PC Do you build realistically, or do you cheese game mechanics?

[warmer]

For hordes, I tend to just build a single block hallway about ten blocks long. I elevate it by two blocks so the zombies path down the hallway directly at me. Once I get access to electric fences, I put those across the path. Then I shoot every single zombie in the head. It's cheap. It's simple. I don't really consider it to be cheese because if I run out of ammo, I'm pretty much dead. .

I wouldn't call that cheese. That seems like a really logical way to deal with it. I am more referring to game mechanics you couldn't recreate in real life, or exploiting a bug in the AI pathing.

 

[Khissi]

I think I only ever used the floating block idea in a17 and early a18.  I was learning more and more about zombie AI and trial and error brought me to the bases I tend to use now.  From studying how they move and what they do, I know the AI directs them to try to get to your level first, so, I make sure they mostly come from one direction.  I raise my bases. Tactical decision...

I make the area I'm going to be standing in solid, dig down to stone and start building from there so I have a firm foundation under me.  I sometimes use stairs, sometimes ladder/stair combination, sometimes they are jumping stairs, others they will come smoothly up.  But, I love melee for early hoards, save that ammo for when you really, really need it, and, with that in mind, I have them run down pole blocks laid lengthwise to get to me.  That way, I can knock them off.  They are perfectly able to get to me, but I can knock them down so they have to come up again.  Tactical advantage or cheese?...

I have to repair the bars I use to protect my fighting position until I'm high enough or rich enough to buy electric fences to hold them in place and keep them from beating on the bars and me, but some people would say cheese just because I can knock them down.  For me, that's tactics... I get higher level, use steel so the base can withstand those feral/rad zombie fists and demo explosions.  Is that cheese?

I don't know or I'm not sure if any of that could be used in reality... dig to rock?  Ladders or stairs. Is that a bug in their pathing?  Electric fences and dart traps and...  Or, am I using my slightly less rotten brain.  It's all relative.

 

[Stranded_Napkin]

I've done both. Back in the day when you could see the wires, lol, you could set them up and pretend it was a suspended base. For the most part I cheese the AI now. The zombies still path better than most people do, so traditional bases where you defend on all sides are not as effective. Most playthroughs I've seen, the player creates a single fighting position. Hell, my base snakes around and the zombies have no problems with all the turns. Floating blocks still get busted out so I don't see those type of bases and being too gamebreaking. I say that and Z Nation freaking made a base that has both fighting positions and a way to make them all huddle below him.

Long story short, play the game how you like. It's just more ways to play through the game. More fun to be had.

 

[Syphon583]

For the most part I cheese the AI now. The zombies still path better than most people do, so traditional bases where you defend on all sides are not as effective. Most playthroughs I've seen, the player creates a single fighting position. Hell, my base snakes around and the zombies have no problems with all the turns.

Do people really see that as cheesing though? In my mind, cheesing is using blocks in a way to circumvent zombie behavior or make it completely impossible for zombie to get to you, i.e. the floating base. No judgements, of course. I'm all for allowing players to play how they want with the tools that they are given. But clearly, the AI has no way to combat a floating base.

They've purposely coded zombie pathing to find the quickest route to you. We have traps designed to damage/kill zombies along said path. Hell, TFP partly market this game as tower defense, which in its very nature, is a line of increasingly difficult zombies running along a path and the player trying to kill them before they reach you. Pretty sure this is intentional. I don't even see nerd-polling or knocking out a door and placing a hatch as cheesing. The world has literally given you the tools to do so. You're a smart player to use those tools and the zombies can still technically get to you given they have the time to do it.

 

[Riamus]

In my opinion, it is only cheesing if you are doing something that allows you to avoid something that you aren't supposed to avoid, such as creating a base that zombies cannot get to (like underground before zombies could dig).  I would consider nerd poling to be cheesing if you do it to skip the POI to loot the roof loot room.  On the other hand, I don't consider it cheesing to use nerd poling to get back up the side of a building you fell off instead of running through the entire building to get back where you were.

