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Topic: Gamma revamp testing

-> How to access the test server.

The test server has been running for a while already but I never got around to post a proper how-to for the testing, so here we go.

Just to remind you, the main goals of this revamp are:
1. to limit building spam and consequently to make networks more manageable.
2. to limit terraforming so you can't make extremely steep walls (and wall off teleports, among other things).

Below I'll list the things we have done so far, and the things that we still plan to do.

■ = out on the test server
■ = still in development

New gamma features and changes:

General colony and building management

  • ■ All buildings received a bandwidth parameter. Terminals provide the bandwidth for the network, and all buildings connected to the network use a certain amount. Works pretty much like CPU vs modules in the case of robots.

  • ■ Buildings go offline if they get disconnected from a network.

  • ■ Turrets and command relays got an emergency mode too, this means all buildings have it now.

  • ■ Turrets, repair nodes, and booster nodes go offline when in emergency mode.

  • ■ Buildings can only be deployed within a 1km radius of a terminal. Exceptions: mining outpost, energy well, command relay, highway node.

  • ■ Terminals cannot be deployed within 3km of another terminal.

  • ■ Only 3 terminals per island. This feature is completed, but it's turned off on the test server.

  • ■ Turret balance / damage reduction.

  • ■ Effect emitters have a new parameter called "Effect emission radius" which tells you how far their effect will work. (Previously this was the same as their connection radius.) Also, this radius has been reduced to 5km for aura emitters and 1.5km for maskers.

  • ■ Offline (grey) and disconnected (yellow) building statuses are now also visible via their tactical icons on the terrain, the landmarks list, and the radar.

  • ■ Buildings can be now set online and offline also from the selected building panel in the colony management interface.

  • ■ Building construction status will be now hidden if it's fully constructed.

  • ■ Terminal and network area visibility (the colored blob on the map) can be now set separately. Both have a three-way setting of hidden/corporation/public. Public means it's visible for everyone, corporation means everyone in your corporation, and hidden means noone can see it except for those corporation members who have at least limited colony management access.

  • ■ If a friendly attacks a building, all the turrets in the same network need to turn on him.

Energy management

  • ■ Reactors do not generate energy on their own anymore. Instead, we will introduce a new underground resource (energy fields), which can only be exploited by a new building called "Energy well", but it does this passively over time. The exploited energy is directly sent through the network into the reactor's (or reactors') accumulator. (Note: a lot of times you will need to deploy energy wells far away from your terminal, so this connection doesn't have to be an energy connection, a simple control connection will also do.) We have considerably increased the accumulator size of the reactors, so if you lose all your energy wells in the network, reactors will still provide energy for some time. (Depending on the energy usage of your network this could even mean several days.) Energy wells do not need any external energy to run, they feed on the energy they exploit.

  • ■ There are around 20 energy fields on every gamma zone (respawning like other minerals), and one field is supposed to hold enough energy to let one energy well feed off of it for a few days.

  • ■ The information panel of reactors (on the colony management interface) shows how much energy the connected energy wells have provided in the last network update period (30 secs). There is also a charge status indicator which can have 3 states: idle (no energy in or out), discharging (with a time estimate of how long until the reactor depletes), charging/stable (which means the reactor is receiving more energy than the network consumes). Energy wells stop exploiting energy if all the reactors in the network are full, in order to not waste it.

  • ■ Changed the mechanic of building energy management. First of all we have removed the energy charging threshold setting that tried to keep a specific charge level for the building. All buildings have now a "kickstart threshold" and they will only start working after their accumulator level reaches this threshold. This is called a "warmup period", the building's accumulator bar will flash to indicate this or there is a flashing icon when zoomed out. After this, they will keep working even if the charge level falls under the kickstart threshold. However, when the charge level falls down close to 0, they will stop working and a new warmup period begins. Once their accumulator level is able to reach the kickstart threshold again, they will start working again. (Of course this only happens if the network can't provide enough energy to keep them active.) The kickstart threshold is currently around 80-90% accumulator level for all buildings but this will be probably reduced and made consistent. On the colony management UI it is shown by the red marker on the accumulator bar.

  • ■ We are now limiting building deployment to the vicinity of a terminal, which includes energy transmitters too, so we needed to change the way mining outposts work. Since minerals can spawn anywhere, they need to work all around the island without a connected reactor. So now you need to manually put energy storage cells (or any commodity with energy content) into them, exactly the same way as in the case of reactors. They probably need some balancing still, but the goal is that they should work for several hours with a fully loaded accumulator. Note that you still need to connect them to your network via command relays at least.

