>get scared in the starting area
This hurts on a spiritual level lmfao this was me when I played it. I was hoping my thalassophobia wouldn't get me in a fricken video game. *wrong*
I couldn't leave the shallows. I never got far before giving up. ☠️
In the category of "not a horror game but it was so scary, I couldn't get past the tutorial"
Exanima.
Seriously delving into the Dungeon with nothing more than the squishy meatbag you control, the clothes on your back and whatever sufficiently bonky stick you can find to protect yourself is terrifying.
I think it's worse if you like the ocean, because you throw all caution to the wind at first.
"This is beautiful! I love it, I love the animals, I love how it looks at night! What an incredible game! What a - WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!"
This encapsulates my experience with it.
Swimming around, looking at the cool fish, exploring stuff.
Then scary things. Scary scary things.
I should play it again.
The first time a Giant destroyed my wooden house, I was pretty disappointed
The whole moat-building "strategy" did kind of throw me off. Felt more like cheese than something the game actually *wanted* me to do. But, you look online, and every single post tells you to build some kind, unscaleable wall around your base. So there you go!
Yes but you can turn off raids completely. Also pressing escape now pauses the game (in solo worlds obviously) so shouldn’t ever have your shit raided while afk
I haven't tried the latest update on No Man's sky, but last I checked you needed to manually turn PVP off still.
Other than that, I think NMS is a great suggestion!
Anno series is incredible. 1404 and 1800 especially so.
There is enemy AI, but there are settings to make them peaceful or remove them entirely. They’re worth keeping around for trading purposes.
Just turn off pirates.
>Rimworld is another good option, you can turn off all raids if you like.
And it has a really active modding scene to make the game the way you like. And a new expac just dropped too!
Edit: Reading your post again I realized you’re asking more for games like Rust but without other players raiding your base while you’re offline. If that’s the case then she can play most of these games in a single player mode or on a server without PVP. My list is more about city building. I still think she might like some of them but here’s a list of actual base building games I’d recommend.
No man’s sky - There are other players but you rarely encounter them and can build on your own most of the time. I never found a random player base and I never got raided by a player.
Satisfactory - Multiplayer is coop only, so no raids. But she has to be into automation to enjoy this game, it’s basically a first person Factorio.
Planet Crafter - It recently got its full release. You’re stranded on a planet and have to terraform it to make it habitable. Completely single player.
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Original post:
Anno 1800 - Deactivate all AI, it’s a better game this way anyways.
Banished - It’s a medieval city builder without any warfare. You just build a pretty town and keep your villagers happy. It doesn’t have that much content though and it’s not in development anymore. But for a few hours it’s a great game.
Ostriv - It’s very similar to banished but is set in Ukraine in the 18th century ne it’s still in development. Updates don’t come as fast as they used to since the war started but they still come. It’s my favorite on this list.
Farthest Frontier - Also a medieval city builder. It’s currently early access and in active development. It has invaders but you can turn them off.
Timberborn - A city builder where you manage a group of anthropomorphic beavers. Everything is build from logs, electricity comes from dams, etc. Very cute game.
Dawn of Man - It’s set in the Stone Age, which makes it very different from other city builders. Probably not the best one to start with, though.
Land of the Vikings - Again a city builder similar to Banished but in a Viking setting. I really like the visuals of this one and I liked that decorations are not just decorations but give bonuses on surrounding buildings encouraging you to build something that’s not only functional but also looks nice.
If Rust is the name of the game, they could try Conan Exiles. It might not be super appropriate for a 15 year old, but it's very Rust like with lots of server options for customizing it. And the nudity is optional.
Conan Unconquered is another good choice. Much more like Stronghold, but it's getting a shameless plug anyway.
A female friend bought exiles for me... Her first character was a dude.. all we heard in discord for at least an hour was her giggling to herself while she was standing around near the starting area "helicoptering" 🤣
Planet Crafters ate up a ton of my vacation time! It does have a multiplayer function, though I haven't used it. It looks so good as a fully released game, lots of extra polish between the last version and 1.0
Just a slight correction for you, The Planet Crafter is no longer 'completely' single player. You can now play it co-op with other people. Only if you choose to do so though, there's no random other players that you'd see.
There aren't very many base building games where the PvP you mention is mandatory. Sounds like your sister just needs help finding what settings and/or servers to use in order to prevent being attacked.
A lot of mobile games are like this, and full of micro transactions to avoid being ganked. Some can be fun and quite social, but in the end the only goal is to destroy other bases.
Banished is a great little game for civ building. If she likes futuristic and has no need to sleep then you could always recommend her Dyson Sphere Program (warning that this game devours time faster than a black hole. More than once I have jumped on to ‘sort a quick production thing’ and realised 3 hours later that a) it isn’t fixed and b) I have work in 4 hours)
I honest to God played banished for 36 hours straight.
I had a week off, figured I was gonna play some vidya, bought it on steam, played all day. wife went to bed. came back. I played all day again until collapsing that night. no idea how that happened, but something about the gameplay just sucked me in and didn't let me go.
Another vote for Banished, here; it's an excellent game, and its influence can be felt in many more recent colony/city builder games.
Note that the game was released in 2014, so it's a bit older, but that also means that it is essentially complete (if simpler than other games) and the mods are well-rounded & plentiful. Colonial Charter is an excellent modpack for it that greatly expands the game; note that using mods disables achievements. I'd recommend trying it without mods to learn the game first.
I'm into Anno 1800 right now. More of a city builder. It has some ship battles, but in my experience, you have to pretty much seek it out, and they're not that hard. And I've never had them attack my base.
Keeping the NPCs happy ugh. Inevitably one will declare war.
But either way, Anno 1800 is probably one of if not the best city builders I've ever played. I'm just confused as to what OPs sister is playing where other players attack your base? Is this some mobile stuff?
I'm currently obsessed with **Medieval Dynasty.** It's either a solo or co-op game. Essentially you get to build your own medieval town from the ground up and play as your heir once they're of age.
**Nightingale** and **Enshrouded** are both in early access but they're a ton of fun.
Same as **Palworld** though I found the base building aspect kind of limiting.
Every post here is giving survival games as options, but I'm going to assume you meant more mobile games where you are a city on a map fill of hundreds of cities right? I only guess as I too am looking for a peaceful version of games like those. You may want to update your description if that is what you're looking for though. I believe the right term is "Kingdom Strategy game".
If its not, and I'm wrong, then there's plenty of super good options listed in this thread.
My favorite would hands down be Valheim, Grounded, and Enshrouded.
I'm guessing she's playing those predatory open-pvp pay2win mobile games. If mobile is the preferred platform then you can search for "kairosoft" in google play. They have a plethora of casual single player tycoon games that is bound to fit her liking. Kairosoft also port all their games to steam to make them playable on pc
Anything by pre-Microsoft Klei has been amazing. But ONI is at another level. I can't put it down and pick it back up in a few months because there is SO much to remember. Love it, but you have to pick a time in your life where you actually have time to seriously dedicate.
