How do you prevent colonists from being eaten by random predators?

[Draconicrose]

Honestly, either go out and hunt them as soon as I notice them, or stay safely hidden behind walls. Having a few pets follow the hunter out also seems to help, just in case.

[Jorlem]

This is an example of one of my older A16 colonies. About 5 years in, and self-sustaining. No turrets necessary, playing on Cass Rough. You'll notice a lot of wood structures, mostly because I like the aesthetic of it To the north, you'll see the fortress getting an expansion, as more colonists are starting to join. Outer wall acts as a shield against wildfires and predators. The triple door entrance/gateway into the fortress made animal events pretty much null. Hallways along the outer wall offered a safe way for me to flank raiders, and that's including sappers. Multiple entrances and exits to most buildings, coupled with narrow alley ways, meant I was able to flank any hostile animals or raiders that managed to slip inside somehow. On Topic: I didn't suffer a single colonist death due to natural predators in this game. And I think I owe it all to the layout of the base.

Just wondering, how did you build up to that? None of my bases ever end up looking that nice.

[zandadoum]

haven't read the comments, but here's what I do. in no particular order:

- kill predators specifically and drafted with 2-3 guys. only necesary when animals are scarce on your map, coz if predators have plenty to eat, they won't attack you unless you attack them first
- have your hunters 2-3 backup animals with them at all times. the stupidest tamed animal can save your hunter from being killed
- this is my new favourite: train up timber wolves and STOP hunting. my colonists never leave the base anymore. my wolves go hunting (assign proper zones) and they or any other trained animal will haul the corpses back to base.

[Bozobub]

Once again, tame, then slaughter them.  The odds of the animal attacking are FAR lower than hunting them and it requires almost zero micro, beyond remembering to butcher the predator/unwanted animal (remember, however, that butchering boomrats and boomalope is quite dangerous xD).

[O Negative]

Just wondering, how did you build up to that? None of my bases ever end up looking that nice.

Lots of planning in the beginning and a passionate colonist (Hurtle) devoted pretty much full-time to construction since the beginning.
Defending myself was only considerably difficult for the first year and a half.
After that, Grill (you'll see him sleeping in the picture) became a prisoner who eventually got recruited and became my weaponsmith.
Superior weapons of my choice was a huge plus, and gave the whole colony a sense of security.

I built the north-western gate first, and then traced where I wanted my walls to go with wooden floors.
Started by surrounding myself with one wall, and then built the second one around that over time.
After that, if I needed to expand, I would build up the new walls before tearing down the old.
This has been my play style for a while. I'm a very "turtle" type player, that doesn't like to use kill boxes

[Shurp]

With that design, how does the "flanking" work, especially against sappers?  I imagine the sappers break through both walls quickly and then mill about in the interior of your base.  Your guys can then scoot through the wall-corridor to follow, but once they get to the hole they don't have much cover, not for more than a few colonists.  How do you concentrate more firepower on the enemies?

[O Negative]

They do break through it rather quickly, but have the layers separated as they are prevent them from breaking through both walls at the same time.

The AI isnt the greatest, but it recognizes where the
most danger is. So, I form a concave formation around the spot they're blasting a hole through. The moment someone steps through that hole, they're pretty much dead.

The AI tends to split forces up along each hallway, making the force that comes through the main hole they've blown in the fortress easy pickings.

My worst shooters are always the ones in the hallways, serving as distractions while the narrow hallway intercepts hostile fire. I've only ever experienced a few injuries.

In this particular playthrough, I was able to find a brawler and give her a superior plasteel longsword. She took care of most of my close encounters. Before her, I relied on tamed cougars I had bought from traders to take care of melee enemies.

There's a lot of infrustructural maintenance involved.

[Shurp]

Ahhh, I see, so you use the hallways to encourage the enemies to split up, then you pick them off as they're more isolated.  Clever.  I was imagining all the attackers pouring through the hole into your base; even with all your pawns stationed there you'd get overwhelmed if that's what was happening.

[O Negative]

Yeah, you get it!

I don't play on the extreme difficulty, so it's not super hard like it is for a lot of people. Aside from that, those walls are my primary defense against predators (livestock and colonists), manhunting animals, and wildfires.

Fortresses FTW!

[Jorlem]

Thanks!  I'm going to give that a try for my next game.