Tohskrad

One thing to keep in mind, is to assume all the zombies have advanced degrees in structural engineering and structural integrity, because they WILL know where to dogpile for the weakest block, the shortest/most efficient path to you and how to undermine your base. Kind of cheesy, but that's how it is. They are basically superhuman on horde nights. 1) What about putting as moat around the base, not necessarily filled with water, but basically a big ditch, will that help? Do zombies get stuck in ditches? As others have mentioned, it's better to just avoid this. I tried this in A19 about 6 blocks deep and around my base with spikes stacked everywhere in the pit and as mentioned, if they can't get to you, they will just dig under and collapse your structure. No point in adding water either, they swim like Michael Phelps. 2) I have been avoiding doors and just using a hole in the roof and ladders on the side. But I learned tonight that the zombies can climb ladders, or otherwise somehow climb on top of my base. Is there a way to prevent them from going up on top? Is there a minimum wall height I should aim for? Usually if the ladder is at least 2 blocks high off the ground and they can't jump to it, they can't reach/climb it and will just start hitting the walls. That said, depending on the area, zombies can climb up others (I've seen zombies as much as 3-4 high pile/climb on each other to get over fences like Day Z.) That said, usually it's pretty safe, but you can always go to 3 high to decrease the chance of that happening. 3) Is it possible to build a tunnel underground that I can use to get in and out from a safe location into the interior of the horde base? Yes, provided it's far enough away past the spawn radius. If it's within the radius, there's a strong chance they will determine going through that entrance is the shortest "path" of least resistance and take it to you. Now that said, if you build it far enough away, it shouldn't be an issue, especially if you add some reinforced steel doors to readjust their pathing calculation. One thing that can help (and is almost essential) is to build a horde safe spot AWAY from your main base. Many will recommend kill bases if you want to fight the horde, personally I like to just skip it all together since the cost to fight almost always significantly outweighs the rewards obtained. So I'll either find a POI with 2 floors, remove any stairwells and just let them attack the house until it falls or it ends. The silo in the shamway factory is a great spot and will last several hordenights, although many also really like the new grain silo poi, since it has a lot of areas to divert the zombies.

I agree, I played a bit of stealth in A18 and quite a bit in A19 and had a lot of fun sneaking around, despite the slower poi progress and lighter armor types. In A20 it just doesn't feel worth the hassle and risk (once you get past lvl 15 or so with semi decent gear/weapons) due to all the forced triggers. This change required a complete overhaul of playstyle in my case. IMO now (for me) A20 more safely plays like a hack/slash or run/gun while intentionally trying to make as much noise as possible vs. slow & stealthy in previous versions. There are still some spots where a stealth kill is possible, but they are more few and far between. Hopefully there is more of a happy medium where some stealth is actually recommended, maybe in some new T4/T5s... but for now I'll likely just keep brute forcing all the POIs and smashing/alerting everything in the way.

I definitely agree that the movements tend to be pretty janky and inconsistent at times, definitely far from realistic. I've had zombies get knocked down, hit once while down and instantly be back on their feet hitting you after contact. Other times they "incorrectly" think they need to crouch and go on all 4s instantly like they're playing football... then instantly (<1 sec) be back on their feet running. (Which I'll admit is pretty terrifying when you see it, disregarding how fast they are on all 4s vs. on foot.) I kind of wish there was a more consistent transition time between laying/standing/sitting/crouching across all animations. It's definitely frustrating since it usually just results in you taking more damage or wasting stamina. And that doesn't even cover how bouncy they are when attacking walls. Bears move like they're in a strobe light and having seizures, which is frustrating since they're spinning/moving so fast despite their size and running/attacking into walls.

My top list would be: 1) Deep Cuts - I don't use blades on zombies, just requires too many hits for that close of distance. I personally tend to use sledgehammers or arrows, although I'm interested in trying the unkillable fist weapon build. 2) Javelin Master - Really don't like spears, mostly because the only power attack can result in you losing your weapon. If I need mele range, sledgehammer it is. 3) Treasure Hunter - No real need or desire, I don't like how A20 changed these quests due to our harder setting game. I tend to avoid buried quests now, since we have the zeds set on sprint and they are on top of you in like 3 seconds. 4) Charismatic Nature - Not entirely useless, but only one person really needs. 5) Animal Tracker - Less useful in A20 now, there are rabbits and chickens EVERYWHERE. Not to mention once you get better weapons, you have unlimited and easily found food in the snow biome. (Bears, Wolves and Cougars!)

I found this place for the first time yesterday and was definitely amuse by the concept. That said, I was wondering how the birds escaped the building when I entered the basement (they ran up and past me), good to know they can jump out the window. Really thought they just despawned, since I've been running into that issue quite a bit once killing a zombie.