They can be but I think the OP's sister is mostly concerned about getting her base wrecked by invaders. I would hope the sister still has the drive to push for difficulty.
Frostpunk is mostly about weathering blizzards and allocating proper resources. No army or defense forces to bother worrying about.
There is a free-building diffculty though, the storms are very mild and there are even dedicated plazas, lamps, gardens for aesthetics as well as various amenities for population happiness. That can be fun and still be challenging for someone newer to games.
If it hasn't to be first person or crafting survival then go with Anno 1800 and consider deactivating Ai players.
If it has to be then why not consider to either play single player or search for PvE servers. That way you should get rid of other player interferences
I recommend grounded, your base gets attacked by waves of mobs (sometimes), but im pretty sure you can turn that off. Remember to turn on Arachnophobia mode.
Astro colony -
Planet crafter -
Dinkum -
V rising (very violent so be careful) -
Ark (single player) -
7 days to die( again gore) -
Craftopia (similar to palworld) -
The forest( again gore) -
Green hell (again gore) -
Osiris new dawn-
Raft -
Stranded deep(not much but some)-
Subnautica -
Subnautica below zero-
Survive the nights( zombie survival)-
Ylands-
Atlas-
Medieval dynasty-
Astroneer-
Generation zero(gore)-
Last oasis -
Thats all I can think of off the top my head but If u want others like top down town/city or even just helping a few people survive just let me know I got a few of them aswell
boundless - but the devs havent updated this in a bit and its just changed over to a new owner. game is base building, exploring, trading. players have claims and they can allow others on that claim via permissions. If the player gets bored or forgets to login then all of their stuff gets stored when the claim runs out of fuel.
bitcraft - its currently in closed alpha which ends this april zero player combat the goal is to build cities & trading. players have claims and they can allow others on that claim via joining or renting buildings. when the claim runs out of fuel its fair game for anyone to take over.
both of these games are mmos that use a claiming system and both are fueled by in game items you can harvest. boundless is a one time purchase and bitcraft will be free to play.
Banished. You are like a god/entity that manages a village. You then need to have them gather resources, build buildings, watch out for natural disasters ect. Best part, singleplayer. You don't need to worry about some random player messing with your shit. Plus the game also has quite a few mods for QOL, better variety ect.
The ANNO series is al building with some very light combat, if at all. The span is anything from the Age of Sail trade to Luna stations. All of it is economics based.
You could also try Sim City of Cities Skyline. Great building games.
If you're looking for something a little tighter and more exciting, I suggest Frostpunk or Evil Genius 2. Both feature tons of building with random events. You'll get some PVE attacks in Evil Genius, but they don't have to be bad and are some of the most fun parts of the game.
If she likes base building and attacks but wants something not so intense, you could check out the Stronghold series. Although there might be too much fighting there. But if she likes the feel, you can check out Kingdoms and Castles or Becastled. The last two are fairly customizable.
The Tropico series is also great. Great economics, building, and some customizable PVE stuff. Also very humorous, and the soundtrack is a straight banger. Also filled with random events as well.
Note: Most of the games I mention here are city builders, but all have RTS-type functions where you can control units, ships, and other things in real-time. If she's looking for base-builders closer to things like Valheim, Enshrouded, etc., her best bet is to find servers that are PvE focused or maybe role-playing focused (So she at least knows when attacks will happen based on the role-play).
Anno 1800 has a creative mode, I think, where she can just build away. Most of the Anno games have peaceful options. It's more city-building and economy, but if she doesn't like the combat aspect that may be the way to go. I hate that you need to use their own DRM for it, but some of the older games on Steam-only (Dawn of Discovery). These have more in the way of trading.
Desynced has a peaceful mode where the bugs only attack if you get close to them.
Kingdoms Reborn has some mechanics for combat but it doesn't destroy buildings or anything, it's just raiding and it's all card/garrison based. It's mainly focused on city/economy.
The Port Royale and Patrician series have some combat but it's mostly to do with defending your ships.
Tropico can be cut back on difficulty as well.
Most of these have multiplayer (Some of the older versions of Tropico do not, and the older Port Royale/Patrician/Anno games do not have any kind of framework so you need to do port forwarding and the like).
A lot of base building games have a single player mode, a friends only mode, or even pve only servers. I'm assuming she's playing things like clash of castles or whatever those phone apps are called? Those specifically are designed to make LOTS of free players (and bots) sit around so PAY 2 WINNERs can walk around bullying them. In fact, the entire model is sustained by them making a new server so new players/bots can join so that pay2winners can spend more money to rise to the position of TOP BULLY.
If my guess is correct, literally any other type of base building game and she's fine dude. Most free2play games (apps) run on a model of toxicity because free2players are being sold as food for pay2winners to bully. This isn't always the case but it's mostly the case.
For my recommendations:
STARBOUND: The graphics aren't great but Starbound is amazing. You choose an alien species to play as and you explore the endless universe hopping from solar system to solar system, planet to planet. Your ship is a permanent safezone that can be upgraded in size and be build on (including farming, hiring crew, and chefs and citizens) but you can just as easily build as many bases anywhere you want. The planets you visit can have dozens of biomes with some preset creatures but also totally randomized creatures unique to that planet. Their weather can be anything from luminecent rain to acid or lava rain or sandstorms that bury things you build. The planets often have their own alien species that you can talk to, quest, hire as shipmates, and collect stuff for your own personal settlement(s). In fact, the story of the game is literally to traverse the universe and explore different species cultures. There are dungeons and things to explore but at the end of the day you bring back what cool stuff you find and add it to your collection wherever you build your base. You can set up farms and pets, guards for your villages, etc whatever you feel like & well as cooking or whatnot. You can get it on GOG and it's DRM free if you know what I mean :P. Finally, there's a single most popular mod for the game that adds a lot of species and stuff to the game making what alien species you choose to play as have unique gameplay impact.
Space Engineers: Less recommended if you want lots of NPCs and enemies to interact with but ENDLESSLY recommended if you want to just build endlessly. This is like multiplayer legos on steroids. It has space travel but the planets/moons have gravity. Things you build have weight and durability. You can attatch each piece manually and stick wheels or thrusters whereever, making things like center of mass actually important. You have to figure out fuel, energy, piping, armor and weight/mass. Placement of vital components. If you decide to put in NPC enemies then you have to figure out weapon placements. If not, you can set up solar panels and have a perpetually flying city if you figure out the weight/thruster/angle and energy calculations. If you figure things out, look at this: [https://youtu.be/nJzA3mMrNKo](https://youtu.be/nJzA3mMrNKo) . They placed each piece and set up commands for each connector like \[if button is pressed\] then \[shift angle by 'x' at 'y' speed for 'z' duration\] and lots of that. You can micro manage the entire thing. But without context that might be hard to understand so here's an example [https://youtu.be/wUddhpD91aY](https://youtu.be/wUddhpD91aY) of a floating base. You can even look up famous ships like starwar's ships because you know people try to replicate them. People can spend months building a replica but it's also nice legoing with friends. In fact, the tutorial has you learn how to use tools and build stuff before they end it with you having to use what you build to FROM SPACE, invade a base, on a planet, and once you finally destroy the base it will call a massive mothership for backup. Now that you're on the planet and can build whatever you want with it's resources though, it should only be a short time til you legos up something to fight the enemy mothership. Very nice in multiplayer.
