Working base designs?

[Feycat]

Here's the one we've got that has held up relatively well to a couple horde nights now:

 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1572681989

 

Each of the solid crosses has a 4-high pillar in the middle. The small blocks are 2 of the quarter blocks stuck together. You CAN fall through, but as long as you don't stop between them and aim for them as you walk, you're ok. I would like to replace them with iron bars when we have enough iron for that, but right now these work to shoot and see through.

 

It is full of wood spikes underneath. There are 2 rows of barbed wire and 1 row of spikes around the perimeter. As long as we keep moving, they will not smash any one location too badly. And if one column falls, it generally doesn't take the others with it, so we've been able to keep most of the table intact through both nights.

 

The disadvantages are

1. no vulture protection. This has been a real problem for me

2. no arrow retrieval, we go up there with a couple stacks each

3. no way to repair the columns mid-fight because you can't reach them.

 

So far we haven't had trouble with the new upside-down spiders because they've been going under the table itself to climb up, and they can't reach us through the quarter blocks.

 

This is obviously ONLY a fight cage for horde night, NOT a base. You can actually see the POI we've fortified (the bottom floor/porch is solid brick cobblestone except for a 1x1 tunnel that leads to our emergency escape tunnel) on the left.

 

Any thoughts on how to improve this besides just upgrading the material? What else have people figured out besides just riding it out on a POI?

[SickPuppy]

Wow that's pretty impressive, which day did u guys finishing building that? Jumping eats stamina like crazy, can u sprint past that 1 gap inbetween pillars instead of jumping?

 

There's a couple of barns around my town, it's only wood but they didn't break all the supports and it held up. There's an upstairs platform and also a 2nd floor pillar, there's a roof so no vulture problems. Spikes are nerfed hard so I just place some barbed wire to slow them down for headshots.

 

I also converted the second barn for backup but didn't need it even for day 14.

[Feycat]

We actually found the spikes did a lot of damage, but we used a lot of spikes! We actually had some die without having shot them.

 

You don't have to jump the gaps, the quarter-blocks fill enough that gap enough that you can walk across, as long as you aim for the block part and not the open part.

 

I built this between days 12 and 14, with my 2 compadres making breaking rocks for cobblestone and chopping trees for spikes with me doing the construction. We had a smaller version (only 4 "tables" in a sqare) for our first horde, but it largely collapsed by the end of the night. It didn't give us enough space to keep moving, so the horde clustered on the supports one after the other. This one stayed entirely upright despite several pillars being knocked out, so all we'll have to do is repair and and replace the spikes/barbed wire fences.

 

We had several radiated and regular cops, some radiated spiders and several feral/radiated wights, and it still stood up to them, so I'm hoping once we can upgrade to concrete and then steel, and metal spikes, it can handle higher level hordes.

[Luzifer]

Interesting Basebuild, looks like due to the information you got through Faatal on how Zeds behave now, you found a very viable Hordearena design. you can even go further and place turrets on 2x2stilts around it to catch the first ones arriving. Darttraps might work in there too, positioned right. Impressive work you guys!

[SickPuppy]

I used to do a lot of parkouring and jumping around in A16 but it's not viable now, haven't played with the quarter blocks yet but I'm definitely going to try those out now.

 

Impressive it held even cops and spiders, I only had the one spitter day 14 but I died d13 so maybe the game stage toned down. Only thing I'd worry about with an open design are vultures, I'd definitely get disoriented if a couple of those attacked, probably fall off and be zombie chow

[Feycat]

I used to do a lot of parkouring and jumping around in A16 but it's not viable now, haven't played with the quarter blocks yet but I'm definitely going to try those out now.

 

Impressive it held even cops and spiders, I only had the one spitter day 14 but I died d13 so maybe the game stage toned down. Only thing I'd worry about with an open design are vultures, I'd definitely get disoriented if a couple of those attacked, probably fall off and be zombie chow

 

Yeah, I've been killed by vultures both nights. The boys haven't though.

[Feycat]

Anyone else have a base to share?

[USSF06]

I got by just fine with a super simple setup:

 

[Kattla]

Not tested this for hordes. Still, very easy, possibly cheesy.

Zombies see vertical centered poles as an open path. But they will fail to cross it.

Nor are they able to jump atop of the next block if they stand in a barbed wire fence.

If they are many enough however, they may break the first step.

 

 

The 3 poles on the right side is to give better reach for the player. The Zombies

do not try to jump across it.

 

It also works perfectly fine without barbed wire. May have to repair one of the

poles often though.

[Hryllingur]

My little Base. Buildable with EVERY Material (i just chose Stone because of easier upgrade-possibilities later)

 

 

No spikes, no wire, no ... no anything. You CAN add Blade-Traps. (looks pretty nice) and you CAN add Spikes etc. but its not necessary.

 

Tested it with 15 Hordes, some Bloodmoonhordes (day 28, 32 Enemies, medium difficulty)

 

 

They just walk the way, they have to ... and now you may ask, how the hell you should come down, wenn you put spikes along the path? Easy. Just place a drawbridge (endgame) or a hatch on the opposite site of the platform and open it, to be save.

 

Have fun.

[Zourin]

This is a prototype i'm currently sciencing the crap out of.. but it's enough to kill and control a pretty good number of zombies

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25654[/ATTACH]

 

Ignore the rear assembly, the real magic is in that pit. Fill that pit with spikes, top with loose floorboards, and the zombies just pile right in for a nice molotov bath. Sure, some *might* get past the trap, but they should be manageable. Because there's a "clear path to you" they completely ignore the door.

 

Once the pit is 'spent', zombies will begin looking for another clear path, so the idea is to have multiple pitfall traps for them to play in. They're like ball pits for zombies. Upgrades include deepening the pit to 4 deep, cobbling the walls, and finding a better way to throw molotovs in without setting myself on fire again for the sixth time.

