Building A Fort

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## Introduction

A fort can be built in various ways but the same basic principles will apply to most types. It is both expensive and time consuming to build a secure fort, but worth the reward in the end. A good fort should be able to keep your character and their possessions safe from any outside threats.

## Defenses

The most important thing about building a base is setting up the defenses. A good defense can be anything from thirty block high barbed-wire-topped walls surrounded with large log tips and then spikes, or just spikes in the doorway of a normal house. Keep in mind though, we are talking about building a fortress, not a hovel. A fortress is a heavily defended base designed to support, protect, and house multiple players. This means at the least we will want stone walls and some spikes. It is recommended that the wall is made of strong enough materials and well supported enough that it wont collapse beneath its own weight during a zombie attack and thick enough that it can withstand a beating before being breached (recommended 3-7 tall and 1-3 thick). Trunk tips around the outside of the fort will be a great addition to its strength, and you can also put smaller spikes outside those. Barbed wire barricades make a great outer defense and will hold off the zeds for quite a while.

Defenses can be categorized:

* height (climbing and building towards the sky)
* fall damage (letting zombies fall)
* passive defenses (blocks and structures)
* hidden defenses (water exit)
* active defense (the player with a weapon)

Combining several of these categories can make your base impenetrable, if done right.

Later game resources should allow for strong defenses to be implemented, defenses such as mines and kill zones should be well thought out and easy to resupply from the fort itself.

## Supplies

For any fort to stay alive under siege means it will need to be well supplied. You will need to build at least a small supply chest to keep rations, but if you have more than two players that is ill advised in the extreme. An entire room with chests all over the walls loaded with supplies will keep up to ten people safe and equipped to the teeth with weapons and the food to keep them on their feet. A small garden for resupplying food can keep you going longer as a supplement and a large farm can supply you entirely in food. As to water and weapons, keeping stocked on iron and clay is good in addition to forges for weapons and ammo, and for water you can just make a water hole for infinite water supply as long as you can make the jars to drink out of. It is also recommended that you have a farm within the fortress to improve how long your resources will last when under siege.

## Entrance & Exit

##### Doors:

For any large establishment to last for even a short time, it will need a dependable door. The standard wooden door will not hold the undead off for long, so you will need something a bit more advanced.
Multiple doors are a good idea as it provides for a good kill-zone, you can also do several upgrades.
If you use hard metal doors you can hold for a long time, the door will be destroyed eventually. Make the zombies work for it.

##### Parkour Entrance:

Another good entrance type is a parkour entrance. This means that you have to jump from block to block, and as long as you make the parkour hard, the zombies can't even begin to climb it. This allows your entrance to be as tough and well defended as the rest of the safe zone, possibly better because of the good line of sight to zombies below and around you if you are sitting on the parkour. Unfortunately, this entrance is hard to see and hard to scale if pressured. If it is a matter of seconds before the zombies kill you, don't bother. Another way to provide a point of entry for both players and zombies is to dig a moat. This will force the zombies to one area, which can be turned into a kill-zone, or can be combined with a parkour entrance (for example a one block gap), creating an island for your fort and hinder individual zombies damaging your walls, since they seem to avoid falling. It is also advised to both strengthen and keep an eye on the walls. This is not recommended for low-end or old computers, as the lag may make it impossible to time jumps correctly.

##### Emergency exit

Players should also have an emergency exit. A good option would be to make an underground exit that leads away from your house. If you are surrounded by the undead and you can't leave the building, the underground tunnel might increase your chances of survival. It might take some time to construct it, but once it´s done, being surrounded by zombies will be nearly impossible. Add a solid door at the end to ensure no wandering zombies enter the base. Zombies are stupid things, one good idea is to place a layer of dirt over the entrance.

Another option is to place a tower that connects to another, inner safe zone within your base. with a sturdy, suspended bridge. Covering the inside floor of your tower with Hay Bales will allow you to jump to safety, then quickly pick them up denying anyone pursuing you the same benefit. You can also place a secret door to an escape tunnel or a layer of spikes beneath the hay for even more security.

Emergency kit should be a required set near your emergency entrance.

- Food, work out how much you need for the journey to emergency caches

- Water, as above

- Ammunition, what ever your chosen weapon make sure that you have a supply equalling about a third of your total amount e.g. for 150 rounds total 50 should be in the kit

- First aid, antibodies and bandages are obviously required and since this is only an emergency kit not much else should be included

- Weapons repair kit, speaks for itself really, supply as ammo.

## Traps & Tactics

Players in both multiplayer and single player should utilized the ability for traps in any fort or base.

Traps thats should be considered when creating a base should include

* Any auto turret
* Auto blade weapons
* Electric fence posts
* Mines
* Log Spikes

Placing the automatic weapons down or electric fence posts will required electricity to run and motion sensors to conserve gasoline. While difficult to set up, will be beneficial in fending off anyone who threatens your base or fort.