Base
From Toadwater Guide
A base in Toadwater is what player housing is in other multiplayer games. Bases in TW are typically some amount of land surrounded by player fencing. Some players have multiple bases of various sizes on various continents. Some players share bases with others.
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Why a Base?
Bases are the standard way of protecting idols, ground hoards, and statues from others, not to mention old/aging trees, sap farms, and crop fields.
First Line of Defense
At a minimum to protect a base from raiders, 3 layers of fencing are used almost universally as the first line of defense (outer layer). 3 layers makes seeing inside your base very difficult.
Laying down a road along one side of the 3 layers can help you patrol your base and will expedite refreshing fencing. If this is done on the inside, consider a layer of something outside to deter raiders from planting trees (that raiders may use for healing) or building outhouses (that raiders may use to hide in). Popular, albeit expensive, choices for the outside layer are ground hoards and roads.
Other Considerations
In the likely event that there is at least one inactive player in the land you have "claimed" for your base, using a sharpie can sometimes help find the inactives. See occupied for other possible ways to track down the inactives.
Given time and thousands if not millions of gold, a dedicated raider can chop through any number of fencing layers. To combat this, experienced players may add additional layers, often with a layer of roads between every 3 layers of fencing. Consider concentrating extra layers of higher level fencing around what you really want to protect. After spending millions of gold to get through part of your defenses, a raider may decide to cut his/her losses at seeing extra reinforcing around, say, your ground hoards. Smart players should and do get very creative when trying to store and protect valuable and one-of-a-kind items (mule).
To repel raiders who have chopped partially through or all the way through your layers of fencing, bearded vultures should be placed at strategic locations. A good transportation system in your base, consisting of roads and/or passenger pigeons hitched to ponderosa pines, can provide quick access to your BVs, fence repairs, and other raider repellants (pre-made jail cells and lassos can be a potent way to show a raider that the best defense is a good offense).
Base Design
Obviously, when you make a base, you will be using it to do just about everything, so it is important to have it organized. What most people do is separate their base into sections (there do not have to be any physical separations from each section), in which each section concentrates on a single, or 2, major aspect(s) of the game.
The first thing to consider is the shape of your base. If it is too narrow, then it will prove annoying to do any mass projects, and if it is too long, then many sections of the base will become less and less visited, due to how long it takes to walk there. The basic design is usually a perfect square, but if there is not enough available land to make a good sized, perfectly square base, then you may have to deal with an oddly-shaped base.
There are a few major parts of the base that you should have space for. To name a few are: Tree growing area, Farming area, Retting area, Statue area (this will not need to be too large at all), Bird area, and a aesthetically pleasing area (usually a place where you can have flowers and nice trees around, where you can put your Spring Well, put your ground hoards and idols, and is very handy if you leave a few spaces empty for small projects that do not need much land, yet would prove cumbersome to run back and forth across your base to do it in the proper area)
Tree growing area: Here, you will want to have sectioned-off plots of land of equal size so that you can grow more than one type of tree at a time, which is handy for when you need the wood of one tree, but need the seeds of another. This part of your base is recommended to be about a third of your base, since trees are the base of many skills, including whittling, forestry, construction, and arguably management.
Farming area: Here, you will want a completely cleared-off plot of land for easier fertilizing and planting and harvesting. Most people surround this plot of land with either creeping red fescue, or plank roads. A very recommended idea is to place healing trees inside this plot of land, spaced out at approximately 1 space in between them for every 10 levels you are (please, round down when you calculate this, or you may run out of health a little too early). This part of your base is recommended to be about a third of your base as well.
Retting area: You may not need this for a while, but it is important to have some land for this. These come in many varieties, but it is suggested that you be creative and find one that you like. This area usually includes, but is not restricted to, unoccupied spaces for the retting, many healing trees, roads (either plank or creeping red fescue... or both!), and the machines (press ctrl+b in game and select the miscellaneous tab to see them... not all of what is in this tab is a machine, though...). More than likely, you will not need any more than about 5-10% of your base to be this.
Statue area: This is an area, obviously, to place statues. Statues can be placed on creeping red fescue or flowers only (also bermuda grass, which is on personal islands only). Usually, an extra layer or two of fencing goes around this area, because the statues are much more valuable than most things. This area does not need to be large by any means, and is recommended to only be as big as you need, and not much larger.
Bird area: This area is to have all of your birds and squirrels. There are 5 birds and a squirrel that can appear on trees when you place a birdhouse on them (they can be found easily on this guide [thanks clatra :D], but will not be discussed in this part of the guide too specifically). This place does not have to be large at all, maybe around 5% of your base.
Added Note:
Please do remember that it is your base, and so it is your decision. The things listed here are not rules, but rather suggestions for those who need help. You should always be creative in your base design, so the game is given a little more flare, but not be too reckless and end up ruining your experience. Also, remember that what you do is not permanent, so if you do not like what you have done, then you can always tear it up and start over! Hoards and machines can be smashed by mallets (hoards need lvl 33 or higher mallet to destroy, and sometimes breaks the mallet), plank roads and fencing can be removed by use of workers, creeping red fescue can be removed by growing a tree on it and then cutting down the tree, flowers can be picked, statues can be removed, etc!
