Post Your Base

[stoa]

This is my current base. First try, building one without mining, and I basically just expand it as I go along. Started out with the bottom part and built more rooms as I got more colonists. Defences are pretty basic with a couple of turrets at every entrance. So far, I've managed to cope with most of the stuff the game has been throwing my way. I'm currently trying to deal with an ancient ship though and I'm not sure I'll do it without any of my guys getting killed. In fact, I already lost a guy, but he had just joined my colony a couple of weeks ago, so I wasn't too sad...

[attachment deleted due to age]

[SSS]

It took a long time, but I've finally ended what is probably my favorite playthrough to date. I was tired of two things: always using mountains as a backbone for my colonies, and always building in squares. The former was pretty easy to overcome (flat map), but the latter was a bit tougher...

Anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

This map was played on vanilla Cassandra Challenging. It ate up roughly 72 hours of play. So, without further ado:




This is the colony core, and the first room I built. When I spawned the map, there was a naturally generated room just below and slightly to the left of that geothermal geyser. The original colony core was made of steel walls and only had the trade beacon in it. It was the castle keep, so to speak, for a long time, and eventually it became one of my favorite battle grounds within the fortress. Many corpses (both human and mechanoid) have fallen here.

In the finished base, the power generation here is little more than emergency power, nowhere near enough to supply the whole base. The batteries are more important, though I've had a few mishaps since they're bunched up so much. Inferno cannons don't play nice with batteries. >.>;

I only store raw resources and non-degradable items here, since the center is open to the sky.




One of the benefits of a freestanding fortress (as opposed to a mountain one) is that you can wall in dirt and use it for crops. I was playing in an arid shrubland (I wanted to get that early-alpha feel), so despite the small size this can easily provide for the whole base year-round. I grow medicine as necessary, and I tend to buy beer from bulk goods traders, so sometimes I just grow all corn. This growing area was the second room I built.

The production room is one which has undergone the most upgrades, I think, mostly thanks the the addition of warg fur armchairs. It was also one of the first to be buffed up with art. Samantha, one of the original three and my primary crafter, is stationed in the corner bedroom for easy access. There are only four corner bedrooms in the fortress, each with a critical colonist.




The kitchen/dining room and freezer were my third priority during the initial construction. As with virtually all of the rooms, it went through a series of upgrades. A freezer this big might not be enough to support consistent quality meals on a map with a short growing season, but it works for arid shrubland and fits with the symmetry and aesthetics of the colony. (Note where the freezers vent. I do something similar with most of the large primary rooms.) Zurine is the head chef, but I think Samantha did a bit of cooking before Zurine's recruitment.

The freezer got raided one last time before my colonists left. Beer and lavish meals for everyone!




The logistics room and prison was roughly the fourth priority. I was building the corner rooms and single-room portions of the barracks at the time, since my colonists were still sleeping in the naturally generated room. The conversion went pretty well I think. (I really wish there was a way in vanilla to give prisoners separate rooms whilst still allowing them into a common room.) The art in the prison was a late-game addition, and using all medical beds happened mid-game. The table went in pretty early though, and the nutrient paste dispenser was there from the start. I don't know why the corner bed is unowned when taking this screen, but Frenchy, my primary warden and one of my two melee specialists, is stationed here. Note the relative closeness to the comms console as well.

It actually took me quite awhile to get the logistics room set up how I wanted it due to other priorities (raids, new bedrooms, joy balancing, etc.). It was roughly two months in-game before I got the comms console built iirc. The research bench was there pretty early, of course.




I don't know why, but I'm really fond of my rec room. Maybe the red makes it seem more fun. It was one of the last of the primary rooms to have walls put around it, with only the horseshoes being present. I ended up constructing most of it during a warg attack. This is actually the first alpha that I've bothered with beer; I found that the benefits were worth having my doctor binge on occasion. Speaking of whom...

Toni (one of the original three, the other melee specialist, the primary doctor, and the resident artist) is stationed next to the hospital. Many wounds were patched and many bionics were installed here. Green is supposed to be the most soothing color, so I thought it was fitting for a hospital. The individual rooms are kinda small, but it's balanced out by the pleasant environment. I don't think I ever actually had to use the cyptosleep caskets here. The most dramatic and colony-endangering raids happened early on, before I had the benefit of these.