Terraforming

  • ■ Terraforming has now a limit of how steep slopes you can build. The limit is currently set between the slope capability of assaults and mechs.

  • ■ Terraformed landscape will slowly degrade to the original terrain with time, but this only affects areas that are outside of a certain radius of buildings (ie. unclaimed land). Suggested radius: 300m

  • ■ Terraforming is now limited by manually painted no-terraform areas along the shoreline of islands, making sure that no teleport can be cut off from the others. (Should we decide to put fixed teleports in the inner parts of an island, then appropriate no-terraform routes will lead to it.) - Chalydor on the test server now has this. The no-terraform/no-build area is shown with a red overlay on the map/radar, and with red stripes in the last mode of the terrain slope display.

  • ■ Make single-tile terraforming more user-friendly. Height display for tiles for comparison purposes to allow for precise structures. This has now its own topic.

Gamma islands setup

  • ■ Every gamma island will have at least 4 external teleports, with the goal to make it harder to "camp" them.

  • ■ Because of the terraform limitations we need to modify mineral spawning, since there will be locations that you won't be able to reach in any way. Currently the idea is to make minerals despawn after a set time and let them respawn according to the current rules.

  • ■ More variation in the topology of gamma islands: archipelago type zones, less symmetrical layout, etc.

Walls

  • ■ Walls (and consequently, plants) can be directly targeted and destroyed by normal weapons.

  • ■ Wall damage is now propagated along the wall to multiple neighboring wall tiles. This makes it harder to just simply cut a hole into a wall. Since walls are internally plants, this also affects normal plants, which will now damage neighboring plants if you shoot them (affects only plants, not robots). Of course these two changes affect beta islands too.

  • ■ Wall deployment rules on gamma: can't be deployed on protected red tiles, can't be closer than 5 tiles to any building, can't be further than 1500m from a terminal or command relay that you own.

  • ■ Gates on the wall. These are 3x3 tile objects, deployable from your cargo. No need for construction, so they are big in volume. Doubleclick on its icon to open/close it (red=closed, green=open). Currently they can be operated by all members of the owner corporation, and every member in a corporation with good or friendly relation.

  • ■ No degradation of concrete and wall tiles within areas claimed by buildings. They still take damage as normally.

Known issues / Bug fixes

  • ■ Insuring robots in a gamma terminal sometimes didn't work.

  • ■ Lots of visibility/update issues connected to gamma terminals. (Remote storage listing, spark teleport targets, market orders, etc.)

  • ■ Plasma bomb damage is "bleeding" into emergency shields. - We can't stop the bleeding, but the patient won't die during an emergency phase even if it reaches 0 HP.

  • ■ Terraforming currently doesn't stop your modules when you can't terraform any further or you're terraforming a non-terraformable tile. - Unfortunately this can't be solved, but at least they don't work anymore on tiles where terraforming is not allowed at all.

  • ■ Old terraforming and colony plans will deleted during the patch.

  • ■ Turret AI is still work in progress. - Not anymore, please test.

Things that we did exclusively on the test server to make testing faster:

  • ■ There is a mobile teleport right beside TMA terminal that brings you directly to the gamma island, and teleports that bring you back from there.

  • ■ Developer construction and deconstruction ammo is available on the TMA market, which will allow you to bring up buildings much faster.

  • ■ All items are available on gamma terminal markets too.

Feedback is welcome in this topic, or feel free to make new ones if you want to discuss a larger issue separately.

Important: nothing written above is set in stone. If you want a change, post it, preferably with arguments backing your suggestion.

Last update: 2014-08-21 22:35

  • JOKE
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

this is generally good although id reduce the terminal cap to 1 until you can see the balancing and then increase over time.

terraforming should be limited i the same way as building construction

base deconning should cause destruction of a base and base cost should be much higher - this prevents mining out of a base with zero risk

Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags."
  • DEV
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

Jita wrote:

terraforming should be limited i the same way as building construction

That brings the age-old question of how do you terraform for your first buildings.

Jita wrote:

base deconning should cause destruction of a base

...whuh?

  • NSI
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

I 100% disagree with the the limit of amount of buildings you can have, not only does this reduce the amount of choices and diversity of the structures in your base, it means that your base will be exceedingly easy to lose since this number will SEVERLY limit your defense capabilities, especially with all the requirements for teh main structures, power lines, boosters, etc.

