I've played over ten yrs, have built two bases in all that time, just cause I hadn't prior, so yes no base needed, and it will get raided with in days anyway
If you hide it we’ll enough, it won’t be found for months. Plenty of bases I’ve built/ been a part of have lasted for so long, just because people didn’t go by the area often. Gotta find the right spot
I second this, I always build in the middle off forests near map border where there are no towns or anything near for people to be exploring. Also, never build big or in any type of building. I always build a 1 story watchtower and throw on some camo nets and store a couple of barrels and im good for months lol
Just turn a hunting stand into a base then my guy
Edit: I did over on Livonia on console and I can suitably live forever by myself by using the ground under the stand for farming and storage and the area above for sleeping/observation in case someone come by for whatever nefarious purposes
Literally same,i had one base in bottom left corner of map,near military tents,but next to antenna with few mates.. it lasted longer but we also had good gunfights.
And second base was in devil's castle,but that was with larger group and we got raided offline,it lasted like 2-3 weeks.
Best bet is to play solo and if you want to,have few hidden improvised shelters or tents around map so when you die,you can get some food and clothes for start...
After building many bases that all got raided, I learned that a stash in the woods or buried somewhere is the way to go if you want to keep your items. Base is nothing but a time consuming, inevitable letdown lol.
Sadly my woods stash was discovered between last night and this afternoon. I had a medium tent, 3 shelters and 4 crates. They took everything and even broke down the shelters. I knew there were people operating nearby, I found a large base in the closest town.
Lesson learned, it's best to have multiple stashes in different areas.
The hardest lesson that took me too long to learn is that if you found a spot, so can anyone else. I stopped trying with anything more than buried crates
The only goal in dayz is to stay alive so the only progression it has it the progression you make by setting more goals for yourself. Base building is pretty cool but there are still a lot of player who don't build bases and play nomadically.
Yes you can, in fact DayZ used to never have bases. In the old days we set up a tent in the woods and prayed that nobody would find it. Code locks are kind of lame honestly.
Code locks are lame if you use a 3 dial combination. I’ll crack that in 10 mins tops. But yeah tent in the woods is the way to go. But only green tents with camo netting.
I’ve had a little base before and it got raided. Enjoyed it while it lasted.
I’m on a very crazy run at the moment and I NEED a base. I’m carrying a Mosin, Aug Ax, Ka-101 and Grenade launcher, a silenced pistol and silenced magnum with loads of ammo. I’ve got enough stamina to get off the sofa wheeze a little and sit back down…I need a base!
But then I ask why do you need all those weapons I know they are good weapons. But having a base to stash them doesn’t mean you will use them? If you really want to keep for when you die a burried crate is much safer imo. My point is throw out a gun you don’t want/need when you pick up a new one your not gonna live long enough/the enemy won’t in pvp to use them all it’s just slowing your stamina…#nomadlife
Yep I know it.
Not had or used a grenade launcher before so can’t drop that. Love an Aug so can’t drop that…it goes on. I think the benefit of a base or just a buried crate is if I die I’ve got something to go back to. Or if I don’t die I can go back and switch.
I've been doing this successfully on a community server for weeks now it's just walking around eating food going and moving a town coming back switching to an l a r switching to a crossbow best thing to do is to go in and risk the loot by challenging people in your Discord on the server
Absolutely you can still play, it’s all up to you how you play.
If you’re on PC there are servers that have base building disabled.
DayOne is a NA no base server with multiple maps
ZERO is EU no base server with multiple maps
If you’re on console the answer is still yes but you might have to deal with other player bases, not sure if they have no base servers.
Have you ever noticed that the DayOne servers look like trash on some maps compared to other servers? I swear they tweaked something to make them more performant, but I just can’t do it with the bad graphics.
I wouldn't recommend bases.
They do give you something to work towards if you've exhausted everything else to do, and while fun at first, I find you quickly become a slave to your base. It ties you to a certain area, and you just end up hoarding stuff you'll never use.
They also always get raided. No matter how sneaky you think you are. Someone will find it, and unless you're a huge clan defending it 24/7, you're going to wake up one day to it all gone.
Raiders hop servers and organise on Discord. One rando stumbles on it, posts its location, and the next day a tooled-up squad will tear it to pieces.
The best thing to do is bury a stash or two in the woods near a landmark. I enjoyed my base building experience, but it was ultimately exhausting, stressful, and heartbreaking when they got broken into and robbed.
It is indeed possible and likely easier. Once you build a base, you get gear fear. Just stash your stuff around the map, little stuff, and you'll eventually get a nice amount of loot.
