AUTOMATION & PROGRAMMING

Player-configurable rules that govern how AI-controlled allies act — priority lists, condition-action pairs, aggression toggles — letting the player program behavior once instead of issuing constant orders.

Players build and position a team during a preparation phase, then watch it fight automatically — all skill lives in drafting, economy, and placement rather than execution.

Player-authored if-then rules that fire automatically when a condition is met — 'when health drops below 30%, drink a potion', 'when the hopper is full, start the smelter'.

Directing semi-autonomous subordinate units — combat drones, engineering bots, summoned minions — that act on standing orders or direct commands while the player does something else.

Progress continues to accumulate even while the player isn't actively playing, with production, income, or growth calculated based on elapsed real-world time and presented on return.

An abstracted transport layer where items are requested and delivered automatically across a base, freeing the player from hand-routing every connection.

Recording a sequence of player actions for automated replay — programmable routines captured by demonstration rather than written in code.

Authorable routes that units walk automatically — guard circuits, hauler loops, scout sweeps — defined as ordered waypoint chains the AI follows until interrupted.

Players set the relative importance of tasks rather than directly commanding units, and AI agents self-assign work based on those priorities.

Raw resources are transformed through multi-stage recipes — ore to plates to circuits to assemblers — with each stage's output feeding the next as factories and logistics link into a directed graph.

Time-slot programming of recurring behavior — colonist daily schedules assigning sleep, work, and recreation by hour; NPC routines that put the blacksmith at the forge by day and the tavern by night; player-authored timetables for shifts, patrols, and services.

Ordered lists of pending work that agents execute autonomously — designation queues for mining and construction, job lists colonists pull from by priority, command sequences units work through.

Positioning automated defenses as the core spatial decision — tower spots chosen against pathing, arc-of-fire coverage planned around chokepoints, defense grids composed from turret types with ranges, damage profiles, and blind spots.

Node-and-wire programming interfaces inside the game — behavior graphs wired from blocks, drag-and-drop logic editors, the flowchart that runs your robot.

Colonists, villagers, or workers are assigned to jobs — farming, hauling, crafting, research — and the assignment interface is the player's primary lever on the economy.