RimWorld

[Sir Moody]

Well in the sense that you can easily funnel enemies into kill zones, if thats what you are talking about.

Thats exactly it - deep water is impassable so building on the coast means you never have to worry about raider attacks from one direction (hell there are a few seeds which have coast on three sides so you always know where the raids will come from) this simplifies defence designs a lot - in addition shallow water slows movement massively making it very helpful in slowing assaults.

Once you master funnelling the enemies the only types of attack that can hurt you are Drop pods, Space ship crashes and Sieges (add in infestations if you build into a mountain).

some of my late colonies dont even require colonists to defend - the traps plus turrets just decimate even large tribal hordes... it makes the game a little more dull and predictable which is counter to what makes the early game so fun (you are always one bad event from failure).

[Hooahguy]

Thats exactly it - deep water is impassable so building on the coast means you never have to worry about raider attacks from one direction (hell there are a few seeds which have coast on three sides so you always know where the raids will come from) this simplifies defence designs a lot - in addition shallow water slows movement massively making it very helpful in slowing assaults.

Once you master funnelling the enemies the only types of attack that can hurt you are Drop pods, Space ship crashes and Sieges (add in infestations if you build into a mountain).

some of my late colonies dont even require colonists to defend - the traps plus turrets just decimate even large tribal hordes... it makes the game a little more dull and predictable which is counter to what makes the early game so fun (you are always one bad event from failure).

Oh well that makes sense. I actually have already done that. When I get home I will post my defense setup! I got a bridge mod which allows me to build walls on water so I actually sealed off one of the water entrances. Might seal off the other one to prevent wild animals from killing my pets.

[Hooahguy]

Alright so here is my colony in its current form:

Top half of the colony:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Bottom half:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Things are pretty decent right now. Manged to get enough steel to ring around my colony. Plenty of food, and I have been able to fight off raids with ease. I have a bridge mod which allows me to build walls on the water so I can seal off those ends.The AI funnels itself into the corridor on the left where there are plenty of deadfall traps. Combined with the automated turrets on the bridge, things are pretty decent. I have a bridge mod which allows me to build walls on the water so I can seal off those ends. I also have a mortar which is pretty sweet. Have had difficulty expanding my colonists though. The new people I have taken on have all been pyromaniacs, who promptly try to set things on fire. So I have to end up killing them which is a bummer. Really wish there was a way to reduce the amount of offspring my animals are having. They breed like wildfire it seems. I've had to put down more of my own animals than I have enemies.

[Sir Moody]

Just a few pointers.

First steel walls aren't always a good investment - they aren't the strongest (between wood and stone in health) and worse they are flammable so they can spread fires - last thing you want is an fire storm spreading into your colony via your walls. Granite is the best bang for buck if you have it in your seed - if not any other stone will work as well.

Second (and i may be wrong here as your images are quite zoomed out) your fridge isn't very efficient - doors and walls conduct heat and so will force the cooling units to work harder - the most efficient design makes use of double thick walls with an air lock door (door clear space door). Having an inefficient fridge isn't a big deal when things are going well but a heat wave in summer will overwhelm you quickly.

Lastly your trap entrance - while it looks pretty good its generally a good idea to lay traps in a chequerboard pattern - this allows colonists to pass the traps without walking over them thus preventing accidents.

There is more but I don't want to go to far...

[Hooahguy]

Just a few pointers.

First steel walls aren't always a good investment - they aren't the strongest (between wood and stone in health) and worse they are flammable so they can spread fires - last thing you want is an fire storm spreading into your colony via your walls. Granite is the best bang for buck if you have it in your seed - if not any other stone will work as well.

I know, and I plan on replacing them at some point but at the moment I cant due to lack of resources. Its on my list though.

Second (and i may be wrong here as your images are quite zoomed out) your fridge isn't very efficient - doors and walls conduct heat and so will force the cooling units to work harder - the most efficient design makes use of double thick walls with an air lock door (door clear space door). Having an inefficient fridge isn't a big deal when things are going well but a heat wave in summer will overwhelm you quickly.

Thanks for that tip! I wondered why the larger fridge had a hard time so I will fix that now.

Lastly your trap entrance - while it looks pretty good its generally a good idea to lay traps in a chequerboard pattern - this allows colonists to pass the traps without walking over them thus preventing accidents.

There is a door next to the trap that friendlies use, so only animals and enemies use the trap entrance.

[Sir Moody]

There is a door next to the trap that friendlies use, so only animals and enemies use the trap entrance.

The colonists will walk over them to get items dropped by "beneficiaries" - Pawns always take the shortest path so they wont walk around.

[Hooahguy]

So I just had a large assault where some of them walked through my trap area, and some blasted through the wall with grenades. Thankfully I was more than prepared and they were defeated quickly, but it showed me that enemies arent going to automatically use the trap area.