How do people do gatehouses?

[daggaz]

So it's often agreed that a moat/raised earth wall or combo thereof is the most effective base defense, but I've seen very little discussion about gatehouses. After all, you've got to get in and out of your base, too.

How are people approaching this problem? I know some of you just jump over your moat, but I don't much like this solution because a) what if you miss, or b) what if you don't have enough stamina and finally c) some day mobs will probably jump, too. What else works well?

Currently building a swamp exploration/smelting base on a tiny meadows biome consisting of a boulder in the ocean connected to the swamp by a small field of grass. The building is on the boulder, surrounded mostly by ocean, but the gatehouse seems a good idea considering I can shoot swamp mobs from that rock.

[zacharyb]

I build 3 horizontal wooden poles all relatively close to eachother but not touching, basically the width of the carts wheels, and put them a little underground, but only a few inches or so from the surface. That allows you to walk across it just fine even with a cart if you walk on the middle plank, and it seems that the AI is not able to walk across it and they have a hard time damaging it. I use the regular wooden poles not the core wood ones.

I know that's not a gatehouse but it does solve 2 of the problems that you listed, possibly even 3 since if the moat is wide enough the enemy might not be able to jump across it.

[burn]

check it out my gate house on the lake!

https://i.imgur.com/CSkpLs7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/aTlPTiJ.jpg

https://www.nexusmods.com/valheim/mods/463

[daggaz]

That's interesting. I didn't realize the pathing restrictions were that bad.

[rexpiscator]

I'll either leave a small 2 panel wide earth walkway over the moat, gate doors on outside set.

Or, I'll do an entire moat, with no landbridge and build a covered bridge/gatehouse affair. Definitely need a terrain barrier to keep the NPC away!

with another set of doors 2 floor panels away over the bridge, makes for a good 'boar tamer' area...just get them to chase you into camp, shut outside doors, jump over, feed boar, chillaximo-out while it tames, ;), multipurpose structures, FTW!! When tamed, build a nice stick chute to get them into the pens, or I push them into the moat, slap some small doors across the trench, instant boar mating pens, separated to keep them reproducing!

[zacharyb]

Originally posted by daggaz:

That's interesting. I didn't realize the pathing restrictions were that bad.

They indeed are, like I said though the wooden planks do have a bit of space inbetween them so that may be what stops the mobs from being able to walk across them, but interesting enough you can walk across it perfectly fine, just as good as a regular wood flooring tbh.

If walking a cart across it you do have to get it right otherwise the spacing might be wrong and one of the carts wheels may fall off the side, but you can still usually pull the cart back onto the bridge.
Also running across the bridge with the cart will sometimes cause damage to the cart or bridge from the cart but honestly not a big deal.

[daggaz]

Originally posted by Ildryn:

Don't need a gatehouse. We just have a bridge.

You dont get mobs of trolls just walking across and trashing your stuff?

[asanger]

For the length of time raids last the stone wall are enough of a defence.
I kill the giants and the drakes raid and ignore the rest.

For other regular mobs, they don't attack the walls unless they aggro you so it's easy enough to stay hidden.

[N0ma13]

We just have a door in our wall. Takes the same space so you can fully enclose then tear one section down and place a door.

Once we move into plains and build our new home I plan to build a standard medieval gatehouse simply because it looks good.
Got our boat loaded with stone and necessities and ready to go start claiming land tonight.

Edit*
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2434504110

[Blud]

Check out the guide section. There is a whole guide about bridge building and those that mobs can't cross

[daggaz]

Thanks, will check that out.

Welp, this game is definitely not dwarf fortress, where your entire fort can get slaughtered by an army of demons that crawl in through a toilet seat you forgot to put down.

[asanger]

You can defend against trolls completely by planting a tree wall around your base to stop them getting near the walls.

[jonnin]

the bottom stair is floating about 3 inches, just enough to make you jump onto it. The enemy can't manage it. I do have an entryway but its not accessible to the enemy. They could bust up my staircase, but have not so far. For reference my raised terrain where my home starts (behind me mostly) is about 1 troll tall. Because the land slopes down from there, though, the stairs need to be extra long.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2419902496

[daggaz]

Theres like a tiny gap just past your guy there, yeah? Maaaan that's some expensive pathing AI if it is checking pixel by pixel.

[rexpiscator]

I replanted Fir seeds around my outer moat wall making a nice ring[and secondary ring offset in the spaces of the first] of 'Black Forest' in the meadows[much like the above suggestion] hoping to mitigate Troll event damage...seemed to bring back some boars and deer that seemed to disappear from deforestation near the Spawn Altar ring.... I wonder if that is considered when they spawn, the flora density?? I can shoot deer from the palisade wall near the gates now instead of leaving to hunt, a bonus as well...