Post Best Defense Systems/"Kill Boxes" Here!

[Goo Poni]

This was my attempt at a traditional funnel from earlier alphas.

The two large doors are both blast doors which are sealed in the presence of raiders. Unfortunately, I was waiting so long for Phoebe to provide a raid for me that I eventually just used the dev console to start one from the hostile tribals and for the most part, they were content to whale/wail (I don't know the correct word) on the door even though I could repair it from the inside. This was pretty much how that raid turned out. After killing or incapacitating the few that came through the funnel, I just sealed the second blast door and let everyone do some colony maintenance until the raiders outside gave up. Then the Void came along, which resulted in the mess of black I have right now. They can't be cremated or buried but looking at them is TANKING my framerate because there's some 200+ void corpses laying there, plus another 60-70 spread around the map. I literally have no ingame method of clearing them up that I know of.

[Bodog999]

My most simple "killbox" litteraly no skill needed at all

http://imgur.com/Ol36BiG

[ITypedThis]

Personally, I somewhat frown upon kill-boxes and the like. I find that they are "unfair," and create a no-risk=high-reward sort of system. I also rarely use turrets, though mainly because of their inefficiency compared to a skilled colonist. As such, my "Best Defence Systems" are typically the sort of which below.

The only times I ever really use turrets is when build them inside of these sort-of makeshift bunkers.


[Stone walls for their strength and inflammability, stonecutter's table to create impassable terrain whilst not affecting the turret's effectiveness, sandbags for the turret's protection, powered door for increased strength when compared to the simple door {after correct research,} stone tiles in front of bunker to prevent obstructive plants, complete roof with no form of lighting resulting in turret being harder to successfully hit due to being in the dark.]

I find that these "bunkers" are very helpful for guarding areas, particularly areas inside of the colony where no other defences are present should raiders land somewhere inside the walls, or if an animal wanders somewhere inside the colony and promptly goes insane. The two empty spaces between the sandbags and walls on either side of the turret allow for colonists to safely fire alongside the turret as well. Everything can be repaired from the inside of the "bunker."


Multiple "bunkers" can also be strung together to form structures such as this gate. This allows and area to be completely walled-off without restricting colonist movement and provides support for a garrison of defensive soldiers.


[Note: a small problem with this design is that colonists are unable to fire upon enemies behind the doors that make up the gate.]

These are fairly new experiments of mine, so I welcome helpful criticisms.

P.S. The idea for this thread is excellent, in my humble opinion.

[Srgntcuddles]

-snip-

Interesting use of furniture. I was wanting to try with a butcher table, but never got around to it under the impression I wouldn't be able to shoot over it. Guess that puts my fears to rest!

[ITypedThis]

Interesting use of furniture. I was wanting to try with a butcher table, but never got around to it under the impression I wouldn't be able to shoot over it. Guess that puts my fears to rest!

Haha, thanks! One would be surprised at the amount of things a pawn can shoot over!

Or at least I was.

[SubZeroBricks]

P.S. The idea for this thread is excellent, in my humble opinion.

Thanks buddy

[milon]

@FMK, can you explain further (or post a pic in action) of your Logic Locker?

Whats the best way to deal with raidees dropping INSIDE the base? Keeping every habitable space roofed WILL eventually drive every colonist insane as the cabin fever sets in. So is there a way to create an area used regularly by colonists which is classed as outside, but which prevents any raiders dropping in?

As long as you have a walkable path from your base to the edge of the map with no doors in the way, it's considered "outdoors" even if it's got a roof.  You can design a killbox/defense with that in mind, and have your main room be "outside".  All the colonists need to do is walk through the main room, and no more cabin fever!  (Is that an exploit?)

[TheGrover]

@FMK, can you explain further (or post a pic in action) of your Logic Locker?

Whats the best way to deal with raidees dropping INSIDE the base? Keeping every habitable space roofed WILL eventually drive every colonist insane as the cabin fever sets in. So is there a way to create an area used regularly by colonists which is classed as outside, but which prevents any raiders dropping in?

As long as you have a walkable path from your base to the edge of the map with no doors in the way, it's considered "outdoors" even if it's got a roof.  You can design a killbox/defense with that in mind, and have your main room be "outside".  All the colonists need to do is walk through the main room, and no more cabin fever!  (Is that an exploit?)

an exploit? well, if your colonists are living like dwarves and have never actually seen real sunlight, then yes it is an exploit. the inside of a mountain cannot ever be considered outside IMO

[FMK]

@FMK, can you explain further (or post a pic in action) of your Logic Locker?

-snip-

Basically this is what happens. As you can see the mechs are all grouped up near the middle, because as they near the bottom they realize the path to their target is the right side and head towards the top, but as they near the top they change target to the other turret and realize their target is back down the left path.

It basically takes advantage of the fact that enemy AI can re-evaluate their task every so often, along with the fact that the closest target doesn't necessarily mean quickest to reach -- even though the game likes to think it does. (I'm looking at you, colonists going to the longest stockpiles to reach just because they're closer)

[ZestyLemons]

It probably doesn't compare to most of what's been posted in the thread, but I like to call this one "The Bulkhead"



Layered walls with rubble filling the inside. Pretty cheap to make, and pretty durable too. The long corridor makes raiders want to run through it rather than stand in it, so they get pushed out into an area with no cover (by the turrets).

[Goo Poni]

My only criticism of the Bulkhead is that they can take cover on the wall and shoot around it, but only one guy can do that..

[SubZeroBricks]

@FMK

I like the design but how do your colonists get in and out? Do you just let them take an age to walk on the sandbags?

On another note, thanks for voting people!

[TheGrover]

@FMK

I like the design but how do your colonists get in and out? Do you just let them take an age to walk on the sandbags?

On another note, thanks for voting people!

hm, yes, in my current fort, i made a nice winding sandbag path to make any raiders go loopy before they get to the killbox, but since my colonists need a way out to gather minerals etc, the raiders just bang on the blast door (Superior crafting mod) til a dopey colonist goes to repair the door and accidentally opens it... any possible solutions?

[Xerberus86]

one of my funniest moments was quite early during one of my colonies where i got a friendly visitor. suddenly i got the message that a squirrel has gone wild and were attacking one of my growers, the friendly visitor wanted to help and started shooting at the squirrel. the only thing he hit was a headshot for my colonist which was a vegetable after that.. -.-.

[SubZeroBricks]

@FMK

I like the design but how do your colonists get in and out? Do you just let them take an age to walk on the sandbags?

On another note, thanks for voting people!

hm, yes, in my current fort, i made a nice winding sandbag path to make any raiders go loopy before they get to the killbox, but since my colonists need a way out to gather minerals etc, the raiders just bang on the blast door (Superior crafting mod) til a dopey colonist goes to repair the door and accidentally opens it... any possible solutions?

The only thing I could think of is having an open hole and when you get attacked you quickly send a guy to build walls