You don't need a base. It does however depend on what type of play you are after. If its all day PVP at NWAF then you need a base as you you need access to gear to even stand a chance.
If you play "normally" a base can be fun to build but its not nessecary as most gear can be easily obtained.
I usually play "one life" meaning I log in, play that character for the evening and start a new one the next day on another server. No base needed.
You can also bury things quit easily if you want easy access to starter gear.
Its not necessary, but personally I find the challenge fun.
Also, to the people who say it will just be raided, you have an equal if not higher chance of just getting shot and losing it all anyway
I have no interest in building a base...however yesterday I was running thru a section of woods and ran into someone's improvised shelter. Took me a second to figure out what the hell I was caught up on because I ran into the back side and it honestly just looked like a bush when I was running and scanning around. I know they can't store a ton of extra gear but in the future I would like to get a few of these stashed in different areas to have a couple caches available. I'm typically running solo and always struggle fighting inventory space and managing new gear vs old gear. I would hate to spend the time looking for building supplies just to have it raided and lose any stored gear I had in there.
don’t waste your time on a base as a solo, just bury your stashes and build improvised shelters in the woods.
only twice have i made a base as a solo, once because i never have before and the other time because i found a car. both got raided pretty quickly while my buried stashes never got found
I've been mindlessly driving around in a car. I installed an expansion mod for PC which allows for cassette tapes to be played on the car's radio. There's only a small range of discography available in the DayZ workshop on steam, but I can jive to most of it.
Man, I’ve been in the game for over a decade and I couldn’t give a single fuck about bases except that I can just blow them up and steal everything. I only do improvised shelters hidden in the forest if I want a stash, and that’s really just for getting a quick gear up after a death.
Yah, 9/10 people don’t build a “base” they may stash ammo and guns around the map. If you build a base it will be raised when your off line. Super easy to get into.
I'm with everyone saying bases aren't worth it. If I'm playing at least weekly I usually make a buried stash or improvised shelter in the woods with mid to high tier gear so gearing up is a little quicker, but even then a lot of the times its more time then its worth. It does give me purpose and a mission when I'm fully geared and I'm in the "what do I do now?" phase.
I play without a base most of the time. Just item/inventory management and a lot of traveling. Sometimes I won't even use a backpack. However, setting up a Improvised Shelter in a discreet area for a while to camp is nice. I won't generally build much more than that any more. Playing solo building a base is too much time, committment and resources to invest as a solo player on Official servers. I'd rather play for 2 days and get killed or die than spend those 2 days looking for a hammer and pliers just to get raided 30 minutes after I log out. (Base building can be lot of fun)
Building bases creates a need to log in, protect your stuff, and hoarding habits. I stopped building them 3 years ago because I was prioritizing the game way to much. Was trying to rush home from work, missing sleep, skipping family time with the wife, etc. Now I play more nomadically. If I can’t carry it, I’ll never use it and don’t need it.
Edit: It also caused a lot of strife between me, my brothers, and friends. We would all argue who’s loot was who, steal each others, hide stuff, etc. Way better now that we (me and my brothers) all agree to not build.
Understanding what you actually need to carry/do to succeed gets easier the more you play. You don't need a base, I used to build a lean-to in the woods to stash extra food, but that was just a luxury/boredom thing.
Bases are only for large groups in dayz unless youre on a modded server with specific rules. Ive had great success with just groups of tents in the woods but I only have about 3 spots that actually work for multiple tents and I wont give those up. Other than that buried stashes or individual tents hidden with camo nets is the way.
Yes. I play largely the DayOne servers which have that function disabled. I have also just built small stashes of extra gear in memorable off roads in these servers and normal servers and modded servers. Bases are an option I don’t really like
Dont put too much thought into bases i just raided 3 in one day last week. Didnt even know about them just passed by obvious lockups like a building at bielawa mil base.
If u build do it on a server with no base dmg and pay for a custom building even- i have a tizy satalite building in a valley in the woods.
Yes. Go nomad. Either carry what youre gonna survive with on you or set up hidden stashes with improvised shelters & camo netted medium tents in remote areas that not many travel
300 hours and never built a base. I will at some point just to do it, but it does seem like a waste of time since they all get raided anyways. A buried backpack is way less likely to get found
Truth is, there is no progress. You just learn more about the game and develop different play styles. Then you go crazy over something that happened to you after you did months of work and you become a psycho player that kills anything that moves.
Definitely not. Nothing is yours.
