Good location for settlement

[Lazy Joe]

Sofar i have only tried to make my own settlement once, just a bit north of the rebel bar outside of the hub.

And i didnt even bother building walls, i just tried to make it look like some western town, buildings on both sides of the dirt road. But that was like my first run ever and i didnt get very far.

So now im starting to itch for a new settlement again, and i would like to hear some recommendations about where to put it and how to manage it.

My current idea is to have 2 squads, my main squad and worker squad. Main squad handles the fighting and exploration. The worker squad are the ones who stay in the settlement and take care of all sorts of jobs, tending to the crops, producing iron plates n such.

But i see potential problems in this playstyle. Because i dont want to be bothered by bandits or whatever all the time. And i can avoid that by leaving nobody behind in my base while i go out exploring. With a worker squad whose main role is to stay behind, it would probably mean im leaving my base vunerable in the hands of a bunch of folks who arent meant to fight.

In worst case i will have to bring everyone with me if i want to explore in peace, but once the squad exceeds 20 heads, its going to be troublesome to manage the team.

So how do you guys handle this issue?

[Red Bat]

Easiest spots:

-the Northern Coast near the deadcat fishing village as unless you piss off the Flotsam Ninjas you'll only have to deal with Scrawny Cannibal Raids (large ones) and a Tin Head special raid, with the only wandering enemies being hungry bandits and cannibals, the latter usually ignore you. You can hire mercenaries in the nearby bars to deal with raids. Deadcat Fishermen, Flotsam Ninjas, Cannibal Hunters, Tech Hunters and occasionally very lost Holy Nation Patrols will aggro most of the cannibals so you'll rarely have to fight them. The Deadcat fishing village has a terrible selection in their shops, so you'll have to go to Worlds End and hope you don't run into a cannibal camp. You should be fairly safe here as long as you bring your main squad back before a Scrawny or Tin Head raid. The former can be anywhere between a complete joke to like 50+ guys showing up.

-Northern part of the Hook only has you dealing with UC taxes. Starving Vagrants and Slave Hunters will show up and usually be easily slaughtered. Occasionally and very rarely Beserkers wander around parts of the area, being the most dangerous thing you'll encounter. Shouldn't be too much of a problem to venture out from here.

-North of the Holy Nation Stone mine at the edge of Okrans Gulf and Okrans Pride. Easy spot if you don't PO the Holy Nation and have nothing but Greenlanders who are mostly male. You'll almost never encounter enemies outside of raids, and they will be starving bandits only. Raids will consist of easily paid off Dust Bandits, and somewhat large raids of deceptively weak black dragon ninjas who often ignore people on turrets for a bit. Occasionally the Holy Nation can be relied on to fight off a raid for you, and they have multiple safely accessed towns nearby to buy and sell stuff. Since Black Dragon Ninjas are surprisingly a lot weaker than they appear and bum rush your food stores to the exclusion of attacking people they should really focus on, it shouldn't be too bad for small squads to set up here.

Personally I prefer more interesting spots though, like in the Swamp where there is one of the closest things this game has to a questline.

[bunny de fluff]

Swamp has red spider swarms. Cannibal is middle game. The best beginner base location, is by search "base location" on this forum.

[carl]

Shem baybee always shem
that place has got copper, iron, stone, 100% fertility though arid so wheatstraw won't be as effective but plantable and cactuses will thrive.
but that place is sort of a constant warzone between starving bandits, band of bones, dust bandits AND beak things.
so I'd heavily recommend if you'd have a few guys with skills in 40-50 in combat guarding the place or just have mercenaries hanging around on a constant basis, or hell even better just buy a house in the hub and then research a bunch of ♥♥♥♥ like Auto Multi-barreled harpoon and walls before making a base

[Radiosity]

Originally posted by Lazy Joe:

buildings on both sides of the dirt road. But that was like my first run ever and i didnt get very far.

One thing to be careful of in this game: don't build on roads or have roads enclosed within your base. It messes with AI pathing and can cause them to try and break your gates to get through, even allies.

