Base building 101

[Vagabond]

Hey so i know ive seen TONS of Do and Donts for base building, However I am Pretty new to Strategic base building. What i mean by this is unless its a giant open space cube im not your guy for building, as in most games where base designs are an option, ive always played with someone else who builds bases. However Since coming to Ark, i am builderless. I do play with another friend, But he isnt a builder either. So i thought id take on the job of building a base.

So finally my question, If i play with a small group currently me and one other guy but after chatting with some friends might be up to about 5. What would be a good size base for this size on a PvP server. However it would need enough room for Wall Foundation Wall- honey comb Loot room as well as a vault room.

However this being said any advice on building a good PvP base would be appreciated. Links to other posts with good info, youtube video's or anything would also be welcomed.

Thanks for any and all help!

[[IV]Nontouchable]

Hi, well I'm always going for the same design and it's really built for pvp. Unfortunately since it's built for pvp I can't focus too much on asthetics.

For the main building I go with a 6x6 foundation cube, 8 walls high.
First two are walls only, third are doorways with catwalks going out, fourth walls etc.
The catlwalks get a turret each, with time I upgrade them to two each, being 72/144 turrets.

On the inside I put up complete walls around a 4x4 square, meaning my effective space to put my stuff is 4x4.

Inbetween the inner and outer layer I work with ramps to move between floors. Additionally i have a small elevator in the very center of it all.

If necessary you could fill the space between the two walls with vaults, then you'd have to expand the original 6x6 design.

I hope this helps.

[Vagabond]

Originally posted by IVNontouchable:

Hi, well I'm always going for the same design and it's really built for pvp. Unfortunately since it's built for pvp I can't focus too much on asthetics.

For the main building I go with a 6x6 foundation cube, 8 walls high.
First two are walls only, third are doorways with catwalks going out, fourth walls etc.
The catlwalks get a turret each, with time I upgrade them to two each, being 72/144 turrets.

On the inside I put up complete walls around a 4x4 square, meaning my effective space to put my stuff is 4x4.

Inbetween the inner and outer layer I work with ramps to move between floors. Additionally i have a small elevator in the very center of it all.

If necessary you could fill the space between the two walls with vaults, then you'd have to expand the original 6x6 design.

I hope this helps.

Thanks for this, it does help. As i said im very new to base designs with a purpose. lol thanks again [IV]Nontouchable

[✚ Mariel ✚]

It's important to build it in a square shape.That way any turrets on one side of the wall can cover the other side. If there are inward corner then those are blind spots where only the closest turrets can see, and if they get take out then its easy for players to breach. The larger the building the better because that way you can have more turrets with a line of sight on a side.

Then you need to decide between a cube or a pyramid. A cube has greater space inside for facilities, storage, defensive dinos and turrets. It also can have stacked shelves of auto-turrets or irrigated plant turrets for greater volume of fire. The problem with a cube is attacks from the air as each of the 4 sides can only cover from the side of the building. It's strong against ground assault and for fighting off enemies who breach the building but weak from above

A square pyramid structure can have non-irrigated plant turrets. They have amazing air coverage making them much more difficult to assault from the air. However, each row has it's own maximum range, so it's possible for enemies to soak up your ammunition by approaching very slowly. There's less room inside for storage and defensive dinos

As a general rule, I make my boats and my ground facilities in cubes. It makes it easier to defend from ground assaults and gives me greater storage and room for defensives structures. I put pyramid on top of mountains that can only be reach by air as that's the direction assault will come from.

High end players drop turtles with C4 strapped to them to breach a building. Cubes can easily be breached this way due to their limitied air coverage. Pyramids are more difficult to breach because even if some of the turrets go down, every turret has a line of sight from above so nearly every turret needs to be eliminated in this way.