 

Further upgrades include removing the spikes and installing pressure plates, subsurface electric fencing, & dart traps. Because ♥♥♥♥ them.

 

Edit: Apparently, their pathing REALLY hates vertical changes. Even wedge tips are enough to completely detour the AI, despite being ankle high. They also don't like jumping down into 2-deep dart trap pits without the 'promise' of steps. They are actually stupid easy to herd because they always want that clear, level path.

[Feycat]

My little Base. Buildable with EVERY Material (i just chose Stone because of easier upgrade-possibilities later)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25651[/ATTACH]

 

No spikes, no wire, no ... no anything. You CAN add Blade-Traps. (looks pretty nice) and you CAN add Spikes etc. but its not necessary.

 

Tested it with 15 Hordes, some Bloodmoonhordes (day 28, 32 Enemies, medium difficulty)

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25652[/ATTACH]

 

They just walk the way, they have to ... and now you may ask, how the hell you should come down, wenn you put spikes along the path? Easy. Just place a drawbridge (endgame) or a hatch on the opposite site of the platform and open it, to be save.

 

Have fun.

 

What happens when they run? don't they get down the path too fast to stop, unless you put barbed wire down?

[Zourin]

I've had limited success refitting a barn, although it's been 3 weeks and I haven't had the time or resources to upgrade it further.

 

There was an upper level inside the barn with a ladder leading up through the platform. There were two holes that allowed roof access, which allowed access to sections of incomplete ceilings and allowed firing inside the building if needed (it's always needed ). I put a hatch up, and to be fair, it was the zombies that knocked out the bottom two rungs of ladders. I was still able to use the ladder despite this, so I left well enough alone.

 

The first priority was reinforcing the barn, as it was painfully obvious it was too big to create a perimeter by myself. With some scavenged iron tools and forged iron from the trader to repair them, I was able to rip out and replace the walls with flagstone.

 

I then set about trying to set up a perimeter, with pitfall traps that had performed exceptionally well in testing. The perimeter, however, had to be completely made with wood frames, as it was day 7 and I was pretty much out of time. Three pitfall traps had been dug, the wall plotted out, and night fell.

 

The perimeter broke instantly as they either breached the wood frames and made straight for the barn walls, or I missed a block. Either way, nobody fell for the traps, and it was mostly damage control with a couple molotovs. Upgrading the barn walls to flagstone and doubling up the doors ended up protecting the doors, but flagstone is crap, as is any block that isn't steel on horde night.

 

In the end, it damage was pretty minimal, with a couple sections of the barn wall knocked out, but the structure extremely sound.

 

Week 2 horde: Focus this week was spent on some crop beds and establishing some kind of perimeter wall, as well as initial construction of a workshop nearby for a forge, but away from the barn to divert screamers. I needed oil for more molotovs and repair kits, so time had to be spent scavenging (it's expensive at the trader!). The barn had to withstand another instant breach of the perimeter boundary, and armed with more molotovs, survived the night

 

Week 3 horde. The perimeter wall was finally finished, hell or high water. I even had time to install some barbed wire to intercept jumpers, but that was never a problem, as the pit traps had preferential pathing treatment. Every last one of them ran straight into the spike pits. The horde, however, substantially outlasted the traps, but not before ensuring that more than half of them were neck-high in spikes and on fire.

 

I also learned that the marksman rifle was absolute garbage when it came to home defense, and the hunting rifle moreso. It takes too long to aim for anything. As I had built a perch outside the end of the barn where the door was, I was able to fairly easily shoot down with a shotgun and deal with the stragglers that breached through.

 

Week 4: Priority went into finishing the workshop and scavenging parts for a workbench, table saw, and a bicycle using only three trashy level 1 wrenches and no steel to repair them with. Construction finished, the workbench finished, and I am the proud owner of an unusually stealthy bicycle that has a tendancy to vanish when i'm not looking. This effort, as well as refreshing the pit traps, took until day 20.

 

I figured 'screw it', and went on a bit of a trip south. I needed aloe, mushrooms, and to offload an arsenal of spare weapons at the trader that was substantially larger than my food supply. Dawn hit, and I hit the road south. I'm currently at a standstill with a mushroom cave with more ferals than I can kill (killed me twice so far), and my bicycle keeps disappearing constantly (I have to console them in).

 

Currently:

The plan for 21 is to screw the base and bike it, as I have no molotovs with which to defend it, and the death penalty doesn't help when i'm trying to fend off waves of coked up murder rockets, and there's no way I could stop any cops from causing substantial damage or even blowing up the entire floor where I'd set up. I'll probably have to abandon subsequent weeks, as it takes just too ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ long to set anything else up, and the zombies just end up walking through it anyway and I end up taking potshots and praying he AI is still jank enough to not tear the barn down. I realized one cop explosion could probably take out my bed, food and medical supply, and weapon cache, so with evasion being an option, I'll go with not losing all my stuff.

 

After 3 weeks, I have to throw in the towel, as I can no longer manage my gamestage. There's no way I can handle cops block damage and ferals boosted HP. One cop explosion in the pits and the traps are gone, and a feral could probably wipe out half a pit on his own tanking them, and I've only got three! I'd either be sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for daylight, or blowing all my ammo doing the same.

[Wamplet]

Here is mine that has held up quite easily on Day 7

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]25763[/ATTACH]

 

and the new cobblestone one on Day 14 (took pic of Day 16 with beginning of 2nd floor on the roof)

 

 

The idea is to remove 3 of the 4 wood frames and stand at the edge of the base and they come up the stairs and fall down on the spikes or take fall damage and repeat going up the stairs, while i shoot them with the bow, xbow, pistol or swing a club until they die from a combo of damage from all of that.