How do you plan your bases out?

[Senior Citizen Gale]

Its hard to plan out a base that ends up being massive, I usually create what I need early and then I dont have space because other rooms are filled around it now ect. Whats the best way to go about expanding your base in a way that you have all your rooms where you want.

[HunterSilver]

I use a modular design. In general everything fits pretty nicely in a 9x9 room. That's enough space for an impressive bedroom, a workshop, a hospital, and prison, storage, etc.. For larger rooms like dining rooms/rec rooms/throne rooms I simply merge together 2-3 units. Unfortunately it means that my bases look very same-y, but it's very efficient.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2212382927
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2118876058
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2115548271

[brian_va]

Initial room that's used as pretty much for all needs. Once stable, specific rooms are built around the starter depending on if it's in/against a mountain, if I'm feeling a modular or compact layout, a lazy just build whatever layout or however it plays out. Generally that starter room is the central point, so dining/rec room is usually what it ends up as.

[flu007]

I mostly figure it out as I go along and add rooms as needed, though I do a little bit of planning in the beginning - mostly where I want the kitchen and freezers to be.

(Part of) my current base, to illustrate:

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1592540764132075318/EFCC604DD87B3255EB1B72A731B13AB4335BD759/

That square general storage room was my initial starting room, built against/slightly into the side of a mountain. The day-one campfire I cooked my first couple of meals on is still there as well.

Then I planned out where I wanted the kitchen to be, with plenty of room for connecting freezers - there's 3 now, with space for a 4th.
I like the brewery fairly close to the freezers, so I decided on the location for that one fairly early on as well. But apart from that, I just added rooms as I needed them without too much planning.

Freezers are a bit of a pain to "move" later, so I decide on that early. But all the rest can be pretty easily adapted or reorganised if needed.

That starter room, now storage, was supposed to become a dining/rec room - the small room below it, with two tables and a research bench, has been there since week 1 and was supposed to be a temporary setup. Haven't gotten around to changing it yet. May or may not get around to it eventually.

[Hoki]

also modular design but i dont try following a fixed grid of any size. bedrooms are 6x4. bathrooms 5x3. i just build them as needed while keeping them as small as reasonable.

if moduls dont conform to a higher level of grids in mind it helps breaking up and gives you a lot of small corners that could be used for detailing.

planning the base itself is kept at a level of 'heres food. theres bedrooms. THere's work. and other there a killbox.'
planning too much early on IMO removes some of the fun of building things and makes it less reactive to whatevers happening.

if i'd where to actually attempt a megabase i'd obviously WOULD have to plan everything early on

[Cannenses]

Depends on your play style - and what would you like achieve in the play through.

I prefer bases with residences in clusters, and located in periphery. The heart of base is the food area, with workshop, hospital, rec room, dining room and prison all adjacent each other. This main building is usually on the side, not in center of map, leaving the open space in center clear for quick movement of pawns (for raids, etc.). I use animals to fight, and it’s easier for their movement too.

[martindirt]

I'm plan my first rooms, but later I'm just expand to fit to my needs. When I don't build compact (strictly wealth controlled scenarios), I'm separate my blocks with 3 wide roads, some squares / parks here and there to remove ugly enviro penalty (+looks better)
1: Kitchen, butchery, food storage goes to 1 block, ofc separated with walls. This block goes near to my planned growing area (which expands later).
2: Rec / dining room goes next to this block. I'm start with 10*10 interior, later expandable.
3: bedrooms are 4*5 interior, I'm build a 2*3 bedroom block together. (2*2 block when I'm under mountain. Don't ask me why.) Usually I'm try to place (initial) bedroom blocks near / next to rec - dining room block. Later bedroom blocks goes where I'm still have empty space.
4: Prison. This depends on my scenario (mostly on my active mods). When I'm play with the forbidden mod and / or with war crimes / bondage beds / etc, I'm build 2-3 prison blocks. 1 block similar to bedroom blocks (2*3 room, 4*5 interior each): here goes recruiting. 1 block (10*10 interior) is the brothel: here goes breeding. 1 block (10*10) is the torture chamber? Here goes breeding + other funs. If I don't play this way, I'm just build the first version.

