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Feedback on my base


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I've reached cycle 224, and I've decided a new base. This has been my most successful game so far, but I would like to try for a cleaner design that incorporates what I've learned this time around, and irons out as many inefficiencies as possible.

...and that's where you come in! I'm looking for any and all constructive criticism, tips, personal experiences, etc., that could help to improve this base. I've left a couple of systems unfinished (cooling, for instance), but the basic outline is there, and I'd like to know if I'm on the right track.

If you'd like to see any of these systems in more detail, I'll add more pictures.

Without further ado:

 

Base overview

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Power system

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Cooling system (incomplete)

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Water source

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Oxygen/hydrogen generation

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- Do you have a goal for dupe numbers?  Do you like hovering with a minimal amount (apparently 6 in that base?) or do you want to go higher?

I'm far from the most knowledgable, and these offhand tips are more strategic than base-design, but:

- don't use refrigerators, use food chests in CO2 or hydrogen rooms

- try to skip coal generators entirely and go straight to natgas.  You had one on the left that you appear to have not even tried to tap?

- I didn't see any wheat farms, or any other food except meal lice really.  You should try to get some wheat farms set up soon as possible.  This should be doable by turn 60 fairly easily.

- You appear to have way, way more transformers than necessary.  Were you just trying to future-proof the power rooms?

 

In terms of base design, there's some critical adjacencies that arise that - for me - seem to mostly revolve around crops - managing their temperature, getting their goods, keeping them fertilized, keeping them watered.  That stuff is pretty important but where I don't see any farm attempts but meal lice, it's hard to say much.  You can kind of position things wherever you want when you're only farming meal lice, really.  Tbh it appears to me that you've done rather little in 200 turns - though with only 6 dupes it's not surprising.  Mostly hollowed out tons of space to build a power core that is unnecessary.  Not trying to be harsh.  Just my honest opinion.

 

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1 hour ago, brummbar7 said:

 

- don't use refrigerators, use food chests in CO2 or hydrogen rooms

You should always use fridges regardless. 2 unpowered fridges take the same amount of space, add 4 times the decor, have 50kg more total storage and are functionally the same.  but yeah they should be inside a co cellar or hydrogen room

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2 hours ago, brummbar7 said:

- Do you have a goal for dupe numbers?  Do you like hovering with a minimal amount (apparently 6 in that base?) or do you want to go higher?

I do prefer six, at least for now. I find that having more dupes makes it a lot easier for things to go off the rails, as you have to maintain a higher baseline of oxygen and food production that can quickly get snarled up if you try something new that doesn't quite work.

Oxygen, especially, seems to scale up rather poorly. Can anybody show me an example of a power-efficient system that supports 12+ dupes and doesn't rely on algae?

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- don't use refrigerators, use food chests in CO2 or hydrogen rooms

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go straight to natgas.  You had one on the left that you appear to have not even tried to tap?

Both of these I just never got around to.

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- try to skip coal generators entirely

Why? It seems like a waste to put dupes on a wheel when I can burn coal instead. I know it's not renewable, but as a bridge between dupe wheels and natural gas, it seems pretty alright with 5 hatches.

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- You appear to have way, way more transformers than necessary.  Were you just trying to future-proof the power rooms?

Yes. In fact, 20 transformers is the "ideal" number for a power room, since heavy wire can carry exactly enough current to power all 10. The extra batteries on the sides are vestigial at this point, though... they were put there to counteract a bug that was causing transformers to randomly shut off.

Building elegant power systems has been one of my biggest headaches in this game, to be honest.

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Tbh it appears to me that you've done rather little in 200 turns - though with only 6 dupes it's not surprising.

I decided to experiment with tunneling through abyssalite instead of going directly through biomes. I think I'm happy with the results, but it takes *forever*.

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Not trying to be harsh.  Just my honest opinion.

No worries. It's always nice getting positive feedback, but that's not really the point of this post ;)

Takeaways:

  • Sleet wheat farm
  • CO2/hydrogen room for food
  • Focus on natural gas power
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7 hours ago, Buldric said:

Can anybody show me an example of a power-efficient system that supports 12+ dupes and doesn't rely on algae?

