Hm. My top three favorite base locations? Well, three and two are my Mega Solar Truck of Holding in its various iterations. The number one location I had for a base is the one I want to elaborate on.
My favorite base location is anywhere within two squares of a lava tile. In one of my playthroughs, I had come across one of the strips of lava you sometimes find on the surface. I had a tent with me at the time. Out of curiosity, I placed the tent right next to the lava. Because tents are basically a cot surrounded by a wall, the tent wall sheltered me from the blistering heat of the lava. The center of the tent was two squares away from the lava, which is the maximum distance you can be from a tool or required item when crafting. Lava doubles as a fire source. I had created a shelter that kept me safe from the heat and provided me with an infinite fire source. I had the means to cook meat and boil water and pretty much survive indefinitely with no real effort required. This was out in the middle of nowhere as well, putting me away from annoying spawners like anthills and beehives and such.
The only downside of the whole setup is that tents aren’t very warm places to sleep during the winter. During the winter I found myself often freezing even though I was sleeping two squares away from molten rock, because the wall shielded the heat from me completely. If I stepped outside and tried to sleep there, I would quickly get very hot and start cooking. I couldn’t get a decent night’s sleep there no matter what I did. I had planned to build a base straddling the lava, but I lost that save to an experimental update.
I really liked that setup. That’s pretty much my favorite setup. Just the thought of setting up a tent next to lava and cooking meat inside, only to fall asleep and wake up because of frostbite due to freezing cold temperatures, makes me smile.
