How to Reinforce a Base Properly

[Lance]

Title, My friends and me have been playing for the first time on hard mode and it seems like nothing we do really helps with keeping the locals out. We tried doors but they get busted real easy. We trapped the outside of the door with log drop traps and that sort of helped. Is it better to not have any door at all and just zip line in? I genuinely don't know how to properly build a base cause it seems like we're barely getting by.

[RequiemsRose]

When you say that you've tried doors, which kind? That little prefab door piece is incredibly flimsy. For outer doorways many prefer to use the door feature of the defensive wall. If you haven't figured that out yet, you would make a perimeter around your base with the defensive walls and then wherever you would like a door you would press R on the blueprint (by default mouse and keyboard settings at least). You can even make a double door/gate by doing the same on an adjacent portion of the wall. Beyond that, there are also defensive wall reinforcements that make the wall even stronger (but the reinforcement can't be applied to doors). On top of that, the log spikes can also be used on the outside of your wall to keep cannibals further back and less likely to damage the wall itself, though depending on the surrounding terrain those log spikes may be short enough to allow cannibals to get on top of them which can potentially give them a route into the base.

As for traps, they indeed help but each trap has slightly different uses. The deadfall can cause a lot of damage, including to mutants but also including damage to the player. The happy birthday trap is mostly effective against cannibals but can harm mutants as well, and once triggered it can act somewhat like a secondary wall. The noose trap is non-lethal, which can make it a great option in areas with a lot of player traffic (like the main door to a base) to prevent the player from getting injured; though the noose trap can only snag one enemy, and only cannibals, and those cannibals can get loose if not dealt with in a timely manner. Those ones are likely the most effective overall. The tripwire traps can also be super effective, but I personally prefer them a bit further out from the base so i dont trigger them myself by accident, both versions hurt, especially on hard. The leaf pile trap can also be an interesting one but requires an abundance of leaves, which isnt always easy early on but becomes more accessible as you continue playing. The good/bad part of leaf traps is they are highly flammable and will also domino effect if you have multiple of them overlapping and they can be triggered by flame projectiles like a molotov, fire arrows, or a flare gun shot. Expensive-ish and single use though, but a lot of fun and a decent "last line of defense" setup. There's also a trap that requires a tree to place it on, but i use that thing so rarely I dont even recall what they call it off the top of my head. The fact that it does need to be placed on a tree makes it rather limited in use. Lastly, not really a main trap strategy but more of a fun fact, the animal trap can also end up catching babies instead of just animals.

Though if you skip everything else in this text wall, at least take away that in The Forest, the best defense is often a good offense. As in, if you have gotten the hang of fighting reliably then just going out and facing the enemies directly can often be the most effective solution, and in some cases it may even be the only valid option (at least if you keep destruction on, which I assume is the point here).

[Hugh J nuss]

I do log barricades and I build on a peninsula since they can't swim. I also have a getaway boat just in case. Build a repair tool and have a dedicated repair man

[jswarpaint]

Turn building destruction on and off until you get the hang of it so you don't quickly loose all of your hard work...

OPTIONS > GAMEPLAY > Building destruction OFF you can do this without even getting out of the game ... Put COLOR GRADING on TEXAS ... COLOR GRADING is under GRAPHICS ...

TEXAS is like you have eaten your carrots...

[Lance]

I appreciate the replies yall, I think I'll try out a few different options when we play today. I didn't realize there was a door in the wall option. We had only been using the prefab door.

[Nerevar]

the answer is simple : you dont. simply build somewhere safe from attacks. like the ocean or on certain islands. or in the middle of a lake.

even the worm doesnt come over there. but it can if you lure it over of course.

turning building destruction off is cheating literally. i would only turn that off if you do random multiplayer as a host. so that randoms cannot destroy your base.

for enemies its a cheat tough. youre not supposed to have an indestructible base vs enemies clearly when you look at all the defensive structures you can make.

i build my base on hard survival in the ocean near the yacht. never had issues with enemies asideing when logging on land of course. but thats kinda fun to deal with.

[jswarpaint]

Originally posted by Nerevar:

the answer is simple : you dont. simply build somewhere safe from attacks. like the ocean or on certain islands. or in the middle of a lake.

even the worm doesnt come over there. but it can if you lure it over of course.

turning building destruction off is cheating literally. i would only turn that off if you do random multiplayer as a host. so that randoms cannot destroy your base.

for enemies its a cheat tough. youre not supposed to have an indestructible base vs enemies clearly when you look at all the defensive structures you can make.

i build my base on hard survival in the ocean near the yacht. never had issues with enemies asideing when logging on land of course. but thats kinda fun to deal with.

Regarding building construction off .. if I'm gone from my base and in a cave piddling around etc. or maybe building something elsewhere . blah blah blah can they come will they come destroy a base I am not even at ... ??

