Hello there, it's Adam again with another post about Rank:Warmaster's game systems! This time I'll be talking about bases, buildings and bots.

Base construction and management is a cornerstone of gameplay. You'll research technologies, extract and refine resources which become the ships and buildings that allow you to explore the solar system, control territory and conquer your rival corporations. But it all starts with the humble construction bot.

The game's tutorial will start you off with a single construction bot and walk you through the steps needed to build a fully functional base. The construction bot functions as an general-purpose worker; it mines ore and then processes the ore into refined materials, which are then used to construct buildings. Additional construction bots can be made to speed up construction or to expand your reach by starting a new base at another site.

Your industrial capacity is determined by three buildings. A Mine will extract ore from the ground. The ore is then send to a Refinery to be processed into refined materials. These materials can then either be used by construction bots to create additional buildings, or sent to a Factory to fabricate ships and construction bots. A construction bot will work far more efficiently when supplied with refined materials that it doesn't have to spend the time extracting and refining itself. Excess ore and refined materials can be stored in a Warehouse for future use.

All of these buildings require power, which is provided by a Generator. The larger the base and the more advanced the buildings, the larger the power requirements and thus more or more advanced Generators are needed. Turret platforms can be constructed and installed with any weapon you can produce and will fire on enemies within range, protecting your base from hostiles. Ships constructed in your factory can be assigned guard duty and will patrol around your base and intercept enemies.

Last but not least, Research Labs will produce new technologies, ship components and building designs. Each lab can research a separate project, or multiple labs can collaborate on a single project with diminishing returns to speed up the process.

A large portion of the strategy in base management will come from assessing your current situation and deciding where to spend your time and resources. If you aren't threatened by hostile neighbors, putting more into research and development will give you an advantage over your rivals in the future. If you're anticipating an attack, increasing your industrial output to boost fleet production or building additional defense turrets may take priority.  Building additional remote bases can extend your reach and provide early warning of incoming attacks, but will be a resource drain at first until they become self-sufficient.

If managing any of these systems is undesirable, there's an AI Manager that can be assigned to assume control. Base construction and research can both be automated to allow the player to focus on the aspects of the game they enjoy.  This can be advantageous as your empire grows, letting the AI manage your remote bases lets you focus on grand strategy instead of minutiae.

Rank: Warmaster will continue to increase in scope, adding new building types such as sensor towers and dome shield projectors that expand your capabilities and provide new ways to play. Signing off!