Check out my screenshots through my profile, if that doesn't point you to it. There's a decent variety of designs there that might spark some ideas.

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/294100/screenshots/?p=1&browsefilter=mostrecent

Don't think I linked the right thing, but I put up a few screenshots of my base for reference. Good hunting!

I just holed up behind the wooden palisades mod. If they sieged, and it was just medieval melee or wimpy tribals, I'd take the fight to them and shoot with run and gun. If they tried the sappers, I'd set everyone to defense posts along the palisade and have my brawler stand in one of the palisade doorways. This would cause the sappers to re-path to my kill box, generally. (and through a pitfall trap) If it was an outlander siege, I'd activate an animal pulser, with everyone safely inside the base. (or already downed somewhere) This works well for softening them up or outright routing them. Good tip, if you have your base walled from animals, but you can shoot from the safe side, always keep a pulser or two on-hand.

For mechs, I used the same lure tactics with the brawler in the gate, though one wave dropped into my base. Fortunately, I had guys outside the palisade who were able to plink the scythers from outside.

I made money by selling stone art (large pieces are probably your best bet for sales or looks), and selling flake once researched. I gained a few useful items through supplies quests, one of which I had to quickly tame a trio of donkeys and a trio of alpacas just so I could haul enough breastplates, and haul back the plasteel. Be on the lookout for the AI persona core, it's probably the most rare piece. My barracks rooms were decently sized, with just a double bed and nightstand in each. I used spare rooms for hospital/jail as needed.

I didn't use any cooling, so I stored food mostly as pemmican, smoked meats, or raw produce. I didn't bother making any extraneous buildings, so no nice mess hall, no game room. The workrooms were cramped and haphazard. But, the idea was to go fast. I got the research done LONG before I had enough plasteel and advanced components.

You need a boatload of plasteel, components, and advanced components, as well as uranium, gold, and steel. I tried to pick up plasteel whenever I could, though in hindsight I would have tried harder as I had underestimated the number of ship engines required. I crafted all recurve bows on like day two for armaments, and then just upgraded people with enemy loot and strategic purchases along the way. (I only bought laser rifle and assault rifle, as I like the general purpose nature) Steel clubs for sidearms. At end game everyone had a steel breastplate (combat extended), devilstrand shirt and pants, and simple helmet. One person had a recon armor I had picked up, but buying armor is PRICEY.

Alrighty, so I did a tribal playthrough on adventure +commitment mode. I built my base in a nook of a mountain, but not inside a mountain, so no bugs. I buzzed through the research ASAP, using 2-3 spots/benches until I needed the electronic version. Then I first built 3, then another 3 when I got to the spaceship research. (so, 6 total benches) None of my pawns had affinity for research, because I went fairly random on the starting crew.

I first researched workbenches, clothing, beds, no-power coms console, and maybe a few other must-have low tech options. Then I unlocked electricity, followed by only the stuff needed to get to all the ship parts. I didn't use terraforming at all this run.

I didn't use any power beyond a pair of wood-fired generators, because the only powered benches were the research benches, fabrication bench, and machining table, along with multi-analyzer. I just flicked off the lab stuff after I was done with it and started making components.

I looked it up yesterday and apparently its now 93% over the 87 you get from soil
might be worth it anyway though to keep vegetation growing and giving cover

I'm not sure what the movement rate is on burned wood floors, but if it's lower then I'm sure it would work. I use the terraform rimworld mod and make a moat or use the swamp/shallow water/mud to slow people.

Well as i said on that ragepost i started over with tribals, but similar setup here

I get what youre saying with the caves, but they actually work to my advantage, I have a night owl character and anybody that passes through the map as a traveller tends to head through them and get killed by the bugs

got almost all my firearms this way lol

the 2 southern passes are blocked off and im going to mine into the cave network and block off the east entrance too, meaning that southern attacks will have to make their way to a killbox situated in the northern passage

if i remember rightly is it still good to lay down wood floors then burn them to slow attacker movement speed across the open area?

(part two of initial comment) Grab simple sidearms mod so you can give your pawns a melee weapon they will auto-equip when they get engaged in melee. (probably easier to kill someone with a knife or a club than a pistol-whip)

Freezers are nice, but if you chock them full of perishable meals, eventually the power outages add up and you lose a lot of food in the middle of winter. I used to roll like that, but now I keep a stock of 10-20 or so simple meals (usually about 12-14 pawn colony) and turn everything else into pemmican/packaged survival meals. (or jerked meats/dried berries with medieval times mod)

Hit me up if you have any questions on how to better wrangle pawns. I'm not a power player, but I am less than ten hours away from 2000 in Rimworld. I usually play to build a sustainable base, rather than to build the ship and leave, but I did beat it once ages ago. Leaving the planet is the least fun part of the entire game.