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I recently recommended Rimworld to a friend as a game they might enjoy, and sure enough they did enjoy. They enjoyed it so much they invited me to take a peak at their base, which I did and which duly horrified me. There was no sense of regularity or structure it was just one room tacked next to another in whatever system was needed.

By contrast, my most recent base is pretty much indistinguishable from my last dozen or so bases in following a rigidly modular style of construction always x3 for hallways and 15x15 for rooms (subdivided differently of course) or basically this:

(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/877498528029568883/C2759ABA70C73D901F13E3FA23C8C90FD4E95B20/)

So it left me wondering a simple question, how do most people build their bases? Fairly organically or more modular like myself, hence the poll. Really eager to hear what people think and do.

So how long did it take you to get to your design, and how did your first base look like ?

And how dare you comparing a 4 Pawn Vanilla Base in year 2 with no pets
against your higly modded 15 pawn or more base which is at least in year 5 ?

Looking at your friends well sorted stockpiles, the quality in which he cares for the pawns and the future plans he is allready implementing, I think he did more right than wrong.
And beauty is as always in the eye of the beholder.

Personally I prefer organic bases to planned bases that look like every other base.

Just my 2 silver.

I tend to build pretty organically with some planning around natural features (I avoid deep mining mostly). I prefer a smaller colony though (<10 colonists) so I don't need to be really efficient about space. I think your friend;s base is pretty decent vOv

Quote from: SpaceDorf on October 08, 2017, 05:43:30 PM
So how long did it take you to get to your design, and how did your first base look like ?

And how dare you comparing a 4 Pawn Vanilla Base in year 2 with no pets
against your higly modded 15 pawn or more base which is at least in year 5 ?

Looking at your friends well sorted stockpiles, the quality in which he cares for the pawns and the future plans he is allready implementing, I think he did more right than wrong.
And beauty is as always in the eye of the beholder.

Personally I prefer organic bases to planned bases that look like every other base.

Just my 2 silver.

Wow that escalated quickly, just for the record that was not my friends base it just an illustration of the principle, I've removed it anyway. I'll take it down anyway just for simplicity's sake, to get back to the question of organic versus modular design.

As for my 15x15 3 wide hallway setup, no idea how long I've been using it, I think I always used some kind of variation on it, although I do experiment with room size, recently using 19x19 for each module, and giving every pawn bedroom a bathroom (thank you Dubsmod).

My bases tend towards the planned; I make extensive use of the 'More Planning' mods tools to set up my design and work out where I want everything.  I usually work out where I'll be putting crops and then arrange from there, though sometimes I'll need to adjust for map features (Oops!  Who put that geothermal vent there?!)

It depends to an extent on what kind of scenario and map I'm planning to play but I do try to plan for efficiency; it's a pain in the butt to realise your haulers have to traipse halfway across the map to deliver things to where they're needed. 

Quote from: Praetorian on October 08, 2017, 06:03:35 PM
Wow that escalated quickly, just for the record that was not my friends base it just an illustration of the principle, I've removed it anyway. I'll take it down anyway just for simplicity's sake, to get back to the question of organic versus modular design.

Sorry If I came on to strong, but it was not really clear if this was your friends base or not.
What made me sound angry was the way you described your own base as clearly superior,
compared to a base that was not half as advanced in general.

Quote from: Praetorian on October 08, 2017, 06:03:35 PM
As for my 15x15 3 wide hallway setup, no idea how long I've been using it, I think I always used some kind of variation on it ...

I myself have some ingrained design features, which have proven themselves over and over again.
Still I am not a planner, but rather prefer to let my base grow as needed and keep it open to all sides.
Sadly I have no current running game to show pictures of my own.

My base design is kind of somewhere in the middle. If you look at my current colony, you'll see that all of the bedrooms look exactly the same (the only thing different is that each one has a different sculpture). What I tend to do though is more towards the organic style - I'll set up one big building in the beginning, then maybe add a hospital to the side, a block of bedrooms nearby, a big rec room somewhere close. So my base consists of a bunch of different-shaped rectangles (for rooms) all connected to each other with hallways and doors. It's all enclosed in one "compound" but it's not exactly super structured.

However, although I lean towards the organic style in the beginning, as the colony progresses in time and I don't need to just slap on new rooms randomly anymore, I tend to make it more organised and modular. For example, move my solar panels one tile up so that they are touching the mountain wall, turn this room with no purpouse into an extension for the hospital and adding a proper hallway, refurbish the randomly placed prison cell adjacent to the dining room and turn it into a little room with a component assembly bench, etc.

