Today I have decided to talk about Fortnite. Everybody is playing and talking about Fortnite, so why not here too.
I would like to describe the basic pyramid defense for the amplifiers in the Storm Shield Defense (SSD) maps, because in all the SSD I have done, very rarely I have seen some efficient "forts" or defenses. Most are a conglomerate of something that grew exponentially from a basic box, like a sprawling "favela" where you can easily get lost and probably get mugged.
I understand building tunnels to better damage the incoming horde, I use those too. But just throwing walls all over the place covering the whole plain surrounding your base and amplifiers may slow the horde down, but it makes very difficult for the players to move around to catch husks that are going behind the lines. And if I get lost moving from one defense location to another one, blame your over-uber-sprawling favela or tin, wood and a few bricks thrown together and held with bailing wire, not even duct tape as that is too expensive. And I am not mentioning the luck of traps. Because SSD can be either a shoot-em-up spray and pray, or it could be more of a tower defense style, depending on how (and if) you deploy your traps.
Fortnite is fun. Period. I believe that players complaining that you get into grinding, that could be true if you are playing 16 hours a day for months, than yes, it can become just grinding. I am more of a casual player and there are always some new goals or challenges. Right now I just finish one of my goal to get a mostly orange siegebreaker schematic to 106. Yes yes, the Nocturno is a little better due to the large magazine and high headshot damage, but I do not have a Noc schematic. A friend made a couple of 106 Nocs for me and they are awesome. Back to my goals. Siege at 106, Next probably the Tiger as I love the scope capability, Hydra, one energy weapon ... but then I read about the Typewriter (Tommy style automatic gun) and I am leveling that up. Terminator, Assault Argon energy rifle, Obliterator, Super Shredder ... just to have one decent gun per ammo type, all at 82 and little by little will level them too. I just need to "grind" for schematic XP.
I do not use melee weapons much unless I need to bash an epic boss or a Slinger (melee is more effective against them).
Anyway, no I am not going into a rant about the best weapon as it all depends on your playing style, your character and some guns are more fun than others. Take for example the Bazooka. Hey, good in a pinch when you have a big crowd. I do have an 82 Thumper (grenade lobber) and it does a good job at clearing tight mobs. I do have a quad-launcher, but it is too slow for me. I prefer the Bazooka even if I just got a Bowler or whatever that new gun that looks like a mini-cannon from the 1800s.
I do have the Suppressed Assault rifle that came up a couple of weeks or so ago. I am not impressed.
Back to the Pyramid defense.
WELCOME TO MY BASE OF OPERATIONS IN CANNY VALLEY
Please note that you only have a certain amount of building components and traps that you can deploy in a SSD map. Unfortunately I tend to overdo, so I may have to remove some in the future.
For example, I am maxed on building in Plankerton and Stonewood, but pretty much everything is as protected as it will get. At the end I was just throwing traps around to free up inventory. I am getting close to go to Twine Peeks. I really need to do Canny SSD 7 so I can unlock my last skill tree section and get to max character and weapons. Right now I have 2 soldiers, one Ninja, one Constructor maxed to the 4 stars, one Outlander almost there. But my primary is the very basic Jonesy Soldier as you can see in the picture even if I do have a lot more ans several event heroes.
Let's start on that Pyramid.
First of all, you cannot build in the black, yellow striped cross. Position 4 floor tiles to be used for traps in the corners.
Make a ring of floor tiles around the structure (5x5) for traps later. That is the base of the Pyramid.
I am going to use larger pictures so you can get all the details.
First build the walls that represent the basic internal protection. Remember that if you. attach a trap to a wall or any other tile, once you will not be able to edit it anymore, like make a door to go in and add traps or activate the Amplifier. that is why we are building from inside out..
Below you can see the basic wall structure around the cross. You could just make a basic 3x3 box, but the extra walls may give you an additional layer depending where (and if) the husks penetrate your defenses all the way in and give you a new ... eheh.
Next we are going to add traps. We will not need to edit these walls anymore. Noticed I added the ceiling tiles and more traps there too, all around.
And you end up with the following:
Notice I did not add wall traps on these internal walls, mainly because I am trying to be conservative with the number of pieces I am deploying due to the restrictions of max elements you can deploy in a map. But I will have a wall trap on the outside of the wall.
Add all the external walls with traps to close the box. Remember that once a trap is deployed, the supporting structure cannot be edited. I left one panel without trap and a door to go inside and activate the Amplifier (middle of wall on the right side). On the outside walls of the Pyramid, the corners will be editable and you can go inside through there and through the door. Once activated and ready to go, you can edit the door to make the wall solid and add a trap. You will not need to get back in for any action.
Drop your preferred traps (or what you can build in my case) to cover the outside ring.
And use the little pyramid building blocks all around as you will edit them to make the corners and the side slanted walls.
Complete the top by adding more pyramid building blocks and edit them to continue the pyramid.
On the very top, put a floor tile and then one more pyramid building block to top it.
This will add one small extra protection.
Then fill the sides of the pyramid itself with floor traps.
By the way, why a pyramid, why not a big square?
Husks will follow the path of less resistance (that is also why using trap tunnels is important to leave a path through without obstacles, possibly having to weave back and forth, giving the traps more "exposure" and giving them more time to recharge).
On a pyramid, most husks will walk all the way to the top before starting to damage the structure as they can walk following the slanted pyramid sides.This will give you a little more time, they will have to go through traps that they will not damage (mostly) and as they concentrate on top they are easier to blast into next realm as they are all together.
A possible exception are the big husks called Smashers. Normally they would walk to the top, but I saw them stopping and starting beating the crap of the tile they are on and if charging, they may attack a lower slanted wall before starting going up the sides. In short, killed the Smashers before they get there. 😃😊
Just a few more details.
As husks will walk the sides to get to the top, why not making them start over, giving you a little more time to intervene?
Let's add some "punching walls at the very top!
It is actually funny see the husky husks rolling down to the bottom LOL
Or you could add a Ceiling Electric Fields, not a regular electric trap, but the Electric Field as they have longer reach (range).
And there you have the basic Pyramid defense fort.
The depicted Pyramid used 146 items (building wall, ceiling, floor and traps). 144 if you use the ceiling electric field style.
You can add another ring of floor tiles at the bottom making a 7x7 perimeter and fill it with traps. Add ceilings, some low walls and more traps .... remember to use tunnels where possible to direct the horde as it is a lot more efficient. I may add a few pictures of my tunnels in another future post.
BEHIND THE SCENES
The top-down pictures of the Pyramid under constructions were taken from a ramp:
