Structures

The settlement's core — its operations crew runs the colony's baseline life support, central stores and comm link, growing from sealed living quarters into a colony operations center.

An outpost's core — a sealed crew module with a small life-support pack and a stores bay, and a handful of pads around it for the relay, power and rigs a field base needs. It houses a few names and a small crew whose upkeep post keeps the station standing — no depot, the same crew-and-parts rule as any settlement — and grows only into a habitat when the outpost becomes a camp.

Housing and induction quarters — shelters thousands of settlers and enables recruiting characters from the population.

A wide, thin-walled block that roofs many thousands for little. Cramped and barely shielded — growth room now, quality later.

Stacked cots in a pressurized shell — cheap beds for the named crew. Cramped and thinly shielded, but a bunk beats the corridor.

Houses the upkeep crew: its staffed position consumes spare parts and keeps the buildings of a promoted settlement from falling apart.

Tooling floor — its crewed positions carry standing manufacture orders, building configured products piece by piece.

Works the open ground from the top: each crew either scrapes the local regolith or digs a discovered surface deposit. Cheap to raise and hungry for hands — the ground decides what it yields.

Rocks a beam pump over a shallow liquid deposit and lifts what seeps near the surface. Without a tank standing, the line stops before the first barrel.

Tents a shallow gas deposit and gathers what the ground breathes out. Nothing holds a gas but a gas storage tank — without one, the line stops.

Extracts volatiles from regolith — its crewed positions melt ices and condense vapors into refined stock every turn.

Breaks raw metal and mineral stock down into refined feedstock for construction and synthesis.

Refines raw organic matter — solids are broken down, fluids distilled into usable stock.

Grows food above what the habitat's core crew provides.

Gathers the wild growth of the surrounding regions for the table — or cuts it for fodder. Feeds off the living field and thins it.

Splits stored water into breathable oxygen — the breathe-or-drink decision made into a building.

Cultures food from refined organics and water in a compact closed vessel.

Pumps standing water and humid air straight into the tanks. Only wet worlds are generous enough for it — and it is the cheapest water there is.

Melts near-pure ice out of a discovered field — crater ice, buried permafrost or the crust itself. The cheapest water on a dry world, and it runs out.

Breathes the sky through a molecular sieve, then bakes the trapped water back out. Works anywhere there is air — and yields in proportion to how much.

Pumps that push the settlement’s spare water out over its pipelines. Lifting uphill and keeping a surface pipe from freezing cost energy; without a station a pipeline only brings water in.

Generates energy above what the habitat's core crew provides.

Switchyard that pushes the settlement’s spare production out over its power lines. Without one, a line only brings energy in; the rungs widen how much may leave per month.

Racked bulk storage — expands the settlement capacity for solid-phase materials above the habitat stock.

Roll-up bays for the wheeled fleet — a rover parked here holds together and is serviced while the workshop is staffed; one left outside wears like it would in the field.

Sealed liquid storage — its tank farm carries the settlement capacity for liquid-phase materials.

Pressurized gas storage — its vessels carry the settlement capacity for gas-phase materials.

Potable water reservoir — raises the water reserve above the base module so a growing colony can stockpile.

Breathing-gas reserve — raises the oxygen reserve above the base module so a growing colony can stockpile.

Specialized granary — raises the food reserve above the base module so a growing colony can stockpile.

Grid storage — raises the energy reserve above the base module, riding out the solar night.

A research facility — seats research positions, hosts the colony's research projects and enables source analysis.

Institution of schooling: the instructor teaches one chosen skill domain they themselves master — students learn at their pace, up to their level.

A medical facility — its seated medic fights infection every turn: faster recovery, fewer deaths, and care capacity that bounds how many of the sick it reaches.