My simple wood base

In my current game I made a simple but effective type of base that I haven't seen anyone else post about.

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Here's a 3d view. Legend:

Orange: Wood blocks,

Green: barbed wire on the floor on top of wood blocks,

Dark blue : Anti-spider lip (goes all around, but I ran out of space in this voxel app),

Black: Threshold that prevents cops from seeing me too early,

White: where I stand during horde night.

At some point you can add a roof with bars for vulture protection.

It's not a maze, doesn't exploit loops or fall damage.. Doesn't use excessive traps or anything really. Just a staircase, some blocks that prevent line of sight so cops don't puke at my base, lots of barbed wire to slow them down, and a single line straight to me so that they are really easy to shoot. I basically just shoot at the same pixel for a few minutes during horde night.

So far this design has withstood many ferals, cops, etc. Repair costs were never more than a handful of wood (mostly from when I miss zombies and hit a block) plus some iron for barbed wire.

People say building is dead etc, zombie block damage is too high. Well this has allowed me to have a big supply and crafting base connected directly to my horde defense base (something I'd never do in A16). You can make the base section as big as you want. Anything more durable than wood is not even necessary; it's so cheap to build that you can have the basic layout done by day 2.

I play on medium difficulty because I don't enjoy bullet sponge zombies, but I think it would still work fine on higher difficulties. You might just need a longer barbed wire section.

I think this works too well. One simple fix to this strategy would be to have some of the horde night zombies just always attack the closest player made blocks.

 
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Well it does exploit the AI in that you can guarantee they will all file up the stairs and straight towards you, and thus they will never try to attack your base. So technically it IS a maze, just a straight one.

In A16 the AI would not have done this and many would instead have whaled on all your walls and supports and brought your base down easily.

I am curious as to what difficulty you are playing on, and the highest gamestage you have fought a horde night with this design. I am 100% sure that if you try this base on a decently high difficulty and on a late game horde night, you will be overwhelmed. You will just not have the firepower to stop them all before they get to you, and your barbed wire will be gone in seconds - all of it.

This is why most people start with your design then add a fall pit just before the zombies get to the player, which makes them infinite loop back up the ramp. (This removes the need for barbed wire).

In short, the the classic "AI exploit" design in A17 is what you have made above, but with the blocks in between the green and white tile in your diagram being the fall pit (extended to 2 blocks ofc).

 
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I will agree that it doesn't exploit loops or fall damage, but it does clearly exploit AI pathing still.

 
Yeah, that's similar to what I use too. I'm not sure why you have your base elevated though - the same approach works fine if you are at the ground level.

I also use a corridor that's three blocks wide instead of one with two spaces on one side partially filled with iron traps to handle zombie overflow. Otherwise they may clog it up and start bashing on the walls. I added barb wire outside near the entrance to spread zombies out a bit.

I tried blade traps near the entrance, but they worked too well and I wasn't getting any experience. So I turn them on when I leave the base to keep screamers in check.

I think TFP's intent was to disable passive-only defenses. Slowing zombies down and sniping them works the same way it used to.

 
Well it does exploit the AI in that you can guarantee they will all file up the stairs and straight towards you, and thus they will never try to attack your base. So technically it IS a maze, just a straight one.
In A16 the AI would not have done this and many would instead have whaled on all your walls and supports and brought your base down easily.

I am curious as to what difficulty you are playing on, and the highest gamestage you have fought a horde night with this design. I am 100% sure that if you try this base on a decently high difficulty and on a late game horde night, you will be overwhelmed. You will just not have the firepower to stop them all before they get to you, and your barbed wire will be gone in seconds - all of it.

This is why most people start with your design then add a fall pit just before the zombies get to the player, which makes them infinite loop back up the ramp. (This removes the need for barbed wire).

In short, the the classic "AI exploit" design in A17 is what you have made above, but with the blocks in between the green and white tile in your diagram being the fall pit (extended to 2 blocks ofc).
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Pretty much ANY type of hordebase "exploits" the AI, in the sense we know the ai is making a path

toward us (the players) every horde night, and we prepare for it.

And the op says he/she is playing on medium. Just read the entire post.

I like the OP's design. Looks simple and usable enough.

 
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People say building is dead
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but.... posts like this precisely prove that building is dead. I want to need a fortress to survive, and I want to need to keep upgrading it each bloodmoon. Not use a wooden path....

 
Pretty much ANY type of hordebase "exploits" the AI, in the sense we know the ai is making a pathtoward us (the players) every horde night, and we prepare for it.

And the op says he/she is playing on medium. Just read his entire post.

I like the OP's design. Looks simple and usable enough.

There is any horde base that does not?
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Totally agree, I don't have any issue with players, myself included, cheesing the AI for a base. I take issue that it essentially the only way to do it now.

 
This absolutely exploits AI pathing, but then that's nothing new. Also, if the voxel design is accurate, then the zombies will fall through the barbed wire and loop round again, so that's another exploit.

 
I will agree that it doesn't exploit loops or fall damage, but it does clearly exploit AI pathing still.
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I think knowing that they will move along a player designed gauntlet is no more or less exploitive than knowing they couldn’t squeeze between the gaps between columns in A16. Both are designs that are actively tended by the player.

