Just found an insanely good spot for a noob base.

[Solar Pilgrim]

Closest Western Hive village to The Hub. 75% Fertility and up to 100% water from well + can use rain collector. 50% Green, 50% Arid, 20% Swamp. Loads of 100% copper nodes. No iron though. Hardly any stone but doesn't matter since you'll be within throwing distance of the Hive merchant. And pretty central on the map, equal distance to the Hub, Squin and Stack. And literally almost within the Hive Village - not to mention easy access to it's neighbours.

The spot is directly behind the merchant, as though you're coming in from the direction of The Hub. You'll see a small pond next to a large rock. Build a building as close to this rock/Hive village as possible. Now here's the thing, I'm playing a solo character so don't have the luxury of defences, but here, you don't need them as you can build walls extending further than the boundary for structures. So wind your wall in a horseshoe type of curve from the cliff to the left (facing from Hubside) next to the big rock all the way behind then hooking back around leaving a large opening with the mouth facing the Hive Village. NPCs walk around the wall to get into the outpost, right next to the Hivers. The moment they aggro/draw near, run into the village and the Hivers will take care of the raid for you.

Not only this, but you also get free food (meat) and free money (furs) everytime the Hivers kill a Beak Thing nearby.

Will post screenshot of location and prospecting results if anyone is interested enough.

[Beep!]

I'd be interested.

[Solar Pilgrim]

Just having to head out, but I'll post one when I get home. I'll try include the layout of the walls in full detail.

[Chebruh]

I set up my first base just south of what I think is the Hive Village your talking about. Its basically a straight shot west of Admag, on the other side of the river, i've got two iron nodes, about 9 copper nodes within a few hundred meters, and am a like a minute away from the village's store, plus I get caravans every few days as well. With walls, beak things and gorillos basically pose no threat since I've got everything I need inside my walls.

[Chebruh]

nvm wrong Hive Village, but I've found Hiver territory to be a great spot to start out on

[Solar Pilgrim]

Posted an image of my base in relation to the village on my artwork page. Don't seem to be able to post images here so if you want to see it you'll probably have to search for it on my profile. I'll do a bit of recon into the area you're talking about too. Sounds promising. And yeah, Vain is a pretty great location if you can survive the predators.

Edit: Applied a filter so you can see the wall layout a bit better as they weren't finished when that was taken. Also there was a giant boulder where the trees are, but for some reason it disappeared shortly after I built the stormhouse and turbine. Haven't got a clue how/why that happened though.

The limit for building close to the town for the houses and turbines was where the stormhouse is, everything closer than that was blue. However the walls were able to constructed further for some reason, so it allowed me to make the entrance/opening be practically part of the Hiver village itself. The cliff rock formation thing on the left of the image is impassable terrain, so any raid would have to move basically to the outskirts of the village, and Hivers can get pretty damn territorial if there are aggresive npcs in that proximity.

Pretty much playing vanilla except for UI, weather reduction and clipping reduction mods.

[Azunai]

Originally posted by Black Sun Pilgrim:

No iron though.

doesn't sound like a good spot then. when i made my outpost, the main reason was the ability to craft armor and weapons. if you don't have iron, the whole operation would seem pretty pointless.

[Solar Pilgrim]

Admittedly it is flawed in terms of its usage. But for farming or solo playthroughs it could be a good spot just because of its close proximity to Hivers that'll deal with any raids that you otherwise wouldn't be able to handle. But yeah, unfortunately just stuck with farming and making clothes and booze here. Like you say, if people are looking for setting up a smithing outpost or a complete package its pretty terrible though, but for weak parties and solo characters it might be useful.

For making money early game it could be great though. Both a Hive trader and robotics trader with 20,000 cats each on the doorstep. I'm going to try setting a grog distillery up and see how profitable it is with a handful of workers. I guess it could always be used to fund the means to upgrade location, aquire gear, or ally Hounds or UC or something without much risk. Though the more I think about it, there are far more interesting ways to do that

[Morkonan]

That's a bit close to that village. There's the possibility of encountering a "takeover bug" where the village will "claim" some of your constructions. (Not sure how that works with Hivers, though. Import will correct it, IIRC.)