There are far too many needed modules and structures needed to simply make a colony "Functional" in order to introduce ANY type of restriction to EITHER range from terminal, (1k from terminal is just stupidly *** you wont even be able to to fit 90% of your modules and structures in that range simply because of their size.) Or limiteing the amount of units that can be fit Via a hardcap of CPU/PG type structure UNLESS there is also the ability to extend and upgrade that cap with other facilities.

You proposed system Ruins the point of building and having your own city, it Ruins, creativity and tactical placements. The old system was perfectly ok. TFing and a few other things I agree need changing, but for the most part the old system was far superior, in both terms of creative, and tactical abiltiy, and also user ability to control their island.

I do not approve of these changes. As they are far to limiting to what the player can or can;t do, and will simply cause cookie cutter setups to be the gamma colony way. Limitation on something like this is a HORRIBLE idea. If I want to put 1000 turrets on my colony I should be able to.

Not all corps are the same size and not all corps have the same firepower, the ability to place as many structures as you like with no limits, makes up for the lack of a huge force.

Do not make this game like EvE online where the only people who can gain and hold 0.0 (Gamma) are those with 100's of PvPers on at any given time. Not every corp can attain this and it is not fair to make the smaller corps bow and roll over to the larger more experienced ones.

5 Reply by Gremrod (edited by Gremrod 2014-05-14 00:54:22)

  • CIR
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

DEV Zoom wrote:

Terraformed landscape will slowly degrade to the original terrain with time, but this only affects areas that are outside of a certain radius of buildings (ie. unclaimed land). Suggested radius: 300m

What speed are we talking about here for the TF degrade overtime?


DEV Zoom wrote:

Reactors will not generate energy on their own. Instead, we will introduce a new underground resource, which can only be exploited by a building, but it does this passively over time. The exploited resource is directly sent through the existing network into the reactor(s), which has a buffer for this resource. (So if you lose all your miner buildings in the network it will still provide energy for some time.) - This feature is still heavily discussed/in development, and I bet you have a lot of questions too, feel free to ask.

This one concerns me. Please if you are going to make us have to pull some resource from the ground and baby site miner towers to keep a base up and running, please make gamma worth to live on. (More to come on this I am sure.)

Please ask yourself DEVs. What will gamma give me that beta can't give me. Besides building sand castles.

John 3:16 - Timothy 2:23

6 Reply by GLiMPSE (edited by GLiMPSE 2014-05-14 01:00:58)

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Re: Gamma revamp testing

If we're going to introduce these new mechanics to gamma that are geared to cause more 'upkeep' we need to take a look at what kind of NIC faucets we're going to add.

It sounds like the question: is gamma worth my time investment? Will be harder to answer in the affirmative unless there's something amazing out there....

Wild growing nora?! epi back on gamma... ? Better logistic capaabilities for war? Think interzones, maybe the ability to setup your own permanent teleporters (think jump gates) between other gammas across the map?

7 Reply by Dazamin (edited by Dazamin 2014-05-14 00:59:19)

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Re: Gamma revamp testing

On reading I basically like it, I think some things might turn out to be too restrictive, but I don't see a problem with that, restrictions can be loosened, we've seen what happens the other way round when tightening things up, not pretty big_smile No one will hate you for giving them more options at a later date.

  • CIR
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

DEV Zoom wrote:
Jita wrote:

terraforming should be limited i the same way as building construction

That brings the age-old question of how do you terraform for your first buildings.

Could you not have a terminal create its own flat area when placing it. Once it has been built 100% then the player or corp owning the terminal has rights to TF on that island.

John 3:16 - Timothy 2:23
  • DEV
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

Gremrod wrote:

What speed are we talking about here for the TF degrade overtime?

It's random because it works similarly to plant growth, so randomly picked points on the island over and over, but the rough time is open for discussion. Weeks, months, something along those lines.

And I know that the incentives for gamma are few and far between, but I think we should rather have a solid foundation for gamma mechanics first before moving on to that.

  • DEV
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

Gremrod wrote:
DEV Zoom wrote:
Jita wrote:

terraforming should be limited i the same way as building construction

That brings the age-old question of how do you terraform for your first buildings.

Could you not have a terminal create its own flat area when placing it. Once it has been built 100% then the player or corp owning the terminal has rights to TF on that island.

I smell a bit of an exploit there, like we had the "terraforming with turrets" issue in the past.

