Base design

[TLHeart]

Before I post my bases and my thoughts, I want comment on the screenshots.


This base makes me uncomfortable. Yes, it looks nice and friendly, but how do you defend against a manhunter attack ? Bedroom exits are mostly in one place, and there are no alternate paths for taking pot shots and distraction.

First off, manhunter packs will target turrets, that thins the herd. Second the colonist stand in the bedrooms, and I micro manage them popping into the doorway, taking a shot or two, step back in, and the other colonist at the next door do the same thing. Have never lost a colonist to manhunter packs with this method. Just takes a day or two, but since they are already in the bedrooms, they can eat, and sleep without moving, since they all carry a meal with them.

I would never use wood as a wall construction material in 5503. And I'm not even complaining against fire. If a plain mortar shell falls in the wrong place, it's going to collapse like a house of cards. Your batteries are also in a wooden room, batteries sometimes explode.

I never let the siegers get a mortar shot off, as soon as I get the message, my sniper crew is on the way to attack before they get the mortars built. I have NEVER had a battery explode. Yes it is a risk, but a very small one.

Your sunlamps are in a single room, but presense of heaters indicates a cold winter. While your hothouse has sturdy stone walls, I just don't feel comfortable building like that. A single hole can instakill all your plants. If fire somehow finds its way there, you may have a big trouble.

Yes the sunlamps are all in a connected room. This is a temperate forest, with cold spells. So I loose a few crops, no problem, if you look at the freezer. Fire is NOT a big problem ever. I am very comfortable with this design for the climate I am in.

Your hospital is quite close to the frontline. I guess the upside is the hurt are sooner in bed. But when a serious attack happens, your most capable soldiers will be in the most danger. I try to put my hospital in one of the safest places, preferably under an overhead mountain. The beds are expensive to rebuild, too. Almost everyone else can move away.

My hospital is in the center of the base, no where close to the front lines... Easy access means quicker treatment, less chance of infections.

I like to protect geothermal generator with a wall and paved tiles so it doesn't catch fire easily. It's 400 steel.

Again I just fight the fire if it gets close... 400 steel, is nothing when I have 1200 in storage. And even with another 2 years passed, the raiders have never attacked that geothermal.

The left side is vulnerable to sappers. They'll be there quicker than your guys.

Sappers have always went for the green houses, give them a target, and they will always go for it. And if you kill the sapper leader, the raid is over.  While they walk towards the target, the escorts do not fight back either, so just like siegers, I go get them quickly.

Coolers are a security hole. 100 HP hole in a 400+ stone wall. And they catch fire. You can build a wall around a small unroofed pocket to prevent that.

Yes coolers are a security hole if they ever made it to that point... That is why they are in the center of the base, a long ways from the front line. 

Thanks for you opinion on the base... I use wood in the forest all the time. Have never had a problem with it. Yes I have to rebuild, at times after a raid... that is my choice.

I get the impression that you think I fight my battles in the central courtyard, that is the last resort fall back position. To the right are 6 plasteel turrets. takes down most raids before they reach the colonists. Colonists help from behind the slag/chunk pile, and from behind the oak trees that line the main streets.

If the raid comes in from the north, there are traps set to injure, and again oak trees for the colonist to shot from. And when the AI has no other target, they always go around the trade depot to the turrets to be killed.

Also this is not an extreme base setup. This is a challenge base setup. Yes I change according to what my goals for the colony are. Combat is very low on the list for this colony, it is about learning the animals, and surviving to do so.

[b0rsuk]

You can't always beat everything in advance, for example snipers against sieges. A siege might come at the same time as another event, like when your snipers are tired and going back to bed after sniping a psychic ship. Or they're unconscious because they're getting bionic improvements in hospital. I've been bitten by things like that.

It doesn't look like a security-focused base for sure. My bases might look a bit like ugly bunkers in comparison :-).

I gradually replace wooden walls in my base. I see no reason not to. Later, I only use wood for sculptures, beds and other furniture, internal doors.

Almost forgot. Why do you even use wooden autodoors ? Wooden doors open fast as it is, I think you're paying 50W for a marginal increase in opening speed. And if you really want that, you can hold doors open.

I don't think 400 is little compared to 1200. It's one third.

Base design is more interesting to discuss when there are screenshots. I'll post some tommorow, to make sure we mean the same thing when we say "open" or "closed".

[Mrshilka]

In a mountain so you have a hope to survive when it is minus 100c outside, built in a way you're not punished by the magic xray specs wearing sappers.

I build everything in blocks of 15x25, that is 8 good sizes bedrooms per block, and tons of space while needed only a single central support for larger common rooms for joy and work tasks.

[MisterVertigo]

Base design is more interesting to discuss when there are screenshots.

