Post your defense

[JohnPalb]

Does rubble/slag provide cover for colonist?

It does, but not as much as sandbags, and certainly not as much as a wall corner.  Everything in this game seems to provide cover.  I thought I had emptied a field of debris, and then I noticed raiders hunkering down behind berry bushes!  I didn't mouse over to see what the cover bonus was, if there was one, but it certainly looked like that was what they were doing...lol

[ShadowDragon8685]

Thanks for the input, ShadowDragon. The whole thing has a bit of a learning curve to it, but it's been addictive trying to learn, and fun as hell to boot.

Glad to be of assistance!

1: You can go ahead and mine out that metal. Nothing to stop you.

I'm sure I will sometime soon.  At the moment though, I'm sitting on a decent stack of metal while I come up with plans on what to do now, and I like the idea of having a reserve stash where I can get to it quickly rather than hunting it up through exploration. Kinda like money in the bank, rather than it burning a hole through your pocket. I need that, because when I start building, I have a tendency to lay out all my plans in blueprint and blow it all in one go, as it were.

Well, okay. That's your prerogative. I can't see why, but then, I can't see any compelling reason not to do it your way, either.

2: you don't need those lights in the tunnel.

3: I'd put flowerpots in front of your sandbags and build the killbox out a bit, adding doors at the edges. The flower-pots will be pretty, to counteract the "Ugh, so much DEATH" problem, and prevent raiders from pathing over the sandbags.

Yeah, I put those lights in because I was getting a lot of near-mental-breakdown experiences while my colonists were dragging the bodies out of there.  But the flower pots would seem to kill two rimworld raiders with one round, so to speak. 

Quite effective, even if making them crawl over rubble is kind of cheating.

And I didn't realize creating uneven terrain for an enemy to cross while you have them in your sites was considered... unethical?  lol  Although, I do have to say, using the sandbags in the tunnels instead of boulders and miscellaneous debris because I couldn't figure out how to have my colonists dump that stuff in there did seem kind of backhanded.  Anyway, I didn't realize raiders wouldn't path over flowerpots, and that seems like a great idea to keep the colonists' heads in the game, but wouldn't a bunch of daisies and daffodils be even more out of place and backhanded than rock and metal debris??  Although, now that I think about it, it seems very Fireflyesque, to have Mal or Jayne Cobb or Zoe hunkered down behind some flower pots and yelling over for some malfeasant miscreants to halt their wrong-doings.  Shiney.

Actually, the "Ugh, SO MUCH DEATH!" thing isn't really much of a problem at all. Seeing corpses causes fear, and loyalty is the greater of fear or happiness. So as long as they're scared shitless from the murdering, they won't go into a psychotic break. You only have problems if the fear from death goes lower than happiness while they're outside or in ugly surroundings. On that note, clean up your tunnels and killboxes: people hate seeing rubble.

Also, I'd suggest, since you aren't using a self-cleaning soil-based walled-in killbox, building some crematoriums outside. Remember that any wall can support a ceiling up to several tiles away, including the stone walls. So wall in a huge area outside the mountain, using the mountain's walls as the north wall. Let it roof over, sell the constructed walls, and let the mountain walls hold up the roof. Build your graveyard under that roof held up by the stone wall, and every now and then, when it starts to get full, send a colonist out with a molotov cocktail to incinerate the bodies.

Also, there is nothing "unethical" about what you're doing. Remember Maxim 31: Only cheaters prosper.

As regards the flower-pots, remember not to replace the sandbags with them! They don't offer cover at all! I'm recommending them only as pathing blockers: you still need the sandbag-wall-sandbag-wall set-up for your colonists to hunker down behind. Plus, the guys who are behind walls can actually lean around the wall and half-way onto the tile ahead, and if they get downed in that position, they can actually fall into the tile with the flowerpot if you replace the sandbag: if that happens, you have to sell the flower-pot to rescue them, which will not be possible if the flower-pot is damaged.

4: I'd extend the pillbox all the way around the kill-zone, so as to get your enemies in a proper, fuck-you-motherfuckers enfilade. You might have to adjust the lamps so they're not illuminating the pillbox.

I was thinking about doing that, but I am having a hard time figuring out how to do it without putting my turrets in my line of fire.  Surrounding them completely with the sandbags might help.  I was leaving the backs open for ease of access if emergency repairs were needed on the fly, but that hasn't been necessary yet, and having someone jump the pillbox bags with a repair kit in hand in the middle of a firefight seems like a dubious proposition anyways.  I'll try it out and see how it works.  Worst that happens is that I just have to wall it up again...  well, that's not the worst.  The worst would be my colonists taking out my turrets because they're in the line of fire, and, without the turret support, getting overrun and all murderified.  That would be bad.  But, I think that's pretty unlikely, so I'll give it a go.

