Digging vs. Climbing

[The Rogue Tomato]

I'm getting back into 7d2d. I remember when Funpimps made zombies dig, which "broke" underground bases. That made sense. But I seem to recall that spider zombies could climb the tall bases. Am I remembering that correctly? Seems like you can create a base that's tall and just cover it with spikes to stop the vultures, but there's no risk of spider zombies climbing up to try to get to you. I watched a streamer who made a horde base on top of a building up about 15 blocks or more, and as long as he provided ladders and steps, the zombies would only climb the provided methods, making them easy targets. That makes no sense to me. Climbing is to tall bases what digging is to underground bases. Either enable digging AND climbing or disable both, IMO. Please discuss.

[RipClaw]

They abandoned climbing because it caused problems with the pathing. That's why the spiders are now jumping.

The Spider's climbing ability was never really a problem. You simply incorporated a lip or an overhang into the base design and the Spiders got stuck underneath or fell off.

 

[The Rogue Tomato]

If Spiders could attack and break the lip, it would work. And since they can climb like spiders (their "hands" stick to the wall), they wouldn't always fall down. Some would stay there and hit the lip block, eventually breaking it. IMO, it's the best way to make climbing equivalent to digging. Otherwise, you can "beat the game" with a tall base the same way I used to "beat the game" with an underground base. 

[The Rogue Tomato]

I should clarify something: You can build an underground base and provide multiple paths for zombies to get to you without digging. But, so far, I've found that they will STILL dig, even if there's an easier path. That's the difference in contrast to a tall base. With a tall base, or even just a base on top of a building, if you provide even just one path up to you, most zombies will take it. Some might beat on the building (especially if you get them in rage mode). But short of making the building fall, they don't have any way to get to you other than the paths you provide. And I've never experienced zombies collapsing a building unless it's a wood building or a poorly designed base like one on columns. This is in contrast to digging, where zombies will get to you one way or another no matter how many paths you provide. 

Edited August 12 by The Rogue Tomato (see edit history)

[RipClaw]

That's not quite true. You just have to make digging unattractive enough by reinforcing the ceiling. Zombies are also lazy and don't want to walk more than 40 blocks. So if you're building an underground base, it's a good idea to keep the path for the zombies as short as possible.

 

By the way, my first base in the current play through collapsed because I didn't build it sturdy enough and also too low. Some of the zombies didn't use the only path to get to me but went straight into destroy area mode and knocked down all 4 pillars. The next iteration of the base was more than sturdy enough because i filled the whole socket. They managed to knock out a few blocks but nothing major. Then I added a pit. A simple evolution of a horde base. You observe what the zombies to and counter that. It is also what architects did when they built fortresses. That are not just strong walls. A lot of elements helped to keep attackers at bay including building on a big hill or even on top of a cliff.

 

If you want to see your base crumble down, just set the block damage to 300% and watch your base getting destroyed.

 

[theFlu]

22 minutes ago, RipClaw said:

Zombies are also lazy and don't want to walk more than 40 blocks.

This is correct in a sense, but only insofar as the zeds don't want to walk to a spot that far away from you.. jawoodle made a really simple curving path, hundreds of blocks long, which takes the zeds about 2 mins to path along, running; but all of them happily do. So as long as the entire path is within 40* blocks of you, the zeds happily follow it.

 

* "40" may or may not apply to your game, exactly. But it's close enough.

[Krougal]

Yeah, I have used a small simple bunker design from A19/A20 in the current build and it seems to work ok. Although you have to be very careful about going underground (the fighting area is surface, electrical access below, main base below that) during horde night or they will dig.

 

All things considered, I'd prefer to be above these days.