26 replies to this topic

[RazorKnight]

- Starting off with a clean save is a good idea. Starting over from level one makes defending your fort an actual challenge, too, so I'd suggest this to anyone looking for a challenge.
- Find a place that both has enough plain ground and natural defenses. Inside a city would be a good location. Primm, for example, has walls all around, and you can use the rollercoaster as a makeshift guard platform.
- You can also build on a rocky/mountain zone, which makes it easier to defend the fort, but harder to navigate around it. This is important if you plan on having scavengers or patrols.
- Smaller forts are easier to defend. Bigger forts give you more places to put your guards at. Choose what type fits you best.
- Junk walls are your best friends. Place them all around your fort, blocking the enemy's path. Put a second layer on top of the first, to stop stray missiles/grenades from getting in and causing damage too easily.
- Make a single entrance to your fort, and place barricades to either sides of it (with AR stationary guards,) and one barricade a few meters into your fort, to act as bait for raiders.
- Place high buildings (the scavenge truck, the barracks, the HQ, and so on) right besides your junk walls. That'll give you free spots to place your guards on.
- Boundary markers' placement is quite important: those are the points where enemies spawn from. Having the markers all around your fort may add to the challenge, but with enough guards, you'll be soaking enemies with damage anyhow and nobody will get in. If you want relatively easy raids, place all the boundaries in front your entrance (but as far away as possible, of course,) but it can be a good challenge when ten super mutants are all coming straight at you with missiles, flame balls and 5mm bullets.
- Patrol guards are expendables IMO. Build a second floor (a wooden stair and enough metal pallets and you're set,) and add barricades on the border of the outmost pallets, then place AR or Sniper guards there. If you have access to guard towers or lookout towers, get your snipers in there.
- Weapons like the incinerator or the sniper rifle can give you a good edge against raids, even if you're low in your guns/energy skill. Grenades and mines are your friends, too.
- Equip your guards with whatever you can find that's better than the standard rifles. Also, Outcasts are a nice raid to have, since it means free power armors for your guys.
- Securitrons are another expendable thing, even the MKII won't last long. Exchange the scrap you gather for caps and you'll be able to buy more guards and barricades.
- For an extra challenge, play in Hardcore mode, so you have to go looking for food and water every once in a while (leaving playerless raids on adds to the risk, so do it.)

Yeah... Long post. I think I've covered most of what I wanted to say so far.

[Moonstryder]

Since were discussing Fort Tips, anyone find the hidden plans? Im completly stumped on some of them.

--Nelis Plans ???
--Free Side Plans ???
--Lucky 38 plans ???
--Other Plans ???

[RazorKnight]

I'm having too much fun with the fort to bother there... I've found only two of the basics:

Scavenger Truck: Mojave Outpost (large cyan/yellow truck, there's a box inside.)
Armory: Primm, inside sheriff's house... Theres a box right besides the dresser in the bedroom.

The generator's location's been mentioned before, but since I don't see any use to either the turrets or lighting, I've never bothered.

I think most other plans can be bought at the market guy. I've bought a watchout tower (like the NCR prison ones) and seen a few turrets there. It's random and takes a day to renew (at 0:00) so exploring may be the fastest way.

I'm just too lazy to go exploring when there's super mutants and BoS idiots to kill right at my fort's door. XD

[htom sirveaux]

The nellis plans are inbetween the hangars. I know this, because I found it in the geck, but not the game...

Lucky 38 box is in the casino.

Freeeside box is at the strip gate.

[nittuo]

Building Question: Anyone else inserted a kit into a preexisting structure or formation?

While toying with the mod first time thru I started my fort..... in Freeside, just far enough north of the useless-bots for my boundry limit to be... eh call it 5 yrs or so away from them. Yes I know odd locale, and not much space. But I figured letting the bots and the Kings helping to cover my butt was a fair trade off, plus I used 'Smitty's Armory' mod whilst experimenting so plenty of friendly traders close by.... Whoops, to when plum off and forgot what I was mentioning to begin with.

ANYWAY, space was quite tight and when I added my Armory, with out noticing it I inserted it partway into a demo'd building. I didn't find any problem with its use. So I started putting other kits into stuff. like the Savage truck with just it's ass end sticking out so I could click on it. Here's my thought. Sticking the HQ so just the front wall protrudes ... from wherever I next put it together, so the door is place-able and click-able . Like say near Primm... on the NCR side is a two-story building with-out any ingress. And all the rubble to insert needed kits but really don't serve a second function; Armory, Barracks, Salvage Truck, ect.

