If the workbench area covers all dry land and shallow water, you're good.
Walls only protect from spawns walking into your area, but on an island surrounded by deep water for a decent distance, this will not happen.

I'm more miffed about spawns deciding to swim all around my town to get into my docks area *which they cannot see*, messing up my fleet.
Definitely need to cover all spawnable surface for a good distance to prevent that.

Check wiki for base structures to see all the different structures that block spawns. While workbench is easiest perhaps to use, wooden torches are cheapest and easiest to hide/protect.

For harbor areas, consider making a lighthouse using an earthen pillar topped with a campfire and at least one 2x2 piece as a reflector (renders from further away). Not only does this make it easier to find the port in bad visual conditions, but I use them to mark the deconstruction area. Side effect is deterring at least some swimming mob types from approaching that area of the port.

I believe torches may also help in deterring anything with a fear of fire so that might help a bit with port security against lesser troublemakers.

[edit] Also earthen 'breakwaters' (tho perpendicular to shore) help against swimmers, particularly if they have a small perpendicular aspect to lengthen mob pathing.

Yes , i have 2 plains mini islands for farms and 0 spawns with workbenches covering any part of it , skitos too

Originally posted by blprice61:

I believe torches may also help in deterring anything with a fear of fire so that might help a bit with port security against lesser troublemakers.

It is a year ago so it may have been changed, but..
In my first ever world I had a bonfire left and right of my dock entrance. It was still a greyling shooting arena and bad place to keep my boat for extended periods.
The mouth was in line of sight from a patch of forest though.

Another harbor project had the entire town hidden behind landscaped walls that were way higher than anything, and the wall ran into the sea for a bit. The dock was completely closed in with walls and roofs except for the entrance. Again, fire at the entrance.
They still swam in.

I did have some success with a karve sized boathouse once. Besides surrounding walls and roof it had 4 gates blocking the entrace, bottom set blocking swimmers and top set blocking view.
It was a bit of a hassle to open and close them each time, but in its surroundings it was a fitting build; quite pretty at the time of day when the light grows a bit more diffuse, sitting on the side of a hill next to a forest lake.
This sort of setup won't work for longship though, because those are too wide for gates.

Tbh I'll be really happy if you tell me that I missed a major change.
I haven't paid much attention to patch notes between my active periods.

The greylings and greydwarves (except brute and shaman) will avoid coming close to fires.. the distance is, I believe, equivalent to the fire's warming radius (unsure with standing torches what radius is).

But yeah, the biggest problem is having a harbor that opens across from a spawn point. If you absolutely had to have a harbor like that, it might be worthwhile putting some spawn prevention on the opposite shore.

Fires, and for that matter earthen walls/breakwaters, will only help if they are in the mob's shortest path. It gets even stranger with skeletons as I believe they can spawn in shallow water.

I just build my own island
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2726135145

Now if only we could build a breakwater that actually worked.. protected coves and marinas are hella fun (read; challenging) to construct.

Built a marina inside the entrance to a Troll Cave on a small island before exploring a huge landmass. It is indestructible. Just prior to finishing "The Horde is Attacking" event happened. The only enemy to make it to the island was a Berserker, which I easily dispatched with my bow from atop the Troll Cave. Next time I find one like that I am going to build on top of the Troll Cave.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2697570474

Build a stakewall all around the edge of whatever you decide to claim as your territory, and make sure you have overlapping crafting fields from workbenches. This ensures that nothing will spawn inside, and everything is kept outside (for the most part).

Is there currently recurring spawning on the island? I have built on islands many times, my custom when starting my build was to surround the island in a simple wooden walkway using the large floor pieces. I placed workbenches under the walkway so they were out of sight and out of mind. I was never disturbed by anything spawning, but then again there was not much in the way of recurring spawning to begin with, on most of my island builds. I did have some problems with invasions, until I made sure to never have 3 different workbenches on site at the same time.

One problem with building on islands is, "Does its highest point get inundated by waves during storms?" It is nice to be above the highest waves while building, getting lifted off ones feet and floating while building gets old fast ...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2850083677

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2838664097

regular enemies do not spawn within workbench radius, not sure about raid events.

Yes it is possible, Suzaku gave you the answer how :)

On the other question, yes monsters do spawn on small islands - unless it's fully covered with no-spawn zones as from workbenches.
It's just a small chance, because the spawner first picks a spot, then checks what may spawn there. If it's an empty list, like in deep non-ocean water, then nothing spawns that cycle.

In my current solo world, I sailed by a tiny spot of plains in the middle of ocean on the way to a very distant Elder marking. My tech level at the time was bronze pickaxe. It still is.
The island was empty except for a patch of expandable land and a small hill that I might build my home on top of to keep the fires from going out due to tall waves.
It looked perfect for a home base with immediate capability to farm plains type crops when I get to them, so I don't need to make a second farm then.
So I marked it on my map.

When I returned with materials to set up a portal, I was lucky that it was night.
There was a squad of nassty hobbitssess, uhm, filthy greenskins, chilling at the other side of the hilltop. I only noticed in time to turn my ship away because one of them carried a torch.