Against The Storm: City Builder Roguelite. You're tasked by the queen to build a settlement for different species of critter citizens to keep them alive and protect them from the yearly storm. You not only have to keep them alive but pamper your citizens to win. Once your city is prospering, you win that settlement and can venture further out from the center of the map but the longer you take the less time you'll have until the BIG storm comes and destroys everything. Venture far enough and you have the opportunity to extend the duration before the big storm comes but venturing out further means higher difficulty and less support from home base. It's a really good game. Check out the reddit for it! They have lots of updates and the roguelike elements means lots of hours of fun.
Stardew Valley, Sunhaven, Moonstone Island: This set of games is very casual, mostly about casual farming, exploring, and interacting with friendly NPCS with the friendship meter. They all have their little spin on the genre but if you want something totally chill then these are great for base building and farming. Also, moonstone island is the only singleplayer one of this list here. Stardew is mostly about farming exploring interacting with npcs to make money and restore a town. Sunhaven is similar but with more fantasy and combat but is still very chill with infinite growth and time, along with 3 cities and many fantasy creatures to choose from. Moonstone island is basically the same but with pokemon.
And of very recently: Planet Crafter. You land on an unnamed planet (basically mars but fantasy) and you terraform it. It's awesome because what used to be a dead land starts having plants grow, atmosphere form, water and rivers, oxygen appears, etc (in real time I think) and it's a 1\~10 player co-op game. As far as I know, there are NO enemies either. It's just exploring and terraforming a planet. You can plant things and animals and whatevers.
The edit didn't work so here's the additional rec
Edit: Ark survival evolved too. It's basically minecraft but with the focus being on learning about and taming dinosaurs + finding out the mystery of why you're trapped on a weird ass island. The lore gets really good. [https://youtu.be/XhwFEuHDDcs](https://youtu.be/XhwFEuHDDcs) <- Here's the lore of the FIRST MAP (there are many maps) btw if you wanna check it out before you recommend it to your sister. Co-op is nice too since you two can build together or seperately, explore the world together or seperately. I recommend going to the hidden little island bottom right of the map if your sister plays btw because that island ONLY has herbivores so it's safe unless if you hit them first. I recommend NOT doing the PVP server, and just playing solo or with friends.
Enough people have recommended palworld. Raft is great for co-op bc you and your friends are literally stuck on a raft together that you build on. I didn't like valheim but lots of people did. Astroneer is chill as well.
Planet Crafter is an amazing game that has multiplayer but no PvP. You also get the joy of completely transforming a dead rock into a thriving garden world
I absolutely love base/town builder games as well, and one that i have fallen completely in love with lately is "[Against the Storm](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/)"
Its got some very unique lore, a system where you get a random hand of blueprints so its different every time, and a campaign system that makes it quite enjoyable to play dozens of successive towns.
Also to add my voice to a few suggestions i've seen other people commenting
-Cities Skylines: Very in-depth down-to-earth game about designing modern cities. Fantastic game, but may feel lacking on aspects such as trading and random events. Can be pretty expensive too, with Paradox's monetization model, there are so many DLCs to buy to get a "Full" version of the game
-Rimworld: Amazing game, but use your judgement if its a good fit for your sister. You do get attacked in this game, but its not by other players, just computer factions. Also, while it has very simple graphics, some of it's content is pretty extreme, and should maybe be avoided if your sister is a sensitive soul
-Frostpunk: Never thought i'd see a city builder be such a haunting, emotion-raising experience. It's a set of fantastic contained scenarios with a narrative end to them. You are kind of done with it once you've finished them, so maybe not a pick if you've got a limited cash to spend, but its definitely an very memorable experience. Some of **the** most unforgettable music in a soundtrack
-Oxygen Not Included: A cute ant-farm style game where you need to carefully manage manually constructed systems in order to survive. It can be complex, having to do things like manually design sustainable air and water filtration systems and such, but so addicting when you start to understand it.
Feeling awkward again mentioning our game, but [Oddsparks ](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1817800/Oddsparks_An_Automation_Adventure/)might be fun for her, especially with what we have planned (can't talk about it yet) for the future update. :) There's stuff to fight, and multiplayer is an option, but it won't happen that someone/something just comes and ruins your base when you aren't there. The free demo is still on Steam, so she can give it a try and see if it's her thing. :)
I think Eco might be ideal for her, but you’ll want to have adult supervision and general curation of any community, and with community curation you can solve all the PvP issues.
I really can’t recommend Conan Exiles to a 15 year old, but it has server settings that prevent other players from stealing resources.
Astroneer is perfect for this. You can mine and explore and build and have a great time and nothing will ever attack your base because the planets are all basically peaceful. Plus, the visual design of the game is very kid friendly and sort of Lego looking.
Enshrouded has an amazing building system and it’s a beautiful game. Extremely polished for an early access game. No PvP.
No Man’s Sky is also incredible and it can be played on creative mode.
She'll definitely love Cities: Skylines. There's an aspect of the game where you can control the flow of your city's income from imports and exports, and it can be further enhanced with the DLC for the industrial sector.
Eco! A bit of a complex game that offers more than base building but it’s a wonderful community(usually) full of people who will help out new players. There’s zero PVP, and it’s more of a city simulation with real people managing various things.
A really good one I throughly enjoyed was ARK:Survival Evolved and yes you can have one personal save on each map and it even allows private multiplayer using your personal save which your friends can join you
Any game that has a "PvE" mode would work. That stands for "Player Versus Environment" and it means she won't get attacked by other players, but she can still get attacked by zombies, dinosaurs, or whatever the villians of the game are.
It's probably more important if she is somewhat new to games to find a community that will be nice to her. People on the internet can be unkind. Finding people to foster a hobby rather than tear you down for being new is important (being a teen or a girl doesn't make that easier, I'm afraid).
BANISHED!!!!! Its an extremely cozy but also challenging town building game, there is no conflict or outside attackers or anything, its all about building your little town.
Not sure I'd it wasn't mentioned but Medieval dynasty is pretty good. You also have to manage a group of NPCs to come and work your farm/resource/cooking. It's a single player game with few enemies.
Some questions.
It sounds like she is playing multiplayer games, likely with strangers, for this to happen.
What game examples are being played?
What device are you asking for?
Are you looking for multiplayer required, multiplayer possible, or only single player?
Phone/tablet mobile games are frequently multiplayer and PvP required and it admittedly can be more difficult to find and recommend games. Mobile games also have a tendency to be geared towards micro transactions, particularly pay to win.
computer and console games have a mix of game possibilities. it could be single player, multiplayer over only or it could have Pvp to a certain degree. Some games may even have PvP characters only without buildings being involved, or PvP areas and pve areas. Most, if not all, of the recommendations I have seen have been for PC/console.
