Colony design: Inwards vs Outwards

[Yoshida Keiji]

Pretty much like this thread: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=36550.0 (Closed or Open)

I have come across other players who build their colony in a different way that I have always been used to.

I had so far made all my games in a way that (being all of them Lost Tribe scenario), I use the closest old ruins as a temporal barrack which usually later on turns into my first hospital, then secondly build the kitchen/dinning room + freezer and third individual rooms surrounding the second structure which I always zone as PANIC room, since so long your pawns can eat, you can survive a manhunter pack.

However, not long ago, I found out about players who build a super large rectangle for their first 3 ~ 5 days, and then start building everything else "Inwards", and I'm not talking about Mountainous world tiles but even in Flat maps. I saw their bases with design where the corridors are in the outer borders and not between rooms and once you pay attention to pawn pathing, you can see them spending more time "circling" within the colony to try to get out than performing any action outside.

Which is your design style?

[BlackSmokeDMax]

I guess I use both. Not at the same time, but sort of map dependent. I guess I always build from the in-->out on a flatter map, although I don't always use closed, but usually I do. On the mountainous I do either inwards or outwards, depending on what my vision is for the base that play through.

[TheMeInTeam]

I would give the out --> in impression since I put some priority on perimeter wall, but realistically I still build some stuff outside it.

Rather than corridors on the perimeter wall I just make a lot of doors so pathing isn't ridiculous.

[Canute]

Since Tynan add toxic fallout and unroofed detoration, i try to avoid "outside".
Even at climated biomes, my goal is to have indoor farming sooner or later. At extreme biome it is must have anyway.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

Since Tynan add toxic fallout and unroofed detoration, i try to avoid "outside".
Even at climated biomes, my goal is to have indoor farming sooner or later. At extreme biome it is must have anyway.

Agreed. Even if I don't end up using indoor farming, I always set up for it. Meaning I make an unroofed room(s) around my field(s) and run them as outside fields if/until something happens where I need to quickly roof them over and install a sunlamp. But at least I am not caught completely off guard.

[Dashthechinchilla]

I usually start by grabbing an abandoned structure if I can. Then I build a large room that holds everything. I build the next buildings and move stuff out, leaving the large room as my workshop as I get more benches to add to it. The last thing to move out is usually the hospital beds.

My colony lives inside the main walls, with buildings inside connected with walkways and defense for falling ships and sappers. I have been thinking about how to take better advantage of the rich soil scatter around the map.

[mangalores]

I generally build roofed or roofable though I would not necessarily say inward or outward. I usually have some kind of main axis corridors and then expand layers of rooms from them. Sometimes I rework the setup to merge a section of living rooms to turn them into hydroponics or other inner safe rooms while moving living space to the outer perimeter to serve as space that can be lost in a breach or doesn't need defending when evacuated.

Otherwise I try to avoid kill boxes as I personally feel them mainly exploiting bad AI (leading to a boring fight) and instead try to emulate starfort bunker systems. With embrasure mod maybe op, otherwise often with doors as firing holes and the ability to rake fire from nearby bunkers and abandon one without an inner perimeter breach if an enemy manages to get in.

The only thing I should pay more attention to is effective anti infestation strategies. Usually any inner fights can be a tad bloody though that highly depends on which rooms get infested and how reckless I need to go in to save resources.

[Bozobub]

I generally find a terrain feature that can easily be walled off and roofed over, or existing large building to hold my 1st (high priority) fridge/freezer, then design around that.  I usually put the fridge and cooking/prep (so butcher and brewer also) on the other side of the main entrance to the cold storage, then the next layer "in" are the work (set towards normal storage) and rec/dining rooms (set towards cold storage).  In from that would be the hospital, prison, and bedrooms.  I also make sure to place doors to the outside for ALL sides of this complex.

Once all that is built, I build a *double* stone outer wall, outside all my farms + a great deal (to make room for more low-priority stockpiles, mostly) with a roofed corridor *inside* (so wall, corridor, wall), along with any active defenses.  Once again, besides a killbox (sometimes, I don't always use one), I make sure I have doors to every side.

A nice feature of doing it this way, is that's it's reasonably easy to roof over the entire thing, no matter how large, if/when desired; you just need to place enough single-unit walls at the right points.  Who needs hydroponics..?  It's simple enough — assuming you have enough stone, that is — to make it so the only people who ever go outside are hunters and prospecting miners, without ever living inside mountains.

[BoogieMan]

I almost always utilize mountain colonies.

Starting off with a quick outdoor setup to get by early, I tunnel inwards and end up with a design more or less based on the concept in the attached screenshot. There may be better layouts, but it works well for me on max difficulty and is easy to set up. It can also easily be repeated to increase the size while keeping a smooth symmetry.

[attachment deleted by admin: too old]

[Listy]

I play one colony, and tend to play it until the new build comes out. That's a good 20 odd years in game time.
At that stage you're seeing 200+ manhunter events. That sort of means that a closed colony is the only option.

[cyberian]

I almost always utilize mountain colonies.

Starting off with a quick outdoor setup to get by early, I tunnel inwards and end up with a design more or less based on the concept in the attached screenshot. There may be better layouts, but it works well for me on max difficulty and is easy to set up. It can also easily be repeated to increase the size while keeping a smooth symmetry.

Looks nice, what are those tiny rooms for?

[lancar]

Initially outwards, but I quickly try and secure a perimiter and build a big beautiful wall to secure some safe space and a defensible position for when the first mexicans big raids and manhunter packs come.

Then expand my colony out to that wall, which I then have to build even more extensions to because hindsight is 20/20 and I realize I made it too small.

[BoogieMan]

I almost always utilize mountain colonies.

Starting off with a quick outdoor setup to get by early, I tunnel inwards and end up with a design more or less based on the concept in the attached screenshot. There may be better layouts, but it works well for me on max difficulty and is easy to set up. It can also easily be repeated to increase the size while keeping a smooth symmetry.

Looks nice, what are those tiny rooms for?

The small rooms are bedrooms. Usually 5x5 or 6x6. I try to assign people to rooms near the side of the base that they work on to help reduce time spent walking.

[Yoshida Keiji]

I always go 6x7 for single rooms. Several people however seem to settle for 4x4 even on Extreme difficulty.

[cyberian]

I almost always utilize mountain colonies.

Starting off with a quick outdoor setup to get by early, I tunnel inwards and end up with a design more or less based on the concept in the attached screenshot. There may be better layouts, but it works well for me on max difficulty and is easy to set up. It can also easily be repeated to increase the size while keeping a smooth symmetry.

Looks nice, what are those tiny rooms for?

The small rooms are bedrooms. Usually 5x5 or 6x6. I try to assign people to rooms near the side of the base that they work on to help reduce time spent walking.

Ah k initially thought that but then your other rooms are massive.
Which map size is this?