Do you prefer to barricade your windows?

[Naru]

(assuming they haven't been broken yet so you can close them to make less noise inside)

Or do you prefer to just cover them in curtains so that if your home ever is invaded en masse you have as many escape routes as possible?

[Greb]

I usually find that barricading your stuff only attracts them to you, whereas just chilling in a house with closed curtains (preferably upstairs) is generally a lot safer. That's just me though.

[Nunninater]

If you play with zombies attacking structures randomly off, which I highly recommend you do, I think barricading is a must. I mean how does it make sense in any way that a "zombie" would attack inanimate objects for no reason? However, you have to do it in the right priority. I love barricades, but I HATE curtains. They literally don't let you see what's coming in, but let stuff in. I barricade every window on the ground floor as much as possible and leave the top windows closed with nothing to block vision. I used to barricade every door I didn't use, but since learning how to craft doors, I decided doors are for walking though windows aren't. So, since I don't want any windows on my ground floors, I essentially remove them by barricading them. Almost every home has 2 doors. The horde appears suddenly from the front, you go out the back and vice versa. If your home gets surrounded by a horde, you led them into your base, which was a big mistake, at best they're going to completely destroy your home as you whittle them down or escape. The worst scenario is that you are completely trapped. I've heard the whole sheet rope/stairs trick a lot, but the problem with that is the zombies will keep you trapped up there in that situation forever, unless you've powered them way down in sandbox or have an insane ammo pile. Line of sight will be an issue for the chunk hanging indefinitely under you still though. Plus who has piles on piles of ammo stocked up with the skills to effectively use it without loot respawn on?

The best defense in this game is offense, so when I hear anything banging on my barricades, I immediately go deal with it. If you really don't like barricading, then walling off your safe house in a longer playthrough would probably be ideal for you.

Does whether or not the window is broken really effect the noise? Does fully barricading the windows count as a window or more? Never heard that before.

[Death]

I personally always barricade my windows in the early game and will unbarricade them after walling off the house. This is partially because barricading making the first couple of levels of carpentry easier to get.

[Naru]

Windows being open/busted definitely lets noise out, I can safely cook in my oven with all my windows shut and curtained and I've never had an issue with being heard, but I once snuck into a broken up random house, decided to cook some food in a house with busted windows, and it drew a very large horde that I know didn't see me enter, as they piled en mass through the busted window. Fully barricading one that's been busted open is the only way I know to fully recreate that sound barrier, but zombies being attracted to player made structures to me is usually more trouble than its worth. Maybe they ignore them with environmental attacks off, I'm not sure.

I've survived for months with completely unbarricaded windows, as long as they're all unbroken, closed and curtained, I never have zombies come knocking, so long as I'm careful none see me enter the house, and I keep my tvs, etc. at a max volume of 1-2 bars.

Makes me curious if barricading a window only on the inside with a sheet already up would also block the sight of the barricade to zombies so they can't be attracted to break it.

I know having surrounding exterior walls is ideal, but I have yet to find a mostly walled off building to start with so far exploring the new Monmouth County map.

[Retro]

Originally posted by Enoch:

Or do you prefer to just cover them in curtains so that if your home ever is invaded en masse you have as many escape routes as possible?

With all due respect, this is not the best game plan.
First of all, you want your windows barricaded in the room you sleep, at the least.

Second, zombies don't make any noise when they slip through an open window with just a curtain. You're in for an exciting trip to the kitchen if you have nothing barricaded.

And lastly, you can barricade your house according to your exit plan, just put one plank on each window you plan to use as an exit. Your house isn't going to fill up instantly with hordes, so you have time to unbarricade a single plank.

[Naru]

I never leave the windows open, if a window gets busted then it gets barricaded, no question, because as you said they can enter silently, but if its intact and closed then you get the warning of glass breaking.

I also never sleep on the ground floor, only ever on a second floor in a room with a door and another closed, curtained window out with a sheet rope prepared.

In my experience with barricading, with just closed and curtained windows, sleeping overnight I never wake up to any zombies interested in the house at all, whereas the few times I've bothered barricading I regularly wake up to the sound of a few stragglers banging on the planked windows that I have to deal with first thing.

[Retro]

I tend to make noise, so I can see how your game plan would be different than mine.
So nevermind then, I guess you have a good game plan

[ryosa1]

Originally posted by Enoch:

(assuming they haven't been broken yet so you can close them to make less noise inside)

Or do you prefer to just cover them in curtains so that if your home ever is invaded en masse you have as many escape routes as possible?

Ideally they dont have access to your living quarters. I always try to base up behind a fenced in area and never waste time with barricading windows.

