PC Does 7D2D Really Require a Horde Base?

[tominkuwait]

I play solo.  And I'm finding, at level 63, that I spend all my time gathering resources required to rebuild my base after each horde night.

I recently started to do "run and gun" horde nights, and find them more enjoyable.  There are 3 downsides to "run and gun" though:

1.  Very few bags vs horde base.  A normal horde night will generate ~12 bags (solo, 8 zoms setting).  Run and gun, maybe 4 bags tops.  And not sure if "run and gun"

     is viable with a higher zombie count setting.

2.  XP.  Much lower.  Understand with run and gun, it is shoot quick and never stand long.  If you get swarmed, you are dead.  So a lot of zombies

     are left alive.

3.  You should have special items.  Running shoes (STAM regen) and college jacket (10%+ run speed), coffee (STEM regen) although Backstrap Coffee is best.  And hobo stew for max 

     STAM.  If you don't have these things, just plan on running all the time because any stop if praying your STAM increases fast.

My questions to players and TFP are the following:

1.  Anyone else to "run and gun" and have found ways to make that work better or make it more challenging?

2.  To TFP, have you considered a separate solo player settings setup to allow solo players the time to gather stuff while still doing jobs etc.???

3.  Besides sitting in a horde base or "run and gun", any other ways to handle horde night?

 

[bdubyah]

2.  To TFP, have you considered a separate solo player settings setup to allow solo players the time to gather stuff while still doing jobs etc.???

Would not just increasing your day length, or changing how often horde nights happen do just that?

 

[ElCabong]

You can turn hord night off completely. I got tired of it so I quit doing it.

 

[BFT2020]

I been playing with Khaine’s wandering horde mod and changed horde nights to every 10 nights.  Gives you more time to repair in between but still keeps the pressure on you.

 

[Ramethzer0]

My questions to players and TFP are the following:

1.  Anyone else to "run and gun" and have found ways to make that work better or make it more challenging?

2.  To TFP, have you considered a separate solo player settings setup to allow solo players the time to gather stuff while still doing jobs etc.???

3.  Besides sitting in a horde base or "run and gun", any other ways to handle horde night?

!.   I love run and gun, but i do it in spurts.  It's not something that I would stick to full time or long term.   That being said, you don't necessarily need a horde base, but some sort of sprawl helps break up the hordes using topography and obstacles, similar in theme like a paint ball/airsoft type staging area.

2.  Not sure what specifically you meant by this.   Do you mean like autocollectors like in No Man's Sky?

3.  There have been a couple of early horde nights where I've realized I didn't get enough resources in time.   This has been especially true if you plop down in a MP public server and I'll just hop on top of a sturdy multi-celled building of some kind that is/was the equivalent of cobble and up.    Although I don't approve, there are a number of players that may opt into just running around in their vehicles on short horde nights.   kudos to modders who saw through that ploy.

 

[pApA^LeGBa]

It´s definitly possible to not have one for a whole playtrough. But it kinda takes away a lot of pressure and challenge. On higher difficulties with higer blockdamage and 64 zombies, it´s a challenge to keep up with building a proper horde base and you need more ammo.

2.  To TFP, have you considered a separate solo player settings setup to allow solo players the time to gather stuff while still doing jobs etc.???

Well MP has it downsides for blood moon aswell. A 4 player party can have demolishers on day 21. It´s hard to get to the crucible at your 3rd horde night and not having steel can go very wrong with demos around.

 

[4sheetzngeegles]

@tominkuwait

What you are talking about is nearly equal to nomadic RPG play.

I play single player nomadic, loot regen off because an 8k map is big enough for me.
32 zombies, extremely dark nights, one level above default i think its nomadic.

The way I play is I find a POI to take over for a period of time.
Using stone tools and weapons until I find better in loot. I can throw my stone spear,
but jab with the others.

Preferably find a Poi in a small grouping, it allows you multi access and escape locations.
Gut anything that impedes good line of sight. Build bridges between them, wood is good enough.

I don't need to put down or keep a foundation block, because withing 7 days, i find another location.

I cascade spawn, so even during the day its easy to get overrun, So no boredom. After I've defended
POI number one long enough, I find another poi to take over, but I leave emergency supplies, or
once high enough in xp, I leave growing plants.

it allows me to gain skill, pick a temp location to hold up, and move on, once I have a bicycle. And
the main thing i like is to explore.
Poi difficulty does not bother me, I just take my time, clear it move to the next.

