Outpost locations, something different

[EolSunder]

After reading many forums and viewing many pics about the various base outpost locations, I did eventually come across vet players who didn't quite put their outposts in the normal locations.

For the most basic players, they keep their last outpost as a "roaming" outpost which they move around depending on where they are looting at. For the rest they use some general locations to protect their base and streets to keep hordes from wandering about.

Now, some vet players from old posts talk about putting their outposts in different spots, namely spots that in each base location you will get rescue missions, distraction missions, etc. Their idea, and it sounds good, is that they have only a couple outposts at the base to protect from hordes, and many are put far away at locations that often come up at those bases to rescue survivors, distractions, etc. This way those events spawn near their base and they can easily run out to them to do them without driving for minutes to get to the further areas.

A perfect example i can quote having done it myself, is at the trucking base. Right behind it to the west is the small power plant. Many say put an outpost here to stop spawn, but i didn't put one there on my game and when i did get events to clear out spawn at that location, its just outside my door and very easy and quick to get to.

Just wondering if any long time players do their outposts this way, so if you have 8 outposts at the trucking base, you keep 2 for base protection, 1 for roaming, and the other 5 for those far away missions (like at grange, the warehouse behind savini residence that always seems to spawn rescue/distract/hunt missions, etc).

[Chris]

I too tend to keep just a couple for defense & the rest for missions, I keep one in the starter town, one near the fairground & the rest in the high traffic quest areas.

[Studio Ghibli]

... if I am reading this correctly, OP is advocating putting bases in the far-away spots to -block- missions from appearing near them?

That is, missions do not spawn near outposts? So if you put outposts in far-away spots, your missions will not spawn there?

[EolSunder]

It seems that way. Or at least missions spawn less. I have played through the game at the Trucking Warehouse 2 times. The first time I set up my outposts normally based on some forums, and noticed that spawning events usually happen around the same areas and the same way.

1) Starting location. In cases of events such as clearing out a infestation you have select areas you start at, and usually specific areas where the infestations occur. You can eliminate infestations that are longer away by simply putting outposts covering those areas to prevent infestations, and those areas close to you can be left open so infestation missions occur near your base making them much easier to get to.

2) Rescue missions, distraction missions occur much less or none at all in save zones since zombies don't spawn within the zones, and it seems those missions don't occur there much either because the game is programmed not to have them there, or they don't occur because no zombies to catch or slow down your survivors.

Some instances from the Trucking warehouse.

1) West of the warehouse down the hill is a small electrical plant. Infestations spawn here often and its right outside your base making it very easy to get to. If you put a outpost there you won't get spawn, if you leave it free you will. The "starting" location is just a couple buildings east of your base so this is a great place to NOT cover with an outpost to make finishing these missions fast.

2) The gun shop 3 buildings east of your base is an infestation spawn spot, with the starting spot in the small building west of it. Leaving this building unprotected makes it easy to get to these spawn.

3) north just over the bridge at the bus barricade is a small constuction building that spawns infestation. The starting spot is the warehouse 3 buildings NE, just east of the minimart.

All these infestation spots have the same starting spot. So you know which area you are going to based on where the starting survivor is located. So by knowing which buildings will spawn infestations, you can cover them with outposts eliminating them from any spawn. This will also cut down on other types of missions that might occur in their radius, such as rescue missions, distraction missions, etc. Having a base at the trucking warehouse, I have noticed certain spots where you always get these types of missions.

One annoying spot is the big abandoned warehouse NE of the Savini residence. This spawn spot is hard to get to, far away, and if not turned into an outpost will constantly spawn pain in the butt rescue, distraction, etc missions. Even if you make it an outpost you will still occasionally get hunting missions, but not nearly as much as normal. This is a far away spot that is great to make into an outpost. It won't benefit you much for looting, etc but for one reason only. Keeping you from running to this far away spot all the time doing missions.

Other spots you go to a lot at the trucking warehouse that are far away and seem to be the far limits of missions that occur at the warehouse. The Grange enclave to the north, and the west side of Marshall near the courthouse. Stationed at the trucking warehouse I never have random spawn missions, infestation missions, etc past these areas so areas further away (like the east side of Marshall) you won't get missions there.

Thus, if you place your outposts in these areas you will eliminate or vastly cut down the missions that spawn far away, so those missions will spawn closer to your base letting you do them much faster.

