Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sergius]

Ok, I just decided that sun lamps are kind of a waste. The best thing is to take a place that has to be lit anyway (with a regular lamp) and double up. For example a narrow corridor can have a lamp with 12 spaces between them, instead if you put them 6 (up to spaces apart the middle area becomes "well lit" and more than enough to grow some hemp... er, potatoes.

For instance, my dining room is a 13 x 16 room with 4 lamps in the corners. Just adding 2 extra lamps in the middle the whole area is bright, and I was able to put 4 hydroponics in there...

One sun lamp uses 800 watts, a regular one 150, so placing 5 normal lamps is cheaper and light the area more evenly.

[Muz]

I like having only one lamp in my hydroponics area. Space is a premium. But I only use sun lamps for growing plants.

Also they're best for outdoors plants. Eclipses are common on higher difficulties and I want my plants to grow at night too. Using tons of regular lamps outside result in a lot of fires 

[forsaken1111]

Ok, I just decided that sun lamps are kind of a waste. The best thing is to take a place that has to be lit anyway (with a regular lamp) and double up. For example a narrow corridor can have a lamp with 12 spaces between them, instead if you put them 6 (up to spaces apart the middle area becomes "well lit" and more than enough to grow some hemp... er, potatoes.

For instance, my dining room is a 13 x 16 room with 4 lamps in the corners. Just adding 2 extra lamps in the middle the whole area is bright, and I was able to put 4 hydroponics in there...

One sun lamp uses 800 watts, a regular one 150, so placing 5 normal lamps is cheaper and light the area more evenly.

Sun lamps are only useful for indoor hydroponics. Anything else is a waste.

[Sergius]

But I just said they aren't as useful for indoors hydroponics as the regular lamps...

[forsaken1111]

But I just said they aren't as useful for indoors hydroponics as the regular lamps...

I misread what you posted.

Even so, I'd rather drop one sun lamp than 12+ normal lamps because the more items you have the more time people spend on repairs and the more chances things have to break/short out.

[Chattox]

Hydroponics don't need light, it's growing areas that do.

[Sharp]

Hydroponics don't need light, it's growing areas that do.

They both need light, hydroponics grow more quickly though, 1 bench is enough for around 4 colonists with a bit to spare depending on growing skill

[alway]

In addition to previously mentioned defensive setups, also be sure to have fallback points. At my place, there's the outer sandbags on the surface, followed by doors in front of a hallway meant to lure them inside. Every position along the sides of that hallway can be quickly evacuated behind doors, with enough escape routes to fall back even further if necessary. There's even a set of doors to a second hallway, with defensive positions nearly as strong as the first. Your dudes rarely take damage in an evenly-spread manner; so pull back those who take a good amount; no sense in having them die pointlessly.

Also, is there an easy way to remove roofs? Because those things are seriously annoying. All I want are solar farms surrounded by walls so they don't get razed after every attack. ;_;

[forsaken1111]

Hydroponics don't need light, it's growing areas that do.

They do actually. At least when I was playing the other day, the plants said "Not growing, must be brightly lit"

[alway]

Well, here's my second attempt at a place:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Everything went quite well for a very long time; population went up to around 8 or 9; all but 2 of which participated in every firefight. Took a single loss to about a dozen mooks with high-tier weapons.

Then the peasant wave came. Over two dozen enemies, mostly wielding pistols, with a couple molotovs and incendiaries; that image is the aftermath. All but 3 dead, with one captured (and converted by the time the next group showed up). Nearly all losses taken at the first defensive post due to the massive instantaneous firepower and a couple well aimed molotovs keeping them from following orders. To the south, there was a small open-air space big enough for 2 solar generators; I expanded it with cave-ins to fit in 5; entirely surrounded by rock and so impervious to entry. To the north, about a dozen walled-in solar generators; usually takes too long for them to break in to actually entry through there. Main corridor has triple defensive points; the front sandbags, the first hallway's, and the second hallway's. Got a few battery banks, one of the sets of 12 which is kept charged but detached.

Hendrix is the town badass. She's a level 18 shooting assassin, who is thus incapable of doing anything but fighting. Her room is the main armory. I believe she was the first captured, and is now the oldest living member.

So then the next wave came.

About a dozen more enemies. Hendrix was severely wounded and on fire, out in the middle of the enemies in the first defensive position. While Sosa and Nolan got into position at the second defensive point, Abbott was sent forth into the fray to retrieve her. In a scene not entirely dissimilar to Bastion, she marched out, and marched back in under heavy pistol fire. Sosa and Nolan fired a few shots before retreating, cutting the number down to about 6 enemies. Sosa was dragged in after being incapacitated during the retreat to the third defensive point. Nolan, a relative rookie, held the line at the third defensive point for a good 30 seconds while Abbot finished dropping off Hendrix and came to assist. The raiders were sent into retreat as the front half of the fortress burns. Oh, and I've started building a wall out of gibbets around the first defensive point.

[Svampapa]

Even longer ago, Dune II.

Thank you. Was feeling old and lonely there for a bit.

[Mephansteras]

I've been enjoying this. My current colony is my second, after I aborted the first when I discovered batteries in the rain is a very bad idea. I can't claim it is ideally designed, but we've been holding out pretty well so far against the Raiders. We have suffered a few losses, though, due to the raiders almost always having much better armament than me. Lost one person fairly early on to a combination of pistols and molotovs. Too much fire around her to get anyone in to drag her to safety. Had another loss recently against a group of raiders armed with M-16s. They outranged all of my people but one and it took some careful maneuvering to get them into a position where I could negate that advantage. Sadly, of my people didn't make it after I put him somewhere I *thought* they couldn't shoot at. I was wrong.

[alway]

Alright. Found the ultimate defense. Just put a door to the outside, with a chamber, then a second door and walls, followed by an ambush hallway (preferably with all colonists using the charge rifles). In that chamber, put a couple blasting charges. About half the enemies will run into that chamber, start beating on the inner door. Then you detonate the charges, killing about half the enemy raiders. If done right, the charges will also knock down the inner wall and door, giving a clear firing path with no cover as the rest of them run in. Successfully defended against over a dozen raiders with a mere 4 colonists using this, and not a single one took so much as a scratch. It will cost you about 200 metal per attack, but that's really cheap. Because, honestly, when an industrial trader comes by with 500 metal for 5 each, arms dealing is a pretty lucrative business that will keep you in the black. Also has the benefit of not dying.

And a tip to prevent nasty fires: Create a firebreak with about 3 layers of concrete or similar flooring. It isn't entirely fire-proof, but is much better than the poverty grass which would otherwise take root.

[Muz]

Sweet. Would have to try that but raiders seem a little easy right now, with proper defenses.

Tynan needs to take note and redesign raiders AI

[alway]

Sweet. Would have to try that but raiders seem a little easy right now, with proper defenses.

Tynan needs to take note and redesign raiders AI

Heh, it's really the only way to survive later on if you picked the difficulty that ramps up over time. My place has 6 colonists currently, and I just got a wave of 19 raiders, around day 175. The explosives room cut their number down to 9; after which my 6 colonists didn't take a scratch.

Spoiler: My current entrance (click to show/hide)

According to various blog/wiki info, combat is supposedly influenced by lighting conditions, as well as having a decent modelling of firing around corners/behind half-cover, so I set out to utilize that. I'm hoping the lighting bit means that it's easier to shoot a target that's well lit, and so the entryway is kept illuminated, while the shooters are generally shooting around corners in the dark. Though generally, the surprise of the sudden destruction of the inner wall and door followed by a volley from half a dozen charge rifles ensures they don't even get shot at.