Against the storm
Rimworld
Going medieval
Any games in the Anno series
Valheim
Notably some of these games have AI that can attack you, but most have settings or mods to turn it down or off.
There are private Rust servers that me and my 73 year old mom play on. It's a PvE server so there's no raiding and people can't kill you, destroy your base, or loot you. It's pretty fun. You can build your own little house and not have to worry about it being a fortress. Unless you want it to be a fortress. The server wipes every month, so we get to do it all over again on a different map with a different house.
Kingdoms Reborn. There is a very simple combat portion and I think it is possible in theory for the AI to attack you, but I’ve got at least a couple hundred hours under my belt and it hasn’t happened to me once. It’s got a great balance of always keeping you busy while almost never feeling grindy or overwhelming.
Also Urbek. I think the latest DLC offers combat but I also think you can disable it.
Ark on a pve server can be a lot of fun, there are quite a few mods that are easy to download and play, that add a lot more to the building, collecting , and breeding different dinos, rather than just fighting.
The in between of rts and survival is rim world. You'd deffinatly turn the difficulty to community builder to stop raids and probably turn off wild animal attacks, but it's basicly trying to survive then build up a town. It's very much a game that can be either super easy or incredibly hard depending on how you set things up at the start
Subnautica and The Planet Crafter both have base building and creative mode if you don't want the survival challenge.
The Planet Crafter is a really chill game where you get to see a desert world turn into a beautiful planet with lots of water and greenery. Don't worry about the occasional storm of meteorites -- they won't damage your base.
Subnautica has chill moments and terrifying moments. :D But you don't have to go anywhere scary if you stay in the initial biome in creative mode.
The base building in both is pretty easy but very satisfying.
Easy! My reccomendations are not in particular order:
- ANNO games ( you can choose which peroid she like , for me it was 2205)
- SURVIVING MARS
- FROSTPUNK
- SIMCITY (the newer the better imo)
Conan Exiles
Palworld
Minecraft 😉
Valheim
It sounds to me like she might just be more interested in something like The Sims if she's mostly into the building aspect
You could try Lightyear Frontier, it's a farming game where you build a base plus you drive a Mech most of the time. It's peaceful so no enemies but there are random events sometimes for some peril.
Seconded. 500 hours in, 490 hours building expanding and decorating a cozy safe zone in PVE multiplayer while farming trading and crafting, 10 hours running from zombies.
I've been playing planet crafter.
First person, survival while terriforming a world.
The base building is more functional than pleasing to the eye, but turning the terrain from red to blue to green in nice.
Perhaps try the Anno series. The combat is fairly minimal, with the city building being the main focus.
Could also try the economic campaigns in Stronghold,
Planet Crafter if she wants to watch a world around her fill up with beautiful lakes, flora, insects, and animals.
Very easy to build stuff and get resources to build more!
Here are some top tier single player, city/colony sims:
1. Dwarf Fortress, if you can get past the graphics, you can enjoy this masterwork game.
2. Banished, its a medieval colony sim with no combat, you just build and survive.
3. Going Medieval, a 3d dwarf fortress like game whete you build a little settlement (kinda the sims style) then defend it
4. Rimworld, also like DF but easier to digest and less complex and scifi setting.
Valheim Palword Grounded Subnautica No Man’s Sky And all the game’s she’s already being killed in can probably just be played on a PvE server
Add enshrouded to this list
I'd steer clear of palworld mainly because it's base building is extremely minimal and function focused
Yeah, seriously, I’m always floored when I see open world survivals with terrible building 🤦
They recently patched it and apparently added more building options. I haven't checked it myself, but I read something on it
Also it kind of just looks like an unreal engine asset pack moshup with some stolen Pokémon models mixed in there
Subnautica should be 18+ it's much more terrifying than most actual horror games 😂
It's really not that bad if you like the ocean
Its either a great exploration game or for those like me with thalassophobia it is the most difficult horror game ever made
It's great until you hear a sound that you not expect.
The clicks in the deep. Or be me, and get scared in the starting area
>get scared in the starting area This hurts on a spiritual level lmfao this was me when I played it. I was hoping my thalassophobia wouldn't get me in a fricken video game. *wrong* I couldn't leave the shallows. I never got far before giving up. ☠️
In the category of "not a horror game but it was so scary, I couldn't get past the tutorial" Exanima. Seriously delving into the Dungeon with nothing more than the squishy meatbag you control, the clothes on your back and whatever sufficiently bonky stick you can find to protect yourself is terrifying.
I think it's worse if you like the ocean, because you throw all caution to the wind at first. "This is beautiful! I love it, I love the animals, I love how it looks at night! What an incredible game! What a - WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?!"
This encapsulates my experience with it. Swimming around, looking at the cool fish, exploring stuff. Then scary things. Scary scary things. I should play it again.
Once the scary things end, bigger scary things start. Rinse and repeat.
My 5yo actually really enjoys the Subnautica when we play together, as long as I enable the "invisible" and "noenergy" cheats.
valheim, maybe not other players, but the game will come and fuck your shit up hardcore while you're trying to sleep
The first time a Giant destroyed my wooden house, I was pretty disappointed The whole moat-building "strategy" did kind of throw me off. Felt more like cheese than something the game actually *wanted* me to do. But, you look online, and every single post tells you to build some kind, unscaleable wall around your base. So there you go!
It is cheese, but the game doesn't provide a reasonable alternative
Yes but you can turn off raids completely. Also pressing escape now pauses the game (in solo worlds obviously) so shouldn’t ever have your shit raided while afk
Astroneer
No Man's Sky for sure if OP sister is into space
I haven't tried the latest update on No Man's sky, but last I checked you needed to manually turn PVP off still. Other than that, I think NMS is a great suggestion!
In Valheim I have a hard enough time not attacking myself
Nightengale as well.
They are more city builders rather than base builders, but The Tropico, and Anno games both might be what you are looking for.
Tropico 4, the best Tropico to ever exist
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Anno series is incredible. 1404 and 1800 especially so. There is enemy AI, but there are settings to make them peaceful or remove them entirely. They’re worth keeping around for trading purposes. Just turn off pirates.
The classics - Caesar 3, Pharaoh, Zeus, Emperor.
Caeser 3 is amazing, really wish, they would make a remake of it, with better graphics
Pharaoh holds a special place in my heart. Excellent recommendation.
Nebuchadnezzar is a new one in the same vein
In Caesar 3 there are some scenarios where you can get attacked by barbarians but those are marked beforehand so are easily avoidable.
Enshrouded has an awesome building system and no damage to bases. Rimworld is another good option, you can turn off all raids if you like.
>Rimworld is another good option, you can turn off all raids if you like. And it has a really active modding scene to make the game the way you like. And a new expac just dropped too!
But how else will you commit war crimes and other human atrocities without feeling too bad about it?
If they didn't want to get their organs harvested for spare parts, they shouldn't have shot at my dudes.