5: Workshop. 10*10 interior, later expandable. Next to it (separated with doors, but not with roads) is the 6: Raw material storage. 10*10 again, expandable. I'm store here all my roof required raw materials (mostly textiles). Wood, steel, silver, stone blocks etc non roofed materials goes outdoors.
7: Stone cutter / art bench: These two gain a separated room. Around 5*7-8 tiles interior. On the one side, I have the chunk zone, other side the outdoor material storage.
A side note to this part: I'm always build shelves next / near to my workbenches with high priority to store specific materials near to the workbench. You don't want your crafter's to walk to the storage room, this is duty of your haulers / dogs. I'm set my bile to "Drop on floor".

8: Since 1.1 (and even more since 1.2) you need a guest room to house mercs, guests, refugees. This room (barrack) can go anywhere, size around 8*8 or more if you want. You need 10-12 beds in it, some end tables and dressers.

9: Well, this should be right after the workshop part. Weapon / gear storage: 10*10, expandable. Build shelves, its more ez to keep track what you have.

10: Hospital: 10*x barrack block. X depends on how many colonists you have, what difficulty you play etc. You need beds + monitors in, at least 1 TV, shelves to store meds.

Ugh. I wanted to write this short.... And I'm still have the itchy feeling I'm missed / skipped stg.

[Nightweaver20xx]

Uhh, plan? I just find the nearest defensible valley between mountains and attach my first few rooms to the side of it, then build around it as needed. No real plan.

[Beef Hammer]

Plan? lol

Originally posted by Nightweaver20xx:

Uhh, plan? I just find the nearest defensible valley between mountains and attach my first few rooms to the side of it, then build around it as needed. No real plan.

This guy gets it.

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by MeglaDon:

... Whats the best way to go about expanding your base in a way that you have all your rooms where you want.

In fifty-eleven thousand plays, I'm not quite sure that particular set of circumstances has ever occurred... :)

I really don't set any construction plan or design "in stone." I like building organically, as needed, and then dealing with any issues my "lack of optimization" has caused. Min/Maxing building and design options is not really... "fun" in my opinion.

In general:

I first plan based on my colonists immediate needs so that they can survive the initial "set-up" period from "nothing" to "some farming, food prep, and refrigeration/storage."

After that, one of the biggest considerations is going to be "individual bedrooms vs barracks." I never rely on a barracks, but some players may have to decide between the two depending on their playstyle.

Food storage/cooler, meal prep/kitchen, dining area, and housing area connected to that is typically my first "building plan" that survives most of the game. In some cases, I may expand or move my food/cooler and kitchen area. I also try to build in mind for future farming expansion and an enclosed primary "greenhouse" with four plots in it.

My crafting/products-benches are usually not far from sleeping/eating areas and usually, but not always, a separate building. The exception being Research and that is always near the primary researcher's bedroom.

All colonists get a private bedroom with a double-bed. Always. No exceptions unless they're a "surprise" arrival/recruit. I always build an extra bedroom, just in case. I only use double-beds because that's the "smart way" to avoid having to deconstruct single-beds and build doubles when that particular colonist gets married/lover status... Though, I will generally continue to work on upgrading beds until all are at least "good" status. The same goes with all bedroom furnishings.

Once an initial stable base is built with adequate areas for everything, I build with a mind towards defenses, both my outer major defenses and internal "defense in-depth" in case of a penetrating attack/drop-pods.

[MortVent]

Early base = mega build with barracks and utility over looks
Mid/late = slow shift to focused buildings or mega construction

[Twelvefield]

From space, my base plan would look like a turd dropped by a demigod. The animals are corn, the solar collectors are peanuts, and the colonists are sharp things. Eww, some blood in the stool. Oh well, that's 2020.

[Jpc1023]

What plan

[Oatmeal]

Personally I build a starter building that gets used for everything, put up some barrier walls with more room than I'll need and begin converting the starter building into a full on kitchen and dining/rec room, surround it directly with main housing with the main workshop and storage not too far away, hospital next to the kill box and then other rooms mostly for mod stuffs

[Rogue Cloud]

Originally posted by 『Ω』Ray The Hunter:

What plan

Honestly this lol. I just make random squares for stuff. 7x7 for homes and a massive room for production.

[Evensong]

Originally posted by MeglaDon:

Its hard to plan out a base that ends up being massive, I usually create what I need early and then I dont have space because other rooms are filled around it now ect. Whats the best way to go about expanding your base in a way that you have all your rooms where you want.

I use the hardcore sk mod pack but I try to just do it organically with out much planning. usually this ends up with me having a central storage and all my other buildings around that, though I might move stuff around eventually.