8 outposts. 3 outposts to protect your base from any hordes. This leaves 5 you can put further away to prevent events from far away so you can get to them faster. So maybe 2 outposts put on the NW part of Marshall city north and northeast of the courthouse. 1 outpost at the abandoned warehouse behind Savini residence. 1 outpost at the Grange warehouse, and 1 more where you want, i had mine at the corner house SW of Savini. Basically this layout cutdown the far missions at Grange, Savini warehouse and Marshall but still gave me a pretty safe path from the trucking warehouse to Marshall so my scavangers I called to houses were pretty safe.

I still had one spawn spot I didn't like, the group of 6 houses far south of the warehouse that constantly spawned rescue, distraction, etc missions but nothing I could do about that i don't have enough outposts, plus it would take 2 outposts to cover that area so not worth it. Going to marshall all the time was more annoying since I had to dodge the debris at the bridge. If you play in other bases I'm sure you notice certain areas always coming up over and over. If you find an area a pain to do, Try putting up an outpost in annoying places far away, will probably eliminate many missions you do there making you drive much much less. After i started doing this, my infestation missions occured in 3 spots near my base all the time, very easy to get to and finish.

[Chris]

Basically outposts "help" them find the way back home, at least that's how they explained it when the xbox version came out, so having them all clustered around your base won't really assist them, spreading them out seems too. Mind it's also true that it may just be conicidence, but with just over 200 hours on pc & xbox now it does seem to help.

[MeDaDaddy]

Absolutely spread the outposts out but have some to cover approaches to home.

If a sim-controlled character has to path by any infestations in order to complete a journey, it seems that that is when they need help or go missing (morale factors too of course), so as the above reply indicates, having scattered outposts gives the npc-scavengers somewhere to run to.

The "ninja outpost" trick works a treat when moving into potential danger ... just search & clear the immediate area, radio Lilly, and hey Presto !

If I'm lazy, forgetful, or have over-indulged in that suspicious pharmaceutical cache you find in some bookshelves, then I may keep all outposts up and just remove one & wait for it to clear before planting it anew.

Sorry if TL;DR

[EolSunder]

Yep it really helps. of course you are much safer with 8 outposts around your base you won't get anything near you and makes looting easy, but that just means YOU are safe, but missions are more of a pain requiring lots of driving. Reversing this, and putting your outposts far away will make the area closer to you less safe, but keep you from those long distance missions. After you play a while you realize that having stuff near you just makes it very easy to head out your door and do missions (many of them i just run out to the spawn spots, don't even need a vehicle) that are only a building or 2 away from you.

I haven't played the other bases enough to see which far away spots are good for the other bases, but maybe some other people have played those bases a lot and know good spots for outposts to reduce far-away missions.

[MeDaDaddy]

Ohh ... and it may also be a good idea to drop an outpost near any squatters or survivor enclaves.

Makes it easier to drop *your* unwanted weapons into *their* locker en-masse, then take their ammo with the influence earned if you only have to run next door or across the road ;)

[EolSunder]

true but in the normal game you usually won't run into maxed storage until late in the game, and by then its not a big deal to load up a truck and your backpack with some cheap blunt weapons and drop them off at the nearest enclave storage cabinet, plus you might already have an outpost by then (like near marshall courthouse) thats near an enclave area. If im at trucking base I'll have already outposts at Grange enclave, courthouse enclave, probably another one so thats not a big deal since you'll already be near a bunch.

What i've done is not even worry about the 6 influence blunt weapons, i use them en-mass training my blunt users up and i just use them until they break, so no fuss no muss worrying about keeping them in storage. Later you'll have plenty of better weapons filling up your locker than the cheap 6 influence ones. I think they are 6, 18, 30, 60, 90? something like that, 5 tiers. So the cheap 6 influence blunt weapons i just smack over zombie heads until they break, then you won't have to worry about storing them somewhere.

[MeDaDaddy]

Of course, yes.

Been doing the Breakdown mainly :)

[EolSunder]

argg playing through regular game a 3rd time, ran into more bugs so far at the church than my previous 2 games combined... npcs not getting into vehicles, dump crashes, non-progression of the normal ed-doctor move base storyline.. oh well at least first 2 times was good, don't think i'll do a 3rd time going to switch to lifeline cya all later.