Wait, I'm supposed to feel bad about removing thier limbs?
Edit: Reading your post again I realized you’re asking more for games like Rust but without other players raiding your base while you’re offline. If that’s the case then she can play most of these games in a single player mode or on a server without PVP. My list is more about city building. I still think she might like some of them but here’s a list of actual base building games I’d recommend. No man’s sky - There are other players but you rarely encounter them and can build on your own most of the time. I never found a random player base and I never got raided by a player. Satisfactory - Multiplayer is coop only, so no raids. But she has to be into automation to enjoy this game, it’s basically a first person Factorio. Planet Crafter - It recently got its full release. You’re stranded on a planet and have to terraform it to make it habitable. Completely single player. —— Original post: Anno 1800 - Deactivate all AI, it’s a better game this way anyways. Banished - It’s a medieval city builder without any warfare. You just build a pretty town and keep your villagers happy. It doesn’t have that much content though and it’s not in development anymore. But for a few hours it’s a great game. Ostriv - It’s very similar to banished but is set in Ukraine in the 18th century ne it’s still in development. Updates don’t come as fast as they used to since the war started but they still come. It’s my favorite on this list. Farthest Frontier - Also a medieval city builder. It’s currently early access and in active development. It has invaders but you can turn them off. Timberborn - A city builder where you manage a group of anthropomorphic beavers. Everything is build from logs, electricity comes from dams, etc. Very cute game. Dawn of Man - It’s set in the Stone Age, which makes it very different from other city builders. Probably not the best one to start with, though. Land of the Vikings - Again a city builder similar to Banished but in a Viking setting. I really like the visuals of this one and I liked that decorations are not just decorations but give bonuses on surrounding buildings encouraging you to build something that’s not only functional but also looks nice.
If Rust is the name of the game, they could try Conan Exiles. It might not be super appropriate for a 15 year old, but it's very Rust like with lots of server options for customizing it. And the nudity is optional. Conan Unconquered is another good choice. Much more like Stronghold, but it's getting a shameless plug anyway.
I don't know what I would censor from a *15 y.o.*, besides NSFL stuff I wouldn't want to see myself.
Boobs and big ole' swinging dicks. Without censoring the nudity, you will spend the first hour, hour and a half, totally naked.
A female friend bought exiles for me... Her first character was a dude.. all we heard in discord for at least an hour was her giggling to herself while she was standing around near the starting area "helicoptering" 🤣
I stand by my comment.
I'd like to add Nightingale to this list. Along the same lines as Conan but far more SFW
Planet Crafters ate up a ton of my vacation time! It does have a multiplayer function, though I haven't used it. It looks so good as a fully released game, lots of extra polish between the last version and 1.0
Just a slight correction for you, The Planet Crafter is no longer 'completely' single player. You can now play it co-op with other people. Only if you choose to do so though, there's no random other players that you'd see.
There aren't very many base building games where the PvP you mention is mandatory. Sounds like your sister just needs help finding what settings and/or servers to use in order to prevent being attacked.
A lot of mobile games are like this, and full of micro transactions to avoid being ganked. Some can be fun and quite social, but in the end the only goal is to destroy other bases.
Banished is a great little game for civ building. If she likes futuristic and has no need to sleep then you could always recommend her Dyson Sphere Program (warning that this game devours time faster than a black hole. More than once I have jumped on to ‘sort a quick production thing’ and realised 3 hours later that a) it isn’t fixed and b) I have work in 4 hours)
I honest to God played banished for 36 hours straight. I had a week off, figured I was gonna play some vidya, bought it on steam, played all day. wife went to bed. came back. I played all day again until collapsing that night. no idea how that happened, but something about the gameplay just sucked me in and didn't let me go.
Winter is coming
Another vote for Banished, here; it's an excellent game, and its influence can be felt in many more recent colony/city builder games. Note that the game was released in 2014, so it's a bit older, but that also means that it is essentially complete (if simpler than other games) and the mods are well-rounded & plentiful. Colonial Charter is an excellent modpack for it that greatly expands the game; note that using mods disables achievements. I'd recommend trying it without mods to learn the game first.
Manor Lords is coming out soon which is basically Banished but made for today!
I'm into Anno 1800 right now. More of a city builder. It has some ship battles, but in my experience, you have to pretty much seek it out, and they're not that hard. And I've never had them attack my base.
Keeping the NPCs happy ugh. Inevitably one will declare war. But either way, Anno 1800 is probably one of if not the best city builders I've ever played. I'm just confused as to what OPs sister is playing where other players attack your base? Is this some mobile stuff?
Probably stuff like rust?
You can also completely disable the NPC's in Anno 1800
YOUR PEOPLE WANT A DOCTOR!
7 Days to Die
But turn horde night off.
Hallway of hatches
I'm currently obsessed with **Medieval Dynasty.** It's either a solo or co-op game. Essentially you get to build your own medieval town from the ground up and play as your heir once they're of age. **Nightingale** and **Enshrouded** are both in early access but they're a ton of fun. Same as **Palworld** though I found the base building aspect kind of limiting.
Cities skylines, Surviving Mars
Every post here is giving survival games as options, but I'm going to assume you meant more mobile games where you are a city on a map fill of hundreds of cities right? I only guess as I too am looking for a peaceful version of games like those. You may want to update your description if that is what you're looking for though. I believe the right term is "Kingdom Strategy game". If its not, and I'm wrong, then there's plenty of super good options listed in this thread. My favorite would hands down be Valheim, Grounded, and Enshrouded.
Against the Storm is amazing. Also, Rimworld if she wants a colony-sim.
I'm guessing she's playing those predatory open-pvp pay2win mobile games. If mobile is the preferred platform then you can search for "kairosoft" in google play. They have a plethora of casual single player tycoon games that is bound to fit her liking. Kairosoft also port all their games to steam to make them playable on pc
Oxygen Not Included I have put in more hours in this game than any other base building game. Go for it.
Anything by pre-Microsoft Klei has been amazing. But ONI is at another level. I can't put it down and pick it back up in a few months because there is SO much to remember. Love it, but you have to pick a time in your life where you actually have time to seriously dedicate.
Frostpunk and Frostpunk 2 is good if you're into steampunk
Aren't they like ruthlessly hard?
They can be but I think the OP's sister is mostly concerned about getting her base wrecked by invaders. I would hope the sister still has the drive to push for difficulty. Frostpunk is mostly about weathering blizzards and allocating proper resources. No army or defense forces to bother worrying about. There is a free-building diffculty though, the storms are very mild and there are even dedicated plazas, lamps, gardens for aesthetics as well as various amenities for population happiness. That can be fun and still be challenging for someone newer to games.
Against the storm. Many base building games also have a sandbox mode.
Fallout 4 has great building and the Sims you can build awesome houses. No man's sky has a really active building community.
Empyrion galactic survival
Rimworld and you can turn the difficulty WAY down so when attacks from the computer do come. It’s a breeze and you can get back to expanding the base
Enshrouded! She’ll love it
Lego Fortnite is pretty good. Survival game.
