How can I improve my killbox?

[Oganesson.z118 👑]

I am almost 400hrs into Rimworld and i'm starting to get the hang of it, but I have had a lot of trouble with my killboxes being overrun on previous playthroughs and I want to try and prevent this happening again, so I've been trying to improve my killbox (linked).

Can you give me any tips? I was thinking about adding some IEDs closer to the pawns and perhaps another row of turrets on the north side of the box?

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2888905132

[Swordmouse]

Happy to offer some friendly suggestions. :)

The mouth of your killbox is a "T" which gives two enemies full cover to snipe back at you. You probably want an "L". Most people fill the last few tiles of the mouth with sandbags or columns to encourage the enemy to keep moving, but it can be a bit unreliable.

Speaking of which, you probably want to fill the actual passage with something like sandbag, nothing, sandbag, nothing etc - enemies will move as a giant glob until they're close to danger, and then collision kicks in, and they have to move single file, which is exactly what you want - them filing slowly, 1 at a time, into your death pit. Make sure they're "de globbing" before they reach your killbox, too. Even if that takes putting a colonist near the entrance and then running him back.

Your killbox is both lit and paved - you want neither, since they speed up movement (lights only at night, but still), and allow the enemy to close quicker.

Your "southern" turrets have a very limited field of fire, and once one pops, it creates a nice little hidey-hole for an enemy. I get the temptation to wall between them to prevent a chain explosion, but they'd be much better served in a line facing the entrace, nearer your defensive wall. You want them pouring lead as much as possible - as they are, they might get to fire at a single enemy once as they run by. They have an explosive radius of 3 tiles, so if you're worried, try to space them out a bit.

Your defensive line could use a stronger "curve" and possibly allow for two sandbags between blocks instead of one, but that could fall under preference. As it is, once an enemy makes it to a colonist, nobody else can help kill it because the angle doesn't allow for it. It's basically every man for himself. So I'd say make it a crescent at the least, though once you have enough colonists, you ideally want a "U" that essentially covers the entrance from 3 sides.

Colonists won't friendlyfire each other within 5 tiles, so you can afford to have a sandbag line 2-3 tiles in front of your main line - this is generally where you put some melee blockers, ideally equipped with shields when you get them, maybe a few miniturrets (explosive risk, be aware) and MAYBE some shotgun/SMG'ers, depending on the size of your killbox and the enemy you're facing - keep in mind this is essentially the bait/blocker line though, so expect anything you place here to catch the worst of it.. Yours seems about SMG-sized to begin with, so if you add a sandbag line, you might need to push the entrance forward so it's max range for whatever weapon type you've designed the killbox for - and that's generally a great way to design killboxes, BTW. With a certain weapon in mind being used by the majority of colonists.

The interior spike traps can be placed closer to the main line, as opposed to the mouth of the killbox - that way, they'll only be used on enemies that get dangerously close, instead of being used on enemies you might've been able to gun down.

Sooner or later you'll want to create a position to the side that can chuck nades at the entrance - likely EMP for mechs and enemy shields. I say nades specifically, because they're much faster than launchers.

IED's are always nice, like you said. One benefit of leaving the floor bare is, if you put down even 1 or 2 tiles of flooring, the AI recognizes it's faster pathing, and prioritizes it - which can lead them right into a trap. Use sparingly though, otherwise you're just aiding the enemy in getting to you.

Lastly, consider that any enemy that fails to make it to the battle before the group breaks is essentially eliminated - so if you have a few spike traps around your base, at corners, natural barriers, the edges of ponds etc - any enemy far enough away from the killbox that gets injured won't get to see combat, because they'll be too slow. So you're essentially eliminating an enemy with 1 trap instead of needing to kill them with 3.

Hope this helped, and good luck.

[Admod, the Equivocal]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH9oyC9KZlE&ab_channel=AdamVsEverything

[Paroe]

Id offer to, simply, not have a kill box at all and instead convert it to a defensible entrance.
With a killbox like that, assuming its the only way into your base, youre going to invite drop pod raids and sapper raids that will be extremely annoying to deal with.