It's also a good idea to build in layers, like an onion, with your main storage areas at the centre. That way players need to breach multiple layers of defenses and will likely give up due to the sheer resource cost

Prior to getting turrets, make liberal use of spikes. They're cheap, they waste explosives, and theyre hard to bring down in melee. Also remember that a hidden base is the best kind. It will be found eventually but you will have a lot of time to build and prepare before you are assaulted, whereas a base in a strong defensive position in the open will likely be attacked before the fortifications are complete

[Lisccc]

Could write a book about this. Ill stick to a handfull of simple hints.

Ppl forgot to mention the first / key priority: location.

My personal preference is building on rocks / cliffs that are hard or impossible to get to with land dinos. Preferably a combination of both. Base on top of a rock + dinopenn underneath that is hard to get to due to height and/ or chokepoints.

I like to build with sloped roofs. Not as tthe person above me stated due to the angle that turrets get (if that was the case it wouldve been better to build 4+ turret towers on your roof instead). Its because the c4 turtles ppl use get pushed off. So what you do is that u have a flat area of 1 wide at the top with slopes leading sideways. At the very top u use 2 rows of plants; all plants being as far over the edge as possible while still being on that foundation. Being over the edge leads to them being able to shoot downwards. The plants will push any stuff that gets dropped off the roof. Makes sure the plants are set to max range + all targets (very important since they can use wild dino for the c4 bombing).

Dont build big untill u have the defense to cover it. Ive seen and raided so many bases that build 20 by 20 or bigger structures covered by only a handfull of turrets. Its a total waste since its only a matter of time before you get raided if u build like that.

For a group like yours id start with a standard functional build that i tend to use even for solo play; a 12 by 12 ish. Keep in mind that u want to have room for 2-3 vaults + an industrial forge at least and plan around those.

Regarding turrets id say keep the autoturrets at medium range players only + plants at max range all targets at the top / players + dinos on other levels. That way you make it a lot harder to drain your autoturrets. In front of the plants at floor level id use pillar walls. About 5 foundations away and far enough apart so small dinos fit through but bigger ones dont. The pillar walls prefent dead angles where ppl can cover for your (plant) turrets and prefent bigger tanky dinos from rushing in and 1 shotting your plants. It makes catapulting your plants down a lot harder aswell.If ppl try to rocket the pillar wall down the regular turrets are (just) in range to prefent that.

All outdoor turrets on catwalks + as far over the edge as possible, so they are able to shoot down.

Dont bother with honeycombing too much. It only makes your base a lot less user friendly in most cases while not doing too much on the defensive end.

[[IV]Nontouchable]

Originally posted by jenniferthomas28:

However, each row has it's own maximum range, so it's possible for enemies to soak up your ammunition by approaching very slowly. There's less room inside for storage and defensive dinos

Oh yeah I forgot about that one and also ofc. the location.
With the range you might counter it a bit by setting the lowest row on low range and gradually higher range for upper levels.
And yeah sloped roofs & plants for the win!

[FuzzTightBeer]

Please keep in mind if you are on a pvp server anyone willing to raid or attack your base has at least a ton of grenades and at most a ♥♥♥♥ ton of rockets.

If you are just starting out get wood asap but until you have a large supply of metal(in the thousands) you really want at least stone.

Stone takes 150% dmg from explosives(c4, grenades, rockets).

But like i said the thing you have to worry about are rockets. Most tribes able to raid will be bring at least a few rockets. A single rocket shot can completely destroy most stone pieces in a single shot. So you need a buffer between your main building and your outer wall.

Making a singular box with turrets might be a good starting point but a single rocket to your foundation pieces(ceiling, foundations, pillars etc etc) supporting the turrets will be all thats needed to get rid of your turrets.

I always suggest surrounding your base with stone gates, thats one buffer. The second buffer is to place "pillboxes" between your perimeter fence and your main building. Either mini guns or plant seed x's will work.

Its all about soaking up the rocket hits and exhausting their supplies making it not worth the resources needed to raid you.

I would not be un reasonable to assume a tribe willing to raid you will bring 50+ rockets if not 100+.

[Vagabond]

Thanks everyone for the advice ive learned quite a bit so far, and i know much of this will help in my ability to build a defend able base. the help is greatly appreciated