When looking for a location, open the Shift+F12 debug menu and hit the navmesh button, then roads. This will show you where all the roads are so you can avoid building on or too near them.

[Red Bat]

Originally posted by bunny de fluff:

Cannibal is middle game.

Nah, I'll stick by my recommendation of the Northern coast. Building right next to the Deadcat fishing village is one of the easiest spots. I've consistently done it early on with Freedom Seeker starts. Any time a raid happens, just leave for the Deadcat village till they give up or hire mercenaries to fight it off or rescue captured characters. The red cannibals in theory are tougher than most common bandit groups, but they almost always aggro off something else before they get to your base, so they tend to just pass right through while carrying off NPCs and completely ignore your characters. The ones you will end up fighting will already be injured most of the time from fighting Deadcats, Tech Hunters, or Flotsam Ninjas. Even if you get overwhelmed, there's a very high likelihood of tech hunters randomly wandering into your base and aggroing cannibals before they carry your guys off.

There's certainly easier spots for a green as grass group to build a base... But not many. Even near the Hub can sometimes be harder as cannibals don't raid your food stores like Black Dragon Ninjas nor do they demand taxes like Dust Bandits, and the larger of the Dust Bandit raid events is probably a little harder than the larger scrawny raids depending on your equipment and base setup.

[Radiosity]

I'd say cannibals are more of a late-stage early game, if we're talking about somewhere like the Leviathan Coast, where you're on your own and can't rely on others to help when the raids arrive. But even then you can easily kite a raid into beak things and garru, so... yeah, still pretty much easy mode :)

And yeah, cannibal raids are actually easier than dust bandit raids, not least because of the ease of kiting to other groups, but also because cannibals don't wear armour and are super flimsy... plus they don't use crossbows. Not the case for bandits.

[Red Bat]

Originally posted by Radiosity:

I'd say cannibals are more of a late-stage early game, if we're talking about somewhere like the Leviathan Coast, where you're on your own and can't rely on others to help when the raids arrive. But even then you can easily kite a raid into beak things and garru, so... yeah, still pretty much easy mode :)

And yeah, cannibal raids are actually easier than dust bandit raids, not least because of the ease of kiting to other groups, but also because cannibals don't wear armour and are super flimsy... plus they don't use crossbows. Not the case for bandits.

Yeah if I'm trying to level stats I usually start fighting cannibals in Darkfinger around the time I'm able to beat Dust Bandit or Outlaw Swordsmen patrols without much of a problem. Darkfinger's dangerous not because cannibals are a hard fight, but because the patrol spawn rate there is insane, although you always leave with a whole lot of medpacks because of it.

[tikiman572]

I personally recommend Vain. There's a nice spot on a hill west of the westernmost Hive Village that has Iron, Copper, and Stone all bunched up together that is pretty good to get a settlement going. And with the near constant rainfall, crops won't be a problem whether they're in the ground themselves or on rooftop Hydroponics. With all the Hive Villages nearby you'll have plenty of trading opportunities too.

The only downside really is dealing with the wildlife, Beak Things in particular. They make for good training if you're prepared but it can be brutal early on. But if ya know what you're doing, you can make things work for you there.

[Yggdrasil Burnes]

South of Obedience and East of Mongrel is a very noticeable plateau on map. A unique patch of land above the fog, where it's safe. It's one of the most peaceful locations in the game, with plenty of resources. Wheat 107%, Hemp 100%, everything else seems to grow fine but I haven't tried Cotton or Rice. Constant Wind Power, lots of buildable space (if a bit uneven and grooved), 100 stone, plenty of Iron nodes, and a bit of pure copper in the scrap heaps on top to boot. 3 different entrances to climb up from. The only raids are from Cannibals and Fogmen, if ever. They often kill each other before they reach you. Literally the only objective downside is 35ish Water tops and no rain, so you'll need multiple Level 3 Wells about to make use of the fertility.