But actually this isn't only about the terminal, if we restrict terraforming around the terminal then how do you deploy mining outposts over distant fields, how do you deploy the command relays needed for them, and how do you build highways in the future?

  • NSI
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

On another note, since I gave criticisms, here are my solutions:

1. Create a facility which can be dropped to increase the CPU/PG (structure variable) increase, to allow the corp to drop more facilities, turrets and buildings.

* This building can be placed as many times as necessary. And there is no limit to the number of these facilities which can be placed.


2. Create a facility which you can drop to allow the corp to increase the range from the terminal buildings can be placed. This allows the colony to expand as necessary while still having the limiting factor if needed.

* No limit on the number of these facilities that can be placed.


This allows this system to function, and corps to expand their control influence as they grow. Rather then hard capping them in and forcing them to Put down multiple terminals. (Which hardcapping the number of buildings, and range from terminal, is a horrible idea since an island can only have 3)

  • CIR
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

DEV Zoom wrote:
Gremrod wrote:

What speed are we talking about here for the TF degrade overtime?

It's random because it works similarly to plant growth, so randomly picked points on the island over and over, but the rough time is open for discussion. Weeks, months, something along those lines.

And I know that the incentives for gamma are few and far between, but I think we should rather have a solid foundation for gamma mechanics first before moving on to that.

I think we need to have a vision of what your goals are with gamma first. If we're not looking at the blueprints for the whole house, what if we make the foundation to small?


And i dont agree with the thought behind random points of deteraforming... i'd like to see something similar to errosion that takes long periods of times...

  • DEV
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

Malsier: the suggested building limitations serve not just some balancing goals. If players are free to build a theoretically infinite number of buildings then that brings serious server processing issues, not to mention client performance issues, which was quite painful already on certain densely populated islands.

  • DEV
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

GLiMPSE wrote:

And i dont agree with the thought behind random points of deteraforming... i'd like to see something similar to errosion that takes long periods of times...

It's a technicality, maybe you misunderstood me. The server can't just calculate the degradation on ALL tiles at once, it either has to do it linearly from 0,0 to 2048,2048, or randomly. I think random is better.

15 Reply by Malsier Dabian (edited by Malsier Dabian 2014-05-14 01:22:16)

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Re: Gamma revamp testing

Zoom.. What about making gammas Procedurally generated? As the player base grows? Would this not fix some of the issues?

Also, what about upgrading your servers and Engine? This game is 4 years old, At some point in the next 2 years you'll have to upgrade anyway in order to simply maintain the thing. Why not do it now, get it overwith, and be good for the next 10 years, and able to support such things as well as better graphics.

Perpetuums Server instability should NEVER be a factor in what type of game experience a player can have. If it is, then fixing THAT should be your number 1 priority.

  • CIR
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

DEV Zoom wrote:
GLiMPSE wrote:

And i dont agree with the thought behind random points of deteraforming... i'd like to see something similar to errosion that takes long periods of times...

It's a technicality, maybe you misunderstood me. The server can't just calculate the degradation on ALL tiles at once, it either has to do it linearly from 0,0 to 2048,2048, or randomly. I think random is better.

Gotcha, just seemed like another maintenance mechanic, and I'm worried with you stonewalling the conversation about risk vs reward, you're gonna launch gamma and it's going to be a ghost town. Then we'll knee jerk it into being hyperprofitable...

i'd rather the discussion about the gamma launch be holistic and that risk vs reward be at the center of our focus. If we're going to make these colonies 'fragile' there needs to be a conversation about making it worth the effort.

I'm all for making gamma colonies fragile, but extremely profitable, it will give people a reason to fight for them... even if they only hold it for a short time...

  • DEV
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

Malsier Dabian wrote:

Zoom.. What about making gammas Procedurally generated? As the player base grows? Would this not fix some of the issues?

That depends what you mean by procedurally generated. The initial terrain is already procedurally generated.

Malsier Dabian wrote:

Also, what about upgrading your servers and Engine? This game is 4 years old, At some point in the next 2 years you'll have to upgrade anyway in order to simply maintain the thing. Why not do it now, get it overwith, and be good for the next 10 years, and able to support such things as well as better graphics.

You just basically proposed that we leave gammas closed for at least a year. It all seems so simple when you write it down in a sentence smile

And no, you can't optimize something that has no limit on content.

18 Reply by Malsier Dabian (edited by Malsier Dabian 2014-05-14 01:26:59)

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Re: Gamma revamp testing

DEV Zoom wrote:
Malsier Dabian wrote:

Zoom.. What about making gammas Procedurally generated? As the player base grows? Would this not fix some of the issues?

