Base building

[Whiteyeti]

So after coming back to the game after quite some time and using a brand new squad I'm struggling, hard might I add, to get to grips with all the new changes and such but the biggest right now is base location.

Just can't seem to find a decent location for a low level squad to set up shop that doesn't result in them getting ganked every 5 minutes by wild dogs or dust bandits and having enough of everything to set up a decent farming operation in order to feed them all. Had to resort to the no hunger mod the moment so I can actually explore without them starving to death but all the mean while they just get set upon and beaten within an inch of their pitiful lives.

Any suggestions? Please do feel free to insult my worthless squad, they deserve it after all.

[Hatsune_Neko]

it's the same as in the old map. starting a base when your low level is tantamount to suicide unless you know the game well enough.
buy buildings in town and start that way.

[Roccandil]

For a one-man start, I like building a shack and a bed in Hiver land, as close to one of their towns as I can. I get early money selling skins from animals the Hiver guards kill, and selling copper (which you can mine at 100% in a Hiver town for protection, and drones may even join you).

You can buy food and building materials from Hiver merchants, and once you can research and build the following in Hiver country, you're pretty much golden:

- Storm House
- Light Wind Generators
- Batteries
- Mounted Crossbow

It's fun shooting at Beak Thing's and Gorillos with impunity. Not many human enemies show up, which makes sense, given the local predators.

I don't know if that would work for a settler start, though; too many mouths to feed, maybe.

For a settler start, the strip southeast of the Waystation and north of the Swamp might still work. I did that in my first real game, and nothing attacked me there. That might change when the Swamp becomes playable.

[Whiteyeti]

Thing is my squad isn't too weak they're not well balanced, most of them are around 15 attack and something defence and their skills aren't the greatest it's just I haven't got enough dedicated combat people to make it go smoothly.

Can't camp in HN areas because paladins will just ruin me, not enough farming in the borderlands areas just north of way station but decent otherwise, not tried the vain of wetlands just yet but i've had a fine time roaming around the canibal area recently with my scout party before i met the shreiking bandits and had to flee.

Ideally I'd like to avoid HN in general but theres no real places to set up outside their areas with decent iron and copper mines to keep myself established and running plus finding engineering blueprints is difficult for me right now.

[Roccandil]

That spot southeast of the Waystation has 100% iron and copper. (The copper is actually off the map, but you can still mine it.)

Beak Things are a great way to get battle exp, by the way, especially if you can find one by itself. I'd stay away from Gorillos, though.

[Roccandil]

One other tip: once you get turrets and level-two walls (that you can stand on and build turrets on), you can, if nothing else, build a small citadel your squad can run inside, with gates deeply inset, and turrets covering them, kinda like this:.

---------"inside"---------------W
WWW-GATE-WWW------W
TW---------------------WT----W
W----------------------W------W
TW---------------------WT----W
W----------------------W------W
TW---------------------WT----W
W---------------------- WWWW

The "W"s are walls and the "T"s are turrets. Basically, anyone who tries to beat down the door takes a -lot- of punishment first. Bandits can't stand up to that. Paladins might be able to, but there aren't many enemies that can.

Also, you can build a Storm House (or something stronger) inside the citadel with turrets on its roof, and if you place the ramps to the walls right, once the enemy breaks through you'll be able to abandon the turrets covering the gate, run your people inside the house, lock the door, and get even more turret fire on the enemy before you actually have to fight them hand-to-hand.

Note that small wall sections don't allow turrets to be built on them, only long-wall segments will work for that (took a while before I noticed that and realized I had control over that when laying out walls). You also want the walls to be as high as possible, without leaving the ground (you can do that, too... ).

(I've had a lot of trouble with building walls in general, by the way, so now I schedule one segment at a time, make sure my guys can actually build it, and do the next segment.)

[imdare]

I build my first settlement right in the Middle of HN territory.
Good vertile land. With lots of raptors Who are really week, and give skins.

As long as you suck up to the HN patrols, they wont harm you.
I even managed to convince them that I needed my "beast slaves".

Now, I have a huge city in HN territory in the riverlands with 50 people.
And I have 2 fighting squads, and one of those squads can take on 6! yes, 6! HN patrols before needing reinforcements from the other squad.
I have a couple fighters as strong as an inquisitor.
I freed a lot of slaves from the mines and even liberated Rebirth.
That gave me a bunch of recruits.

[Zeal]

For a one-man start, I like building a shack and a bed in Hiver land, as close to one of their towns as I can. I get early money selling skins from animals the Hiver guards kill, and selling copper (which you can mine at 100% in a Hiver town for protection, and drones may even join you).

You can buy food and building materials from Hiver merchants, and once you can research and build the following in Hiver country, you're pretty much golden:

- Storm House
- Light Wind Generators
- Batteries
- Mounted Crossbow

It's fun shooting at Beak Thing's and Gorillos with impunity. Not many human enemies show up, which makes sense, given the local predators.

I don't know if that would work for a settler start, though; too many mouths to feed, maybe.

For a settler start, the strip southeast of the Waystation and north of the Swamp might still work. I did that in my first real game, and nothing attacked me there. That might change when the Swamp becomes playable.

The Hivers are an excellent place to start, honestly. probably the best I can think of.. They help protect you, supply free manpower to your base, and offer most of the goods you'll need to get your base started. The lack of iron was my only drawback that I had, though depending on gameversion, that may not be an issue. You could also still trade with the hivers for iron plates.