Zombie-Safe Town?

[LoveSpreader]

How do I build a town consisting of multiple houses, where no monsters can spawn?

Very simple. There are two ways to go with it.

1. Have at least 3 NPCs nearby. Their houses should be within 30 blocks or so of each other. That should spread out the safe field. With this, there won't be any hostile mob at all, barring events.
2. Wall everything up. I suggest you use a word editor if you are going to try something like this.

Fences do work as walls, ever since 1.2.3.

 

[Kira Resari]

Yeah, my intention was building a village with wide, open areas, like parks, that would also be safe at night, without disfiguring them with deathtraps, a glass dome, or other contraptions. Just nice gardens with grass below and a fence behind. But I guess the game mechanics are not on my side for his endeavour, are they?

 

[malakhglitch]

@Kira Resari , this is what I did:



I lined the entire top of the "mesa" that I made with fences 6 tiles high and topped it off with a line of platforms then added wood walls on either end. The result was that monsters spawned outside of this enclosure, sometimes atop the line of platforms, but not inside. So if you build a house on either end and keep the spaces between the houses covered by fences and platforms it might very well be possible. Of course the caveat is you should not stay in your village during a Blood Moon, Eclipse, or invasion.

 

[Kira Resari]

Heheh, nice cage. But now it's effectively a house already. Put a bed, table, and light source inside, and you can move in an NPC.

So, from what I've gathered so far, the only area in which Monsters will not spawn are inside houses, with houses defined as:

1. Having walls/doors/platforms all around
2. Having background walls covering everything

 

[malakhglitch]

Heheh, nice cage. But now it's effectively a house already. Put a bed, table, and light source inside, and you can move in an NPC.

So, from what I've gathered so far, the only area in which Monsters will not spawn are inside houses, with houses defined as:

1. Having walls/doors/platforms all around
2. Having background walls covering everything

Essentially, yeah. You make "houses" in between the NPC housing to prevent them from spawning. That's why I think I'll stick to my tree-root base. Much as I'd like to make a village it's too much work to keep it safe.

 

[Gotcha!]

- Build the houses pretty close to one another, so npc's are always close to eachother and thus stop enemies from spawning.
- Ofcourse events spawn monsters anyway, so make sure all npc's are living on the first floor of their house, not the ground. Make sure the 1st floor is high enough to be safe. Some monsters like to float. (The height of my rooms is usually 9 blocks, only counting space, not floor/ceiling.)
- I like to use double doors to keep enemies out. They can't open the door due to the other door blocking it, but we can easily open both doors due to the fact that we have brains.
- For maximum safety: Remain on the ground during invasions. If you don't, floating enemies could float up to the first floor by using tables, bookcases and other furniture. If you remain on the ground, these enemies won't have the desire to go up.

I've got a town on one of my maps somewhere. It's perfectly safe, so it's perfectly possible.

 

[Erienna Nakagai]

Wait, you said you wanted to see the background? Just use Glass Walls instead of fences.

 

[rubeszilla]

It's the sad reality of simulation in games, the game encourages you by giving you all the objects to create realistic or aesthetic builds then punishes you for doing so.

Create an unplanned, realistic city in Sim City and watch your simoleans go down the gurgler; make a perfect grid of freeways and get rewarded.

Unfortunately front doors and gardens that aren't buried in spike traps and lava pits don't work so well, despite being nice to look at.

 

[Xylia]

Houses don't decrease spawn rate, active NPC habitation does. How many NPCs do you have? Enemies will stop spawning when your NPC count is higher. Not sure if 2 is the hard count (I'm pretty sure I've seen monsters with just the Guide and Merchant), but 3 or 4 is a good bet. Once you start really exploring, they should start arriving pretty quickly provided you have suitable housing for them.

Also, this won't protect you from Blood Moons and, later, Eclipses, and neither will bunkering down underground. Best bet is to build your houses on stilts so th- ah, dang, ninja'd by Milt.

Actually, building underground can protect you just fine from Blood Moons and Eclipse. The only minor caveat is that you not be in your house during said events (and that's only to prevent reapers and wraiths from murdering the townsfolk).

Not that you'd hide during a Blood Moon or Eclipse anyways; those are far too valuable to waste hiding somewhere. The Blood Moons are excellent farming tools, and the Eclipse... well, I think everybody by now knows why you want Eclipses to happen.

As far as your NPCs being safe, building underground ~2 screen distances away from the original spawn point and at least one full screen down beneath the surface makes your house 99.9% safe, as long as you do not fight bosses/moon events right above your house (where your NPCs will get hit with wall-piercing attacks).

 

[Noobiescrubpleb]

Time to sum everything up in one comment. No.

 

[Leinfors]

Light it up, player background walls. That's all you should need.

Place a couple of torches on the lawn, say, one every 7 blocks or so.

How much light does it take to adequately light an outside area? Does it take a torch every 7 blocks? Every 5? Every 3?

Too much Minecraft habit bleedover in this topic. Lighting has absolutely no bearing on enemy spawn rates. The best protection against enemy spawns is a significant number of NPCs living nearby. While it can't "chase away" enemies who follow you home, it will prevent spawns while you are within the area of effect of the NPCs.

Once you have a good pile of NPCs, you will never see a mob spawn near your house again, unless it is an invasion event . . . many of which bypass the spawn protection.

For further protection, building off the ground helps (protects from wall-hackers like Wraiths and Reapers), as well as having an actuator toggle which can seal off all entrances to your house (protects from door breakers, Parrots, and Demon Eyes). An "off the ground" building with no open entrances and no off-screen space to spawn is virtually impermeable to most uncontrollable invasions . . . its completely safe from Pirates, Eclipses, and Blood Moons. Oddly enough, the Goblin Invasion is the one that actually can still mess with you, due to teleporting Sorcerers.

