The amount of work that goes into a massive mountain base

[johnra05]

For the introduction of Biotech, I thought I'd do an Archonexus run, to give me a chance to try a few different playstyles with my new favorite sanguophage (forgive me for my spelling XD) for my part 2, i'm doing my first mountain base that involves a great deal of colonists (30 + colonists) I decided to challenge myself by making the vast majority of the inside smooth floors and smooth walls (holeeeyyyyy craaaappppp the amount of work required)

That insanity aside, I'm noticing from this run that mountain bases in general take more time to properly move people into and get set up properly than does a non mountain base. If anyone has any thoughts on this, maybe perhaps on minimizing the workload of making a mountain base, I'd be happy to hear them.

[Astasia]

I would say, don't smooth. Smoothing floors/walls requires a ton of work and generally isn't remotely worthwhile. A colonist with drill arms and/or mining specialist and decent skill can tear through a mountain often faster than a builder can come in and build normal floors/walls behind them. Most of the work tends to be dealing with all the stone chunks, it helps having like 4 stonecutting tables going.

If I'm starting a new game and I'm planning to build a mountain base, a colonists with like 8+ mining skill and industrious and/or very neurotic is a high priority to "reroll" for (or use character editor to make), and making them a mining specialist is also pretty high on the priority list. They can basically start digging on day one and I'll be moved into the mountain base within a quadrum. If you don't start with tunneler, moving directly into the mountain early game is often less feasible, slower mining and restrictions on how you get food make it much slower start.

[brian_va]

Or certainly takes more time. A high skilled miner helps, but it's still a lot of work compared to throwing up a few walls. Smoothing compounds that.

I like them though, and will generally do a smaller building at first to get everything inside and a barracks of sorts. After getting established you'll have time to kinda assess your area and come up with a plan for your layout. I almost always do a 3 wide hallway, but initially I'll only do the center one and leave the widening for later. Same with smoothing.

Basically take the same idea as the initial setup, get a room or two setup inside the mountain and move inside then expand however you were planning to. Generally this extends into the second year, but that will vary on how your game plays out.

Obviously an army of constructors will be needed to smooth everything. It takes forever, but along the way you'll build some nice quality furniture because of the skill progression. Even someone otherwise useless can smooth, especially if they don't have anything else going on.

[The Yeen Queen]

I use a mod to speed up smoothing time because the amount of time it takes is just ridiculous. Doesn't seem anywhere near worth the slight beauty bonus it gives.

[Lorax]

One thing to also consider with mountain bases is that you have to 'build' the area of rooms, rather than their perimeter. So any room larger than ~5x5, you have to remove more stone than you would have had to build walls.

Additionally, while you don't have to drag materials to the build site, you do have to drag chunks out, which can only be done 1 at a time, further slowing down progress.

Then compound on top of that having to smooth the walls and floors. Its no wonder mountain bases can take a while to get going.

[Veylox]

I usually move in once it's dug, not once it's smoothed, smoothing is just a passive thing that I let them do overtime.

I'll just start with whatever meme on fluid, start a regular wood colony against the cliff I want, then I just map out what I want to dig and take it slow, digging demolishes mood anyway (darkness/ugly environment) so there isn't any point in rushing.

Once the main room is dug, and maybe bedrooms and a fridge, I'll move most furniture inside while keeping unmovable stuff at the initial location (usually the mechanitor buildings) and the initial base becomes a walled off open-air section where I can plant/raise animals.

I dig my colony entry outside of the actual plantation part so that raiders simply never walk in there

By the time all this is done ideology is already reformed with tunneler added on top. Cleansweepers and lifters are mvp during digging, it's a shame actual digger mechs aren't tier 1

[marcusaddamsson]

Yea, I'll hollow out 6x8 rooms, throw down some wooden floors, vents, bed, nightstand, and dresser... all in wood. I'll run the conduit straight down the hallway... Once that's done, I'll move in. But I'll then mark the walls for smoothing, eventually they'll get to the walls. Now I've sometimes come back to add a different floor, but that isn't usually needed unless you're really struggling with a given pawn's mood. That said, a completely smoothed rock room is really nice lookin', imho.

[Grishnerf]

Originally posted by marcusaddamsson:

I'll run the conduit straight down the hallway...

heresy

[brian_va]

Originally posted by Grishnerf:

Originally posted by marcusaddamsson:

I'll run the conduit straight down the hallway...

heresy

It's fine it you use an underground conduit mod. Otherwise, you are correct

[marcusaddamsson]

LOL. Well, usually I'll mark the hallway walls for smoothing first... then run the conduit under the smoothed wall once that's done, delete the one in the middle of the hall way.