Interesting to see the responses, I probably should have put a 'mixed' option which seems to be the case for a lot of people but interesting to see nonetheless.

i always go with the flow and Change things up.
sometimes the bases end up chaotic, sometimes everything works out perfectly.

i have no "solid" early game build order so to speak. destroys the creativity aspect of it.

Like most people, i build organically with strict design guidelines.

probably my quirkiest thing is that i tend to to skip automated killboxes and use manned kill corridors...I wall my entire base except for one side, set up a nice 8-wide hallway or so, put a door, wall, door on each side, and then shrink it to 6 wide, door wall, door, 4 wide, door wall door, open it back up to 6 wide briefly but put some wall sections to simulate a 2-wide...repeated twice.

This gives me 16 engaged pawns all at once, in cover behind walls (and usually a sandbag)....it means they never shoot each other (like they would in a 3-wide all-the-way-down hallway with door combat)

Quote from: Limdood on October 09, 2017, 01:15:25 PM
Like most people, i build organically with strict design guidelines.

probably my quirkiest thing is that i tend to to skip automated killboxes and use manned kill corridors...I wall my entire base except for one side, set up a nice 8-wide hallway or so, put a door, wall, door on each side, and then shrink it to 6 wide, door wall, door, 4 wide, door wall door, open it back up to 6 wide briefly but put some wall sections to simulate a 2-wide...repeated twice.

That is genius. I would love to see a picture with one of those.

Organic but following some principles that I reuse every game. Cooking, dining room and at least 1 stockpile will be very centrally placed to reduce travel time since everybody uses them every day.

Bedrooms along the outer edges since it doesn't hurt much if raiders break into them.

I often expand by building more bedrooms on the outside of my outer wall, then turning the old bedrooms into workshops / prison / whatever is needed at the moment.

I like how every base is different in every game.

I tend to enjoy building mountain bases, since I like forcing enemies into narrow valleys to make it easier to pick them off (setting up switchbacks and planting trees between the walls to slow the enemy down and spread them out), and I like the temperature regulation of being under a mountain. Means less need for numerous heaters/coolers during warm and cold seasons.

My bases are typically built in a vaguely similar fashion, with a kitchen/dining area and attached coolers, crafting room, med lab, and bedrooms forming a three-sided square, with a "courtyard" between them where we can load up caravans, have traders hang out, a prison dug into the mountainside off a bit away from the base (easier to deal with breakouts), etc.

The buildings are all dug into the edges of the mountainside, so I can put windows looking outside in several of the areas, while the bedrooms tend to be dug into the mountain. Sometimes I'll make a large "complex" underground, with 3-space wide hallways (2-space in the bedroom areas) so that if an infestation happens, I've got nice, long killways that the bugs have to travel down and my colonists can set up to shoot.

One of my "themed" colonies was a military base on an alien world, which had a much different layout. Barracks, all straight lines, wide paths and killways, etc. Was a fun build.

Link in my sig to my mountain bases, i tend to put up a temp base outside the mountain while I dig but I always like things looking neat and organized.  I see the disorganized messes that other people make and shake my head.  of course, everyone should play how they like, but it just seems bizarre to me when things are mess looking.

Quote from: JimmyAgnt007 on October 10, 2017, 01:01:43 PM
Link in my sig to my mountain bases, i tend to put up a temp base outside the mountain while I dig but I always like things looking neat and organized.  I see the disorganized messes that other people make and shake my head.  of course, everyone should play how they like, but it just seems bizarre to me when things are mess looking.

I like mine to be tidy as well. I'll have to take a screenshot of my current moutain valley when I get home. It's a nice little hidden valley in the mountains with only one way in, a big open area with lots of crop fields, and the colony dug into the mountainside.

Quote from: ColonistGirl on October 10, 2017, 12:55:59 PMSometimes I'll make a large "complex" underground, with 3-space wide hallways (2-space in the bedroom areas) so that if an infestation happens, I've got nice, long killways that the bugs have to travel down and my colonists can set up to shoot.

Funny you should say that as my current setup pictured above (featuring Rimatomics) is built so that within about a minutes notice the hallways can be raised to 200 degrees Celsius for rapidly cooking infestations (whilst leaving hives intact). It's a setup that has saved my base more that once.