Fuck the turrets. First off, I've been firing over turrets for ages, and I've never seen them take a single stray bullet from my guys. Turrets will shoot your colonists in the back, but your colonists will not shoot your turrets in the back. Never put colonists in front of turrets!

Secondly, so what? The turrets aren't there as your main line of defense, they exist solely to draw fire from your enemies. As soon as you build them, write them off as a loss, and consider any combat they survive to be a win. But trust me, you probably won't be seeing many of them blow up if you have a good enfilade going.

Also, I'm not even sure if sandbags protect turrets at all. I don't think they do, but I still sandbag mine because it doesn't look right without it

Anyway, thanks for the tips.  Much appreciated.  I'll put them to good use.  And Savaze, that's an awesome idea.  Never thought of using my prison as an actual prison, rather than an immediate recruiting center.  So, what you're saying is that if I keep my colonists at 7 or 8 max, Cassandra will keep sending me opportunities to recruit, which I can then stow away in the prison until I get an amount that I want, say, 25, and then start recruiting them?  Interesting...  Would Cassandra then up the ante as far as raider amounts during raids go, to meet the challenge, or would I then be fighting with a more than 2 to 1 advantage?  Something else to play around with.

Yes, you totally can do that. It's risky, though, because all mutations of Cassandra will keep escalating the number of raiders she sends at you, which is funny because Randy doesn't escalate much, he just rolls dice and lets come what may, whether it's a lot or a little. But yes, you can totally arrest your own colonists - I consider it "giving them a break," and then have the social monkies chat them all up. This is a great way to skyrocket their loyalty, actually, and grind up your social monkies.

However, I'd still just suggest changing your storyteller from Cassandra to Randy. Much simpler.

Does rubble/slag provide cover for colonist?

Yes, it does, they can hunker down behind it like sandbags, but it's not as good as sandbags. On the other hand, just like sandbags, they can't shoot whilst climbing over it, which is the origin of the waffle strategy that Tynan calls "degenerate."

I don't really use much of a waffle. Not because it's not effective, but because I (a) don't really need it to win my battles, and (b) it's a huge pain in the ass to bypass and repair for clean-up.

Does rubble/slag provide cover for colonist?

It does, but not as much as sandbags, and certainly not as much as a wall corner.  Everything in this game seems to provide cover.  I thought I had emptied a field of debris, and then I noticed raiders hunkering down behind berry bushes!  I didn't mouse over to see what the cover bonus was, if there was one, but it certainly looked like that was what they were doing...lol

They will hunker down behind bushes/cacti/whatever, but they don't offer much cover compared to sandbags. Not everything provides cover, though, not even everything which impedes/prevents pathing. Flowerpots and hydroponics tables. So you can, if you want, build an entrance which has a sandbagged bunker facing in at your defenses at the end of a serpentine of hydro tables/flower pots and the idiot raiders will see cover, path to it, and then it's just like shooting them down in a tower defense game.

It's expensive and a PitA to repair, though, since you have to forbid the tables to prevent your mooks from trying to grow food on them.

[Cyclops]

Does rubble/slag provide cover for colonist?

Indeed. Raiders will often try to take cover behind them during early game skirmishes.

[Creepypastaanime]

i don't understand why you guys complain about turrets and friendly fire, i use a standard maggot line, and it works fine, never had a colonist death before.

[JohnPalb]

Also, I'd suggest, since you aren't using a self-cleaning soil-based walled-in killbox, building some crematoriums outside.

Right now I've got about a dozen or so graves outside that I hit with a pair of blast charges every now and then to clean them out for the next batch of raiders.  Although, I have to admit, watching a whole pile of corpses go up in smoke might be entertaining.  I like the fire effect when fires start raging out of control.

On that note, clean up your tunnels and killboxes: people hate seeing rubble.

Yes, mom... But I get what you're saying here.  If I'm trying to rule by happiness, keeping things clean and tidy is imperative.

As regards the flower-pots, remember not to replace the sandbags with them! They don't offer cover at all! I'm recommending them only as pathing blockers.

Question on this...  if I block all the sandbags with flowerpots, will the raiders then not see a path at all and instead go after the walls of my settlement, disregarding the entrance cave altogether?  Better to keep one in the center unblocked to keep them moving that way?

First off, I've been firing over turrets for ages, and I've never seen them take a single stray bullet from my guys. ... Secondly, so what? The turrets aren't there as your main line of defense, they exist solely to draw fire from your enemies. As soon as you build them, write them off as a loss, and consider any combat they survive to be a win.

Well, for me, it's the principle of the thing.  The purpose of a turret is not to be a target.  The purpose should be to provide suppressing fire to pin down the raiders while my colonists gain the initiative to get into position to take them out.  I know it typically doesn't turn out that way, as the only way turrets don't get destroyed is if you put enough out there that, in conjunction with your colonists, the firepower simply overwhelms the raiders...  but still, I just can't bring myself to look at them as nothing more than shiney objects for the raiders to look at and say..."Ooo look, something to shoot!"