That depends what you mean by procedurally generated. The initial terrain is already procedurally generated.

Malsier Dabian wrote:

Also, what about upgrading your servers and Engine? This game is 4 years old, At some point in the next 2 years you'll have to upgrade anyway in order to simply maintain the thing. Why not do it now, get it overwith, and be good for the next 10 years, and able to support such things as well as better graphics.

You just basically proposed that we leave gammas closed for at least a year. It all seems so simple when you write it down in a sentence smile

You know what Zoom if that's what it takes to do it right, then do it, I'd rather have something done and done right, then get a 4 corps absorbing everyone because people wanted it immediately. (But that's just my opinion).

19 Reply by GLiMPSE (edited by GLiMPSE 2014-05-14 01:27:21)

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Re: Gamma revamp testing

Malsier Dabian wrote:
DEV Zoom wrote:
Malsier Dabian wrote:

Zoom.. What about making gammas Procedurally generated? As the player base grows? Would this not fix some of the issues?

That depends what you mean by procedurally generated. The initial terrain is already procedurally generated.

Malsier Dabian wrote:

Also, what about upgrading your servers and Engine? This game is 4 years old, At some point in the next 2 years you'll have to upgrade anyway in order to simply maintain the thing. Why not do it now, get it overwith, and be good for the next 10 years, and able to support such things as well as better graphics.

You just basically proposed that we leave gammas closed for at least a year. It all seems so simple when you write it down in a sentence smile

You know what Zoom if that's what it takes to do it right, then do it, I'd rather have something done and done right, then get a pile of crap because people wanted it immediately. (But that's just my opinion).

I think you're being a little extreme, I don't see this as being a pile of crap and i also don't see your concern as being a significant lever on which it will be successful.

20 Reply by Malsier Dabian (edited by Malsier Dabian 2014-05-14 01:30:02)

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Re: Gamma revamp testing

GLiMPSE wrote:
Malsier Dabian wrote:
DEV Zoom wrote:

That depends what you mean by procedurally generated. The initial terrain is already procedurally generated.



You just basically proposed that we leave gammas closed for at least a year. It all seems so simple when you write it down in a sentence smile

You know what Zoom if that's what it takes to do it right, then do it, I'd rather have something done and done right, then get a pile of crap because people wanted it immediately. (But that's just my opinion).

I think you're being a little extreme, I don't see this as being a pile of crap and i also don't see your concern as being a significant lever on which it will be successful.

That wasn't supposed to say that. Had been typing about something else when I clicked over... I fixed it. I love this game it's definitely not a pile of crap. I just want the gammas to be as good as they used to be. If I thought that I wouldn't play. I came from Eve online, CCP has nothing on Perpetuum, Per is a much better game.

  • NSI
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

I've been gaming for ever 20 years in various sandboxy MMO's, my concerns are based on what I have seen in the past in other games, and the results to which they had on the playerbase and the game itself.

While yes, my concerns will not determine anything. Pointing out obvious flaws in scaling and the sociological experience of Perpettum caused by changes is something I have to do.

While you from CIR do not care because your fully aware that these changes will allow CIR to continue to own most of perpetuum due to your numbers and such, it is obvious that your Alliance and corp would support such changes.

Some cahnges are better for smaller corps and larger corps. Some just are better for ONLY the larger corps. Which once they attain a colony can never lose it because the system does not support smaller corps, only larger ones.

THAT is the issue with Eve online. That is also the issue with this proposed system. One of the main reason many players came here from Eve was the opportunity to actually get somewhere and become something and do something.

Which the old system allowed. As smaller corps could reply on massive colony defenses (Both teraformed and Turret placement) to defend against large alliance and corps invasions. In this system a smaller corp will simply be overan by a larger corp. Making going to gamma pointless for 80% of the games current corporations.

You know what happens when players know they can't participate in end game? They leave. This game released on Steam, it's population has grown. The last thing Perp needs to do is introduce a system which will kill it.

  • DEV
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

Please, please don't make this a corporation discussion.

  • CIR
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Re: Gamma revamp testing

DEV Zoom wrote:
Gremrod wrote:
DEV Zoom wrote:

That brings the age-old question of how do you terraform for your first buildings.

Could you not have a terminal create its own flat area when placing it. Once it has been built 100% then the player or corp owning the terminal has rights to TF on that island.