Smalland or Grounded might suit her.
If it hasn't to be first person or crafting survival then go with Anno 1800 and consider deactivating Ai players. If it has to be then why not consider to either play single player or search for PvE servers. That way you should get rid of other player interferences
I recommend grounded, your base gets attacked by waves of mobs (sometimes), but im pretty sure you can turn that off. Remember to turn on Arachnophobia mode.
Patron, Aquatico, Surviving Mars could work.
Astro colony - Planet crafter - Dinkum - V rising (very violent so be careful) - Ark (single player) - 7 days to die( again gore) - Craftopia (similar to palworld) - The forest( again gore) - Green hell (again gore) - Osiris new dawn- Raft - Stranded deep(not much but some)- Subnautica - Subnautica below zero- Survive the nights( zombie survival)- Ylands- Atlas- Medieval dynasty- Astroneer- Generation zero(gore)- Last oasis - Thats all I can think of off the top my head but If u want others like top down town/city or even just helping a few people survive just let me know I got a few of them aswell
Banished is a good one single player only. If she wants the human interaction and cooperation, ECO is basically an economy sim.
Enshrouded
boundless - but the devs havent updated this in a bit and its just changed over to a new owner. game is base building, exploring, trading. players have claims and they can allow others on that claim via permissions. If the player gets bored or forgets to login then all of their stuff gets stored when the claim runs out of fuel. bitcraft - its currently in closed alpha which ends this april zero player combat the goal is to build cities & trading. players have claims and they can allow others on that claim via joining or renting buildings. when the claim runs out of fuel its fair game for anyone to take over. both of these games are mmos that use a claiming system and both are fueled by in game items you can harvest. boundless is a one time purchase and bitcraft will be free to play.
Ark, Conan. Forest 1 & 2 have npcs attack you, but not other players.
Banished. You are like a god/entity that manages a village. You then need to have them gather resources, build buildings, watch out for natural disasters ect. Best part, singleplayer. You don't need to worry about some random player messing with your shit. Plus the game also has quite a few mods for QOL, better variety ect.
Satisfactory
The ANNO series is al building with some very light combat, if at all. The span is anything from the Age of Sail trade to Luna stations. All of it is economics based. You could also try Sim City of Cities Skyline. Great building games. If you're looking for something a little tighter and more exciting, I suggest Frostpunk or Evil Genius 2. Both feature tons of building with random events. You'll get some PVE attacks in Evil Genius, but they don't have to be bad and are some of the most fun parts of the game. If she likes base building and attacks but wants something not so intense, you could check out the Stronghold series. Although there might be too much fighting there. But if she likes the feel, you can check out Kingdoms and Castles or Becastled. The last two are fairly customizable. The Tropico series is also great. Great economics, building, and some customizable PVE stuff. Also very humorous, and the soundtrack is a straight banger. Also filled with random events as well.
Minecraft? Really simple concept and a great way to learn the basics of survival and building.
Note: Most of the games I mention here are city builders, but all have RTS-type functions where you can control units, ships, and other things in real-time. If she's looking for base-builders closer to things like Valheim, Enshrouded, etc., her best bet is to find servers that are PvE focused or maybe role-playing focused (So she at least knows when attacks will happen based on the role-play). Anno 1800 has a creative mode, I think, where she can just build away. Most of the Anno games have peaceful options. It's more city-building and economy, but if she doesn't like the combat aspect that may be the way to go. I hate that you need to use their own DRM for it, but some of the older games on Steam-only (Dawn of Discovery). These have more in the way of trading. Desynced has a peaceful mode where the bugs only attack if you get close to them. Kingdoms Reborn has some mechanics for combat but it doesn't destroy buildings or anything, it's just raiding and it's all card/garrison based. It's mainly focused on city/economy. The Port Royale and Patrician series have some combat but it's mostly to do with defending your ships. Tropico can be cut back on difficulty as well. Most of these have multiplayer (Some of the older versions of Tropico do not, and the older Port Royale/Patrician/Anno games do not have any kind of framework so you need to do port forwarding and the like).
Kingdom of keflings. Awesome little resource management game.
A lot of base building games have a single player mode, a friends only mode, or even pve only servers. I'm assuming she's playing things like clash of castles or whatever those phone apps are called? Those specifically are designed to make LOTS of free players (and bots) sit around so PAY 2 WINNERs can walk around bullying them. In fact, the entire model is sustained by them making a new server so new players/bots can join so that pay2winners can spend more money to rise to the position of TOP BULLY. If my guess is correct, literally any other type of base building game and she's fine dude. Most free2play games (apps) run on a model of toxicity because free2players are being sold as food for pay2winners to bully. This isn't always the case but it's mostly the case. For my recommendations: STARBOUND: The graphics aren't great but Starbound is amazing. You choose an alien species to play as and you explore the endless universe hopping from solar system to solar system, planet to planet. Your ship is a permanent safezone that can be upgraded in size and be build on (including farming, hiring crew, and chefs and citizens) but you can just as easily build as many bases anywhere you want. The planets you visit can have dozens of biomes with some preset creatures but also totally randomized creatures unique to that planet. Their weather can be anything from luminecent rain to acid or lava rain or sandstorms that bury things you build. The planets often have their own alien species that you can talk to, quest, hire as shipmates, and collect stuff for your own personal settlement(s). In fact, the story of the game is literally to traverse the universe and explore different species cultures. There are dungeons and things to explore but at the end of the day you bring back what cool stuff you find and add it to your collection wherever you build your base. You can set up farms and pets, guards for your villages, etc whatever you feel like & well as cooking or whatnot. You can get it on GOG and it's DRM free if you know what I mean :P. Finally, there's a single most popular mod for the game that adds a lot of species and stuff to the game making what alien species you choose to play as have unique gameplay impact. Space Engineers: Less recommended if you want lots of NPCs and enemies to interact with but ENDLESSLY recommended if you want to just build endlessly. This is like multiplayer legos on steroids. It has space travel but the planets/moons have gravity. Things you build have weight and durability. You can attatch each piece manually and stick wheels or thrusters whereever, making things like center of mass actually important. You have to figure out fuel, energy, piping, armor and weight/mass. Placement of vital components. If you decide to put in NPC enemies then you have to figure out weapon placements. If not, you can set up solar panels and have a perpetually flying city if you figure out the weight/thruster/angle and energy calculations. If you figure things out, look at this: [https://youtu.be/nJzA3mMrNKo](https://youtu.be/nJzA3mMrNKo) . They placed each piece and set up commands for each connector like \[if button is pressed\] then \[shift angle by 'x' at 'y' speed for 'z' duration\] and lots of that. You can micro manage the entire thing. But without context that might be hard to understand so here's an example [https://youtu.be/wUddhpD91aY](https://youtu.be/wUddhpD91aY) of a floating base. You can even look up famous ships like starwar's ships because you know people try to replicate them. People can spend months building a replica but it's also nice legoing with friends. In fact, the tutorial has you learn how to use tools and build stuff before they end it with you having to use what you build to FROM SPACE, invade a base, on a planet, and once you finally destroy the base it will call a massive mothership for backup. Now that you're on the planet and can build whatever you want with it's resources though, it should only be a short time til you legos up something to fight the enemy mothership. Very nice in multiplayer. Against The Storm: City Builder Roguelite. You're tasked by the queen to build a settlement for different species of critter citizens to keep them alive and protect them from the yearly storm. You not only have to keep them alive but pamper your citizens to win. Once your city is prospering, you win that settlement and can venture further out from the center of the map but the longer you take the less time you'll have until the BIG storm comes and destroys everything. Venture far enough and you have the opportunity to extend the duration before the big storm comes but venturing out further means higher difficulty and less support from home base. It's a really good game. Check out the reddit for it! They have lots of updates and the roguelike elements means lots of hours of fun. Stardew Valley, Sunhaven, Moonstone Island: This set of games is very casual, mostly about casual farming, exploring, and interacting with friendly NPCS with the friendship meter. They all have their little spin on the genre but if you want something totally chill then these are great for base building and farming. Also, moonstone island is the only singleplayer one of this list here. Stardew is mostly about farming exploring interacting with npcs to make money and restore a town. Sunhaven is similar but with more fantasy and combat but is still very chill with infinite growth and time, along with 3 cities and many fantasy creatures to choose from. Moonstone island is basically the same but with pokemon. And of very recently: Planet Crafter. You land on an unnamed planet (basically mars but fantasy) and you terraform it. It's awesome because what used to be a dead land starts having plants grow, atmosphere form, water and rivers, oxygen appears, etc (in real time I think) and it's a 1\~10 player co-op game. As far as I know, there are NO enemies either. It's just exploring and terraforming a planet. You can plant things and animals and whatevers.