So... anyone see/experience a problem with such?

[RazorKnight]

Yeah, that can be done too. I made a fort inside Primm and somehow the market was inside the "gas station" building... Market guy was inside a wall. Still the market could be used. So I put the scav truck and even the HQ half-inside buildings too. It saves up room for adding barricades, towers and other nice stuff.

Careful not to put the water tower inside something, though, as patrol guards and scavengers spawn from it, and thus may end up trapped between a wall and a hard place. XD

[RazorKnight]

Update with a few more things I've noticed:

- For those having performance issues (specially during raids) a good way to avoid the problem seems to be tuning down on the junk walls. Use barricades and fort buildings to build your perimeter instead of the walls. Yes, you'll need a crapload of barricades. That adds to the challenge, I say.

- A lookout tower in the center of your base (close to the tank) with at least two snipers on it is a very good investment and will help you mow down raiders much faster, even (and specially) if your spawn points are all around your fort instead of in one single point.

- Always make sure the enemy has only one way to get into your fort. And fortify that 'entrance' with as many things as you can (turrets, a guard tower, a dozen guards...)

- From my past experience, a small fort is far easier to defend (and build) and gives you more time before the raiders reach your door. It'll be harder to move around unless you play a bit with stairs and metal/wooden pallets.

- Guards seem to be resetting on cell spawn, but it's only happened to me when I left the fort (was bored, went to Nipton to kill some Legion morons.) Then again, I'm using a 12 hours reset mod, which may affect this (it shouldn't, as containers reset normally even if I'm in the same cell as them.) Be warned that giving your guards an uber armor and big bad weapons may be a bad move if they are resetting. In that case, it's better to sell the stuff and buy more guards with it instead.

- A large number of guards, as in twenty and above, make raiders have to take care of many more targets than they effectively can. This is related to the point above: It's actually better to have thirty guards armed with assault rifles, than five armed with plasma rifles and a brotherhood armor.

[alurianknight]

-The only tools you really have to have are junk walls metal palets and wooden stairs.(though stairs can be negotiable)
-junk barricades are completely unnecessary. junk walls work just as well as barricades and can be fine tuned to the just the right hight.
-guard towers are also unnecessary. with a little work you can build more bigger better towers with only junk walls metal palets and stairs all for a mere fraction of the cost
-divide your base into outer and inner defenses that way if your outer defenses get over run your inner defenses might still hold them off.(be sure to only use a gate on one defensive line and just leave the other as an opening in the wall or it will screw up patrols and scavengers pathing)
- don't rush! building good defenses takes time and doing a rush job can result in a lot of dead guards.
-don't be afraid to place a building partially out into the air you can always come back later with metal palets and junk walls to cover the obvious breach in the laws of physics.
-and to reitirate Razorknights point 20 guards with assualt rifles and leather armor are better than 5 with power armor and plasma rifles.(though thats not to say that 20 with power armor aren't better still)

Edited by alurianknight, 09 December 2010 - 07:11 PM.

[RazorKnight]

Crazy (and sometimes awesome) places to build your fort in (I've tested starting forts in all these, but never continued playing them.)

- In mid-air. Yes, it can be done. Most likely will require a console cheat.
- On water. Hard to do, but not impossible.
- On top of a rooftop (or two, or three.)
- In the middle of the unmarked Deathclaw nest east of the river (south-east corner of the map.)
- Hanging from one wall of the canyon. Only fun to play if you have your boundary markers on top of the canyon, close to the edge (so you have raiders literally falling on you.)

Making an inclined base is also "fun". Takes a crapload of metal/wooden pallets but makes for some interesting raids.

[laughter72]

Wasteland Defense Plan Locations...
well, the ones I have found so far...
Primm (armory) Sheriffs Office
Helios One (solar Generator) 2nd Floor office main building (also see vid)
Freeside (Guard Tower) (under Bridge with securitrons on it)
Lucky 38 (defense Tower) Behind Bar in Casino area
Nellis air force base (Guard Tower) Metal shack at main gate

Nellis (Air Raid alarm) Between hangers
Mohave outpost (Scavenger) Inside truck on road near entrance

Black mountain (communications array) By huge working satellite in front of supply depot

McCarren (Glass) Interrogation Room
Sorry those are all I've found.
also see down loadable list by Lucky7Ac

Edited by laughter72, 12 December 2010 - 08:02 PM.