Does anyone have any tips for base building on a Freighter?

[Lil PhyziX]

Backstory

so, for a little backstory, i started playing this game id say about 6 months to a year after release give or take. I kept playing up until the sentinels update then i took a massive 1-2 year break. I come back and i love all the new features they have added, but i'm also confused on how some of the features work exactly.

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Now to my main point, Freighter base building. To be honest, i have ZERO imagination or creativity for base building. like i can see the build in my head, but i cannot replicate it in-game. I seen that they overhauled basically the entire freighter base building system, with entire rooms acting as refiners and base teleport terminals, which i think is a great choice! However, the point is, how do i add decorations? i have a few decorations unlocked from the space anomaly, however, only about half of them show up in the build menu. Maybe i'm overlooking something? i honestly don't know. any help would be appreciated! I should also mention that i don't particularly make bases on planets as i constantly warp from system to system so i just don't see a point on making a base on a planet, if i'm never going to see it again.

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Freighter base layout

Now when it comes to the actual layout/making a nice looking and/or functional base layout, i don't know of any tips that could give me a boost in learning how to make better freighter bases. I would be so grateful if someone could give me some tips on building better freighter bases in NMS, and maybe some color schemes? My favorite colors are black, red, and maybe white. depends on the usage. same goes for blue. Also, if anyone knows a good way to get silver, gold, and tritium, please let me know, as sitting there in space mining asteroids is very inefficient in my opinion. Once again thanks for any help in advance!

[AmberAnvil]

As to colors, you're in luck because the basic room pieces default to red, black and white! I simply duplicated the legacy freighter layout using the new room pieces. I was happy and familiar with the original layout and just placed the new room pieces, such as the Nutrient Processor, the Teleporter, the Refiner, etc, where the old parts had been. Used the Technology Expansion Room for all the open space.

Also, maybe most important tip - I started a game in Creative Mode and played about half-hour until I found a freighter to buy. In Creative Mode, everything is free and I used the freighter to experiment with layouts and colors until I was satisfied then duplicated that layout in my Main save. : )

[Zigamus Wizard]

Also, if your going to do building let me highly recommend a mod. Called Eucli-ea (think IKEA) it adds over 1,300 items to the build menu, adds snap points to floors and walls, and various other QOL boosts to building, I can't play without it. There are a few other good mods for building too, like Snappy Industry, and Snappy Modules. These add extra snap points to items like batteries and solar panels that allow you to place them closer together, as well as other options. New Boundaries (extends the limit on both cameras photo and build), Meta Mod - many very handy little tools and functions. The Modding realm can add a lot of sparkle and personality to the game, perfect to allow you to customize YOUR game to the exact play style you like (mostly ;) Multiplayer and combat are two aspects that still need a lot of work.

[CatPerson]

Base/freighter tips, I got nothing, since I haven't messed with it much. Freighter I just plopped stuff down any old way. :) But thought I'd cover this:

Also, if anyone knows a good way to get silver, gold, and tritium, please let me know, as sitting there in space mining asteroids is very inefficient in my opinion.

Nothing I've personally discovered that isn't simply based on rng-luck.

Asteroid fields are actually pretty efficient imo - maybe not as much as other rarer sources, but it doesn't require any rng luck to locate asteroids. In my experience, I do feel like certain ... texture types and colors of asteroid fields tend to produce more of this or that overall, but it could be my imagination. Also asteroid fields with a fair bit of those large star-spiky ones actually within seem good re: metals.

Can be more productive (amount per hour, for example) perhaps but total RNG luck:

---large multi-tunnel caves with tightly bunched/a lot of cobalt/tritium, cobalt/silver stalagmites, combined with multi-tool with the 50% resources mined in a Super slot. Plus you get stacks and stacks of cobalt to sell. And probably a fair bit of plat./gold bits as well. What is tightly packed, you ask? Something like the pic at bottom.
---keep an eye out for those metal fingers in large clusters. Lots of gold from those (with that 50%+ resources MT) and they do respawn now and then, so put a base computer by one or three if you run across them and check now and then?
------turning the Resources game setting to Abundant temporarily helps too, if you don't mind doing that.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3131805941

[Holeypaladin]

There are some refining loops to help you get lots of gold, silver, and platinum. Gold in particular can be acquired in massive quantities from triple refining ferrite dust, oxygen, and emeril... and emeril has an "infinite emeril and chromatic alloy" refinement loop of its own. Familiarize yourself with some of the refiner recipes! Refiners are some of the most useful freighter base rooms.

Once credits are no longer an issue, you can buy tons of basic materials from random alien pilots in booming economy system.

