Glossary of terms
An encyclopedia style list of terms used in the game (code) and their explanation. Names will often coincide with class names or typical variable and method names.
Building
A construction standing alone, that means it’s not part of a Network. Basically everything you build except roads, rails and pipes. Handles construction, location and appearance.
Car
A good that is being transported by any means other than a pipe. While on roads this will be a truck. Cars can also be loaded onto car carriers like trains and gondolas. Defined by the resource type. Also stores the amount. Holds the complete path for the transport, past and future.
CarCarrier
An intermediate container for transporting cars by means other than roads. The following are car carriers:
- trains
- gondolas
CarHost
Anything that can contain or guide the transportation of cars (goods). Every car must always be attached to a car host. The following car hosts exist:
- LaneBase
- CarCarrier
- StationModule
Collider
A Unity Component that can be added to GameObjects. Manages the 3D space an object occupies. Relevant for space taken up by buildings and for identifying what the mouse cursor is clicking on.
ConstructionCategory/-Categories
A recursive data structure that contains either more ConstructionCategory children or a single item which will be a Building or Network (road). These are used for the building menu hierarchy at the bottom of the screen. ConstructionCategories is the topmost container class for this and represents the colorful icon buttons on the dashboard.
ConsumerProducer
A sub component of buildings that handles requests and deliveries done by this building. Also hosts the production logic.
Ghost
Not yet placed buildings. When constructing buildings, the placement preview is the ghost. In some cases there may be more than 1 ghost, e.g. with power poles and gondola stations. When building roads, rails and pipes the ghost is called SplitGhostEdge, indicating it can contain more than 1 edge.
Habitat
Two different meanings:
- Name of the basic habitat building
- A kind of ProductionLogic only found on the basic habitat building.
The habitat logic handles demands, consumption, upgrade and downgrade of the building.
Intersection
A road NetNode. Manages all connected roads, how their lanes are connected to each other and traffic settings. Even nodes with just 1 or 2 roads connected to it are Intersections.
IntersectionConnection
A subclass of LaneBase and the only one that can easily be visualized: these are the colorful lines in the intersection settings.
IntersectionTrafficSettings
Traffic signs and traffic lights at intersections.
Lane
Subclass of LaneBase. A single lane along the edge (not node/intersection!) of a road. Its shape is determined by the Road that contains it.
LaneBase
A track that can be followed by cars. Handles cars moving onto, along and off itself. Also manages space and position of cars it hosts. Has 3 specific sub classes:
- Lane
- SideroadLane
- IntersectionConnection
NetEdge
A piece of road, rail or pipe connecting exactly 2 NetNodes of the same type. Mostly manages what nodes are attached and the shape (Bezier).
NetNode
These are the places of Network type buildings between the edges and at their ends. For roads and rails these are the blue circles visible in construction mode. For roads these are also intersections. For pipes these are the places with pipe sleeves. Mostly manages the connected edges and intersection.
Network
Sometimes abbreviated to Net. These are buildings that are connected to each other rather than stand alone. There are 3 types of networks and they can’t be mixed (interconnected): roads, rails and pipes. In particular power lines do not constitute a Network.
Network relates mostly to construction, connection logic and spatial location but not so much to the actual function (guiding cars or rails and transmitting liquids or gases).
OrderSize
How many units of a resource type are loaded into each truck (capped by transport difficulty).
ProductionDefinition
The recipe used by factories (including terraformers but excluding the spaceship factory). Contains inputs (types and amounts), outputs (types and amounts) and time in production ticks.
ProductionLogic
The general logic of a building (hosted by the building’s ConsumerProducer). Comes in many different flavors depending on the purpose of the building.
Resource
“Resource” has several meanings in the game.
- Resource types as defined in
resources.json. - Resource amounts stored in factories and set in ProductionDefinition.
- Resource colliders spread across the map, which are required by mines to operate.
Road
A NetEdge that represents a road type building. Manages its direction and Lanes. Mostly relevant for path planning.
Sideroad
The small gray road strip connecting most buildings to gravel and concrete roads. Contains 2 SideroadLanes.
SideroadLane
A subclass of LaneBase. Handles cars traveling on Sideroads.
StackSize
The maximum amount of a resource type that factories can store in their input and output.
Visualization
A way to render the 3D world and optionally some decals on top of it. There are 10+ special visualization, e.g. power, cars, roads, parks, industrial robots. Irrelevant parts of the world turn gray in each visualization and relevant parts are highlighted. This is mostly done by applying special materials to the game objects.
Upgrade
There are two meanings for upgrade:
- BuildingUpgrade, which are several upgrades buildings can receive and are displayed on their info panel. Examples include industrial robots, self cleaning solar panels and waste recycling.
- Buildings that need to receive a certain amount of goods to be replaced by a different version. Those are the early stages of the adamantine drill and the magnetic field generator. See UpgradeProductionLogic.