The Western and Eastern Barracks, respectively. There's no roof over the turrets out of necessity: The room's temperature would rise to around 120-130F (50-55C) otherwise, sometimes a bit more. I definitely needed the colonists' rooms cool though. As you can see, the max occupancy of the base given the four corner bedrooms and the barracks totals to twelve. I had ten colonists during most of the late game, gaining an 11th near the very end.

Doug is one of the original three, the head constructor, and the secondary farmer. I like to think of him as the colony's leader. Pham is the head farmer, head miner, and secondary constructor. She's also killed enough wargs to feed and clothe an army. Despite being a recruit, I view her as co-leader. Mitch is the secondary doctor and a general logistics worker; I often pair him up with Pham on combat assignments. Dekker is the tertiary doctor, chief marksman, and secondary crafter. This rim legend once took down six scythers and six centipedes all by himself- don't mess with him. Huntsman, Ev, and III (the last recruit) are all logistics workers and add some additional buff to the colony's firepower potential.






This is the Northern and Southern power supply. This combined with the emergency power supply is (again, iirc) just enough to supply the base with electricity and lead to a net gain in battery power storage over a 24-hour period in-game. As you can see, I've made these rooms multi-functional by storing perishables or undesirables in them, as well as placing mortars in each. The clothing and dumping stockpiles are near the crafting room in the north, and the unique perishables (also clothing overflow) and weapon overflow are near the prison in the south.

It's best to get the walls around these rooms pretty quickly. I've found that the raiders tend to like going after these solar panel clusters for whatever reason.




The external power supply significantly boosts the power gain rate of the batteries. The wind turbines help offset eclipses a bit as well. I also have a few external geothermal power plants, but since the cables have a high maintenance (due to dry thunderstorms, raids, etc.) I consider this more reliable. Since it's a late-game addition, meaning I have security sorted out, raiders rarely ever end up attacking it.






Before I start talking about the colony's defenses, I'd like to show the Northern and Southern Devilstrand Plantations. They weren't part of the initial plan, but after a toxic fallout wiped out all of the vegetation on the map, the opportunity seemed too great to pass up. I didn't have the southern field seeded when my colonists began to depart, but I've used both quite a bit throughout the colony's history.




Alright, now for the defenses. You already saw the northern and southern buffers along with the primary internal power supply. I called them buffers for a reason- I don't think the turrets were ever used at all. (If only the raider AI had a flanking mentality.) Basically, this setup serves two purposes: It allows my colonists to flank and surround the enemy (which is especially useful if, say, you want to have all of your colonists melee tribals one at a time), and it funnels sappers into one of the main hallways. If they enter through the barracks area, it's even easier than a regular raid since they're fewer in number; I can just take them in the halls. Here's an example (before I had a turret set up there):



These raiders were even firing rocket launchers to no avail, thanks to the melee sponges. I think I had to take my sniper out of the fight early, and my grenadier was tossed aside so he didn't destroy the halls (and the loot), but it was a pretty easy (and gratifying) fight.

If the raiders decide to target the "true" weak points of the colony in the corners, however...



...They have a nasty surprise waiting for them, plus it's still fairly easy to set up a defense in the halls by putting melee sponges in the closest dual doors and stationing the main force in the hallway center. Sappers got 'nuthin on this fortress. :3

I tend to drag the bigger raids into my core room, deactivating the turret in the hall preceding it. I setup my colonists like this (this assumes an assault from the west):



I guess you could call it a killbox; it's just at the center of the base rather than at the entrance. Which equipment rack I put my meleeists by depends on whether it's a human raid or a mechanoid raid. I want the meleeists to be closer than the turrets if it's a human raid, since humans have meleeists that will destroy the turrets otherwise. I place them further away with mechanoids so they don't lose their energy shields too quickly: They mainly serve to continually repair the turrets they're next to in that case. Any additional colonists go in the hallway the raiders will use to soften them up a bit before they reach the killbox and/or to flank them after they reach the killbox (e.g. with sniper rifles).

Also, it's a little vague with the captions for the primary riflemen, but they go in the doorways.




And, finally, the escape ship. I wanted to make the ship a little nicer than barebones since the fortress took so long to make and enjoy. I could've done more, but then who knows how long I would've kept expanding it, and I was ready to get them off to space already.





