Best place for a base?

[DeadWeight]

Hey all, I have a problem with finding a good base/shelter for my character. I have tried using the evac shelter, just boarding it all up and putting traps all over, but they are generally too far away from towns to make getting resources useful. I’ve tried an actual house on the outside of town but somehow monsters spawn in there, even with all the windows boarded up. I’ve thought about building my own shelter, just building a small cabin in the woods surrounded by spike pits and beartraps but have never been able to actually get it built.

On the other hand I’ve tried NOT to have a shelter and just move from town to town and get what food/water/gas I need before moving on (I really like motorcycles for this).

But I have yet to find a really good place to set up shop. So What is the best place to use for a shelter? Or is it a bad idea to have a permanent base? Is it better to just keep moving from town to town?

Thanks!

~Dead~

[vache]

It is all based on your play style. I found an evac shelter midway between 3 cities that I set up as my home base for a while, but after a certain amount of time you explore enough and need to move on. A lot of people find vehicles to set up as their mobile bases. Sometimes homes with basements make good shelters, they are usually on the outskirts of towns, and as long as you have a means of seeing inside them, they can be pretty safe, and some even have food/guns/beds. LMOE shelters are nice, but rare, and usually even further away from towns than evac shelters.

[Weyrling]

My preferred base is a mobile one, and even the basic design is extremely expensive in materials.

Before I manage to get the Behemoth up and running, I usually make a bunch of diagonal pit trap formations around a house at the furthest edge of town, I also make a couple of these in ‘alleys’ between houses and such so I can escape from hordes much more easily. I can easily escape (or murder) zombie dogs and hulks as long as I see them early enough.

Primarily the issues are making sure you’re alone before you start digging, and to not have anything directly behind you (when running away), as they’ll follow your movements. If they’re 2-3 tiles behind you, pause for a moment while there’s a pit directly between you, and they’ll jump in every time.

Unless it’s an animal tracking you by scent, they seem to be a bit more clever about it, Bears especially. Just throw a rock at them and trick them into the pit when they get pissed off.

The best trap style I’ve found is 3 rows deep like this:

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One major issue with Dynamic spawning (As implemented) is that if you can’t see the area a monster can spawn there, so if it’s the middle of the night, you’re asleep, and you can only see 1 tile away…
Note that even in static spawn mode, wildlife spawns dynamically (Including packs of wolves, Bears, spiders, etc). A trick I find useful is to sleep in the middle of the shelter or house, as there is (or atleast seems to be) less chance of spontaneous midnight wolf attacks.

[Aggrons_shell]

The place i found must’ve been a godsend for a base.
I found a cabin a map tile or 2 away from a road, which is pretty good. Next, following a road one way i rand into a nice suberb full of yummy houses and far away from any shops. Of course, a few of them were made into nests by black widows, but nonetheless it was an amazing base.
But in reality, you have to be ready to travel a bit. You want a base walking distance (a few ingame hours, maybe less) of a town. Otherwise Mr.Zombie-Hulk will become your new alarm clock.

[TaintedHolyWater]

I recommend the starting evac shelter. If not as a permanent base but as a good one until then, just close the blinds (no need to board anything) and it’s set. That is, provided you are away from fungus/treffids of course.

You’re safely out of town. CHECK
No animals can knock down your door. CHECK
If you leave just before nightfall you can still get you full night of looting. CHECK
Plenty of space for all of your hoarding needs. CHECK
A permanent light to read by (computer) if you’re too crippled to go out that night. CHECK
Plenty of open space around you to make a scrap yard so you can build your iron abomination. CHECK
A (possible) NPC that stands there and gives you a daily gift. CHECK… until you kill him in a freak, grenade related accident for his pants.
Plenty of wood and nails (benches/counters) for other construction needs. CHECK

If this doesn’t suit your early game needs I don’t know what to suggest other then a mobile home. Welding a few cars together makes for plenty of hoarding space and you can easily make a separate walled in section to use as a bedroom where nothing will eat you in your sleep. Just remember to have plenty of gas and extra wheels. You’ll know why when you need them.

[DeadWeight]

Those sound like good ideas! I’ll try that, make/find a cabin way in the woods and build a grid pattern of pitfalls, maybe some spike pits or bear-traps too. Try and find a quad and make a little shed for it to protect from random animal attacks/acid rain… if that even damages vehicles I do not know if it will.

Evac stations do seem like a good start, I may just heavily defend that.

[Ferodaktyl]

i’ve almost never had any trouble with outskirts houses as bases. Not even bothered to board or tape the windows, just close the curtains. Except for a rare spider/cougar materializing inside the house now and then, these are well suited for easier loot access and transportation until you can get a working motorized vehicle. Endless water from the toilets, break a few windows of the houses nearby and gather the harvest of dead meat each morning, plenty of construction materials at the moment’s notice, etc. This of course with static spawn.
Nothing like getting up in the morning, opening the curtains and staring your next fresh lunch in the eyes through a thin sheet of glass, the ritual cooking and coffee making behind the house, followed by a round of hunting/gathering around the town.

