Best Cost-Benefit to Build a PvE Base [Early and Late]?

[D.A.R.K.]

I see a lot of people using Cobblestone because the cost is cheap, it's easy to have, it's an early material and we can have tons of to build a giant base.

My friends told me the best one it's Reinforced Concrete, even for being a "late" game block and it's expensive to craft, this can be counterpart by it's resistance, since it's one of the hardest to destroy.

I saw a block, a metal block, that has 12k HP, I don't know if it's the hardest, but it's one hell of a hard to break down by zombies... There's that Bullet Proof Glass, something like that, that is hard as well...

At the end, which material it's the "best" cost-benefit [based in cost, time, amount and resistance] to build a early base and a late base in your opinion?

[MeDaDaddy]

Depends on "design" and game settings, really!

For me, an early flagstone tower is the first thing I build once I'm sick of rooftop living and have found a town to loot.

If I haven't found anywhere I like the look of by Day 7 4am, I'll just throw up a 3x3 flagstone tower a few chunks away from a Trader with some wood spikes and either upgrade it to cobble or 5x5 it depending on how much stone and clay I've made into cobblestones during the previous 6 days (I just stockpile the cobblestones until then).

After the BloodMoon there's no need for repairs.
Just loot, run to Trader with anything you're not taking with you then back to the tower to pick up your necessaries and rinse and repeat until I find somewhere I like the look of.
Once I find a decent sized town with OK buildings, I know i'll be there for a few weeks looting it so know I'll need a Crafting base, a Horde base and a Heat base...so again flagstone looking to upgrade the Horde Tower to cobble and 5x5 which with enough layers of spikes and barbed wire does for a few Hordes.
The aim is to upgrade that to concrete by the time Radiated Cops start showing up if I haven't stripped the town by then in which case I'll save the cement to take to the next town I want to loot!

So for me, cobble to flag for early game, then concrete to steel for late game.

EDIT: Because I won't be building for permanence until mid to late-game.

[Ghostlight]

Re-enforced Concrete ungrades to Steel which upgrades to Re-enforced Steel (available only from Traders). Aim for that, you'll need it eventually. Late game hordes (say day 100+, gamestage 2000+) will destroy re-enforced Concrete quite easily.

[DominantEye]

The most cost-efficient early base is a 3x3 wood frame platform on a tree. The zombies can't damage the tree trunk (until you get the vomit cops), and you can shoot down through the frames. Of course, it isn't much of a base, so if you go to 5x5 with wood blocks in the 3x3 and frames on the outside, you have room for your bedroll, a chest, campfire, forge, and workbench.

Personally, I prefer the top of a stone building (post office, shamway, fire station, etc.) with a small wood hut for my base, and I fight the hordes from a different location.

A hole in the ground with wood frames covering is also pretty efficient.

I'm not really sure how you'd judge efficiency for late game. The zombies will tear through any material, and the stronger material takes more to repair. I think you'd have to set some bounds on how you want to measure it. Do you only count the build cost, or do you include the time to repair after an attack? Do you consider a base that you don't fight from, or only fighting bases?

[pisicatus]

my style is making a base only after i wondered arround the map to find a suitable city, marking all traders i find in my path. during this time i only loot what i need to survive and nothing more. after i find the city i start making a home base - on a roof of a stone building or in the well underground bunker - and rush making everything i need to make concrete and rebar frames.
first 2 hordes i make in the street, no horde base used, during all this time i gather the concrete i need for a horde base build in such a way that takes minimum damage from z. you will want to use rebar frames because you upgrade them directly to reinforce concrete. after that you can upgrade to steel and reinforce steel ( this second upgrade you bui from trader only ..... expensive as hell ). your target shoul be reinforce steel, hardest material in game. use bullet proof glass only for you garden to protect your food. use barbwire for outside of your walls, upside down iron spikes, combine all this together. try to keep empty space under your home base or upon it .... depend if you build on a roof or in underground. keep that space empty with some spikes. the screamers will have nothing to distroy but will hurt themselfs in your spikes. once you have 3-4 forges you'll see how disturbing screamers can be.