Hello Riftbreakers!
With each of the World Expansions we release, we try to address some of the problems and quality-of-life concerns you tell us in the comments and on our Discord. One such issue was the lack of technology that would allow you to supply your smaller outposts with power from your main base. We decided to give you the tools to fix that problem in World Expansion II. Let’s talk about Energy Pylons today and why we decided to intervene in this case.
Before the introduction of the Energy Pylons technology, the only way of powering outposts using your main grid was by building long power lines using energy connectors. It was not the most convenient solution. Sometimes, a random pack of Kermons (or any other aggressive creatures) would get absolutely enraged by the mere presence of your connectors in their territory and go on a power line-killing rampage. Then, you would have to go and look for the exact spot where the line got broken and repair it manually. Because such things happened quite often, you could feel like your power lines need constant babysitting. That’s a play pattern that we would rather avoid.
Some players chose to make their outposts independent. They built localized power grids to support both factories and their defenses. This solution requires a lot more work and resources since you need to protect everything you’ve built from any creatures that might come knocking at your door. Even then, having many disconnected outposts might be a liability. If you are unlucky enough and an attack wave finds your small outpost on its way to your headquarters, a basic defensive setup might not be sufficient, and installing advanced towers is often not an option due to energy requirements.
The Energy Pylon technology allows you to have the best of both worlds. This structure allows you to connect to the main power grid of your base regardless of the distance on the map. You simply set up one Pylon in your main base and additional ones wherever you want to receive the power. All buildings that you connect to that secondary Pylon will automatically draw power from your main power grid, allowing you to set up an outpost with all the necessary facilities and all the defenses on top of that without worrying about the power. This makes outposts much smaller in size and easier to defend since even the most expensive towers, like Laser Gatling Towers, drawing 500 energy per second or more, will become a viable option.
This technology is also very convenient when the building space is limited. Energy Pylons do not care about any obstacles between them, allowing you to use them even in areas with tall cliffs, trees, or even underground. They are a great way of powering up distant resource factories in the Crystal Caverns biome. Best of all - there is absolutely no limit to how many Pylons you can place. You can build up new ones wherever you want. Just make sure to have enough power generation going in your main base, as the upkeep cost can ramp up pretty quickly if you are not careful. Energy pylons use up quite a lot of power themselves, and placing them is an investment. You don’t want your investment to go down in flames, don’t you?
What do you think about Energy Pylons? Do you think they are priced well? Should we consider any improvements? Or perhaps they’re too powerful? Let us know in the comments. We’re also waiting for your feedback and ideas on our Discord server at www.discord.gg/exorstudios. See you there!