Pre-build or start from scratch?

[Blaiyze]

I'd like to hear other VS players perspectives. How do you like to start a fresh world? 
Do you custom build a house/base, if you do how far along with the build do you progress? Or do you prefer to start from scratch and build your way up slowly and painfully? And if you do, how do you deal with build frustrations as you go?

I'm still waffling between whether I want to just free build a cute medieval-ish cottage for myself with everything exactly where I want it - I've done this before, where I'll at least build my house/base and perhaps mark out areas for expansions, but leave myself at starting tech that I have to build/create myself. This way it doesn't feel as cheaty. I just like having a nice place to live! Lol, I often get super annoyed by basic starting bases because I have to gather tons of materials and I eye twitch.

[Fayris Nyannyan]

Pretty much fresh always. I think the struggle is the point, at least for me. That initial struggle of trying to find the things you need, not being safe, etc.

[Never Jhonsen]

I have a Creative Mode Testing World I use for all my designs. I'll build things there, work out what I like using materials that I know I have access to in my survival world, and once I reach a satisfying design I'll screenshot it at various angles, and get to work making it on my survival world

[Broccoli Clock]

Location, location, location. 

If you find one that you like and it's temporally stable, there are suitable resources within travelling distance (water, clay, animals, crops) and that it's not right in the middle of a wolf or bear spawn, then settle there. I don't tend to use existing ruins, other than on the first few days, sometimes you need shelter in a hurry and having it half built already saves a lot of time.

I feel you will organically upgrade your base as you progress, but I think the real customisation comes with the chisel. Once you have that (and ideally the QP tools mod) you'll find it much easier to create brilliant looking bases relying only on blocks you craft/chisel.

I never pre-plan (that's not suggesting others should or shouldn't, just that I don't) and in that way I tend to find each of my bases is unique, a lot of vibe building coupled with building to suit the topography.

 

Edited October 24, 2025 by Broccoli Clock

[LadyWYT]

I use a bit of both methods. The pre-built pieces look very nice, and are an easy way to get a simple but decent looking structure(s) set up as an initial base. Chiseling I tend to do later, and reserve for complicated murals and other detail work.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

I usually look for:

• Temporally stable
• close to reeds
• close to food sources

Once those are satisfied, I can settle pretty much anywhere. My current hovel is in an old ruin that my friend and I have turned into a proper house.

[HalfAxd]

My play style is not build centric.  I always create a mud hut then roam around the world looking for a spot that feels right...  the mud hut expands as needed until I move out to a new location.   I rarely build large structures, mostly because I'm out exploring.  Once I get thru the winter I have a habit of starting over.

I'm nomadic...

[Echo Weaver]

2 hours ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I usually look for:

• Temporally stable
• close to reeds
• close to food sources

Once those are satisfied, I can settle pretty much anywhere. My current hovel is in an old ruin that my friend and I have turned into a proper house.

That's the way I did it on my Vanilla+ game. Built out a cathedral ruin and turned a building ruin in the same set into the barn. Lots of fun. Extended the spire upward to be the windmill.

But what about proximity to spawn? Do you care? Do you use the default 20-respawn limit on a temporal gear respawn location?

I guess for the first winter, I settle near spawn. After that, I tend to have collected enough temporal gears to look further afield for a more permanent base.

ETA: Oh, also, if I'm not building out a ruin, I tend to do some possible builds in creative to see how they turn out, then make some decisions and start to build in survival.

Edited October 24, 2025 by Echo Weaver

[Teh Pizza Lady]

1 hour ago, Echo Weaver said:

But what about proximity to spawn? Do you care? Do you use the default 20-respawn limit on a temporal gear respawn location?

I'll try to stay near spawn, but mainly because I don't want to venture too far north and have the RA be towards the south... or decide to settle somewhere to the east only to find that the RNG put the chapter 2 locations to the west this time.

It just so happens that this makes respawning a little less inconvenient in the event of my untimely death. Now that we can revive each other upon death, I am less picky about respawn location as long as the people I'm playing with don't also die in the process of trying to revive me!