Using a base design that works that still provides a way for the zombies to get to you isn't cheesing regardless of the design, imo.  I have used a variety of different bases, from single path with hatches to towers to multiple paths with automated defenses to a simple square building with rails and the to edge so I can aim below me at the zombies at the walls.  Using different designs is fun even if some aren't as good.  My favorites still include blade traps.

However, there isn't any reason why anyone should be telling others how they should put shouldn't play the game.  If people want to cheese the game, that is their choice.  I don't have to play with them or do the same thing.  If the devs change things so you can't cheese the game in a certain way, that is their choice but it isn't our place to say what is right or wrong.  Let everyone enjoy playing the game the way they want.

The game also includes god mode and even if players want to play in that mode so they don't die, that is cheesing but it's their choice as long as it isn't a PVP game.  The only game I ever played at least sometimes in god mode was Rise of the Triad (RotT) in the 90s.  But that was because your character had his hand out and shot powers out of it, which was fun.  Besides, it was a power up you could get even without cheat codes.  Of course, the game also had dog mode.  Yes, you were a dog and your dog nose was visible as you ran around.  It was a fun game that didn't take itself too seriously.

 

[Stranded_Napkin]

I consider using weird things in the AI to funnel the zombies in a completely non-zombie way to be cheesing the AI. The Killing Corridor can still be built as an AFK base by using the AI's pathing over certain blocks against it. I myself build a long pathway that has electric fences and sledge turrets as a way to slow the zombies and eventually force them to return to the start of the pathway. To me this all indicates a level of thought by the "zombies".

I'm one of those guys who does not see thinking "zombies" as zombies. If they think, they are NOT zombies. The zombies path on horde night to an insane degree. They actually path better on horde night than they do on the average night. Zombies have fallen off of my path on a non-horde night but never fall off on horde night unless I want them to. To me, 7 Days to Die is not a zombie game. It's a game where you defend against a bunch of living infected that are in the process of dying. The body shots lend to this as well. Zombies that die from body shots are again NOT zombies.

All in all, this is just how I see it. Nobody else has to agree with me that it's cheesing per se. I'm cool with people cheesing literally everything if they want to. I have. It's just another way to play the game. Technically, you are never entirely safe as cop spit, vulture spit, and other explosive elements can still hurt you. Some floating bases can reduce the chances of this, but I'm not sure they will eliminate it entirely.

More than anything though, just have fun with it. Do what you enjoy in game. Hell, if what you enjoy is activating god mode and blowing up a zillion zombies with the dev bomb, go for it. Level a few cities in that manner for all I care. Why do people even care to judge how others play the game anyways?

Edit: obviously, the comments about god mode is in regards to single player games.

 

[Kattla]

I would not use floating bases. That is where i draw the line.

But i've might have been guilty of using arrowslits for cheap base entries, once or thrice upon a time.  Instead of jump to reach ladder, or other

methods.

Using zombie pathing i don't see as cheese, nor unrealistic.  It's a concept used for hilltop castles since ancient times , and for a good strategic reason.

I don't necessarely think it is good for a game , since it is predictable and easy to work with. But , it is what The Fun Pimps wants us to have, which is

why i don't see it as cheese, but rather playing the game as intended.

And.. we had effective ways to deal with zombies before A17 too. Using what we are given to our advantage is nothing new. In my opinion, it boils down to

how a player plays the game. Some will play it as fighting/ zombie killing game, others will play it more as a survival/RP type of game. And probaly a lot of mixes

inbetween those two. 

 

[Ripflex]

I cheese game mechanics... why you may ask - have you seen in any zombie movie of zombies digging through reinforced concrete and solid steel ?  With zombies not being real put aside (either supernatural or virus), if they can tear thourgh tough material like a rat eats cheese,  I'm all for cheese.  (See what I did there?)

 

[Adam the Waster]

I often see videos on horde bases that use impossible physics/floating blocks. This to me takes all the fun/challenge out of the game.

What is your opinion?

Agreed but if I'm making something decorative then yeah other wise no. 

I'm fact I take it a step further by not cheeseing the AI both my base and the horde base are the same.