But, if it's the case that colonists will actively attempt to avoid hitting turrets while shooting at the enemy, then bringing the firing line down the sides of the box is worth doing, especially if I plan on attempting to recruit more colonists. 

Thanks again, man.  Looking forward to a little experimentation here.

[ShadowDragon8685]

Also, I'd suggest, since you aren't using a self-cleaning soil-based walled-in killbox, building some crematoriums outside.

Right now I've got about a dozen or so graves outside that I hit with a pair of blast charges every now and then to clean them out for the next batch of raiders.  Although, I have to admit, watching a whole pile of corpses go up in smoke might be entertaining.  I like the fire effect when fires start raging out of control.

They won't rage like that out-of-doors, sadly. So either graveyard them under an awning held up by the mountain, or dig a huge corpse-pile off your killbox - a gigantor room for dumping corpses and corpses only - in the mountain itself. Stone walls, obviously.

On that note, clean up your tunnels and killboxes: people hate seeing rubble.

Yes, mom... But I get what you're saying here.  If I'm trying to rule by happiness, keeping things clean and tidy is imperative.

Even if you're ruling by fear, it doesn't grant fear so there's no reason for it! Clean your room, young colonist!

As regards the flower-pots, remember not to replace the sandbags with them! They don't offer cover at all! I'm recommending them only as pathing blockers.

Question on this...  if I block all the sandbags with flowerpots, will the raiders then not see a path at all and instead go after the walls of my settlement, disregarding the entrance cave altogether?  Better to keep one in the center unblocked to keep them moving that way?

I was assuming you were going to install a door or two. They'll target and path to the door. I'd install them in the corners there. Yeah, if you're not putting in a door, leave at least one sandbag un-potted. Or your own guys won't be able to get out!

First off, I've been firing over turrets for ages, and I've never seen them take a single stray bullet from my guys. ... Secondly, so what? The turrets aren't there as your main line of defense, they exist solely to draw fire from your enemies. As soon as you build them, write them off as a loss, and consider any combat they survive to be a win.

Well, for me, it's the principle of the thing.  The purpose of a turret is not to be a target.  The purpose should be to provide suppressing fire to pin down the raiders while my colonists gain the initiative to get into position to take them out.  I know it typically doesn't turn out that way, as the only way turrets don't get destroyed is if you put enough out there that, in conjunction with your colonists, the firepower simply overwhelms the raiders...  but still, I just can't bring myself to look at them as nothing more than shiney objects for the raiders to look at and say..."Ooo look, something to shoot!"

You have to - you absolutely have no other choice. Turrets are utterly rubbish in a fight. Half the time, they can't even hit a guy standing literally next to them. If you cannot overcome this feeling, your colony is doomed. Those turrets are sacrificial targets. On the Raider Hierarchy Of Shit To Shoot At, buildings which shoot at them come just ahead of colonists, who come just ahead of buildings which aren't shooting at them. Meanwhile, the turrets are utterly garbage.

Give the raiders some cover to hunker into relative to the turrets and completely wide open relative to your colonists and they'll run into the cover every time.

But, if it's the case that colonists will actively attempt to avoid hitting turrets while shooting at the enemy, then bringing the firing line down the sides of the box is worth doing, especially if I plan on attempting to recruit more colonists.

They don't attempt - friendly fire simply never hits a turret while shooting over it. Only stray shots aimed at an enemy next to the turret. Meanwhile, friendly fire across a friendly who is miles away from the bad guy can hit them. Shoot over the turrets!

Because they sure as hell can't be fucked to shoot over your colonists.

[JohnPalb]

Give the raiders some cover to hunker into relative to the turrets and completely wide open relative to your colonists and they'll run into the cover every time.

That I can do, and still retain at least a semblence of purpose for the turret.  It essentially achieves my goal of pinning raiders to cover from the suppressing fire while opening them up to colonist positions.  The turrets won't last long, but if they can do that, then it's a step above target dummies for them.  I don't know why that didn't occur to me before.  What I could do is pull some of the rubble out of there and put two rows of sandbags down one square closer to the box wall from the retention wall and facing the turrets on either side, perpendicular to the colonist firing line.  When the Raiders take cover from the turret fire, my guys are already in a full flanking position.  Thanks, once again. 

[savaze]

Tough Kassandra

I was constantly having a problem with raiders burning the walls, which created a need for a rear guard defense (pillbox and extra boom-rooms at the back door and in the middle of my base). Wasn't having that problem when I put up the hydroponics charge rooms. I should probably delete the walls, but I'm done playing this particular go around. Not sure if I want to keep using perimeter walls in the future, since hydroponics work so much better.

