PC A17 Pointless base building

[Doombringer101]

There are multiple options for bases.

That one was built specifically to show how a basic pillar base (that many people utilise in previous alphas) is still viable.

 

[Royal Deluxe]

Its not impossible, builded until now 2 bases. Both worked, but both only because of the cheese ^^

(Both only 7th day, at 14th day my game crashed, or better said console spammed errors and i died )

But hey 2nd Hordenight for me in A17

Still learning

 

[Kattla]

I think going up may be the answer, instead of going down. Zombies can dig now, but they can't fly. Apart from the bastard vultures

Do not underestimate the jumping capabilities of the spider zombies. I am very close to define

them as flying as well.

 

[Royal Deluxe]

Up dont work, at lleast not to escape, they attack the pillars

 

[Wamplet]

@OP: Thanks for the detailed testing and feedback. What difficulty level were you on? Was it default? Also did you have it on 8 zombies or was it higher?
If you wouldn’t mind I’d be interested in you testing one of those bases at Adventurer and/or Scavenger difficulty and see how it goes. I’m wondering if perhaps Nomad should be described as normal difficulty for recommended 2-4 players and maybe Adventurer should be the new normal for solo play. I’d like to see if you could defend one of those bases you described as a solo player at the slightly reduced difficulty.

As a Solo base builder, i normally played on Adventurer and would recommend clarifying the difficulty levels. This time around i am trying Nomad, which from a lot of the complaints is probably a bad decision on my part. Other than abusing the AI, i don't see it as a good recommendation for solo players, especially new players to go with the default difficulty. From what i remember, there were just too many zombies on that difficulty that kept interrupting my building plans, so that is why i bumped it down the last few alphas.

 

[Dazrael21]

Do not underestimate the jumping capabilities of the spider zombies. I am very close to definethem as flying as well.

Good point. Superman started off by making big jumps originally, now look at him.

 

[RestInPieces]

I have a video to prove just how easy Day 7 was with a basic horde night base.
Obviously later hordes would require more than this but it is intended to be modular so expandable easily and upgradeable etc.

Molotov's and clumping are the key, plus enough spikes.

That explains why some POI zombies dig downwards instead of taking the stairs. This warrants a fix!

 

[AshaMarie]

That video makes me want flamethrower turrets to defend my base with lol.

 

[Brian9824]

I have a video to prove just how easy Day 7 was with a basic horde night base.
Obviously later hordes would require more than this but it is intended to be modular so expandable easily and upgradeable etc.

Molotov's and clumping are the key, plus enough spikes.

What was your GS though?

 

[Doombringer101]

What was your GS though?

Can't recall offhand and not at PC to check, think I was level 13 or so at the start of the night.

Standard difficulty, max zombies, solo, 60min days on random gen.

Will post GS later but level gives you an idea.

 

[Brian9824]

Can't recall offhand and not at PC to check, think I was level 13 or so at the start of the night.Standard difficulty, max zombies, solo, 60min days on random gen.

Will post GS later but level gives you an idea.

Thats the key thing. After gamestage 59 is where it starts to completely break because you then start getting irradiated zombies which just blow away defenses at that point as they can regen faster then you can hurt them.

 

[vonstorm]

Just had another thought... I would like to hear from anyone getting screamers. If we add wandering hordes- 7 day hordes and then screamer hordes that in A16 started to camp forge areas, how is this going to affect base building?

 

[dr.toast]

Still stands the simple math.

It takes a horde buffed 4 zombies 7 seconds to break through a single block of cobblestone, 3 seconds on forged iron spikes (if you even have that by day 7 praisebe2rngeesus) Whatever you build is tissue paper to them.

Digging down is a good addition, but they also get a 8x speed attack buff for digging downwards. That stacked with their ability to share block space and you have 4 zombies hitting 12times a second burrowing downwards like a bullet. They literally make perfect 1x1 holes downwards.

