Unless they have changed it , i have a tiny base where you mount the sacrifices , a bigger base by a large amount of copper nodes near the shore , and 1 by the swamp . In the mount the sacrifices base because i dont go there often i plant , grow make honey and brew , In the black forest with copper nodes i wall it because a lot of time you will be mining and smelting ,making armour ,weapons , I also wall the swamp same again smelting armour weapons ect ,
the reason is you get attacked at times and the forest raises up against you so as you get higher lvl so do the monsters that attack you , pigs and small tree monsters , higher bigger tree monsters and healers with big brutes , higher trolls skellys ect , a troll will smash through would easily .
You could dig a moat , you could use walls , you will at some point get stone walls ect , but its a balance you don t wana spend all the time making walls ect for a base your never in.
As a start just a hut with a fire and bench to fix your tools with a bed would be fine .
Getting a raft and just following the coast lines would help you find the black forest and swamp areas fast ish , its a big big map ,
at some point you will get portals and you can like your important bases together , keeping a port is good for recon and sea moster bashing later on .
Thats what i think similar to everyone else i think ,
have fun its a great game just to meddle and explore .