Where can I build my safehouse?

[gibbs]

I'm struggling to find a suitable place to settle down. I've tried subway tunnels, grocery stores and even a CHAR office, but I can't seem to survive for more then 4-5 days. Can anyone offer any ideas of where I can build myself a safehouse?

[tons0phun]

Now needless to say, the location of a safe-house will be dictated by other factors of influence as well, but here is what I've found you can generally expect with settling in different spots.

House/Apartment, with basement:
Usually not very good, as there are a high number of entry-points (windows, doors), and if you use the basement it is highly likely you will be cornered and killed. The number of entry points CAN give you many escape options, but as a place for storing food, ammo, and other items, a house is not very ideal for fortifying.

Gun Store:
This is a great hub to operate out of, certainly so if you've got a couple followers to lend a hand. Your best bet after isolating the store from entry by outsiders, is to raid the closest supermarket and move all food from it into the gun store, same goes for medical supplies. Naturally however as you will have a large provision of firearms, using them frequently means you also be facing many zombies. The well will run dry eventually though...

Grocery Store:
Also a good place, pretty much run it like you would the gun store.
And in case it was not intuitive, the best way to isolate these stores is to push the shelves inside a store up to the front, and wall-off the entrance (don't forget to block diagonal movement!).

Sewer Maintenance Entry:
These buildings can work great, more so if they are on the edge or corner of the map. You essentially have to pick one way to be the entrance/exit, and seal the other one off for this to work as a fort. It can be dangerous though, as sometimes invading zombies pushing you out from this place can end up pushing you right into another batch, as the sewers are almost constantly prowling with shamblers.

Subway:
I personally don't make fortifications down here, as the time taken just moving into and out of the station consumes a fair chunk of food and sleep units. Conceptually speaking though if you can somehow manage to find the subway access ID, which opens the gates to the subway only when approached by you (and they close behind you, meaning you don't have to leave them permanently open like you would using the station's generator), you would have a self-sealing fort with iron doors to protect you.

I have never once discovered the ID badge though, so the chances of utilizing this fort are fairly slim.

Hope this helps! ;D

EDIT: It would also appear to me that maybe your issue isn't where you are fortifying yourself, but how you are managing your fortifications.
You should give us a rundown on your fort setup, entry/exit protocol, and how you manage items.
Or perhaps, post a screenshot of your fort.

[leogg]

Well, the longest i ever survived was in a nice small house basement for 200+ days. A house with all the upstairs entrances covered with cars and a basement with beds works very well

[aqua]

I wonder how come nobody ever mention the Hospital?

Its storage makes a great safe house once the hospital residents are all gone. Since it's on the fourth floor, no undead (or living) is likely to follow you all the way to the storage as long as you spray your stench killer at the hospital entrance and the stairs. Not to mention the hospital storage is already packed with food and medical supplies, which the patients are unlikely to find unless they actually managed to break the iron gate by some blind luck.

There are only three complications. First, a very troublesome... patient... is wondering around the power room of the hospital, which you need to access before you can open the storage. You'll probably need a flash light and a gun first... for your own sake.

Second, it takes a long while to travel through the hospital all the way from the first floor to the storage. So it won't be easy moving additional supplies in or out the storage.

Thirdly, the large amount of patients means the hospital can end up full of zombies even if one single shambler made it into the hospital before the resident are all starved to death. If that happens, you'll need to deal all these zombies... or worse, if some of them actually turned into neophytes... Though the third point is just a risk, and shouldn't happen most games.

Oh, and don't bring any food into the hospital, unless you're certain that no one's alive in the hospital anymore. You don't want to be surrounded by hungry patients and doctors... I have witnessed them fighting among themselves for that canned food, and it was terrible.

[nope]

Shops are not Good Fortification Places, Gun stores and Grocery stores are good places to hole up until you realize that zombie have broken through.....And they've blocked the door, the only way out

Oh, Shit

Stores are a One-way in and out(Some stores have windows, but they could be blocked too), with only a one-tile wide doorway, if a zombie horde breaks in, you can easily end up being cornered

Subway ID cards can be easily found, just walk all over the subway stations before someone snatches it from you

Sewers are actually some of the best places to hold, the Sewerage means that chasing zombies will easily lose you, if you are under siege while in a sewer entrance, just drop down and run over to another ladder and get out, also, because of the fact that survivors that get down there rarely come back up, you can actually find supplies from the dead bodies of the Living(Though always cut up the body if you're playing on C&I or VTG), however, because there are shamblers down there, watch your ass if you plan on a Sewer-base, Also, since in the sewers are Platforms, you could hold up IN THE SEWERS!, and it works well, you don't need spray(The sewerage covers your scent up quite quickly) and since there is no light there, you can feel free to murder gun-totting survivors(Use the "R"un command) without getting shot even once, of course, don't bother if they have flashlights and you don't

[aqua]

Update on Subway ID:

I found one lying around the subway a few days ago. What it does is switch on the electricity of that station when you approach the gate... Without turning them of by itself!

In other words the gate won't close behind you, so the only use for the ID is getting out of a closed station.