Keeping Tame Dinos safe outdoors RESOLVED

[Bella]

I have become thoroughly fed up of my massive, prison-like block of a base. I had in mind to keep all dinos inside so the wild ones couldn't see and attack them. I chose this location on the west coast because it was a fairly "safe area", had a 15 x 15 blocks flat part right next to the ocean, and in commuting distance from Snow Biome and Volcano.
But, it's a pain, in so many ways.
So I'm starting again, slightly further south, at 47,17.
I'm going for a more outdoorsy base this time. But, I cannot abide Behemoth Gates, they are SO ugly, and because I prefer to build in stone which feels more in keeping with the landscape, stick out like sore thumbs. Not that keen on spiked walls either :P
The advice I would like is what is the best way to keep my outdoor tame dinos safe? A bunch of Raptors/Dire Wolves? Plant X?

[Leslie]

Move East to the plateau at 60 lat 28 long. Wall the two entrances (one to the South, and longer one on the West) You have the whole large plateau to yourself. Beautiful view of t
he Redwoods. Closer to the volcano. Beavers in the pool to the North. All the wood and stone you could want. Life is good.

As long as you stay on the beach, you're going to have the usual beach problems., ie: you're too far from something, baddies drift up and down the beaches, Meganeura bite your tames, aholes on rafts shoot canons at your walls, dinos fall off cliffs into your pens....
Once you grow up. and level up, move inland. Keep your beach base for a water pen location, but don't stay there forever.

[Bella]

Thank you for your advice Preorbital. With nearly 2,00 hours in the game I figured you were worth listening to :)
It was an area I'd looked at before but I was put off by the extra distance to the Snow Biome where you can just pick up oils and pearls on the surface with no effort.
But, taking into account the close access to just about everything else, and having spent some time looking at maps, I believe the location you suggest is unbeatable.
(I'll build an Outpost at the Snow Biome - it's really not that much further (and will be less so as I level up Speed on my Ptera).
Thank you very much - my angst about "Is this the right place? Will I have to move again" has evaporated. I am going to enjoy building a new base here, taking past mistakes into account, knowing it will suit me just great.
I'll keep a small outpost at my old base by the water pen for now as well.
Again, my thanks.

[Spike's]

buiild above lava cave the island no walls or fences needed that whole plateau is like completly save sometimes random Raptor will come out of the woods but thats it just put carno or one those thyrozino's what ever there name is i calll them big chickens near that forrest on follow and attack target.

[Scheneighnay]

I keep a perimeter of spike walls. Only probelm is that I was cheap, and it's spaced widely enough that parasaurs and anything smaller can shimmy through some bits, though it takes a long time.
Also I've had brontos and paracers climb over it.

As far as climbing over, I found out that you can place spike-walls on top of catwalks, so it could be possible to build some pillars with catwalks going across them to add another layer on top of the fence.

However, they's only really necessary if you're worried about very large dinos.

[rpgmomma8404]

You have two options that you could do. You could set up some xplants or auto turrets to wild only or keep some of your out door dinos on neutral. I have issues with argents flying into my base so I have some dinos on neutral near and I've only lost one so far (my own fault but it wasn't a big deal since it was a low lvl turtle). I would really reconsider having a BH gate though and have some type of fencing around them. You don't need to have all your dinos indoors to keep them safe but not having any fencing can also cause people to kite them away from your base and get lost or kite things into your base (although the turrets should take care of that if you take that route). Most of our fencing is in stone and it doesn't look bad at all.

[willemstowi]

we build around 48 - 22 in the west at the waterfalls, ontop we have the main base with pillars instead of fences. 6 pairs of plant x keep everything that is small enough to sneak in away from our tames, beside that all our tames are on neutral. trees and bushes are skin to skin to our boarder because of the no/spawn/block of the pillars. looks n feels better than back in the old days ( 2400h ago ) when we used to build a "prison".

one step down is our double taming pen, totaly free to pass by wildlife and others, never in the need of xplants or walls/pillars to protect. down at the see is our waterbase, also no protection because there are no danger spawns in the see. early on we didnt even had pillars, we just had 2 ankys and 2 doeds and a stego as our main starter tames, they leveled themselfs up by killing alphas on there own xD.

with more n more tames i chose to build pillars around as the mess got bigger n bigger after every new attack by wildlife.

[eliteangler]

Originally posted by preorbital:

Move East to the plateau at 60 lat 28 long. Wall the two entrances (one to the South, and longer one on the West) You have the whole large plateau to yourself. Beautiful view of t
he Redwoods. Closer to the volcano. Beavers in the pool to the North. All the wood and stone you could want. Life is good.

As long as you stay on the beach, you're going to have the usual beach problems., ie: you're too far from something, baddies drift up and down the beaches, Meganeura bite your tames, aholes on rafts shoot canons at your walls, dinos fall off cliffs into your pens....
Once you grow up. and level up, move inland. Keep your beach base for a water pen location, but don't stay there forever.

That is where me and my uncle have our base on our server. We walled off the whole area, and unless you place foundations or pillars in random locations, you can still have bad things spawn there. Just make sure to space out your small buildings/barns over the area and you should be fine.

[Bella]

OMG from only one answer to loads lol
Some real food for thought - thanks all.

[Leslie]

Originally posted by Silky Rough:

On my PvE test char (about 1500 hours) I always built on a long flat sandspit in the north - it used to be on the edge of the snow biome. Walled the eastern entrance to the spit and xplanted for any bigs trying to cross the small river. Was a great rex/wolf/mammoth spawn spot and often had red drops right outside my door. Was close to volcano (which is due south), lots of pearl, oil and crystal close at hand. Also had a nice waterfall and a place for sarcos/turtle farming etc.

Nope, not the best for starting a base but I always ended up there. You need fur to live there now but it's worth a serious look longer term.

I've looked at that sand spit but never had the cojonies to put a base there what with all the baddies marching up and down the beach directly across that little tiny narrow, did I mention thin? waterway and the sky blotted out by Argies. I knew some guys that had a nice base just East of there, but that was before the biome expansion and the dramatic increase in wildlife in the area. I don't even like to hit that spot for pearls anymore.

How do you even walk out your front door???