Since I also design my own landscape, and weather conditions, this form of play is best for me
because sometimes I may want to be in the valley, and other times i may want to have a home on an
overlook. It's the visuals that set it for me.

Looking from a sloped cliff, through a windy moving fog/cloud bank to a city 130+ meters below, makes it
feel more like an adventure to me.

 

[Riamus]

It is very possible to pay without a horde base of you want to.  And if you want a base but don't want to repair it all the time, you can move to new POI bases each week.

There are some things I would now regarding both using a base and not using a base...

With a base, I remember thinking the same as you when I started playing the game, that repairs took forever.  But at I played the game more and made better bases, I sounds myself able to fully repair any damage within 15 minutes real time, so not too bad.  It really comes down to your base design.  Same designs will definitely take more damage, while others will take less.  And, of course, by using better materials, the base will be faster to repair as you won't need to replace as many blocks.  It also depends on how you deal with the zombies... Are you shooting then at a distance so get reach the base?  Or are you doing a melee base?  Are you using traps?  If so, what kind and how many?  These things all affect how much damage your base takes and the time it will take to repair it.  And if you have a base that doesn't have a good path to reach you, the zombies will definitely do more damage to the base than if there is a good way for them to get to you.

For running during horde night, it can actually work very well to use a melee weapon that has 100% stamina regen on kills.  I use the spear, and once I get that unlocked, I can keep stamina topped off really easily.  Other weapons also have this.  You can then mix and match between guns and melee, letting melee get your stamina back quickly before running more and shooting.  If course, just be sure you don't run out of stamina while using melee.  This works best if you have a top tier weapon and enough perks to use it well.  If you can kill a zombie with 1 or two headshots, it is easy to keep stamina up.  If it takes you a lot of hits to kill most zombies, this won't work well for you.

And, as another mentioned, it can definitely help to have something around that you can use to break up the zombie attack... Fences, trees, buildings, etc. So you can slow them down some if you are struggling.

In the end, both options work well.  It just depends what you prefer doing.  And you can always adjust horde night to more than 7 days if you need more time to do repairs if you want to use a base.

 

[zztong]

Anyone else to "run and gun" and have found ways to make that work better or make it more challenging?

Yes, I love "run and gun" horde nights.

Sure, a "hybrid" approach -- kit-bashing a quick horde base. That is make a few minor preparations in existing POIs to create temporary strong points and then switch to "run and gun" after those preparations fail. If you run out of temporary strong points, then you just "run and gun" the rest of the night.

A strong point can be something as simple as the roof of a garage that you prepared by placing a ladder. I often make a strong point out of the top of some stairs. I put bars at the top of the stairs, create an exit with a ladder to facilitate entry. You can stay there blazing away until the bars fail. It takes just a few minutes to setup.

1. Very few bags vs horde base.  A normal horde night will generate ~12 bags (solo, 8 zoms setting).  Run and gun, maybe 4 bags tops.  And not sure if "run and gun"

     is viable with a higher zombie count setting.

2.  XP.  Much lower.  Understand with run and gun, it is shoot quick and never stand long.  If you get swarmed, you are dead.  So a lot of zombies

     are left alive.

3.  You should have special items.  Running shoes (STAM regen) and college jacket (10%+ run speed), coffee (STEM regen) although Backstrap Coffee is best.  And hobo stew for max 

1. Yes -- With "run and gun", unless you're running a circuit around a skyscraper or trader, or perhaps up and down a street, you can leave bags scattered all over the place, then have trouble finding them. I use a local mod to extend the time that bags last before they disappear.

2. Yes -- Your kill rate is much lower with "run and gun." (Especially if you like the challenge of "run and gun" with a bow.) It isn't the optimal way to earn experience. In a single-player game, I don't tend to care about the rate I'm earning experience: fast or slow. If it's multiplayer, then I tend to join with others who have a horde base. I contribute supplies and of course help repair the place afterwards. Having a "run and gun" option usually means I live when their horde base fails. It also means if I'm the only one on the server for horde night, I can clear the horde and not need to ruin anyone's horde base.

3. College Jacket, Coffee, the energy drink, yes... we already have those special items. I haven't found "run and gun" to be lacking at the tactical level so I don't know that these are needed.