Summary
The Crustis areal-time strategygame set on the moon. It forgoes combat for complex resource gathering and automated manufacturing-style gameplay, much like other titles such asFactorio. Gameplay takes place both on the surface of the moon, and beneath the surface on a subterranean map.
Planning and using resources efficiently are key skills that all players ofThe Crustwill need to master to get the best from their playing time in thisstrategy game. A poor base design could eventually see the player stuck, and with no way to progress. Therefore, getting the design of the colony right is crucial.
7Plan The Power Footprint
Consider Leaving Space For Upgrades
The build space on the surface map is quite large, but it is surprising how quickly this space fills up when playingThe Crust. So it is important not to waste space, and reuse space when infrastructure is upgraded. This is especially true for solar panels used togenerate electricity.
Small solar panels take up a tiny amount of spaceon the moonto build. However, switching over to the medium solar panel takes quite a bit more space. Therefore, it is quite useful to leave a gap between the small solar panels when placing them. This means that when it comes time to upgrade to medium solar panels, the small ones can be recycled and the medium ones dropped into the old space.
6Standardize Batteries
Use The Same Wiring Strategy
At the start of a playthrough ofThe Crust, it can be tempting to simply wire up infrastructure such as battery banks in the simplest way possible. However, further down the line, when additional capacity needs to be added, this could mean having to completely redo the wiring.
Therefore, it pays to come up with a standard strategy for wiring battery banks and sticking to it. For example, power always goes into a bank on the battery furthest to the right, and is taken out at the left-hand end of the battery bank, with the batteries connected in series from right to left. This means every battery bank is wired up the same way, and can easily be extended by simply switching one wire.
5Optimize All Wiring
To Minimize Power Leakage
This tip is a logical expansion of the previous one. It really pays off to make sure that the wiring has been connected up in the most efficient manner. This means making sure that there are no redundant connections, or connections that could be combined into a single wire.
Every length of wire and connection has an electricity drain, due to resistance. It could be possible to save several percent of power use simply by logically optimizing all of the power connections in asci-fi moon base.
4Centralize Around The Elevator
To Efficiently Switch Map Modes
When playingThe Crust, a player can quickly switch between the surface and subterranean maps by pressing the TAB key. When this is done, the map view changes, and it is centered on the elevator structure. Therefore, the area around the elevator is prime real estate, and should be used for structures the player needs to interact with regularly, such as factories that processmoon miningmaterials.
Other structures, such as batteries and power generators are build-and-forget infrastructure, and can safely be constructed towards the edges of the playable map, leaving the central portion of the map for important, interactive structures.
3Minimize Power Poles
Don’t Use More Than Needed
Each power pole the player builds whilst playingThe Crusttakes a certain amount of resources, and also adds to the power drain on the electricity supply. Therefore, it makes sense to minimize the number of power poles that are used to the bare minimum.
This will need some advanced planning, and the player may find there are times when they might benefit from building a pole in one place, but not tapping it fully until later in the game. This also ensures that the player is making the best use of building space on the subterranean map.
2Excavate Gradually
To Optimize Subterranean Space
It can be tempting to set all 5 mining drones to excavate a massive cavern on the subterranean map. However, this isn’t the most efficient way to start off inThe Crust. Instead, it is better to clear an area around the elevator, that can be used for the initial placement of key structures.
The drone reconfiguration module, concrete pressing factory, and a couple of smelters can fit into this space. Once the player has access to the ore node scanner, they can then decide in which directions it would be best to excavate more.
1Plan The Subterranean Map In Advance
To Save Excavating Unnecessary Areas
Usable map space on the subterranean map is at a premium. This isn’t such a problem in the early stages of the game, but as the player progresses and begins to build a colony, this space can get used up pretty fast.
Therefore, it can pay to plan a basic layout for the subterranean map before starting to build any structures. Of course, the overall shape of the excavated area available to build on is going to depend on the random spawn locations of resource nodes. But with a little visualization, it should be possible to keep a basic layout in mind that will use the space efficiently.