That was the starting sign to a long and bloody campaign to claim my chosen haven.
In the end I did get it, and I managed to scrape by some iron from an outdoor node near the traveling merchant to put up stonecarver, set down the stone foundation for my long term home.. and now I'm slowly adding flat surface area for my farm.

When all that is done, I think I will sail towards yonder Elder location to collect my second head.
Man, I love how stuff like this is actually possible, if you're persistent and understand how to secure even pixel-small winnings.

Protip: cut down all the trees and leave half of them knocked down but not farmed, and that will mess with pathing from anything that spawns, which makes it much easier to deal with.

Also, yes. Enough workbenches and pikewalls around the island and you should be good

Place workbenches (and also some wall araund them as mobs can destroy them) and then run araund island till you find a spot where you cant build. On that spot place a new workbench and repeat the process till you can build everywhere on island.

If biomes are to close to island, mobs can still come to you so i recomend you raise terrain all araund island 4 times. But if its just sea and 20 squares away from land, then there is no need. (1 square = 1x4 wooden floor)

Built a marina inside the entrance to a Troll Cave on a small island before exploring a huge landmass. It is indestructible. Just prior to finishing "The Horde is Attacking" event happened. The only enemy to make it to the island was a Berserker, which I easily dispatched with my bow from atop the Troll Cave. Next time I find one like that I am going to build on top of the Troll Cave.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2697570474

Now if only we could build a breakwater that actually worked.. protected coves and marinas are hella fun (read; challenging) to construct.

I just build my own island
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2726135145

If the workbench area covers all dry land and shallow water, you're good.
Walls only protect from spawns walking into your area, but on an island surrounded by deep water for a decent distance, this will not happen.

I'm more miffed about spawns deciding to swim all around my town to get into my docks area *which they cannot see*, messing up my fleet.
Definitely need to cover all spawnable surface for a good distance to prevent that.

Originally posted by blprice61:

I believe torches may also help in deterring anything with a fear of fire so that might help a bit with port security against lesser troublemakers.

It is a year ago so it may have been changed, but..
In my first ever world I had a bonfire left and right of my dock entrance. It was still a greyling shooting arena and bad place to keep my boat for extended periods.
The mouth was in line of sight from a patch of forest though.

Another harbor project had the entire town hidden behind landscaped walls that were way higher than anything, and the wall ran into the sea for a bit. The dock was completely closed in with walls and roofs except for the entrance. Again, fire at the entrance.
They still swam in.

I did have some success with a karve sized boathouse once. Besides surrounding walls and roof it had 4 gates blocking the entrace, bottom set blocking swimmers and top set blocking view.
It was a bit of a hassle to open and close them each time, but in its surroundings it was a fitting build; quite pretty at the time of day when the light grows a bit more diffuse, sitting on the side of a hill next to a forest lake.
This sort of setup won't work for longship though, because those are too wide for gates.

Tbh I'll be really happy if you tell me that I missed a major change.
I haven't paid much attention to patch notes between my active periods.

The greylings and greydwarves (except brute and shaman) will avoid coming close to fires.. the distance is, I believe, equivalent to the fire's warming radius (unsure with standing torches what radius is).

But yeah, the biggest problem is having a harbor that opens across from a spawn point. If you absolutely had to have a harbor like that, it might be worthwhile putting some spawn prevention on the opposite shore.

Fires, and for that matter earthen walls/breakwaters, will only help if they are in the mob's shortest path. It gets even stranger with skeletons as I believe they can spawn in shallow water.

On the other question, yes monsters do spawn on small islands - unless it's fully covered with no-spawn zones as from workbenches.
It's just a small chance, because the spawner first picks a spot, then checks what may spawn there. If it's an empty list, like in deep non-ocean water, then nothing spawns that cycle.

In my current solo world, I sailed by a tiny spot of plains in the middle of ocean on the way to a very distant Elder marking. My tech level at the time was bronze pickaxe. It still is.
The island was empty except for a patch of expandable land and a small hill that I might build my home on top of to keep the fires from going out due to tall waves.
It looked perfect for a home base with immediate capability to farm plains type crops when I get to them, so I don't need to make a second farm then.
So I marked it on my map.

When I returned with materials to set up a portal, I was lucky that it was night.
There was a squad of nassty hobbitssess, uhm, filthy greenskins, chilling at the other side of the hilltop. I only noticed in time to turn my ship away because one of them carried a torch.

That was the starting sign to a long and bloody campaign to claim my chosen haven.
In the end I did get it, and I managed to scrape by some iron from an outdoor node near the traveling merchant to put up stonecarver, set down the stone foundation for my long term home.. and now I'm slowly adding flat surface area for my farm.

When all that is done, I think I will sail towards yonder Elder location to collect my second head.
Man, I love how stuff like this is actually possible, if you're persistent and understand how to secure even pixel-small winnings.

Protip: cut down all the trees and leave half of them knocked down but not farmed, and that will mess with pathing from anything that spawns, which makes it much easier to deal with.