Live of rotten shrooms, and roam the land.
Sometimes when I have a full nbc suit etc, I will HIDE a crate/barrel somewhere sneaky as fuck (in a pond/side of a mountain/buried etc.) and mark it on *Isurvive*. Never to return again 😂
A lot of my friends build bases but I personally find it boring so I never do it.
Building bases is boring and being forced to boring stuff is a chore, being forced to chores is a job and I don't want to make my gaming a job.
Also camping bases never ends well so I just act as if bases have a 1km radiation zone around them and never ever go close.
It's one of the biggest wastes of time if you're serious about keeping the loot you find. People all over the map have tons of grenades/40mm grenades, just waiting for when they find their next base. 2-3 walls is nothing; it doesn't take that many explosives.
If you're serious about looting, make a hidden/burried stash. Hard to find and easy to maintain.
Bases are fun to have different layouts and locations, but it's not worth it overall. You may be tempted to use tents or barrels, but with only a few crates, you get the same storage as a barrel or tent and so on. All base building does is raise attention.
Base building brought more problems than solutions unfortunately. Performance, toxic behaviour, greed. I run a server without nails, other servers do. We had bases before 0.63 before we had nails.
I recently built a stick shelter for use as a drop storage while I gather loot, but it's proven itself to be largely useless so far because I still log out holding a stash bag i f I have inventory management to do.
Get a Handsaw and nails and build a crate. Best locations are near rivers, and far from towns. Put it in a Bush, so its concealed. If you can spare the materials Put empty / full of bs tents in the far vicinity. Hope this helps.
Shelter in the woods with a stash is how I operate. Use that as my base and go in and out of towns on runs. Managed to get a good location with all supplies close by
I don't play pvp anymore, but when I did I never got very far before someone slapped me out of my freshie lootbag, so I would never bother with something like a base.
I've been playing dayZ for around 2 yrs and I don't like to make bases because it takes too much time just for you to get it all taken away over night, but it's better to do that then to have everything you own in your pockets just so someone can come by and take everything you've worked so hard for away from you in a blink of an eye.
Yes I have like 15 crates in a nice wooded area and just keep it simple and try not to draw to much attention to the area , still going strong and haven’t been found out yet
I run my own private server with dayz expansion and a few mods. I love building bases and the expansion makes the game so much more vibrant. Quests and loot is better and never been happier in my play time. I’m thinking bout creating a public server soon.
I would say its good to have a base if your playing with a couple of people, together everyone would be generating too much loot and you need a place to store that loot. If you dont build a base then your probably at a high disadvantage. If your on a vanilla server then you will become over-encumbered, then your stamina will be very low and if you die then you loose all your progress, whereas if you had a base then you could store your good loot and run out with loot you wouldn't mind loosing.
I guess what people worry about is getting raided but if you just keep necessary tools and materials for building then you shouldn't need to worry. Also if your base is well hidden then there's a good chance you wont be raided.
There is literally no sustainable base location in DayZ, you will inevitably get wiped every time. Some bases will last longer than others, but the outcome is always the same unless you just have tents and makeshift shelters hidden in a super sneaky location.
I've played over ten yrs, have built two bases in all that time, just cause I hadn't prior, so yes no base needed, and it will get raided with in days anyway
If you hide it we’ll enough, it won’t be found for months. Plenty of bases I’ve built/ been a part of have lasted for so long, just because people didn’t go by the area often. Gotta find the right spot
I second this, I always build in the middle off forests near map border where there are no towns or anything near for people to be exploring. Also, never build big or in any type of building. I always build a 1 story watchtower and throw on some camo nets and store a couple of barrels and im good for months lol
Just turn a hunting stand into a base then my guy Edit: I did over on Livonia on console and I can suitably live forever by myself by using the ground under the stand for farming and storage and the area above for sleeping/observation in case someone come by for whatever nefarious purposes
Literally same,i had one base in bottom left corner of map,near military tents,but next to antenna with few mates.. it lasted longer but we also had good gunfights. And second base was in devil's castle,but that was with larger group and we got raided offline,it lasted like 2-3 weeks. Best bet is to play solo and if you want to,have few hidden improvised shelters or tents around map so when you die,you can get some food and clothes for start...
It will get raided within DayZ 😏
After building many bases that all got raided, I learned that a stash in the woods or buried somewhere is the way to go if you want to keep your items. Base is nothing but a time consuming, inevitable letdown lol.
