Angus the Beast

The way it worked approximately in RotN (which worked really well with VS/minecraft mechanics) was: The monsters' mining level determines how fast they can break through different blocks. When they break a block or a chest, the block or item drops. You can pick it up, although this wasn't always easy to do right away if the whole horde was pouring through the gap, might have to wait. The monsters' mining level increased with subsequent invasions, and the types of monsters also changed. Some invasions would have flying monsters so you'd have to build a roof, etc. Idk if I loved that part, but it was there. So, during the first invasion, they'd quickly break through dirt walls. With decent preparation, you'd survive - a stack of blocks to build impromptu defenses, etc. If you had the same dirt walls months later, they'd probably one-hit through them. But by that point, you're using things like masonry bricks, etc. which are much stronger. You've also had time to make cooler defenses. And there was a whole tech tree of traps, like spikes, barbed wire, etc that could do some passive damage while you were out defending your kingdom. Nice sink for good metal too. So my defending tactics were: 1. Put your storage in a safe place - maybe high up in a tower or a bunker with thick, high-tier brick walls. (This also has the benefit of limiting your hoard to how well you'd developed your material-producing infrastructure and technology). 2. Have multiple lines of defense, much like a real-life castle. Often a deep, wide water moat followed by triple-thick or more walls with battlements and murder holes up top to pour hell down anything stuck in the moat. It took a bit of time to make, but a base set back into a lake with some well-designed currents and a drawbridge with pistons often meant you could pretty much just sit inside and ignore the invasion. Worst case scenario, you dive out the back into a boat and the monsters follow you away from the base. Sand or collapsing blocks as a filler in the middle of triple-thick or more walls could help slow them down or crush them, giving you time to react and/or rebuild during the fight. Get creative with some lava moats or dispenser. Inside that, maybe another ring of walls or compartmentalized, defensible sectors of your base/town in case there's a breakthrough and you have to retreat. That kind of forced me to divide my base (I usually built them like little towns) into districts - some safer, some more dangerous - which felt and looked cool for immersion. I used to make my gatehouses with a lava dispenser wired up to a nuke button; that's fun when there's a dozen zombies trying to smash through the gate. This would pair really well with the medieval expansion mod. Drawbridges would be awesome. 3. A strong keep, I usually put mine in the center, where your valuables or decorative buildings go. I don't think I ever had a problem losing my stuff there, except one time monsters tunneled dozens of blocks up from some undiscovered cavern underground into the courtyard. Some water dispensers wired up through redstone to the big red button in my keep's panic room washed them back into the hole, but they did smash my garden. 4. A chest with plenty of building materials; depending on how strong my materials were or if I had weak points in the design, there'd be a couple of minutes of inspecting damage and replacing blocks after an invasion. Often this was a convenient time to redesign something or make an addition to the base. I'm guessing other people would just build a bunker and sit the invasion out in there, a bit like a less cheesy version of the current temporal storm kill rooms. Definitely see how many people wouldn't want a feature like this; I think it'd be more appropriate as a mod. I might try to code it, since after the first in-game year VS gets a little boring. The one part that I don't think would work great is when the invasions hit while you're out exploring far away from home. Then it's basically back to sprinting for you life like with temporal storms. Not an issue if there's a fairly predictable timer, e.g. every 9-11 days. Then you plan your play cycle around invasion -> repair -> prepare -> multi-day exploration adventure - get back home 9 days later and prepare for battle -> repeat.

75 hours in and loving every minute. Something that would be cool though (as a game feature or as a mod): Invasions I came to VS from Rebirth of the Night (Minecraft mod), which is very similar in a lot of ways - building, survival, etc. In that mod, you'd get invaded by hordes of zombies and other monsters every 10ish days. This was super fun - designing a base that would survive, the actual battles, and then the repair afterward where you'd add some upgrades, redesigns, etc. The attackers could break blocks, making you design your base like an actual fortress. Moats, walls with ramparts, murder holes, weapon stashes, airlocks, gatehouses, etc. Different type of stones were stronger against the attackers, so there's incentive to gather different types of rocks and prefer them for different building materials. VS has the temporal storms, but the counter seems to be running like a madman or sitting inside a cheesy structure and stabbing for too long. What do you think?