Need information about the ridiculous troll spawning near bases in Black Forest

[Dynamite Adams]

Since I like building, I've become pretty careful about troll spawns in the Black Forest. I generally scout around when I first arrive (and the spawns are fresh), map them out, and build camps near any spawns if I'm going to be building in the area.

When I first came to my current area, I had a troll approach me while I was cutting wood, about 50m from where I'd been building, and I've been trying to find the spawn since. After more than a week without the troll spawning (longer than I've ever seen for a troll to respawn), i ran all around the area, and couldn't find them, and finished up the woodcutting.

5 minutes later, I'm back at camp building; And I see the troll come stomping through the woods towards me.


I'm now very confused about the spawns in Valheim; More so than before, where I've seen an Abomination spawn within 15 meters of a workbench while I was in a settlement. I've also noticed that sometimes workbenches don't prevent troll spawns.

Is every copy I download cursed, or is there some ridiculous set of circumstances that make these things possible?

I know the game's mechanics are almost spiteful towards builders, but I really don't want to embark on another adventure if my endless caution is just going to be thrown in my face.

[Psojed]

Some other options.

- I completely forgot about Elder base:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2643985164

- Treehouse. You can use console commands to spawn an indestructible swap tree. Or mods to make any tree immortal. Or take the risk and build on top of destructible trees.

- Tame Wolves or Lox early and position them around your base.

- Fix your raised ground after building it. For example

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2532973343

[Gisbert]

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

Need information about the ridiculous troll spawning near bases in Black Forest

Most players don't understand that it's not the spawn mechanic you have to understand, but the mechanics of "player sounds" and the "aggro range/creature behaviour" in general.
Most enemies actually don't spawn right next to you, most were already there/far away, but were lured by the player.

For example, chopping wood is incredibly "loud", so the spawn rate plays a less important role, cause you're pulling the whole forest anyway. It is therefore important to keep an eye out after certain activities in more dangerous biomes.

Once you understand that plus some decent combat skills and you no longer need defense.
https://valheim.fandom.com/wiki/Creature_AI

Old, but principle still useful:
https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/n1ou6v/enemy_aggro_system_explained/?rdt=49960

Also this can be very helpful to understand at 9:21:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXoz1KS5w7M

Raids are exceptions, because in a raid all enemies spawn “alerted” and they flatten everything on the way to you if they can't “reach” you.

I only build a little groyne that only has to withstand one hit and be able for the player to jump over it. I only build this around the entrance area (as opponents can “see” me there and get "alerted").

Here is an example of my current run. (It was actually just a small fence the whole time, I just spruced it up because I'm pretty much done with the run and made it look nice)
https://imgur.com/a/2afO5cL#ch4RjtB
A Black Forest is directly to the right (had some Troll visitors, but not attacked the house once) / of course I lure them away as soon as I hear stomping.
Other than that little groyne in my front yard (and farming garden), I literally build no defense at all.

I think you understand roughly what I mean.
Regards and gl/

[adritheonly]

Vortex님이 먼저 게시:

adritheonly님이 먼저 게시:

Tad difficult for a new player in leather or underwear with maybe a crude bow and club. Yes, sure, one biome further Trolls become fun but this is not the case early days. I haven't played THAT long that I don't remember what that felt like or can sympathize.

The original guy had progressed past the meadows age, and is actively progressing through the Black Forest biome.

Still, I loathe rebuilding and learning to protect your builds early on means a lot more time to actually go out and beat Trolls for the leather/gold and still have a home to return to.

[knighttemplar1960]

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

knighttemplar1960님이 먼저 게시:

There are defined spawn points for trolls. They are usually near copper deposits and troll caves.

The big question is... are you using any mods? Mods can cause conflicts like the one you are mentioning. Work benches and other spawn prevention base items should work on troll spawn points. You can also troll proof your black forest bases by digging a trench around it or raising an earthen wall around it and digging pits at the gates.

Yeah, I'm using mods. I can't think of what would be breaking workbenches, but here's my list:

NoRainDamage
moregates
BetterWispLight
CraftableJute
BlacksmithTools
CackleheimBST
VoxxTrollRug
HelmetHairToggle
HoeRadius
LongerDays
DvergrPieces
TrashItems
LoyalSpears
MissingPieces
PlantEverything

More recent mods:

HeightMap
Comfortable
EquipmentAndQuickslots
SpeedyPaths
FIrstPersonMode
BuildRestrictionTweaks
TarCollector
PerfectPlacement
ShaderFix

To track down mod conflicts quickly use an old programmers trick. Disable half of them. If the problem is still there its in the enabled ones. If not its in the disabled ones. Use that info to enable/disable half of the remainder and test again. Repeat until you narrow it down to the mod causing the conflict. Play without that mod and let the mod author know about the conflict.

[adritheonly]

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

adritheonly님이 먼저 게시:

Yes, I'd just finished my very first homestead on the Mountains/Black Forest border when a Troll demolished everything. Prob the only time I ever despaired in this game and the last time. After that I learned to build my creations on raised ground with moats and bridges. The Trolls can visit and shout but that's about it.

That's awful, I'm sorry to hear that.

It was like 2000 hrs ago... I survived. If you don't like cliffs and don't enjoy rebuilding all the time I'm sure you can find a mod to alter the game to your liking.