Quote from: Limdood on October 09, 2017, 01:15:25 PM
Like most people, i build organically with strict design guidelines.

probably my quirkiest thing is that i tend to to skip automated killboxes and use manned kill corridors...I wall my entire base except for one side, set up a nice 8-wide hallway or so, put a door, wall, door on each side, and then shrink it to 6 wide, door wall, door, 4 wide, door wall door, open it back up to 6 wide briefly but put some wall sections to simulate a 2-wide...repeated twice.

This gives me 16 engaged pawns all at once, in cover behind walls (and usually a sandbag)....it means they never shoot each other (like they would in a 3-wide all-the-way-down hallway with door combat)

Corridor is significantly more efficient than trying a turret box IMO.  I'm not picturing exactly what yours looks like.  It's effectively a funnel to a choke entry point with a wall design that lets everyone shoot into the funnel right?

8 pawns can safely shoot down a 2x2 corridor with two sets of double doors.  (3x3 non-friendly fire rule), but widening this sounds attractive.  8 LMG is a little light on sustained DPS to shred stuff, but 12+ could cycle fire a constant stream of bullets and against clusters of meat should break 100 DPS easily.  If fired at a grave or marriage spot or something they're poor man's miniguns and even a random shoddy LMG with 24% health can seriously contribute.

I like to build things organically which I suppose equals originality for this thread. Look at the map features and work out some basics then go from there. I also like to work on aesthetics, Yes a 3 wide solid stone corridor is a good defensive structure but I think it would send you batty living around it all the time. How about an open area with nice paving and the good old horse shoe pin. Think about if you were living in this settlement what would help you de-stress and forget about those raiders for a moment.

This method can also lead to interesting issue to resolve as well. For example, I have this little spot here that will work for a couple of telescopes but its hard up next to the geothermal generator. How many statues is it going to take to make this spot pleasant to be in?

Quote from: ColonistGirl on October 10, 2017, 01:23:00 PM
It's a nice little hidden valley in the mountains with only one way in, a big open area with lots of crop fields, and the colony dug into the mountainside.

That makes me want to start a new colony in such a place!
Don't forget the screenshot!

I definitely go for originality in my base design. I guess I tend to like to RP the game a bit more than most people.

We all know the pawns are a bit dense and constantly make stupid decisions. I like to embrace this. I pretend that this really is their first time attempting to build a base on a foreign planet. Building a section of the base, only to realize later that it's way too small for all my new population size is something that I think would actually happen, and I enjoy putting them all to work solving these new problems.

It's true that building a modular base can give you access to those higher difficulty levels, but I'd rather ease up on my pawns and give them the freedom to be their own bumbling selves.

Quote from: Kori on October 10, 2017, 05:54:41 PM

Quote from: ColonistGirl on October 10, 2017, 01:23:00 PM
It's a nice little hidden valley in the mountains with only one way in, a big open area with lots of crop fields, and the colony dug into the mountainside.

That makes me want to start a new colony in such a place!
Don't forget the screenshot!

I got REALLY lucky with the valley I ended up in. Not only is it locked away and nicely secure, but there were FOUR geothermal vents in the valley (and another one right beyond a narrow section of mountain, so I could easily tie it into the grid). So the moment we got to geothermal power our power problems were over forever.

Here's the base: https://imgur.com/a/bdKh5
And here's a longer shot of the valley: https://imgur.com/tWNSQYl

One thing I've also been trying lately to be more organized is to use storage cabinets to hold resources, food, etc, rather than just a collection zone. I use the StackXXL mod (and a bunch of others) so I can stack things larger than normal, as it made no sense to be able to only stack food 10 high, steel 75 high, etc, considering how large each of those spaces is supposed to be. Mostly because I was tired of the pawns stacking items haphazardly all over the place. A large storage area might have 3, 4, 5, or more stacks of a single item, even if the stacks weren't full, and it bothered me. A cabinet forces them all to be in one spot (well, two) due to the priority of the cabinet. And I can set one to critical, one to important, one to preferred, and one to normal, so they'll always stack things in descending order, making it easy to see at a glance how much I have, without having to have the huge expanded resource list on the left.

If I'm to be honest I'd say your base looks dull as all hell. :V It reminds me of prison, really. I prefer base that evolves with time, according to needs over master design. I have my design principles, sure, but I don't plan everything ahead.

Maybe it is my personal bias because I live in Europe in which towns are built way more organically and therefore I'm more used to this way of building.

