Need help being able to keep a colony running

[PyschoPath]

I am an alpha 6 player, who stopped playing the game for a while, and i recently got back into it, i have played maybe 20 hours so far, and i always die before a year passes. I mostly die because my colonists get raided to death due to no security, they starve to death due to no food, or they go crazy. I really just need tips for early game , micro managing and effective buildings. Most of my early game resources go into a building that sucks, and that i have to tear down soon after. Any help at all would be appreciated!

[Mr.Cross]

A bit more Info would be nice,as in What biome, difficulty, and storyteller.As for how I play, I play on the the difficulty of rough with Cortana (modded storyteller) as the story teller. There for I don't get many raids, and when I do they aren't huge. Now I play up in the northern plains (plains but as cold as I can get it.) whether it's mountainous is mood oriented. As for food, in the start i normally start with 6 5x5 area's, and either have 2 for strawberries and the rest for food/cloth or xerigium. or one of each food and one of both xerigium and cotton. Buildings I normally make a small wooden shack until I get stone building researched. I build a cold storage for Raw food, have the food production center and then meal storage on the other side. I then start building 6x6 rooms in eight room clusters. (four rooms with 3 blocks space with the doors faceing the other four rooms.) and from there I make it similar to the Urban defense. (I would link the thread but I'm to lazy to dig through the forums to find it. Essentially all it is, is buildings placed really close together so the raiders can really flank you with out getting flanked themselves.) Just make sure you can roof over most you alley ways and have solar lamps ready to go incase you get a nuclear winter or toxic fallout.

[A Friend]

Save scumming best answer

For security, create killboxes or any place where you concentrate all your defenses. Look around the base threads to see good layout examples. If you don't have the resources yet, I suggest just creating walls to funnel enemies into your defenses.

Traps, place deadfalls around places where your enemies are very likely to take cover from. Behind rocks, walls, and debris.

For food... eh, what biome? You can always resort to cannibalism.

For mood, buy booze from traders if you can't grow your own. Or you can kill off those volatile colonists if they pose too much problem than their worth.

Edit: My current colony is about half a year in and already suffered numerous berserks, raids, and deaths. But it's still kicking lively with a population of 10. Cassandra Extreme on an open jungle.

[Necronomocoins]

I always try to choose an area with mountains to dig into, low rainfall and year round growing, which usually requires warmer climates, so I'll randomise cold lovers/tolerant colonists. Make sure you have at least one colonist that can do any job and all colonists that can do mining, always happy to get the 1brawler - 1careful shooter - 1trigger happy mix of colonists, giving the careful shooter the survival rifle, the pistol to the trigger happy one and knife for the brawler. Try to find a place to set up a trade beacon that is furthest from any point that a visitor/raider/man-hunter pack/passer by might be able to spawn from. Build a table, stools, butchers table and some sleeping spots near the trade stockpile and you'll want power and cook stove by third or fourth day. Put a power switch indoors leading to a turret, so the colonists can switch power for security on and off from the safety of your cave, let raiders destroy stuff and if/when they leave try to take any casualties/slowpokes/invalids as prisoners.

[Mikhail Reign]

I don't think careful shooter is worth it. They take longer to fire - in this game, volume if fire is so much more important then accuracy. I remember someone doing a write up that concluded that trigger happy was a pretty trait then careful shooter.

[A Friend]

I don't think careful shooter is worth it. They take longer to fire - in this game, volume if fire is so much more important then accuracy. I remember someone doing a write up that concluded that trigger happy was a pretty trait then careful shooter.

Personal preference.
I like having careful shooters as snipers. Bang, dead, bang, dead.

[TheDirge]

Get atleast 1 turret near a choke point, that is often enough for me the first year.

try having some long ranged weapons and medium/short ranged ones incase you get overrun

If you're playing in a icy climate, Human leather parka's are your best option

Avoid getting old people at the start

[Mr.Cross]

Avoid getting old people at the start

That is normally a killer for me, for the simple fact of I don't like the having the bad back, frail, with both eye cataracts people fight. Which brings me down to two capable fighters until a wanderer joins or I get a one person raid were I can beat them into submission.