[JohnPalb]

Here's another one with Cassandra I just started.  The farmers of my sleepy colony of Tombstone are headed to work in the hydroponics enclosure the morning of day 26.  I'm not using anything but picquet lines for defense, and I'm not even really using those.  As a matter of fact, I got a lucky combat ship that came through and was able to pick up an R-4 and an uzi.  With those, any raiders that have dropped in have been hunted down and shot dead, the occasional bloody surrender not withstanding.  Best defense is a good offense I suppose, when you got the firepower to backup your purpose.  Of course, this is early game, but it's been a hell of a lotta fun. 

[LordMunchkin]

Are demo charge fields the best of all defenses? I find that my colonist almost always lose shooting matches with raiders. Hell, even using my colonist to supplement my demo charges usually ends poorly for me. Now I just have them hide in another room and sneak out at the last minute to finish off the survivors.

Speaking of survivors, I've started organizing my dump areas to slow them down as the run away. Makes shooting them in the back a whole lot easier. 

[JohnPalb]

I find that my colonist almost always lose shooting matches with raiders.

I've only been playing a short time, but I became aware of how vulnerable my colonists were pretty quickly.  For me it gives a sense of urgency, and the idea that my colonists are, in no way, heroic or better than average even, and will die in running gun battles with brigands.

That said, two things that do help.

• Superior Firepower.  Try to get your hands on some automatic weapons by the third wave of raiders.  I've found that it helps me out not to have a pistol in every hand... a lot..
• One thing you might try to increase survivability is to change up your sandbag lines, alternating a block of sandbags and a block of wall down the line.  Doing so, the structure turns from a low sandbag wall into a sort of battlement.  Stick your colonists behind the blocks of wall.  The sandbags offer decent cover for shooting, but if they're used in conjunction with reinforced concrete pillars to hide behind, they'll peak out, take their shots, and tend to last a bit longer, in my experience

I've started organizing my dump areas to slow them down as the run away.

Doing this on their approaches tends to help as well.  You just have to make sure that if you set up your approach like this, that the raiders hit the debris piles while out of line of sight or shooting range of your colonists, or the they'll just hunker down an use the clutter as cover.  Creative use of mountain cover or walls or even your base structures can get this done.

Hope there was something helpful in there for you.  Good luck, and have fun.   

[Joog]

This is mine, the perimiter defense is my main tool and the bomb rooms are only when i think my colonists need some rest from all the carnage. All over the map i just put down explosive charges behind rubble and corners so i can soften them up before they get there.

Another thing is some psychological warfare, i just pile the dead raiders in a dump and when the are filled up i remove the dump. Normally (i think) they waill just be shown as garbage but when you remove the dum they will be seen as bodies again. I make them non removable and the bodies are out of the way enough so that my colonists down't get any undue nightmares.

Nothing to fancy but it's tweaked enoug so that i do not get any casualties anymore.

[Darker]

Oh, these wall+sandbags defenses are pretty cool, I'm gonna try them too.

Myself, after a while I had to rely solely on explosives, since 10 colonists can never face 45 invaders, no matter what. And even many turrets make no difference.
This is why I developed sort of turret defence tactics, but with bombs instead. I walled my base completely around:

The front entrance was my first attempt to slow them down, I left it for historical reasons, though it's not very practical.

I built path next to the outer side of the walls, raiders tend to follow it and die from explosions of planted explosives. They finally reach the door, usually already reduced by 20 or more if I'm lucky. In the inner side of the door an enginer is waiting and repairs it as they attack it. I do this to make sure they gather on the other side of the door. Then I blast them with prepared explosives.

As of latest wawes, they come in counts that are too much for this tactics alone, so when all explosives are gone, I'm forced to withdraw the engineer and prepare for battle. I use only M16 machine guns.

Sometimes I also plant one explosive inside, in front of the entrance.

As a good tactics, it also seemed deadly to give them sandbags for cover - undermined however. When they stack behind sandbags, you just click.

And what I do with the bodies? I used to burn them:


However, rain often cancelled the fire. That made me build this underground crypt:

But now, even this does not seem to be enough - my minions mentally collapse before they can carry all the bodies away. I'm now trying to destroy the bodies with grenades - this can destroy dozens of bodies at a time. But it has its flaws too:


Bonus 1: Creepy trap

Some accident in a cave gave me an idea:

Unfortunatelly, it doesn't kill them. But they get stuck in garbage and are easy to kill of they ever come close.

Bonus 2: Training grounds

I'm not sure if shooting skill is actually relevant, but those soldiers piss me of with their permanent walking around while other people work, so I made them this training gronds to improve their precision. They are aiming at Dump area.

That support pillar in the middle is a bit funny. Whenever they break it with miss-shots, it reappears instantly.

[MuffaloMasher]

This is my defence, i'm quite early into  the game.

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