New base with a high richness of enemies :)

[nepp95]

Since the scenario map decided to crash on me all the time, I started a normal map with every richness on very good... Didn't know that enemies would come in swarms of 30 in the 10th minute of gametime
I had a pretty hard time starting it up because the first research i NEEDED was turrets. I needed 6/7 turrets at my mining to not have to start over all the time

Day 1:

DAY 1

The Entire Base
Took me hours to get to this point... Those biters kept coming every few minutes and wrecked my walls. Cost a lot of ammo and bricks... AND TIME


Smelting facility
It's only at about 50% capacity. I will let everything go through this to prevent chaos... Upgraded it partly with steel furnaces by the time of typing this, and then it only used about 16 furnaces of 40 ^^ Lots of ores to come


Power Supply
46 Steam Engines, and about 50-60 boilers. I think the one in the "middle" is pretty efficient. 28 boilers and 18 steam engines. tho not much space taken. Boilers fill from one line of coal only.


Science Pack production
It's just a simple one. Didn't want to take TOO much space by having 10 assemblers for every science pack and then also assemblers for gears, belts, inserters etc...
I just don't have that space YET


Requirements SP1 production


Requirements SP2 production

DAY 2

Oil Industry
Well, battery production more or less...


New mining spot
Connects to my previously made smelting facility. It now runs at about 50% capacity because of partly steel furnaces.


Fast belt production
I have to insert iron plates in 1 chest and then it handles itself. Output chest limited to 256 belts


Steel smelting
Produces more steel than I currently am using Normally I need much more than I produce


Crude oil storage
6 pumpjacks are connected to the network. Within my walls I have 3 available oil spots that I currently not use yet.


Entire base
As it is now. I need more space because it's all getting pretty full now.


Map
Which way is safest to expand? Or should I first deal with some biter bases? And if so, what way do you reccommend?

Any tips are welcome! My idea was to expand to the west about 50-70 blocks, and then create a bigger factory there for SP3 and maybe additional SP1/2.
Also I would like to start on robotics, so I don't have to repair my walls every 2/3 minutes, but let the robots take care of that. (All research has been done, except for logistic system and the speed/cargo size)
Should I start with some solar energy or expand my steam engines? When under attack my steam engines currently can only JUST handle the laser turrets which go up to 14/15MW when under attack. I sometimes have 2 attacks at the same time. That is hell for my power supply

[Garm]

My go to tip: make sure outside walls are at least 2 blocks away from turrets. Either keep 1 empty space between wall and turrets, build 2-thick walls from the go or establish much stronger perimeter. Biters are capable of attacking across the 1 thick walls.

Edit: 2nd tip - Effectivity modules: in high infested areas these will be your life savers, 3 low level modules inside the drill will make it 5 times less dirty. Also more energy for turrets, and less pollution from boilers - win win situation.

[nepp95]

Hadn't thought about modules yet, this game. Will be sure to check them out on Day 3 (which is basically today...)
I plan on making them 2 thick everywhere but although I have tons of stone, I was so dumb not to make a wall assembler... Having to do it manually takes such a long time
Will do that now. How many turrets would you place or is this a right amount? It takes 3-5 seconds for the big waves to completely die. They always get to the walls.

[Garm]

Usually when i dont produce a ton of pollution turret in every other square is fine. As soon as I decide to plase 60+ miners, or kick my factory into overdrive I tend to make a solid like of turrets which eventually get supported by roboports to fix damages. If i am too lazy to establish roboport perimeter i can always increase turret thickness to 3 layers.

[nepp95]

I am playing right at this moment and just crafted some effectivity modules and have also chosen to increase the amount of turrets from 150 to 300
IF they get to the walls, it's a big ass wave of nearly 200 biters, which I get regularly and they get killed within 2 seconds instead of almost 5.

[Bleda]

very nice base!

you can either expand or take the challenge of fitting things closer together. believe me, you can fit all science pack production plus modules and capsules inside your current walls.

if you choose to expand, remember that biters are attracted by turrets. this means, you can build outposts of concentrated turrets with a wall around them without the need to have a closed wall around your base. the biters will always attack the turrets first and won't get into your base. that way it's easier for you to get in and out, too.

[Garm]

Attracted by turrets? what do you mean?

AFAIK biter pathing is solely determined by pollution, only when biters have nowhere to go and being attacked by turrets they would attack them back.

In fact I've made bases, that corralled biters along a corridor while shooting them from the sides - not one attacked the turrets.

[Bleda]

oh, for me it always works. as soon as they get attacked by a turret, they would forget about pollution and attack the turret back. maybe in your corridor they just tried to walk around your walls to attack the turrets from behind?

[nepp95]

I expanded my base a lot yesterday evening

Day 3

Decided to expand
In a safe way tho, still having my old walls and turrets till it's done.


Progress of expansion


All turrets ready


Walls and robots
While expanding I placed some roboports to cover my old base completely. Have expanded that to the new area, while I also put all the walls around it and deleting the old walls/turrets.
I went from 295 turrets to more than 500.


Roboports nearly covering the full base.
Well they do already, but I did place one roboport in the green area with the trees, top right. This to prevent the robots from crashing when going from top left to top right roboport.


Smelting and solar
I wanted to upgrade my smelting facility to have it all electric, so I could use coal for my steam engines, while I upgrade the solar fields. Less coal miners needed now, and also have a lot of space to build where I previously had my smelting facility. I did however leave the copper smelting on steel furnaces (upgraded them to steel, when demolishing the iron smelting facility.) and still have a great amount of space left for factories, which are going mostly on robots.


Little robot factory
Doesn't produce quick, but quick enough

My next steps, which I don't yet have a screenshot of are connecting the new smelting facility with the miners, and I have also researched logistic system. I am now working on making everything go more logistic
What I do need is some nice tutorial of those green and red wires, because I never used them at all. Don't get what you can do with it and how. Also, how can I use the power I scrambled into my accumulators, to be used BEFORE the steam engines kick in, so less pollution is generated at night.
I am going to play again now, and will continue to improve my logistics for a while, till I'm satisfied with that. Not a lot of expanding going to happen at this moment.

PS. The reason the smelting is curved is because I liked the way it looked