If you don't mind the tortured screams that occasionally echo from the fog, and braving said fog yourself to go anywhere, it's a unique spot a stone's throw away from Mongrel. Great view of the fog pits and all the grog and hashish in the world. I built an entire wall around the area, but you could easily just wall off and gate the entrances themselves.

[thecelt]

Originally posted by Lazy Joe:

Sofar i have only tried to make my own settlement once, just a bit north of the rebel bar outside of the hub.

There is a ridge line right where you are talking about just a few seconds run north of the rebel base. If you look closely you will see a natural defensive layout in tiers going up the ridge. I was able to block in a huge area with a very reasonable amount of walls. I placed an "L" shaped 3 gate system on the west and just blocked off the entire east side. I was able to hold off raids easily with just 7 people in my squad while I recruited more people and built up my base and did research.

There is iron, copper, stone, and some areas of decent soil there and room enough to build your own city. You won't have many tough bandit raids; mostly the hungry bandits and dust bandits. Also the bandits seem to always go for the gate. I've never had a raid attack the east wall though I do have fully researched harpoons mounted there in case.

I have mods for moisture vaporator, automated copper mining, 256 person limit, and crop growth improvement you may not need crop growth mod but the other three are really helpful. Hivers and other traders do visit but are always too poor to buy much so i may install the mod that gives traders more loot to spend.

Even the toughest raids are cut to pieces by the time they really start to damage the second gate. I've never had a raid of any size breach the third gate. Also the harpoons tend to blow a lot of limbs off the bandits which keeps the bone dogs happy and fed.

If you just build walls first, but no houses or gates, you can enclose the area without bandit raids and then place gates at the very last when you are ready to establish your base. Now i have close to 50 people in that base including my combat group of 26.

Overall, I look for locations that have access to the major resources, hopefully inside the base, and offer natural defenses that can be utilized to keep resource costs down when building. Build big or build small just make sure you have enough people with some decent bow skills to hold off the raids while you recruit and research.

[Zee_]

If you want a place that'll allow you to build a massive city, the southeastern corner of the Fog Islands has everything. You can build on the plateaus and get 100% water, 100% fertility (green), tons of high quality iron from the ruins of the large ships, tons of high quality copper from the ruins of the ships. The only thing that's missing in quantity from the tops of the plateaus is stone strangely enough (there are spots, just ton tons of them), but you can wall up the base of a plateau and build your quarries down there.

There is also a constant strong wind blowing in the area, so energy generation isn't a problem.

It's easy to block the passes through the area with buildings and wall in the surrounding area to control entrances and exits.

Only potential problems are the fogmen, which are pushovers even if they have numbers.

You can potentially get trading caravans from Mongrel, Deadcats, Western Hive and the Holy Nation. And yes, the Holy Nation will enter the fog islands, they just won't go very deep inside them. If you've got any non-humans I'd suggest setting the city to private to prevent HN patrols and trade caravans from potentially causing problems, if you're already at war with them however feel free to keep the city set to public and just murder them when they arrive.

The only bandit/raider assaults that happen in the area are The Fog (a giant fogman wave), and Dust Bandits.

Wandering threats in the area are fogmen (obviously), Holy Nation Outlaws (you can eventually wind up friends with them if you save enough of em from fogman poles though), the occasional bonedog pack and beakthing pack (you only get bonedogs and beakthings if you're at the very edge of vain).

Random wandering groups of Tech Hunters, Nomads and Mercenaries can come through the area from time to time as they travel to and from Mongrel.

It's a solid base of operations to build up an army or supplies before moving to somewhere more difficult (I'd suggest near the Ashlands for a second base to add a bit of difficulty).

I would suggest using 3 squads to settle here though.
1) Your primary adventuring squad
2) Your workers
3) A city defense squad to protect your worker bees

Once you have a good food supply line, having more people isn't an issue at all. I'm currently at 247 people in one game and still have a surplus of food, grow wheat outdoors (for bread, alcohol, etc), grow rice, greenfruit and other stuff indoors via hydroponics, cook up gohan for easy food and feed an army with only 4 full-time farmers and 2 full-time cooks.