I avoided the wasteland at all costs in Alpha 19, since there wasn't much reason to visit due to the difficulty. I'm actually glad they give a reason to go now (even though It'll be a PITA), though we'll have to wait and see how it plays out. Only lvl 38 and still on a bicycle, so absolutely no chance I'm visiting there anytime soon.

Largely depends on my spawn location and if playing with a group. If solo, I'll usually just take a POI and convert/reinforce it. If I do make a custom base, it's usually mostly for the XP, as I'm not a very creative builder. My personal bases are very blocky (cubes) with a large platform for farming/gyro landing platform. I tend to try and build everything off the ground to minimize destruction from the zeds, but it's far from pretty.

Could compromise and have it where one gives the jar back and the other depletes it. Maybe make the cornbread allow you to keep the jar, as a reward for the extra step(s)

I normally avoid the bloodmoons (ie: heading to the roof of a poi and letting the timer expire) or run around and let them chase me. I play on a harder difficulty/sprint or faster zombie speed and normally find that they just aren't worth the resources/effort and usually result in a net loss in ammo/cement vs. rewards received. Have tried bases and (at least in A19) only a kill base was really viable. But the amount of work/repairs and (in the later part of A19) acid being thrown just completely made it annoying to maintain. Normally on private/personal games, I just disable it or make it once every 30 days or so just because it's not enjoyable to me to have endless waves of enemies. (If there was a total count per night or something to track progress/rewards, that would be better)

That's what I've previously been doing and it works well enough. However, it can still take a few seconds to get above ground, depending on how far you're probing underground. The biggest issue on the higher difficulties (and faster zombies) is since our levels are still pretty low (<30), we don't have the armor to really absorb the hits without moving around and potentially exiting the quest area. (Lvl3 Scrap is the best we have atm, with some padded/leather thrown in) Each hit tends to do ~20-25% HP currently. So having 2-3 hostile zombies on top of you almost immediately is a problem, not to mention the possibility of getting infected.

Glad someone addressed and confirmed that. I didn't notice it early on, but at level 2 it seemed to happen almost every time. As a result, they are almost a death sentence to do solo without having the quest quit on you. My group plays on a survivalist (heading towards insane at higher levels) and we have the zombies on sprint. So by the time the circle closes and the 3 zombies spawn, once you pop your head above ground they are literally on top of you. Really wish there was a way to either 1) make them spawn further out and run in, 2) limit the # that spawn, 3) increase or show the radius of the quest for movement before failing or 4) make it so they only spawn after every 2nd or 3rd shrink. I've considered building a perimeter wall around the zone, but it really feels like a waste.

Another instance (same POI) where I'm in the attic of a 2 story house and somehow agro'd 2 outside zombies after I did a full clear into the house. (My wooden door was gone, again. >.< Kind of ridiculous, considering I'm sneaking almost all the time with less than 50% detection and keeping quiet, where zombies can walk over trash/glass/explosives and not alert other zombies.

I agree and definitely think something is off considering the POI zombies don't agro, but the stuff outside does (even with <30 detection shown) I just had an instance now where I was sniping a sleeping zombie (while stealthing) right in front with a lvl 1 primitive bow/iron arrow in the basement of a POI, when an outside zombie started wailing on the reinforced wood/POI spawned upstairs door for no reason.. followed by 2 wolves on the OPPOSITE side of the house where I put my secure wood door. (I know they were on the opposite, because they triggered some landmines near the kitchen and later discovered the door was gone.), which was opposite of where I was. There definitely seems like something is going on vs. A19 with the sound range/detection for the player.

So I've just noticed something odd, ocassionally when I clear the trash/broken glass out of the path, it will still play the sound effect despite it being removed. Not sure if that's a glitch on my end or if that's potentially alerting the zombies, either way I've noticed it at least in 1 POI consistently.

Hey everyone, So I've been curious about how the zombies respond to sound in A20. Are all the zombies more sensitive in A20 to sound from inside buildings? I've noticed that more often when sneaking around inside a POI, that wandering zombies from outside the building tend to hear me and start wailing on the walls. (Not even picking up items or walking on items/glass, but just walking/sneaking on clean floor.) I'm currently low level and not using any lights/torches and am sneaking around in the dark, but it constantly seems that a zombie will walk up to the house I'm in (no open windows or doors) and somehow know I'm inside. It got so bad in this one house that I had to bail since 5 outside zombies heard me walking around. I don't remember ever having this much issue in A19, but I don't remember seeing anything about this in the patch notes. (Most seemed to address stealth with the mobs inside a POI if I remember right vs. wandering) If anyone can confirm or deny, that would be appreciated.

