Best bang for the buck, wood spikes or barbwire fence?

[Rotor]

It seems to me that the wood spikes cause more damage to the Z's but dont last as long.

 

While the fences dont do much damage but are quite durable.

 

Any min/max 'er run the numbers?

Edited July 2, 2022 by Rotor (see edit history)

[Ramethzer0]

Related observation:

 

a wonderful trick I've learned is to stagger your traps in a checkerboard pattern.    Landmine>barbwire>spike>landmine>barbwire>spike>etc etc.

Lay stuff down in a pattern and you'll see it stems the wave quite nicely.  If you place a lot of landmines in a row and a zed comes sprinting over

them they set up more than one very very often, and that's a waste.  With the pattern you can slow them down and bunch them up and the landmine

can potentially take out more than one.

[Rotor]

I have not tried land mines yet.  However, do they now inflict damage upon surroundings?  I.e. that land mine is going to take out that barbwire?  Or is leaving a block in between the trick?

 

O=landmine

H=barbwire

X=spike

 

O  O  O  O  O

>emptyrow

H  H  H  H  H

X   X  X  X  X

 

As so?

[theFlu]

Spikes vs barbed wire; they serve different purposes, one is to kill, the other to slow. One could look at "Damage per block" or "Damage per resource", but that isn't really a useful comparison; whatever the numbers show, having things die in a field of barbed wire is just painfully slow. And for delaying the enemy, or easy headshots, the spikes are pretty useless.

 

It all hinges on what you're trying to achieve.

[Rotor]

Ah, okay, make sense.

[Ramethzer0]

On 7/2/2022 at 11:31 AM, Rotor said:

I have not tried land mines yet.  However, do they now inflict damage upon surroundings?  I.e. that land mine is going to take out that barbwire?  Or is leaving a block in between the trick?

 

O=landmine

H=barbwire

X=spike

 

O  O  O  O  O

>emptyrow

H  H  H  H  H

X   X  X  X  X

 

As so?

I have yet to see landmines do damage to the ground or other items nearby.  I've always felt pretty safe they wont destroy anything but bodies.

 

The setup is more like this:

 

OHXOHXOHXOHX

HXOHXOHXOHXO

XOHXOHXOHXOH

 

Spikes and barb wire slow them down and stop them, and if a number of them bunch up and the landmine goes off.  Otherwise, if the zed sprints across the landmines laterally, they often will set off two or more landmines and that creates a weakness in your defense screen.   If you want to stagger in electric fencing, there's also a strong way to incorporate this as well like so:

 

OHXOHXOHXOHX

---------------------

HXOHXOHXOHXO

--------------------

XOHXOHXOHXOH

--------------------

 

The purpose of this is about area denial.   It works well if you're in INT, PER, and AGI because most of your ranged weapons have significant reload times, and are mostly semi-auto/single shot in the early stages of the game.   Zeds get caught up in your field, and you're able to for the most part be safe upon higher ground.    I like to use this tactic when I have thick (sometimes double thick cement) walls on three sides (with an escape route if I need) of me and im in a raised position.   Molotovs, Pipe Bombs, and ranged junk turrets assist with clean up while you focus on the tougher nasties.   This is mostly designed for solo play, but it can be effective with a group and larger bases where you purposely leave a killing field open.  One Caveat: Barb wire and spikes get damaged and do not last for a very long time, and you should take that into account when you place them.   Once you set them, you should wait till after a horde to repair or replace them.

