Help for designing a "town"

[Killer Tamashi]

I want to have my pawns have their own homes and go to work like IRL, but every time I try my creativity kinda dies..Any tips?

[Stormsong]

Do something real simple to start with. Like cross-shaped main thoroughfare, maybe 3-4 wide made of concrete or flagstone.

Then assign each quadrant to a different theme. For example, one could be workshops, another could be for research (so the research table, hospital, drug labs, and if you have mods that add them books/libraries go here too). The 3rd for residential: bedrooms, rec rooms, maybe the warehouse(s). Finally, the last one could be geared toward food -- kitchen, freezer, butcher's table. Additionally, the farmland should be closest to this last quadrant as well.

For a basic security idea: the intersection (roughly a 9x9 space in my top of mind hogpog of a town) could be turrets and lined with sidebags. Put barricades in front of doorways and you'd have nice spots for shooters and can create something of a crossfire. Of course, it could be a bit slower to get in the shops, but w/e, we're being creative. Don't forget a wall on the outside of down, and if you space it 2-3 tiles out from the quadrants, you'd have side streets all along the outer edge of the town. Can make sandbag checkpoints here as well. Depending on how you space the buildings in each quadrant, you may have alleys. Lastly, sprinkle traps liberally. A step beyond that you could set up kill boxes at the outer walls depending on how you handle entrances.

Not the most inspired thing, I understand. However, maybe it's good enough to use as a launch point.

[Diarmuhnd]

I don't understand how your creativity dies. Does it just kinda fade away or does it go out for milk and cigarettes but it never comes back because a squirrel killed it? Just kidding.

I found building an authentic town never works well for me, probably because I play with Randy and he likes hurting me, especially in late game. Drop pod raids, insects, mechanoids , etc. They always seem to kill everyone and burn it all down unless I build war camps and use some mods for very good weapons and defenses.

As for planning what it should look like, if you need help with that then maybe watch some other players building bases or check out screenshots to get ideas. Doodle some ideas on paper while playing, helps you get it sorted in your head.

Myself i build outwards around the central points where my pawns eat, sleep, play and work. I try to build a main defense line, fall back lines and cover as much of it as possible with overlapping turrets. This way I can defend my base even if something drops into it behind my defenses.

If you build a new base, share a few screenshots.

Good luck have fun

edit: a few pics of my older bases
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2007120650
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1384470946

[Kittenpox]

I tend to make luxury apartments, myself.
Bedrooms which are 5x6 (internal) for titles and mood bonuses, corridor 5 tiles wide so I can add shelving or even production tables in a pinch, with a stone lining on the outside and door-space-door 'airlock(s)' for better insulation (usually with one of the doors held open until bad weather hits.

But the idea of setting up a town, maybe like in a Western, with specialised workshops etc. and a saloon, ain't a bad idea. :-)

With the Hospitality mod, you could add a hotel, and even have multiple shelves in each of the shops zoned and filtered accordingly to sell your colony's wares.

[ROE]

The town thing is better in theory than in practice. I've tried it before and it just either turns into a defensive nightmare or everything ends up merging into one big connected glom.

I have just relegated myself to a square base. Bedrooms 5x6 inside and workshops, dinning, play, storage, and throne rooms ringing that. I use a four point compass defense (N,S,E,W) to guard the place.

[Bouncer]

Space on a map is far too limited for a town like build. Its horribly inefficient too. I always end up making yet another bunker or compound in the end.

If there were Z levels itd be another story entirely, but alas.

[Astasia]

If you want creative freedom in designing a large base it helps to have certain mods to counter the weaknesses that come along with certain layouts. For example a large open town layout is really hard to defend from sappers, so using something like Fertile Fields to dig a moat around most of the town wall allows you to keep raiders going to a centralized area to defend from. I've created a few "town" build recently, a friend asked me to share a screen of one of them so I have that screen ready to post but I didn't take images of the other ones because it's a lot of work to build them and I never finished them to the point where I was happy enough to share. This one is also quite a work in progress, I had planned a lot more decoration and there are a number of buildings missing or unfinished, but it might give you some ideas on how you might want to do certain things or not.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2303645013

I actually really liked building "houses" like this and is why I kept with the concept for my next few games.

[ꌗꉣ꒒ꂦ꓄]

To make anything remotely realistic tends to require use of things like LWM's Deep Storage to save space, since in real life a 20x20 warehouse does not get entirely filled up by, say, 400 t-shirts.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2228508043 .... the 21x21 block layout is my only "famous" accomplishment.

[ambi]

I built a town awhile back.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2146271258

My idea was to have a main thoroughfare through the center of town, with my tavern at the heart center. Historically, towns would be centered around a social hub like a church, market square, tavern etc. I also placed production and social facilities near the center of town as well, and my residences towards the outskirts. I then circled the town with a stockade using the embrasures mod.

Every cabin house would have 2-4 bedrooms and a living area, fireplace and toilet. This was a colonial era playthrough, but if I was playing a modern colony, I'd add a kitchen to every house as well.

But an embrasures mod is essential. Otherwise you'll just have raiders casually storming your town.

[Stormsong]

Originally posted by Ambigore:

I built a town awhile back.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2146271258

That's pretty!

[Morkonan]

Originally posted by KillerTheFlareon (SSEC):

I want to have my pawns have their own homes and go to work like IRL, but every time I try my creativity kinda dies..Any tips?

As you can see from the above posts, "mods" really help enable that sort of theme/creativity.

You can get there without them. I've built bases that had many "outbuildings" as sort of "duplex-style" homes. (To efficiently share temp control mechanics) A network of paths, communal dining arrangements, some "homes" having table&chair setups, etc. That helped. (No mods)

I tend to build in a more open style, anyway. But, when the game "tips over into that certain more dangerous region of play" where Raids are getting bigger and my wealth is starting to creep up uncontrollably, I make sure I have a nice series of Walls and killzones built up, too.

If you want more creative freedom and less stress on dangerous events, play on a lower difficulty setting like Builder. That is what it's made for. You can even go lower to whateveritisthatisthelowest setting. And, you can use mods or toggles to switch off certain events if you wish.

I don't know if it could ever get to the level of "Banished" in terms of low-anxiety gaming. But, it can get pretty close. :)

[Master Chief]

Here you go, just like real life.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2192882799