Yes, we actively fight the zombies, but are having a lot of issues with this latest patch with all the extra acid going around. (We are playing with slightly higher than normal difficulties) We've actually started making some kill bases (processor/galaxy brain/underground) and turned one of our existing ones into a compact version with 4 blades, 3 people shooting/repairing and autoturrets. (Which hasn't worked yet, as usually a cop explodes and takes out all the blade traps at once. Not to mention all the acid being thrown around in 19.1). Our previous method was a tower that would require half to run through a building to try and jump onto our platform and half pummeling the legs/foundation. This worked oddly well until the 19.1, then it just got destroyed by precision guided acid from birds/cops and they took it down (it was heavily fortified with 3+ layers of reinforced concrete ) in one night despite being fully repaired previously. So far our method to survive has been to find a structure, stay there until it gets destroyed (usually before 1 AM) while defending and then just run away/fight on foot. (Sometimes we can still get by with dashing/sprinting on a motorcycle on the last few hour(s), but that tends to spawn 50+ acid spitting birds and any lag results in death or a very difficult daytime cleanup.) Either way, the horde has become one of the only challenging, yet most gimicky, parts of the game despite being in full steel/lvl6 weapons with regular/armor piercing ammo. Thankfully one of our team is a fan of run/gun, but the others (including myself) are not.

It looks like at least 1 person has it maxed and a few other are putting points in it now. Early on the focus was on vehicles more so than base defense, since we thought we could fortify ourselves in and survive. (My character is more of a resource gatherer/survivor *Mostly Strength/Some Health build* to minimize food/water use, farm fast and built for sledgehammers/shotguns usage. Early on we were desperately struggling for food, so this made the most sense to get our farm and materials in order.) We're going to start working on some of the kill bases, although it sounds like one of our older bases (silo) may be usable again as the zombie AI and current mapping causes them to be confused. We are only just now beginning to use some of the steel recipes (Day 140 or so), materials are always in short supply and take awhile to farm.

Thanks for all your help and advice! It looks like most of the options are fairly technologically advanced and I'm not sure that we have all the schematics learned, but hopefully these will maintain base longevity instead of a complete rebuild every bloodmoon. If all else fails, it seems that the horde disappears once everyone dies during a bloodmoon, regardless of time... so that may be a less desirable option if these don't work out. I'll give these all a try and hopefully some work. Will be odd having an almost entirely open, attack heavy base as opposed to a more natural (for me) defense heavy base. Thanks again!

Hello everyone, 4 friends from another game and I decided to start playing 7D2D on our own server and are absolutely loving it. We've been playing a few weeks now in Alpha 19 and are on ~Day 120, between lvls 40-60. (~100-150 game stage per person) We've pretty much gotten comfortable with most of the game mechanics, looting, salvaging, farming.. but one area we've been having a lot of issues with are the blood moons. We are beginning to update everything to concrete now that we finally got a few accessible mixers. Previously, we'd been using a church bell tower and silo from the Sham factory and it worked very well for the first several, but began to just get overrun/foundation destroyed and also the horde would spawn into one person's nearby base walls due to proximity. Close to the Day 70 blood moon, we built a new base out of cobblestone blocks away from everything, 3 layers thick, turrets, mini bunker, a LOT of spikes, barbed wire about 6-8 layers thick. It was on this night we ran into a LOT of radiated ferals and the 1st sight of the Demolisher. We survived, but by the end of the night the base was severely damaged. (A demolisher managed to explode and took out the entire upper and East wall. The next bloodmoon, the base was still not repaired and decided to just try and run for it. We all had minibikes and a truck. We were all continuously overrun with vultures, stopping meant the horde spawned immediately and there were always at least 5 vultures while on a vehicle. Recently, We tried a cage/pillbox method, several layers of iron bars, concrete (we finally got a mixer), a few spikes, shotgun turrets, all of us with our guns of choice grade 5/6 rifles/pistols/SMGs/AKs/Auto shotguns, ect. We got flooded with demolishers and had at least 15 throughout the night, not including all the cops and ferals. Everyone but 1 person died and only because he jumped on a pillar of some kind and ran around. In Summary/TLDR of Blood Moon Defense: 1) Layered Base w. Lot of Firepower/Spikes - Failed, ~50% destroyed after 1 blood moon around Day 70. Largely due to Radiated Ferals pummeling the walls into the base and Demolisher taking out large sections. 2) Minibikes/Truck - Failed, Constantly spawning vultures that outrun the vehicles. 3) Cage/Pillbox - Failed, 90% destroyed due to constant onslaught of demolishers ~Day 110ish. 4) Cage over Pit - Failed, one person tried this and they took out all the supporting pillars. What other methods of blood moon defense would you recommend using/trying besides reducing server settings since these Zombies seem to have degrees in Structural Engineering? I was initially working on a bedrock bunker, but people have said that now the zombies dig like they have augers and it won't be usable for very long. We had hoped to use one person's steel/concrete/cobble base as defense, but fear it would just completely ruin everything he's worked for. The Demolisher has just thrown a complicated wrench into the horde nights, since they're so tanky, fast and immensely destructive since so many things trigger the detonation. If we were skimping on firepower, that would be one thing.. but we are armed/geared about as much as we can be in grade 5-6 steel and advanced weapons. Thanks! Any help or advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.