Passive Safe House Defences! Over the years of planning my perfect zombie safe house I have come up with some ideas that I think would be nice to be implemented. Not all of them may be practical mind you but a few would be and the rest would at least spark some other ideas within the community. I do understand that some of these ideas while being true to real life could make the game easier or even too easy for players to survive but that would then at least prompt the developers to devise new ways to make the game interesting such as implementing deterioration through wear and tear on buildings instead of just weapons. 1 The ability to dig a moat! Now having a moat or a deep pit around your home would prevent most zombies from gaining access much like a wall would. Having a big hole outside your home creates other issues however creating the need for such things as draw bridges and the ability to raise and lower it from both sides. This could also allow you to have a safe haven from other survivors in a PvP multiplayer map but then you would have to be able to create a type of control for the drawbridge that you could carry with you preventing others from gaining access to your house. Issues in constructing the pit like constructing stairs to get in and out while you dig it and then destroying them once you are finished, bracing for the sides of the pit so it doesn't collapse in on you, having to maintain it over time due to wear and tear or damage caused by zombies, having hordes of zombies in it over time could cause your player to become scared as they walk over it making them un-easy as they cross affecting controls, The zombie corpse once killed could be made into a stackable item so that other roaming zombies could climb onto their backs so they could climb out of the pit, etc... 2 A Community above ground level! One of my ideas is to have a building which is completely sealed off at ground level where the only access is via a stair case that descends from the next story up accessed by a grabbing hook carried on your character or via a pull cord. This would raise you above the zombie hordes allowing you to sit out on the deck sipping tea while they are unable to reach you. As part of this idea, you could build bridges between buildings, (in more densely built locations), so that you can travel from location to location easily gaining supplies as and when you need them. This gives an added bonus that if one of your building does become overrun you can destroy the bridges,(this would mean that you would be able to destroy constructed floors which currently is not possible I believe, or the bridges could be a different item to be constructed aside from floors so they could then be destroyed), enabling you to segregate the rest of your safe house network from the infected building. This building technique would allow players to stay within the centre of town while having a safe location to stay within. 3 Basements and Bunkers! If the ability to dig pits is implemented that the next logical step would be to allow the players to dig and build basements in existing buildings. Along with the issues of bracing the walls of the pit until you build retaining walls, columns to support the building above, possibly having to think about a pumping system either electrical or manual to pump out the basement if flooded by rain during and after construction etc ... How about the ability to build a bunker in the middle of nowhere. Having UV lights so you could grow plants within the bunker. Having the bunker underground could allow you to have a cool room deep down for storing foods that would normally need to be refrigerated. Multiple levels? You could build your entrance within the forest making it harder for zombies and other players to locate your safe house while in PvP games. 4 Mobile walls and barricades. In a real zombie apocalypse most people would eventually create a safe zone of a few buildings, farm land and so on which are surrounded by high walls. An idea I had a few years ago was to take a derelict car, (due to its wheels, solid metal construction and ability to be dismantled and built in a different configuration with a bit of tinkering), and make it into a wall section on wheels that can be locked into place using the hand break but them moved out slowly into a new position, (along with others alongside it), allowing for the reclamation of land outside of the wall line while not exposing the players to the zombies beyond it. The players would then be able to clear new buildings or build new defensive walls behind this ever moving threshold allowing for the expansion of the safe zone. This idea would seem to work better in a multiplayer game where people could set up tribes, or guilds, or groups of survivors or whatever they wish to call themselves as they would need to work together to keep the wall in a single line so gaps do not appear which would allow the horde to break through. Again the need for maintenance, possibly having to swap out sections at a time so that they can be repaired, etc.. With the addition of NPCs down the line and the possible increased numbers of zombies on the map to balance the scales if a few of these ideas in one form or another are implemented I believe the need for a safe location for the players and the NPCs to be located would be ideal. If the game started to lean towards the number of zombies that you see in Dawn or the Dead for example where they stretch as far as the characters can see in all directions then they won't feel safe running out into the mass of them and would find other ways to get around and survive. I hope these ideas spark people's imaginations and help to develop the game into a true work of art! Additional note. Would you be able to store your fridge/freezer food out in the snow during the winter months? Would it be possible to be snowed in for several weeks causing you to plan ahead and stock up on supplies, food, water, blankets, camp fire materials, etc... Risk of being attacked by wild animals, wolves, bears, etc... Could there be a risk of flooding? Part of the town is on a flood plain causing issue during extreme raining seasons or when the snow melts? Some things to think about. Comments welcome. Edit: Doors. We can already build doors for our safe house but with the screwdriver enabled why cant we unscrew existing doors and relocate them to new locations, for example your starting door that you have the keys for. In the real world people are more likely to reuse existing doors before they would attempt to build a new one hense the current crafting level of 3 to build a new door! Relocating a door could present its own problems, you would have to carry it in much the same way as you currently would carry a corpse or a generator. There could be different ways to carry the door with different animations to support them for example, you could carry the door on your back. This would require both hands, greatly reduce your movement speed, turning speed and field of vision as you would be bent over looking at your feet. This option would have the lowest risk of dammage to the door which could have the same maintanance properties as weapons even after installation. You could have two different was of putting the door down, slowly and carefully which would require time or just dump it instantly for a quick responce to zombies which would result in dammage to the door. The second way to carry the door would be to walk backwards dragging the door along the ground behind you. Again this would require both hands, have a slightly faster movement and turning speed than the last option but the risk of dammage to the door would be increased. Your field of vision would be where you are coming from as you are walking backwards making zombie detection more difficult. Those are the tradeoffs! The third option would be to throw a rope around it in the same way that you can with logs and just carry it behind you. This would provide faster moving and turning speeds along with normal vision but with the high risk of dammaging the door greatly. All of these ideas would require the player to rely on listning out for signs of zombies. These penalties could also apply to log moving to make it a little more realistic. RVPatrick.
