Since I’m bored and not really playing at the moment let’s break down building “big” as a response to some of the comments in this thread. Didn’t want it to go too off topic as there’s a lot to unpack here.
There are multiple play modes and styles this can vary a lot. I’m going to start by giving examples crammed in a linear fashion and what would be expected for PVP since that is what I do.
I’ll be focusing on vanilla Exiled Lands.
The Dyer’s Bench
Average vanilla player cannot fit the dyer’s bench in a 1x2. It really needs this 2x3 area. It would warrant some adjustments to make it smaller imho.
Minimum Space
For PVP, this is the minimum of what you would need in order to be effective for benches. I added a few things that you can leave out like a kiln, boozer, planter and hive but you can stack most of those things easily. This is crammed af and would be not only a bad base design, claustrophobic, annoying and easy to make mistakes. It is 6x7 and would accommodate a 3 person clan.
Room for beds is required and would probably cause issues for more members. My clan and I use these beds because we’re often in pretty crammed spots and you can walk over them.
Barely any storage, so forget about load out to respond to fights or raid defence.
Completely unrealistic in terms of defence as it is if you want to survive as well but the absolute minimum for size.
I usually like to include a dyer’s bench in my clan’s bases because we often dye our armour a specific colour and if we’re feeling super extra, will dye all our thralls’ armour too. But in many cases it’s not added in, so probably can reduce this to a 6x6. Alternatively it’s placed outside in the open temporarily or in an out building.
(forgot the preservation boxes but you can cram those in easy, imagine there’s 3)
Minimum Space - what is expected for benches
Ok so this is where it starts getting a lot more annoying and without at least 1 altar. Some of these bigger items are hard to place and awkward. Possibly could condense it more and maybe make it to be multiple stories instead but if we’re thinking linear like say, a noob might think, this is what is required. 9x19. Crammed… conservatively. Myself and one of my clanmates are pretty creative in terms of stacking benches and using the space chosen so definitely could condense.
The reason I chose the benches I did are for the highest yield. If you’d like me to explain why each is needed I will but let’s suspend any doubts and trust me. Absolutely more room now for storage but let’s not waste anymore time. Let’s use some imagination here and pretend it’s a 9x18 or 17 instead. Spending any time building and it is known that certain things are put down in a certain order because of the hit boxes of each, some are finicky in behaviour of placement.
But, it’s ugly, paper thin and boring.
Now let’s see if we made it prettier and with airlocks and defence.
PVP building considerations - the heart
Oh wait, still not nice looking, this is for the bedroom, loadout, retrieval of corpse and dump chests… again, thinking linear. This would STILL barely be defensible with the current building damage but at least can respond. You’d need a bigger area for a full 10 person clan. 6 person clan in this instance each with personal chests and beds. Let’s pretend that the stacking I’ve shown for building pieces in the following picture is x3 above at least. So, ceiling + item inside for more building HP + 4 walls/fence foundations * repeat.
Beds in general are what combat PVPers and raiders are seeking out as quickly as possible to remove to take you out of the fight to “win”. This is if they’re trying to raid your “main” base.
Most bases are like this in PVP in terms of being compact even though you’d realistically not want your beds to be side by side. Why do I say this? Because if you neatly stack chests, place them on a ceiling or put your beds clustered, easy to eliminate them with the least bombs.
No choice though, especially if you’re in a perma structure where space is limited.
I built straight stackable foundations… I didn’t even do triangle foundations which in most cases nowadays is the way to go. This is expensive, time consuming, requires you do have some know how of design, especially if you’re building in a perma structure - also understanding the flaws in that perma structure.
The bedroom/loadout area should be the hardest to get to. It should be in the centre or lowest or highest depending on the build.
Now let’s add rooms for production, separating them to make it harder for raiders, again, linear. Let’s use our imagination in that there might be multiple floors and these rooms are stacked on top of each other.
PVP building considerations - safeguarding the rest
This isn’t even everything but you get the picture.
So airlocks. At least 2 foundations worth of doors. The more the better though.
Why are they important?
A raider should be forced to expend their supply or take it from them.
But…
The contents of a base that is 1 wall thin can be seen. Move right up to it and pan camera to the right or left. Or equip a weapon, swing and get a good idea of what is inside. There’s also the lay down exploit. Denying the raider information such as what is next is part of the goal.
1 wall/layer will fall in a minute or less depending on how many bombs are placed.
Meta Building locations
So we have meta perma structure or environmental spots. They are optimal because of the cheaper production cost in protection because the structure or landscape affords it and the entry spots are limited.
