Make bases great.

[Reeva!]

Idk if devs read these posts, but if they do:

Please, give high-end bases 1 entrance. Low end bases with multiple entrances is fine, it was never meant to be a fort to hold off a zombie apocalypse multiple times per day.

But Whitney Field. This place has a built-in facility that can't be modded; it exists purely to call in hordes or dull background-noise. This is the best influence farming base in the game, and it has built-in defences for this purpose.

Some problems though.
- The base has 4 chain-link gates that may as well be made of wet paper in a monsoon.
- 1 of those gates has 4 sections of fencing without barbed wire, the gate's section itself also does not have barbed wire, meaning even the gate is a decoration.
- 7 sections of fencing at the parking lots do not have barbed wire.
- 2 gates have 6 sections of fencing without barbed wire. The gates, again, have no barbed wire either, more decorations.
- The last gate does not have barbed wire either, it's very close to the supply locker, which itself has a big wooden gazebo blocking people inside from shooting through the fence. Not only can enemies hop over the fence, but you can't defend that gate properly. The only way to defend that gate is to shoot through it, which is impossible unless the gate is open because *Bullets Do Not Go Through A Closed Chain-link Fence*.
- Next to the last gate, there are 6 sections of fencing, no barbed wire. On the other side of the fence, there's built-in fortifications! Nice! Except... due to having no barbed wire, Ferals can literally jump on top of defenders... Plus, the way the scaffolding is set up, the player cannot defend the gate; you have no LoS. These fortifications are bordering on decoration.
- Another 4 sections of fencing without barbed wire.

Now, keep in mind, this is Whitney Field. It's the deadliest base to defend due to hordes constantly crashing against it. This has got to be one of the worst bases to defend in the game. The other ones are still a nightmare to defend, hell, some of them can even feel worse at times. But it's not because the zombies;
They're Not The Problem.
The way the bases are made is the problem. On some of the chain-link fences in Whitney Fields, there is barbed wire, it's just dangling vertically, not protecting the fence from being vaulted.

I have personally build a Sniper Tower that Builder Leaders get access to in the back, and I built 4 Red Talon Watchtowers in all small outdoor slots. It doesn't work. It feels better if my people are on the ground, because they can actually shoot at things that vaulted the fence. Those towers are decorative in Whitney Fields.

These bases 'need' to be made better. You can keep the layouts, all of them, just give me 1 proper entrance to a high-end base with all walls defended. I'll even take 2 entrances. But looking at a fence meant to separate you from the hells outside, and seeing a dangling piece of barbed wire not protecting a section, is insane.

I know you need balance. Believe me I've played many unbalanced games. But I also had more fun in those games. Do we not play games to have fun? Cuz this current system is utterly chaotic anti-fun. Once Ferals vault the fence, we can't defend them, we're stuck shooting at the ground trying to kill them, in the meantime all 4 gates are being breached, flooding corridors with too many zombies to count.

Please. I'm begging you. This could be criminal amounts of fun. Currently, it's too ramshackle and all over the place for no reason other than balance. It really takes away from the game's premise, no one in their right minds would setup a base like this, nevermind leave it in disrepair pretending it's fine.

edit: I didn't mention that letting your community members kill ferals without taking part in it doesn't garner you influence. I'll take what I can get, baby steps is good.

[bunny de fluff]

Block climb able section with car.

[Tax evasion]

Originally posted by Reeva!:

Please, give high-end bases 1 entrance. Low end bases with multiple entrances is fine, it was never meant to be a fort to hold off a zombie apocalypse multiple times per day.

These bases 'need' to be made better. You can keep the layouts, all of them, just give me 1 proper entrance to a high-end base with all walls defended. I'll even take 2 entrances. But looking at a fence meant to separate you from the hells outside, and seeing a dangling piece of barbed wire not protecting a section, is insane.

I know you need balance. Believe me I've played many unbalanced games. But I also had more fun in those games. Do we not play games to have fun? Cuz this current system is utterly chaotic anti-fun. Once Ferals vault the fence, we can't defend them, we're stuck shooting at the ground trying to kill them, in the meantime all 4 gates are being breached, flooding corridors with too many zombies to count.

You raised some fair concerns but proposed really bad solutions, end-game base with only 1 entrance and has barbed wires all over its walls is going to be a really busted and OP base. Why? Because players can just block that 1 entrance using a vehicle and everyone inside that base will be unreachable for zombies to hit while the survivors inside get to shoot the zombies like dummy target practice. Furthermore, if you are being chased by hordes outside of the base and you want to get inside base base to save yourself but the base only has 1 entrance and unfortunately you're in the opposite side of where the entrance is supposed to be, that means you have to go around the huge base just to get in. The more reasonable solution would be, to have 3+ entrances but has barbed wires all over the walls.