I agree. More screen shots! I'm still hollowing out the mountain in my current game so I don't have anything yet, but I'll take some screens when it gets closer to being finished.

[TLHeart]

You can't always beat everything in advance, for example snipers against sieges. A siege might come at the same time as another event, like when your snipers are tired and going back to bed after sniping a psychic ship. Or they're unconscious because they're getting bionic improvements in hospital. I've been bitten by things like that.

It doesn't look like a security-focused base for sure. My bases might look a bit like ugly bunkers in comparison :-).

I gradually replace wooden walls in my base. I see no reason not to. Later, I only use wood for sculptures, beds and other furniture, internal doors.

Almost forgot. Why do you even use wooden autodoors ? Wooden doors open fast as it is, I think you're paying 50W for a marginal increase in opening speed. And if you really want that, you can hold doors open.

I don't think 400 is little compared to 1200. It's one third.

Base design is more interesting to discuss when there are screenshots. I'll post some tommorow, to make sure we mean the same thing when we say "open" or "closed".

I can always beat everything in advance, by planning ahead. Always have a backup plan. Don't need every colonist involved in every fight. keep some reserves.

Auto doors cause ZERO movement slowdown for colonists. Any non autodoor causes a slow down in movement speed. Wooden doors cause the least slow down. Non auto doors also only allow one colonist to pass through at a time. Auto doors will remain open for as many colonists that need to pass through.

I do not max min my base, it is about what is pleasing to me the owner. I have more than enough power in my base to support my power needs.

And 1200 steel in the stockpile, will replace what I deam critical that requires steel in my base. Again about planning ahead.

And from your statement about can get events at the same time, you are assuming everyone plays randy... who is NOT random. He has a very definite pattern. He has programmed rules, and even requires a 23 day limit for NOT sending raids. He will always cluster the raids, until the MTB is met, then go dormant again.

[Simon_The_Space_Engineer]

Randy random does have randomness to him and if a base works for someone in a certain environment then I say "why try to fix what's already working?" Though this has bitten me in the butt a few times it usually holds true. I also will usually try to overwhelm my enemy's with turrets and colonist at the same time. It helps keep people distracted with the turrets as my colonist will pick off anyone they can before a turret is destroyed... And if I need to I will use a cover to cover tactic where I will move colonist back step by step while another will shoot at the raider that threatens my moving colonist the most. This allows me to keep raiders focused on my colonist and not my base (as long as I don't move to fast). In theroy I could keep the raiders busy long enough to fend them off with minimal damage to my base

[TLHeart]

Sorry but Randy does not have randomness to him, he has programmed rules, that causes him to cluster raids together, then long periods of nothing. He scales raids the same way as cassandra and pheobe do. To most players that will appear random, but there is a very discernible and predictable pattern to randy. It all comes down to satisfying the Mean Time Between Raids.

[Simon_The_Space_Engineer]

I have always found the time between drama (events) long and usually can be boring... If anything we should have more events and things we can do as to help prepare our bases for new events

[b0rsuk]

So here's my newest base, A12. It's rather ugly, but quite secure. There used to be more grass (rainforest) but my animals had no mercy. Now those paved tiles are almost a decoration.

Too secure, in fact. Because I built it on a border, it's too easy to defend, and too many cargo drop events don't affect me.

It's quite sparse. I wanted to see how much colonists like big bedrooms. Sparse bases have the advantage of being more mortar resistant, at the cost of more construction work and vulnerability to manhunter packs. Note the backup eating table, in case a colonist REALLY wants to eat RIGHT NOW.

I make my bases convex, because this makes firing lines nicer. There are no places where someone can start bashing a door or wall and not be shot by one of colonists. There are lots of corners, each route can be covered by several colonists with good cover. I do use coolers sometimes, but try to place them where they are very unlikely to catch stray shots.  Houses have emergency doors, which are forbidden by default. If one of my colonists is cornered, he can always escape somewhere else. There's good connectivity in case of toxic fallout, etc. There's a pile of forbidden bricks near backdoors. Another kind of emergency doors is placed outside and held open. When wargs or something nasty comes, a colonist makes a round and closes them. I may be paranoid, but I use stone doors for bedrooms. Colonists rarely use those doors, so they can be a little more secure.

I like trees, and started planting dandelions as they seem the only sowable plant that spreads itself.

Sandbags have only a few niches. They're a form of cover that doesn't stop line of sight. So they can serve as an OPTIONAL cover, depending on which way the enemy is coming...or when a shielded colonist wants to repair a turret under fire. They also don't block wind turbines.

The bottom half is a bit messy, because I started running out of space (between map edge and that sweet, sweet marsh). Those living quarters are repurposed store rooms. What I don't have in style I make up with wealth, thrumbofur armchairs etc ;-).

