Keeping base safe while on other planets?

[delerium76]

How are people managing their bases from biter attacks when they travel to other planets? In my game, biters nests just keep spreading, so the clearing I did before I left is gone, and biters start attacking my bases again. I love the game, but keeping my starter base defended from biters is getting tedious at this point that I can't even enjoy the expansion without micro-managing biter issues from remote...

[Glyph]

Clear nests within your pollution range, establish an automatic way to resupply your walls with ammo, leave a well equipped tank to remote control while you are gone.

[delerium76]

Originally posted by Glyph:

Clear nests within your pollution range, establish an automatic way to resupply your walls with ammo, leave a well equipped tank to remote control while you are gone.

as I said, I did all that, but because the biter nests spread closer and closer to your base over time, eventually I have to make a trip back to start clearing again, which is just plain annoying...

[blueseclipse]

I have a blueprint that's just a 4x4 block of laser turrets, with a hole in the middle for a substation. I use those to surround the Nauvis base for defense, and to add defenses where needed. Handles everything so far, behemoths included - but I have been researching laser damage and speed.

[Maltsi]

clear the enemies (gives you time), research artillery and forget about that biters even exists anymore

[JustSmile]

You need a cleared and defended perimeter with a bot network ensuring walls and turrets are kept healthy.

[delerium76]

couple good suggestions. thanks for the help!

[delerium76]

for clarification though, I have no issues with my base being properly walled in and defended with turrets for the most part. Every once in a while I'll encounter a hole I have to fill, but my main concern is, how do you deal with biter nests spreading while you are away and eventually overwhelming your base? I didn't know you could remote a tank, so that might be a solution? can it take out nests or get resupplied from remote? to be honest though, the fact that I even have to mess with this stuff once I leave the planet is my biggest gripe. It's been taking me out of enjoying the new planets...

[knighttemplar1960]

Set up strong defenses including flamethrowers, supply them by train, use roboports and construction bots for repairs. You can only enter and exit remote driving of tanks from an area revealed by radar so keep radars, solar panels, power poles, and accumulators in your roboport equipped tank so you can do things from space.

All of that will give you 30 or more minutes away from Nauvis with few worries.

[Fel]

Well, if you did all that, your defenses would take care of the attacks just fine, especially if you have some flamethrower turrets in the mix.

On Vulcanus, you can unlock the artillery and automate getting rid of the nests that get created closer as well.

[delerium76]

Originally posted by Fel:

Well, if you did all that, your defenses would take care of the attacks just fine, especially if you have some flamethrower turrets in the mix.

On Vulcanus, you can unlock the artillery and automate getting rid of the nests that get created closer as well.

yup. right now I'm back at my main base clearing nests and researching artillery as we speak, so if that's the solution, maybe I'll get some relief when I go to the other planets. Thanks

[delerium76]

followup question on the tank (first time using one). For biter nests, should I be going with normal shells or explosive shells?

[JustSmile]

Originally posted by delerium76:

for clarification though, I have no issues with my base being properly walled in and defended with turrets for the most part. Every once in a while I'll encounter a hole I have to fill, but my main concern is, how do you deal with biter nests spreading while you are away and eventually overwhelming your base? I didn't know you could remote a tank, so that might be a solution? can it take out nests or get resupplied from remote? to be honest though, the fact that I even have to mess with this stuff once I leave the planet is my biggest gripe. It's been taking me out of enjoying the new planets...

Unmodded biters can not overwhelm a properly defended base. A wall of flamethrowers - one every undergroud pipe length - behind a double wall with some dragon teeth will indefinitely hold back deathworld biters at max evolution. Under assumption you have automated repair packs, bots, and walls in a logistic network, of course.

[Fel]

Artillery is just an addition, there are other solutions that can be used earlier.

For example, clearing a wide area to beyond your pollution cloud, finding choke points to build a full enclosure (still beyond the reach of your pollution), complete with defenses and automated deliveries for ammo, repair packs and such.
Until the pollution goes beyond that wall, nothing should launch real attacks, only some rare unlucky expansion groups would run into your defenses (and get shred to pieces without being about to do anything to it).
Even "basic" red ammo gun turrets and flamethrower turrets can defend against big bitters without issues if you don't neglect military technologies that increase damage.
In fact, even behemoth bitters struggle against such defenses, and if you further increase your ammo to uranium then nothing will even get close to the walls.

In Space age, you also have access to quality, meaning that you could get ammo of higher quality that does more damage (higher base damage also means more from technologies that increase the damage).

There are also specific ways to set your defenses that can make tthem even harder to breach, dragon teeth is one of them (the defenses shown are definitely overkill in most cases) since walls are immune to fire damage:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1988040905

[Fel]

Originally posted by delerium76:

followup question on the tank (first time using one). For biter nests, should I be going with normal shells or explosive shells?

Normal shells do significantly more damage to single targets.

[Operation40]

remote driving tank sounds like a good idea, but I quickly reach the limit of the visibly updated range, and it goes into map mode and doesn't show me what's actually happening

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3361277505

I can still drive, but it's kind of "blind" .. I don't think it updates with biter positions.. roboports probably make more visible? but covering the entire area I need to patrol would suck..