Expeditionary Builders - construction outside of their district

43 votes

a team of 2 or more builders that can build well outside of any district; the down side is that they are slow and must carry their own food, water, and building supplies.
build limited only to stairs, 1x1x1 platforms, suspension bridge up to 3x1, levees.
+200% to beaver hauling capacity; -25% move speed (on top of the penalty already applied to someone hauling)

Under consideration Suggestion Suggested by: Jcheung (17 Sep, '21) • Upvoted: 16 Feb • Comments: 16

Comments: 16

20 Sep, '21
starkers
I don't know if I agree with the exact model suggested, but something so that infrastructure and new districts can be built outside of the bounds of current districts would be great.
24 Sep, '21
David C Bollinger
I agree. nothing more annoying than wanting to finish building that dam that extends just a few blocks out of the district.
03 Oct, '21
Mike
Please! Having to build a district just to complete a minor project is annoying!
12 Oct, '21
Seriously Unserious
I'd love to see this. I've been annoyed a few times now by needing to build stairs or a platform to gain access to the area I WANT a new district built on, but have to settle for a crappy spot because no builders can reach the site without building a new district to be able to build access to the new district, creating a "catch 22' on some district locations.
27 Oct, '21
WhiteRoo
I would also love to see this feature. Currently there is no way to establish a new district unless a complete path can be drawn from a district to the new area, which is very limiting.

As for what they can do, I would suggest to limit them to only able to build 1 by 1 platforms of all heights, stairs, district centers, district gates and drop off points. These could be the way to make new districts, instead of the required buildings just materializing for free. They should also be able to clear plants and cut trees. Maybe even use the cut trees to supplement for building materials.

In order to not be available immediately, they should require grilled potatoes and carrots to operate.
03 Jan, '22
sunyudai Merged
A mid-to-late game building that employs Builders who function in all ways as regular builders except that:

- They are not limited by the bounds of their district, they can freely walk the map so long as they are in range of a connected path.
- They can ONLY:
- Deconstruct resources
- Build structures in the Path or Landscaping menus (Minus the explosives factory), or the Power menu (minus structures that require workers, like the power wheel or engines).

This serves two purposes, it both allows players a little more reach for landscaping or path construction, useful for setting up new districts far away from home, and when there are no distant construction tasks, these builders can assist the regular construction crew by focusing on path, landscaping, or power menu items, making stranded beavers a little less likely.
03 Jan, '22
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Expidition Hall - New building for construction outside of their district" (suggested by sunyudai on 2022-01-03), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
22 Feb, '22
adiantum
Love this, but only for new district establishment purposes. Must be limited cleverly to do that, for example only pathing tools. A limited carrying capacity of a few stairs, a few platforms (/the resources for them) , and food and water for a few days.
I like the idea of a district center upgrade, or an expedition building, locked behind science points.

Could work something like this:
-In district center, you select "prepare expedition", similar to "migrate population".
-Popup menu allows you to adjust which resources to bring, within a carrying capacity. There'd be a trade-off between building materials and survival.
-You set a district center target spot, and plan the paths and buildings in between.
-Beavers stock the center with resources, then notify you when ready.
-You send the beavers on their way. They never return, either reach their destination or die trying. (or only return if they have enough food/water for the journey home)
14 Mar, '22
Nifegun Merged
I'd like to see a new building which creates a specialized builder beaver. These beavers would be able to ignore the build limit (50 blocks from district centre) but they can only build path objects, stairs, platforms, bridges, etc. Also since they could be building so far away, I'd suggest either a carrying capacity buff or a move speed buff, maybe both.
Since their build scope is so limited, I don't think this is game breaking or OP. But it would make it much easier to create new districts in other parts of the map. Currently on large maps, if you want to establish a new district far away, you need to add and remove temporary district centres just to be able to get to certain places, its just time consuming and annoying.
15 Mar, '22
Gin Fuyou Admin
"Suggestion: Navigation or Scouting Beavers" (suggested by Nifegun on 2022-03-14), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.
15 Mar, '22
Nifegun
My version of this got merged in here, but I think levees should be out of their build list. I think its important to limit their abilities to strictly path objects, you should need to be operating within a district to actually landscape and build things. I see this as just a solution to the problem of needing temporary districts if you need to make a far away district
23 Jul, '22
Jake
I would add dynamite to the limited lists of carry, or some other way of relocating ground. Prime use case would be for minor modification of a far away water source in an inconvenient location
08 Aug, '22
Nathanaël Verdonck
This!!! I love this game and while managing your districts and distribution routes is great fun, havind to build a small district with their own loggers, distribution ppst that hogs al planks food and water just to build a dam upriver is grating. So yeah, balance it out with making them slower, having them collect food and water (you'd need more if you want to build more, you should be able to select what the party should build and the game then gives you the amount of water and food you'll need for building that.
28 Sep, '22
wenth
YES! this would be very helpful! I end up having to leap frog districts building part of the infrastructure for the new one then dumping resources into it and hoping it dosnt make a problem. instead of just being able to build outside the district but not use the buildings till they have there own district or something. Like a way station you can play outside your district workers can haul things to but come back to there home district at the end of the day...or just keep working in the case of cogheads
29 Oct, '22
Mark Merged
1st - Long range Scouts that can be sent to blow up a dam, or pick a berry field etc, and second some kind of riverboat that can ferry goods and passengers, maybe between towns or free range to start another town. But steam to be able to paddle upriver too.
09 Nov, '22
Gin Fuyou Admin
"2 cool upgrades" (suggested by Mark on 2022-10-29), including upvotes (1) and comments (0), was merged into this suggestion.