 

If you want to incorporate trenches, this helps a little, but not as much as you might think.  Trenches offer a bit of camouflage to these sort of traps.  A lot of zeds will sometimes just walk around ground level spikes, but more often ignore barb wire.  In addition, if landmines are not within an area you think the zeds will path through, then they are wasted.  When I add trenches I ask myself if I wanna go 1 or 2 deep below ground level, but never more than that.   If you go too deep into the ground, sometimes the zeds will start carving through your trenches if they can't jump out, and that may undercut your base if it doesn't have a solid foundation.  Sometimes they may even glitch under foundations.   If you dig down 2 blocks deep trenches, you should be able to fill them with iron spikes on top with barb wire below them, and forgo mines altogether.   I tend to only use trenches later in the game and only when I have access to automatics.  All the climbing and jumping and bobbing and weaving are annoying AF when I have only single shot/pipe weapons and I'm trying to proper aim.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by Ramethzer0 (see edit history)

[Jinx_DG]

On 7/2/2022 at 10:17 AM, Rotor said:

It seems to me that the wood spikes cause more damage to the Z's but dont last as long.

 

While the fences dont do much damage but are quite durable.

 

Any min/max 'er run the numbers?

Minty? Is that you? https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/0/3414307257849673574/

 

Although I do find this thread about it more engaging and informative. So good on you!

Edited July 5, 2022 by Jinx_DG (see edit history)

[Matt115]

Uh... this depends on yours tools - if you have a lot of gasoline - make tree farm, cut them and make  a sea of wooden spikes because this option  is very cheap and fast - 40 lines of spikes will be good enough

[Rotor]

15 hours ago, Jinx_DG said:

Minty? Is that you? https://steamcommunity.com/app/251570/discussions/0/3414307257849673574/

 

Although I do find this thread about it more engaging and informative. So good on you!

 

LOL, nope, but interesting.  Maybe my dopple ganger. :).

 

No gas, only axe atm.  As for land mines, the PoI that is green on outside and has "keep out" signs all over "Beware of Dog" etc.  It has a row of land mines around the concrete fenced area.  Every time one blows up there is chunks of dirt every where.  Now it doesnt seem to affect the wall, but it does affect the metal fence around it.    Or maybe I imagined it.

[Ramethzer0]

2 hours ago, Matt115 said:

Uh... this depends on yours tools - if you have a lot of gasoline - make tree farm, cut them and make  a sea of wooden spikes because this option  is very cheap and fast - 40 lines of spikes will be good enough

All of that effort and time consumed doing that and when horde night rolls up, you're getting a big fat sack of 0 xp if you're not perked for it.

 

That just seems lazy and I prefer a solution that allows me to take advantage of the slow down so I can get some head shots in.

Edited July 6, 2022 by Ramethzer0 (see edit history)

[Maharin]

Sharp sticks are always the answer.

 

At least when the answer isn't feral ziplines.

[enkephalin07]

I found barbed wire worked much more effectively and efficiently in conjunction with electrical fences. I used a three-point, alternating v pattern across it, connecting the center posts of each series of three, with the outer posts at least one block away from the barbed wire so they wouldn't be obstructions. The barbed wire kept them shocked more frequently, for far less repair and replacement.

[Jason Tamosiunis]

On 7/2/2022 at 9:17 AM, Rotor said:

It seems to me that the wood spikes cause more damage to the Z's but dont last as long.

 

While the fences dont do much damage but are quite durable.

 

Any min/max 'er run the numbers?

from the little experience i have with both in the new alpha i mgonna say neither TFP ruined traps by making the zombies smart which wasnt a good idea and IDC what anyone else says

[meganoth]

3 hours ago, Jason Tamosiunis said:

from the little experience i have with both in the new alpha i mgonna say neither TFP ruined traps by making the zombies smart which wasnt a good idea and IDC what anyone else says

 

Try to put the traps in the ground so that their top is level with the ground (i.e. the top of the trap and the ground are at the same height). No smart zombies anymore, they will happily walk on the traps.

 

[enkephalin07]

5 hours ago, Jason Tamosiunis said:

from the little experience i have with both in the new alpha i mgonna say neither TFP ruined traps by making the zombies smart which wasnt a good idea and IDC what anyone else says

They're smart? They'll beat down the walls when an open door is 4 blocks away. I guess they have to make their entrance Kool-Aid style. I'm pretty sure their pathing is exploitable, but I haven't figured out how to do that because I keep expecting smarter decisions.

[Rotor]

Lol, close the door. They will knock.