The Castle Doctrine Forums

I think that a two-concrete-thick wall can be seen whereas with 3 you can't guess how much more is there. Still, after one or two nukes at least you'll know how much more wall is to come. My suggestion for dealing with 2k players is to try and get a killing trap going quickly. Something they can try out and fall into/be fried on. Most people won't bring 4 dynamite instantly and if they die trying out your trap, they'll be barred by chills for a while and probably forget to bring 4 boom-booms the next time they visit. Psychology. Of course, 2k-proof walls are one of the first things that will have to be done as soon as the cash is there. For family protection that means 2 pitbulls. The best option is to space them according to field of view. All other ways of doing it are prone to 2k attacks (drug the first one, make the others pile up, shoot the first one and club the others - takes out up to 10 pitbulls with starting cash).

Still, I also think that it's a.) impossible to create something with 2k that an experienced player with 2k won't be able to crack AND b.) that usually a family won't survive either the first night or the later assaults that come once you have about 20k in the house. That's why I decided not to try and start over and protect my new family but to re-fortify my solitary house. A dead wife is always slightly frustrating.

Well, I'd say less is enough. The robber only has to ASSUME there are lots of concrete walls. Sometimes, one can fool people into attacking in the wrong places. Or better still - to just leave. Nothing is safe forever, but it can work. I once did an experiment between houses only placing traps without electricity or anything, bought a few 1$ paintings etc. and it took a solid few robberies until somebody smelt the bacon.

It's an odd strategy that has evolved as of now. I assume it's an attempt to make it to a safe house with a family alive, which usually fails during mid-game when the wife gets killed because she's less well protected than the safe. Focusing on the other element (i.e. the wife) is an interesting way to get around this problem.

However, I find your strategy rather, uhm, funny: "How dare they value their family more than their material possessions! I'll kill the innocent people for that offense!! Ha-ha-ha, that will teach you to protect your family!"

Wakefield if I'm not mistaken - nasty bit of work that. I almost would have had something to show here, only just remembered the right dance steps. Note to self: Don't do drunk on the spot improvements and just go to self test before re-checking the dance steps...

But there is already a sandbox, essentially, filled with a new 2k every time and a fresh family for good measure.

Yeah, I immediately realised the tactical error of grouping two different things into one post. The forum section thing is more or less a no-brainer.

The other thing is more debatable, I agree. I was just thinking that the trailer and all that suggest something quite simple: Build a house and rob a house. And then you see the reality and its WAY more complex and a LOT of totally unexpected things happen all at once. Throw that at me three times in a row and I'll quit most things. So I thought some sort of pre-emptive glimpse at the fact that there is high complexity and potential frustration would be a good idea. Might be wrong about that though.

Ah the poetry. The morbid, morbid poetry.

Oh well, fair enough. I only saw that it had about 7k in it and lots of blown walls that looked like it cost more than must have been in the safe so I suspected something was afoot...

I'm still surprised that my first attempt at getting back into the game without any real refinement or so made it to over 50k worth of defences and was only robbed successfully twice in the process. Somehow I seem to have been spared the real hostility but killed about 100 people over the building phases.

edit: I know the feeling of killing myself during testing. I actually managed to do that while showing my girlfriend the game some time back - mauled by a pitbull one step before the door. And I have been clenching severely during the last test with a new security stage in place... Still, one gets to appreciate that part of the game - for the tenseness as well as for the effect that one tends to limit the difficulty of magic dances etc. (I could NEVER remember a Mr Smith type thing!)

I also agree that the possibility of broken houses is core to the inherent design concepts of the game. It makes for very boring houses but that's not really that big a problem I'd say.

Also, from the list I take it that my name should be Castro. Sweet.

Maybe he robbed a ladder store...

On a serious note: It was the Dalleck whose wife you exterminated. (I had the same issue with a window-thingee I thought was smart and it also cost me my wife a few days ago. The best defense is pitbulls aligned to line of sight with pits or concrete, so it costs at least 1k to pass each one.