How do you make a base?

[Coupon]

What exactly is the definition of a base? What do I need to put in the area? I notice in map view there is a base section

What I would prefer is a DIY base making kit, like a set of many craft files you land in a spot on the mun to make a base.

[Shrike42]

Well, given that vanilla KSP doesn't have any components that make a base something 'special', beyond, perhaps, a refuelling station, A base is pretty much whatever you can land in one area that can't take off again, and (generally) isn't intended to move from that location.

Adding the Kethane Mod will give you a reason to land mining operation units in specific locations and go on surveying missions, as will the resources that will eventually be added to the main game.

But basically, if you have a bunch of crashed command modules, you can call it a base if you like. Let your imagination determine the rest. They'll need fuel tanks to hold all the oxygen scrubbers, a place for the bathroom, a ping-pong table, a very long, narrow pool (Safely land an orange fuel tank and hook it up to the structure). Have a rover garage, a radio tower, a solar farm, an ion engine tanning bed, a 'beach resort' with all the little command chairs facing a pretty sight. Shower stations (tiny radial engines on girders. Try to land a huge dome habitation made of wing structures on top of a tower of hitchhiker modules.

There's also base component mods and other plugins that will give the base meaning, but it's really all up to your imagination.

[Vanamonde]

A base is a landed ship that has no engines. All it requires is a control piece and a power source. Really, that's it. In fact, you can change anything with a capsule or probe module to the base designation through the right-click menu on the control piece itself.