It depends on the events. I start with a big room, getting everything set up. Then I move on with a nice 6 room bedroom box... and then go nuts making whatever I need at the time in a mess of rooms.

Quote from: Seeker89 on October 11, 2017, 08:39:10 AM
It depends on the events. I start with a big room, getting everything set up. Then I move on with a nice 6 room bedroom box... and then go nuts making whatever I need at the time in a mess of rooms.

My usual style is to get the kitchen/dining area set up and arranged first, and just set up beds in there early on. Everyone can sleep next to the food prep, so they can just roll out of bed, get something to eat, and get to work. :)

Next typically comes the bedrooms, then the med lab (because they're starting to get noticed by raiders and such), and finally a construction building with the crafting tools. Early on I generally only have a stone block cutting table and a research bench, since that's all I need to get through the first couple quadrums, while the colonists are hollowing out the hillsides to make rooms in.

Quote from: ColonistGirl on October 10, 2017, 10:35:38 PM

I got REALLY lucky with the valley I ended up in. Not only is it locked away and nicely secure, but there were FOUR geothermal vents in the valley (and another one right beyond a narrow section of mountain, so I could easily tie it into the grid). So the moment we got to geothermal power our power problems were over forever.

Here's the base: https://imgur.com/a/bdKh5
And here's a longer shot of the valley: https://imgur.com/tWNSQYl

This valley is just perfect! You made good use of it with your base!
I also can't live without extended storage anymore and edited the cloth racks so they can be used for weapons as well. It makes such a difference and looks so much better when 70% of your base won't consist of huge stockpile zones anymore.
What are those wall lights you are using? I was looking for something like that.

Quote from: Kori on October 11, 2017, 05:24:44 PM

Quote from: ColonistGirl on October 10, 2017, 10:35:38 PM

I got REALLY lucky with the valley I ended up in. Not only is it locked away and nicely secure, but there were FOUR geothermal vents in the valley (and another one right beyond a narrow section of mountain, so I could easily tie it into the grid). So the moment we got to geothermal power our power problems were over forever.

Here's the base: https://imgur.com/a/bdKh5
And here's a longer shot of the valley: https://imgur.com/tWNSQYl

This valley is just perfect! You made good use of it with your base!
I also can't live without extended storage anymore and edited the cloth racks so they can be used for weapons as well. It makes such a difference and looks so much better when 70% of your base won't consist of huge stockpile zones anymore.
What are those wall lights you are using? I was looking for something like that.

Yeah, I was totally jazzed when I found it. "Ooh, there's two vents. Wait, three! FOUR! Oh my god!"

Extended storage is such a huge boon. I remember back before I found it, my freezers would be like 10x10 so they could store everything (I tend to make big crop fields, so I have TONS of food, both to sell and earn some silver as well as to ride out cold snaps, long winters, etc). Now I can get away with a little 6x6 freezer and have 3-4 racks for meals, holding a couple hundred. Plus the "Fridge" mod that allows for refridgerators, so I set them up out in the dining area, so the freezer becomes more of "long term storage".

The wall lights I think are a mod just called "wall lights", but I don't remember. I'll have to look it up when I get home from work. They're really handy, though. Not very bright, as they only illuminate out to about 3-4 squares from where they are, but 4 of them make a 5x7 room nicely lit, and they only require 5 steel to build, and cost 15 power. Some of my larger bases have 100+ of them.

Quote from: ColonistGirl on October 11, 2017, 07:08:13 PM
Yeah, I was totally jazzed when I found it. "Ooh, there's two vents. Wait, three! FOUR! Oh my god!"

Extended storage is such a huge boon. I remember back before I found it, my freezers would be like 10x10 so they could store everything (I tend to make big crop fields, so I have TONS of food, both to sell and earn some silver as well as to ride out cold snaps, long winters, etc). Now I can get away with a little 6x6 freezer and have 3-4 racks for meals, holding a couple hundred. Plus the "Fridge" mod that allows for refridgerators, so I set them up out in the dining area, so the freezer becomes more of "long term storage".

The wall lights I think are a mod just called "wall lights", but I don't remember. I'll have to look it up when I get home from work. They're really handy, though. Not very bright, as they only illuminate out to about 3-4 squares from where they are, but 4 of them make a 5x7 room nicely lit, and they only require 5 steel to build, and cost 15 power. Some of my larger bases have 100+ of them.

