PC Need advice for first base

Heafus

Heafus

New member
Hello all. I stopped playing with a17 because I found it too hard. I love this game so I'm giving it another go. I have everything set to the easiest settings and finally actually survived my second night. I am currently holed up in a two story cabin by the lake. I chopped out the first few stairs and made a pit with spikes in it. I use frames to get in and out. This feels very temporary as there does not seem enough room for a full blown base. I'm playing on standard navezgane map.

Any advice about where I should go to set up a base? I want to be close to the water and I want to be in the wooded area. I want to avoid desert, waste zone or snowy areas if possible.

Should I turn my little cabin into a base?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 
Expect to die. It's a zombie game and you are expected...to die. As you get more time in the game under your belt, you'll get your particular style working (or adjust accordingly). I used to take the first house I could find and upgrade it to a base I was happy with. Over time, I've experimented with just wandering around till I found a nice lake or view and build from scratch. Some people like to have a seperate base for building than the one they use to defend. It is all personal preference. Near the center of the map, slightly north, there are areas like you describe. If you don't know the Navezgane map, you might simply need to start exploring around a bit and learn the map. As your skills increase, you'll find the challenge of a RWG map to be exciting with fresh maps created. Maybe join a server with other users who can teach you the ropes and what works for them.

 
Empty the entire first floor and fill it in. Every block. Use flagstone, and upgrade as much as you can to cobblestone and try to get the outside upgraded with cement. You can find cobblestone rocks and cement in a lot of POIs by digging up those pallets.

Put rows of spikes around your first level. I like 3 rows of spikes and a row of barbed wire fence on the outside. Put wooden bars 3-4 blocks above those, all the way around.

Congratulations. Zombies will never break down this base. The solid bottom gives it incredible SI. As long as you go around shooting them, you'll be absolutely fine.

Continue to add defenses around your base (I like a walkway about 5 block out from the wire fences, with 1-block deep pits full of spike in breaks in the wall to gather dudes up for molotovs) like traps, blades, turrets, whatever you like. Build upward when you need more space. Knock off the roof and farm on your ceiling. You are totally safe

 
If you are looking for temporary shelter for a night or two a standard 2-3 story house POI works fine. simply add some support pillars around the first floor and chop the stairs out and wait the night out. If you aren't being too noisy they wont even know you are there and probably wont attack. You can even use these temporary shelters while you work on constructing your own base from scratch.

You can use a POI as a more permanent base to start but I much prefer to build my own. When starting fresh an existing POI definitely helps you get started. Here is what I would do.

You definitely want at least a two story base, so a small two story house would work as a start. The bottom level will need to be reinforced and have tons of support added to supplement the SI of the second level. In one game I actually found a small Pass-N-Gas that was only one story but had a flat roof so I gutted the inside and made a ladder on the inside leading up to the roof and built a second story room on top of it. This was my crafting base and I only went inside to store materials and later to craft items at forges and workbenches. Your best bet is to simply play it stealthy and make sure no zombies are following you back each night. It also helps to have a way to keep a watch around your perimeter so you can snipe any solo zombies with a bow prior to them getting close enough to notice you (a wood frame balcony around the second level really helps with this early on).

Be aware that forges tend to spawn a lot of screamers (the short girl with long black hair and a white gown) when they are operating. The screamers also try to get to the source of the activity that spawned them so they will always attack your base when they spawn. Early on a 3 wide trench filled with spikes around your base should protect you from wandering zombies (including screamers) no problem, simply repair or replace as needed. If the screamer sees you however you will have to deal with the small horde they summon. Its best to take them out with stealth from range as they have relatively low health so a good headshot should drop them before they get a chance to scream. The screamers have a very unique audio so you should usually be able to hear them and stay out of sight. Other than screamers your crafting base shouldn't be in too much danger as long as you don't make too much noise or lead zombies back to it when you return.

If you do end up with a group of zombies attacking you should be aware of how the AI works. Zombie pathing AI in A17 follows the path of least resistance, so if zombies know you are there 9 times out of 10 they are going to path to the weakest section of the base and chew through to get to you (so if your wall is 3 blocks thick all the way around except for one section that is one thick they will path to that one weaker section and go to town). With this in mind you can intentionally set up traps around "weaker" areas. They also prefer to attack doors over solid walls.

For the first few blood moon hordes (if you have those enabled) I suggest building a separate bunker to fend them off from. Upgraded flagstone is relatively cheap to make as it only requires cobblestone rocks which are made from clay soil and small stones so they can be mass produced almost immediately when starting a new game. A design that worked on my first A17 save was to create a killing hallway by building a flagstone hallway that is 2 blocks wide and 2-3 blocks above ground level with a ramp leading in to one end of it. You want the foundation to be solid flagstone. You then line the entire hallway with barbed wire fences (except for the very end where you stand). This will slow them down and allow you to take them out from range as they struggle to reach you. With any luck you will be able to take them all out before they make it to your end of the hallway. This will work for probably at least the first two blood moons. The key with the blood moon base is to always have an escape route planned if the horde does happen to get to where you are.