Cave-like:
Deserter’s Gutter (6 entry points)
Crevice in the Highlands (4 entry points)
Keyhole (1 entry point)
Icespire Chasm (2 entry points)
Anthill (1 entry point but is wide)
Boundary Spillway (2 entry points)
Tyros’ Passage (3 entry points)
Snake/Glowing goop cave in North Jungle (1 entry point)
Desert crack (3 entry points)
North Jungle crack (1 entry point but tall)
Building next to Westwatch Keep (2 entry points)Pillars that require bat or climbing, so open at top:
Heliograph Heights
Priestking’s RetreatCeiling type pillars:
Watcher of the Passage (4 entry points w/exploitable cracks)
Dagon’s Embrace x2 (each 4 entry points w/exploitable cracks)
Southern Aquaduct (4 entry points)
Westwatch Keep (4 entry points)
Eastern Barracks (5 entry points with an extra room with 1 entry point)
There is a mix of options on mountainsides, pillars along the greenwall, noob river and around the map that could be considered as well but are not as popular.
When it comes to hidey holes around the map that could be considered, now, meta. There’s not really any good hiding spots anymore because of the prevalence of content creators revealing them and the game is old enough to have veterans that are very familiar with the map.
An issue on Official servers that has cropped up over time are longstanding clans (not necessarily Alphas) that claim a majority of the best spots.
Newer players don’t have the advantage of the experience in surviving on a PVP server so these longstanding clans, with their hoards, will obliterate any possible threat.
So that means that getting creative in playstyles might happen. Like ratting it out. Using certain exploits or means of retaining the loot required to be effective. Not having a base and being completely nomad. Etc.,…
But ultimately a straight base on the ground without a perma structure, landscape bonus or being up high is an EasyRaid™.
Keyhole
This is what makes it the ultimate meta spot. This 1 entry point.
There are problems with every single permastructure. You have to consider exploiters that can place bombs through the permastructure because of the incomplete nature of meshes.
Then there’s hackers.
So what players tend to do is stack outwards and all around the structure. Accidentally despawning some of the NPCs in the back or preventing access to the lorestone on the left.
If you’re used to combat fighting, you’ll want to have anticlimb cells or areas. This helps with defence as well. Then war pyramids for quick recovery of HP and vaults for easy dumping of swiped kits.
This base would require out buildings to house an animal pen and a stable. Which means the base would probably extend out to about like so:
Deserter’s Gutter
It can be one of the most defensible spots but runs multiple risks.
6 entry points like so:
This is where most would put their beds.
This area would be stack on both ends, plugging up the 2 top holes.
Then there’s the entry ways on both ends that tend to be built up.
This area is pretty big.
Some have argued that it’s a passageway… but you can go through Tradeway easily.
The biggest risk here is the discovery of the POI.
The Crevice
There are 4 points of entry, the bowl, front entry, back entry and the tunnel at the top.
This is where the POI is discovered.
Probably about the same real estate as Gutter but very large as well.
Again, argued as a passageway but also supported by a staff member that the main problems are discovery of the POI and despawning the pig babies.
With this entry, the bowl and the back entry near the bear, it tends to be very built up, stacked, to prevent easy raiding.
I’d like to note that Funcom has stated that building big is not the problem. Neither is having multiple bases.
There’s a lot of things that must be taken into consideration with any build in PVP.
- Have you built in such a way that you’ve forgotten some stacking?
- Are there enough doors?
- Do you build with NO doors and use only a transportory stone that you absolutely, 100%, ensure is off on the inside during raid time?
- Or, do you travel inside and out by summoning corpse and a maproom or bedroll + bed? Are you limiting your ability of egress to respond?
- Do you have easy access to load out of healing potions, buff potions and food, extra armor kits and weapons?
- Are you going to rely solely on repair meta and hope that repairing saves the day?
Now I am a visual artist. I LOVE making and creating things. You’d think I would love building interesting and creative builds and have done more in that department. I have devoted my time in Conan to understanding and learning the best ways to be as impactful as I can in PVP because I’ve enjoyed the experiences I have had socially.
With that said I have not even covered the beautiful builds that require space in order to build. Or the crazy amount of options available in the vanilla game alone for decorative items. I used to care more about that stuff before I got suspended multiple times. I’ve abandoned caring about that though.
The very long drawn out point I am trying to make here is that our perceptions of most things are skewed by our own experiences and opinions.
What you may think is reasonable is probably not reasonable for me.
If you play PVE, PVE-C or Singleplayer you probably would never build like me. I would never build like you because I play PVP.
I build what would probably be considered smaller PVP bases because I am worried about the ToC, while others build beautiful castles that will be crumbled in 30 mins by me because only beautiful is irrelevant to PVP.
But if I was to build functional, defensible AND beautiful bases on PVP it would be big.
With all this said, adding the dyer’s bench to a base can sometimes be one of the most annoying things.
Now to make the dyer’s bench “functional” in this most convoluted way is… like asking a job applicant to upload their resume, then answer questions in the online application that are in their resume, then also print the resume for the interview but request they also bring a copy of their resume to said interview… instead of just requiring them to have uploaded the damn resume…full stop.