Construction Anchor

The Construction Anchor is a deployable item used to create Mega-Printer Platforms. There is a unique one for each Megastructure, though they all look and operate the same.

Source

The Construction Anchor for the DLS is provided by the mission reward for Large Scale Learning. All other Construction Anchors are provided by the DLS, and must be launched to a valid Construction Anchor Landing Pad.

None of the Construction Anchors cost any resources, other than the Power needed to operate the DLS.

Uses

Interacting

When hovering the cursor over, holding, or interacting with a Construction Anchor, a hologram of the Megastructure and its Mega-Printer Platform will become visible. The hologram will appear blue if in a valid position, or red in an invalid position. The Construction Anchor can still be placed even if it shows an invalid placement.

Interacting with a placed Construction Anchor will open its terminal, with the Safety Toggle in the top left (yellow triangle), the Deployment Button in the top right, and the progress bar along the bottom. The Safety Toggle may be opened at any time, but cannot be deactivated if placement is invalid.

Deploying

Once in a valid position, the Safety Toggle may be disabled, illuminating the Deployment Button and exposing the drill on the bottom of the Anchor. Once the Deployment button is pressed, the Construction Anchor will attempt to progress the deployment. If a player is within or enters the circle around the Anchor, progress resets to zero.

Once progress is complete, a Mega-Printer Platform for the given Megastructure will be created at the Anchor's position and the Anchor will disappear.

Any terrain irregularities will be corrected by the generation of new terrain or removal of partially obstructing terrain into flat construction areas.

Notes

• The Construction Anchor does not have any Attachment Slots, meaning it cannot be placed on a platform and, more importantly, cannot be shipped off-world via Shuttles, making Construction Anchor Landing Pads the only way to move them between planets.
• Weirdly, if the Safety Toggle is already disabled, deployment is allowed to continue even if placement of the Megastructure itself would suddenly become invalid, either by obstructing objects/terrain, or even if the terrain underneath is removed.