A question for the experts.

Killer Mosquito · 2014-02-28 17:14:42

I had over $14000. I was trying out some new electrical shenanigans and replaced all electrical grids with indicator lights........... at least I thought. It was 1 AM, I wasn't paying attention and fried myself. It wasn't even supposed to be the real test run. I love this game

I've started from scratch, and I'm steadily making more money due to deaths in my house. I just hope I'm able to keep the money. I don't know if there are any special strategies to ensuring that large amounts of cash are safe in your house? At the moment, I just keep using my money for improvements, and I always try to keep the cost of going through my house brute force more expensive than the money you would actually get from my vault or wife. But, I'm always nervous that someone might roll up in my house with 20 saws, 20 bottles of water, and just lay waste to my house.

Are there any strategies or traps, that anyone would be willing to disclose that would help with this? I look at the maps of pros and I'm absolutely astounded by their efficiency with space. Not a square goes to waste.

Thanks in advance for the help and suggestions!

JoyOfTrapping · 2014-02-28 18:00:21

Hey man, welcome to the game, & to the community!

First, what exactly is your question? How to... what specifically? If your question is how to keep large amounts of cash safe in your house, I would say that keeping large amounts safe is the same as keeping small amounts safe. Same game in every moment, but depending on your displayed cash value, you will be at a different tier and thereby have different competitors.

At around $13k or so, the respawn $2k suicide robbers start to drop off slowly. I personally feel $13k-$22k or so is sort of a safe point. If your house is good enough to get up to that point, it should be pretty secure from $2k-ers and it will be rare that someone with a bunch of tools will go for it. Past the $20k-something mark though, you begin to become a target for other mid-high tier players.

Here, just same game as before. Put commit gates of various kinds throughout your house so that in order to get more information, someone will have to spend money to allow themselves an escape route. 1 electric floor will cost someone $100 to disable. A powered trap door will cost them more. So total up the fees on the route to your vault. That will give you a general estimate of your security from serious robbers.

Also, have a lot of free time and check your house often If you see someone repeatedly casing the house, and they are a rich person, become wary. You can then send that person a message of some kind, maybe by entering their home repeatedly and doing something. If I am being cased, I will sometimes go into the enemy's home, kill someone if I can (or better, not), and do something inane like saw through a random wall and leave. Just like real life human confrontations, if you "flex" or "posture" and show the enemy you are strong and willing to resort to violence, they will likely back down. This often gets people to leave me alone- "You can case my house, but I see you, and I have money and am willing to throw it away to mess with yours." Now, if you get a serious robber, just like in real life human confrontations, they will probably rob you anyway, but at least this method can deter some people and buy you some time.

Another thing you can do just to sort of spite people and make yourself feel better is burn your cash. If you're not intent on committing any robberies, sell your tools and convert them to cash. This effectively destroys half of their value. One saw costs $400. If you sell it, you get $200 back. That robber will now only steal $200 worth of value from your house. The saw is destroyed- to get one back, he will have to pay the $200 he took from you, plus $200 of his own, to get another saw. A small victory on your part. Also, if I am trying to survive long term, I have another survival strategy. If someone serious is casing me and they are not backing down, I will just burn up all the cash. You can buy a bunch of ladders and walk in and out of someone's house, or make a bunch of useless concrete walls, or actually spend it fortifying your house if you haven't maxed it out. If I have a good house, cutting myself down from $25k to $4k is no big deal- I will get that money back in a day or 2. And by that time, my enemy might be dead.

Someone with a lot of tools and a lot of skill will eventually rob your house. Just keep robbing, dying, and building- test and gather data on various traps you make as you build. Then refine them. You will eventually get a good build up that can compete at a high level for a reasonable period of time. Good luck!

Killer Mosquito · 2014-02-28 19:09:57

Thank you for the thoughtful answer! As I was typing this up... a guy came and took 5k from me with a 12 pack of water

Although, I'm using similar builds when I get completely robbed, so it's kind of nice to see the weaknesses of my house. I don't build those weaknesses the next time around

Blip · 2014-02-28 19:27:25

JoyOfTrapping wrote:

At around $13k or so, the respawn $2k suicide robbers start to drop off slowly. I personally feel $13k-$22k or so is sort of a safe point. If your house is good enough to get up to that point, it should be pretty secure from $2k-ers and it will be rare that someone with a bunch of tools will go for it. Past the $20k-something mark though, you begin to become a target for other mid-high tier players.

I agree with this; a "middle class" has developed, sitting at the 12-22k mark and, more often then not, waiting for bounties that rarely come. Personally, I use this time in my house's life to upgrade. Spend your money on new trap systems until you fall in the 2-7k range, then wait. You'll be in the prime suicide robber range, and shoot back up to the middle class in no time. After a couple times though this, you can get a really nice, well-defended house capable of surviving on the front page. Then you can wait and slowly rise there from bounties or try your hand at robbing a super rich dude; don't worry about spending most of your cash on tools, because, again, you'll easily get back to the 10k+ range after going offline with 2-7k for the night.

That's my advice on meta-stategy. As for house design, the best way to get better at it is to rob and see what everybody else is doing. Even if you die, that's one trap idea that you can use, and you know it's effective: if it killed you, it could easily kill somebody else.

LiteS · 2014-02-28 22:53:19

Killer Mosquito wrote:

Thank you for the thoughtful answer! As I was typing this up... a guy came and took 5k from me with a 12 pack of water
Although, I'm using similar builds when I get completely robbed, so it's kind of nice to see the weaknesses of my house. I don't build those weaknesses the next time around

That's good! Always learn from past experiences. One of the most important things I do if I build a similar house is keeping track of decisions robbers tend to make. By writing down basic notes on my security tapes I've learned which door they are most likely to open. It's almost like knowing what future robbers will do before they even show up.

The Castle Doctrine Forums

#1 2014-02-28 17:14:42

A question for the experts.

#2 2014-02-28 18:00:21

Re: A question for the experts.

#3 2014-02-28 19:09:57

Re: A question for the experts.

#4 2014-02-28 19:27:25

Re: A question for the experts.

#5 2014-02-28 22:53:19

Re: A question for the experts.

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