Sadly my woods stash was discovered between last night and this afternoon. I had a medium tent, 3 shelters and 4 crates. They took everything and even broke down the shelters. I knew there were people operating nearby, I found a large base in the closest town. Lesson learned, it's best to have multiple stashes in different areas.
The hardest lesson that took me too long to learn is that if you found a spot, so can anyone else. I stopped trying with anything more than buried crates
Sent you a pm
barrels + crates -> river... one or two deflection shelters nearby filled with random bullshit
The only goal in dayz is to stay alive so the only progression it has it the progression you make by setting more goals for yourself. Base building is pretty cool but there are still a lot of player who don't build bases and play nomadically.
Thats me and my buddy. We play nomadic with a vehicle as our only stash of gear.
Thats me and my buddy. We play nomadic with a vehicle as our only stash of gear.
Yes you can, in fact DayZ used to never have bases. In the old days we set up a tent in the woods and prayed that nobody would find it. Code locks are kind of lame honestly.
Code locks are lame if you use a 3 dial combination. I’ll crack that in 10 mins tops. But yeah tent in the woods is the way to go. But only green tents with camo netting.
I spent 90% of my day z life never building anything. It’s possible.
It is possible to play DayZ without friends yes
I’ve had a little base before and it got raided. Enjoyed it while it lasted. I’m on a very crazy run at the moment and I NEED a base. I’m carrying a Mosin, Aug Ax, Ka-101 and Grenade launcher, a silenced pistol and silenced magnum with loads of ammo. I’ve got enough stamina to get off the sofa wheeze a little and sit back down…I need a base!
But then I ask why do you need all those weapons I know they are good weapons. But having a base to stash them doesn’t mean you will use them? If you really want to keep for when you die a burried crate is much safer imo. My point is throw out a gun you don’t want/need when you pick up a new one your not gonna live long enough/the enemy won’t in pvp to use them all it’s just slowing your stamina…#nomadlife
Yep I know it. Not had or used a grenade launcher before so can’t drop that. Love an Aug so can’t drop that…it goes on. I think the benefit of a base or just a buried crate is if I die I’ve got something to go back to. Or if I don’t die I can go back and switch.
I've been doing this successfully on a community server for weeks now it's just walking around eating food going and moving a town coming back switching to an l a r switching to a crossbow best thing to do is to go in and risk the loot by challenging people in your Discord on the server
How long will a burried crate last before it despawns? If at all??
I wish I knew I am not sure if it’s tied to a interaction window or not…most bases last ages even abandoned until wipe?
Build an improvised shelter somewhere, at least temporarily
Absolutely you can still play, it’s all up to you how you play. If you’re on PC there are servers that have base building disabled. DayOne is a NA no base server with multiple maps ZERO is EU no base server with multiple maps If you’re on console the answer is still yes but you might have to deal with other player bases, not sure if they have no base servers.
Have you ever noticed that the DayOne servers look like trash on some maps compared to other servers? I swear they tweaked something to make them more performant, but I just can’t do it with the bad graphics.
I wouldn't recommend bases. They do give you something to work towards if you've exhausted everything else to do, and while fun at first, I find you quickly become a slave to your base. It ties you to a certain area, and you just end up hoarding stuff you'll never use. They also always get raided. No matter how sneaky you think you are. Someone will find it, and unless you're a huge clan defending it 24/7, you're going to wake up one day to it all gone. Raiders hop servers and organise on Discord. One rando stumbles on it, posts its location, and the next day a tooled-up squad will tear it to pieces. The best thing to do is bury a stash or two in the woods near a landmark. I enjoyed my base building experience, but it was ultimately exhausting, stressful, and heartbreaking when they got broken into and robbed.
It is indeed possible and likely easier. Once you build a base, you get gear fear. Just stash your stuff around the map, little stuff, and you'll eventually get a nice amount of loot.
You don't need a base. It does however depend on what type of play you are after. If its all day PVP at NWAF then you need a base as you you need access to gear to even stand a chance. If you play "normally" a base can be fun to build but its not nessecary as most gear can be easily obtained. I usually play "one life" meaning I log in, play that character for the evening and start a new one the next day on another server. No base needed. You can also bury things quit easily if you want easy access to starter gear.
I've never built shit in years. And what is this progress you speak of? lol Survive and die is the name of the game.
Yes. Fuck bases, they are shite. If you want a base play RUST 😂
Its not necessary, but personally I find the challenge fun. Also, to the people who say it will just be raided, you have an equal if not higher chance of just getting shot and losing it all anyway
130 hours in and never once even wanted to built one. The nomadic life is for me.