Farmland Compound base on Trumbull Valley has barbed wires all over its walls. It's an end-game base but it only requires you to have at least 6 survivors (instead of 8), has decent amount of large & small slots for you to build and has THE best location out of all end-game bases in the game as it's located right in the middle of the map.

Originally posted by Reeva!:

I have personally build a Sniper Tower that Builder Leaders get access to in the back, and I built 4 Red Talon Watchtowers in all small outdoor slots. It doesn't work. It feels better if my people are on the ground, because they can actually shoot at things that vaulted the fence. Those towers are decorative in Whitney Fields.

Having a single watchtower is already a mistake, but to go and use all your small/large slots to build watchtowers (even if they're all red talon watchtowers), man. That is THE worst thing you could do to your base and your NPC survivors' lives. Watchtower will endangers NPCs that are inside it (especially during sieges), this is due to sod2's AI being too dumb to navigate around the watchtower.

Watch the breakdown of sod2's AI behaviour when "interacting" with the watchtower here:
https://youtu.be/xOW69dXns4E?si=xaJAbSqtPkFp3Yfc

[Reeva!]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

Block climb able section with car.

I read about this before, but I'll have to mess around with it a little bit. The parking lot's fences are very close to the actual parking spaces, so if I leave a car there to block off entry points, the car for some reason spawns into the parking lot, even if another car is already occupying it. This only happens if I move too far away from the base, so I can keep putting the cars in place if I know I'll need it. It is just annoying though.

I used a van to do it, maybe a smaller car won't spawn into the parking lot. I assume it's got something to do with the vehicle being "Parked", but will faff around a bit more.

[Reeva!]

Originally posted by Tax evasion:

Originally posted by Reeva!:

Please, give high-end bases 1 entrance. Low end bases with multiple entrances is fine, it was never meant to be a fort to hold off a zombie apocalypse multiple times per day.

These bases 'need' to be made better. You can keep the layouts, all of them, just give me 1 proper entrance to a high-end base with all walls defended. I'll even take 2 entrances. But looking at a fence meant to separate you from the hells outside, and seeing a dangling piece of barbed wire not protecting a section, is insane.

I know you need balance. Believe me I've played many unbalanced games. But I also had more fun in those games. Do we not play games to have fun? Cuz this current system is utterly chaotic anti-fun. Once Ferals vault the fence, we can't defend them, we're stuck shooting at the ground trying to kill them, in the meantime all 4 gates are being breached, flooding corridors with too many zombies to count.

You raised some fair concerns but proposed really bad solutions, end-game base with only 1 entrance and has barbed wires all over its walls is going to be a really busted and OP base. Why? Because players can just block that 1 entrance using a vehicle and everyone inside that base will be unreachable for zombies to hit while the survivors inside get to shoot the zombies like dummy target practice. Furthermore, if you are being chased by hordes outside of the base and you want to get inside base base to save yourself but the base only has 1 entrance and unfortunately you're in the opposite side of where the entrance is supposed to be, that means you have to go around the huge base just to get in. The more reasonable solution would be, to have 3+ entrances but has barbed wires all over the walls.

Farmland Compound base on Trumbull Valley has barbed wires all over its walls. It's an end-game base but it only requires you to have at least 6 survivors (instead of 8), has decent amount of large & small slots for you to build and has THE best location out of all end-game bases in the game as it's located right in the middle of the map.

Originally posted by Reeva!:

I have personally build a Sniper Tower that Builder Leaders get access to in the back, and I built 4 Red Talon Watchtowers in all small outdoor slots. It doesn't work. It feels better if my people are on the ground, because they can actually shoot at things that vaulted the fence. Those towers are decorative in Whitney Fields.

Having a single watchtower is already a mistake, but to go and use all your small/large slots to build watchtowers (even if they're all red talon watchtowers), man. That is THE worst thing you could do to your base and your NPC survivors' lives. Watchtower will endangers NPCs that are inside it (especially during sieges), this is due to sod2's AI being too dumb to navigate around the watchtower.

Watch the breakdown of sod2's AI behaviour when "interacting" with the watchtower here:
https://youtu.be/xOW69dXns4E?si=xaJAbSqtPkFp3Yfc

Yeah what I suggested isn't really balanced, your version of having entrances with fully secure walls is better. I would take that any day over what's currently available.

I'll have to try Trumbull Valley again sometime, I didn't spend too long there in Campaign mode. That seems like something I'd enjoy.

Dw about the towers, I deconstructed them the moment I saw what was happening. I didn't know only 6 survivors can be present at the same time, giving you way less defence than you think you have. That video was very helpful, will definitely be minmaxing defence, horde wave defence is really fun for me.