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Plan B: Terraform; Basic Tips
By Softshine798
From playing the game and (mostly) learning from what I did, here are some suggestions I came up with to make life a bit easier.
   
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Created by
Softshine798
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Category: Gameplay Basics, Maps or Levels, Walkthroughs
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
9 May, 2024 @ 4:55pm
15 Mar @ 6:45pm
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Guide Index
Overview
Disclaimer 
Futureproofing Earlygame 
Separate Base Inputs and Outputs 
Utilize All Productions from Industry 
Build so You Can Upscale Easily 
"Ending" 
Comments
Disclaimer
I by no means am an expert in this game, so my screenshots aren't going to be the most optimized around the world. This guide is moreso aimed for beginner players who have massively disjointed colonies, factories, throughput, etc., and to (hopefully) alleviate some of those issues.
Futureproofing Earlygame
When starting out, do create a space for depots as a placeholder for MK2s. There will be no destruction of the factories you already made, and the most that has to be done is remove the MK1 depots and optimize extractors to take into account the MK2s.


Take note of the MK1 depots early on, and how there are less depots after MK2. Disregard the aluminum ore mines; I did not optimize them.
Separate Base Inputs and Outputs
For colonies, separate the inputs for Supply centers in order to make it easier to accomodate for higher demand later on and for additional needs later on; there should be no need to destruct and re-build, or at least nowhere near as often or extreme.


This is what to avoid: Several rails all congested into a single hotspot: far harder to upscale for higher demand and more management is required for bigger colonies.


This is what you should do: Each batch of Supply Centers has its own dedicated input: It makes it easier to upscale when more demand is required later on, and for new demand, simply create a node and get inputs.
Note that the oxygen node also has High-Tech parts (HTP); I had a shortage when completely revamping the demand so I just redirected some HTP from a different area in order to meet demand. This isn't needed anymore after I got the proper setup, and can simply be ignored. You can see the dedicated HTP node (and every one) has a massive supply of their dedicated resources, and the waste node is virtually empty. This is what you want to aim for.


Same exact city as above, but with another Supply node dedicated to Food, and HTPs from Oxygen was removed. At most I had to change where the Waste node went, as I did not exactly plan the best initially, and then add a Food node. Everything else was intact.
With these setups, the biggest problem that rises is worrying about dealing with much larger demands, versus dealing with any demand at all.
Utilize All Productions from Industry
Industrial buildings such as Atmospheric Extractor and Recycling Center produce several different outputs. Utilize every last one of them whenever possible as when the outputs are full, most of them do not function. This isn't as important with Atmospheric Extractors, though, as they will continue to produce even when one output is full.


Example with Atmospheric Extractors: While not as important as say waste, it still is good practice to minimize area and buildings used. Oxygen is being brought directly to base, and Carbon is used to make HTPs, which also go the base.


Example with Metal Waste and Recycle Centers. Unlike Atmospheric Extractors, they will stop producing if one output is full. I'm using the Steel Bars to make Reinforced Concrete and the Aluminum Bars for the HTPs in the picture before.


Since I have a massive overproduction of Steel Bars, I decided to add a Greenhouse factory in order to use up the excess metal. Note that the Atmospheric Extractor is only utilizing the carbon output, as the oxygen would likely meddle with other outputs.
Build so You Can Upscale Easily
For creating factories, for if/when you have to upscale to meet demand, do so in a straight line, with Depots alternating between required resources, so upscaling is as simple as repeating the pattern versus having to demolish everything.


Water and Nitrogen


Compost


Oxygen and HTPs. Note that diagonal factories also work for straight lines.
"Ending"
The guide is still work in progress, so don't be surprised if it gets updated, and don't be surprised if I accidentally say something wrong, because I haven't even beaten the game yet; I'm just trying out certain things that made my experience easier so far.