The place where it all starts for our PC. Arguably the most pleasant music in vanilla (imo)
Has some neat repair side-quests and a bunch of rescue quests. The NPCs of the this town are all interesting to talk to. The the entire questline of Devil’s Crossing is just about survival and nothing more. They don’t ask you to go out there and kill every enemy you encounter but to kill the ones that that threaten the settlement.
Quite frankly I haven’t been this attached to a town since Rogue Encampment and Harrogath.
Homestead-
The first town/base you encounter after Devil’s Crossing. Has the most repair quests (my favorite kind of quests :D)
You go from helping a small settlement of survivors to battling an otherworldly threat in the quest-line of this town. Although the transition is pretty smooth and is actually pretty good
You also get to meet Inquisitor Creed, Captain Somer and learn about Ulgrim here. This is also the base where you make contact with the Necromancers and with blasphemous swine known as Kymon’s chosen
The music here is pretty awesome as well and fits the theme of the base.
The placement of this settlement (surrounded by beasts, aetherials and chthonians) shows just how strong humanity still is against the enemy.
Fort Ikon-
This is the your base for Act IV. It doesn’t have any repair quests or any side quests (besides Anasteria’s quest). The questline involves you hitting stuff with a stick and ends with you battling a giant octopus
Surprisingly it’s not bad. Since the way the enemies are placed around the base it shows just how bad humanity’s situation is and also shows just how good The Black Legion are.
The battlefields leading to the tentacle monster are the most lively ones as they are filled with Black Legion fighting the enemy. This might not be directly related to the base itself but I feel this detail is truly amazing showing how humanity is still trying to push forward against the enemy
Coven’s Refuge-
This one is probably the most aesthetically pleasing of all the bases imo. The NPCs are quite interesting as this base has NPCs reacting to the choice of your class. You’ll be greeted with open arms as an Occultist but looked down upon as an Inquisitor (Don’t ask me how they react to a Deceiver, I haven’t leveled one up yet to this point)
Most of their quests are side quests, their reaction to the name “Ulgrim” is the most interesting one. They have their own story tell and add quite a bit to the lore of Grim Dawn. Some of the dialogues of NPCs show how well detailed the game is as you’ll be greeted with familiar faces and familiar names (provided you did all the side quests :P)
Sewer Hideout/Steelclap District-
Just so we’re clear both Steelclap District and Sewer hideout are the same base.
This one contains my favorite quest i.e retaking your faction’s base. The moment you reclaim Steelclap District base a portion of survivors from the Sewer Hideout base move here. This is something I expected to happen with Burrwitch Quest as well but unfortunately it didn’t
The actual repair quests are fairly limited. But there are tons of rescue quests
The main questline related to this one isn’t just survival but about you literally retaking an entire city.
The music of Steelclap District is my favorite. The transition of the Malmouth Resistance going from survivors to conquerors is pretty nice. The dialogue of each NPC is well written.
This is also the town where you learn the most about the aetherials and how not all of them are our enemy
I know a lot of the text sin’t related to the town itself, but since I bothered writing some text about DC I thought I might as well add something for the rest
Steelclap is still the same one as Sewer though
If you log out in steelclap you always start in the sewers.
I don’t mind putting it as a separate option. Though I can’t do it and a mod needs to do this for me
P.S
What do you mean when fully developed? I must’ve missed out on the smaller changes, I only know we get a blacksmith when we retrieve supplies. Besides that I don’t recall anything since the design of new areas makes sure you probably complete quests before receiving them
Blacksmith, MI vendor and inventor. What’s best everything is close - stash, bs, inventor, vendors, riftgate. Only the spirit guide is missing, but honestly I can manage going to Coven once in a while.
The only downside you pretty much need to complete a playthrough for this.
Ah I guess I should try doing quests one at a time on then. I don’t mind this design of the game but it feels awkward you complete every side quest before receiving them on your way to the main quest
voted DC, the town that made me fall in love with GD, a good starting point for a town, good atmosphere… well done from the team… … too bad we really did not get to fully develop the place, upgrade its defenses put sentry guards and improve walls, build brothels and taverns etc… :rolleyes:
Burrwitch would have been an amazing town if only we get the option to fix it too… but well i guess there’s no time for that either, there are a lot more pressing matters to attend to…
too bad we did not get a proper rover’s town apart from bits of encampments scattered all throughout the map.
+1 for DC. Honestly, one of the few things I dislike about AoM is how the “main” base shifted from being DC to Steelcap, and…I really don’t care for Steelcap that much. It looks nice enough, sure, but it doesn’t feel relaxing or cosy in the slightest, especially with all that fighting going on right outside. Not to mention that ridiculously long walk back to the portal whenever you die and respawn there. Yes, I’m impatient.
DC felt much more chill, a nice secluded corner of the world to hang out and do some inventory management and character tinkering in, with that music playing in the background all the while. But no, they had to go and kill off the Spirit Guide and now I have to make do with a war-torn city if I want every service NPC in one place.
Homestead. I like watching towns add people and improve in appearance as I help them. The only mildly annoying thing is the riftgate outside the walls, but since you restart next to the well, it’s a minor niggle.
Sewers/Steelcap are nice, but they strike me as too makeshift to feel like a real base.
Well we do have extra guards in DC now. Too bad we had to loose Sardine Can and Rook to get them there
Hmm…
It fits their theme of being nomadic people
I do find it refreshing to see a few of them in dark places like Gloomwald the game gets pretty bland otherwise for me
Agreed on DC
Malmouth Resistance base shifting is the best part for me. Though I can see why you don’t like it
Btw, I don’t recall a spirit guide in Steelclap district
Homestead’s repair quests are indeed what make it my second favorite base. I wish DC gets more repair quests now after the attack
Or better yet give us some repair quests for New Harbor Town
I like Fort Ikon the most, but only now with the expansion, since we can finally get to be friendly with the Black Legion easier without having to kill the Outcast over and over again. It has everything closely grouped together - blacksmith, vendors, smuggler, bounty table… Of course I will still return to Devil’s Crossing due to Darlet as the easiest to reach Inventor.
Now, I would say the Steelcap District has everything AND an Inventor too, but for some odd reason if I finish my game there, and start anew, the game places me back in the sewers when I restart.
The Coven is a nice place too, but the music is VERY loud for some reason, and the smuggler is close but I always get stuck in that wall before her.
It’s the riftgate I don’t like there. Whenever I go back, my pets storm away to attack the Aetherials gathering nearby, even when I am just there to shop quickly.
Yeah, I leave my pets on normal now, partly to avoid that, but also because I’m usually directing them anyway, so the extra aggression range doesn’t make a big difference. And it’s a pain to change everything to aggressive every time I load a game, anyway. I wish they’d save their aggression settings.