If youre running modded, i highly suggest seamless embrasures. If youre doing a pure vanilla or low-mod run then take out those center sandbags so raiders have a 100% clear path into "your base" so you get less sappers.

[JD]

Expand it so you can build turrets (I mean autocannon turrets and better) and get rid of all traps, a waste of resources, and time.

[dot]

Didnt ever bothered to do mazes, not even 1.0 and before, and much less after the introduction of thermites and the ai rework.

For me, what works for everything, is just have some defenses everywhere around the map, like:
- Some traps or mines where raids usually come or pass through the map.
- Make some "station turrets", kind of in the middle of the map and the edges, set some positions with mini turrets with traps around and such, a way to bait them into traps and to start wounding them while they are still far from your base.
- Have several places planned for group shootings, in the style of your column room, without the need of turrets, just places where you have cover and the enemy doesnt, but has more than one in a way that you can retreat to another when they are too many. This is also a good place to put traps around of course, both like behind enemy cover baits or just in front of your position to catch them when they are chasing you after you retreat.

Just play around the map.

[perilous]

Not sure why my reply here was removed. I'll try it again:

Subscribe to the mod link below and add barbed wire in all the empty spots in your killzone. It slows them down (you too, unfortunately) significantly and offers them no cover while your turrets chew them up. Doesn't cost much in Steel to make, either.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2209097136

[Playzr 🐵]

That's not bad, if a bit small. Going to be difficult to expand it later.
Some minor flaws:

• Sandbags at the entrance could potentially be used to provide partial cover from the gunners in the bottom left.
  
• Turrets are very close to entrance, they will be attacked.
  
• Anyone attacking a turret cannot be fired upon by another turret, except those at the very end. They do not cover each other, but at least their explosion won't destroy nearby turrets.
  
• No moat used so they can attack everything.
  
• Since there's no moat, charging raiders can make it to the other side, at which point the usefulness of the kill box doesn't matter.
  
• Those lights are going to get destroyed often.

My suggestions:

• Moat around entire base and every wall so the raiders only have access to a single plasteel door and the two walls either side.
  
• Mud or similar floor at the choke point to slow them down.
  
• Bigger with room to expand so you can just keep adding turrets as desired.
  
• More of an ice cream cone shape with a circle at the end so the turrets face inward and are all equal distance.
  
• A door in the middle of the end that can be fired at from inside on anyone trying to bash it down.
  
• Mods provide better turrets to use. Also the dual 2x2 turrets have longer range so you could design the size of the kill box based on their max range and have your gunners use mostly sniper rifles.
  
• Some mods add shields to make it nearly impossible to defeat.
  
• Fire sprinklers in case there are fires.
  
• Range of different types of turrets if you use mods.
  
• 2 dedicated door turrets pointing at the only entrance (blocked by a wall) so they only fire on anyone who actually makes it to the door.

[Wantoomany]

The way to avoid getting overrun is to ensure that the mob of enemies does not arrive at your shooters all bunched up. You want everyone to arrive single file.

The best way to ensure that happens is to simply install a turret outside your kill box near the point of entry. You do not need to even power it, but be sure to surround it with doors. As long as the doors are closed the turret will not be attacked, but it's presence, even from behind a door, will force your attackers from clustering up.

[XelNigma]

Tear it down and learn how to play with out resorting to cheese and exploits.

[boytype]

Yeah, remove concrete inside the "death cone" between the maze exit and firing line (it speeds the raiders up), and remove the lights in the cone (it increases raiders accuracy). Darkness also effects the raiders mood and hinders accuracy.

Putting Colums in the maze might also have the paws space themselves out a little, so they dont exit the maze in a cluster.

Keep the lights behind the firing line, since they effect your shooters accuracy.
You could put some traps in the maze but I think you are probably good without them!

Like someone said and linked, AdamVsEverything has a video showing the singularity killbox, which is the most OP game breaking killbox currently functioning in the game (except against breacher raids).

GL!