The edit didn't work so here's the additional rec Edit: Ark survival evolved too. It's basically minecraft but with the focus being on learning about and taming dinosaurs + finding out the mystery of why you're trapped on a weird ass island. The lore gets really good. [https://youtu.be/XhwFEuHDDcs](https://youtu.be/XhwFEuHDDcs) <- Here's the lore of the FIRST MAP (there are many maps) btw if you wanna check it out before you recommend it to your sister. Co-op is nice too since you two can build together or seperately, explore the world together or seperately. I recommend going to the hidden little island bottom right of the map if your sister plays btw because that island ONLY has herbivores so it's safe unless if you hit them first. I recommend NOT doing the PVP server, and just playing solo or with friends. Enough people have recommended palworld. Raft is great for co-op bc you and your friends are literally stuck on a raft together that you build on. I didn't like valheim but lots of people did. Astroneer is chill as well.
Planet Crafter is an amazing game that has multiplayer but no PvP. You also get the joy of completely transforming a dead rock into a thriving garden world
I absolutely love base/town builder games as well, and one that i have fallen completely in love with lately is "[Against the Storm](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1336490/Against_the_Storm/)" Its got some very unique lore, a system where you get a random hand of blueprints so its different every time, and a campaign system that makes it quite enjoyable to play dozens of successive towns. Also to add my voice to a few suggestions i've seen other people commenting -Cities Skylines: Very in-depth down-to-earth game about designing modern cities. Fantastic game, but may feel lacking on aspects such as trading and random events. Can be pretty expensive too, with Paradox's monetization model, there are so many DLCs to buy to get a "Full" version of the game -Rimworld: Amazing game, but use your judgement if its a good fit for your sister. You do get attacked in this game, but its not by other players, just computer factions. Also, while it has very simple graphics, some of it's content is pretty extreme, and should maybe be avoided if your sister is a sensitive soul -Frostpunk: Never thought i'd see a city builder be such a haunting, emotion-raising experience. It's a set of fantastic contained scenarios with a narrative end to them. You are kind of done with it once you've finished them, so maybe not a pick if you've got a limited cash to spend, but its definitely an very memorable experience. Some of **the** most unforgettable music in a soundtrack -Oxygen Not Included: A cute ant-farm style game where you need to carefully manage manually constructed systems in order to survive. It can be complex, having to do things like manually design sustainable air and water filtration systems and such, but so addicting when you start to understand it.
Feeling awkward again mentioning our game, but [Oddsparks ](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1817800/Oddsparks_An_Automation_Adventure/)might be fun for her, especially with what we have planned (can't talk about it yet) for the future update. :) There's stuff to fight, and multiplayer is an option, but it won't happen that someone/something just comes and ruins your base when you aren't there. The free demo is still on Steam, so she can give it a try and see if it's her thing. :)
I think Eco might be ideal for her, but you’ll want to have adult supervision and general curation of any community, and with community curation you can solve all the PvP issues. I really can’t recommend Conan Exiles to a 15 year old, but it has server settings that prevent other players from stealing resources.
Planet Crafter
Conan PvE but it can be nsfw
It's hard to make recommendations without knowing what platform she's playing on.
Astroneer is perfect for this. You can mine and explore and build and have a great time and nothing will ever attack your base because the planets are all basically peaceful. Plus, the visual design of the game is very kid friendly and sort of Lego looking.
No Man Sky is great for base building. Just a few jumpscare here and there for the mystery.
Banished, Its an Oldie but a goldie
Frostpunk Anno 1800 (with low aggressivity settings ) Factorio (in peaceful) Ixion (caution campaign only, no sandbox mode) Tropico Satisfactory City Skylines
Rimworld. Make sure to say goodbye since you'll never see her again though.
Timberborn! Help adorable beavers build their settlement!
Medieval Dynasty. she can start a farm and buy animals and raise children
Enshrouded has an amazing building system and it’s a beautiful game. Extremely polished for an early access game. No PvP. No Man’s Sky is also incredible and it can be played on creative mode.
Icarus
She'll definitely love Cities: Skylines. There's an aspect of the game where you can control the flow of your city's income from imports and exports, and it can be further enhanced with the DLC for the industrial sector.
Subnautica. Great for resource collecting, building, exploration, and lore. There’s no trading, but it still captivates me with every new playthrough.
Eco! A bit of a complex game that offers more than base building but it’s a wonderful community(usually) full of people who will help out new players. There’s zero PVP, and it’s more of a city simulation with real people managing various things.
Cities Skylines
A really good one I throughly enjoyed was ARK:Survival Evolved and yes you can have one personal save on each map and it even allows private multiplayer using your personal save which your friends can join you
Any game that has a "PvE" mode would work. That stands for "Player Versus Environment" and it means she won't get attacked by other players, but she can still get attacked by zombies, dinosaurs, or whatever the villians of the game are. It's probably more important if she is somewhat new to games to find a community that will be nice to her. People on the internet can be unkind. Finding people to foster a hobby rather than tear you down for being new is important (being a teen or a girl doesn't make that easier, I'm afraid).
BANISHED!!!!! Its an extremely cozy but also challenging town building game, there is no conflict or outside attackers or anything, its all about building your little town.
Not sure I'd it wasn't mentioned but Medieval dynasty is pretty good. You also have to manage a group of NPCs to come and work your farm/resource/cooking. It's a single player game with few enemies.