Same here, I always have so many crop fields that in the past I had to store it unrefrigerated. In the end 50% of my micromanagement was sorting out which bag of rice/ corn/ potatoes is going to rot soon so that I better process it next.
With Extended Storage all those immense masses of food are neatly frozen now and I could survive a 10 years long winter if I have to (in my last game I had about 70.000 milk and even I got the feeling that it's slowly getting a bit too much...).

It's really funny how many people tend to hoard everything in computer games with this "maybe I'll need this later" mentality.

Let me know when you found out which wall lights mod it is, there seem to be a few out there but none of them updated for A17 as far as I can see..

Quote from: Kori on October 11, 2017, 08:23:46 PM
It's really funny how many people tend to hoard everything in computer games with this "maybe I'll need this later" mentality.

For me it is more the Loot Mentality.
I can still get a silver for that 2 half rotten potatoes ... and I need this for crafting.
Mending and Recycling Mods made this even worse for me  ;D

I only play Lost Tribe and to launch the ship. Normally I'm flying out by the fifth year or a bit later than that. Because of this, while I'm the organized type, and don't stage a settlement, permanent style.

Mountain bases look ridiculous to me from what I have seen from others. Even in ice sheet I don't need mountain map. I never play flats, but not because of a defensive angle but because I don't want to lose the mining feature.

I only see one base, looks like the "friend's" base was removed. From the one that is visible, I would say to place the hospital closer to the entrance, so that those who need rescue have shorter pathing, although your floors are fine. For me it matters lot because I'm into 400 x 400 maps.

Things that look a patter in all my bases are:

* At start, I find an ancient room and fill up the empty segments.
* Then I go for a large food storage and build kitchen, dinning room and recreational room connected all adjacent. But I'm very careful with the blueprints, always use the Planning Grid feature so that all my rooms will be "enclosing" the power buildings like walling them. Because I don't play with killbox or narrow corridors. And there's a chance enemies may break my walls. So I secure the wind turbines and solar generators, at the center. But of course build bunkers outside my base so that the fights won't usually take place where the walls may breach.
* That first room of early days, usually ends up becoming my Hospital later on.
* After the eating areas are done, I move to crafting areas/production and research, the order depends on many things. But I pay a lot of attention on the floor and try to use the natural stone grounds as corridors so that if a fire starts, the buildings are safe from fast fire spree.
* The only times I end up building additional layers of walls (inner + outer x2 x3...) is if I'm with a large horde that I need to extend the base for more grass area.


I will never do those perfect simetrical box like bases, as I said early, because I ain't staying forever. Mostly because there's only one ending. I need alternative victories to change my mind in that aspect.

Once things are settled, I too like to floor like you do, but I place columns either at the center or a side of the corridors, so I can roof those heavy traffic paths to get rid of snow or planning ahead against Toxic Fallout. No matter how large my base can become, I don't have to worry about their health, except for when the AI pathing starts to get weird. As of now its very hard to play bases with "L" shapes or "U" shapes as pawns cannot distinguish "inside" from "outside" (unless zone restricted), and they may go the shorter path by going outside and get stupidly killed, when walking inside is safer...Tynan!

In Ice Sheet I will be starting very small and then expand progressively, all around geysers.

As much as I love mountains, Sea Ice is my 2nd fave.  My colony of cannibals, I start with 1 and only recruit those who also have the trait.  Even so, I like to keep things planned and organized.

Quote from: Kori on October 11, 2017, 08:23:46 PM
Same here, I always have so many crop fields that in the past I had to store it unrefrigerated. In the end 50% of my micromanagement was sorting out which bag of rice/ corn/ potatoes is going to rot soon so that I better process it next.
With Extended Storage all those immense masses of food are neatly frozen now and I could survive a 10 years long winter if I have to (in my last game I had about 70.000 milk and even I got the feeling that it's slowly getting a bit too much...).

It's really funny how many people tend to hoard everything in computer games with this "maybe I'll need this later" mentality.

Let me know when you found out which wall lights mod it is, there seem to be a few out there but none of them updated for A17 as far as I can see..

I've never had quite THAT much food stored up, though between various veggies and stuff, I've probably had 20-30k worth sitting in the freezer, along with 500ish prepped meals.

I don't really hoard everything, I just toss it into storage bins for when I can offload it on traders. The moment a weapons trader swings by, they end up walking away with like 50+ weapons and junk I don't need. Just like making tons of smokeweed joints and yayo to unload and make extra cash. Some of the yayo I save for making adrenaline rib replacements, but most of it I sell.

