How to Create Safe Zone
The Crafting Bench generates a sort of Safe Zone which suppresses typical alien spawning/teleporting. The radius can be pretty large, giving you a decent buffer from wandering critters.
This Safe Zone can even despawn security robots from their stations if placed close enough.
However, Portal Storms can happen, which will ignore that Safe Zone. Thankfully those are announced and should give you time to prepare.
The weakest of the Portal Storm creates some rather disconcerting tears in space, which only spawn Pests. A Vacuum can easily dispatch them before they can cause much, if any, damage.
The next strongest storm spawns in a Pecarry or two, and a Exor or two outside of your base. This has a noticeably different warning message. This one you may want to have defenses for, since this could easily kill a player (especially a solo player) if caught out in the open.
Much later on, once you get to Crafting Skill 5, and progress far enough, you can find materials to upgrade your Crafting Bench to stop those things altogether.
Best Base Location
I have a fondness for the break room near the cafeteria kitchen (the one with the annoying tutorial TV that used to never stay off). The small room and two layers of doors protecting you made the place into a really secure spot for the early game. You were close to a free stove top and was close to a (albeit dirty) water source.
The Level 2 office that over looked the chasm is another good base location. Once you can get past the security door, you had a more centralized spot with a charging station, near by free storage, and a lot of space to work with, along with a way to lock things down.
There is also another spot that is really secure, near the Level 2 elevator, but that might be too awkward for people to get in and out regularly.
There are several other places that were found in the demo, and likely more spots, but I have to get far enough into the game to find those.
But what makes for a good base spot is to claim a small or medium sized area with few paths leading into it, making use of the facility walls as a defense. After playing for awhile, you’ll know them when you see them.
If there’s a natural spawn, it wont stop. You’ll have to place down more ‘active’ defences. However portals can be.. hindered through the workshop. The radius isn’t all reaching so you’ll never be fully safe. But it’ll help you know where you should direct your defensive options.
If you’re in the security room, its safe. There isn’t a natural spawn as far as i know. Maybe one of the better places to hang around for the time being. If it wasn’t for the metal frames, makes it tedious to furnish.
The best location is the gym cause it close to everything and you can move your stuff later when you unlock the west manufature zone. Don’t be like me, I build a base on the meeting room on 3rd floor cause it has a really long table, and a dedicated toilet. Gonna have to move base the third time due to traveling time