 
Well, I'm with Feycat... But when I play I look for these things in a POI... Early on I usually go with one base because trying to do two is hard.

1.) Structure should at least be concrete or brick; but preferably Steel... There is one fabled POI that is made of steel and I've used it before in A16.4.

2.) Need to have some way to kill zeds from above.

Wither that be a roof or a structure you build or even if that's the floor(s) in your current structure... IE: You can take out sections of a floor at choke points and shoot down at the zeds. Or conversely you can take out an entire floor or most of it and accomplish the same thing. I did this with the fire station (garage area I placed flagstone and upgraded them to cobble stone and also put wood frames down) and the hospital stairways and 'entry hall' successfully. In those instances I usually line the walls with iron bars and then wood frames to ensure that they can last a while.

- the entry ways into the garage area of the fire station are choke points; lined with barbed wire and spike traps. I added flagstone upgraded to cobble stone pillars and supports for the '2nd floor' I made inside the garage area. This provided me a way to shoot down at them and also protection from vultures since I had the roof of the poi above me in the garage area.3.) Need some way to shoot at them from 'the outside' via wood frames on the outside of the building. Especially if you line the building with traps on the outside.

At times I'll line a building with 3 to 4 rows of spikes, then one row of barbed wire on top of the spikes. This is going out from the building! Then one row of blocks which are expendable. On top of those blocks I'll put barbed wire and then spikes and put barbed wire on top of those spikes and continue outwards with spikes and do that all over again. So at 'the walls' there is a major choke point!

Like below: b=barbed wire; x=spike; W=wall; B=Building

bbb bbb B

xxxxWxxxxxWxxxxB

So in the above from the zeds POV - they see 3 rows of just spikes, then one row with barbed wire on top of the spikes, then a wall with barbed wire on top of that and then the next row is barbed wire on top of another set of spikes and so on... The barbed wire slows them down before the wall, while on top of the wall and just after the wall. But as Feycat mentions - you can have a repair way in the center where there are no spikes. This will give you a way to repair all of this. Modified:

bbb bbb B

xxxxWxxRxxWxxRxB

Where R=free row without spikes

One thing I always do early on is to try to find as many towns/cities near the traitor. I also try to find multiple traitors, more traitors you have access to means you can make more money and gives you a 'better chance' at being able to buy the tools you need early! At times I'll trade off where my base is to be by multiple traitors. On top of everything else - for me this would be a 'transition period' where I'd look for another POI to put my new base at, but I would gather the resources for the base but not actually build it yet since there probably isn't enough time to get everything done... But maybe in your case - you may want to continue with this base since it maybe much easier to upgrade to concrete...

 
Watch your heat map too. Don't put up torches unless you have too. Don't leave the campfire burning either. They target doors, so plugging them up save for one helps.

 
Well first you have to compliment them... Don't just say they're pretty, be specific as to what's pretty... Their eyes? Hair?

Then you have to be polite and not pushy. Let the kiss come organically; build trust over time... Believe me, she wants to get to first base just as much as you, but she's got social stigmas to contend with.

Hope this helps!

 
Well first you have to compliment them... Don't just say they're pretty, be specific as to what's pretty... Their eyes? Hair?
Then you have to be polite and not pushy. Let the kiss come organically; build trust over time... Believe me, she wants to get to first base just as much as you, but she's got social stigmas to contend with.

Hope this helps!
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lol, I need to read your comments more often!

I find the easiest and simplest base design to go with is a 5x5 cobblestone tower with nothing inside the ground floor and 4 blocks high to the next level where your stuff can be. You can either fill the ground floor with blocks or add a layer of spikes. Add an angled block balcony all the way around on the 2nd floor to prevent zombies from climbing and so you can defend the base on blood moon. Add a ramp going up to the 2nd floor of the base with a 2+ block gap with 1 block height difference so it's technically 2 1/2 blocks of difficulty in jumping to your base (this has been effective in keeping zombies from jumping over), and never be aligned with the ramp during blood moon or they'll all focus on the ramp increasing the odds of them getting across.

Having a 5x5 tower base makes it much cheaper to secure the base with several layers of spikes and upgrading them to metal.

Here's an image example from an older version of the game, same principle but with a few improvements made over the years. Like 4 blocks high instead of 2 on ground floor, cobblestone instead of wood, ramp jump gap...

B22F7D148CBDFB5C2E3C34081884FBE7BFE4E836


 
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Hello all. I stopped playing with a17 because I found it too hard. I love this game so I'm giving it another go. I have everything set to the easiest settings and finally actually survived my second night. I am currently holed up in a two story cabin by the lake. I chopped out the first few stairs and made a pit with spikes in it. I use frames to get in and out. This feels very temporary as there does not seem enough room for a full blown base. I'm playing on standard navezgane map.
Any advice about where I should go to set up a base? I want to be close to the water and I want to be in the wooded area. I want to avoid desert, waste zone or snowy areas if possible.

Should I turn my little cabin into a base?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Click to expand...

