Is there any real point to fortifying a house?

[Theinsomniac]

Recently having fortified a house on the outskirts of the city to use as a safehouse in between raids I’ve noticed that there’s pretty much no zombies that ever make their way towards it.
So is there any real reason to fortify a house that’s in an area that’s already safe enough for you to be able to spend the time fortifying it?

[Blaze]

I’m afraid not. Aside from the rare horde wandering in (and that requires making lots of noise) and z-animals; once you clear out the zombies nearby, they won’t come back (unless you use dynamic spawn).

[kevin.granade]

For now Blaze is correct, we’re working on it though.

[halberdsturgeon]

Gameplay-wise, no, it’s pointless. This is why I’ve stopped playing anything but nomadic wanderers.

[secretfire]

This does NOT seem to be the case in the wilderness, however. If you take anything in the wilderness (gas station, random library near a wildlife station, cabin, anything) - even on the latest version, eventually endless neverending swarms of wildlife will come to get you, and you’ll eventually die. Fortifying the stuff increases the chance you’ll wake up.

It seems significantly easier to survive inside a town then in the wilderness, largely due to fantasy wildlife (zombears, zombdogs, moose, wolves (which are not actually aggressive, coyotes are much more dangerous) zombie mooses …I’m 99.99999% moose are not anywhere in the northeast anyways, at least I’ve never heard of any anywhere remotely near where I live, unless there’s some rare place somewhere where they are brought in for hunters), and fantasy weather (acidic rain that melts your flesh).

[ChristopherWalken]

The acid rain is part of the bleak futuristic setting.

I’m assuming bases will make more and more sense as NPCs get better.

[HeadWar]

I’m 99.99999% moose are not anywhere in the northeast anyways

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moose#North_America

[jokaro]

Wouldn’t it be nice that if a town is cleared of all zombies it will turn into widerness spawn and regular wildlife and z-animals will start spawning.

[Mrnocamera]

fantasy weather (acidic rain that melts your flesh).

Acid rain exists.
And it could probably slowly melt your flesh if you have thin skin, I guess.

But the RL acid rain would probably be more like acidic drizzle to a person.

[secretfire]

No, RL acid rain is NOT like acidic drizzle. No, RL acid rain has NOTHING to do with acid rain in the game. Where in the world do you people all live? Its like you think the northeast is some magical fantasyland. RL acid rain is -completely harmless- to everything biological. Its a geological chemical process caused by water with non-neutral PH. That does not mean it literally dissolves you. It does cause increased corrosion of static structures (paint, bridges, statues, buildings, etc) - but has -NO EFFECT- on you or me.

From wikipedia:

Human health effects

Acid rain does not directly affect human health. The acid in the rainwater is too dilute to have direct adverse effects. However, the particulates responsible for acid rain (sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) do have an adverse effect. Increased amounts of fine particulate matter in the air do contribute to heart and lung problems including asthma and bronchitis.[34]
Other adverse effects
Effect of acid rain on statues

Acid rain can damage buildings, historic monuments, and statues, especially those made of rocks, such as limestone and marble, that contain large amounts of calcium carbonate. Acids in the rain react with the calcium compounds in the stones to create gypsum, which then flakes off.

CaCO3 (s) + H2SO4 (aq) is in equilibrium with CaSO4 (s) + CO2 (g) + H2O (l)

The effects of this are commonly seen on old gravestones, where acid rain can cause the inscriptions to become completely illegible. Acid rain also increases the corrosion rate of metals, in particular iron, steel, copper and bronze.[35][36]

That is not to say that after the apocalypse the Earth cannot be terraformed in such a way by mysterious forces from beyond space and time (or whatever). It is not to say its a bad mechanic. However it is, as implemented, fantasy weather.

[AseaHeru]

Well, there is all the shit we are currently doing to the climate.

[CylonOven]

I’m afraid not. Aside from the rare horde wandering in (and that requires making lots of noise) and z-animals; once you clear out the zombies nearby, they won’t come back (unless you use dynamic spawn).

So when playing on Dynamic maps, there is a point to fortifications? How much harder is building a base with dynamic spawn on?

[Umbra_Vorago]

Yes there’s a point to fortifying, I’m really quite unsure as to why people are saying there isn’t. If you move from place to place, you’ll be fine, but setting up in one area for a long time, eventually you’ll regret not putting up enough defences. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’m constantly under attack from Zombears, Zombie Dogs, Wolves, Spiders, Moose (Meese sounds better as a plural.) Currently I’m held up in a fire station, planning to surround it with all kinds of turrets, traps and obstacles due to the sheer numbers of enemies, anyone who says there’s no point fortifying needs to play my save world in an attempt to change their mind.

That also said, I believe acid rain in the game should dissolve bodies. I mean I have corpses littered everywhere, some from me going on a killing spree, a lot from the acid rain. You’d think that such powerful acid rain would desolve the bodies, I mean if you butcher a creature and leave it the meat rots away in time, why not the bodies? Why does the acid rain just melt the bodies like it does to our flesh?