Faatal has introduced some variation so that all zombies don’t do the same exact thing and he’s working on the looping as well. I’ll be interested to see how your base design works in A17.1 :)

 
I am curious as to what difficulty you are playing on, and the highest gamestage you have fought a horde night with this design. I am 100% sure that if you try this base on a decently high difficulty and on a late game horde night, you will be overwhelmed. You will just not have the firepower to stop them all before they get to you, and your barbed wire will be gone in seconds - all of it.
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That's possible. I played up to day ~90 (but with really short days). I can check my gs later at home.

Yeah, that's similar to what I use too. I'm not sure why you have your base elevated though - the same approach works fine if you are at the ground level.
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It's so they can't see me from far away. Cops only start puking when they see you. Also, so that spiders don't skip the barbed wire. I guess putting a roof on the whole thing would work too. Not sure what would take more resources to build.

Additionally, jumping is slow, and when they jump on the threshold they tend to just stand there for a second. If I shoot them there and they go flying, they have to climb the stairs again.

but.... posts like this precisely prove that building is dead. I want to need a fortress to survive, and I want to need to keep upgrading it each bloodmoon. Not use a wooden path....
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True, in this sense advanced building has become kind of pointless. I meant the type of posts saying building large bases has become impossible because they get destroyed. Those are the people building pillar bases or 360 degree bases like they would in a16 I guess.

This absolutely exploits AI pathing, but then that's nothing new. Also, if the voxel design is accurate, then the zombies will fall through the barbed wire and loop round again, so that's another exploit.
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Ah, I was unclear. Green blocks are wood with barbed wire on top, not just barbed wire.

I’ll be interested to see how your base design works in A17.1 :)
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Me too! I hope it doesn't.

 
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The litmustest for the ai would be a comparison to how a base would fair against a group of conscious players controlling the zombies.

In the above base, what would the human controllers do?

Probably one group attacking the base of the tower, while other zombies run along the ridge of the bridge (avoiding the barbed wire in the middle).

A perfect ai could imitate that reasoning. So maybe we get there one day.

 
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I think knowing that they will move along a player designed gauntlet is no more or less exploitive than knowing they couldn’t squeeze between the gaps between columns in A16. Both are designs that are actively tended by the player.
Faatal has introduced some variation so that all zombies don’t do the same exact thing and he’s working on the looping as well. I’ll be interested to see how your base design works in A17.1 :)
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100% agree, and am pretty excited to do some builds in the new patch when released

 
100% agree, and am pretty excited to do some builds in the new patch when released
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I am curious how will they look like. I can not imagine a effective base design against an enemy with no or little predicable behavior.

 
but.... posts like this precisely prove that building is dead. I want to need a fortress to survive, and I want to need to keep upgrading it each bloodmoon. Not use a wooden path....
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Like this?

A17.0_2018-12-13_10-32-19.jpg

A17.0_2018-12-13_10-32-46.jpg

A17.0_2018-12-13_10-52-22.jpg

Was done before the recent optimization so low resolution lol, and for whatever reason, the steam screenshot wasn't working so I used debug shot. Check out the one done at like 5am, lost spikes but they didn't even touch the walls. Mix of wood/iron reinforced wood with a cobblestone wall. Wood bars up top, triple door entry just in case.. but it wasn't even needed. That base survived till day 28 when I quit the world for a new build, built a bigger similar version on my new game after surviving the third bloodmoon in a house, haven't had a chance to play it for day 28 horde, but I assume it'll hold just the same. Both done on survivalist difficulty with 16 blood moon spawns.

 
Like this?View attachment 27007

View attachment 27008

View attachment 27009

Was done before the recent optimization so low resolution lol, and for whatever reason, the steam screenshot wasn't working so I used debug shot. Check out the one done at like 5am, lost spikes but they didn't even touch the walls. Mix of wood/iron reinforced wood with a cobblestone wall. Wood bars up top, triple door entry just in case.. but it wasn't even needed. That base survived till day 28 when I quit the world for a new build, built a bigger similar version on my new game after surviving the third bloodmoon in a house, haven't had a chance to play it for day 28 horde, but I assume it'll hold just the same. Both done on survivalist difficulty with 16 blood moon spawns.
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OFC it works. I am building stuff like that too. the problem is, it is a waste. Thats should be needed to survive, instead, it's just a waste of mats to do. Doesnt mean it wont work.

 
Okay... lol. That's usually how base building and defending goes. You build a base, enemies attack it, you spend resources to repair. I don't see the issue. Just because there are ways to cheese the AI doesn't mean it's a waste to do a normal base...

 
If you really want to put your base design to a test then you should take on a max gamestage horde in this base. The day 28 horde is even on survivalist pretty weak compared to a max gamestage horde.

 
but.... posts like this precisely prove that building is dead. I want to need a fortress to survive, and I want to need to keep upgrading it each bloodmoon. Not use a wooden path....
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There is something stopping you from doing so?

 
Well no kiddin, but you're not going to be max gamestage by day 28 lol. That day 28 horde had its share of rad wights and a few cops, all you gotta do it add a cpl layers of walls ( and use concrete) and spikes and be set for harder game stages.

 
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