Modularity or Orginality

[Praetorian]

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:



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.

[SpaceDorf]

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.

[Crow_T]

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

[Praetorian]

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).

[BlueTressym]

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. 

[SpaceDorf]

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.

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.

[{insert_name_here}]

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.

[Praetorian]

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.

[Grishnerf]

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.

[Limdood]

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)

[SpaceDorf]

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.

[asanbr]

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.

[ColonistGirl]

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.

[JimmyAgnt007]

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.

[ColonistGirl]

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.