I had quite a bit of fun building this, and the new events definitely kept the game spiced up more than previous alphas. Any thoughts on the Diamond Fortress are welcome.

[Caminha]

Stuff

Awesome. If the game used Z-layers it could become a pyramid. xD

[SSS]

Stuff

Awesome. If the game used Z-layers it could become a pyramid. xD

That would be sweeeet.

[xlockeed]

And, finally, the escape ship. I wanted to make the ship a little nicer than barebones since the fortress took so long to make and enjoy. I could've done more, but then who knows how long I would've kept expanding it, and I was ready to get them off to space already.

Very nice base. Um you forgot one thing after jetting off into space Mr.Warden. And you only left 45 corn in the hopper to feed them.

[SSS]

And, finally, the escape ship. I wanted to make the ship a little nicer than barebones since the fortress took so long to make and enjoy. I could've done more, but then who knows how long I would've kept expanding it, and I was ready to get them off to space already.

Very nice base. Um you forgot one thing after jetting off into space Mr.Warden. And you only left 45 corn in the hopper to feed them.

Oh... I'm sure they'll make out somehow. They're pirates, amiright?

If not, I guess the next tenants will be in for a rude surprise.

I bet one could make an extended playthrough by dev-ing those prisoners into colonists and having them break out.

[Brenivech]

I want to share my compact arctic base layout for 6-14 colonists. (Alpha 16)
http://i.imgur.com/QUJZjNp.png

As you can see the main base is 40x46 squares.

Each room is 4x6 (6x8 with walls) squares (including green barracks/prison cell).

The kitchen + diner is 15x4 (17x6 with walls). Generally you won't need a cooler in colder regions. This base can be easily adapted to any biome.

The freezer is 15x5 (17x7 with walls) which is large enough for this number of colonists.

The 11x11 (13x13 with walls) storage room may not be the best choice for hoarders, but it's suppose to be a small base for a small group of people. So store only the essentials.

The blue rec room is 5x9 (7x11 with walls). You can fit several chess tables and a billiard table or a TV room.

The medical bay is 5x11 (7x13 with walls) and it's able to fit up to 6 patients. Usually it's more than enough. Don't forget two simple tube TV and a small adjacent medicine storage room.

Two small battery rooms can only fit 10 batteries which really is not much. This layout needs a good power management. That means you should turn off every production table you don't use. Also it's very important to turn off the sun lamp during the night. You can improve your power situation by building geothermal generators, solar panel or changing the layout of wind turbines.

The hydroponics + lab room is 13x13 (15x15 with walls). I deliberately made it slighly bigger to fit fermenting barrels and some production tables from the mods.

Main halls + crafting rooms are 4 squares wide. You can easily fit all vanilla production tables and still have space left. I prefer using this free space to hold some armor and weapon.

The other two rooms you can convert to anything you want. I prefer using small one 4x4 (6x6 with walls) as a backup power room. The larger one is usually for cryptosleep caskets.

As for defences it's all up to you. Build bunkers, killboxes or simple sandbags.

This layout is far from perfect. I tried to balance efficiency and general look. I'm sharing it simply to inspire your creativity. Try it, change it, improve it. Get creative.

(Sorry for my bad English)

[b0rsuk]

My ice sheet base looks like a badger's den. Zero turrets, zero trapped corridors, just 4 incendiary mortars and a few gunners. One particularly bad colonist (Coma child / Sheriff / Brawler) has two scyther blades and power armor on equipment rack. The base runs off 5 wind turbines and one hydroponic room which is mostly gravel potatoes. I play to build the ship and it takes a while on a flat map where temperature reaches -79*C. The two graves you see is a housecat Rin killed by polar bear and an ex-wife of a colonist who tried to leave the map bleeding but died to infection.

[loc978]

I remember this thread! I approve of the necro.

It's funny, I've only been playing this game to mess around building things on Randy "some challenge" with a ton of mods while half-watching anime with my roommate... so my only current colony is more home/ranch/compound-like than efficient. It's certainly not a survival challenge:



I originally intended it to be only Darcey with bots and animals (all automatically added colonist events are disabled), but she wound up rescuing her brother, grandmother (who is a teenager. Cryptosleep is funny), grandfather (younger than everyone aside from the grandmother), father and uncle. So it's sort of a family farm now.