[DrBonifarz]

If your goal is to create a conveniently functional freighter base with a simple, open layout: All you need to know is that there are three groups of building modules that will form larger rooms when placed together, Technology, Industrial and Agricultural. However, if you plan to go crazy with decorations and custom layouts, those rooms are rather restrictive, so you may prefer a foundation of exterior platforms that allow for more verticality. I'm more on the functional and simple side myself, but there are impressive examples of exterior layouts, like the space garden below.
Have fun =)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3122688266

[yaerav]

My practical tips would be to first, setup your command stations and you scanning stations close to the "green stairway", it's nice if you can easily reach them.
Storage stations are probably best put on a second floor, even though it's useful to be able to reach those things quickly, too. Reason is that (at least in my experience) if you logoff while standing at one of those, you may glitch through the floor upon logging back in.

I also put a forward facing bridge on the second floor. Desks, computers, a wonder projector displaying a planet, a "holographic friend" from one of the expeditions in front of what is supposed to look like a captain's chair. I am going to redesign the thing a bit and make everything behind the bridge industrial floors.

All the way Around the outside of the ground floor, I put a walkway, and most of the ground floor itself, forasmuch as it isn't already, is going to be technical rooms in the back half, botanical rooms in the front hall. Along the sides, all rooms are separate, and have windows and beds or other furniture, we need cabins after all. I am going to remove my farms from the freighter, because I find all the plant icons annoying, but I will put something like a bar or a mess hall in the botanical rooms. And maybe something that looks like a greenhouse or park, I have been spending lots of quicksilver on plant decoration, might as well use it for something,

What I am still not yet sure about is how to build something on a freighter that looks like a bathroom stall or a shower or something like that.

Oh, one addition, which is an idea that I have to try out myself too: the interior of derelict freighters that you can land on can be interesting, I'd like to build some sections inspired on that!

[Galactic Starman]

The game Options screen and can easily set the cost of resources or crafting to be minimal, so making base building far easier for players interested in spending painless time creatively building masterpieces! Instead of choosing fiddly custom settings it can be simpler in the custom Options to just flip the current game mode to Creative Mode while building and then switch back to your favourite game mode or custom mode once when done.

Once practised with building and also knowing the game well, switching to different settings rarely is needed at all for general game play, as every resources is easily available to an established player. Creative Mode however is a great mode for building or making music with the Byte Beat and is an ideal game mode to build in, if you like building large projects.

• Symmetrical base layouts for freighters can be a good way to start.
  
  
• Adding external platforms to walk outside a base on a freighter, can make viewing the overall base layout easier.
  
  
• Using the build camera mode while outside a base, initially can make placing parts easier to manage on a large base.
  
  
• Add music to your base with the Byte Beat Machine : D

[wkitty42]

my basic layout for my freighter bases is like this...

when you go from the bridge, i change the first corridor piece to a Technology Expansion room... to the right and left of it i place decking with a hatch on both sides of the room... this decking will go all the way around the full perimeter of the build area... kind of like a huge track you can jog/run around...

the from that first room, i place more Tech Expansion rooms going straight back... then i come back to the front of the area and stand facing the bridge... the first 3 rooms to the left and right are Frigate Terminals... don't try to place them in any particular numbered order... the game shuffles them into new spots internally so while you may place them as 1, 2, 3 when the game sends out Frigate missions, you may see them appear as 2, 3, 1 depending on how many times you pick up and move or rotate them...

then i step back a whole tile from the bridge and place two whole rows of Tech Expansion rooms... i'll also place a scanner room on one side and the teleport on the other side...

somewhere i'll place stairs up to the 2nd deck which is where i place all my storage boxes as well as my refiner(s)... my 3rd deck is where i place the stellar extractor rooms but they are way back toward the read of the craft... sometimes i'll use inside stairs but mostly i use outside ones on the decking... occasionally i'll place SRTs to jump between decks but not very often...

on the outside left and right sides, i place my growing rooms in two columns from the front decking to the rear decking with a break right in the middle... this break cuts my build area into four quadrants with the center column being the central tech rooms coming straight out of the bridge...

it takes a lot more words to describe but here's an external view of one of my 5 deck builds...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2887244021

[CrazyMom]

For Resources: Metal Fingers for Gold as mentioned above, for Silver: set up a base at an A or S Silver mine with at least 3 Depots, Platinum: look for special shaped asteroids outside of the asteroid fields. I found a nice batch near a space station once, just explore.

I keep all my major plant growth on a planet where I found at least an A or S electric power source, don't need so many batteries and solar panels then, and use the freighter garden units as decoration for a lounge or cantina/kitchen in combination with the nutrient processor room.

