🏗 Building the colony
Build from the strip at the bottom of the Surface view: click a category (Infrastructure, Colony, Resources and so on) and a window of its buildings opens; hover a card to see what it makes, uses and needs. Drag a building onto the ground, or click it and then click a plot.
Water comes from Water Extractors, Deep Water Drills and Ice Quarries, and passes on from one water-using building to the next it touches. A Utility Way is a road with power and water conduits under the deck: one run connects everything beside it.
Colonists can die. Without food, water or oxygen they die one by one; when the last one dies the colony is lost. Each building's panel lists what it uses, and a red alarm warns when a store is running out.
Building panels. Click a building for its panel on the right. It is only as tall as what it holds. The top shows its state, an efficiency meter and one Upgrade row with the cost, time and what the next level gives; below come what it makes and uses and its structure, as meters. The Robot Foundry and Hadron Hangar have two tabs, Train troops or Build ships and Building: the first holds the queue (move a group up or cancel it for a refund) and one row per unit with attack and defence bars. Click a unit row for its details and upgrade. Hover anything for an explanation.
Buildings age. They start new, then gather your world's dust, frost, ash, salt or moss and, slowly, rust and grime. Both cost output. A Service Bay's drones clean the coat and repaint the rust; an upgrade refits a building.
- At work: running buildings show it: the forge, refinery and lab breathe light and vent smoke, drills pump, the observatory and scanner turn their dishes, the electrolyser bubbles, the foundry and hangar throw welding sparks while building. A building without power, damaged or in a brownout stands still.
- Research (T): the tree runs long, era by era, three cards high at full size. Drag or use the wheel to move along it (Ctrl + wheel zooms); click a card to research it or queue its whole path.
- Networks: most buildings need power cables and water pipes. Auto-connect lays them for you.
- Colonists need homes, food and jobs; morale drives output.
- Research (T) opens new technology in five eras, ending in Kardashev.
- Click open ground to see the plot first: terrain, networks, what's nearby, and Build here.
- Warnings blink over buildings that lack power ⚡, water 💧 or repairs 🔧.