Sometimes leaving windows open is the best way to trap them inside a house that you wont be using. In this case you can barricade them inside for a short time while you loot the surrounding area or whatever it is you intend to do.

Some of the appliances are indestructible so keep that in mind when securing your base. My favorite area is the fenced neighborhood in Muldraugh. You can move a few couches into the streets entryways and have like ten secure two story houses to live in and base up with a small pond to the south through the woods.

[Animalman]

Never.

Barricade all 4 planks if needed on the inside. In instance it is needed. Or I want to preserve the window glass.

But mostly never barricade using intended method. And if I do a small barricade job to help with carpentry I’ll do two on the inside two on the outside and maintain some vision. I’m ok with a zombie coming to the house and banging but without seeing him he is always at the window or door banging by the time you find out. So you may aswell have vision and catch him before it arrives. But obviously some single player games it’s too busy outside and you are too tired. And can’t predict what tomorrow will be like. So of course complete barricade job is necessary

[Naru]

The reason I ask is because I've honestly never really had to deal with a horde at my house with just sheets and closed windows, so I don't have much experience with barricades.

Most of the time in early game, I spend most of my first week sat in an upstairs bedroom with a tv watching life and living, exercising and reading books if there's a good book location nearby, which means I'm usually in my room when the helicopter event kicks in.

Most of my experiences with helicopter events, I just stay in my room and even if the helicopter seems to hang around my house as I watch tv and read, no zeds have ever tried to come in or bang on any windows if all the windows are closed and sheeted, and then I sleep to give any horde that maybe massed nearby due to the helicopter noise time to disperse a bit overnight, and then I lead the bulk away in the morning.

[Animalman]

It’s really if you have many openings in your base say a gigamart id barricade a gigamart for example. I would barricade the front window of a shop for example. I will barricade the door to the place I sleep before I sleep if there are zombies alive and around me (which isn’t often). I have slept in the maintenance shed at the trailer park with a barricade on the door from the inside while the area was still crawling with zombies but most often if it’s house settling I honestly don’t bother unless I want to keep the windows and house looking nice and pristine

[Naru]

If there are nearby zeds, wouldn't the noise of dismantling stuff for planks and then barricading the door create noise letting nearby zombies know exactly what room you're about to sleep in though? If I'm already not in a fit state to just head back out and kill them before I sleep, I'd be afraid of that risk more than just going to sleep with the door shut so long as the nearby zombies don't already know you're up there.

[Monocaine]

All bottom floor windows barricaded, furniture shoved in front of the stairs and a sheet rope to go in and out of the second floor.

[Nordil(Hun)]

Originally posted by Enoch:

The reason I ask is because I've honestly never really had to deal with a horde at my house with just sheets and closed windows, so I don't have much experience with barricades.

Most of the time in early game, I spend most of my first week sat in an upstairs bedroom with a tv watching life and living, exercising and reading books if there's a good book location nearby, which means I'm usually in my room when the helicopter event kicks in.

Most of my experiences with helicopter events, I just stay in my room and even if the helicopter seems to hang around my house as I watch tv and read, no zeds have ever tried to come in or bang on any windows if all the windows are closed and sheeted, and then I sleep to give any horde that maybe massed nearby due to the helicopter noise time to disperse a bit overnight, and then I lead the bulk away in the morning.

If you got a horde than a barricade does not matter. They will tear it down within a minute. (The one barricade with having both in and out being fully covered)
I play with highest population, respawn, and occasional helicopter. Meaning every 2 or so week the chopper comes and draws them to me. (I still got some old saves:D)
In one i had to kill over 1200 zombies to clear out my place. No matter how much barricade i would have put up it would have not worked. I just stayed upstairs and took some shots here and there, and then eventually when i got a bit of a clear space climb down draw them away and kill em. A barricade would have just trapped me inside and they would have tore it down fast, and just killed my guy.

[Animalman]

Yeah the barricades are fairly weak. Even the metal ones. Its designed really to stall the zombies and give you some time. One zombie may sit there a while banging and then give up and walk off get distracted, forget about the player etc. But yeah if a significant horde see you inside then its not going to help very much. Barricades are useful if you don't want corpses in the house of course. But saying that some of the gates, the large gate, and the metal gate can hold a good group of 5 or so zombies for you know.. 30-40 seconds. Which can be enough time to open the gate before they do too much damage. Or with the metal gate its enough time to shoot through at them. But its not on the same level as obstacle barricades which can achieve complete safety combined with a fence or fence type jump obstacle. That is in the league of sledgehammer, and sheet rope.