I also typically make my hallways two-wide, and then later come back to add shelves to one side... and load those shelves with skins and such. If bugs invade... they'll destroy those shelves, but they'll also be in single file...

Also, I'll also punch a few extra holes into walls, then put block doors back in the places... forbid the doors. Normally I try to get 'em use the main hallways, and the wooden door entrance. But if something bad happens, I can unforbid the block doors and traffic can move very differently.

Generally speaking, I use wooden door next to a vent as 'entrances' to rooms. This can be very useful, as you can shoot a wooden door/vent to death in rapid order... shifting invader traffic.

[Limdood]

I definitely like smoothing everything....its like an 8% speed boost for everyone, which translates into more, faster work.

It's also a significant beauty bonus with a correspondingly tiny wealth increase.

More beauty than tiled floors (by 1) and less than the incredibly expensive and time consuming fine tiled floor (by 1) and with no cost and a tiny wealth increase....they need to be slow to build to balance that out.

I don't do smoothed walls though....I mine 1 extra tile and build my own walls. If a wall gets destroyed I want to be able to build it the same as it was....plus conduits don't belong outside of walls :p

[marcusaddamsson]

Originally posted by Limdood:

I don't do smoothed walls though....I mine 1 extra tile and build my own walls. If a wall gets destroyed I want to be able to build it the same as it was....plus conduits don't belong outside of walls :p

Once you smooth a wall, it's repairable and you can put conduit under it. You can't rebuild it if destroyed, but I try to leave my walls as rock... the smoothed rock look/effect takes forever, but it's totally worth it.

[Veylox]

Originally posted by marcusaddamsson:

LOL. Well, usually I'll mark the hallway walls for smoothing first... then run the conduit under the smoothed wall once that's done, delete the one in the middle of the hall way.

I also typically make my hallways two-wide, and then later come back to add shelves to one side... and load those shelves with skins and such. If bugs invade... they'll destroy those shelves, but they'll also be in single file...

Also, I'll also punch a few extra holes into walls, then put block doors back in the places... forbid the doors. Normally I try to get 'em use the main hallways, and the wooden door entrance. But if something bad happens, I can unforbid the block doors and traffic can move very differently.

Generally speaking, I use wooden door next to a vent as 'entrances' to rooms. This can be very useful, as you can shoot a wooden door/vent to death in rapid order... shifting invader traffic.

Is that a mod ? I definitely can't put power conduits in mountain stones

[marcusaddamsson]

Nope, that's just the basic game. Just gotta smooth the wall first...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2917425106

[Astasia]

I think a lot of people overvalue beauty on floor tiles. 2 beauty per tile in a 5x5 bedroom is 50 total beauty, smoothing stone is 2800 work so 25 tiles is 70,000 work. A normal quality large wood sculpture is 100 beauty for 21000 work, and that jumps to 300 beauty at excellent and 500 at masterwork. The floor beauty doesn't really matter here at all.

I think a lot of people also undervalue wealth on rooms. The amount of wealth things like floors and walls create is trivial in regards to raid scaling, it's just not a factor at all unless you are making everything out of gold. Wealth is however an important part of room impressiveness, so the "low value" nature of smooth stone is a negative not a positive. You spend a lot of extra work creating something with low value for a minimal beauty increase.

Fine floors tend to be worthwhile additions to rooms late game not because of their small amount of beauty, but because of their high amount of wealth that doesn't take up any space. To use large wood sculptures as an example again, those are worth like 200-500 silver (normal to masterwork) and take up a tile, while a fine carpet is 67 wealth per tile so you can get an extra 1,675 wealth in a 5x5 room without making it cramped. That's also like 1/20th the amount of building wealth required to generate one extra weak raider on 100% scaling BTW.

[marcusaddamsson]

Hrm. Interesting, Astasia (as always). Once I'm done with the first round of builds for rooms, I've been installing a stone block double shelf in each room... linking them, and then using those to store things like animal pulses, insanity lances, etc. Things with decent value, but don't need to be stored together, or placed close to something or near a trading beacon. This means that wealth is attached to that room, which helps with impressiveness as well.

And put table/chairs in the hallways, so ppl aren't waking others up as they eat.