I understand they let you see past them, but beyond causing zombies to stumble for only a few seconds, what function do they have? is their whole point to let the player stab zombies before they get back up? They just seem rather pointless since a normal wall would do just fine

a) building a beautiful base.
b) to isolate your rope to buy you some extra time to go up/down if sudden zombies (tm) are nearby.
c) (a bit dangerous) fence-killing of zombies using a constucted small fence when there is no existing one nearby.

Actually you can also pour out gravel from the bags, as well as sand from bags.
The thing is you can make this way a SAFE campfire spot. As in the fire will NOT SPREAD from the fireplace. (You need to have gravel or sand under the campfire and all adjacent tiles, diagonally as well. So 3*3 tiles that have gravel and or sand on them, if you put the campfire in the middle the fire cannot spread. Unless you place a zombie nearby:D)

Another useful way is to build roards. If you dig up the dirt fill it in a bag, place down a wooden floor board tile and pour sand or gravel over it you can make a road/path out of it.
These are less demanding for your car than crossroading or using dirth paths. (It takes a while to create say a parking lot or sg.) At least until we have concrete gravel roads are the best you can create. Allthough i have not tried metal roads yet.

Campfire are 100% fine indoor. Campfire do NOT spread fire randomly.
Campfire spread fire if there is something on the campfire tile (zombie, player, dropped item), and possibly (I didn't tested) if you let some food burn.

I left multiple time a campfire run for days with 0 issue, on a wooden floor, with a couch next to it, sleeping next to it, etc.

Originally posted by Fenris:

I understand they let you see past them, but beyond causing zombies to stumble for only a few seconds, what function do they have? is their whole point to let the player stab zombies before they get back up? They just seem rather pointless since a normal wall would do just fine

There are things in the game without function:
Arcade machines
Paintings
Flower pots
Etc
These are decorations.

But sandbags and gravel bags will be usefull later (imo), when you start gunfight with hostile NPCs.

Originally posted by Oragepoilu:

Campfire are 100% fine indoor. Campfire do NOT spread fire randomly.
Campfire spread fire if there is something on the campfire tile (zombie, player, dropped item), and possibly (I didn't tested) if you let some food burn.

I left multiple time a campfire run for days with 0 issue, on a wooden floor, with a couch next to it, sleeping next to it, etc.

They are actually not. There are certain prerequisites to make a campfire indoors.(Or at least used to.)
Also remember if you use any mods those can affect fire spread. For instance having a roof tile above your campfire, will burn your house down.(Or used to, can check the discussions of the past.)

When you choose a safehouse/base-area wisely in single-player, it's all decoration other than window barricades, IMO. Very small groups of randos wandering in are a bigger threat than giant herds showing up out of nowhere. All you need is a little extra time to notice them before they break in. After a couple weeks of patrols that's a very very rare occurrence.

Originally posted by Pherdnut:

When you choose a safehouse/base-area wisely in single-player, it's all decoration other than window barricades, IMO. Very small groups of randos wandering in are a bigger threat than giant herds showing up out of nowhere. All you need is a little extra time to notice them before they break in. After a couple weeks of patrols that's a very very rare occurrence.

There are certain settings (and patches) that might affect this. For instance the heat zone has been updated a few times since the first time i saw it. Some got a lot more heat than they used to have. Or for instance starting with the 6 months later preset can have you a lot more zombies at those safe houses you used to feel safe than you remember:)

Also actually most folks will not even live on the ground level, or use the fence+crate cheezy stuff to make their base unreachable. So for them neither is actually a problem. (Allthough in this case the large horde which can prohibit you leaving your base can be more of an issue.)

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

Originally posted by Pherdnut:

When you choose a safehouse/base-area wisely in single-player, it's all decoration other than window barricades, IMO. Very small groups of randos wandering in are a bigger threat than giant herds showing up out of nowhere. All you need is a little extra time to notice them before they break in. After a couple weeks of patrols that's a very very rare occurrence.

There are certain settings (and patches) that might affect this. For instance the heat zone has been updated a few times since the first time i saw it. Some got a lot more heat than they used to have. Or for instance starting with the 6 months later preset can have you a lot more zombies at those safe houses you used to feel safe than you remember:)

Also actually most folks will not even live on the ground level, or use the fence+crate cheezy stuff to make their base unreachable. So for them neither is actually a problem. (Allthough in this case the large horde which can prohibit you leaving your base can be more of an issue.)

6 Mos. Later I either base farther out or just spend more time patrolling/clearing out before settling in. I generally just avoid West Point though. I think I managed a safehouse in dowtown area once. Still haven't tried LV 6 Mos. Later.

Originally posted by Pherdnut:

Originally posted by Nordil(Hun):

There are certain settings (and patches) that might affect this. For instance the heat zone has been updated a few times since the first time i saw it. Some got a lot more heat than they used to have. Or for instance starting with the 6 months later preset can have you a lot more zombies at those safe houses you used to feel safe than you remember:)

Also actually most folks will not even live on the ground level, or use the fence+crate cheezy stuff to make their base unreachable. So for them neither is actually a problem. (Allthough in this case the large horde which can prohibit you leaving your base can be more of an issue.)

6 Mos. Later I either base farther out or just spend more time patrolling/clearing out before settling in. I generally just avoid West Point though. I think I managed a safehouse in dowtown area once. Still haven't tried LV 6 Mos. Later.

Ah man took me a while to understand hte last sentence cuz i call it Lville:)
I spawn like 75% of the time in Lville with Pillows mod. About 60% of the time i make it out. Usually i dont make it out when i try alternative paths to escape or my usual path is not available. In my current game i spawned in a 3 story apartment. And i was lucky as no alarm went off a minute after my char spawned. Currently (where i stalled the game) my char is at the train station on the first floor. Took me over 15 days to get there. Mostly hunting for food as i did not find ANY can openers. So the 4(!) cans of oatmeals i found in the train station is a godsend. Now i need to reach WP bridge and from there it is easy peazy. Howevere my greatest issue is that already my savegame is over 500 MB. My character at his current level cannot survive in LVille not unless zombies can die of fall damage. :( (Going with 0/0 str and fitness chars has its downsides:) also not using fire to clear out the hordes.)
Oh btw in Lville most of the time if you cannot get out it is because the zombie pop is SO dense, that there is literally no way to pass. The zombies block the streets from wall to wall, and if you have a large group following you, while you walk into an intersection that is also blocked on all sides, you gotta make a push for it. It either succeeds or not:D
(And sometimes you cannot escape this encirclement. In my current game i managed but i had to actually go back further inside Lville like 3 times. Took me exactly 3 days to reach the deeper woods of safety:D Good thing i found cofee in the original apartment in large numbers. And i had a flashlight.)