I smell a bit of an exploit there, like we had the "terraforming with turrets" issue in the past.

But actually this isn't only about the terminal, if we restrict terraforming around the terminal then how do you deploy mining outposts over distant fields, how do you deploy the command relays needed for them, and how do you build highways in the future?

Yeah good points.

John 3:16 - Timothy 2:23

24 Reply by Rage Rex (edited by Rage Rex 2014-05-14 05:06:18)

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Re: Gamma revamp testing

Devs, you really need to make a Statement of Intent of how you envision Gamma to be Played. Looking at the list of mechanics I can see you addressing specific issues but the fact is you are not addressing the BIG ISSUE about how to balance Gamma Base Defense with Gamma Accessibility.

1.) All Gamma Islands need to be accessible to all players looking to roam them for industry or PvP.

2.) Gamma colonies should not spider across the island and control all entry and navigation on the island.

3.) Individual Bases should be very difficult to take down (despite free island accessibility)

Stronger Bases, Weaker Island.

I have a idea about Zones in another thread that I simply cannot motivate myself to re-iterate here. But if you will please take a close read Zoom (if you have not already) you may find it at least interesting.

And if it takes a year to get Gamma right that is better than some future Game Killing Reset.

25 Reply by Alexander (edited by Alexander 2014-05-14 07:28:39)

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Re: Gamma revamp testing

DEV Zoom wrote:
New gamma features and changes:

  • All buildings received a bandwidth parameter. Terminals provide the bandwidth for the network, and all buildings connected to the network use a certain amount. Works pretty much like CPU vs modules in the case of robots.
    While this does limit the number of turrets that an be placed it also means that corporations will be for inclined to avoid using certain non-essential structures just to have more turrets. Why not create a mechanism more like robot fitting limitations rather than a CPU/Reactor limit? Split the idea of bandwidth into sections "Tactical Processing" is used by offensive and Defensive structures where as "Resource Planning" is used by gathering/processing structures. This means that you still impose a turret limit but do not effect the other non-combat buildings

  • Both single module terraforming and beacon terraforming has a limit of how steep slopes you can build. The limit is currently set between the slope capability of assaults and mechs.
    While this will remove 'mud walls' there is nothing listed then provides for better walls than the current plant player solution. Rework them off of the plant player or add a better walling system onto the building system that's supported by the terminal

  • Buildings can only be deployed within a certain radius of a terminal. Suggested radius: 1km. Exceptions: mining outpost, command relay, and the planned highway node.
    1km sounds like we'll end up having very small, compact gamma island bases. This will also limit what buildings you can build due to pre-existing terrain around your terminal

  • Only 3 terminals per island.
    With the range restrictions from other terminals and teleporters we don't need to also have a terminal quantity restriction

  • Terraformed landscape will slowly degrade to the original terrain with time, but this only affects areas that are outside of a certain radius of buildings (ie. unclaimed land). Suggested radius: 300m
    Will unrestricted buildings (Highways, command relays, mining outposts) cause land to be claimed? If so, add a parameter to every building stating how much land they require and how much they claim. E.g. terminals claim a 400m but a reactor only claims 200m

  • Reactors will not generate energy on their own. Instead, we will introduce a new underground resource, which can only be exploited by a building, but it does this passively over time. The exploited resource is directly sent through the existing network into the reactor(s), which has a buffer for this resource. (So if you lose all your miner buildings in the network it will still provide energy for some time.)
    Fuelling bases should not be done automatically by the outpost itself. While I understand the need to not allow unoccupied bases to remain operational you could introduce a new player NIC source by allowing fuel to be gather/created on any island and adding multiple uses for this fuel rather than just for bases. Variety is the spice of life after all. This will mean a base with resource gathering systems and a factory could produce its own fuel but using logistics and moving fuel around should be achievable for bases that are more focused towards other aspects.

  • Highway nodes. These simply emit a "highway" effect in a certain radius and you can chain them to build highways on gamma. Uses both bandwidth and energy, like all buildings. Heavily in development, no specifics available yet.
    Highways, yay! Limitations, boo! Highway structures should not be limited to where they can be build, how many can be built and they should not be expensive (They're going to get blown up a lot). Highways should form a web, where by you place multiple structures and the acceleration field is projected between them, rather than a single structure with an aura like effect. Range between highway beacons should be limited to 100m to 200m. The idea of this being to mirror the currently available highway structures seen on Alpha and Beta islands that have structures on both sides of the highway.