Base building that matters?

[The Livid Christ]

Hey gamers,

Are there base-builder games in which building the base actually matters?

I love base builders like Subnautica, the Forest, Enshrouded, etc, but what kills me is that how you build your base almost never matters, or it matters a little and then falls off and everything becomes aesthetic, like paper-doll architecture. I don't think I ever even saw my traps work in the Forest.

There are games where it matters a lot, but you don't so much build your base as place buildings, like in Starcraft. The closest I can imagine to thorough base building that matters is, like, Stronghold, or maybe Age of Empires, but they are so few! And anyhow those aren't much like "builders" such as Terraria and Minecraft and Subnautica at all.

Suggestions?

[SKARDAVNELNATE]

Maybe city building sims. In Afterlife the proximity of buildings to each other really matters.

[PurpleCreativeValiant]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/739650/Drake_Hollow/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/400160/Concrete_Jungle/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/757320/Atomicrops/

[Biscuit]

"They are Billions"

Base building is the ONLY thing that matters.

[ナルゴ]

Factorio

[WhiteKitt]

Palworlds building mode kinda feels like Subnautica

it just aint Sci-Fi. Currently im building an Ocean Resort :)

[Angel]

Ark however it's a massive grind game.
Otherwise games such as The Sims or similar comes to mind.

[Pixie]

Palworld, you'll need a base on that one

[76561198356019466]

I was gonna say Rimworld, but sandbags and guns matter, not so much building placement.

[Pixie]

If want survival city builders tho best one is

https://store.steampowered.com/app/323190/Frostpunk/

[Violeta]

Modded minecraft

You can add turrets, tech/factory mods, hordes, etc

[Kamiyama]

Dwarf Fortress.

One mistake and clowns will wreck your fort and kill everyone inside.

[Electric Cupcake]

Fallout 4 with a crapton of base building mods.

Dwarf Fortress.

[ṼṏẌṏḭḊ]

Kenshi.

Once you make a base, everyone else will want a piece of it and you gotta work your ass off and outplay them to keep it.

[Kamiyama]

Dwarf Fortress also has "stupid dwarf tricks"

minecart shotguns, steam cannons, pitfalls, trapped hallways, levers that collapse the roof. Traps that redirect a river into your underground tunnels. If you can engineer it, you can do it.

I saw a fort that trapped a necromancer behind windows, and a lever that would raise and lower drawbridges around him so you could reveal him to the room and he would raise the dead into zombies, or you could pull the lever and hide him from the room meaning the undead would die and stay dead.

[Violeta]

Your base can also really matter in space engineers, if your base is your space battle ship. Course its a much better game with mods