I just started a new colony last night in another little valley, which has two geothermal vents in it. Not quite the same "bwahaha, unlimited powah!" that the other one had, but eh, we'll make do. Had a distress call from a decent pawn early on, and then managed to recruit the leader of a raid that came after us shortly thereafter, so we're up to 5 people now. Soon we'll have all our buildings done and tech in place, so we can start up our organ-farming business!

 The game kinda necessitates function over form. You've got like, a single plane of existence to build. Have a crafting station in Minecraft, for example? Put it on the floor, in the floor, use them as floor tilings, hang one from the ceiling, whatever, doesn't matter. In Rimworld, you can put it on the floor, that's it. Too close to the door or on top of a couple puddles of blood you can't see anymore? The room's filthy, your crafter goes ape and proceeds to tear an eye and half the fingers off of the doctor.
   What about hospitals? Too far from the battlefield, and a mud puddle and heavy door just killed your soldier in the dining room. Got it too close to your main entrance? After every pawn capable of pointing a gun in the right direction was sentenced to bed rest to hold-off the infections from the last manhunter pack, raiders are going to break down the door, scare-off the gardener, kidnap half a dozen soldiers, and leave.

   If you got past that wall of text, then maybe you understand that I don't get creative. I don't do killboxes, so I need my walls around the fields and a clear path to the hospital next to the medicine storage which isn't the same storage as the one with the materials next to the workshop which out of the way of the jealous barrack but next to the aesthetic pits who share a heating vent with the closer-to-regulars.

You can have organic growth in a modular framework, with the right design. These...
http://also.kottke.org/misc/images/half-a-house.jpg
... start with unpolished wood floors and the barest plumbing and electricity. And as the owners can, they make improvements and build new rooms, expanding into the extra space. Each one ends up looking different, even though the framework is the same.
Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pattern_Language

Quote from: SpaceDorf on October 10, 2017, 04:35:00 AM
That is genius. I would love to see a picture with one of those.

My colony wealth is absurd, so the over-the-top traps help to deal with insane raids without 20+ turret killboxes
The 4 turrets early in the hallway provide negligible fire, but distract and attract attackers.
The sandbag by the traps keeps a raider from taking cover in that square.
The steadily shrinking hallway into the base can cover 16 pawns shooting with wall and sandbag.  I had to triple up some of the layers since i started at 6 wide instead of 8, so there is the tiniest of chances for friendly fire from the back layer of a group of 3 to hit the front...thats where my least useful pawns go.  If i'd only doubled layers, there would be no friendly fire risk.
Raiders often split up once the enter the hallway, some hitting different turrets, some going for the front door-shooters, and some inexplicably racing deep to the back (they only get like one swing and down).

I generally take minimal damage at all.  The worst was when i didn't see a doomsday rocket launcher guy (they sent 3 doomsdays and 2 triples and i missed one doomsday) and he got a shot off....badly injured 2 colonists, and killed a few animals that were too slow to get to safety, but no colonist deaths.

[attachment deleted by admin: too old]

I'm a mix of the two extremes. I start out with a fairly organic layout (I carved my hospital out of a medium-sized hill once, my magnum opus of building XD), then adapt to a more modular layout later on as needed. Stiil not 100% modular, more of a lot of modules in organic positions (if that made any sense).

I am trying to plan and then utterly fail and everything will just be an mess

Organic but efficient. I never use the planning tool, so my bases tend to have this compact but branching out look to it.
I can't really understand people pouring hours into extensively planning their base then have it wiped out a few months into the game...

Both personally. I have particular styles that I prefer to build in, I have a housing design that I like, I tend to repeat the same structures, but it's a matter of what the land will support as to how all the buildings will end up layed out. Rather than a monolithic base, I have basically dorms, and a central eating/living area, and a hospital, and a greenhouse, and a workshop, etc. What gets built when depends on conditions on the ground, how soon I need a second dorm, if there's enough accessible farmland to skip the greenhouse for a while. If the terrain is naturally defensible the base might end up with a killbox after all, though I don't usually use them since Combat Extended really changes how battles flow. I like to build block houses instead, and my soldiers just respond to whichever direction the raid happens to come from. This works well when it's a drop pod raid as the attacker don't automatically bypass the main thing that was supposed to kill them, and sappers don't have anything to bypass so they just turn into a regular raid with a bunch of low range guys.