[Dynamite Adams]

Psojed님이 먼저 게시:

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

Trolls aren't difficult for me to kill, but they can easily smash my base to pieces, and the game is pretty stupid about letting such large enemies approach so quietly.

Yeah, smashing your base to pieces is their goal. They also make sounds.

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

Does this mean that I'm basically being forced to build a huge ugly perimeter around every single non-meadows building I make from now on? ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ wack, Valheim. Master of disappointment.

Well, no.
First of all, you don't NEED a moat. Or wall. All you have to do is be active, that means, get your ass outside of your base every time there are enemies. And you'll have to do it quite often in Black Forest.

Another option is to spawnproof a large area around your base, so that nothing spawns in your area. That's why island bases are popular - they get this benefit without planting 100 hidden campfires.

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

Yeah, I'm using mods.

Add BetterWards, you can have a bubble as big as you like, hide it and it will prevent monsters from entering the area.

Ah, yes, a historical method of defense. Build a large fort, and then, when it's attacked, run outside into a field to lead the enemies away, so it doesn't get swiftly destroyed. A tactic that served the Romans through to Napoleon.

I know it's no secret that this game despises builders, but... Ya know, this game pretty much takes every chance it can to ♥♥♥♥ with builders.

The problem is, not all buildings can be exited in the 2-5 seconds it takes for a troll to appear and reach the base (assuming you happen to spot them the moment they pop out from behind the trees, given that they're dead silent unless they're standing on top of you.)

adritheonly님이 먼저 게시:

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

That's awful, I'm sorry to hear that.

It was like 2000 hrs ago... I survived. If you don't like cliffs and don't enjoy rebuilding all the time I'm sure you can find a mod to alter the game to your liking.

I've looked around quite a lot for enemy-balancing mods, both general and specific to certain enemies, and unfortunately found nothing.

I wouldn't mind rebuilding if rebuilding wasn't such tremendously finicky task. It could be interesting to rebuild sections differently if they're destroyed, but the finer details can take many tedious hours, and I'm not about that redoing that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ every time Valheim decides to pull a Valheim.

[Mr_Puddins]

Trolls love to spawn next to stone ruins in the Black Forest.

[Psojed]

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

Ah, yes, a historical method of defense. Build a large fort, and then, when it's attacked, run outside into a field to lead the enemies away, so it doesn't get swiftly destroyed. A tactic that served the Romans through to Napoleon.

My dude, I can do this attitude thing too.
"Ah yes, a person who is building forts complains when his forts get attacked. As historical fort builders do."

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

I know it's no secret that this game despises builders, but... Ya know, this game pretty much takes every chance it can to ♥♥♥♥ with builders.

Yeah, that's why they give you tools to deal with it.

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

The problem is, not all buildings can be exited in the 2-5 seconds it takes for a troll to appear and reach the base (assuming you happen to spot them the moment they pop out from behind the trees, given that they're dead silent unless they're standing on top of you.)

No. The problem is you.
You're the one not using the tools you were given. If you don't want to be attacked, then frikin' turn it off. There's a Passive enemies setting and a No raids setting.

[adritheonly]

Dynamite Adams님이 먼저 게시:

adritheonly님이 먼저 게시:

It was like 2000 hrs ago... I survived. If you don't like cliffs and don't enjoy rebuilding all the time I'm sure you can find a mod to alter the game to your liking.

I've looked around quite a lot for enemy-balancing mods, both general and specific to certain enemies, and unfortunately found nothing.

I wouldn't mind rebuilding if rebuilding wasn't such tremendously finicky task. It could be interesting to rebuild sections differently if they're destroyed, but the finer details can take many tedious hours, and I'm not about that redoing that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ every time Valheim decides to pull a Valheim.

Or, you could just learn to protect your bases properly and never have to worry about rebuilding them or why the game is suddenly acting strange after the addition of a 3d party mod. The beauty of this game is: whatever floats your boat is doable.

[knighttemplar1960]

@Dynamite Adams
Troll proofed base.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2973496906
Also troll proofed base (earthen walls in the background)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2981922207
Also troll proofed base (they can't climb the ladder to access the bridge).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3007558384

If you don't like the aesthetics of the earthen wall you can clad it in stone on the inside. Even though a log troll can clip through an earthen wall if the wall hides any viable targets he won't swing at the wall (just the gates) and he'll just pace back and forth outside trying to path to any targets he can hear. If you dig a pit in front of the gates he won't be able to swing at the gate either.

Earthen walls and dry moats are historic for the Viking age. They built trelleborgs for defense.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maptj8eJzgA
Instead of the modern bridges built for tourists and archaeologists they used drawbridges. Even catapults couldn't break through the earthen walls the only way to take out a trelleborg in that period was to tunnel under and light a huge bonfire to sap the walls and a wet moat stopped that tactic.

[electricdawn]

At my main base I have a troll spawn point pretty much right next to my dingy wood fence.

As long as I don't make too much noise, the troll will completely ignore me, as he can't see me. If I do make noise, he will be attracted by it and start smashing my spikes and fences. It's then I have to go out and kill it. Doesn't happen too often, though.

[BIT Bear]

Putting workbenches and (I think?) camp fires should limit mobs spawning quite a bit.

Also building in meadows is almost always "safe" and in the worst case you can decrease or remove raids entirely using world settings. Don't feel "ashamed" or anything about the way you like to play. We all have different flavors and that makes us beautiful creatures.