 

[Daimera]

Not that you'd hide during a Blood Moon or Eclipse anyways; those are far too valuable to waste hiding somewhere. The Blood Moons are excellent farming tools, and the Eclipse... well, I think everybody by now knows why you want Eclipses to happen.

Well, when I meant underground, I meant just under the surface, bunker-style, and not down in the cave/cavern layer, which is pretty safe but also a bit inconvenient without teleporters.

Yeah, normally you don't stay in your base during the events. I know I almost never do. But sometimes, when you want to buy Rocket IIs and IVs and have poor Wraith/Reaper protection... underground base gets a mite obnoxious, haha. So it's still something to keep in mind.

Once you have a good pile of NPCs, you will never see a mob spawn near your house again, unless it is an invasion event . . . many of which bypass the spawn protection.

Oddly enough, the Goblin Invasion is the one that actually can still mess with you, due to teleporting Sorcerers.

The solution to this would be to build your base significantly off the center of the map, and then set up your arena area in the center. While the invasions are coded now to still attack at bases regardless of their horizontal location, they also still converge at the map center, and if your base isn't center, it allows for one way to fight off the invasion without endangering your NPCs.

 

[Xylia]

Well, when I meant underground, I meant just under the surface, bunker-style, and not down in the cave/cavern layer, which is pretty safe but also a bit inconvenient without teleporters.

Yeah, normally you don't stay in your base during the events. I know I almost never do. But sometimes, when you want to buy Rocket IIs and IVs and have poor Wraith/Reaper protection... underground base gets a mite obnoxious, haha. So it's still something to keep in mind.

I normally build my house into my hellevator, then it is just a 5-second rappel down the rope to my front door. Anything that follows me is going clear down to Hell (literally!) as it is a straight drop and no enemy in the game can climb rope.

Spoiler: Here's an Example

The little pit where I'm standing in the screenshot prevents zombies from catching the ledge on the way down and breaking in through the door. Later iterations of this house design, I put the piggybank right next to where the painter is standing and you can actually reach it without actually going INTO the house.

For Rocket needs, you can always build a small hut somewhere in the air and when the appropriate time happens, you can temporarily send the cyborg there with the housing interface. At nighttime, he'll instantly teleport to the new hut as long as you move offscreen then you go back up, buy the Rockets, and then transfer him back down to the real house.

I do the same thing for the Steampunker, only for Biomes so I can buy any solution anytime I want; I have houses built in each of the biomes that I can temporarily assign the Steampunker to then switch her back when I'm done.

 

[malakhglitch]

Hmm... If you build a village on the surface off-center with houses close enough to each other... will invasions bypass them if you stay at the world spawn?

 

[Xylia]

Hmm... If you build a village on the surface off-center with houses close enough to each other... will invasions bypass them if you stay at the world spawn?

I know the Goblin Invasion works this way.

I had a house on the surface on a couple playthroughs, while I remained about two screen lengths away from my house.

None of my NPCs got hurt whatsoever.

AFAIK, a Sorcerer will not teleport off-screen, especially not that far, and enemies do not seem to hunt NPCs.

NPCs seem to just be collateral damage if they end up getting in the way.

So as long as your house is not visible on screen and you're a decent distance away, then no.. . your NPCs should not be getting hurt.

Note that this does not apply to projectiles that travel through bricks, which will keep going (and can kill NPCs in its path) until the end of its maximum range.

 

[malakhglitch]

So yeah, I guess we will have to be content with the occasional undead walking around NPC towns.

 

[=.= petethepug =.=]

I was wondering...

How do I build a town consisting of multiple houses, where no monsters can spawn?

I've read on the Wiki that player placed background walls prevent monsters from spawning, and that fences count as backgroudn walls for that purpose, so I fenced in all the open areas between the houses, but when night fell...

*knock* *knock*

♪ There's a Zombie on your lawn ♫

Aaaand, since I don't like Zombies on the lawn, I was wondering?

How do I Zombie-prove a Village of multiple houses?

I believe the more NPC's you have the lesser chance you have a zombie from coming knocking on your door saying
"Hey open the door kill me!" I currently have six NPC's, and I almost never get a knock on my door because of it. And less zombies spawn making it so I don't get pushed back, or distracted when I am traveling out to places. But if you want to do it the long boring way, I suggest placing fences all over your world, and torches that way you no longer have to hear "Rar" at your door =).
I hope this helped.

 

[Rantanrave]

Well, fence counts as a background, and it DOES prevent monsters from spawning, but you need to remember that the background only stops spawning where it is actually present. Which means, that in a town, a zombie could spawn on the roof af a house, because there would (probably) not be any background wall up there. Also remember that monster only spawn off-screen, making it harder to determine where the weak spots are. I am pretty sure I could make a town safe from monsters, it just requires some headwork.

 

[malakhglitch]

Another idea I had was based off a town made by Rho with background walls that make it seem that it's a medieval walled town, but that defeats the OP question of how to make a town where you can see the background.

 

[Erienna Nakagai]

I believe the more NPC's you have the lesser chance you have a zombie from coming knocking on your door saying
"Hey open the door kill me!" I currently have six NPC's, and I almost never get a knock on my door because of it. And less zombies spawn making it so I don't get pushed back, or distracted when I am traveling out to places. But if you want to do it the long boring way, I suggest placing fences all over your world, and torches that way you no longer have to hear "Rar" at your door =).
I hope this helped.

Leinfors has stated before in this thread that lighting does not affect spawn rates at all.