Topic: Gamma highways
I think this deserves its own topic.
So the original idea, for the sake of completeness:
Highway nodes. You will be able to place down highway nodes, and 2 of them connected will create a straight higway with a fixed width, and length limited by the connection range of the nodes, so you can create a chain of them. In the interest of simplicity, higway nodes will be energy transmitters too, so they will transmit their own energy that they need to function. Highway nodes will be of course more expensive and have less connection slots than energy transmitters, in order to not take away the role of transmitters themselves.
Unfortunately we have run into some problems with the execution of this idea. Technically it could be done, but it would mess with some existing mechanics (auras, nexuses, and similar), and would probably mean more problems in the future.
So another idea for player-built highways would be to simply use the same system for it that currently walls and concrete use. Meaning that you would be able to lay highway tiles simply from your robot's cargo. Like concrete, it would fall apart with time and it could be destroyed by bombs.
One disadvantage this system has is that you can't control in any way who can or can't use it, it works for friend or foe alike.
We could also create different types of highway tiles, expensive ones that are durable for weeks, and cheap ones that are good for only a day, but are probably useful for laying down a speedy route for a mining operation between the field and the terminal. (Not sure if something like that would be viable, but an idea.)
As an added extra, we could very easily enable this for beta islands too, allowing for player-built highways there as well.
What do you think?