[Nerevar]

Originally posted by 76561198117833656:

Originally posted by Nerevar:

the answer is simple : you dont. simply build somewhere safe from attacks. like the ocean or on certain islands. or in the middle of a lake.

even the worm doesnt come over there. but it can if you lure it over of course.

turning building destruction off is cheating literally. i would only turn that off if you do random multiplayer as a host. so that randoms cannot destroy your base.

for enemies its a cheat tough. youre not supposed to have an indestructible base vs enemies clearly when you look at all the defensive structures you can make.

i build my base on hard survival in the ocean near the yacht. never had issues with enemies asideing when logging on land of course. but thats kinda fun to deal with.

Regarding building construction off .. if I'm gone from my base and in a cave piddling around etc. or maybe building something elsewhere . blah blah blah can they come will they come destroy a base I am not even at ... ??

no. objects out of render range simply dont exist for enemies.

enemies only attack structures when its fully rendered or the player is inside or lured them with a campfire.

and some structures have a super low target priority that enemies pretty much fully ignore them despite beeing able to damage and reach them. free standing zipline gates are such a case for example. only mutants can damage them in the first place but it takes them forever to down one and they never target it unless you as a player are literally standing right on it so they target you. and thats just one example of many.

the outside world is fully unloaded while youre in a cave btw. hence why you see LOADING in the corner each time you enter and exist the cave system anywhere. only exception is the sinkhole.

the only part of the outside that stays loaded is the are right outside the entrance of the cave you went in. so you can see if its day or night for example.

if you build your base in a heavy patrol area like kings hill of course youll see ALOT more attacks more often than other places.

for the start i always recommenced a houseboat and fully kitting it out as a mobile base. this way the base is fully safe out of reach of anything until you have the supplys and found the right spot to actually build a big base.

enemies ignore animal traps for example aswell.

log sleds and gliders are fully indestructible by default aswell. enemies cannot destroy them. however they CAN push them around like a log on the floor. so they could toss your gilder or log sled down a cliffside but not actually destroy it.

the only way to destroy these is the hole cutter. the glider can even be recoverd from water. the sled is lost and must be destroyed if it falls into water as you cannot recover it from there as you simply cannot interact with it in deep water.

lakes are also a good place to build. enemies will either stay away or drown themselfs trying to get to your base. worm excluded of course. it doesnt drown.

sharks only attack players. they ignore all structures.

[jswarpaint]

This is great info

[threethreethree]

To "reinforce" your base? Traps. Traps baby, traps. yea...and yea. I'm a nutty trap fanboy lol! I don't even build walls at all, and so forget doors too. With the material and time for building walls...build traps. And then a few more traps. After that...build a few more traps too hehe. Is still about the same material and time as building useless ugly walls. And traps are more fun. Traps are like a wall that fights back for you. With how i utilize traps, I can practically just stand and watch mutants and cannibals kill themselves by the dozens, while i just stand and watch with no fear, doing nothing but running around resetting the traps whenever they're triggered. Place traps randomly, and have stick boxes around full and ready for resetting traps.

[jswarpaint]

Originally posted by threethreethree:

To "reinforce" your base? Traps. Traps baby, traps. yea...and yea. I'm a nutty trap fanboy lol! I don't even build walls at all, and so forget doors too. With the material and time for building walls...build traps. And then a few more traps. After that...build a few more traps too hehe. Is still about the same material and time as building useless ugly walls. And traps are more fun. Traps are like a wall that fights back for you. With how i utilize traps, I can practically just stand and watch mutants and cannibals kill themselves by the dozens, while i just stand and watch with no fear, doing nothing but running around resetting the traps whenever they're triggered. Place traps randomly, and have stick boxes around full and ready for resetting traps.

This is what my current restart is lacking I have been enjoying to much bulding and designing my ... "crib" I have zero traps duh .. and am getting frustrating constantly fighting and burning and redoing my armor .. all I really needs is traps and sticks .... then I can make a bone fence ect. ...lol

[Nerevar]

of note regarding sharks : dont even try to build like a CAGE for a shark^^ i tryed that once. while they swim sharks simply have no collision aside with the player character. they swim right straight trough any other object even rock walls like it isnt there at all.

building at sea or islands is still by far the safest place. its more tedious to get logs over there of course unless you can make a zipline reach the island/waterbase from shore where trees are. then its just as easy but more safe.

[william_es]

I used doorways in my outer walls, but I "encapsulated" them in rock walls. I left a super small gap in a rock walls wide enough for character to fit through. then put a door behind the gap.

Then I build a sort of zig zag maze of parallel walls in front of that. A wall just a bit out from the main walls, that's closed at one end. Then it turns 180 at the open end and there's a 3rd wall in front of that. At the very end, the wall angles in diagonally to almost reach the main wall again. The mutants are completely confused by this, they can't seem to path through this mini-maze at all. Never had a single mutant get inside this maze ever, and nothing ever reached the door.


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2854423200
The door seen from inside base.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2854423137

View from right outside door. The stick fence is so I can see and shoot cannibals right outside exit.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2854423101

View from above the mini-maze.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2854423077

Right outside exit, about to enter maze.

[jswarpaint]

This guy set up the defenses at Stalingrad ...