[Remember No Russian]

literally the best starting base location is the border-zone, once you tech up stake out for your final base. i know the cannibal planes has a 115 percent fertility yield for crops and ample ore deposits. im sure there are better options though.

[spaceweezle]

Originally posted by Zee_:

If you want a place that'll allow you to build a massive city, the southeastern corner of the Fog Islands has everything. You can build on the plateaus and get 100% water, 100% fertility (green), tons of high quality iron from the ruins of the large ships, tons of high quality copper from the ruins of the ships. The only thing that's missing in quantity from the tops of the plateaus is stone strangely enough (there are spots, just ton tons of them), but you can wall up the base of a plateau and build your quarries down there.

There is also a constant strong wind blowing in the area, so energy generation isn't a problem.

It's easy to block the passes through the area with buildings and wall in the surrounding area to control entrances and exits.

Only potential problems are the fogmen, which are pushovers even if they have numbers.

You can potentially get trading caravans from Mongrel, Deadcats, Western Hive and the Holy Nation. And yes, the Holy Nation will enter the fog islands, they just won't go very deep inside them. If you've got any non-humans I'd suggest setting the city to private to prevent HN patrols and trade caravans from potentially causing problems, if you're already at war with them however feel free to keep the city set to public and just murder them when they arrive.

The only bandit/raider assaults that happen in the area are The Fog (a giant fogman wave), and Dust Bandits.

Wandering threats in the area are fogmen (obviously), Holy Nation Outlaws (you can eventually wind up friends with them if you save enough of em from fogman poles though), the occasional bonedog pack and beakthing pack (you only get bonedogs and beakthings if you're at the very edge of vain).

Random wandering groups of Tech Hunters, Nomads and Mercenaries can come through the area from time to time as they travel to and from Mongrel.

It's a solid base of operations to build up an army or supplies before moving to somewhere more difficult (I'd suggest near the Ashlands for a second base to add a bit of difficulty).

I would suggest using 3 squads to settle here though.
1) Your primary adventuring squad
2) Your workers
3) A city defense squad to protect your worker bees

Once you have a good food supply line, having more people isn't an issue at all. I'm currently at 247 people in one game and still have a surplus of food, grow wheat outdoors (for bread, alcohol, etc), grow rice, greenfruit and other stuff indoors via hydroponics, cook up gohan for easy food and feed an army with only 4 full-time farmers and 2 full-time cooks.

I can attest to Fog Islands being a really good starting base location. Though I prefer to settle in the little nook just northeast of Mongrel for more streamlined trade with Mongrel.

Has max ferility, high wind, loads of ore with very good yields, essentially everything you want. The only caveat is that it's a little tricky to build on, at least until your borders expand a bit.

Get a fair amount of Fogmen activity due to it being in the middle of major foot traffic lanes between deathyards and Mongrel. Besides that, you will get a steady flow of Triangle bandit raids.

Never underestimate the little foggers though, especially if you run BBB mod. The Fog princes are not to be trifled with. Once I turned my back for a minute and half my squad had been maimed and carried off by the fogmen, which ultimately resulted in a harrowing 3 hour rescue operation. That was possibly the most exhilarating experience I've had in Kenshi to date.

[Lucifer69]

Fisherman Island is one of my go to's. Fisherman are a bunch of pushovers. You get crabs for days. I've spent several game weeks training stats on these punching bags. The main threat is acid so keep your organics covered up. Also, that bridge is bugged. I recommend deleting the vanilla one and replacing it.

Granted, you need only a longcoat and straw hat. There's little wind so you'll want to rush batteries. On the plus side, you have access to every resource on the island. You'll need to do a bit of exploring for copper, but it's there. You can grow every crop at high yield.

So yeah, just cover up your organics and you'll be fine.