No iron is a deal-breaker. The biggest stopping point in vanilla for living in a Town is the lack of the ability to produce goods from iron.

No stone means no Building Materials. I agree it's not a terrible thing, but it could hamper construction/defense/etc and be a quality-of-life issue.

Plentiful copper is nice for the cash, but you don't need a base for that and The Hub is literally surrounded by copper nodes.

And, in vanilla, Vain means Red Rain, which is annoying as heck... :) I couldn't stand being surrounded by that constantly. (Mods can reduce/eliminate it, though.)

But, the biggest thing about this base is that if you like it, that's great! The only thing you need to min/max is your enjoyment of the game. If you like your solo-base here, go for it and have fun.

PS - The longer you stay in the area, the more chances Beak Things will eventually kill off the Hivers. Supposedly Hivers and Beak Things aren't supposed to be able to easily get into conflict. But, all-too-often I've run to a Hive village to check for Lanterns and have come upon them embroiled in a fight. That's without me doing anything but triggering the chunk to load... Happy Beak Things slaughtering sad Hivers. I don't know if, for instance, some Hiver caravan had a garu attacked by a Beak Thing or some other weirdness occurred, but Beak Things will/can definitely eat up a Hiver village. (Had the village next to The Hub wiped out by Beak Things without my interference.)

Note: Just South of there is the fabled "Rainbow Valley" base area. A quick Google of "Kenshi Rainbow Valley Base" will get you the info you need. Decent "everything" there and practically equidistant from that Hiver village, The Hub and Squin. A smaller area for building than some places, but good resources and a well-traveled area for all your roleplaying/trading needs.

[Danzigsam]

You could find an iron node near a town somewhere, do some sneak mining, head home with a big load. Wouldn't be THAT hard. Or you could trade for it with all that food money.

[Danzigsam]

Originally posted by Morkonan:

PS - The longer you stay in the area, the more chances Beak Things will eventually kill off the Hivers. Supposedly Hivers and Beak Things aren't supposed to be able to easily get into conflict. But, all-too-often I've run to a Hive village to check for Lanterns and have come upon them embroiled in a fight. That's without me doing anything but triggering the chunk to load... Happy Beak Things slaughtering sad Hivers. I don't know if, for instance, some Hiver caravan had a garu attacked by a Beak Thing or some other weirdness occurred, but Beak Things will/can definitely eat up a Hiver village. (Had the village next to The Hub wiped out by Beak Things without my interference.)

This is true. I don't think I've ever seen a hiver village that wasn't actively being murdered to death by beak things.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by Danzigsam:

This is true. I don't think I've ever seen a hiver village that wasn't actively being murdered to death by beak things.

I did a tour of all the Western Hive villages a couple of times. Always looking for Lanterns to outfit new hires.

I never saw any of those Hivers coexisting peacefully with their girafficky neighbors. The only things that left them alone were Gorillos. Beak Things were always there looking for snacks.

I have, however, seen the village West of The Hub peaceful on a number of occasions since I go there fairly frequently. But, never, ever, when there was a Beak Thing spawned in that chunk. I have had to rescue them on a number of occasions, which I don't mind doing since it's fun. But, I usually just send a solo buyer there for lanterns and they're equipped for speed, not for hunting Beak Things.

Hiver Soldiers have Polearms, but Beak Things have Beak Things...

One decent nest or two is all it takes to eat a Hiver Village. Beak things, if the player is in the chunk, can also bug out near the Hiver poop-huts and clip into them to slaughter shopkeepers and drones. Add a random cannibal crew and it's Game Over for the Hivers. (Some villages are a bit stronger than others, though. "Wide Open" villages are just dinner plates while some of the river villages end up better defended due to polearms+narror crossings.)

[KellyR]

Build a wall all the way around the no-build zone of the hive village, with a gate or two so you can get in to trade when you need to. Leave a couple skeletons to man turrets on the one gate. Now the village is safe from the Beak Things.

(Honestly if you leave the gate closed the Beak Things will probably not bother trying to break it down 99.9% of the time, unless they've already aggroed on a target inside the wall.)