Also, yes. Enough workbenches and pikewalls around the island and you should be good

Place workbenches (and also some wall araund them as mobs can destroy them) and then run araund island till you find a spot where you cant build. On that spot place a new workbench and repeat the process till you can build everywhere on island.

If biomes are to close to island, mobs can still come to you so i recomend you raise terrain all araund island 4 times. But if its just sea and 20 squares away from land, then there is no need. (1 square = 1x4 wooden floor)

If the workbench area covers all dry land and shallow water, you're good.
Walls only protect from spawns walking into your area, but on an island surrounded by deep water for a decent distance, this will not happen.

I'm more miffed about spawns deciding to swim all around my town to get into my docks area *which they cannot see*, messing up my fleet.
Definitely need to cover all spawnable surface for a good distance to prevent that.

Check wiki for base structures to see all the different structures that block spawns. While workbench is easiest perhaps to use, wooden torches are cheapest and easiest to hide/protect.

For harbor areas, consider making a lighthouse using an earthen pillar topped with a campfire and at least one 2x2 piece as a reflector (renders from further away). Not only does this make it easier to find the port in bad visual conditions, but I use them to mark the deconstruction area. Side effect is deterring at least some swimming mob types from approaching that area of the port.

I believe torches may also help in deterring anything with a fear of fire so that might help a bit with port security against lesser troublemakers.

[edit] Also earthen 'breakwaters' (tho perpendicular to shore) help against swimmers, particularly if they have a small perpendicular aspect to lengthen mob pathing.

Yes , i have 2 plains mini islands for farms and 0 spawns with workbenches covering any part of it , skitos too

Originally posted by blprice61:

I believe torches may also help in deterring anything with a fear of fire so that might help a bit with port security against lesser troublemakers.

It is a year ago so it may have been changed, but..
In my first ever world I had a bonfire left and right of my dock entrance. It was still a greyling shooting arena and bad place to keep my boat for extended periods.
The mouth was in line of sight from a patch of forest though.

Another harbor project had the entire town hidden behind landscaped walls that were way higher than anything, and the wall ran into the sea for a bit. The dock was completely closed in with walls and roofs except for the entrance. Again, fire at the entrance.
They still swam in.

I did have some success with a karve sized boathouse once. Besides surrounding walls and roof it had 4 gates blocking the entrace, bottom set blocking swimmers and top set blocking view.
It was a bit of a hassle to open and close them each time, but in its surroundings it was a fitting build; quite pretty at the time of day when the light grows a bit more diffuse, sitting on the side of a hill next to a forest lake.
This sort of setup won't work for longship though, because those are too wide for gates.

Tbh I'll be really happy if you tell me that I missed a major change.
I haven't paid much attention to patch notes between my active periods.

Yes it is possible, Suzaku gave you the answer how :)

On the other question, yes monsters do spawn on small islands - unless it's fully covered with no-spawn zones as from workbenches.
It's just a small chance, because the spawner first picks a spot, then checks what may spawn there. If it's an empty list, like in deep non-ocean water, then nothing spawns that cycle.

In my current solo world, I sailed by a tiny spot of plains in the middle of ocean on the way to a very distant Elder marking. My tech level at the time was bronze pickaxe. It still is.
The island was empty except for a patch of expandable land and a small hill that I might build my home on top of to keep the fires from going out due to tall waves.
It looked perfect for a home base with immediate capability to farm plains type crops when I get to them, so I don't need to make a second farm then.
So I marked it on my map.

When I returned with materials to set up a portal, I was lucky that it was night.
There was a squad of nassty hobbitssess, uhm, filthy greenskins, chilling at the other side of the hilltop. I only noticed in time to turn my ship away because one of them carried a torch.

That was the starting sign to a long and bloody campaign to claim my chosen haven.
In the end I did get it, and I managed to scrape by some iron from an outdoor node near the traveling merchant to put up stonecarver, set down the stone foundation for my long term home.. and now I'm slowly adding flat surface area for my farm.

When all that is done, I think I will sail towards yonder Elder location to collect my second head.
Man, I love how stuff like this is actually possible, if you're persistent and understand how to secure even pixel-small winnings.

Is there currently recurring spawning on the island? I have built on islands many times, my custom when starting my build was to surround the island in a simple wooden walkway using the large floor pieces. I placed workbenches under the walkway so they were out of sight and out of mind. I was never disturbed by anything spawning, but then again there was not much in the way of recurring spawning to begin with, on most of my island builds. I did have some problems with invasions, until I made sure to never have 3 different workbenches on site at the same time.

One problem with building on islands is, "Does its highest point get inundated by waves during storms?" It is nice to be above the highest waves while building, getting lifted off ones feet and floating while building gets old fast ...

regular enemies do not spawn within workbench radius, not sure about raid events.

Build a stakewall all around the edge of whatever you decide to claim as your territory, and make sure you have overlapping crafting fields from workbenches. This ensures that nothing will spawn inside, and everything is kept outside (for the most part).