Put open hatch infront door and you can pass the night everywhere. If they want to enter will knock at the door, then open and greet them.

Build solid structures with pilar 100 then you can repair and shoot trhought them.

For elevated entrances, they can´t walk over vertical plates, but you can ;)

If something goes wrong and you are chased, use the barbed wire fence to stop and confront them, you should take a few always in your belt.

 
Another approach is to find a POI with a forge, and use that as your crafting base, don't bother fortifying or upgrading the crafting base, other than building boxes to store stuff.

Then pick a second POI to be your defense base. Ideally it will be 20-30 seconds run away from the crafting base.

On Bloodmoon nights, try to survive in your defense base. Be careful to stay away from your crafting base, so zombies don't get in and wreck the place. You will probably die, but you'll have a lot of fun anyways. :)

- P

 
Did you put zombie block damage to 25%? That helps but too much. I upped it to 50% but then after trying that out just went back to 100% but if you want easier base defense putting the zombie damage down make pretty much any base design easier to do lol.

 
Great tips everyone.....I'm about to hit day 7 and just found a spot I think I want to turn into a base using some of these strats. Hopefully, I can make it through night 7 in my little shack...we will see :p

 
I turn zed damage down to 25%, because 20 zeds stacking on 1 block is just stupid. (sorry TFP)

Doesn't affect the damage they do to the PLAYER though, so... :D

 
Great tips everyone.....I'm about to hit day 7 and just found a spot I think I want to turn into a base using some of these strats. Hopefully, I can make it through night 7 in my little shack...we will see :p
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I am very curious as to how you fared in your first 7 day horde. Please do comment!

Welcome to 7D2D.

 
I use frames to get in and out.
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you can instead just build a ladder-entrance while the ladder starts on 3 blocks height. zombies dont use such a ladder but you can simply "jump" onto it. at least up until now i have never seen a zombie manage to climb it.
 
One simple but very valuable hint...

If you're putting rings of spikes around your base, alternating them with rings of blocks makes them much more effective. The blocks are unlikely to be damaged, so they only need to be wood.

The reason for this is that zombies don't just blindly wander into spikes - they consider a set of spikes to be an obstacle just like any other.

So with multiple rings of spikes surrounding your base, the first few zombies will jump on top of the spikes to get to you, killing themselves but also destroying the spikes. The problem is now that there are some spikes destroyed there is a gap - and zombies will now prefer to go through that gap than to jump on top of other spikes.

So the end result is that the first few zombies destroy spikes getting to you and forge a path through the rings of spikes. Then later zombies just follow that narrow path and the rest of the spikes are now irrelevant.

If you alternate between rings of spikes and rings of blocks, the opposite happens. Once a spike is destroyed the zombies will still have to jump up onto the blocks, so there's no incentive for them to follow the same path. Instead they'll continue to jump onto other spikes and blocks indiscriminately; and this means that far more spikes get jumped on and far more zombies get killed by them.

 
One simple but very valuable hint...
If you're putting rings of spikes around your base, alternating them with rings of blocks makes them much more effective. The blocks are unlikely to be damaged, so they only need to be wood.

The reason for this is that zombies don't just blindly wander into spikes - they consider a set of spikes to be an obstacle just like any other.

So with multiple rings of spikes surrounding your base, the first few zombies will jump on top of the spikes to get to you, killing themselves but also destroying the spikes. The problem is now that there are some spikes destroyed there is a gap - and zombies will now prefer to go through that gap than to jump on top of other spikes.

So the end result is that the first few zombies destroy spikes getting to you and forge a path through the rings of spikes. Then later zombies just follow that narrow path and the rest of the spikes are now irrelevant.

If you alternate between rings of spikes and rings of blocks, the opposite happens. Once a spike is destroyed the zombies will still have to jump up onto the blocks, so there's no incentive for them to follow the same path. Instead they'll continue to jump onto other spikes and blocks indiscriminately; and this means that far more spikes get jumped on and far more zombies get killed by them.
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Intersting idea!

 
The only reason I use a base in this game is for storage mostly. If players I use defensible building to prevent players from raiding it but since Alpha 17 I have had little intention to build again within this game with the current form of the game where they crippled land claim blocks.

I just can't build creatively like this, you're forced to build pretty much only 1 way. Tower (And I hate building tower bases! )

A shallow tower base and your only expansion is to go from Bedrock to Skyblock, right now everyone builds these tiny elevated bases that exploit the zombie AI with the gaps to "Loop maze" them.

If it wasn't for the fact that SI has some serious problems with it, and lack of player understanding how SI works, and how to compensate for the bugs (Till you build a huge tower base, and the entire thing collapses for whatever reason)

Is that really what TFP wanted?

You really don't even need a base, you can run around in streets and kill an entire horde just fine even with only a bow and arrow and some water and beer.

 
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I just can't build creatively like this, you're forced to build pretty much only 1 way. Tower (And I hate building tower bases! )
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I don't know what problem you have. In A17 I already built three ground level melee cage bases of different designs and an underground base for mostly ranged combat

 
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