Wood vs stone?

[MysticDaedra]

Which do you prefer to build with? Pre-concrete, does it matter? The tooltips seem to indicate that both are equal in stats.

[Flin Fredstone]

The type of map mostly dictated which resource i would use for building. In the desert it's stone, on the other map it's wood to start with.

For the looks i prefer wooden buildings, more of a cabin feel.

[Seelander]

yeah the map decides, i build using tons of hay in the center and use my wished material on the exposed floors.

[Bjørn]

For floors stone or wood depending on availability like the others mention. I can recommend researching bricks after construction, as brick walls have the green coloured 'good' insulation properties, same as concrete, I think?

[vilem.krejci]

In the desert it is simply - stone. Because there it the wood very rare. Otherwise it depends on the momental situation - if much stone is available nearby, then use it. Otherwise use wood ...

[Private Pyle]

I think u can spear poke over stone walls but not wood ?

[manos.torgo]

Generally I prefer wood since I can set up lumber farms outside my base and don't have to send survivors too far to mine stone. And then move to churning out bricks.

[Actual Malice]

Wood is a renewable resource. Stone is always finite. I believe Private Pyle (a Jim Nabors fan?) is correct in that the sight lines are better with stone walls, although I would rather be standing and shooting behind pole fencing when the uber-shriekers arrive. Why pick? Choose both, an outer wall of stone and inner wall of pole fencing.

But the point is that, no matter the material, my fences and occasionally other structures will get damaged continually and need repair. As the game goes on, I don't want to be traveling farther and farther to get stone. If it is plentiful nearby, great. But as others have said, be guided by your seed. Look for enough to make it through the endgame, if you are going with predominately stone.

[gizmo6023]

If the seed has plentiful wood and you observe trees you can plant replacement building materials within easy reach of your base. If you are in the desert hope there is a good supply of nearby rocks as soil conditions are usually not worth attempting to grow wood in any useful quantity.

[Summanus]

How does anyone manage to build a base out of concrete? I'm trying it now and its just taking so long for the furnaces to produce the cement that I feel like I'm getting nowhere. Plus the need to go further and further afield to mine rock is starting to be a real hassle and taking up all my survivors' time.

I was thinking about just building in brick instead, but I realised that brick buildings come with basic stone floors, so I was concerned that it wouldn't be enough insulation. Plus I'm not that crazy about the aesthetics of red brick.

Can you get away with completing the whole scenario with just wood and basic stone buildings? Or do you really need to upgrade to the stronger, more insulating materials?

[Flin Fredstone]

You do it in stages with the concrete. Depending on how fast you want to complete the crash landing scenario it might not even be worth it. The insulation is not really a huge issue if you have AC's in the house(s).
I have an old save of crash landing and still have not completed it after 20 ingame years. Plenty of stone and other resources and just use it to try things out.

[Summanus]

Originally posted by Flin Fredstone:

You do it in stages with the concrete. Depending on how fast you want to complete the crash landing scenario it might not even be worth it. The insulation is not really a huge issue if you have AC's in the house(s).
I have an old save of crash landing and still have not completed it after 20 ingame years. Plenty of stone and other resources and just use it to try things out.

I'm playing the CALM-TUNE seed at the moment and theres plenty of rock around to actually build with, but even with 9 people I'm struggling with mining and creating the cement fast enough. I'm looking at all these images in the Screenshots tab where people have built huge concrete bases after only 4 years and I'm wondering how they did it. Does it require a massive production line of furnaces or something?

All I'm using it for is the foundations, but even that is a nightmare. If insulation isn't really a problem then I think I'll just stick with wood next time At least its renewable.

[Flin Fredstone]

I had 4 or 5 electric furnaces at some point i think. I would not call it a massive production line though.

[Summanus]

Nah, I've got 5 electric furnaces at the moment as well. Maybe I'm just making my foundations too thick... Dunno.

[Bjørn]

This is one of those games where you think 'this is going to take forever' (regarding smelting and such), but then you start doing something else, and before you know it you notice 1000 new concrete slabs in storage! I tend to use 3 or 4 normal (stick) smelters.

I've only played a little over 3 year games myself (or actually only one over 3 years), and always used stone or wood floors and brick walls. I had a lot of concrete, but used that mainly for fortifications, and also carbon in the end.

I don't think the insulation of floor material is as important as the walls, but I'm not sure. Anyone kept a hay floor throughout a game? That's what we build in the tutorial, I think

[Summanus]

What are those wooden stilt foundations I keep seeing in everyone's screenshots? I don't seem to have those in my game. Are they part of a mod, or are they not actually wood?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2973217761

(ignore the names - we're not related lol)