Freighter layout: I found that right at the entrance I always position a save point, so anytime I walk by to go to my ship or do any freighter missions, I save game as a restore point.

First rooms left and right are: left trade room, right: transporter
After that on one side the mission rooms with planet scanner, desk with decorations,
The other side storage, refiners ect.

Have to try out creative mode, never thought of it (outside of the RAFT game :D )

DrBonifarz: Thank you for posting the Garden video, very inspiring!!

[dreamrider]

Gold:
Buy Limnium, Magna-Gold, and/or {that otherone} ore from pilots at space stations, anytime you can find a system where the usual price is -5% or lower.
Refine it in your personal refiner (constantly), or haul a big load through the transporter to your base and load up a medium refiner with ore.
More Gold than you can shake a stick at.

Also: drop a base computer and a self-container teleporter base at every Metal Fingers locale you find.

Silver: Same thing for station trading, different set of ores / artificial minerals.

Also: find some surface silver deposits. Fairly common.
Drop 5 AMUs on a couple of surface silver deposits, and a base comp/teleporter base nearby. visit occasionally and clear/refuel the AMUs. The AMUs WILL glitch the output about 40% of the time, but you will still collect hundreds to thousands of units. You don't actually need very much.

Also: You can pick up quite a bit of silver as a secondary mineral while mining cobalt stalagtite / stalagmites in many cave systems.

Tritium: Sorry. Main source is asteroid mining. But about 5-10 minutes of belt mining should set you up for hours of play. Don't forget to convert all your Tritium Hyperclusters to useful Tritium. They are actually more valuable for that than selling for cash, unless you are desperately strapped.

Also: You will sometimes find Tritium as a secondary mineral in the cobalt stalagtites/-mites of caves on certain planets. Mine, refine, and sell the cobalt for cash, keep the tritium.

[Zigamus Wizard]

A comment about building on freighters:

After you go up the green ramp, that 'hatch' in front of you and the row of 'rooms' immediately after it (the first row in the build area) are sort of special, they link the build area to the bridge.
Sometimes building in this row can be troublesome. So, I place a pair of stairways up for upper levels there, never place a 'functional room' as they will sometimes act oddly.
Then after that I use the technology expansion rooms to create an open space. On one side I place the 5 fleet command terminals and the planetary scanner, on the other side I place the construction terminal and the science station and the appearance changer with the entrance to the 'farming' area.
Beyond this area I place the industrial expansion rooms and the refiners and solar extractors. This makes for a nice compact and fully functional area as close to the bridge as I can get it without trouble.
Behind the fleet terminals I usually place the 10 storage compartments, reachable but out of the way.
This covers the first 7 rows of rooms all the way from side to side of the build area, Not many 'parts' but it covers all the needed functions.
Beyond all this I usually make an 'outside' platform and place any big items that won't fit inside.
It is also nice to build this area up as a decorative courtyard or 'sitting area' that has a fantastic view of nearby space :) (including your fleet of frigates)

ONE MORE comment about Freighters:
Sometimes after you have a middle to large size base there will be times that you move too fast and the render doesn't finish in time and this results in you falling through the floor, often getting stuck UNDER the build area. Since that space is not flat, you are trapped in a surrounding ring of 'decoration items' that prevent you from walking out from under the build area. This was a problem for us for a while until HG fixed it. NOW if you get stuck anywhere on your freighter you can go to the Options menu and there is a 'button' to 'teleport you back to the bridge of the freighter' which is VERY helpful for getting unstuck!

[Foxglovez]

I have two bases. One on land usually overlooking my settlement for aesthetic purposes and a couple plant biomes and 4 or five sets of 5 refiners with a little path between them.

On my freighter standing at the exit from the bridge and looking down the hallway: To the Rt is the portal, across on the Lt is my trade station with save point next to entry to bridge. Walking back on my left are 3 frigate stations, on right 3 more. After that are stairways on both sides, one to captains and officers quarters above, other to storage chests and work rooms for the grunts.

I plop down a door on the main floor followed by my gardener and make a small room of plants, 6 x 6, another doorway and 5x5 refiners. The doorways are helpful if you have loading issues where you look out and your walls have disappeared along with half that floor. Scary ♥♥♥♥.

Sometimes at the juncture between frigate rooms and stairs I make a fun bar and grill, mostly on saves I plan to keep for a few years. Gotta remember that every item you place adds to your total and if you plan to play for a long time you will run out of build slots so not going nuts is a good thing. I might also do a very fancy build then go in and delete half of the decos and it looks just fine. It's easy to get carried away.