[Iosyn]

[ol][li]Town outskirts house[/li]
[li]Public Works[/li]
[li]sewage treatment[/li]
[li]Mines[/li]
[li]military outposts/bunkers/science labs[/li]
[li]Forest Cabin/Farms[/li]
[li]Evac shelter[/li][/ol]

All great choices. Watch out for military outposts though, walking turrets can be scary.

My first few playthroughs I used the evac shelter as a base, but it’s a bit small for all my gear-- and doing resource runs can be a pain. At least if you choose a house on the outskirts there’s plenty of furniture nearby to disassemble for resources and food.

[i2amroy]

Personally I like to open up labs and then construct a wall/door combination across the entrance. Plenty of room combined with the ability to either go out to the town for raiding or brave the lab levels below me keeps things interesting and provides a nice method of gathering CBM’s to go with my mutations.

[KA101]

Personally I like to open up labs and then construct a wall/door combination across the entrance. Plenty of room combined with the ability to either go out to the town for raiding or brave the lab levels below me keeps things interesting and provides a nice method of gathering CBM’s to go with my mutations.

A Deep Pit moat tends to stop most trespassers and gathered wildlife pretty well, last time I had one. Save a 2x4 to cross.

(favorite base=Lab with a quarter-dorm on the surface level; rest is arguable)

[drake1storm]

My backpack or a trunk on my bike.

Wasteland wanderer ftw.

[halberdsturgeon]

I usually use a LMOE shelter. But any ‘base’ is mainly just a central loot storage depot for me, I move around too much to be able to sleep in one place every night.

[Iosyn]

I usually use a LMOE shelter. But any ‘base’ is mainly just a central loot storage depot for me, I move around too much to be able to sleep in one place every night.

ah, that’s kinda sad. Clearing out a town is fun as hell. LMOE shelters ARE a great base though, shame they’re pretty hard to find.

[Nopkar]

I’m fairly nomadic in my travels, never too long in one place. however, houses on the outskirts serve me the best with evac shelters just under that. everything else is usually too far removed to be of use.

[prytoclasm]

In the beginning: a house in the outskirts. Sometimes, if lucky, a military bunker.
Later on, if everything goes fine: a mobile base, fueled up with 4 - 5 fuel tanks, 2 engines and good armor.

It’s now even easier to get enough frames and metal for fortified mobile bases.

[Nopkar]

I foresee them nerfing the amount of gas you can pull out of gas stations…limiting mobile bases ‘a bit’

protip: settling a cave is a BAD idea, as well a mansions. mansions have a nasty habit of spawning a bear party in a room while you’re away. it’s bad for your health.

[TonicEngine]

I found a gas station out of town and it couldn’t be a better base–the toilet’s a source of water, the back room and the racks are a great place to store loot, and there are trees next door. Plus: gas.

Gas pumps seem to have a % chance to break every time you use 'em, but I don’t know if that’s a new thing.

Farms, specifically barns, are great places. No zeds to bother you, and until you upgrade it into a behemoth, you can fit your vehicle in the barn. Once you’ve closed both barn doors, nothing can get to you. Plus, free food in the fields and water in the toilet.

I used to use caves, but dealing with the lack of light is a hassle, and light strips are sucky. Now I want to clean out an office block and turn it into a fortress.

[DeadWeight]

What is the best game mode for this static or dynamic? I can never remember to difference but I use the one that spawns Z’s later, but I may change it cause pretty much after 9 everytime I break a door or window there is like 10+ Z’s that show up by the time i’m out, it’s really annoying >.< I can raid a couple houses before a huge mob appears, maybe having them on the map and not spawn to noise is a better play idea?

And one other thing, I try like taking constuction, trap, archery, survival etc. so I can just live in the woods, I think this is a good plan, just cut down trees and build a cabin and arrows, hunt deer and wolfs, seems like a good idea yes?

[Crisis]

[quote=“DeadWeight, post:18, topic:1256”]What is the best game mode for this static or dynamic? I can never remember to difference but I use the one that spawns Z’s later, but I may change it cause pretty much after 9 everytime I break a door or window there is like 10+ Z’s that show up by the time i’m out, it’s really annoying >.< I can raid a couple houses before a huge mob appears, maybe having them on the map and not spawn to noise is a better play idea?

And one other thing, I try like taking constuction, trap, archery, survival etc. so I can just live in the woods, I think this is a good plan, just cut down trees and build a cabin and arrows, hunt deer and wolfs, seems like a good idea yes?[/quote]

Personally I’d say Static is the better of the two, you can clear out whole towns without worrying that Zombies will respawn, with Dynamic they’ll spawn in big groups from outta’ nowhere in areas you’ve probably cleared before.

[vultures]

Yeah, just figured out FEMA camps can be used for good fortifying purposes later in the game. One could turn it into a keep, with several obstacle layers surrounding the building. Also, those camps are often found in the clear so one could make a run for it real easy if things get fairly messy.