Base placement and adjacency

Whether a player may place a building at a site, based on the anchor buildings and owned wall cells near it.

Changed in 0.2.0

A player can place a building only near an anchor: a building already on the map that the new one may be built against. The anchor must belong to the player, or to a mutually allied player when the match allows building off an ally. Where no anchor is in range, the placement cursor shows the site as blocked and clicking there does not place the building.

The rule applies only to buildings a player places from the sidebar. Computer houses place their buildings without it. An upgrade clicked onto a building that accepts it is also exempt.

Only the placing player’s machine runs the check. The other machines in the match accept the placement without repeating it.

Anchor eligibility

Two keys decide the check. BaseNormal belongs to the building already on the map, and Adjacent belongs to the building being placed.

Setting	Read from	What it controls
`BaseNormal`	The type of a building already on the map	Whether a building of that type may serve as an anchor
`Adjacent`	The BuildingType being placed	How far its foundation searches for an anchor

[GAPOWR]
BaseNormal=no ; a placed GAPOWR cannot anchor later placements
Adjacent=5    ; a GAPOWR being placed searches this far for an anchor

Adjacent is not a radius around an existing building. Raising it on one BuildingType lets that type be placed farther from its anchor and changes nothing for other types.

Laser fence types anchor like any other building unless their section sets BaseNormal=no. Stock rules set it for the fence post NAPOST but not for the fence section NAFNCE.

Placement decision order

The search covers the block of cells that extends Adjacent + 1 cells beyond each edge of the pending foundation, corners included. Cells inside the foundation itself are not examined. With Adjacent=5, for example, the search reaches six cells out from each side. A negative value leaves no cells to examine, so the check always fails.

The adjacency check passes when any examined cell passes one of these tests:

Placing any building: the cell holds an eligible anchor. That is a building whose type has BaseNormal=yes, owned by the placing player or by an ally the match admits.
Placing a wall: the cell is owned by the placing player, whether or not a building stands there. A player owns the cells under their walls; walls and gates explains how wall cells get an owner. This lets a wall run extend from the end of an earlier wall.

If no examined cell passes either test, the check fails and the building cannot be placed there.

Building off an ally

BuildOffAlly=yes in the launch file lets a player’s placements use a mutually allied player’s buildings as anchors. The alliance must run both ways. A one-sided alliance, in either direction, anchors nothing.

An ally’s building must still have BaseNormal=yes. BuildOffAllyAnyStructure=no further limits ally anchors to construction yards. A player’s own buildings anchor their placements under either setting.

The wall test is unchanged. It accepts only cells the placing player owns, so a wall run cannot start from an ally’s wall.

Like the rest of the check, BuildOffAlly affects only human players.

Filter keys

3 of 3

Key	Description	Value	When omitted
`Adjacent`BuildingType	How far this building searches for an eligible anchor while it is being placed.	integer	`3`
`BaseNormal`BuildingType	Whether this placed building can anchor later building placements.	boolean	`yes`
`BuildOffAllyAnyStructure`global rules	Which of an ally's buildings can anchor a placement when the match allows building off allies.	boolean	`yes`

History

Changed0.2.0In development
Build next to a mutually allied base