Guards vs villagers

[Jimbo]

I am trying to decide if guards are worth using.

I have heard mention of 2 things in relation to guards: boosted stats and patrol behavior that they get in trade for doing no colony work. The npcs as far as i can tell have 2 stats armor and hp. Armor is entirely based on what you equip them with and hp for guards is ~50% more that of villagers. They have dmg too but that is more just determined by what is in their hand (as far as i can tell).

I use a walled town with kill mazes for raiders and the patrol behavior does not really result in any real benefit. The boosted hp without any ability to taunt mobs just results in the guards outliving the settlers then leaving me with guards who wont work, it does not seem like it's a benefit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3174745684

Perhaps if guards made use of the new resilience mechanic and possibly had a taunt to protect the townies instead of just outliving them they would be more useful. Alternately just possibly let them do at least hauling to justify them gobbling up my meatballs.

Is there more to Guards that justifies their lazy behavior that I am missing?

[ElDudorino]

I mean, if you just have a normal town, guards on patrol can be a benefit. And guards cover the retreat of your weaker villagers so they survive with low health instead of dying. But if you're set up in such a way that their benefits aren't actually beneficial, then there's no real point to them.

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by ElDudorino:

I mean, if you just have a normal town, guards on patrol can be a benefit. And guards cover the retreat of your weaker villagers so they survive with low health instead of dying. But if you're set up in such a way that their benefits aren't actually beneficial, then there's no real point to them.

Man, guards patrolling killing zombies are useless past the first 10 mins of the game. And no amount of guards in a "normal" town will stand up to a later game 40+ npc raider group outfitted in the highest tier armors you have unlocked. Even with my kill maze my npcs still have to fight the weakened raiders after the maze.

The point of early access is to discuss changes and tweaks, not to try to defend the system as perfect as is.

[ElDudorino]

OK, well, it sounds like you're proposing buffs to guards but not the rest of the villagers, and meanwhile guards are the only thing I hire after I've gotten my '1 of everybody' achievement because I don't need a 15th person farming and I'd rather have somebody stronger. If anything I think it's villagers in general who could stand to do more, but guards are currently the best out of them (other than having a mage and pawnbroker to handle enchants in between farming).

[Jimbo]

Originally posted by ElDudorino:

OK, well, it sounds like you're proposing buffs to guards but not the rest of the villagers, and meanwhile guards are the only thing I hire after I've gotten my '1 of everybody' achievement because I don't need a 15th person farming and I'd rather have somebody stronger. If anything I think it's villagers in general who could stand to do more, but guards are currently the best out of them (other than having a mage and pawnbroker to handle enchants in between farming).

Well, dang I guess I've been playing it wrong for 150h. Excuse me for suggesting a tweak to something that has annoyed me since day 1. I am sure the way you do it is the correct and only way, you sure are.

If you read my post my alternate solution was simply to at least let them haul, is that too OP too? They literally do nothing 99% of the game and fail at guarding.

[ElDudorino]

Why are you so defensive about this? You asked about guards and I answered. I guess thanks for the Steam points, at least.

If your intention is just to submit suggestions you can do that too but this is still a public forum and people might reply with their thoughts or even try to discuss.

[Fair]

Let's keep it civil :)
Guards can already haul, but because of their better stats they are also ideal for adventure parties.
As you mentioned, patroling doesn't really make sense more than 10 minutes into the game

[McSqueeze]

Lol. Yeah guards already haul. Maybe you are playing it wrong 😏