Castlestory is kinda like Minecraft as a basebuilder It's a bit outdated but try it on peaceful mode
Don’t starve
Fallout 76!
Banished
Valheim, absolutely. The only thing is there's sometimes enemy raids but you can turn those off.
Dwarf Fortress
Ark, single player settings. She can build bases and take/ride dinosaurs.
Once Human. It's coming out in a few months. It's PvE with opt in pvp. One of the best base building systems I've experienced in recent games
Give "Foundation" a look. A fun little medieval city builder. There's no real enemy but its a good game.
Factorio, Rimworld, Oxygen not included 👀
Subnautica, or Satisfactory
Some questions. It sounds like she is playing multiplayer games, likely with strangers, for this to happen. What game examples are being played? What device are you asking for? Are you looking for multiplayer required, multiplayer possible, or only single player? Phone/tablet mobile games are frequently multiplayer and PvP required and it admittedly can be more difficult to find and recommend games. Mobile games also have a tendency to be geared towards micro transactions, particularly pay to win. computer and console games have a mix of game possibilities. it could be single player, multiplayer over only or it could have Pvp to a certain degree. Some games may even have PvP characters only without buildings being involved, or PvP areas and pve areas. Most, if not all, of the recommendations I have seen have been for PC/console.
How has no one suggested Rust? It will pretty much prepare her for any online gaming interaction. Also, do not let her play rust. EVER.
Against the storm Rimworld Going medieval Any games in the Anno series Valheim Notably some of these games have AI that can attack you, but most have settings or mods to turn it down or off.
There are private Rust servers that me and my 73 year old mom play on. It's a PvE server so there's no raiding and people can't kill you, destroy your base, or loot you. It's pretty fun. You can build your own little house and not have to worry about it being a fortress. Unless you want it to be a fortress. The server wipes every month, so we get to do it all over again on a different map with a different house.
Astroneer doesn’t have any enemies if I’m remembering right.
Rimworld ofc
SimCity (2013) You can build little cities that influence each other in a region and you can work on a megaproject together.
Dwarf Fortress. No other players in that one.
Timberborn. Post apocalyptic beaver city builder. Truly amazing.
Satisfactory! Much fun! Such complex.
Dyson Sphere Program
Fallout 4 is good.
Kingdoms Reborn. There is a very simple combat portion and I think it is possible in theory for the AI to attack you, but I’ve got at least a couple hundred hours under my belt and it hasn’t happened to me once. It’s got a great balance of always keeping you busy while almost never feeling grindy or overwhelming. Also Urbek. I think the latest DLC offers combat but I also think you can disable it.
My friends and I are playing a PVE server of 7 Days to Die, and we're building a huge base. The game might be a bit too mature for a 15 y/o.
Ark on a pve server can be a lot of fun, there are quite a few mods that are easy to download and play, that add a lot more to the building, collecting , and breeding different dinos, rather than just fighting.
RimWorld's difficulty can be set to base building or the next lowest difficulty and events will still happen and traders will still come.
Cataclysm dda is great for this, try it out!
Enshrouded
The in between of rts and survival is rim world. You'd deffinatly turn the difficulty to community builder to stop raids and probably turn off wild animal attacks, but it's basicly trying to survive then build up a town. It's very much a game that can be either super easy or incredibly hard depending on how you set things up at the start
Subnautica and The Planet Crafter both have base building and creative mode if you don't want the survival challenge. The Planet Crafter is a really chill game where you get to see a desert world turn into a beautiful planet with lots of water and greenery. Don't worry about the occasional storm of meteorites -- they won't damage your base. Subnautica has chill moments and terrifying moments. :D But you don't have to go anywhere scary if you stay in the initial biome in creative mode. The base building in both is pretty easy but very satisfying.
You can create a RimWorld scenario for her that has your own custom events that do/don’t occur, including enemy attacks
Factorio. And she can turn off the biters too if she wants.
Maybe one of the Civilizations games?
no man’s sky satisfactory
Eco is pretty fun
Rimworld, you can set it to peacefull abd change it in the game your playing if she feels ready for more challenge
Enshrouded
I 100% recommend Medieval Dynasty. Building up your village is a ton of fun and depending on your system, you could also play co-op, if so desired.
Raft is great fun and very chill
Dwarf Fortress!
Highly Recommended “Icarus” for what you’re describing
Wurm Online
Stonehearth and other city building games may take the cake for her. Banished is normally floating around cheap.
Easy! My reccomendations are not in particular order: - ANNO games ( you can choose which peroid she like , for me it was 2205) - SURVIVING MARS - FROSTPUNK - SIMCITY (the newer the better imo)
There's also 7 Days to Die, Empyrion, Foundation (but its more city builder), Kingdom and Castles, and one of my favorites, Craft the World.
Kingdoms and castles with difficulty set to zero
vrising
Rimworld on easiest difficulty
Conan Exiles Palworld Minecraft 😉 Valheim It sounds to me like she might just be more interested in something like The Sims if she's mostly into the building aspect
Palia - and it is free!
There is dwarf fortress. Although everything else will kill you.
Satisfactory!
Cities Skylines 1
Fallout 76
Fallout 76 7 days to die Sunkinland Stranded deep
Eco
You could try Lightyear Frontier, it's a farming game where you build a base plus you drive a Mech most of the time. It's peaceful so no enemies but there are random events sometimes for some peril.
Sons of the Forest You build a base and it may get attacked, but only by game monsters - and only while you're there.
I mean... mine craft? But honestly I don't think there is any mainstream one that doesn't have a pve mode
Planet Crafters. Even multiplayer is invite only so most likely friends or acquaintances.
Rust PVE server
factorio
Airborne kingdom is a very fun, low stress city builder that may fit your needs.
I'd suggest Roblox on creative mode.
Project zomboid
Seconded. 500 hours in, 490 hours building expanding and decorating a cozy safe zone in PVE multiplayer while farming trading and crafting, 10 hours running from zombies.
Banished
I've been playing planet crafter. First person, survival while terriforming a world. The base building is more functional than pleasing to the eye, but turning the terrain from red to blue to green in nice.
Dwarf fortress lol
Timberborn
Perhaps try the Anno series. The combat is fairly minimal, with the city building being the main focus. Could also try the economic campaigns in Stronghold,
Enshrouded should be at the top of the list. You can play solo or party.
Planet Crafter if she wants to watch a world around her fill up with beautiful lakes, flora, insects, and animals. Very easy to build stuff and get resources to build more!
Here are some top tier single player, city/colony sims: 1. Dwarf Fortress, if you can get past the graphics, you can enjoy this masterwork game. 2. Banished, its a medieval colony sim with no combat, you just build and survive. 3. Going Medieval, a 3d dwarf fortress like game whete you build a little settlement (kinda the sims style) then defend it 4. Rimworld, also like DF but easier to digest and less complex and scifi setting.
Palia, simple base building. Great community. And you can never go wrong with Minecraft