I am in the process of creating my first faction camp and I am curious if it is possible to create “an army” which will be able to wage a war against zombies? I am aware of the fact that an extended faction camp is able to gather another NPCs via missions. Is it possible to maintain a camp which consists of 30+ or even 40+ NPCs? I LOVE this system but I do not know if I can achieve my too ambitious goals. I want to feed them, teach them, give them guns, melee weapons, armor, drugs and wipe all of the zombies from nearby cities in order to secure (in theory) my own “territory”
I think the most NPCs I ever had tooling around with me was nine, but that was before faction camps. Maybe it’s more manageable with camps but it was exhausting taking care of nine people. I eventually built a longhouse beside a river and retired like a true Viking.
So to actually answer your question clearly. Yes it’s possible, but it will probably be a pain to babysit more than a dozen.
Faction camps do make it a lot easier by providing food and giving them something to stay busy. I have four NPCs, and I could probably support a lot more.
I don’t know if it’s obvious yet, but followers returning from faction camp missions are reasonably refreshed, with 0 sleep deprivation, 0 thirst, and hunger reduced by the food they just ate. So if you keep a dozen or so followers constantly busy at a faction camp, they will mostly manage themselves.
Since it’s fairly easy to have 9-15 companions out on missions (1 logger, 3 gatherers, 3 foragers, 2 trappers, 1 hunter, 1-3 building upgrades, 1 scrapper) you can cycle through your followers and keep them watered and productive.
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I’m in the process of doing the same thing. I plan to clear a city, build a concrete curtain wall around it, and fill it with NPCs. I haven’t built a faction camp yet, because by the time I got my first NPC companions (rescued 10 captives from bandits) and discovered the faction camp system, I had already set up a base inside a sweet military bunker that had an autodoc. Unfortunately, said bunker is smack in the middle of a forest, and you can’t build a camp on forest tiles. I have far too much stuff stockpiled to easily move, and I really like having an autodoc so close, for installing CBMs on my companions.
I’m trying to figure out how to edit the map so I can set one up next to the bunker. Simply using the debug menu to change the map tiles to fields doesn’t seem to work on its own. I’m wondering If I have to burn the existing forest down in the 3x3 area as well, or if I will need to do some surgery on the game files to make camp construction there possible.
Really makes you want some way to transform other tiles into free field tiles, maybe if you clear enough of the tile and/or give a clearing order to your NPCs that takes some tools + time (days/weeks) gives some of the resources that got cleared and BAM new space for your base expansion
Did you add that function? When I was testing Acadia’s pre-release version I remembered it being a pain to keep them fed with needs enabled because it effectively caused double dipping. Wherein I would give them food during missions and they would come back, eat a bunch, and pass out.
Yes, I’m working to improve faction camps and fixing that was one of the easier fixes as part of reorganizing the code.
Very nice. I’ll have to start up another camp soon here then. Thanks for all your work.
If you set up a small faction camp nearby, you can upgrade a few times until you get access to the logging mission. If you send a strong NPC to log a forest overmap tile a couple of times, he’ll cut down so many trees that it will become a field.
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I didn’t realize they’d actually change the overmap tile type. Neat.
Will that happen if a player does it too, or just if you send an NPC on a mission from a camp? Can you build a camp on the resulting field tile?
What is the maximum range for designating an area to be logged? I’m trying to clear a forested area around a bunker to use for my camp. It might be easier for me to just build a temporary camp somewhere nearby until I clear the area where I actually want the camp to be, rather than tinkering with the game files.
The range is huge, I think it’s fifty tiles or so.
Oh hell yeah. In addition to potentially using the logging mission to clear area for my base, with that kind of range I’ve got an even better use for it:
Cutting a bunch of shortcuts through the forests. The forests on my map are extremely inconveniently placed. Or better yet, just cut down the nearby ones entirely. They are a hazard anyway, preventing clear line of sight to spot approaching enemies.
That’s something I’ve already been working on myself. I’m really pleased to hear it will actually be marked on the overmap so I don’t have to memorize where the path is.
I’ve gone through the NPC dialogs but I would like more details about these camps. Is there a wiki/resource where we can find detailed info about creating the camps? I only 2 have NPCs and they’re pretty high level. I don’t want to lose them due to some bug or design decision I don’t know about.
Thanks.
There’s a dialog option with a tutorial.
NPCs sent to work in a faction camp can always be recovered. You’re welcome.
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Camp options also make it pretty clear if there’s any risk to the mission. I’ve not lost a single NPC yet… It seems to be much less dangerous than raiding the city with me is.
Hunting and combat patrols have about a 1 in 10 chance per mission of having something happen. Skilled NPCs are likely to avoid the danger, though.
Does the chance of a random encounter or something increase with distance traveled or anything like that?