I've been playing this game on and off since it first came out and I've never been that good at it but finally I survived one whole day with a broken leg due to a web spider out in the woods. Any tips for trying to set up in a base. I was using the emergency shelter I spawned it but it was too close to town and eventually even with all my measures to slow down zombies I eventually got to the point where the damage had accumulated to the point where I could barely move
Ahh, base building. Always fun.
Buildings are better than camps typically. Not only are walls almost impregnable, but it will protect you from acid rain which can be deadly. Ideally, you want just one or two entries into the room, both secure enough to keep the zombies at bay for a few rounds but neither so fortified that you can't get through them. Doors or a door and a duct taped window should suffice, they make a lot of noise when zombies are pounding on them and aren't too hard to replace. If you can't find those or don't have the option yet, the basement of your starting shelter is a good backup. Not very comfortable, at least until you can put a makeshift bed/chair/couch/bedroll/cot down there to sleep on, but due to the current z-level limitations zombies will only follow you downstairs if they were already tracking you when you went down. Just be aware that sometimes there are zombies down there already that you'll have to clear out (tip: build a barricade out of the benches [you can 'G'rab and push them] go downstairs, 's'mash one of the walls to make them follow you, then run back up the stairs and get behind the barricade).
As for defense, I rarely bother with traps. Not only does it require a lot of traps skill to build traps, but if you have to run away you'll have to disable them before you can move on. Instead, 'G'rab nearby furniture in the house and build fallback barricades inside. If zombies start to break in, use the barricades to slow them down while you attack them with ranged or melee weapons.
Beyond that, if you're having other difficulty with surviving I added my guide from a few weeks back to my sig. The information in it is still good, it's the strategy I typically use when playing with doubled spawns.