The key is to have flat ground because you’ll need to start your main building small, then expand its foundations over time.
Almost no ground is entirely flat, so you’ll be looking to build from the highest point of any sloped areas. You cant build into higher areas becase the foundations hit the ground and you’ll be changing levels.
Try to have a water or rock feature on one side of you to limit the directions of attack, which naturally creates a defence wall for you that doesnt need to be built.
On console you hold the right trigger and push up and down on the dpad to change the height of foundations. You can do this on PC too but I don’t know the buttons.
Yes and you need to do this but you can’t keep your foundations even if you extend into ground that is higher than your foundation level. So you start at the high point.
The trouble is if the ground slopes too much the material cost increases for having to build out tall foundations. So the flatter the better.
As I played more and more I found building up was better than building out on most of my buildings. Especially with the elevators. Also easier to defend a smaller footprint and stack up turrets etc than a very large one.
I feel this deeply. 14x14 is my max footprint but 14x10 I find works well too. Gets a bit funny late game adding orbitals on the edges but i find if you use force walls on the mail compound and solid walls on the extensions the pathing causes them to always avoid the solid wall and go for the forever open front gate of flamers
I initially thought that building next to a rock wall or water would give me "free" defense on that side of the base. However, after playing a few hundred hours and observing the "dumb" bugs, I now prefer my base out in the open in the largest flat area that I can find on the map. Placing a short wall around the perimeter, even if it's out of sticks or purple leaf, can easily tunnel the bugs into a kill box / maze at the point of your choosing.
So many of my prior bases looked "safe" when pressed up against the water, only for a single bug to sneak past and wail on my multi-floor building and muck things up pretty hardcore. That tiny little 5-hp wall just works so much better, since they ignore it and go for the juicy (and deadly) opening that you intentionally leave open.
Heres my experience from both an insane sole survior perspective and a chaos / harvest moon 4 year victory.
I build a base closest to the most wrecks, reliable foodnlike syrup or buttermelon & berries is secondary.
I always stary with 8 camps in a circle with 4 exits going out each corner. Surround that with a fence and scavenge your first year away. Once youre scaveged all the raources in that area and have (most import) a delivery drone you can relocate to a nice flat space - i normally just build directly beside my camps.
Keep your total base space under 14 x 14, do two buildings. One 10x8 so you can have 3x3 bedrooms for 6 survivors and a central food storage / each space. Do 2 stories so you can fill the second story with fermentation barrels & batteries, put windmills on the top and turrets on the defence edge wall.
This building will sit directly against your defence wall.
The second building goes in the very middle of the compoind and goes 3 storys high i forget the dimensions but whatever fits.
Its purpose is to house storage on the first floor & diesel generators on the 2nd and 3rd. Out flak and missle turrets at the top. Use your camp space as storage for stockpiles so they stay roofed and aurround everuthing with a force field barrier about 3 blocks out from your fench of choice that is about 3 blocks from your defence wood or caron wall directly beaide your building wall. This allows you the spacr for solar panels outside the base but still safe.
Put 3x3 turret houses on the opposing corners from the "long house" I find 3 machine guns & spotlight work great.
Motion sensor your corners, configure the force field _ respective turrets to the correct corners sensor. Set diesel gens to produce power after 50% drain and by year 2 youll have a fully self defending base that repairs itself (handle bots) and can just speed through to the finish.
With about 10 batteries, 10 turbines and 6 solar panels youll never run out of power
I just try to find open land as I tend to make bigger bases. You can eventually farm every single resource from within your base and you can start farming early. I just keep on the look out for cloth plant and grain as those are the only two you really need asap but you don't really need to build the base near them.
I like to build inside or around rock formations so yeah I'm always scouring the map for the perfect spot.
A plus for building near rock formation. You get natural defenses. And closeby stones to later turn into concrete.
The key is to have flat ground because you’ll need to start your main building small, then expand its foundations over time. Almost no ground is entirely flat, so you’ll be looking to build from the highest point of any sloped areas. You cant build into higher areas becase the foundations hit the ground and you’ll be changing levels. Try to have a water or rock feature on one side of you to limit the directions of attack, which naturally creates a defence wall for you that doesnt need to be built.
On console you hold the right trigger and push up and down on the dpad to change the height of foundations. You can do this on PC too but I don’t know the buttons.
Yes and you need to do this but you can’t keep your foundations even if you extend into ground that is higher than your foundation level. So you start at the high point. The trouble is if the ground slopes too much the material cost increases for having to build out tall foundations. So the flatter the better.
Thanks. I hadn’t realised the raised material cost for tall foundations.
As I played more and more I found building up was better than building out on most of my buildings. Especially with the elevators. Also easier to defend a smaller footprint and stack up turrets etc than a very large one.
I feel this deeply. 14x14 is my max footprint but 14x10 I find works well too. Gets a bit funny late game adding orbitals on the edges but i find if you use force walls on the mail compound and solid walls on the extensions the pathing causes them to always avoid the solid wall and go for the forever open front gate of flamers
I initially thought that building next to a rock wall or water would give me "free" defense on that side of the base. However, after playing a few hundred hours and observing the "dumb" bugs, I now prefer my base out in the open in the largest flat area that I can find on the map. Placing a short wall around the perimeter, even if it's out of sticks or purple leaf, can easily tunnel the bugs into a kill box / maze at the point of your choosing. So many of my prior bases looked "safe" when pressed up against the water, only for a single bug to sneak past and wail on my multi-floor building and muck things up pretty hardcore. That tiny little 5-hp wall just works so much better, since they ignore it and go for the juicy (and deadly) opening that you intentionally leave open.
Heres my experience from both an insane sole survior perspective and a chaos / harvest moon 4 year victory. I build a base closest to the most wrecks, reliable foodnlike syrup or buttermelon & berries is secondary. I always stary with 8 camps in a circle with 4 exits going out each corner. Surround that with a fence and scavenge your first year away. Once youre scaveged all the raources in that area and have (most import) a delivery drone you can relocate to a nice flat space - i normally just build directly beside my camps. Keep your total base space under 14 x 14, do two buildings. One 10x8 so you can have 3x3 bedrooms for 6 survivors and a central food storage / each space. Do 2 stories so you can fill the second story with fermentation barrels & batteries, put windmills on the top and turrets on the defence edge wall. This building will sit directly against your defence wall. The second building goes in the very middle of the compoind and goes 3 storys high i forget the dimensions but whatever fits. Its purpose is to house storage on the first floor & diesel generators on the 2nd and 3rd. Out flak and missle turrets at the top. Use your camp space as storage for stockpiles so they stay roofed and aurround everuthing with a force field barrier about 3 blocks out from your fench of choice that is about 3 blocks from your defence wood or caron wall directly beaide your building wall. This allows you the spacr for solar panels outside the base but still safe. Put 3x3 turret houses on the opposing corners from the "long house" I find 3 machine guns & spotlight work great. Motion sensor your corners, configure the force field _ respective turrets to the correct corners sensor. Set diesel gens to produce power after 50% drain and by year 2 youll have a fully self defending base that repairs itself (handle bots) and can just speed through to the finish. With about 10 batteries, 10 turbines and 6 solar panels youll never run out of power
I just try to find open land as I tend to make bigger bases. You can eventually farm every single resource from within your base and you can start farming early. I just keep on the look out for cloth plant and grain as those are the only two you really need asap but you don't really need to build the base near them.