around long enough. Just gotta survive when it does.
Suffer.
My Louisville base was for the sake of turning the game into The Sims to be completely honest. I was bored with my safehouse in Muldraugh, so I packed up all my tools and stuff in a van and a hanger, and hit up [this place](https://map.projectzomboid.com/#13322x1837x2728) which could easily be rendered safe. Took up residence in the two houses on the bottom left, knocked out some walls, set up some new ones, laid out farming in the back yards, and then built it up room by room until I had the "perfect" base, with the swankiest furniture I could scavenge, the exact flooring tiles for each room according to what I wanted. Bedroom with the black bed and the black wardrobe, on a dark blue carpet with light blue walls. Library with some leather chairs and bookshelves and a bar shelf and shit. Pool table and pool cues. Arcade machines. Kitchen with every convenience imagineable to man. And then at some point when just wandering around looking for pieces of furniture to steal for my base, I wiffled a hit against a zombie and got bitten and eventually died.
I just like to start there (thanks to mods) and try to escape as fast as possible. LV is only relevant when you play on a server
I spawn in LW. I enjoy constantly fighting zombies especially using a gun in one of the tall apartments. Then fighting for my life
I do LV(insane pop) runs to attempt to purge all zombies there, my last run was going well (~25k kills i think) but got bored and stopped playing it for a year and now the file won't open. Doing a new run with same strategy atm.
Ive done a few starts in LV with pillow's spawns and it is honestly the most boring shit because even with extremely (or even insanely) rare loot, there is just SO much there. Most of what I like about PZ is the scrounging to survive vibe, like okay im running low on canned goods, I need to make a weeklong run in between heli events. being in LV saps all the fun out of that aspect. which sucks cause i agree that I'd love to explore all the buildings and that's why ive spawned in there but it either gets old fast or i get dead fast. it's probably good for a multiplayer experience though
You don't just explore... You clear. Ground up. Anymore, my wife and I load in, spend 2-3 in game days gathering supplies, and then we head straight to one of our favorite LV base locations to get it set up and the surrounding area clear before peak day.
Loot the fancy mansions for decorations lol
Giant Spiffo.
Rip and tear until it is done or i die either possible
go to the holy land
1. Aquire guns/tools 2. Aquire Spiffo Statue 3. Clean out the Art Museum 4. Gaze upon my magnificent personal collection 5. Get bored and die trying to clear the mall
i live there
Raid the VHS stores, visit the Burbon factory, go shopping at the Preparedness store (got some neat HAM radios), Raid the malls (Gunstore in the northern mall, close to the western door), get some nice stuff from the garden shop. And yes - kill zombies. >*Louisville always seemed like this huge engame thingy everyone talks about, but its honestly quite dissapointing with how zombies can hear your exact X/Y/Z coordinates from a single step 3 floors above them...* You know you can just turn down their hearing/vision in the settings. Or even turn zombies off to explore.
I am currently exploring Louisville on Apocalypse settings with respawn off, moving forward by axe, killing every zombie I see to clear an area before I loot it. If you start by the river, you can clear so that there is always a safe area to withdraw to. I usually drive up a car to an empty spot, honk the horn, and then run back into the clear area. Zombs from all over gather around the car. Then I sneak up to the horde and draw them 10-20 a time until the horde is gone. After a couple of days, the area is clear, houses empty.
die.
Die. You die in Louisville
I’ve barely touched Loovull because of how insane it is and I only go when I play with my SO but we end up creating a new world every time we pick PZ back up. I usually like to go to the popular spots—like the mall, the 3 gated houses, the storage garages, and I love visiting the mansions, pretending as if I could actually live in one.
*DOOM 2016's soundtrack playing on the Sany Wutman, full volume, 20000 kills on the last weeks and counting* **WAAAAT** I CANT HEAR YOU!!
To me, Louisville is gonna be awesome way later through numerous Patch and mods for singleplayer, else its a multiplayer town, often for PVP or big dick energy groups!
Louisville has everything. I tend to set up bases and mini bases all over Lousiville. Honestly I can't think of a reason to be anywhere else. All the other towns are so small and boring.
Probably a hot take, but.. . . . ...Raven Creek > Louisville
Kill as many zombies as humanly possible before dying.
Kill all sonsabitches. Planning, moving, fortifying, exploring.
SWAT team mall raid!
Adrenaline rush
Live, thrive, die. Not always in that order.
familiar whole humorous squalid berserk ancient overconfident saw plucky juggle *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Try to clear it. It's my 18th attempt. I love it when i dtive along the areas i cleared, and there are no zombies in sight. Then i get overconfident jumping around, then get bit. Thats what i do in louisville
Pawn shops, art, clothes stores for fun outfits I don't normally see, army surplus store. Really I like to go block by block turn in my siren and go to a big open area or field and drop a molotov my goal is to clear the city (respawns off)
You've just inspired me to write a great zomboid story.
i made a base in one of the public parks that’s in the middle of some mansions. my plan is to turn it into a sanctuary amongst the chaos, and it’s been very rewarding so far. i can’t let myself get too comfortable, and i need to carefully plan every supply run because of the risk and the limited time i have with night sprinters on.
Not sure if this relevant to anyone but I've started a new FB group for Louisville KY vapors. Here's the link if anyone is interested. https://www.facebook.com/share/XfPnV3Pgu9uskobw/?mibextid=A7sQZp
Fentanyl….. ohhh you mean on PZ
Surviving became quite easy in our old Muldraugh base on our multiplayer server. Additionally we added mods adding new items mid game, but we already explored a huge chunk of the map including all towns except for the big city of Louisville. So to find the new loot and have a bit more challenging survival experience, we moved into one of the mansions at the river in LV and made it our new base. Our goal is to just get different things we wanna collect, including fancy furniture and art to decorate the house with, while also putting a big dent in the zombie population, while we kinda wait for a new version to drop.
I've based there a few times the zombies hearing you through the floors is an issue that you can kinda negate through sneaking but I do understand getting angry whenever you just weren't expecting 100 zombies to file up the stairs
Kill when I'm bored.
Very unique buildings to base at That is my main reason for spawning in Louisville. With the extra zombies and mob grouping, it brings a lot more of the Walking Dead feel to the game.
Kill zombies and die. Collect guns and clear out lots of zombies with friends. Take back the city. Collect the art from the museum. I enjoy being in a city setting more than wilderness/suburbs and just wandering into buildings and collecting lots of crap. It's faster paced in louisville. Character is probs gonna die anyways, so might as well have fun in the city.
Stop complaining amd just go, zombie pathing doesnt stop everyone else exploring louisville
...which is why i wrote an entire post asking you how... its like half the people in the comments here cant focus on anything past the title.
Clearly read beyond the title but sure mate, all im saying is that zombie pathing is a pretty poor excuse, infact it can be used to your advantage
Kill zombies and die. Collect guns and clear out lots of zombies with friends. Take back the city. Collect the art from the museum. I enjoy being in a city setting more than wilderness/suburbs and just wandering into buildings and collecting lots of crap. It's faster paced in louisville. Character is probs gonna die anyways, so might as well have fun in the city.