My day 7 horde we already knew we wouldnt be ready for so we made a 70 block long tunnel at bedrock and as we heard them dig we would run to the opposite end of the tunnel, they would dig a perfect flat parallel tunnel above. they still eventually breached at 00.30 and we ended up running shorter bits of tunnel and deploying a pair of metal spikes behind us for running barricades to stall them and shoot over.

3 smg's would take each pod of horders out.

Made it through with only 12 blocks of free walking room left.

Tense, gritty/dirty genuinely felt like a battle for survival. But it ran so close I dont see that working for day 14. We hope to have fortified a nearby gas station enough by then with the materials we didnt waste on trying to build a night 7 defence. The clay shortage is real though.... Full 3 days spent gathering stone and clay and we didnt have enough cobble to make a one thick 3 high lipped wall for the back garden of the gas station...

Materials are really hard to gather for building. But then I havent 100% perked the digging yet, I had to buff farming to garner enough food to keep 3 folk alive in one base. Of course the walls and the farmland need the same building material... that may have something to do with my shortage.... but its impossible to dig on an empty stomach now :L

 

[Doombringer101]

Thats the key thing. After gamestage 59 is where it starts to completely break because you then start getting irradiated zombies which just blow away defenses at that point as they can regen faster then you can hurt them.

Oh no I know, have several games going, SP, co-op and dedi.

We are seeing some impressive hordes with 3-4 players on Guppy's server.

It was demonstrating Day 7 solo.

Radiated are no where near as tough as the A16 version btw

 

[Scyris]

So I was just busting into a school and there was 2 zombies behind the door so I woke them up and let em hit it. First one hit it for 20, the second one hit it for 35, then 20, then 35, it seems if its hit in rapid sucession by zombies they get a fairly large block dmg bonus. These 2 zombies were the exact same one btw. Then again even without it, with 10 zombies beating on one block its not going to last long, even without the damage bonuses. IMO they should cap the number of zombies that can do dmg to a block per block, though I am not sure how much of a performance hit this will cause, it'll probally not be a small one.

- - - Updated - - -

Do not underestimate the jumping capabilities of the spider zombies. I am very close to definethem as flying as well.

Just had to link this:

them damn spider zombies.

 

[Gamida]

Me and friend stayed for horde night and lasted surprisingly longer than I thought lol.

I am seeing posts of players saying their bases didn't last long. I also see a couple posts of ones that did last (though I think they make it seem just barely, but they did last)

Problem I see is, and this is knowing it is experimental and future fixes could change everything, that a lot of us will see the couple of base designs that work and will copy them. That may be great because then more of us may be able to last a full horde night but.....we will lose those nicely designed, aesthetically looking bases that players use to be so proud of that they would love to give tours. Even going so far as to make youtube video tours of them. I am afraid we might end up with a bunch of cookie cutter bases just so we don't have to keep rebuilding. I think TFP will have their hands full trying to balance the game so precisely so it works for the fighters and the builders. Am hoping they can. Until then I do enjoy the comradery of standing together with some buddies and fighting to the death. Even if the death is an inevitability.

Die well brothers (and sisters)

 

[pahbi]

I survived the day 14 blood moon by finding a giant open field, then filling the field with barb wire, spikes, short walls made of dirt, pits with spikes, and then placed campfires around the perimeter to mark off the killing area.

Then I kited the zombies around, shooting them when they were hung up on walls or barb wire, or clubbing them if they got to close.

A few times I almost got surrounded, and a spider monkey broke my leg, and the traps didn't do much for the irradiated cops, but eventually I made it through.

I think a shotgun turret in the field would help a ton, but I don't have the materials to make that yet.

I guess the moral of the story is we are going to need two bases. A place to live in and craft, and a place to survive the hordes.

- P

 

[leaderdog]

I tried fighting like I did in Alpha 16, Melee style on the ground with just a wood catwalk to jump up on and run around on for safety.

