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?

[HypersleepyNaputunia]

dwarf fortress

[talemore]

This war of mine

[The Livid Christ]

Thanks all, very helpful suggestions. Maybe I really should learn DF better. I played it for like a couple months, got tired of learning stuff and took a break, then never went back. And like, hardly anything had happened except a couple ghosts haunting my shizzle for reasons I couldn't figure out.

[Xero_Daxter]

Project Zomboid.

[AerSilver ♞]

Don't Starve Together, for sure it matters.

[Mr. Smiles]

Rimworld.

[R-S!N]

Miscreated

lol jk

[Grimmz]

surprised how nobody said Rust yet.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/252490/Rust/

in this game its very crucial to have a strong base.