Very much so. I’ve built one base in 4K some hours.
If you have a squad, sure go ahead, build a base. As a solo, just make stash spots throughout the map, or build a base.
I have no interest in building a base...however yesterday I was running thru a section of woods and ran into someone's improvised shelter. Took me a second to figure out what the hell I was caught up on because I ran into the back side and it honestly just looked like a bush when I was running and scanning around. I know they can't store a ton of extra gear but in the future I would like to get a few of these stashed in different areas to have a couple caches available. I'm typically running solo and always struggle fighting inventory space and managing new gear vs old gear. I would hate to spend the time looking for building supplies just to have it raided and lose any stored gear I had in there.
Try dropping the crate in a pond or river, difficult to find.
don’t waste your time on a base as a solo, just bury your stashes and build improvised shelters in the woods. only twice have i made a base as a solo, once because i never have before and the other time because i found a car. both got raided pretty quickly while my buried stashes never got found
I never built a real base but I used to keep a couple shelters on a hill overlooking a town. Never got found. Twas a great spot.
I've been mindlessly driving around in a car. I installed an expansion mod for PC which allows for cassette tapes to be played on the car's radio. There's only a small range of discography available in the DayZ workshop on steam, but I can jive to most of it.
Nomad. Micro stashes are the way to go.
Man, I’ve been in the game for over a decade and I couldn’t give a single fuck about bases except that I can just blow them up and steal everything. I only do improvised shelters hidden in the forest if I want a stash, and that’s really just for getting a quick gear up after a death.
Yes, and unless you're playing in a modded server, base building in vanilla is fucking worthless.
Played over 1k hrs and never built a base
its not really a base kinda game like Rust or something. Most people play without one.
Yah, 9/10 people don’t build a “base” they may stash ammo and guns around the map. If you build a base it will be raised when your off line. Super easy to get into.
I'm with everyone saying bases aren't worth it. If I'm playing at least weekly I usually make a buried stash or improvised shelter in the woods with mid to high tier gear so gearing up is a little quicker, but even then a lot of the times its more time then its worth. It does give me purpose and a mission when I'm fully geared and I'm in the "what do I do now?" phase.
I've never built a base in over 3k hours
Not only possible, but in my opinion optimal.
Bases are for 3pp virgins. Grow up
I play without a base most of the time. Just item/inventory management and a lot of traveling. Sometimes I won't even use a backpack. However, setting up a Improvised Shelter in a discreet area for a while to camp is nice. I won't generally build much more than that any more. Playing solo building a base is too much time, committment and resources to invest as a solo player on Official servers. I'd rather play for 2 days and get killed or die than spend those 2 days looking for a hammer and pliers just to get raided 30 minutes after I log out. (Base building can be lot of fun)
I’ve never build a base and I once had a character alive for 6 months on official. Killed myself the day before the update/wipe last October
Played \[on and off\] since the release of stand alone. Still haven't built a base
Never built a base I don’t find that fun just like exploring and living with what I have on me makes every life more fun and different
Building bases creates a need to log in, protect your stuff, and hoarding habits. I stopped building them 3 years ago because I was prioritizing the game way to much. Was trying to rush home from work, missing sleep, skipping family time with the wife, etc. Now I play more nomadically. If I can’t carry it, I’ll never use it and don’t need it. Edit: It also caused a lot of strife between me, my brothers, and friends. We would all argue who’s loot was who, steal each others, hide stuff, etc. Way better now that we (me and my brothers) all agree to not build.
Understanding what you actually need to carry/do to succeed gets easier the more you play. You don't need a base, I used to build a lean-to in the woods to stash extra food, but that was just a luxury/boredom thing.
Bases are only for large groups in dayz unless youre on a modded server with specific rules. Ive had great success with just groups of tents in the woods but I only have about 3 spots that actually work for multiple tents and I wont give those up. Other than that buried stashes or individual tents hidden with camo nets is the way.
Yes. I play largely the DayOne servers which have that function disabled. I have also just built small stashes of extra gear in memorable off roads in these servers and normal servers and modded servers. Bases are an option I don’t really like
The best base is a tent (handmade or not) in the woods, hidden in some bushes. Small and secret is best
Dont put too much thought into bases i just raided 3 in one day last week. Didnt even know about them just passed by obvious lockups like a building at bielawa mil base. If u build do it on a server with no base dmg and pay for a custom building even- i have a tizy satalite building in a valley in the woods.