Quickly found beer isn't very helpful anymore and your toon has a terribly low tolerance for beer as it's insta blurry.

I have a catwalk, and spikes underneath, with 5x5 rows of spikes with space to run between so the zombies will get caught on and die.

Started ok, killed the odd one, but ended up just running around the spikes hoping they'd die.

I did mod my game to reduce the jump and run stam.

I was level 40 for 7 day horde on 2 hour game days. Horde had cops, and ferals and well everything I guess. haha

I went through 13 beer, and they collapsed my catwalk and not that many were dying anymore. So I figured I best run for some safety. Then the game ran into the null reference error and had to restart the game which reset the horde.

So I ran to a building and frame jumped my way to the roof, they went through the building up the stairs onto the roof in moments and I was on my way down the blocks for another building.

Ran to another, framed up, and again same thing. Had no choice but to get out of there.

This time ran onto one of those garage type poi's and regained some stam, It was beside a very tall brownstone building. So I put frames from the roof to the wall of that building. The zombies started filing in like a row of ants into the brownstone to get to a spot where they could get onto the frame walkway I made. I was able to shoot some of them, then I removed the frames that touched the brownstone and they all turned around and ran down the stairs out, or out the windows and openings. After most were out, I'd put the blocks back on and again they'd stream into the brownstone.

I figured, this was my way to survive the night since it had gone so wrong so fast. But after 5 or 6 rounds of musical stairs, the building I was on collapsed.

I ran and framed up another building, and they were in the room under me. It was about 3:30am at this point. I placed a block over the ladder and leveled it up as far as I could. They broke it once and I replaced it, then another null reference error. Reload and horde reset with cops in there there. That made things bad and they broke through the roof. I was able to get out of there, and run. Had to kill some dogs, but was able to survive the night.

So I suppose if you want to just survive, find two large buildings and put blocks across remove one side, have them run around to the other side, rinse repeat until morning.

Made for a rather exciting evening, although it certainly isn't what I was hoping for.

Seems melee horde nights are no more. booo I really enjoyed those.

ohya it was on Normal difficulty with 24 enemies on bloodmoon.

 

[Zourin]

I'm still running tests in creative, the only things I've discovered is:

Spikes are not enough passive damage to soften anything but an ultra-early game horde. You need blade traps, dart traps, Electric fencing, and turrets. You also need design setups for them to operate properly and not just hang them out there.

Doors are structural weak points if you only use one door. You can face two doors against each other, and the AI seems to regard that path as 'too hard'. Airlock style entry/exit paths can exist at ground level with upwards of 4 doors without constantly being pathed through by wanderers and ferals.

 

[Zourin]

I think I've found a way to whittle down the numbers a bit. it's not an end-all solution, but it looks like a good first-line defense.

Literally the dumbest way ever: Pit traps. filled with spikes.

Have a gap in your outer perimeter, with, for the sake of my tests, a 10 long, 2 wide, 2-3 block deep pit. line it with flagstone or whatever you like or leave it dirt. Fill it with spike traps.

I've been running tests with 25 arlenes and this has been the most effective, by far, of whittling down the numbers. Only a few jump over the pit, so you'll need to kill them. Some pyramid up. Sure, fine. But most stay in the pit where it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Bonus points if you put mines down at the bottom.

Most defense setups I've tried have left at least a dozen and more arlenes alive. This one left only 5, which is manageable from a defensive standpoint. This is also small enough to repeat at several points around a base, and the test was run with a doubled-door right next to the pit so no funky jump-overs are needed.

A 10x3x3 pit with 60 spikes and covered with loose floorboards was enough to kill all 25 arlenes as they tried to jump up onto unbroken trap plates. I'll consider that a win.



The 2:1 ratio for simple zombies is a bit concerning when you consider how beefy some of the other zombies are, and a cop explosion will, of course, clean the pit. By then, however, they still need to get out of the pit. Line with barbed wire and a fence so you don't accidentally fall in, and you're set.