User:Spinfx/Base Guide

This page is a proposed rewrite of the Guide:Bases article.

Bases generally serve as focal points for NPC Houses and player activities. They can be as simple as a bounding rectangle composed of early game blocks, to elaborate structures designed to look great while also providing Mechanism-driven features such as automated doors, Teleporters, and Traps.

Houses

 * See also House.

NPC houses can be treated as rooms by connecting them via shared walls, floors, ceilings, and doors. Securing the NPC section of a base is essential to keeping them safe from enemies, especially since the Console and Mobile NPCs are unable to defend themselves. A select few nuisances such as Wraiths can travel through blocks, making defending against them difficult unless drastic measures are resorted to - such as building the entire base high enough above ground level beyond a wraith's reach.

Generally however it is relatively simple to craft obstacles which monsters don't know how to get around such as T-shaped barriers, which hinder jumping and flying by trapping monsters under the top part of the T.

Bedroom

 * See also Bed.

Beds serve as specialized teleport targets (of Magic/Ice Mirrors and Recall Potions) by selecting them as the Spawn point. However, only 1 bed can be the active spawn at a time - if no beds are active, the player's spawn defaults to the original world spawn point.

Bedrooms are optional since the player doesn't actually need to be assigned any particular room, plus teleporters offer two-way functionality. Still, it is common for bedrooms to be included in many base designs.

Storage
The sheer volume of items a player can amass means the player inventory will require periodic offloading into longer term Storage items. Simply putting down a row of Chests and indiscriminate use of the "Deposit All" function will quickly devolve into anarchy in the long run as the chests fill up, so it is highly recommended to allocate plenty of room and use different containers, decorative items, statues, signage, and even rename the containers to keep things organized. The "Quick Stack" function is especially handy in reducing time spent micromanaging storage.

Certain categories of storage can display the item being stored, such as Mannequins (and the female counterpart, Womannequins), Weapon Racks, and Item Frames. Although they definitely take up more space than simply cramming the items into a chest would, these types of storage help enhance the look of the base.

Crafting areas

 * ''See also Crafting stations, examples of compact crafting areas

Similar with storage, it is advantageous to have the various different crafting stations arranged in orderly fashion in the base. Generally the two areas are situated close by, to cut time on retrieving items for crafting.

Plant farms

 * See also Guide:Gardening.

Bases often incorporate areas dedicated to planting various useful Seeds. Using Planter Boxes allows them to perform double duty as platforms, as well as saves space since they can be walked through.

Larger farms e.g. for Trees are often located nearby and not actually in the base itself since they require plenty of room.

Outposts
Smaller, subsidiary bases can be set up along often-traveled routes, and with the advent of teleporters can function as transit stations.

Unlike the main base outposts generally do not feature NPC housing or crafting facilities, and are often simply used as extra temporary storage locations especially if the player often spends time in the nearby biomes. For example, outposts can be set up on Floating Islands, on the beaches of an Ocean, or near The Corruption/The Crimson.

It is a good idea to lay down a Campfire and maybe even hang up a Heart Lantern and a Star in a Bottle - besides adding to the ambiance these items provide actual functional relief to nearby players seeking shelter at the outpost. Before the advent of teleporters it was also common to add a bedroom at important outposts, useful for cutting down travel time from the main base for extended periods of exploration.

Defense

 * See also Guide:Base defense, and Guide:Defending against events

Hazards
There are a couple of potential dangers facing the NPCs living in the base, or even the base itself.


 * Meteor crash
 * Easily prevented by voiding any of the trigger conditions, such as the presence of NPC homes or chests close to the base roof, forcing the crash site to be generated elsewhere.


 * Monsters
 * The base defense guide goes into detail on how to handle monster incursions. Later on teleporters can be rigged up to provide automatic player-only entrance via the use of specific types of Pressure Plates such as the blue or gray ones. This means bases can even be sealed off entirely from the surroundings, leaving no possible openings for monsters to attempt to break through, as well as preventing NPCs from accidentally wandering outside the premises or inadvertently leaving doors open (which happens more often than most realize).

Traps
Beyond simply ignoring monsters it's also possible to build traps for them.


 * Pit
 * Simple and cheap (digging holes in the landscape is free!). Most walking monsters that fall into a pit are not generally smart enough to jump back out if a lip overhangs the edge of said pit.


 * Lava pits
 * An old favorite, lava can be placed deep enough to also destroy items - which can be useful during events, because lava can only destroy items of a lower Rarity than blue, leaving more valuable items intact.


 * Actual Traps
 * Traps can be set up to provide active (reactive) defense against monsters, via pressure plate triggers. This is especially useful for bases designed to isolate NPCs so they can't wander outside and accidentally step into a kill zone.

(WIP)

- Spinfx (talk) 15:25, 26 October 2015 (UTC)