[Jamini]

My preferred bases are small clearings surrounded by mountains. I'll wall off one end of the clearing, set up a defensive perimeter, then dig into the mountain for bedrooms. The clearings eventually become large courtyards in addition to fields.

[TLHeart]

So here's my newest base, A12. It's rather ugly, but quite secure. There used to be more grass (rainforest) but my animals had no mercy. Now those paved tiles are almost a decoration.

Too secure, in fact. Because I built it on a border, it's too easy to defend, and too many cargo drop events don't affect me.

It's quite sparse. I wanted to see how much colonists like big bedrooms. Sparse bases have the advantage of being more mortar resistant, at the cost of more construction work and vulnerability to manhunter packs. Note the backup eating table, in case a colonist REALLY wants to eat RIGHT NOW.

I make my bases convex, because this makes firing lines nicer. There are no places where someone can start bashing a door or wall and not be shot by one of colonists. There are lots of corners, each route can be covered by several colonists with good cover. I do use coolers sometimes, but try to place them where they are very unlikely to catch stray shots.  Houses have emergency doors, which are forbidden by default. If one of my colonists is cornered, he can always escape somewhere else. There's good connectivity in case of toxic fallout, etc. There's a pile of forbidden bricks near backdoors. Another kind of emergency doors is placed outside and held open. When wargs or something nasty comes, a colonist makes a round and closes them. I may be paranoid, but I use stone doors for bedrooms. Colonists rarely use those doors, so they can be a little more secure.

I like trees, and started planting dandelions as they seem the only sowable plant that spreads itself.

Sandbags have only a few niches. They're a form of cover that doesn't stop line of sight. So they can serve as an OPTIONAL cover, depending on which way the enemy is coming...or when a shielded colonist wants to repair a turret under fire. They also don't block wind turbines.

The bottom half is a bit messy, because I started running out of space (between map edge and that sweet, sweet marsh). Those living quarters are repurposed store rooms. What I don't have in style I make up with wealth, thrumbofur armchairs etc ;-).

Interesting layout, and nice way to test room size...

It appears you have repaired from a couple of sapper raids to the south.

I see a wooden wall,  (just a friendly jab from the critic of my wooden walls)

I don't see you base as being vulnerable to manhunter packs, as with the distance between doorways, the pop out fire, duck back in, would work even better.

I shy away from tight corridors (one tile wide), which you have in the north section. Restricts movement, and shooting angles.

Your hospital is very near your turret line also. Something you thought was a bad design.

Good use of the hills and swamp for protection. Forcing raids to walk through mud/swamps slows them down, so they soak up more bullets.

[b0rsuk]

I almost completely stopped getting turret casualties since I upgraded most of them to plasteel. The marsh is like a natural killbox.

No, I repaired the walls from greed! There was compacted steel in there. There was only one sapper raid on the bottom, I met them in the field and while I had to patch 4-5 people up there were no scars or casualties.

I kept forgetting about that wooden wall, and usually when I was about to fix it it was already a late hour and I didn't want to disturb sleep.

I would build the base a little differently if I wasn't constrained by map edge and the swamp.

Believe or not, wargs and boars were still able to surround me so much it was hard to find a moment for a pot shot.

Speaking of hospital - one very early sapper raid blew a hole through its north wall, back when it was only one room big. I decided to be polite and left the south door open, fighting them outside. There was a fire, but apparently sterile floor doesn't burn and nothing in the hospital burnt.
The hospital is also reasonably far from the left edge, and I feared an attack from that side (which never really happened because I walled it in the very few cases when enemies spawned there).  It's also reasonably far from south, and there were some feeble sapper attempts from that side.
It was a compromise. I could put it somewhere else, but I didn't want to break firing lines.
And why does it look like it's exactly 2 bedrooms big ? Because there used to be a bedroom in the northern part.  Then the 7 colonist malaria happened, I decided to play it safe. It was easier to break a wall and put extra beds in the adjacent bedroom.
Very near... I wouldn't say so. The only way to get past that "killbox" was around it. No swarm of tribals, no shielded pirates, not even 4 thrumbos was enough to attack it from the front. Marsh proper is something like 35% movement speed!

[TLHeart]

BOrsuk, just poking you, as you thought my hospital was close to the front lines... never have had anybody give it any problems.

Yes a marsh makes a great kill zone.

We all have thoughts of what we want in a base, but the reality of the game gets in the way, and for me I design it to fit the circumstances I am in.

[Simon_The_Space_Engineer]

Exactly why I made this topic... I was curious about other people's base designs and how they had been made for different environments and scenarios

[Too-DAMN-Much]

Exactly why I made this topic... I was curious about other people's base designs and how they had been made for different environments and scenarios

yeah, it's a good informative discussion, honestly it's a little surprising at first, but given how well simulated most things are in rimworld it really makes sense overall that a forestry mountain base would look really different to an ice sheet or something nutty like that.