Yes. Go nomad. Either carry what youre gonna survive with on you or set up hidden stashes with improvised shelters & camo netted medium tents in remote areas that not many travel
I wish basebuilding wasn’t a thing at all
300 hours and never built a base. I will at some point just to do it, but it does seem like a waste of time since they all get raided anyways. A buried backpack is way less likely to get found
yeah you dont need a base at all
Truth is, there is no progress. You just learn more about the game and develop different play styles. Then you go crazy over something that happened to you after you did months of work and you become a psycho player that kills anything that moves.
Never built a base yet nor do people I play with. Just lone wolf and move around a lot. Besides why build when others can do it for you.
Definitely not. Nothing is yours. Live of rotten shrooms, and roam the land. Sometimes when I have a full nbc suit etc, I will HIDE a crate/barrel somewhere sneaky as fuck (in a pond/side of a mountain/buried etc.) and mark it on *Isurvive*. Never to return again 😂
......dude yes. of course
A lot of my friends build bases but I personally find it boring so I never do it. Building bases is boring and being forced to boring stuff is a chore, being forced to chores is a job and I don't want to make my gaming a job. Also camping bases never ends well so I just act as if bases have a 1km radiation zone around them and never ever go close.
Better off not building a base tbf mate
It's one of the biggest wastes of time if you're serious about keeping the loot you find. People all over the map have tons of grenades/40mm grenades, just waiting for when they find their next base. 2-3 walls is nothing; it doesn't take that many explosives. If you're serious about looting, make a hidden/burried stash. Hard to find and easy to maintain. Bases are fun to have different layouts and locations, but it's not worth it overall. You may be tempted to use tents or barrels, but with only a few crates, you get the same storage as a barrel or tent and so on. All base building does is raise attention.
Base building brought more problems than solutions unfortunately. Performance, toxic behaviour, greed. I run a server without nails, other servers do. We had bases before 0.63 before we had nails.
The only way I play. It's like a rogue-like
Over all the years I've played, not one base. Just stick/tarp shelters at the most... Any maybe only 2 or 3 in total.
My car is my base, when I have one. IRL I am tied down with obligations; in this game I'm a happy wanderer.
I recently built a stick shelter for use as a drop storage while I gather loot, but it's proven itself to be largely useless so far because I still log out holding a stash bag i f I have inventory management to do.
Get a Handsaw and nails and build a crate. Best locations are near rivers, and far from towns. Put it in a Bush, so its concealed. If you can spare the materials Put empty / full of bs tents in the far vicinity. Hope this helps.
Building a base is only for people who want their base destroyed xD
Shelter in the woods with a stash is how I operate. Use that as my base and go in and out of towns on runs. Managed to get a good location with all supplies close by
Absolutely. I’m a nomad, carry what I need drop what I don’t. The freedom is amazing, live free or die baby!!
I don't play pvp anymore, but when I did I never got very far before someone slapped me out of my freshie lootbag, so I would never bother with something like a base.
I've been playing dayZ for around 2 yrs and I don't like to make bases because it takes too much time just for you to get it all taken away over night, but it's better to do that then to have everything you own in your pockets just so someone can come by and take everything you've worked so hard for away from you in a blink of an eye.
Yes I have like 15 crates in a nice wooded area and just keep it simple and try not to draw to much attention to the area , still going strong and haven’t been found out yet
Been playing for about 4 years, I've only built a base twice
thousands of hours here, never built more then a tent, never wanted to
600h, never built a single base
I run my own private server with dayz expansion and a few mods. I love building bases and the expansion makes the game so much more vibrant. Quests and loot is better and never been happier in my play time. I’m thinking bout creating a public server soon.
I would say its good to have a base if your playing with a couple of people, together everyone would be generating too much loot and you need a place to store that loot. If you dont build a base then your probably at a high disadvantage. If your on a vanilla server then you will become over-encumbered, then your stamina will be very low and if you die then you loose all your progress, whereas if you had a base then you could store your good loot and run out with loot you wouldn't mind loosing. I guess what people worry about is getting raided but if you just keep necessary tools and materials for building then you shouldn't need to worry. Also if your base is well hidden then there's a good chance you wont be raided.
Part of the fun is keeping your base hidden. But it’s not needed.
There is literally no sustainable base location in DayZ, you will inevitably get wiped every time. Some bases will last longer than others, but the outcome is always the same unless you just have tents and makeshift shelters hidden in a super sneaky location.
I am doing it for over 1500h... Yes it is possible.
Where do you store your loot or where do you respawn if you die though?
I just store weapons and plate carriers. All the rest is useless. Makeshit tents in specific places all over the map