[Belteshazzar]

Actually bodies, organic materials in particular are shockingly durable when it comes to acid. Contrary to the old legends of the mob melting people in sulfuric acid you’d actually want strong bases like Hydroxides to do anything to flesh (acids would only ruin bones, and teeth and metals.)

My university uses an enormous tank of Hydroxide to melt down diseased carcases and other biological research waste (the resulting brown slurry which is pumped through a sprinkler over a fallow field.)

To note, if you ‘were’ experiencing vast rains of acid anything like the game you are NOT going to survive. Most plant and insect life (excepting oddball extremophiles like Sphagnum moss, certain fungi and alga species) will simply die from pH imbalances causing a food chain collapse.

Not even considering the effect of breathing clouds of acidic steam wafting around as the landscape broils away in exothermic reactions. Our nervous system is heavily reliant on calcium ions so, while you wouldn’t melt per-say, you would die an excruciatingly painful death as the calcium is leached from your blood and your neurons begin misfiring like mad.

Scavengers like wild dogs, zombies, rat swarms, crabs, and even stranger things would be more appropriate (and interesting) corpse disposal.

[Alpha]

Hmmm, Well it has role play purposes, but in game im pretty sure its useless you are attempting to clear the city in a course of a couple days and intend to store your weapons and such near the center of town for some odd reason, then maybe a few turrets here and there, along with a few traps couldnt hurt.
As stated earlier i imagine after NPCs become intelligent than fortification will be necessary, Imagine standing around your temp base and having acid rain pass over, 5 npcs come barreling through the unfortified windows, shoot you take all your shit and be out soon after… This wouldn’t be very pleasant.

[DeviateScaleCodpiece]

If a horde wanders overtop of your safehouse, they’ll spawn a ton of zombies on you while you’re sleeping. Sure, they may not immediately attack, but they aren’t leaving either. Spiking some pits around your windows will go a huge way to not getting overrun and killed. You’ll also appreciate fortifications whenever they give you some breathing room from that pair of hulks that smashed their way into your house, or if there’s a trio of shocker zombies waiting for you to stick your head into a window so their lightning can make you QWOP all over the place. It’s a major character killer, especially early on, but I recommend keeping hordes on since it’s the closest thing to a L4D finale I’ve seen from this game.

[Umbra_Vorago]

Scavengers like wild dogs, zombies, rat swarms, crabs, and even stranger things would be more appropriate (and interesting) corpse disposal.

Something I had already suggested in my previous thread whilst asking for help.

Also whilst I understand some peoples here saying “But that wouldn’t be realistic”, do remember this is a game where the undead roam, you carve yourself open to install bionics in to your spine without any proper medical training, and there are portals to other dimensions filled with horrors. Point is I really think we shouldn’t be questioning ‘realism’ in a game, simply conclude on a solution which would be more appropriate, but not base it on which would be more realistic.

I would love some form of system to be implemented where you could clear out a town, no more creatures or things would spawn in it, (except maybe small more harmless creatures/scavengers,) but there might be a wandering horde attack rarely. And I mean rarely. The horde could be lead by a Zombie Master and you would need to find and kill him to scatter the horde, just something that would make clearing a town and fortifying it worthwhile.

[Alpha]

[quote=“Belteshazzar, post:14, topic:5756”]Scavengers like wild dogs, zombies, rat swarms, crabs, and even stranger things would be more appropriate (and interesting) corpse disposal.

Something I had already suggested in my previous thread whilst asking for help.

Also whilst I understand some peoples here saying “But that wouldn’t be realistic”, do remember this is a game where the undead roam, you carve yourself open to install bionics in to your spine without any proper medical training, and there are portals to other dimensions filled with horrors. Point is I really think we shouldn’t be questioning ‘realism’ in a game, simply conclude on a solution which would be more appropriate, but not base it on which would be more realistic.

I would love some form of system to be implemented where you could clear out a town, no more creatures or things would spawn in it, (except maybe small more harmless creatures/scavengers,) but there might be a wandering horde attack rarely. And I mean rarely. The horde could be lead by a Zombie Master and you would need to find and kill him to scatter the horde, just something that would make clearing a town and fortifying it worthwhile.[/quote]
Doing things in an unrealistic way because other aspects of the game are unrealistic will lean this game in a very dimwitted path that i would not look forward to

[Arek_PL]

for now fortifications are usefull but actualy is better to find shelter like firestadion what is realy common and nice until hulk apear

[CylonOven]

Yes there’s a point to fortifying, I’m really quite unsure as to why people are saying there isn’t. If you move from place to place, you’ll be fine, but setting up in one area for a long time, eventually you’ll regret not putting up enough defences. As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, I’m constantly under attack from Zombears, Zombie Dogs, Wolves, Spiders, Moose (Meese sounds better as a plural.) Currently I’m held up in a fire station, planning to surround it with all kinds of turrets, traps and obstacles due to the sheer numbers of enemies, anyone who says there’s no point fortifying needs to play my save world in an attempt to change their mind.

Is your save world using dynamic spawn or static?

After noticing that I wasn’t getting attacked at any bases I made I shifted to a nomadic lifestyle. That was only in static maps though.