You may have to define "power efficient".  An electrolyzer pretty much supports 9 dupes (considering they seem to spend a lot of dupe hours in polluted oxygen, at least for me).  Personally, I like diver's lung dupes so it works out as more like 11 or 12.  Probably as efficient as you can get for 12 dupes, really. I've not yet progressed to liquefying polluted oxygen, but it seems to me like you'd need a lot more dupes to make that more energy efficient than just adding more electrolyzers. 

I like natgas over coal as it's infinite and doesn't generate dupe jobs.  Pairs well with infinite geyser water for CO2 scrubbers. Once set up it basically requires no attention, and doesn't depend on irreplaceable beasts.

I think it's interesting how some people, you can tell they have a strong affinity for symmetry, and planning everything out in great detail ahead of time.  Your base seems like that, especially the power core.  Personally, I'm much more of a design-as-you go person, at least in the larger scheme.  I make a single heavy watt spine that kind of creeps along the outside edge of my base, and I just tap it with transformers where needed.  It *might* be more efficient metal-wise in the long run, because with your core, you're going to have a ton of very long wire runs out to where you need the power.  Vs. having the transformers closer to where needed.  That's a guess though - heavi-watt is expensive!   But by expanding your power grid as necessary, rather than designing and building it all at once, I think it leaves one with much more dupe time to accomplish other tasks that will actually help in the present.  Especially when you're limiting yourself to 6 dupes.

I find wheel power to be quite sufficient in the early game.  I normally try to skip the musher, and after 20-ish turns when I deconstruct my computers, I'm usually only running about 1 circuit worth of constant loads, and another circuit or less of intermittent loads.  It's not too onerous to keep the power topped up imho, as long as you discipline yourself.    I usually run two wheels with regular circuits until I find a gas geyser.  That's when I start my heavy grid.  I start it close to the geyser, and slowly creep the wire along the outside edge, enclosing it in tile, using wire bridges to tap it.  I add transformers where convenient/necessary, sometimes inside the base, sometimes outside.  I think it works really well personally.  But I've never tried a centralized power core, much less front-loading it with 20 transformers, so I can't say definitively.  But if I were to recommend one thing you might want to try differently, it'd be to be a bit less rigid, and try just expanding as needed.

I find it convenient to build the natgas farm in the slime biome, since it generates polluted water, and slime biomes already have that and that's where the geyser is anyway.  In fact, my last run, the first natgas geyser I found, that slime biome basically turned into my natgas farm, fertilizer farm, and pincha pepper farm, all next to each other.  It would have also been my puft house and reed farm, if pufts had been in that biome.  I find it pretty convenient to put a lot of this kind of stuff in a slime biome.   Even more ideally, there would be a cold biome directly next door, for farming sleet wheet in somewhat close proximity to the fertilizer makers.  So basically, where I find my first natgas geyser-containing slime biome, and adjacent cold biome, influence the layout of my base a lot.  I think it's good to be adaptable, rather than having pre-conceived notions of exactly how everything must lay out.

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I agree with the fact that coal generators should only fill a small gap until the first ng geyser has been set up but I don't recommend to skip em completely. The worktime u loose with manual generators over time isn't that ridiculous and could be spend on way more important tasks. By the way the only usage for coal is to burn it and with some hatches in your base you can put your feet back for a while.

I run my bases with 6 dupes til the point where food, oxygen, water and energy generation are stable. With sleet wheat farms the food management is getting quite easy and you still have the option to upgrade your food with some pepper nuts regarding the fact that the surroundings of your battery and ngg rooms should always be warm enough to get a stable yield.

Almost reaching cycle 1000 now, 15 dupes, 1.000.000kcal of food an infinite energy/water so I guess it could be worse :)

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After watching the stream from yesterday, showcasing some of the coming changes, all the food related stuff may get mixed up anyway, as it sounds like they're adding plants, and reworking the conditions and doing away with 'yield', maybe.   That has the potential to change a ton of adjacency relationships.  Although I suppose it'll still remain that plants want water of a specific flavor, and fertilizer.  So in general that consideration will remain. 

As far as generators, sure.  I guess I like not adding heat and CO2 in the early part of the game, not that heat is a big deal then.  There's certainly probably enough coal in the starting area to let it serve as a bridge to natgas.  Or longer, if natgas isn't found soon.

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